tree-oh

It's so pleasant outside lately, I love to take the girls outside and take pictures of them. I could take hundreds.


Aury and Plummery are such a curly-girl, naturey twosome...


But Beatrix is really capturing my heart in her little green hedgehog dress (also from Plastic Paradise -- I love getting used Blythe clothes from there, I feel like they have a history of love) right now. I can't wait to switch out more of her eyechips!


My bad cat, Tippy, popped in for a photo op at one point. My mom might have been the evil mastermind behind that.


Also, this little guy was out in the yard right when I stepped out. I always call rabbits "bun-buns" because that's what my dad calls them, and I think it's hilarious because he's just so... my dad!

Tonight I'm crocheting and watching The Tudors, which I've never seen before. I'm three episodes in, and I must say... it reminds me hilariously of Gossip Girl, only with more ye olde Englishy language and less vapid, pointless Nate Archibald. Does this make Jenny Humphrey a modern-day Anne Boleyn? I think so! Also, if Jonathan Rhys Meyers were an emoticon, he would be 8).

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schuh-wing!

Picked up a package of CoolCat boots from the post office yesterday! Plummery's been barefoot since I got her because I hate her stock mules. I like for my Blythes' shoes to actually STAY ON, but that's just me. I bought two pairs (the other pair is slouchy and I'm sure I'll take pics someday) so I got two free gifts along with them, how cool! One's a really pretty pair of teal socks and the other's an interesting pair of leggings with neon stripes...


I've been meaning to try and sew an apron for Plummery, because her tan dress really needs something with it, and also, that's just sort of her style! You may remember that my last sewing attempt was not very successful. This time, instead of trying to follow a pattern, I just looked at the way Dear LeLe Girl's stock apron was put together and tried to emulate it, going slowly by hand. I made everything extra-big because the last time everything shrank so enormously as I sewed it together. This time, I sewed one piece on backwards and had to cut the stitches out and re-attach it correctly, but otherwise it came together okay!


I don't have any kind of snaps or Velcro so for now these beads are on the back acting as loose fasteners, which makes it hang really loose and look crooked in these pics. It's not actually, and I wouldn't say that if it wasn't true!

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these are a few of my favorite things

My mom and I are in the process of making cool little tags and cards to include with outgoing Etsy packages. My mom, wonder that she is, designed the cute little tag on the left and also put the border on the card on the right. I doodled that thing up in Photoshop this morning and we printed these off quickly so I could include them with a package, but I think we might get them printed off on cardstock sometime soon. It is handy to have a family member who knows what she's doing with this type of thing, and who will indulge my obsessions. Any excuse for toadstools!!

Speaking of toadstools...


I ceremonially changed Plummery out of her stock dress and into one I got for $2 off of Plastic Paradise (awesome!) and took her outside to spend some time with her. I haven't really gotten to since I got her, since I've been preoccupied and klutzy. It felt so fun to see her out in the grass and take pictures of her, discover her anew. I took about a zillion pictures and tried not to put them all on Flickr.


She's such a beauty. I love the pink and coral spectrum on her. Anne of Green Gables will try to tell you that redheads can't wear pink, but that's so untrue!


Sometime soon I want to take a family portrait with all three of my girls! I don't know how some people manage to fit 20+ dolls in a picture, my hands are full with one, let alone three.

Tomorrow I'm doing double post office duty... I'm picking up some Blythe boots at one (far away from my house) and dropping off a package at another (close to my house)!

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midnight crocheting

I haven't gotten to crochet in a while because A) I strained my right wrist and had to let it rest for a week, and B) I then proceeded to burn the crap out of my left hand with a pot of boiled water! But I hatted a little tonight while watching scandalous truTV programming.



They're on my Etsy. :)

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turn around, bright eyes

I changed Beatrix's eyechips today :) I used the gluestick method, of course.


It took like ten minutes! It was incredibly easy to do; the chips popped right out. The hardest part was scraping out the old glue, which I did with a little screwdriver I have on hand for the tiny screws on my glasses. I just did it slowly (indeed, most of the time it took to change the chips was spent scraping), gently, and obstinately.


Now she has wheat-colored Brainworm chips and I think they suit her really well. I have been letting her sit since I put the new chips in (I haven't pulled her string and changed her eyes yet). I really hope I glued them in well enough!

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big spenda

I've bought way too much in the way of Blythe stuff this month! I have a small income, so it's easy to buy "too much," and yet not really buy all that much at all. But really, I have three girls now and not enough clothes to go around, particularly because they all have distinct styles to me. This Is Blythe had free shipping on 4/20, though, so I went ahead and got this dress I've been wanting for a while!


Yay! I'm a sucker for anthropomorphized applique.

This past week has been sort of long and hard, but the mail that's arrived has been a pleasure and the stuff still coming my way is something to look forward to! My room has a small pile of packaging in it right now.


I have to keep my slight hoarder tendencies in check! I'm not a hoarder, but I all too easily can sympathize with the mentality of hoarders, because I do get sentimental attachments to things, and I do also hate to waste things and throw things away. For a long time I kept all the boxes my shoes came in because I thought I would need them sometime, but I finally threw them all away earlier this year. If I was a little less together, I could see myself hoarding, because right now I don't even want to throw these random mailing envelopes away. They carried my girls' clothes to me, so for some reason, I keep all of it.

I've always sort of been this way -- the packaging, for me, can be part of the whole item itself, part of the experience I have with it. Either that or I think I will need it someday, for some reason. HOWEVER, I think I can throw these things away once I figure out a really good storage system for my Blythe clothes!

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dolly heaven

I got the biggest surprise ever on Friday! It felt like a dream!


She fits in perfectly with my little Blythe family. I liked her so much in the first place because her stock is so beautiful and just my aesthetic style, her complexion is so pretty and her makeup so nice (her blue eyeshadow just kills me, it's so lovely with her gingery hair), and she somehow fills a gap I didn't know was there. Like, these girls are just perfect for me. Aury, my perfect first doll upon whom I dote like crazy; Beatrix, my patient diamond in the rough, this crazy little cute unique girl emerging from Simply Peppermint; and Plummery, my own personal Holy Grail.

My life with Blythe, I feel, started at the exact perfect time. I really like some girls of the past few years -- how could you not? Who wouldn't like Friendly Freckles? Who doesn't like Miss Sally Rice? How sweet is Velvet Minuet? -- and flickr will change your mind about a doll with a single beautiful picture taken by a person who loves them. But I just feel like this is it, these are my girls. Of course I would probably love another doll someday. I still like all the ones I mentioned. But oh! My girls are perfect for me. And Dear LeLe Girl is the epitome of the perfect gift.


Yesterday J and I got some breakfast and I toted Plummery (whose name is sort of an off-shoot of "Plumeria," which came to mind because of her floral sort of motif, and also because "plum" is one of my favorite words) along.


Plummery really enjoyed the last twelve episodes of Gilmore Girls, I'm sure. Yes, they talk fast!


When I got home, the fabulous tan/blue/orange plaid dress I posted about had arrived already! Such fast shipping! And it's perfect for Beatrix and her sassy-mod hair. I love it!

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That 70s Dress

Yesterday, I bought this fabulous 70s-ish plaid dress from sleepforever on Etsy. (The picture is from her shop, just cropped and color-corrected slightly by me.) It's so ugly it's cute, know what I mean? I'm excited!

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The Continuing Misadventures of Poor Beatrix

Beatrix's side-swept hair is holding up fairly well -- without a clip or something, it hangs down in front of her face, but that's miles better than snapping instantly back into a center-part! I may do another ironing session sometime in the near future to help set it extra-well.

This morning I went through the terrifying process of CUTTING HER HAIR. I liked the way her shorter layers gave her this natural face-framing bob look, so I just cut off the scruffy longer layers to give her a real bob.




To be honest, I didn't do the greatest job in the world. I've obviously never done this before! My craft scissors are heavy and sharp and powerful, but they tended to "chew" the hair a lot during the cutting process, and it was much thicker-feeling than you would imagine this tiny amount of hair to be. The back will need some neatening up in the future, but for now I'm relatively happy with her bob and side-swept bangs and also, my Total Balls.

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sewing fail

Last night I determinedly sat down with some scrap fabric left over from a previous project and decided to attempt to sew a plain a-line dress for Beatrix. I asked my mom for help, because I have no sewing experience, and also trouble conceptualizing patterns, following and understanding them. After some thinking, I think this is a byproduct of having dyscalculia. (8 out of 11 of those symptoms describe me perfectly.)


Anyway, my mom got out a bunch of her scrap fabric too, and we turned the dining room into a tornado of notions! I sewed by hand because I'm frightened of the machine and didn't want to figure out the pattern AND the machine at the same time. My brain might have liquified.

My dress turned out about a zillion sizes too small and crooked. It looked better as a vest. That is, until it busted. I didn't even finish the sleeves because a) it literally busted open at the seams, and b) I didn't know how to. HAHA.


Uh. Someday. :(


On the other hand, my mom's attempt at a Blythe dress is coming along swimmingly.

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"go boil your head"

Dipped Beatrix's head in BOILING WATER (okay, I waited a minute, so it wasn't so FREAKY FOR ME) this morning.



Oh the trauma of a first time!! Hopefully this will aid me in my quest for side-swept bangs!

LATER:

Okay, okay! The boiling water was a good start to Beatrix's hair. It definitely swept the hair I had parted more to the side, but the roots were still adamantly bouncing the hair up off her scalp like she was Alicia Silverstone in clueless or something. AS IF!

So I decided to try ironing to force the hair down and set it further. very carefully wrapped her head with a strip of cotton fabric. This took FOR! EVER! It was so hard to get her hairs to stay in place when they wanted to bounce up off of her. But I finally prevailed and set about doing the scariest-sounding thing ever, even scarier than BOILING WATER + BELOVED DOLL. Yep. I ironed her head using that reliable bang-cutting method as seen here. My little sister took the pictures for me! :) Doesn't she look like a little prisoner being sent off to her execution?


It really wasn't hard, although it was very intimidating a thing to try... after the boiling water this morning, though, I was feeling ballsier. It really does get easier to try things once you get the ball rolling! I was so afraid I'd melt her forehead, but she's just fine! I think it worked pretty well, and I might do it again, if her bangs act like they want to snap back into a mid-part. Otherwise, this girl is well on her way to a DREAM HAIRCUT!

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pink is the word.

This morning I sat (in my new pink dress!) with my rat, Gryphon, out in the sunroom. I'm a bit cold at this time of the year because of air conditioning, but it was nice and warm out there in the morning light.

My wrist is still quite sore, although it's better than it was, I think! So today I made a new layout for this blog instead of any crafting. I haven't gotten to do a willy-nilly "whatever I like!" kind of deal in a long time and I had fun! I'm sure it's a real horror to the eye to people who aren't into pink or shabby chic. SORRY, GUYS. I LOVE PINK.

(I should really have a tag for my abysmal style, but then every single post would have to be tagged with it.)

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damn that radio for playing that song

Wrist still hurts, so I'm still out of commission on just about everything I want to do right now! :(


I'm side-sweeping Beatrix's hair these days, just bobby-pinning a small amount of her front hair to the side. ( I'm a side-parter girl; I think side-part looks better 90% of the time, kind of like I also think glasses make anyone about 100x more attractive.) SP has a firm center part, you know, but I think she looks so, so cute with a side-part! So I'm trying to figure out a way to set her hair to the side. Not all of it, just the front part, her bangs. I don't know if I'll cut bangs for her or not, but you know, I just want an effect like this:


Excuse my hilarious Photoshopping. Those aren't meant to be bangs, just side-swooping hair over her forehead!

I asked Plastic Paradise if anyone knew of a way to achieve something like this. I hope I get some advice. Especially because I am horribly socially awkward and it was really hard for me to screw up the nerve to post there! I'm wondering if the way to go about this business is to treat that small amount of front hair as if I'm going to cut it into bangs and set the hair with an iron, as you do when you are cutting Blythe bangs. I do not want to accidentally mullet her up, though!!

Anyway, on Saturday I got this cute dress at Target:


I love the floral print skirt too, too much! It is perfect for the warm-earthed, blossoming spring weather we're having right now. It makes me want to drive around and sing chick country and put ribbons in my hair.

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strain strain, go away

I seem to have strained my wrist crocheting and embroidering. It's cramping my style! Literally! Before I noticed that my wrist was actually hurting I made this light pink pixie hat, complete with pom-pons. (I forgot how fun pom-pons are to make!) It suits Aury's blushy complexion so well...

A couple of photos in the backyard:



Spring has sprung well and truly.


I'm hoping my wrist will feel better by tomorrow -- I'm going to baby-sit, and I like to have something to do with my hands while I'm there, something that doesn't take much actual thought. If not, oh well! I've really got to rest it! Unfortunately it's my right wrist, and I'm incredibly right-handed, so I use it to do everything all the time.


Finally, I've gotten the ball rolling on my Etsy shop, something I've been meaning to do for, oh, three years or so. "Maidensuit" has been a username for me for a while. It's a piece of armor from the best Super Nintendo RPG ever (EVER!), Chrono Trigger, and I just find it a pretty-looking word! Incidentally, "Cure Touch" is a healing spell in the same game. The more you know!

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Spring in swing (ALSO: CANDY)

I both hid and hunted eggs this Easter! I am often the egg-hider these days (oh, I feel old!) but I'm also known to hunt now and then. I've been enjoying sugar hangovers these past couple of days. Instead of her bunny hat, Aury wore her new red dotty dress and a helmet with a toadstool on it to much!


This dotty dress is a SugarMag one I got off eBay for $10 with free shipping. It's actually rather sheer... Aury needs a petticoat or something!


This morning, I'm watching episodes of The Universe on Hulu and enjoying myself by embellishing hats. Here are two I did while watching scientists talk about the sun and impact features on the moon:



I've finally gotten around to setting up an Etsy shop (people always ask me if I have one) and these two hats are available in the shop! :) I had such fun making myself a shop banner.

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"We live under this hill!"

Happy Easter!! Break out your bunny eared headbands!

Here's a pixie hat to mark the day!

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