I have a confession to make. I’ve only ever let one Blythe go from my house and sometimes I don’t think it really counts because she stayed in her box from the moment she arrived to the moment she left. ‘She’ being a NRFB Fancy Pansy. She arrived in October 2010 and I didn’t sell her until this year. Yes, she remained in her box in my house for over a year. But she arrived at a bad time (during midterms) and then after midterms it was papers and finals and I just kind of… tucked her away. She remained ‘tucked away’ (out of sight, out of mind) until I listed her up on Blythe Kingdom.

I think I have a bit of a problem with my dolls. It’s very difficult for me to part with them. I think the reason I was able to party with Fancy Pansy was because I hadn’t named her, dressed her, played with her, had her out with the rest of the dolls on my desk. If you point to any of my dolls right now, I have a very good reason for why she should be kept. Some people don’t have an emotional attachment (or as much as mine) to their dolls; others have dolls moving in and out so they see them more as visitors. I look and my dolls and I see the happy memories attached to them. I think it’ll have to be at the point when I stop seeing the happy memories that I’ll be able to let go of one of them.

How hard is it to for you to let go of a doll?

I’m a little particular about how I store my Blythes. This is probably a good thing, given how much that they cost.

My Takaras/Neos stay on their stands on my desk at the current moment. They’re generally always on their stand unless they’re sitting with me or being toted around in my purse. My Kenners are usually stored laying down so that they’re not touching each other. I think I’m more willing to let the Takaras hang out on their stands because they don’t have a history of cracking or falling apart where the legs go into their bodies. But Kenners on the other hand? They do.

I’m still really careful with my Kenners even after repairing a pelvis crack and swapping out bottoms for newer ones. I think it’s because they’re so expensive that I take extra care with them. They rarely leave the house unless it’s for a meet (Takaras are more likely to attend meets and also be carried around without a meet to go to). Is it weird that I treat my Kenners and Takaras differently? I hope not.

How do you store your Blythes?

Do you store your Kenners and Takaras/ADGs differently from each other? How about the stock vs. customized dolls?

There are a lot of little things that I own that I love to use in photo props. There’s so much Re-Ment and other brands of miniatures out there that I’m sure there are many favourites. Miniatures can add such realism to the photo, bringing the dolls to life and it just makes it more interesting sometimes. My favourites? Laptop. Some of my girls like surfing the internet while I’m not at home…

What’s your favourite miniature item?

After I completed 365, I took a nice long break and did not take a photo of any of my dolls for a nice long while. It was nice to not feel like I needed to take a photo, regardless of how mediocre it ended up being. I loved the experience of the 365 Blythe group, but it was just nice to have a break. Don’t feel like taking a photo? That’s fine. Feel like taking a photo? That’s fine too.

Nowadays, I’m more likely to take photos of my Kenners than any of the other dolls (whoops) and I know there’s some neglect going on. I also take a bunch of photos at doll meets, so there is that… I do take photos of other people’s dolls. And I try to mix it up and bring different dolls to the meets if I can (and remember). I think most of my dolls have attended at least one meet, which is good. It makes me feel better as a doll owner that I’m not really playing favourites (even if I do) and I can also get some new photos of a doll from time to time.

I take doll photos at least monthly. Some months I’ll have new photos every week, but not daily. But at least there’ll be something new every month. And it makes me happy to be able to document doll meets.

How often do you take doll photos?

As a person, I’m horrible at hair styles for me. On a regular day, I do a ponytail. There’s occasionally a braid, or a headband or something. But other than that, my hair is very not-styled.

As for my doll’s hair? A lot of them have long hair and I don’t really do anything with it. Sometimes there’s a braid, sometimes I twist it up into a bun… But for the most part, I don’t do anything with it. I’m pretty content to not do anything because sometimes it’s just a pain to find an outfit with shoes that go with it and do something with their hair at the same time.

It’s hard to get myself excited about that aspect. It’s fun to go through the box of shoes to find the ‘perfect’ shoes to go with whatever outfit that I pulled out. That’s the fun part of it for me – the doll plus shoes, clothes. But hair? Ehhh… Sometimes it’s just boring and I don’t like messing with it. Sometimes I do, but most of the time I just don’t…

Does that make me a bad dolly owner?

(Possibly…)

How ‘good’ are you at doing doll hair?