What do I do when I’m not blogging? Umm… Think about what to blog? When I am not thinking about Blythe or creating new content for BlytheLife, I am:

Doing schoolwork or I’m at clinical (a.k.a. practicum). Last week I just began my third, and last, year of nursing school. As the school year gets busier, I tend to write most, if not all, of my blog posts well in advance of them publishing. Education, to me, is both a right, a privilege, and a luxury. On all levels, it is something that enjoy (even when I don’t) because learning is wonderful and I quite like learning.

Hanging out with friends (dolly friends & non-dolly friends).

Browsing the internet to see what new dolls I want. The correct answer is “all of them”, by the way. Of the Blythe variety, I don’t often fancy after ball-jointed dolls unless it’s very specific ones. Unicorn or deer BJDs? Yes. Wants. I don’t even know the stock name. Click to read more of this entry.

The majority of Blythe releases are prefaced with an illustration, followed by promotional photos, and then the actual doll. Depending on the instant popularity of the doll based on the illustrations (or promotional photos), it could be very easy or very difficult to get your hands on a preorder for a particular doll. The most recent anniversary Blythe and Middie duo comes to mind with quite a few people upset over not being able to gain access to the website at all.

Kitty Brighton (Jackie Ramone Middie).

I have personally never preordered a Blythe (of any size) based purely on the illustration. I have, however, bought a doll based on the promotional photographs. I wasn’t won over by the illustrations, but Jackie Ramone (the Middie) won me over when CWC released the promotional photographs. I loved everything about her. From the shade of her hair, to the fact that she had brown eyes, and those boots! I’m sure you all know by now how much I love doll shoes… Jackie Ramone (renamed Kitty Brighton when she arrived) remains, to this day, the only doll that I have ever purchased prior to seeing out-of-box photos of her from other collectors. I have been tempted by other dolls, but I never pulled the figurative trigger on trying to get my paws on a preorder. So very tempted! But the price, and timing, at the time wasn’t right.

There are times when I have regretted not getting in on some dolls while I still could have, as some dolls are amazingly expensive due to popularity now. But, I digress, my Blythe life didn’t play out the way that I wanted it to – and that is okay! There are always other dolls. Nicer dolls. Better dolls.

At least that’s what I tell myself.

Have you ever preordered a Blythe based on an illustration alone?

You have a doll-related website/shop/blog and BlytheLife has your target audience!

BlytheLife.com is an active doll website with a high readership that primarily consists of women who are Blythe and other doll collectors/hobbyists. By advertising your doll-related site or business with BlytheLife, you can ensure that your ad is being seen by the people that are your potential customers. Every time someone visits BlytheLife, they’ll see your ad on the side!

Did you know? Sponsorship costs are purposely kept low to keep advertising accessible to people in the doll community.

There are three spots currently available for the month of September and all sponsorship funds from now until July 2015 will be donated to BlytheCon Vancouver 2015!

Large – 1 spot available for September! (325×200 pixels)

• $10 – 1 month
• $18 – 2 months
• $26 – 3 months

Small – 2 spots available for September! (160×160 pixels)

• $5 – 1 month
• $9 – 2 months
• $13 – 3 months

If you’d like more information on how you can advertise on BlytheLife, click here.

Who Lives Here is a little feature on BlytheLife to shine the spotlight on the dolls that live with me! Here’s to you, and me, getting to know my dolls a little bit better.

In this installment, we have my fraternal dolly twins: Mollie and Moxie.

Moxie, a Simply Bubble Boom, has a birthday of December 3 2012 while Mollie, a Simply Sparkly Spark, has birthday of December 24 2012. But they are twins, even with different birthdays. Very fraternal, very separate twins. If I ever get Simply Thumpty Thump, they will suddenly become triplets. Or something (Thumpty Thump isn’t really on my radar right now, although she may be if I ever decide to complete my ‘rainbow’).

Moxie is my lovable film enthusiast. She wears bold prints, or shades of gray (not the fifty shades kind…). She adores film noir and anything with Humphrey Bogart (much like me! Casablanca, anyone?). Despite her vivid personality, I don’t photograph her nearly as much as I could (which does make me sad, I don’t need a lecture). She also enjoys science fiction, and would love one day go traveling with the the Doctor, or walk through a Stargate.

Mollie, which is short for Molybdenum (element #42), naturally enjoys chemistry, science, learning and technology. Essentially, she is the nerdy side of me in doll form. I jokingly wanted to name her “42”, even though is most definitely not my 42nd Blythe, because that is the answer for everything. But 42 also corresponds to the element molybdenum, which makes for a pretty awesome name. For regular day, her name is Mollie. When she causes a lab accident, I call her Molybdenum. Loudly.

What I love about bestowing personalities onto my dolls is that all of their personalities, generally speaking, reflect a little bit of me. Sometimes it’s a little bit ‘louder’ in my dolls, or a bigger part of them in comparison to other aspects of their personalities, but it’s fun. Through Moxie, I share my love for film noir and science fiction television shows, and through Mollie there’s my love for science – in her name and in her likes.

A big part of writing BlytheLife is that I get to learn about a whole lot of stuff. Including my adventures in sewing, knitting doll-sized cardigans, and taking photographs. Now, I took photos before Blythe, but I rarely used macro settings before dolls, nor did I have a model to take photos of. Here’s a super simple way of doing a photo backdrop that you can do with things you may have in your house. Alternatively, a trip to the dollar store will fix you right up!

You will need:

• Foam board – 2 pieces if you are not using a table
• The backdrop – you can use scrap booking paper, wrapping paper, anything! – Optional
• Glue stick or sticky tac/blue tac/temporary adhesive (if you’re using some kind of pretty paper) – Optional
• Clothespins
• Something to photograph

Directions:

Get your backdrop imagery onto your foam board, if you decide to use one. You can use scrap book paper or wrapping paper, whatever you’d like. This is optional.

Wait for it to dry. Go browse the internet for new dolly shoes.

Dried? Excellent! I opted to keep mine all white so there was no added drying time.

Clip your clothespins onto the bottom edges of the foam board, as pictured. I used additional clothespins to make it more stable.

Now you have an upright photo backdrop for all your photo taking needs. Go take some photos! And when you’re done, simply unclip the clothespins and store your photo backdrop flat somewhere for safe keeping.

The great thing about this set-up is that it is so easy to set up and to tear down. If you want, you can also position lights on either side to reduce the amount of shadowing. Here’s a photo I took of Prim with my DIY photo backdrop: