My dolls have a decent amount of handknits, because that’s the majority of my contribution to their wardrobe. But weather appropriate clothing? It’s hard to do when it’s sunny one day, rainy the next, and then a mix of both the third day of the week. The beginnings of summer is always rough. The weather isn’t quite so predictable yet, so weather appropriate dolly clothing still consists of a few cardigans.

As I’ve been on a self-declared clothing diet lately, I’ve been having to make up outfits based on what I already own. So here are some selections for the warmer days and for cooler days. Some shorts, a few light-coloured dresses. The duck cover-up? For the days that my dolls deign to go near water, or a beach, which is very rare.

I know that to non-dolly people, it seems weird to consider dolls needing to dress for the weather, but there’s just something about dolls wearing swimsuits out in the snow, or big jackets at the beach, that just seems wrong to me. People dress appropriately for the weather, and so should dolls!

On a fairly regular basis, I think about all the Blythes that I want. When I do this, I end up tweaking my dolly wishlist quite a bit, for no other reason than to look at what I previously wanted and what I want now. It’s always good to have an up-to-date wishlist because it means I have a ready-to-go present list for anyone who wants to shop for me for my birthday (*hinthint*family*hinthint*).

I have delusions of grandeur when it comes to bringing the still-elusive BL into my family.  I have Kenners, EBL, SBL, RBL, FBL and RBL+ Blythes in my doll family. But I’m still missing a BL. Not that it is the be-all and end-all to the Blythe dynamics here, but I would like to one day have a BL. I have waffled between various stock dolls. One day I’ll love Sunday Best, then it’ll be Aztec Arrival, some considerations for Mondrian, and then I’m back at Sunday Best again. Those are the three BLs that my daydreaming keep coming back to. For Sunday Best and Aztec Arrival, it’s because of their long bangs (which I adore!) and the great photos I’ve seen of them in the past. For Mondie, it’s the crazed-eyes look she has going on.

This is one (custom) Nicky Lad that I may have suggested that I would dollynap before…

If you ask some members of my (human) family, i have too many dolls Oh, and they all “look the same”. Such sentiments sometimes just make me shake my head. After all, if someone were the collector of purses, couldn’t you say they all “look the same”? Same with shoes! One could argue that the fundamental design of shoes are all the same. But then you’d get into an argument of colours, and materials, and the small nuances that make each pair unique. In a way, that’s the same for Blythe as well. Even if some people don’t see it as clearly, there’s different hair styles, eye chips, make-up, hair colours, and then there are those wonderful personalities that we bestow upon our dolls.

And now that I’ve successfully (in my mind) argued why having multiple Blythes is a good thing (they’re all different!), now I’m onto my current wishlist:

• Nicky Lad RBL – cute stock look, cute stock items, and she’s the It Girl for BlytheCon 2015 in Vancouver.
• Sunday Best BL – the long bangs! the doe-eyed look! — Why don’t I have her already?!
• Another Kenner. a) Because three isn’t enough. b) Because I want a chunky-banged brunette. and c) Because I’d love her forever, and call her George.

Umm, hello there?

I wanted to do a proper introduction of the newest doll here at BlytheLife Headquarters as he finally got a name! A very short while ago, I mentioned that I had a new addition, a pink Petworks Usaggie, that was at the time nameless. But no more! The first challenging in naming him was deciding if he was a boy or a girl. First off, pink. Pink generally suggests femininity in this day and age, but something about the face just suggested ‘boy’ to me. Maybe if there was more of a curve to the smile, or if I had gotten the one that comes with painted on lashes, it’d be a different story. But I didn’t, so I decided that the new bunny on the block was a boy.

So everyone, I’m pleased to introduce Kanin!

For those that don’t know, Kanin is the Norwegian (and Swedish!) word for “rabbit”. If you want to know how to pronounce it, you can click on through to Google Translate (I already queued up the page!)

And while this is BlytheLife, it’s always fun to share all of my new additions, even if their heads aren’t oversized in comparison to their bodies.

In a good month, I will give all the dolls a wardrobe change, maybe change what direction they’re looking in, and even arrange them into some new photos. In a busy month, however, I’m more prone to not doing things like that. The majority of my dolls are outside of enclosed places, so they suffer the consequences of gaining a thin layer of dust on top of their large-for-their-body-size heads.

Of course, then I have feelings of guilt over not doing anything with them – although I do tend to bring one or two along with me to meets, so it’s not like they never get to leave the house! It’s just that they don’t often get a wardrobe change, or get to wear shoes, or get to wear any of the new dresses and other clothing items that have come into the house, because I got around to buying things, just not taking them out of the packaging and putting them onto a doll. My Blythes would definitely nominate me for Best Doll Owner of 2014, wouldn’t you? A stellar job I’m doing, buying them things and not putting the new clothing on them. A+ and gold star for me! Or maybe not…

Dust everywhere.

Sometimes I think it’s because the weather perked up just a little bit, and then became rainy again. That and I’ve been a slump since after finals because there’s just so much to do, and so little time! My ‘me’ time after work has now consisted of doing schoolwork, and while working is great (work = income!), it also means that there’s only so many hours in a day that I can dedicate to things outside of work, and that time has been earmarked ‘school’ and ‘sleep’. If Sophie was reading this, she’d probably kick me with her tiny foot, putting sleep ahead of Blythes! What a monster I am. But luckily (or unluckily…?) work will not last forever, which means that I’ll be back to procrastinating on schoolwork and full-time doll time very, very soon. Which is something to look forward to!

Hopefully this bout of lazy dolly ownership doesn’t go on for much longer, I think some of them are planning to strike soon…

When it comes to new releases in the world of Blythe, it takes something with a bit of ‘wow’ factor to draw me in these days. Maybe it’s because my doll family has grown to the point where I’m very happy with the mix, or because there’s just so many dolls and limited space that I’m forced to be more and more selective. Regardless of why it is, I have exactly zero anniversary dolls.

For those who are new to Blythe, the following are anniversary dolls:

• 2002 – Miss Anniversary
• 2003 – Courtney Tez by Nike
• 2004 – Art Attack
• 2005 – Cinema Princess
• 2006 – Darling Diva
• 2007 – Princess a la Mode
• 2008 – Christina the Bride and Eleanor the Forest Dancer
• 2009 – Fashion Obsession Jenna
• 2010 – Marabelle Melody
• 2011 – Ten Happy Memories
• 2012 – Red Delicious
• 2013 – Allie Gabrielle
• 2014 – Regina Erwen

I’ve been in the hobby since 2009, when Fashion Obsession Jenna came out. There were murmurs of displeasure that the anniversary doll was yet another blonde – at the time it seemed like every other doll being produced was a blonde. Marabelle Melody only intrigued me because she was released with a trio of skater superheros (I have both Simply Sparkly Spark and Simply Bubble Boom).  Ten Happy Memories,while I appreciated the sentiment of having a trio of anniversary dolls (Neo, Middie and Petite), was lost on me. I just wasn’t interested.

I think one of the anniversary dolls that I do actually regret not attempting to get was Red Delicious. I had the luxury of seeing one in person in late 2013 and she was gorgeous. But there is a lot of hair, and I already have a lot of dolls with a lot of hair. Allie Gabrielle was a yawn to me, until I saw photos out of the box. I’m not entirely sure who the CWC has taking their photos anymore, but more care could be taken to make the dolls look more attractive to potential buyers! And that leads us to Regina Erwen.

Regina Erwen has some foiled chips, coloured eyelids, special lashes and, looking at the photos, it looks like she comes with some higher quality underpants than what some recent releases have come with! Unfortunately, I am just not drawn to her. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve become more fickle with my dolly buying, or because I’m jaded from the quality of the dolls that I had unboxed last year. I’m not sure what it is, but I do not that I’m not particularly enamored enough with the doll to buy her. Or maybe it’s when I look back at older releases, I’m suddenly smacked in the face with the fact that newer anniversary (and regular) releases of Blythe just don’t come with as much stuff anymore. Not that it’s all about the clothes (although, really it is), but many of the older anniversary releases came with not just one outfit, but multiple. Often two, sometimes more. While the newer released anniversary dolls don’t tempt me as much, I would love to get my hands on Art Attack one of these days – with every single one of her individually boxed outfits.

Who’s your favourite anniversary doll? Do you own any?