Happy new year, BlytheLife readers! I took an accidental hiatus that happened due to the holidays, scheduled work, and extra work. I’m (sort of) well-rested and ready to tackle 2017 with a new sense of gusto.

A little throwback to BlytheCon Portland, June 2011.

There are a lot of upcoming big Blythe events this year, and I’ve updated the Events page here on BlytheLife.com for easy reference. First up is BlytheCon Europe, which is happening in Spain in the month of May! I’m really excited about all the events happening this year, and while it would be an absolute dream to attend every single one of them and meet some fantastic people, I will be attending only one this year. In October, I’ll be at BlytheCon Brooklyn! It’ll be my second time in Eastern USA (the first being Florida when I was 5!) and first time in New York so it’ll be really exciting for me. I’ll be sure to cover the event (premeet and actual convention) and share photos here in late October/early November.

Other things coming up for BlytheLife is the March Talent Showcase! It’s been a fairly annual event here on BlytheLife. What I do is interview people for the month of March who are new talents to the doll community. By ‘new’, I mean people who have done something for a year or less in their chosen crafty avenue (customizing, sewing, knitting, miniature making, etc.) and showcase them, their work, and their online shop (if they have one). If this is something that sounds appeal to you, please fill out the form here or email me for more information!

Continuing in 2017 will be the Question of the Week, the monthly Middie Mondays, Blythe On A Budget, as well as Love, Sophie. I know I haven’t written one in a while, but believe you me, Sophie is still here and causing a ruckus. I also have plans for DIYs, tutorials, patterns, and more!

You know the time I’m talking about – where you wistfully look at live feeds of BlytheCon (and other similar events that are differently named) on the internet, where you wish you were present for some amazing raffles, the fun marketplaces, and just getting to see friends of old and making new friends – all bonding over the lovely eye changing doll that we all know and love.

From now until October there is a major event each month!

• June – BlytheCon Japan,
• July – BlytheCon US,
• August – Blythe Fest (Australia),
• September – BlytheCon Europe (Germany), and
• October – BlytheCon UK (Scotland)

And do you know how many of these events I’ll be attending? (Trick question because the answer is none of them.)

Real life trumps vacationing, I’m afraid, at least for now! I’m hoping finances and time (it’ll be mostly time…) allows for vacationing in 2017. There was recently a poll that happened on Facebook for the new 2017 host city for BlytheCon US and the doll community (on Facebook) voted for Brooklyn, New York. This time (well, for 5 months, anyways), I will be home and enjoying watching the festivities on the internet. Hopefully my friends will give a little wave to me on the live streams, if there are any! Last summer was very different, what with being very busy with planning for BlytheCon Vancouver and juggling that with being unemployed – it really is amazing what a difference a year makes!

If you’re attending any of the above events, I’d love to invite you to write about your experience for BlytheLife! Please email me if you’re interested in sharing your Blythe event experience!

The day started out very early for us – we got to the venue at around 7am to begin set up. BlytheCon Vancouver was hosted at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel, located in downtown Vancouver, BC. It’s a fairly central location in an area with a lot of hotels, a beautiful pubic park right in front, and easily accessible via public transit – all major selling points to us when we were deciding on a venue!

Vendors started coming in at 8am to start getting set up at their tables, and we had a small line-up forming of attendees who were eager to start having fun! Such early birds hoping to get the proverbial worm (or HANON dress, as the case may be):

We had some photo displays set up for people to take photos, and some included props and stands or chairs so your own dollies could join in the fun! My favourite had to be the set up for the Vancouver 7 Kenner Blythe dolls. In the back is Lillian, Primrose, Heidi, and Chunk. In the front row and sitting is Dusty, Hayley, and Audrey. The fun thing about these dolls is that they were all originally owned by the same woman, and now they’re all owned by members of the Vancouver Blythe Bunch (what we call our local doll group).

Click to read more of this entry.

Saturday, August 8th was the pre-meet and pre-BlytheCon Vancouver dinner – both kindly spearheaded and organized by Kimberly/Smitten Kitten. It was super fun, the pre-meet was at the Jack Poole Plaza at the Vancouver Convention Centre in downtown Vancouver, BC. It’s home to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic cauldron, it overlooks the water and it’s just a delightful place in general. Click to read more of this entry.

So this past Saturday was the pre-meet for BlytheCon Vancouver (there was also a pre-BlytheCon Vancouver dinner that was kindly organized by Kimberly C. – and we took over the majority of a Cactus Club Cafe in downtown Vancouver), and Sunday was the main event in which I got very little sleep before hand, got some sugar to keep me going, and the food was amazing. I heard so many people rave about the food! I will share photos from the weekend and recap the events on Wednesday because I’ve been busy, umm, catching up on sleep. I slept in until about 9:40am this morning when I remembered that I was supposed to meet up with some fantastic people who were still here for a while longer.

The Pavilion Ballroom at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel
the day before when hotel staff were setting up!

Thanks to everyone who came to BlytheCon Vancouver, and safe travel for those heading home!

Are you tired?