looking up

Beatrix has gotten a gaze lift! My fingers ache with how many times I've opened her head in the past week, unscrewed the t-bar, pried out the eye mech and then urged it back into place again, and fiddled with everything.

For aid on how to open her up and remove her eye mech, I found YouTube videos by BlytheMaster the most helpful. The flickering in the videos is distracting but it's nice to actually see something being done instead of just reading instructions. Pictures and instructions can only get me so far! I wonder why there are not more Blythe video tutorials out there.

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blue-haired girl, what the what??

If you'll recall from my post about blue-haired girls I like, a little lady called Drew topped it... seriously, I flickr-stalked this girl so hard. As luck would have it, her owner Jenn got the chance to adopt a girl that she's been wanting and thus needed to downsize, so I begged her, "If you ever think about adopting out Drew, please consider me." Keeping it classy? I don't know, probably not. But putting yourself out there every now and then can be worth it. It must have been, because Jenn contacted me to offer me first dibs on her and I took her up on it!

Really, I've been focused on buying dolly duds since Klara arrived; I have more dolls than clothes for them all and I'm a lot pickier about how I dress them now than I used to be. But after the clothes-shopping and hat-sending I've done this month, I didn't really have all my funds in one place when Drew came up for adoption (some in PayPal, some in cash form sitting in my wallet, some in paychecks), so I scrambled to make it work with the help of my understanding friend J. He's the friend who gave me Petaline and Plummery, so he's obviously enabling me majorly.

SO WORTH IT!!! I love her! I never thought I could be so attracted to a blue-haired girl! She's a Moofala custom and is a Friendly Freckles with a RIT-dyed Cassiopeia Spice scalp, who came in a Simply Mango box and a Rosy Red shipper! I love that! She has wonderful little freckles, beautiful metallic steel-blue lids, sleepy eyes and a little silver leaf charm on her second pull string. She's my first custom girl so I've never really seen sleepy eyes in person till seeing them on her. There's something really magical about that!

Right now Beatrix's head is off her body most of the time as I'm learning to take dolls apart... and the sleepy eyes I gave her just last night do technically work, just not as flawlessly as Drew's.

Oh yes, I think the name Drew is really cute for her, so I'm keeping the name!

Anyway: I'm banning myself from buying another girl until, at very least, my birthday in May. I really wasn't planning on getting another girl in such quick succession to Petaline and Klara, but I just love this girl and couldn't say no when the opportunity to adopt her came my way!

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The item is currently in transit to the destination.

I may have misbehaved.

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To ADAD, or not to ADAD?

For a few weeks now I've been doing A Doll A Day 2011. I am not really sure whether to continue it beyond January...

The benefit I see to doing ADAD is basically just to spend time with my dolls. There have been days in my past year of Blythe-collecting that have seen me not pick up any of my girls because I'm working or sick or tired. (But I've always felt like that's okay! As much as I pour into this hobby, I don't feel guilty if I spend a day doing something that doesn't involve it.) Sometimes I need an "excuse" to take pictures, and ADAD forces me to do it even if I can't take the kind of pictures I want because it's 4 AM and there's no sunlight. It makes me change a girl's clothes so she won't be in the same thing for weeks, whatever.

But on the downside, I feel like even though I am taking pictures every day if possible, the pictures probably aren't better or more "outside the box" than they normally would be, and instead of really enjoying the shooting process itself I'm just shivering outside until I can get a non-blurry shot. My camera is simple, I have really limited locations where I can shoot. During the winter, especially, often the shade of a tree is the only place where the sunlight itself doesn't ruin the picture -- that's why you see so many pics of my girls with tree bark behind them, I'm almost always shooting in the shadow of a tree! Inside it's too dark and I need to resort to the lightbox, but I'm never really happy with the lightbox's look and can't seem to light it well enough.

In the end I think I'm just not as much of a photographer as some people are. Lack of light, lack of location, lack of a nicer camera or even the convenience of a camera on my phone to more effortlessly capture pics on the go. I need to work on fixing some of these issues, but who has the time!! Right now, not me!

Anyway, maybe I'll try to keep doing ADAD for at least another month to see if I can make some good changes to my photo habits.

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(This is only half of it.)

Ah, the agony and the bliss of waiting for Blythe mail!! Is it just me, or is the mail taking forever these days? I feel like it is :( I'm expecting so many things. Here's some of what I'm expecting...

This strawberry frock from Jolie Doll... oh, to pair it with a cute pixie hat... it's more of a spring/summer look though.

A warm, rustic sweaterdress from WoollyRockers!! Klara, I got you covered, gurl.

I finally settled on a dress especially for Petaline from LadyBird House. I have to admit I usually pass by dresses with the blingy buckle, but I guess Petaline is just that kind of girl! I hope she loves it.

Also, I ordered some eyechips from Brainworm for Miss Petaline. Very Vicky is so beautiful, but I just don't like the stock blue, green, and orange chips on her! They bring her down, man, especially the orange pair (which I really like on some girls, actually). I almost never leave her eyes on any set other than her special pale greens. She needs a couple of pairs switched out so she doesn't look to the left all her life.

I got steel blue, ocean, and burnt umber. The ocean set is going to go to another girl, I think... more on that when the smell of hot glue is in the air.

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blue-haired girls

You make the rockin' world go round!

Blue is not a color I gravitate towards normally, but these custom girls, I always stop to look at! I'm particularly obsessed with Drew but they're all so lovely. Is it creepy to be flickr-stalking someone else's doll? Maybe...

1. Little Drew, 2. Blue mohair, finished., 3. 9/365 ADAD 2011, 4. Open Book

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mad about hats

Earlier I decided to relist this duplicate of a pixie hat that I made for someone who wanted one. However they never bought it and it sat in my shop and the listing expired. Right now Petaline is wearing it (with the frabjulous light blue Mary Janes from the Takara set I got the other day). What the hey. The ribbon was a little frayed on one end but I trimmed it up just now.

Poor Petaline has been wearing her sisters' dresses since I changed her from her stock. I have been searching high and low every day for something she might like to wear. She's quite chic, you know. More chic than me. Ha! She wants something fancy, and she'd rather wear a beret than a pixie hat. "But Sofia Coppola directed this hat," I whispered to her.

Yesterday my mother and I went on a mission for silly hats at a costume shop for a party she's having tomorrow. I got this furry abomination (I think it's a wolf? Or a coyote) and I have hardly wanted to take it off since I got it!! I actually never wear hats at all, personally, so it is strange that I would sleep in this hat if I could. It keeps my ears toasty warm. I put a pink bow on one of its ears, like a mutated Hello Kitty. It makes me LOL.

I also got a bunch of yarn today... I must go crochet it all up!!

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Look how pretty!

Ilil and I did a trade recently and she sent me a marvelous necklace, plus bobby pins too! They are much prettier and more delicate in person than they look in these pictures and came in sweet boxes. I was so happy! I can't wait to do a pretty chignon and tuck the little floral bobby pins into my hair.

Thanks, Ilil!!

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"I've got winter madness."

It snowed last night!!!

It brought me the feeling I had last year when I had just gotten Aury, was snowed in, and started this blog. I was happy and took my Vinter Arden out immediately. Then I settled on a name for her, finally. I felt bad she was nameless for so long. Her name is Klara. I had a handful of names in my mind, but none of them really stuck; I got Klara from thinking about the book Heidi. It means "clear" and "bright."

I took both Aury and Klara out into the snow, since they are dressed for the cold weather. My first Blythe and my most recent, both winter girls at heart -- Ice Rune and Vinter Arden! Of course they had to go out to play in the snow.

I love Aury in her Reve de Rui dress and jacket, coolcat boots, and her rust-orange bear-eared hat that I crocheted a while ago!! I have the biggest, mushiest soft spot for Aury. (All the other girls know, and they are okay with it.)

My Takara Shoe Cruise Day set got here today, too. I tried out all the shoes immediately. First impression: they smell really, really plasticy... and I'm not sure how I will pair them with the clothing my girls have right now. But I like them and maybe they'll open up more clothing options! The light blue Mary Janes are very cute.

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lovebox day

I got belated Christmas gifts in the mail from my friend L today. She puts together what I have come to term "loveboxes" because they are boxes filled with 100% pure love. Inside the box were new clothes for Aury, Beatrix, and Plummery... I have been wanting a pomme-pomme dress for Beatrix for a long time, and in addition to that, she got some geeky specs and finally looks a whole lot more like the Beatrix in my brain looks, and Aury and Plummery are decked out H2T (that's a Tyra Banks-ism, because they're that fierce) in rêve de Rui*. Gavin got a new necklace and still has a new dress on the way.

I woke up with a cold and spent much of my day in a fort made of out Kleenex, but then the lovebox arrived and now my spirits couldn't be higher. I toted all my girls outside into the cold for an updated family portrait:

Yay!! My girls!! Vinter Arden doesn't have a name yet (there are some rattling around in my brain, but she's almost too dreamy to pin down), Petaline doesn't yet have her very own dress, and I'm really kind of still surprised that my family has grown and am still getting used to my newbies, but... I'm very happy! I have no idea how it works that some people can have more than six Blythes and fit them all into a picture though.

It's a goal of mine right now to buy more Blythe clothes, because I have more girls to clothe now and really sort of a small wardrobe. They do share outfits but I also like for each of them to have at least one thing that I got just for them, that suits them well in particular. I also am ever in need of socks and shoes; it seems like I always take pause when I'm dressing up my girls to wonder about tights and socks and shoes. I decided to buy this Takara shoe set:

Mainly because of the Mary Janes; I like the style of them very much (more than the "retro" style with the stacked heels) and I think they're the same mold as Very Vicky's. I got the "day" set but I think if I like any of these shoes enough, I'll buy the "night" set too.

I'm expecting it in the mail any day now.

I also must enthuse about the clothes from rêve de Rui*, for they are already some of my very favorite dresses ever!! They're just PERFECT for my girls and the quality is so nice. I can tell I will be buying more of *Rui's stuff ASAP.

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Happy New Year!

Greetings, loved ones! Nothing like a little innocent piracy to cap off the year. I put together this playlist for myself of songs that I either listened to a lot this year or that represent something to me, something I did or moments shared with others.

Hot Summer Jams 2010
(eta: Blogger has made me take down the music, but I'm leaving the image.)

I don't really make resolutions. I don't think I can resolve to do something for an entire year! And I feel like if I make it a "thing," then I'll be all the more likely to give up sooner and feel like I have failed. Simple ideas work more for me.

In 2011, I'd like to...

wear dresses more often

keep practicing my knitting

be sure to do things for fun and not just for work

build up my Blythes' wardrobes a little more... six girls and not near enough dresses to go around!

Anyway: I'm really excited that Pretty Little Liars will be back on January 3!! It's so campy and fun (think of a mash-up of Veronica Mars, Gossip Girl, and perhaps something like Degrassi -- I've never seen Degrassi so I'm not positive about that, but there's drama and Canadian accents and Emily is hot for girls!), great eye candy, and my fave actress Alona Tal will be joining the cast to wreak havoc upon my least favorite character, Aria.

I'm so stoked! In the first episode, Hanna is carrying this super-cute bag from Payless, of all places:

It doesn't appear to still be available online (it's listed on the website still, but when you go to the page, it says "No inventory is available for the selected product"), but I drove to the store this morning and snatched up the very last one on the shelf!! YAY! $15 well spent!

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