February craft store haul

Friday, February 28, 2014


I've seen this Pink & Cream Rose, Peony & Hydrangea Wreath at Michael's a couple of times while picking up other things, stared at it longingly. Even at 40% off, I couldn't bring myself to buy it. But I finally couponed up with a "25% off entire purchase, including sale items" coupon and bought it!


Picked up some peach yarn at Hobby Lobby, so I can begin my ripple! I'm so excited to ripple again. Just gotta decide on what kind of color pattern I want... can you tell what my current color compulsions are?


This washi tape was on sale for $2 at Hobby Lobby. How useless is washi tape? Pretty useless, I'm sure, but it's so cute.


Jewelry-making stuff was half off. I've been relentlessly on the hunt for a pull charm for Mallow... neither of these are for Mallow, but how am I supposed to resist acorns and toadstools? I can't. If I ever give Plummery or Klara sleepy eyes, I'm all set.



Fake flowers were also 50% off, so I got about $10 worth, since I'm still making little Blythe flower crowns. (I'll post some of those soon!)
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mouse in the house

Sunday, February 23, 2014


I got this really cute (floral!!!) box on Valentine's Day from my BFF of 10 years, K, and I wanted to share its contents because it's perfect. So me!


If you can't read the card, it says, This little guy made me think of you! He used to be an old freshwater fishing lure back in the 1920s, but now that he's retired he much prefers chilling on a cozy shelf at home.


!!!!  So cute! He's been painted and decorated to look like a little mouse! His tail is a little scrap of leather cord and it curls.

I'm always touched when people say something reminds them of me. I don't know what people think about me in general, or associate with me. But I've had pet mice and rats in the past, as you know, and I just really love rats especially. And this little guy is so precious!!


He's sitting on my shelf with Bonnet now!
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Windy Weekender

Friday, February 21, 2014


No, that's not a typo! When I took my new Wendy Weekender (she still doesn't have a name!!) out for pictures the other day, dressed in a pretty floaty dress with stars printed on it and a flower crown I made with some faux autumn foliage, the wind kept knocking her over!

If you watched my deboxing video, you will know that for whatever reason, my WW's body is really loose; if you hold her by the legs, the weight of her head will get the best of them and she'll do a back-bend! In my experience Blythes topple easily enough anyway, but this girl was no match for the wind.


Her name is taking a while to come to me. She seems like a girl who will have an interesting object-type name (more like Lamb or Mallow than Drew or Klara).

I gently combed out her curls, so her hair is very puffy now. I'll be giving her (and possibly one or two other girls) a hair treatment soon.
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Wendy Wednesday

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Hey! My Wendy Weekender arrived! As I've done a couple of times before, I deboxed her with my camera handy.


The video is 15 minutes long, but the last couple of minutes is dedicated to showing each of my Blythes in their line-up on my desk. This is my 10th Neo Blythe! It's kind of surreal.



My desk is a disaster area almost always, but the past couple of days, it's because I've been making more Blythe-size flower crowns...!

I am not sure what I'm going to name my WW; sometimes names just come to me pretty instantly (Gavin being, oddly, the quickest), but sometimes girls take a while to name (I believe my Vinter Arden, Klara, was nameless for days). I love her sweet blushy coloring! But it's hard to look past her bright stock to see what she'll feel like without it. I like to leave my girls in their stock for a few days before changing them into something else. I can get very nervous about how to dress them. All that is part of the "bonding" process for me.
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on that Cuteness Creep

Sunday, February 9, 2014


My lip balm hoard is such that I stash multiple tubes everywhere. Next to my bed and in my purse are at least six tubes, and my desk is littered with them! Because I'm allergic to beeswax, I use vegan/hypoallergenic balms. These are really hard to find, even in stores like Whole Foods, so often I buy them online and end up ordering multiple tubes at once to be thrifty. Needless to say, they pile up!

I stuck them in little bowls, a measuring cup, that ceramic rabbit, and finally fit most of them into two little plastic tubs that held baking cups (you know, like the kind you can bake cupcakes or muffins in, like a wrapper). Actually, they were Reynolds Baking Cups tubs, specifically! I had a few paper baking cups left in each but was using them as catch-all junk caddies for small things like buttons, beads, safety pins, and push pins. These things really pile up on my desk, which is ground zero for both work and play.

I didn't love the red and blue logo on the clear plastic, so I decided to paint over them with some acrylic craft paint I've had hanging around for a long time.

I coated both of the tubs in a swathe of white. It took about 4 or 5 coats to get a good opaqueness, but each coat dried very quickly, so it didn't really take too long at all, and I didn't worry about being neat. After leaving them to dry for a night, I did some little flowers inspired by plastic storage bins I got at Michael's.

I've never really free-handed with paint, and it doesn't really look like the bins at all. But hey, pink flowers! I think Bob Ross would probably forgive me.


This is not the most impressive DIY of all time, but now these are a lot nicer to look at and this cheap plastic packaging is great storage for my lip balm hoard!

PS: I have a lot of feelings about vegan lip balm, so I started a freaking side blog about it a while back! Check it out if you're interested.
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"sewing"

Saturday, February 8, 2014


I made a "feathery" dress out of felt for Aury a couple of years ago and it took me this long to have another go at it.

This time it really doesn't look like feathers or have a bird-like feel to it (the "feathers" are smaller, which I thought I'd like more, but don't actually), but I at least actually sewed all the pieces down instead of using tacky glue for most of them! The old one is kinda falling apart now since it was mostly only glued. I am trying to decide if I want to remake it. The fun part, as with making afghans, is picking out the colors!
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weekend at Wendy's

Thursday, February 6, 2014


I think when you repeatedly look up a specific doll on eBay/Flickr over a period of several months and then someone says, "I'll pay you for this website work," it may be a nudge from the universe to go for it. Although I was gifted a Blythe in January 2013, I haven't bought one since mid-2012, so I was really feeling the bug.

I love FBLs! I'm not sure why they are less popular than RBLs.

This is another doll whose stock I don't care for at all -- well, except for the shades -- but when in other outfits, I find her very sweet and irresistible! I love the combination of her bright hair and front-facing brown chips. She especially looks wonderful with a bob and a faceup... which makes me think... but I'm not making any advance decisions. Most of my dolls are stock (much of the time I do change eye chips, but leave them untouched otherwise, shine and all). This girl seems like she'd look great with a Licca body, though.

I hope her hair is not too similar to Simply Peppermint's! It looks blue to me, but Takara calls it mint green, and depending on the coloring Flickr users apply to her, it can look very blue or green-blue.


I'm really getting back in Blythe mode lately!
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