I can be terribly nosy at times, but I like hearing the answer to this question! My best gift that I have received so far while collecting Blythe would have to be Eden Mouse (Punkaholic People). For those that don’t known, Eden was actually a gift from my parents for a Christmas that they missed. She is definitely one of my favourites, if I can admit to playing favourites with my dolls, and she is one of the funner ones to dress and to do photo stories of because I see quite a bit of me in her.

Fun fact: I had an awkward bowl cut too when I was a little girl, so young Michelle and perpetually young Eden would have matched.

What is the best gift you’ve received (in relation to Blythe)?

This question has a long and storied answer for me. The long and short of it is yes – if push came to shove and I had to downsize, I would. Whether for space or financial reasons, if I had to sell I (most likely) probably would. But I wouldn’t sell just to get down to one doll again, because that would be terribly time consuming as well as being mildly impractical (since I could give you all so many reasons why I would not sell each and every single one of my dolls).

My doll family has come a long way since 2009!

At one point I actually only had one Blythe, but that lasted for about a month before my second Blythe arrived. I was good for a month, and it was all downhill (uphill?) from there in terms of my Blythe collection. The growth of my doll family has considerably slowed down over the years as the dolls begin to take up more room, and I have found myself being more and more selective with which doll that I bring into the family. I have purposefully sought out dolls in molds that I didn’t previously own (Kindred [Velvet Minuet/SBL], unnamed ADG, Lottie [Mondrian/BL]) to round out my collection. I still have a vision of a custom I’d like, so I am saving up for that (and I do have the new October release coming to me later this year… Happy early birthday to me?), but otherwise I’m in a spot right now that I’m quite content with my collection and see no signs of needing to downsize.

Have you ever felt the need to get to just one Blythe doll? Or are you more like me and would only sell if absolutely necessary?

Photography is often best in natural lighting, but as someone who frequently shies away from taking her dolls out in public around people this is often reserved for indoors with perhaps the curtains or blinds open. Since my move, I went from a bedroom with green painted walls (no judgements please, I picked out the paint colour when I was sixteen) to a bedroom (and honestly, pretty much most of the apartment) with white walls. Which of course all this boils down to the fact that my current place to take photos is against the blank white wall. I also have an east-facing window in my room, which lends to some pretty decent light for the mornings.

New bedroom walls vs. old bedroom walls. That green sure helped to make all the dolls washed out!

I’m still working on taking photos outdoors, there’s some gardens and a preserved plot of forest nearby my new place that I think would be wonderful for photos – I just haven’t quite worked up the courage to venture out with my dolls for photos just yet.

What is your favourite place to take photos of your dolls?

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 October and all sponsorship funds go towards the costs of keeping BlytheLife.com live on the internet!

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

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

Small – 2 spots available for October! (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.

I honestly struggled with myself about whether or not to write about this. I regularly get emails or messages regarding Blythe dolls because of BlytheLife.com. It is a bit of an occupational hazard as a blogger that readers will attempt to contact you to ask questions. Generally, they’re easy to answer questions like “Where can I buy a Blythe doll?” or “Does (insert name of online retailer) sell fakes?”, but sometimes it gets a little bit… condescending and insulting.

I was recently engaged via email by a person I’d never interacted with before, let’s call her Eggplant (because I don’t like the taste of eggplant, and she left a bad taste in my mouth). Eggplant was new to the Blythe hobby, she found photos of the dolls on Etsy or Artfire or something, and then found BlytheLife via a Google search. She emailed me to thank me for providing great information to newbies (Awesome! I love it when I get positive feedback!), and then it got a little weird. I had exchanged maybe 15 or so emails with her, she asked easy-to-answer questions about the dolls, and then came this:

“I know from reading your blog that you have a lot of dolls and you got some as gifts. Could you please give me one?”

Whoa, whoa, whoa. What?!

First of all, we had established a bit of rapport with each other, which is all fine and dandy. She had asked me where to buy the dolls and I referred her to a few choice online shops (and then thanked me for the information), which resulted in her stating that the dolls are just too much money and how she would never be able to afford one and then she dropped the above into the email.

Yes, I have many dolls – probably more than the average collector. I have also received a few as gifts (from my parents, as birthday and Christmas gifts). Sure, Eggplant seemed nice and all (at first), but in no uncertain terms did I offer to give her a doll or offer to subsidize her entrance into the Blythe hobby – because frankly, no. I love my dolls, they’re mine for a reason. I found it incredibly ballsy to be asked to give her one of my dolls. I wrote a polite (but somewhat more cold) email in return to basically state that my dolls are mine and at the current time, I am not interested in parting with any of them. What did I get as a reply? Well, along with some choice colourful words, came this gem:

“You’re so selfish, I thought you were nice.”

If it’s selfish to want to keep parts of my collection as mine, then I don’t want to be selfless. Nice has nothing to do with not giving away something that I own. Sure, it doesn’t hurt to ask someone for something – because if you don’t ask, you never know what the answer will be. At least that’s what I’ve always been told. But what it will hurt is the relationship/friendship that you’re trying to establish – because I’m now always going to see Eggplant as the person who just chatted me up to get something for free, and then called me rude things because I politely said no to giving her a doll.

Yes, I have dolls. Yes, dolls are expensive and they are essentially a luxury hobby. That doesn’t mean that someone who has dolls than someone else is required to give them up or “share the wealth”, as it were. You’re not going to hit up a local charity because you desperately need a doll – because it’s not necessary for survival. I frequently make donations to charities that I care about – from animal welfare groups, to providing food for children who live below the poverty line in my own province, to organizations who are struggling to get clean drinking water to people in Canada. But the beauty is the ability to who to donate to – and someone who feels entitled to a doll (and then lashes out when they don’t get their way), is not a behaviour or person that I want to encourage.

(In short, the answer to the question in the title is: no. Unless someone is asking you what you want as a gift, and they give you a budget that could encompass the purchase of a doll, the answer is no.)