Every month’s last Friday (or just once a month, sometime on a Friday) is part of a feature on BlytheLife.com, Freebie Friday Five. Welcome everyone to the fourth instalment! I mention 5 things I love every month that’s free to do/read/see.

If you have any suggestions for next month’s Freebie Friday Five, please don’t hesitate to email me! Maybe you have a site you think that I should feature or a pattern that’s free and up on the web? Tell me!

For the month of November, I found quite a bit of things that I liked! And some things I just ‘rediscovered’, because it’s always nice to find new gems. Everything is crafting and DIY-related this week, so get out your crafting supplies!

1. In the world of Flickr Groups, I absolutely love Doll Coordinate Recipe and other pattern mooks. While there are no free patterns, people will post up photos of things that they have made, as well as scans of the finished item pages in the books so you can browse to see if you like the styles of the clothes available in the books first before buying them! I used this group to check out the inside pages of a few of the DCR’s that I ended up buying after deciding that I liked the styles and fashions inside.
2. The very lovely and generous Kathie Pendry posted up some knitting patterns on Blythe Kingdom back in February and I’m still trying to find the motivation to work on such tiny needles. But regardless of my motivation (or lackthereof), you can go and check out the patterns yourself! You will need an account on Blythe Kingdom though, so be sure to sign up!
3. Also in the DIY-stream is a website on how to build dollhouses called let’s build a dollhouse. I love it, it’s such a cute website and has great tutorials. My favourite project that I hope to do sometime soon? Making my dolls a couch!
4. For more DIY craftiness, I found a fantastic blog that doesn’t have very much in terms of actual tutorials, but there are a lot of photos of in-progress projects and the level of detail is astounding. The blog is called Fashion Doll Shoes and many of the shoes lately have been geared towards Monster High dolls, but ideas can always be adapted for your favourite changing-eyed doll.
5. Last in the world of crafts, Tiny Zippers has a great tutorial on how to make your very own dolly clothing-sized hangers.

If you know of a site, group or activity that you think I should highlight in next month’s Freebie Friday Five, let me know! Comment below or email me.

Every month’s last Friday (or just once a month, sometime on a Friday) is part of a feature on BlytheLife.com, Freebie Friday Five. Welcome everyone to the third instalment! I mention 5 things I love every month that’s free to do/read/see.

If you have any suggestions for next month’s Freebie Friday Five, please don’t hesitate to email me! Maybe you have a site you think that I should feature or a pattern that’s free and up on the web? Tell me!

1. Join a Flickr group or two! I like joining the groups for the specific dolls that I have. Find yours by searching the Flickr groups for the stock name of your dolls. For instance, if you had a Margaret Meets Ladybug (MML) doll, you’d join this group here!
2. I’ve just been loving reading blogs this month! Two Blythe-related blogs that I wanted to showcase this month both belong to two lovely girls from Australia. There’s Bella from The Adventures of Bella and Blythe and Emily from CraftyGirl*. Both girls are fantastically active bloggers, have quite the Blythe collections going and have such cute doll houses! I’m jealous, I don’t have a doll house (yet!).
3. Get some inspiration! While it’s great to see photos of dolls in fun new fashions, you can also look to real people photos to see fun new fashion trends that maybe you can recreate in Blythe-scale! One site that I love to go for current fashion trends to see if I want to make something similar for my own dolls is Polyvore.com
4. Take advantage of the good weather, if you still have it, and take photos outside! Natural lighting is the best when it comes to photography and I don’t know of anyone ever charging for use of sunshine. Get some photos of your dolls in public parks or gardens and other public accessible areas. Be adventurous!
5. Do a closet-clean out – for you! Have clothes with stains, rips, tears? If you can’t donate it, swap it or sell it, why not make something with it? Make something for your dolls (there’s lots of free patterns out there!) with your newly ‘found’ fabric. (Bonus: you make room in your closet for more things…?)

If you know of a site, group or activity that you think I should highlight in next month’s Freebie Friday Five, let me know! Comment below or email me.

Every month’s last Friday (or just once a month, sometime on a Friday) is part of the new feature on BlytheLife.com, Freebie Friday Five. Welcome everyone to the second instalment!

If you have any suggestions for next month’s Freebie Friday Five, please don’t hesitate to email me! Maybe you have a site you think that I should feature or a pattern that’s free and up on the web? Tell me!

1. This month I have really enjoyed the Blythe?Swap group over on Flickr. Ran by Phillaine, it’s super active and there’s been a swap every month since Phillaine took over administrating the group. I know I mention taking part of swaps quite a bit to get new (or just new-to-you) things and it’s good to get involved! Learn about new people and get fun mail! New swap sign-ups start on the 1st.
2. I love showing support for fellow bloggers, big and small. This month I’ve enjoyed following Rosie Applies and Friends,who has some super cute entries from her dolls’ points of view (so cute!), and Claribari Blythe (Heather’s) blog (she’s got some cute photos!).
3. Get connected with fellow Blythe enthusiasts – it’s free to make a Twitter account! (Please note: Twitter may or may not become a time-suck for all your free and not-so-free time, you have been warned! But at least it is free!) Remember to follow @blythelifecom, you’ll get Tweets about new posts, new giveaways and maybe even get in on new posts by getting quoted or interviewed!
4. Update your blog or start writing one! If you do, be sure to drop me an email and let me know what it is if it’s Blythe-related so I can get it up on the Links page! Also be sure to check out the Dolly Blogging mini-series here on BlytheLife.com.
5. Know some local Blythers? Start organizing a mini-meet in your area! Don’t know some local Blythers? Go post on either Blythe Kingdom or This is Blythe to see if there are people in your area and organize a get-together!

A new fun feature on BlytheLife.com is something I’d like to call Freebie Friday Five. It may not be a weekly occurrence (and may also not always happen on a Friday…), but from time to time I will showcase 5 fantastic and free things related to Blythe that I’d like to share with you! If you have any suggestions at all for what I should do a little showcase on and share with everyone on BlytheLife.com, please email me!

1. With the crackdown on people breaking the Terms of Service on Flickr, people in the doll community are looking for new places to host photos for things like sales and auctions. There’s a lot of free sites available out there that you can host your pics there, free of charge. My favourite is Photobucket (but I’ve blogged about this here before!).
2. Check out daily postings of 365 dolls over on Flickr! Due to the nature of the challenge (taking daily photos), there’s always something new going on in the 365 group! So be sure to check out some photos and maybe hit fave or comment on some if you like them.
3. Read a blog or two! Some fun Blythe-related ones that I love and think you should read too are Blythe Blog (written by April), Mademoiselle Blythe (written by Fanny) and We Play With Dolls (written by several bloggers in Australia). They are all fantastic inspirations with cute blogs to boot!
4. Impromptu fashion show with your dolls and their clothes! Has it been a while since someone’s gotten a change of clothes? Maybe it’s been a long time since you had taken their photo? Today’s the day to change all of that! Giving a doll a little bit of attention helps revive your love for her, plus it’s probably nice to give a girl a change of clothes from an outfit they’d been wearing for a month (or longer!).
5. Do a meme! Tag someone, fill out a little survey, do something fun today that’s prompted by someone else. To get you started, there’s a great website called The Daily Meme.