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 of Who Lives Here, I’d like to introduce you all to Belarus. Hi, Belarus!

Belarus is wearing ericaduh.

Belarus has the honour of being my second Blythe, my first EBL, and one of the only dolls that I have ever bought that had a name before arriving at home. Belarus is named for the country for no other reason than the fact that I liked how it sounded.

Since the beginning, she’s been the calmer of the two dolls that I had (the first being Sophie). She had to be, given that she was assaulted straight of the box for her shoes. She arrived in July 2009 and is, essentially, my mini-me. The personality that I had given her was that of a girl who loved technology – she loves video games, comic books, and she is the resident designer for BlytheLife (but she kindly allows me to have some credit as well).

In terms of looks, she is definitely my mini-me. I too have long, straight black hair, with a centre part. The only thing that is different is that I have brown eyes and she does not. I’ve thought about swapping out one of her stock eyechip sets for a brown pair, but I love the EBL eyechip colours too much – especially the pinks.

What I absolutely love about EBLs is the fact that they have wispy eyelashes, and the painted rings on their eyeballs to give their eyes a bit of depth, as well as the fact that their pinks are just so much more prettier than the standard stock pinks that you see dolls with nowadays (even though I love those ones as well). The only customization that I have done with Belarus is switching out her pullstring for a new one because her old string was fraying, so now she has a black string (and a black pullring). She still hasn’t been open yet, which was a challenge all on its own.

I hope you enjoyed getting to meet Belarus!

A while back BlytheLife was super close to hitting 500 likes on the Facebook page (if you haven’t already, you can like BlytheLife on Facebook by clicking here). To celebrate, I knew I wanted to do some kind of giveaway – I just wasn’t sure what kind yet. So after some thinking, I came up with something good. At least I think it’s good.

I have a local friend, who goes by Sizzy Lizzy on Facebook, who generously donated a bunch of her BlytheCon Seattle goodie bag contents – notably the postcards and buttons, so those are included in this giveaway. I know a lot of people were bummed about not being able to make it, so there are some goodies from that.

In addition, I will be including a massive (huge!) 3″ BlytheCon Vancouver button and some BlytheLife.com goodies. (For those curious, ticket sales for BlytheCon Vancouver started today!)

But wait! There’s more! (So much more!)

The winner of the Happy 500 Likes Giveaway will also be getting…

A handknit cardigan with a matching headband in a seasonal orange (by me! Michelle/chelleshocks). I know, a ball of yarn is not a cardigan – but the winner gets to choose fun things like: sleeve length (full length, three-quarters length, short) & pockets (yes or no).

This is everything. All the things! Just imagine the yarn being knitted up already, okay?

What do you have to do? Just comment below, and then enter via the Rafflecopter! If you comment and do not enter via the Rafflecopter widget, your comment will not count towards an entry for the contest! There are additional ways to enter – check the Rafflecopter widget!

The giveaway runs until Friday October 10th 2014 at 11:59pm Pacific. The draw will be held on Saturday October 11th 2014 and the winners will be announced on BlytheLife.com. Remember to use a valid email address for all comments. If you win, I will be contacting you for your mailing information.

Please only use one email address per person, those using multiple email addresses for more entries will be disqualified.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway is open to international entrants.

On a good day, I sometimes pick up some knitting and knit away on whatever project that I have on the needles. At present time, that would be a pair of socks and, sadly, not something for the dolls. I’m not a prolific sewer, despite a fabric stash and other sewing things, and I probably have enough yarn to last me the next 20 years, despite always wanting to buy more because I don’t have that particular yarn… But I do, on occasion, make things for Blythe. I’ve sewn some dresses, knitted some dresses and cardigans, made some toques for them, but it’s not an every day sort of thing. I know some people create things for Blythe every single day and I applaud them for that because I don’t think it’s something that I could realistically do. Not do and do well, anyways. So for now, I stick to whatever project I have going on.

It just happens to not fit Blythe. Although I guess that they could use it for some kind of hat…?

How much do you create for Blythe?

DIY Customizing is an irregular series of customizing tutorials. These are tutorials for things that I am able to do for my Blythes and I try to make it as simple as possible so that you can do these easy customizations to your own dolls. I am not a customizer – professional, amateur or wishful thinker of any kind. If you’re a kid – ask a responsible adult for help. As always, safety first! BlytheLife.com is not responsible for any damage that you do to yourself, your doll, or your home (or wherever you’re customizing).

One of the challenges with some Blythes (notably Kenners, BLs, EBLs, some SBLs and some of the newer releases) is that it can be a pain in the bum to get their heads open if you want to do anything in there. One challenge that I faced with one of my dolls, Belarus, was the fact that her stock pullstring was fraying. So I changed her string. She is an EBL and at the time I was not up to the task of opening up her head (I’m still not), so I had to do it without actually opening her head. It can be tricky, but I wanted to show how I did it.

Now, Belarus doesn’t need another string, but Eden Mouse’s string had broke once or twice since I had changed it to a light pink cord. It’s super short now, and I wanted to swap it out for a darker pink cord (but still keeping the same pullring). Eden Mouse is a Punkaholic People RBL, which means that it is relatively easy to open her up, if I wanted to. I opted to keep her head closed for this tutorial.

This is just for changing the pullstring for the string that changes the eyes, not the string (if your doll has one have one) for sleep eyes. I haven’t figured out a way to change that without opening the head (if your doll no longer have a spring), so you’re flat out of luck there.

To change your doll’s pullstring, you will need:

• Scissors
• Lighter (or lit candle)
• New cord
• Super thin wire (or a u-shaped upholstery needle)
• Fishing line or nylon thread
• Wire cutters (if using wire)
• Well lit working area

Let’s say that your doll’s string just broke, or the knot inside loosened so it came straight out. So what I did here was just snip Eden’s string.

If your doll’s string broke, I know this is the point of complete sadness. If you love the chips that are currently up, handroll them to chips that you either don’t like or don’t like as much – just in case you scratch them during this process.

The first thing you need to do is remove the old string inside of the head. I used wire and poked it out. The knot should lie on the left hand side (if you are facing the doll, that would be your left, not her left). Just poke it out until you see it come out the eye hole. Remove the old string. Click to read more of this entry.

Factory doll, photo by Meg/irulethegalaxy.

I wanted to do a little survey on TBL/factory/fake Blythe dolls so I created one:

TBL/Factory Questionnaire

There was an amazing 100 responses to the first survey, I had to start another one due to limitations with the website. This contains the exact same questions: TBL/Factory Questionnaire #2.

This is anonymous – you do not need to give your name/username or email address when doing this survey. The questionnaire consists of four yes/no questions, and one comment box if you have any other thoughts to share about TBL/factory/fake dolls.

I will be writing about the results in a couple of weeks, so there is plenty of time for you to fill out the survey and to share it with your Blythe friends! I’m really curious about the results and hope that they’re enlightening!