Welcome to the 2015 Blythe Holiday Shopping Guide! This is part 3 of a 3 part mini-series to help those who are trying to figure out what to buy for themselves, or what to buy for the Blythe-lover in their life. Part 1 was the $25 and less part, while part 2 was the $100 and less price range of the shopping guide!

Blythe – a somewhat unnecessary, can be expensive, and very much a luxury hobby. For the third part of the Holiday Shopping Guide, let’s explore the gift options that are greater than $100! For pretty much all of these suggestions, you’ll likely want to involve the gift receiver as you wouldn’t want to buy something expensive that isn’t to their taste (or something they want, or fits their needs).

1. A new doll. There are many different new stock Blythe releases out there for the Neo and Middie sizes, pretty much all of them will cost you more than $100. And if the Blythe lover in your life is anything like me, they have a list of what new releases they really love and want. It may take some creativity on your part, but be sure to check out their Facebook, Instagram, and Flickr to see if they liked or commented on any images of new Blythe releases that they really love. If it’s a newer new release, be sure to check out this list of legitimate online Blythe retailers to see if the doll is available for sale.

2. An old doll. And by ‘old’, I mean a 1972 Kenner Blythe doll. If you’re looking at a doll in pristine condition, be aware that you may be paying a pretty penny for her! It is a good time to buy a Kenner Blythe though, as prices have been fairly low for even the minty dolls. You should be able to find a fairly minty looking Kenner Blythe with no body cracks and minimal issues with the hair for about $500-750. Obviously if the hair colour or cut is more rare, the doll will be more expensive, but I have recently seen several fairly minty Kenner Blythes sell for very reasonable low prices.

3. An alpaca or mohair reroot. These are reroots done in natural fibres that are kitten soft and can come in some beautiful natural or dyed colours. These labourious and oh-so-time-consuming works of art can cost you quite a bit – expect to pay a minimum of $200 for an natural fibre reroot, more depending on the type of fibre, length of fibre, and colour(s). But they’re so pretty!

4. Without getting into the politics and controversy of the incredibly expensive doll clothing sets, what about some form of display cabinet? Yes, there are many shelf units out there that are less than $100, but think about the sheer size of your loved one’s collection, followed by the necessity of glass covered doors so that the collection is visible but also protected from mischievous cats and the dolls don’t need to be dusted on a very regular basis. Something nice and sturdy with glass doors would be lovely, and likely to cost well over $100, depending on where you shop.

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I hope that the 2015 Blythe Holiday Shopping Guide has been helpful to you in determining some potential gifts for the Blythe enthusiast in your life! For the discerning Blythe hobbyist, it’s probably best to get them involved in helping to choose their gifts – that way you can be sure that they get something that they love! There’s a huge price range that Blythe-related gifts can fall in, so don’t be afraid that all Blythe gifts will wind up being expensive!

Month #3 was the month that I fell flat on. I got to photo 70 of 365 before I just kind of stumbled with taking photos. It was also the same day that I started my new job (sort of, officially/unofficially), which was back on November 9th and no photos were taken since.

The month of November began with a Halloween Blythe meet on the 1st, followed by knitting, collecting birthday swag, turning another year older, and beginning orientation for my new job as a casual Registered Nurse. Since the 9th/last day I took a photo of Eden for 365, I’ve started working and have been really busy! Hopefully it settles a bit soon and I get into more of a routine so I can spend some time on my hobbies too.

365 challenges are hard. They are so simple in concept – take a photo once a day. Until you actually try to do it, then it’s a little bit more difficult. I didn’t get as far as I did with my first attempt at a 365 challenge with Eden (114 of 365), but that’s okay. I have different priorities now and the holiday season is upon us. It’s been a good run, and I would like to try again at a 365 (perhaps with a different doll?) in the future once things settle a bit for me with work.

Quite a few of the Takara-released Blythe dolls have had special stock eye chips- all beginning with Miss Anniversary, the first anniversary doll that also had all special eye colours. Since there, it has been special stock eye colours that appear on and off and there have been some beautiful stock eye chips. Some of them have been more creative than others (e.g. Ultimate Tour Momolita’s silver skulls or Ahcahcum Zukin’s green clovers) while others have just been really pretty.

Some of my favourite special colours that my dolls came with stock are Bennett’s browns (Margaret Meets Ladybug) and Mollie’s light blues (Simply Sparkly Spark). There’s just something a little extra special about a Blythe who comes with a pair of eye chips that isn’t the standard pink, blue, orange, or green. Even a slightly different shade of green or blue (or pink or orange…) is a welcome change.

What’s your favourite special stock eye chip colour?

Shopping Saturday is a feature on BlytheLife.com to help you either shop or promote your shop’s sales. If you want to have your sale included in Shopping Saturday, submissions must be made by 12pm Pacific on the Friday before and all coupon codes must be valid for the entire weekend that they are featured.

For more information, you can check out the Shopping Saturday page or send questions to michelle@blythelife.com.

•  AnneArchy has a 25% off coupon code for Blythe knitting patterns: smallbizsaturday

Welcome to the 2015 Blythe Holiday Shopping Guide! This is part 2 of a 3 part mini-series to help those who are trying to figure out what to buy for themselves, or what to buy for the Blythe-lover in their life. Last week was the $25 and less part of the shopping guide!

Now when I think Blythe, I don’t think that it cost pennies because it is a luxury hobby of sorts. So for the second part of the Holiday Shopping Guide, it will be the ?$100 gift options!

1. A full set of hand-painted eyechips for your special someone’s special dolly. Hand-painted chips generally seem to go for about $20-30/set and getting several sets would be quite the gift! There are a lot of options available to you, if you search for hand painted Blythe eye chips on Etsy or Artfire you should be able to come up with quite a bit! I

2. How about a Pure Neemo Flection body with a set of hands? A lot of people like swapping out their dolls’ stock bodies for something with a bit more range of motion – the Pure Neemo fits the bill for a lot of people. The body and hands will solidly set you back about $40-50 or so, especially once you factor in shipping as well. For the best size that matches well with the original Blythe body, a lot of people go with the XS option.

3. There’s also the Licca body for the body swapper in your life. If you buy a Licca doll (complete with outfit), it’ll run you about $20-25 (possibly with additional shipping charges tacked on top). It’s a little underwhelming to get a naked headless doll, so for a nicer presentation I would suggest perhaps getting the full doll (head, shoes, outfit). It looks a bit better, and then your loved one gets another pair of shoes and a dress with it – as well as a head for the stock Blythe body.

4. Does your favourite Blythe collector have a favourite clothing seamstress? A lot of lovely clothing items for Blythe can be found from $25-100 – the holidays are a great time to splurge and get them something that they might not otherwise get the chance to own. While it make seem expensive to pay that much money for a piece of doll clothing, remember that these are all made by hand and you’re not only buying a tiny dress but you are paying for the materials, the time, and the sewing expertise that the person has.

5. Lastly in the under $100 range is Re-ment, which can be cheaper than $100, but perhaps there’s a set that your special someone really wants or you want to buy them the full set so you can ensure that they get all the really neat sets in a collection. It is possible to find full Re-ment sets for under $100, a quick Google search nets me a lot of online retailers. Keep in mind of what kind of things your favourite doll collector seems to enjoy. If they loathe Hello Kitty, it’s probably not the best time to get them a Hello Kitty-themed Re-ment set, just saying. Re-ment can vary a lot in prices, but if you know the collector in your life likes kitchen items or food items or furniture, it can help you narrow down your search to the perfect set.