dolly dressup 2: dawn of a new day

I decided to do it.

I decided to make more dolly dressup videos.

Since my last dressup video in April 2017, I'd thrown away the old wobbly desk I used to use for dressups. I'd broken one of my three filming lights. I barely touched my camera. I think I even switched to a new desktop computer.

It was sort of a journey, just prepping to do this. Finding a place to film. Fixing my broken filming light (by hand!). Getting out all my old doll "set" stuff. Cleaning the wicker pieces with q-tips. Getting my filming equipment together. Re-learning how to use my tripod...

Filming was also just a long process of thinking, "How did I do this...?"

You have no idea how arduous filming a dressup can be. My arms are unnaturally outstretched because the tripod is in front of half of me. Like, one knee is INSIDE THE TRIPOD. If I bump the tripod by moving too much, I have to either do something again or cut around the footage somehow. I am looking through the viewfinder of the camera the entire time because I can't see the doll or the clothes due to the angle in which I'm holding her. My camera does not have autofocus for video, so I'm manually focusing it the entire time.

(That doesn't even touch the post-production stuff -- editing, et cetera. That's hours of work.)

However, towards the end of the dressup, I started experiencing some...

I felt legitimately pleased with the outfit and was so enjoying just looking at Mallow, and I really remembered why I have loved Blythe for so long now.

So... I am actually working on another dressup video. I'm also planning on making an Etsy shop update. (When I tell you I've made a bunch of these headbands, I'm serious.) But I've decided that I need to engage with Blythe hobby stuff differently than I was engaging with it five years ago.

My mental health is different. YouTube itself is different. 2020 certainly hits different.

I haven't drawn up a contract with myself or anything, but I'm going to try just doing what I want to do, when I want to do it. I'm going to try not to worry about what other people think of anything -- my hands, my voice. I'm not going to do requests. I'm not going to make informational or tutorial videos. Set boundaries. You know??

Do it for the serotonin!

If you wanna be my Sporty Lover Finesse, you gotta get with my friends.

Wow. Wow, wow, wow. I bought a Blythe!! It's been five years since I bought my last girl.

Meet Olwenn. She's a Sporty Lover Finesse (which is the funniest Blythe name to me). She's my first Radiance Renew girl. She's got Vinter Arden-esque peachy hair and lovely gray chips. I don't quite know her personality yet. "Olwenn" is welsh and it apparently means "white footprint," which I thought fitting, as her stock outfit includes white sneakers.

Truly, I know not what came over me. I have thirteen Neo Blythes already, and they've been a family for these last many years. Also, you might say, "Jane, do you not already own Vinter Arden, a girl with peachy hair and gray eyes?"

Yes, imaginary voice of dissent. I do. But VA is an FBL and has very minimal makeup. SLF is an RBL and has much more vivid makeup, which to me changes the look quite a lot! And anyway, let me live!

I filmed her unboxing, if you like that kind of thing.

I picked the weirdest time to dip my toe back into the Blythe hobby. Economy, et cetera. It does feel ridiculous to indulge in what is an expensive hobby. (I forgot just how expensive!) But also, since everyone is always home now, I am very self-conscious about taking pictures. This is one of the main ways I enjoy my Blythes, so I feel stifled. I have to just do it and let people be curious and comment. But that is hard for me and I hate it, haha. I have some stuff to throw up on my Etsy, if I can just make myself take pictures.

Anyway, I must window-shop for Olwenn! I had a tradition of getting each of my girls their very own dress that suits them the best, and I don't want to break tradition now!

miniature suitcases

In my 2017 wrap-up post, I mentioned that I had gotten really into making miniature suitcases. I also said I wanted to blog about them. Better late than never!

Since it's been over three years since I constructed them, any immediate thoughts I may have had then are gone now. What I can say is that I made a lot of them. Perhaps thirty? More than pictured here, certainly!! So many that I sent several to Anne and have a whole shoebox left over. Pictured here are just ones that looked kind of nice together.

I made so many because a) I was severely depressed; b) I was on a medication that wasn't working for me and also had some gnar side-effects, which translated directly into not being able to do most of my normal hobbies, so I had nothing to do; c) I had a lot of fun mixing and matching fabrics; and d) I enjoyed making them, ofc!! I developed a workflow and could make several in one sitting. Also this is a very cheap craft, in the scheme of crafts. It's mainly cardboard (brown cardboard boxes as well as cereal boxes), glue, and fabric.

They're about two inches tall and an inch deep, I think. Blythe-sized! Although too small to fit actual dresses. Maybe these are more akin to valises? Either way, I feel like they're better as photo props than anything functional.

Each suitcase opens and has an exterior fabric and an interior fabric. I enjoyed picking out fat quarters at craft stores and creating color combinations I liked.

I have to say there's something very satisfying about the feel of them opening and closing. They stay closed due to that little strip seated in the bottom.

The thing I don't like about them (and about making them) is the handles. They've been in a box for three years now, so the handles are smooshed, but they were never great in the first place. I had a tough time getting the little pegs that hold the handle on to sit right. And this leather was the only thing I could find to use for a handle, but it stretched out a bit. Which is fine, but made it hard to get them in a uniform size.

To make these, I followed a specific YouTube tutorial which is now no longer on YouTube, it seems! But this one seems similar!

I've seriously debated making a video where I open up each of these to show the fabric combinations.

All right! I've got a couple more posts coming, so till next time!