spooky shelf

Ryan @bostonblythe and Amber @amberblythelife are hosting a 13 Nights of Blytheoween Photo Challenge on Instagram starting October 19!! I'm looking forward to seeing photos from participants so much. Unforch I lack spooky or witchy doll clothes, sooomehow! So I'm still ruminating on how I can fulfil a photo prompt featuring a doll. But in the meantime, it really put me in the mood to set up a witchy shelf with some of my miniatures!

The doll shelves I do have are very modern-looking and plastic or metal, and I wanted something more natural. So I got this miniature shelf kit from Michael's with the intention to give it a super dirty, distressed, disgusting paint job! I had so much fun doing this that even as I sat there at our dining room table daubing on paint recklessly, I said out loud, "Oh, I'm having so much fun!" I did a basic brown coat, then began to layer up a few successively darker washes in the corners of each shelf.

I was thinking, "Okay, this shelf exists in a witch's basement and over the years it has held bottles and baskets of various grotesque spell ingredients and such!" I really pushed for it to even sort of look like it might be growing some black mold, haha.

I really see why YouTubers like to weather and distress stuff. It's easy and the payoff is really satisfying!

Here's a couple more pictures of my paint job in normal daylight. As you can see, I also left out one of the shelves so there would be a large compartment to display some of the slightly bigger miniatures I have.

Also, as you can see thanks to this pic of Zasha next to the shelf, the scale is a little small and odd. It's 1:10, whereas most miniatures are 1:12 or 1:6. That's okay! But I do think the scale is odd next to a Blythe!

Now some notes about what's on these witchy shelves!

tippy-top of the shelf: a couple of hefty cork bottles; a little wicker basket that I also distressed up with some dark dry-brushing which contains a couple of corked potion bottles; a star-shaped potion with star-shaped glitter inside; a little wooden crate full of plant books; a crystal with a star charm wrapped around it; a teeny-tiny tarot card (The Tower, shudder); key-shaped charms on a jump ring that make a little ring of keys to goodness only knows what!

The hefty glass bottles are miniatures from the Dollar Tree! They are actually Halloween miniatures! The labels say things like "wool of bat." I foolishly covered them too well in these pics. The scale is a little large but that's totally okay.

big compartment of shelf: a couple of corked bottles (one with a skull on it, one that says "witch's brew"); a cactus sitting on a couple of plant books; a mortar and pestle; a crystal ball (that's opaque plastic instead of crystal -- I'd prefer a glass or clear plastic one); a tall hourglass that's a charm from the jewelry section of the craft store; a gold moon charm; a fortune-telling board with its planchette; two more teeny-tiny tarot cards (The Star and the Ten of Swords).

third shelf: a wooden bowl (for lack of a cauldron, really); two witchy books (a book of spells and one called "Night Creatures"); a clay mushroom I made eons ago; a couple of handmade books; a spade and trowel from a gardening set. I think a witchy girl's gotta dig up mushrooms and herbs sometimes!

fourth shelf: lots of "potion" bottles (they're from gardening-themed miniature sets, mostly, so the front label often says "seeds" or "lilacs" or whatever; I just turned them around); a couple of kitchen canisters for depth; another clay mushroom I made; a little pair of scissors. So useful.

on the floor: a trick-or-treat jack o'lantern that I also distressed with a dark wash of paint; two more of those chonky jars from the Dollar Tree tucked discreetly under the shelf; a charm of some butterflies in a frame (again from the jewelry section); another distressed wicker basket with some virtually hidden things in it (root beer bottles, lettuce, a charm shaped like a saw; a tiny garden gnome mini because why not; a small glass mushroom bead.

I think it's all quite practical, speaking of a witch who gathers from nature and does a lot of divination work!

I really enjoyed this entire project! Distressing the shelf and some of my miniatures was really fun and not just using miniatures, but charms from jewelry-making sets and beads and things I made so long ago. I also had fun tinting these pictures with one of those sunset lamps -- I used the purple setting.

Miniatures I think would really add a lot to my witchy collection: a cauldron; a crystal ball that resembles crystal; some small candles; something that resembles dried herbs!

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go fig

I'm sooo thirsty for autumn at this point, but it's been about 100 degrees here every day for what feels like an eternity. I've been wanting to transition into more autumnal dressing, but alas for me, that's not really in my future quite yet. I've been coping and successfully achieving some fall feels by getting extremely into BURGUNDY! I've been able to incorporate burgundy, or fig, or marsala, or anything in that zone, into some makup looks, at the very least. And also I've really scratched the itch with a couple of inexpensive items such as a wine red phone case and this extremely cute cable knit patterned soup mug. Eating noodles out of the soup mug has really made me ascend lately!!! I can't even tell you how much this small thing has given me heroic doses of serotonin...

I try to be a good blogger and list where I've gotten things I post about, if possible. Many of the things here, I've had for a while -- like the eyehsadow single and the gel pen and the nail polish. But here you go! A list of links, if you want!

• soup mug
• Zebra Sarasa gel pen
• phone case (looks like the dark red is sold out)
• Colourpop The Scorpio eyeshadow single (no longer made I think, it's from 2019)
• Sally Hansen Insta-Dry polish in Go Garnet
• Elf Sheer Slick lipstick in Black Cherry

(Also I got the little gold star studs from here.)

Okay, let me quickly talk makeup, because for whatever reason I am kind of into it lately.

Never in my ENTIRE life have I been a lipstick girlie. It's lip balm, strictly. Vegan lip balm specifically, because I'm allergic to beeswax. I don't like lip color on me. It draws attention to the thinness of my lips. My teeth are very awkward and ugly and I feel like putting color on my lips also draws attention to my effed up teeth. But also I have always felt like it looks really strange on me. I recall as a child doing a cute Glamour Shots session with my best friend (I'm SO sure all y'all are of the age where you remember GLAMOUR SHOTS) and the makeup artist put some lipstick on me, of course. I remember freezing in the seat, staring at myself in the mirror, and being intensely uncomfortable with the lipstick. I think I must have somehow expressed my discomfort or dislike of the color or something, because I remember the artist wiped it off and put on a different color for me. Maybe something more neutral? I don't know. Anyway, all this ot say: NOT A LIPSTICK GIRLIE!

Regardless, quite a few years ago at this point I got some quite dark lipstick -- nothing too pinky or red-toned -- as well as some matching lip liner (because my lipline bleeds very badly). I tried it on once and felt like, "Ahhh right, I can't wear lipstick actually..." But it was, you know, a discovery mission, haha! To see if I could do a really dark lip. Sometimes I just see other people rocking a specific lip and feel really jealous, you know?

BUT! Of late I have been attempting to do some exposure therapy with lip color. Aside from a few tinted lip balms this dark lipstick is the only lipstick/actual lip color I own, so I have been putting it on here and there to try and adjust to the sight of myself in it. I am mostly doing this when I don't have to leave the house, or for an hour or so before I take a shower

(I feel very vulnerable sharing these selfies, but I'm TRIYNG to get it together, man!)

The thing about this is that a) I like it; b) I feel extremely extremely self-conscious, like "who does she think she is!" in a way; c) this for me is insta-goth. Not Instagram goth, but like, putting this lip on transforms me instantly into a goth due to my general hair/skin color combination. (I am a winter.) I also felt like indigo hair streaks turned me singlehandedly goth, back when I had those. Like I had no choice at all, haha. I just looked like an off-duty goth. A pajama goth, if you will.

Now, actually, I think goth is a very attractive and romantic style!! I love it! It can be so pretty and have that old-fashioned look that I love, or so punky. Maybe when it's actually cool outside I will wear some black outfits that gently trend goth and I can fully explore the dark lipped look and break out my little choker collection. Maybe toss on my dark red beret. I would be doing that RIGHT NOW if it wasn't hot as blue blazes out here.

Generally I avoid the winter palette and dress out of my season. Winter's deep jewel toned palettes mostly don't feel like "me." I feel a little like purposefully dressing in even a lightly goth style misrepresents me in some fundamental way. Poser material, you know?

But, I'm trying to go out of my comfort zone with the dark lip, so it might be really fun to do that with my style too. Just leeeeean into it, see what it's like.

I recently placed a small makeup order from Ulta with a dark (but not quite THIS dark) lipstick shade and this Elf black honey dupe listed above, so I can try and expand my range of possible lip colors. I got a lipliner that closely matches my lip color so I can maybe experiment with some of my mostly-ignored tinted balms some more.

Anyway, this is what's helping me hang in there lately!

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baby brother's ripple: dunzo

I spent some time in August finishing up this little ripple for my youngest sister's new baby boy! He's due THIS MONTH! In just a couple of weeks!!!

When I made baby #1's blanket a couple of years ago, I also included little fleece brown bear booties.

This time around I picked out some fox booties. Now, look... I know foxes are passe, like many other twee trends from ten-plus years ago. Like moustaches and portraits of animals in big Buddy Holly glasses. I'd say foxes had their day in 2010 or so. But that means they're gonna be back soon, right? I'll just claim that baby #2 was ahead of the fashion cycle!

Baby was originally due in early October, and that's one of the reasons I went with an autumnal (but not Halloween-y) sort of color scheme for his blankie. Sis is now being induced earlier than that -- enough that baby will be a Virgo and not a Libra! That's a whole other Zodiac sign!! But mid-September is basically still summer these days. Baked and bleached grasses. I think it still works as a late-summer kind of blanket.

When I was putting the border on this blanket, I had to refer back to my own blog post to see how in the heck I'd done the border on big brother's blanket. It's just treble crochet but I put two stitches in each row to bulk it up, which I didn't remember at all. It's times like these I'm grateful I took pictures and posted them somewhere easy-to-find.

I wish I had more fun projects to report or pictures to share of late. I really don't; I'm virtually crushed under the wheel of band stuff right now, pinned there. I tried to take last week off by not attending, and I was still doing so much work, despite attempting a break. It boggles the mind. How can I ever actually get my battery recharged? How can I ever have time for other hobbies? I'm burned out, and I feel like only getting in creative activities will make it feel any better. But I don't have the spoons.

For my own posterity, I will end this post with a little gratitude list.

STUFF THAT'S KEEPING ME GOING RIGHT NOW:

• baby updates from sister -- lots of scans and in-utero pictures coming in right now!
• discovering new-to-me Dolly Parton songs
• forcibly scraping out time to do a lo-lite cover
• Pokemon Sun with L
• saw a really super duper cute opossum in our backyard!

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