the pumpkin king with the skeleton grin

Carved pumpkins with my friend J today. He said he hadn't carved a pumpkin in 15 years, and then admitted that even when he was little, his dad was the primary pumpkin carver. This just would not stand -- I am a total pumpkin carver. I don't do anything that requires a kit or a pattern. I just want a jack-o'-lantern with a face, whether it's glowering or the happiest creature on the earth...

Like J's pumpkin clearly is. It just looks so guileless!! It's about the happiest little pumpkin I've ever seen!

Happy Halloween!

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Gavin spam

I got my love-and-rainbows dress from little dear in the mail today. Gavin got to wear it first, but I think all of my girls could wear it. :)

I took these pictures in the lightbox I made, but I found that Gavin's semi-matte skin looked super yellow in many of the pics I took. It's strange because her skin isn't yellow at all. I need some better lights for my box!!

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a witchy read and a haunting song

My mother recently tracked down a book that she often rented from the library when she was little:

The Witch Family by Eleanor Estes

She remembers it with a different cover, of course -- this is clearly an updated version for a different era of children. The cover's kind of repulsive if you ask me, but I am not a seven-year-old, so I'm not exactly the target audience. My mom remembers the cover red, with a black illustration, and that it seemed to be called The Witch Family of Glass Hill.

It's a charming little book about two little girls, Amy and Clarissa, who imagine (and often illustrate) thoroughly a witch family; they scare and delight themselves by talking out the details. First there is Old Witch who is wicked and "banquished" to live alone on a glass hill, then Amy takes pity upon her and sends her a Little Witch Girl to have as a family, which makes room for other little family members too. With her incantations, Old Witch gets the Little Witch Girl a red rocker and a brass bed with owls on each post.

It's the little details like that which made me really look forward to reading a chapter before sleep every night. It definitely put me in an Autumny mood, and I enjoyed the power and detail of Amy's imagination, the type of details that take precedence in an imaginative little girl's fantasies. The style of storytelling is old-fashioned and conversational without being dumbed down (I like that in a children's book - like Edith Nesbit or J.M. Barrie, but this is quite 50s, published in 1960) and it's sweetly retro.

Now, inspired by the seat of choice in the book, I am listening to "Red Rocking Chair" by Black Prairie on repeat. Love it.

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i've come to read your caring meter

Bought this dress from little dear today. My girls don't have Licca bodies so I don't think they can even use the pockets, but I'm so susceptible to pink. And rainbows and hearts. :( Off to watch Halloween fave Care Bears II, which features one of the scariest villains in all of moviedom. Sue Sylvester stole her entire schtick from him.

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beautiful things

This girl! This girl. I haven't responded to the concept art on any girl since Dear Lele Girl -- but will she live up to the loveliness? I can't wait to see proper pictures of her. Her stock is absolutely precious, she's got pink hair (it seems like maybe it'll be in the Veronica Lace/Heart of Montmartre vein), and she's FBL!! I have come to love those little FBLs. Having PDPa in person has really made me see the difference, and while I have a super-big soft spot for RBLs I would love another FBL. I'm really in love with Simply Thumpty Thump too. But could this be the pink-haired girl I've been craving? Only time will tell...

Some other adorable things:

This tutorial for these sweet fabric pumpkins!

Beka at ginger*urchin has a bunch of amazing tutorials for Blythe Halloween costumes!! Loving this witch costume and can't wait to see what's next.

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Eureka! (Part II)

I got to spend a lot of time taking pics of my girls in the woods over my weekend! E was my assistant, holding my girls between shots and sometimes for shots. She also dressed one of them up for picture-taking. I've never had anyone playing with my girls with me -- it was fun!! We sat up in the loft and her mom came up and said we were just like the girls from the Little House books, up in the loft playing with our dolls. I thought it was a sweet thing for her mom to say.

There was a patch of clover and Aury wanted to model this yo-yo bag my mom made, along with a dress also made by my mom, haha! With her little green Mary Janes and green eyes she looked so sweet.

Toadstools!! Me and Plummery's fave!

E picked out this outfit for Beatrix. We thought she looked like a little woodland maid. So sweet! E also tucked one of DLG's stock flower hairpins into her apron and I was like, "That is so cute!" I never would've thought of it.

Plummery did some ambitious mountain-climbing. Well, they were mountains for her, anyway!

Aury got to wear the bunny suit, which is not often used. It's so furry and soft. There were lots of places for a bunny such as herself to hide...

The cutest thing was this little tree with a hole in it. Just like a storybook!

Such an awesome weekend. Here's a family portrait of the girls in the woods. So autumny and pretty, my girls were right at home.

Beatrix is staying behind in Arkansas with Margy while my epic Blythe carry bag is being constructed. She's going to help out with its creation and be the model. She'll be there till Thanksgiving, when E will return her to me. It was so, so hard to decide who would stay behind -- I mean, I brought all of them because I couldn't just pick one or two to bring. I would miss any of them. But I could not leave Aury, I'm too bonded to her. She's my girl and I am really attached to her. She goes so many places with me. I would really miss her the most. But Plummery is the super-flyest deer hat model I have so I knew I would need her for photos, and Gavin is too new to leave for two months. I love her lots but I'm still bonding with her, too, so I felt like not seeing her for two months would be too hard. So Beatrix won the draw.

It sort of makes sense, since she's the girl I have fussed with the most. I've boiled and cut her hair, I've changed out all her chips, I'm going to give (or get) her a face-up sooner or later. She's the logical choice to bring good Blythey luck to Margy as she makes my bag. I really miss her though!! My family's just not complete without her.

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Eureka! (Part I)

My trip to Eureka Springs was awesome!

It started off super cool because E and I saw a hot air balloon as we were driving along the highway. I haven't seen a hot air balloon since I was about six or seven, so although I couldn't get a great picture of it, it lent an air of floaty magic and freedom to the whole trip.

E's parents have a crazy beautiful, airy house sitting in the forest outside of town, way way off the road where it's just gravel pathways through the woods. I don't want to rudely post pictures of their house, but the view from the back porch was epic. It just dropped down and you could see across what felt like the entire state. My camera couldn't even handle the awesome.

Eureka Springs is a cute town, too. It's got a hippy vibe and is very hilly and surrounded by forest and dangerously curvy roads that hug little mountain-feeling hills. My feeling about Eureka Springs is that everyone who lives there must have incredibly strong thighs from all the hill-climbing and narrow staircases you ascend and descend everywhere you go.

I just thought this shop was too cute! I guess it's kinda my style... but all the shops were very cute.

E, her mom Margy, and I grabbed some lunch at The Balcony Restaurant at the Basin (this virtual tour was taken right where we were sitting, with this steep view of all the shops beneath us!) where a guy playing a guitar with a tree drawn on it sang acoustic covers of Beatles songs, then we got cheesecake for desert across the street at Peace Love & Cheesecake. It was perfect.

Gavin came along into town with us. This was her first big outing. She got to sit in a basket of Neopolitan-colored yarn at a cute yarn shop downtown...

Pose against The Artery wall of paintings...

(I died!!! I love this picture.)

One woman offered to hold Gavin while I was taking pictures at the wall, which was kind of nice and interesting. I don't often go out and about with Blythes in a blatant way, but I felt fairly comfortable doing so with E and her mom since they didn't seem to be embarrassed by my desire to take dolly pics everywhere. There's just nothing so fun as having a girl along with you.

I did bring all four of my girls, because Margy is going to make me a custom BLYTHE CARRY BAG! Her workroom up there in the loft of their house is filled with lovely light and shelves and shelves of fabrics and projects and gosh, I don't even know what.

My Blythe carry bag is going to be so awesome, I could cry. It's going to hold up to three girls, I think, which is nutso, and it sounds like it's going to be insanely intricate and so handy for me, the girl who wants to bring a Blythe everywhere.

Margy's work is insane, too! Quilts by her hang everywhere in the house (I grew up sleeping under them at sleep-overs too). One of the artsy shops downtown carries tablerunners, bags, and adorable Christmas stockings made by her. She also has an Etsy shop where she sells beautiful knitting needle rolls, project bags, and all kinds of handy little carriers for crafty this-and-that. You can see how well-made, durable, and beautiful each of the things in her shop are. My bag is gonna be off any kind of hook, chain, hizzy, ledge, or hinge you can imagine!! I got to pick through her fabric baskets, and together we pieced together something with pink, green, maroon, stripes, paisley, and swirls... it was such a fun process that I can see how much joy she derives from creating these bags and rolls. I'm so excited! Even just the laid-out fabric looks so good, I can't imagine how great it'll look when it's put together and quilted and detailed.

E and I spent lots of time crocheting and knitting. E is a knitter like whoa... she was working on a golden-nutty brown hat.

Now, I can't knit... I learned the knit stitch once about four years ago, but forgot it quickly. Margy sat down and helped me re-learn that and also taught me how to purl, so I was able to sit and practice knitting and purling.

I think how I knit is English style? I hold the yarn in my right hand and loop it that way, and it's easier for me. I don't know if I'll ever be as good of a knitter as E, but I'm still excited (and also trying not to forget everything now that I'm home again).

I took a buttload of pics of my girls out in nature. I'll post those tomorrow!

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heavy is the big ol' Blythe head?

My new hobby, at least while I'm still getting a kick out of them - flower crowns!

Here are Plummery and Beatrix's. Along with the fake flowers, they both feature acorns, quite remarkably small ones, that I picked up out of my yard. The process of making these is still in flux, but ideally I'd like to offer flower crowns for Blythe in my shop eventually. Right now I'm just experimenting with band styles and techniques and enjoying making one for each of my girls.

I'm still doing Gavin's, but it'll have to wait a few days, because I'm going on a weekend trip with my best friend since kindergarten, E (she knitted that fabulous mustard yellow dress above!), and we're going to have a marvelous time visiting her parents, checking out area shops, taking pictures, and probably being lazy and giggly. I'm... kinda taking all my Blythes with me. (!!!) I could not decide who to leave and I get weird separation anxiety, which I realize sounds really lame, but I always want to take at least one girl with me everywhere and for me this trip is too exciting to not tote them all along. So I've packed the girls for the trip and we'll be back next week!

Have a great weekend!!

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no regrets, just love

Today I've spent entirely too much money on things with which to make flower crowns for my girls! Fae wreaths? Woodland circlets? Floral laurels? Hahaha.

I made this one for Aury out of peachy-pink and gold flowers (fake, obviously) and little indescribable wheat-colored berry-ish baubles. What the heck are they?? I don't know. I just liked the color!

I attached a bit of ribbon at the back to help close the circle, although it was staying put fairly okay on its own. It's a process...

I'm having a lot of fun making different ones for all my girls. I'd love a circlet of my own, but I probably couldn't get away with it! So flower crowns for the girls it is!

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October and organization

Yay, it's October! It's the time of year when I want to watch the Addams Family movies, Sleepy Hollow, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It's getting cool outside. Soon it will be cowl weather...!!

Today is the first in a while I haven't been doing something with my hands. My wrists are a bit sore, so I'm resting them up. I undressed my girls to change their clothes, then I decided to take some pictures of my minimal Blythe wardrobe storage. I always like to see how people store their Blythes and their dolly clothes. I just keep all my stuff on my bookshelf in plastic boxes I got from Target.

One is a Snapware thing (I always accidentally say "Snapeware" for some unknown reason? Get out of my head, Harry Potter!) with three sections and the other is a shoebox-sized plastic box. I think it was from the section that pops up during the spring/summer intended for college students and their dorm rooms. It fits all their dresses with room for plenty more, because they could flatten more but are just loosely stacked.

That's all my girls' dresses, not including anything stock or separates. (There's also a furry bunny suit that stays in a plastic bag so it won't shed on any of the dresses.) I tend to stack them in the box grouped by color. How else would you stack 'em??

I have a couple more dresses floating around that need to be sold, so they've been set aside for a while. I want to get some more clothes sometime soon, especially socks and stockings.

The Snapware houses separates/free-roaming bits and bobs, stock, and shoes and socks.

Stock for Ice Rune, Simply Peppermint, Dear Lele Girl, and now Prima Dolly Paris! :)  Some of the stock is so usable (especially the headbands and hair things). I love DLG's legwarmers and lace headband.

The stock shoes go with the shoes in the bottom section:

Maybe one day I'll have to get another box, but this works great for me right now.

How do you store your dolly wardrobes? Tupperware, like me? Drawers? Do your dolls have their own dresser or closet?

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