There are moments when I look at my dolls and think “Maybe I’d like to add a new one to the doll family”. Let’s ignore the fact that some haven’t gotten an outfit changes in ages, or the fact that I have other more pressing financial goals/expenditures at the moment. We’re only going to focus on the fact that I sometimes have this want for a new doll.

It often begins with Facebook. Now with Blythe friends having added me to the million and three about five different buy-and-sell groups related to Blythe, I get a lot of newly listed dolls and sundries posts all in my news feed. I try to be proactive and decrease the sheer volume of notifications and pop-ups in my feed by simply turning off the notifications (this works wonders for my sanity and my wallet!). Being around dolly people and getting to see fun and new dolls is always exciting. Being around dolly people and attending meets also helps to rekindle a bit of that Blythe love because I’ve been so wrapped up with work lately. There’s always a need to take a breather and to just reassess my hobbies from time to time. Do I need a new doll? Technically no, I don’t. I don’t need a new doll like I need the basic necessities. But do I want a new doll? Oh, definitely! I would definitely be lying if I said no.

There’s something really fun about waiting for a doll to arrive in the mail. There’s the anticipation, the wait for a tracking number, and then the refreshing (and refreshing!) of the tracking number as you wait for it to show up. Maybe I just really like the anticipation of getting mail instead? It’s part of the New Doll Itch that I get from time to time.

The only known cures that I can think of is to either:

• Bite the bullet and buy a new doll, or
• Reacquaint yourself with your dolls in hopes that it helps quell the itch, or
• Buy some new sundries and hope that tides you over.

What are your solutions to the New Doll Itch?

There are so many options these days when it comes to where you can buy your dolls. When I first started in the Blythe hobby, the options that I knew about was a physical retail store in the Metro Vancouver area, This is Blythe forum, and eBay. It has ballooned into so much more now that there are Asia-based retail shops that have opened up to international online purchasers (Junie Moon, I’m referring to you!) that there are a lot more options now. Another big game changer to the world of buying (and selling) Blythe dolls has been Facebook. There’s been more and more Facebook groups popping up that are related to buying and selling Blythes (often they have words like “adoption” in the title), there’s just a lot of avenues that you can look at for buying and selling dolls now.

The last doll I purchased was actually from a member of my local doll group, but before that it was a doll I first saw on Facebook (and then brokered the deal via Facebook messenger). Prior to that though, the majority of my dolls have been purchased via forum posts (Blythe Kingdom), or eBay. I guess in a way I’m a bit old school when it comes to buying dolls online, but I’ve also slowed down quite a bit when it comes to buying new dolls because I’ve become a bit more picky about which doll gets added into the doll family these days. There’s not that much room left that I can afford to just add any doll to the family.

Where do you buy your dolls?

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I love when I put dolls in matching (or somewhat matching) outfits. It suddenly makes sense why parents think it’s cute to put their twins in matching outfits, or to have their children of varying ages in cute and similar outfits. Because it’s adorable. I (genuinely) don’t think that I’d subject my future/hypothetical children to matching outfits, but having dolls in matching outfits is fun!

I have my fraternal twins, Mollie and Moxie, who occasionally get dressed in similar outfits. I’m a bad dolly owner for doing it, but they can’t fight back (as far as I’m aware) so I feel pretty guilt-free for doing it:

I think it’s fun to put dolls in matching outfits! It makes things a bit more entertaining (at least for me), and while it may seem to be less creative to dress dolls similarly, it’s highly enjoyable and makes me want to take even more photos, so I guess there’s that as well!

How often do you dress your dolls in similar outfits?

I love (love) going to Blythe meets and hanging out with dolly friends. Sometimes we chat a lot about dolls – who got which new release, which new custom, and oh-look-at-those-darling-shoes (I may be the very vocal gusher about doll shoes…) – and other times we get a little bit off-topic and talk about our lives (work, relationships, their kids as I have none, pets) and all of the time we eat because we frequently go potluck style with our meets which works out really well!

This past weekend I hung out with many of the ladies (and gentleman) of the Vancouver Blythe Bunch group – the group that brought you BlytheCon Vancouver organizers + many of the volunteers/supporters. It’d been a while (I believe our last fairly sizable Blythe meet was in early November) so it was a lot of fun. A lot had changed since then – lots of new dolls in, some dolls out. I brought along my main girl, Primrose, who finally got an outfit change. I’m not 100% sure but there’s a very good chance that she was in the same outfit since BlytheCon Vancouver (don’t quote me on that though).

It’s lovely to get together with people and enjoy people’s companies with good food and good dollies! Hopefully we’ll be able to make the meets a more regular thing now that the holidays are over.

If you know of local Blythe people, how often do you get together?