pixie hat party

Recently I bought this easy peasy pixie helmet pattern so I could get to making some cute little hats for my girls!

I've been crocheting for eight years and still barely know how to do anything! It's always a little struggle for me to make sense of how to do something, so often I just make up stuff as I go along. It's always worked for me and I've made lots of useful cozies this way! But when it comes to following patterns, I am a total goober. This pattern is really easy -- it really is! I am just crap at reading patterns! Honestly, it took me a while to figure it out! But now that I have... pixie hat party time!







AURY, YOU A MODEL, GIRL.

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a good end for February

Simply Peppermint finally arrived today! Well, I guess it's technically yesterday, since it's pushed on into the AM, but she got here in Friday afternoon.



IS THERE ANYTHING MORE EXCITING?



She took my breath away with how cute she is! She's so pale and pristine, and while Aury has an impishness and an awakeness, an attentiveness, about her, Simply Peppermint -- to me -- looks more serene and shy.

I had to wait till I'd done a bunch of errands to have a moment to unwrap her, and I was still pulling her boots up her legs when I had to leave again for my Friday night plans. I haven't really gotten to play with her yet, or name her! (I'm pretty picky about names! When they come fast, they're perfect, but if they don't come fast, I'm terribly indecisive, because it has to be right.) But I did put her in that beautiful plummy dress...



I also crocheted her a little headband to go with the sophisticated outfit! It's just a line of single crochet on a chain, but it works! The yarn is sort of a heathered cream hue with flecks of plum, brown, and green in it, pretty perfect really.

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belated Valentines

I just got a belated Valentine's Day package from my friend L (hay gurl) that had these loooovely Valentiney-feeling dresses for my girls in it!



So sweet! I've really been eyeballing that plummy one with the tweedy jacket (I just love tweed on a Blythe doll, it's so unexpected) for a while, too! THANK YOU, L!



Today Aury is wearing the little pink dress. It's kind of country girl, kind of shabby chic, kind of Lolita -- perfect! It goes so well with her pink eyes and tidy white boots!



(As you can see, the lightbox has a tidy sky background now. I'm still dinking with it -- here she's lit only by the natural light coming in through my sister's window.)

In new doll news, USPS tells me she just left New York yesterday. Wow! She's pretty much taking the whole month to get here. The person I bought her from shipped her out very quickly, but the shipping itself is going sooo slowly. I don't exactly mind, but she's just got to wear this plummy dress soon!

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lightbox

Today I was eyeing my pile of cardboard boxes (I'm a little bit of a box hoarder!) and decided to hack one of them to pieces in the name of Science, or rather, Blythe, to make a lightbox, as seen on We Play With Dolls. As it turns out, I didn't have an ideally-sized box, but after a run to the UPS Store to get a box and Hobby Lobby to get tracing paper, I was off and running.



I would say this took me about two hours to do, and wow, I really hate cutting cardboard boxes! It's like nails on a chalkboard to me! I feel this way about sanding, too. I just can't stand it! Nails on a chalkboard, in comparison, is fine and dandy. But my skin shudders and my teeth hurt and my internal organs all try to shrivel up and die in effort to just escape when I sand -- and, apparently, when I cut cardboard boxes with a razor. Note to self: don't do that anymore. Taping took the most time, though.

My finished product looks a little wonkus, as de-spined cardboard tends to, and I'm not quite sure if I feel like it was worth the effort or not! My staging techniques are zilch, and also, I'm really not sure if the box I got was the ideal size. It seems humongous when I look at Aury standing in it, but it's hard to actually take pictures of her in it. I always seem to catch the cardboard in the frame.



All in all, it cost about ten dollars to make (I had tape, a razor, and a ruler already on hand), and I'm going to experiment to see if I can figure out the best conditions for using it to take pictures. I may have to go get a bigger box and make a second version. My teeth are grinding in agony at the thought though!

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smurfette

Today I something that's been on my projects list for a couple of months done:

SCULPEY TOADSTOOLS!

These little critters have been a twinkle in my eye for a few months now. The tallest one is exactly an inch tall, and the rest are a lot shorter. I can hold all of them cupped in one hand. They're really quite small! And I hand-painted them all.






They're pretty cute, but really quite labor-intensive for a palmful of clay figurines! My friend E told me they look like a Smurf village. I'm willing to agree.

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no, you can't handle my style

"New" dresses have been ordered from that lovely cesspool known as eBay:



I think the left one will be for Aury and the right one will be for the yet-to-be-met (let alone named) Miss Mint, who should be arriving any day now. The wait, oh the wait!

Meanwhile, I notice this bag that I've been eyeballing for several months on the Urban Outfitters website is almost half off!



Do I dare?? I might just dare! $40 is a lot for me personally to spend on a bag (and I think of all the dolly dresses I could be buying with that money instead), but what a delightful bag that is. If it sells out or goes off sale again before I get my next paycheck, I won't be bummed. It's just a delightful option...

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day out; new clothes

The other day I took Aury out and about for the first time!

I had my friend J with me, and he really didn't want me to bring her into the restaurant where we grabbed breakfast. He didn't want people to stare at him, understandably. I didn't want to get Aury syrupy or anything either, so she waited patiently in the car.



After that, we checked out an antique store, where a kind old woman asked me what my doll's name was and, after a demonstration of the magic Blythe eyes, asked if I wanted to sell her (!!) to Maurice (!!?). "No, she's mine," I quickly said. The horror! I did ask her if it was okay to take pictures in the store, though, and she said I could feel free. Aury and I saw this cool old blue vinyl Ken doll box:



It was pretty cold out. Aury decided to sit on J's arm.

(This masterpiece's title: "Best Friends Forever")

By the end of the day, she and J were thick as thieves, believe you me.

The next day, some tights I ordered from Shopoholican arrived. I've been waiting for them eagerly so I could change Aury's clothes without worrying too much about staining her legs.



They're so cute! The blue and pink ones are very, very delicate, but they go great with the SugarMag outfit I got from This Is Blythe and the cute boots from eBay!






GO 'HEAD, GIRL!

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Ice and Peppermint

Gosh. Every day, every time I lay eyes on her, I love my doll Aury more and more. She's my first Blythe (and, uh, not my last...) and I'm sure every new Blythe owner feels that rush of amazement and excitement and feels like their doll is the most perfect, beautiful doll, like any new parent is obsessed with their kid. I'm a plain ol' total noob in comparison to a lot of the Blythe fen, or fandom, or obsessees, however you could term them. I haven't had the time to witness lots of new dolls coming out or ever seen any other dolls in person -- just on Flickr and around the internet. I haven't even told most people I am into Blythe and that I now have one.

But I just love my girl so much. For me, she is perfect. The perfect first doll, the perfect doll in general. I love her hair. I love her eyes. I love her default outfit. Though I have interest in the customization aspect of Blythe ownership, I can't imagine doing anything to Aury. She is perfect already. She is everything I couldn't have known I would love so much! For me, the excitement is only snowballing the longer I have her, the more I touch her hair and pull her ring and look at Blythe clothes thinking, "How would Aury look in that?"

Today, after a month of deliberating and worrying and being slightly afraid to dare, I did buy another doll, Simply Peppermint. She was my second choice if I couldn't get Ice Rune.



I'm a little nervous. How will I feel about her when she arrives? Will she be "right" like Aury? I want to meet her, name her. I feel like maybe I will customize her somewhat (her eyes, at least), but maybe she'll be perfect already too. SP, have a safe journey to me. Aury and I will wiggle and wait for you.

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