This is part three of my “Thoughts on…” mini series. The first two parts were on Kenners and Customs.

I received my very first Petite (LPS) in 2011 as a gift. I hadn’t really had much interactions with Petites before, I know there’s some structural differences between the Takara and LPS variety. For starters, the Takara ones can close their eyes if you lay they down, while the LPS have fixed eyes. You can also take the Takara heads apart, while the LPS ones are one solid piece. Some people had taken to performing ‘surgery’ on the LPS Petites in order to change things with them. I think they’re cute, they’re kind of an odd body shape seeing as how they can wear Polly Pocket shoes, but have heads that are about the same size as Barbie or Skipper. It’s weird, isn’t it? Then again, Blythe does have a fairly disproportionate head to her body.

I hadn’t done very much with my LPS until after seeing the Virtual BlytheCon for Dallas back in August when Becca (SewPixie) had her LPS Petite, Cooper, steal the show with her cute little antics on screen. That gave me the inspiration to pull out my LPS Petite for photos. And it’s a lot like with regular-sized Blythe as well – the more you interact with them, the more photos you take, the more you enjoy them.

Pip encourages you to take your Petite, whether she be Takara or LPS, out for photos today! Show some love for the littlest Blythe around!

I love vintage things. I haven’t always loved vintage things, but Blythe has certainly helped that along. With countless hours spent going through thrift stores in hopes of finding that coveted thrift Kenner, I’ve managed to acquire a small collection of vintage Pyrex and other kitchenware.

Like many of you, I also spend a lot of time looking at photos of Blythes belonging to other people and I adore photos of Blythe in vintage clothing. I enjoy vintage Skipper fashions (and the flats!), I covet the squishy laced-up Barbie boots and I have a small (growing!) collection of vintage handmade Skipper clothes that someone’s mom once made for them that got tossed aside to either eBay lots or thrift stores.

What better way to show a love for vintage doll clothing than to have a vintage doll wearing them?

Since school started for me back in August, I’ve found myself with less and less time to spend on dolls, and even doll blogging in general. You may not realize this, but it takes a lot of time and effort to write posts to regularly go up on BlytheLife! School keeps me busy – classes, readings, labs, clinicals – all that time adds up!

I do end up feeling guilty over the dolls sometimes. The fact that I don’t do anything with them, the fact that they’re worth so much and how some of them have not had a change in clothing for a good long while… But then I realized, it’s okay. It’s okay not to do something with the dolls from time to time because they’ll always be there when I need them to be there. I haven’t decided yet if there will be any changes to the family dynamics as they currently stand, but right now it’s going to stay the same and all my smiling girls will be staying with me. That may change – I might go crazy and get a handful of Middies! And if you consider the fact that I keep on looking at photos of them, that is a distinct possibility.

But it’s okay. And it’s okay for me to realize that it’s okay too. They’re always going to be there at the end of the day when I need them to be there.

Blythe has had a serious influence on how I decorate my space.

When I was at my summer job, I had a ‘doll wall’. This was a wall where I had printed out photos of some of my personal favourite photos that I had taken of my dolls. Mostly Kenners (as you can see) featured, my dolls had a strong presence in my work space even when they weren’t there physically.

At home, I have Blythe-related things on my bulletin board. I also have dolls lined up on my desk, two sets of drawers that I had purchased just for holding dolly things, and just toys in general everywhere. If I were a child, I think I’d be very happy with the alarmingly heavy presence of toys in my room.

With the onset of Blythe in my life, I’ve found myself more drawn to girly things and vintage (or vintage-esque) things. That’s not to say that I didn’t like girly things before, I just like them more now.

What kind of influence has Blythe had in your home (or work) decor?

This is part two of my “Thoughts on…” mini series. Part one was on Kenners.

I had just stock Blythes for a very long time. For just over three years, that’s all I had. Sure, I did minor customizations here and there, but I didn’t really count them as ‘custom’ Blythes. Gaze lifting, sleepy eyes, chip changes. Such things do not turn a Blythe really into a customized doll, at least not a fully customized one.

I saw fully customized Blythes for the first time in 2011, in a little city called Portland. I saw many types of Blythes for the first time. I saw BLs in person for the first time, Kenners, customs, dolls with little teeth (vampire and otherwise). But customs were something that I love to see in photos. Well done customs can be amazing works of art. Good customs are also many pretty pennies. I understood the appeal of customized Blythes – they are unique, they have pretty chips, they have neat hair, their arms bend in funny locations. They’re interesting and it’s nice that they’re theonly one in the entire world that looks exactly like that. You don’t get that feeling with stock Blythes.

And then in July I got my very first custom Blythe. Spray matted, all pretty new chips that don’t come standard with any stock Blythe.Mohair with streaks. She even came on a Licca body. Suddenly I was thrown into the deep end. I knew how to pose Takara bodies easily, I’d been used to them for three years! But a Licca body? I was not use to posing those… Nor was I used to the giant poof of mohair. I was use to straight plastic hair that stayed the way I wanted it to.

But I have to say… It’s nice not to see my reflection in the mirror. It’s nice that she’s boggled and that her eyes roll easily. It’s also nice to have some more expression in the body with the Licca arms and legs.

I’ve become quite smitten with customs since Halo arrived. I don’t know if she’ll be my only customized Blythe in my dolly family, but for now she is my only one.

And that makes her pretty special.