Sometimes I binge shop for Blythe stuff. Actually, that’s probably a lie. I always binge shop when it comes to Blythe stuff. A couple of shirts here, a few dresses there, and a handful of dolly shoes. All at a time. And then I go through this process of eagerly awaiting for the post to arrive because I get Really Excited over the prospect of getting fun packages in the mail – even if I pay for the pleasure of it. I do this frequently. My doll shopping comes in spurts, because I buy a bunch of stuff, and then I go through the process of waiting for it to all arrive, then I’m simultaneously happy about getting mail and not-so happy when I have to go and pay off my credit card bill. So I sulk a bit, and tell myself to not spend so much again! Until the next time, that is.

Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. It isn’t so much that I cannot afford it, because I always make sure that I have enough for my mandatory expenses, and when possible, I buy direct from the seamstresses of tiny clothing. I find that I am always late to the party when it comes to sundries coming up for sale on Facebook or Blythe Kingdom, so that is rarely ever an option for me!

Right now I’m in the ‘lull’ period. In my last shopping binge, I bought two dresses, and two tops for the Blythes. And that’s not even counting the other pieces of clothing I’d bought for them previously that they haven’t even worn yet! With BlytheCon on the horizon, I’m resisting from buying until then. At least I’ll be saving on shipping then, and it’ll be a nice splurge with great memories attached to it. On the brightside, whomever I bring down to Seattle with me will have the opportunity to debut new outfits. And we all know how much I love pairing shoes with great dolly clothes!

Am I the only one who goes through the process of ‘binge’ shopping for dolls and dolly things?

When I was little, my Barbies had personalities. These personalities always changed though, depending on the story that was being told with me. If I recall correctly, my Barbies also had constantly changing names. In part because I got bored with old names, and also because I kept forgetting what I named them previously. My Blythes, in contrast, keep their names. Sophie will always be Sophie, Eden will always be Eden, Minnow will always be my little Minnow. And their personalities? I just can’t see Sophie as being anything else but a little fashionista with big dreams to walk for ‘big name’ dolly designers. Eden will always be my pink-loving little one. And Minnow… Minnow is still a bit shy about showing me her personality, but I trust that it will come in time.

Sophie & Eden Mouse.

I form personalities based on my dolls’ look,s, but also what they remind me of. Eden, from the point I saw her little bob-cut, reminded me a lot of how I looked as a young child. And since she also came with a horrible factory stock hair-cut (uneven bangs, uneven sides) reminded me even more so of me because I had cut my own bangs at a very young age. It was awful. And it is what gave Eden her little-girl personality. Sophie gained her personality pretty quick. This was partially because she was my 365 girl and was clearly in need of some kind of attitude, and her long silver locks just screamed ‘diva’ to me. But I toned her down just a smidgen, because I don’t think anyone could deal with Sophie at her most attitude-filled moments.

How do you determine personalities for your Blythes?

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While pretty much every most days I’m all about Prim the Kenners, it’s always nice to give some recognition to some of the other dolls that live here as well! So what better way to show some love than to focus on the three most brightly-coloured haired dolls that I have? In case you haven’t seen their photos before here on BlytheLife, here is (from left to right): Mollie (Molybdenum), Moxie, and Minnow. (Mollie and Moxie are the fraternal twins, Minnow just happens to have equally bright hair.)

The thing about having super bright, highlighter worthy hair is that I cannot help but smile when I see them. Ever so cheerful and sunshiney bright, I love the bright saturated colours, and how also how they look together. Out of my entire doll family, these are the only three that have brightly coloured locks. While I do have other dolls with fantasy-coloured hair (Tertiary Jane is a Simply Peppermint, and Sophie the CapChat has silver coloured hair – not completely unnatural for a person or doll to have, but she’s a young’un), these are the bright ones, whom I cheerfully refer to as my little brightheads.

Highlighters to match!

Do you have brightly-coloured fantasy haired Blythes? Do you happen to give equally ridiculous names to your brightly-coloured fantasy haired dolls like I do?

Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and I didn’t have smart phone, I had to go through the process of finding cables and turning on my computer and actually remember to upload photos in order to photos of my Blythes up onto the internet. Since joining the modern era, back in 2012, the majority of my doll photos have been courtesy of my smartphone and the exorbitantly priced data package that I pay for on a monthly basis. While I don’t have a problem with spending money on Blythes and other dolly things (hello, doll boots!), I greatly enjoy the fact that many app makers make them available for free, or associated with their websites where they run ads. I’m going to go through a few of my favourite apps, and why I enjoy them! Because I have an Android device only, and no Apple devices, I’m only going to be going through apps that I’m 100% sure are available for Android. Most should have an Apple-equivalent though, so don’t despair!

Instagram is a fairly popular one already. I take a lot of my doll photos with the Instagram app and then apply filters or edit them as I wish. Instagram did recently have a major update with a lot more features for finer control over the photo editing process. New features included changing the contrast and highlights, as well as adding a vignette or sharpening the details of the image. Bonus points to Instagram for the fact that I can choose to directly upload to Flickr, as well as other sharing places like Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter or Foursquare. You can see what other people have uploaded via Instagram by searching tags – a good one is #blythe.

Flickr is the website that everyone now loves to dislike, especially since their major revamp of their website. However, I must give them props, because their (Android) app is so much nicer to use now. The app nicely mimics the website, but the functionality is more present when it comes to the app. I greatly enjoy it and I find that the app doesn’t lag for me like the website does. There’s also more options now when it comes to uploading photos via the app. Previously I found it nearly impossible to tag photos or to make them private when uploading via the app, now I find it’s a lot easier and more intuitive to use. These days, I’m more likely to go onto Flickr via the app than the website.

Aviary is a fun photo-editing app. There’s all sorts of things you can add to the photos – borders, ‘stickers’, effects, and more. I like Aviary because it loads pretty quick, and you have the option of adding on more ‘packs’ of effects, stickers, etc. The thing about the add-on packages is that some of them do cost money, while others are free. I can’t talk about the paid packages (I’m sure they’re nice!) as I’m still quite happy about the free add-on packs that I’ve downloaded so far. One cute bonus is the ability to ‘meme’ your photo, just by adding text across the top and bottom of the image. I’d recommend looking through all the add-on packages before downloading them, you may find that you don’t need (or not won’t use!) that may additional filters.

Pixlr-o-matic is one of my favourites when it comes to editing photos on the go. It is very easy to use when it comes to applying effects, filters and borders to your photos on your phone, or even a tablet. The other great app by Pixlr is Pixlr Express, which is fun for doing collages, and more editing magic. The nice thing about Pixlr is that both of their apps are also available as web-based photo editing websites! So for those who do not have Photoshop or another photo editing program on your computer, this is an option for you.

What are your favourite apps to use when doing Blythe-related activities?