Accio Autumn!

Autumn's playing a real game of keep-away this year. It's been cool for a beat, then up in the 80s again, humid and unpleasant. As I told my bestie, disgruntled, the only 80s welcome in my life right now are the whiffs of it coming off Taylor Swift's new album.

The other night, my mom, little sister, and I decided we wanted to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows parts 1 and 2 back-to-back. We turned on LED candles and put them in lanterns and turned off the lights to enhance the mood.

There was a weird moment ten or fifteen minutes in where the TV suddenly turned itself off...?  "Spoooky!" said my mom. The remote's on/off button doesn't actually even work anymore, so it wasn't any of us knocking that by accident or anything. We turned the TV back on, and the DVD was still playing...

About thirty minutes in (well, when Kreacher was bringing Mundungus Fletcher to Harry), all of the power went off! Thankfully we had lit those lanterns and we had about a billion more candles, LED and real, at our disposal, but it was such a bummer! I was just really getting into the movie. Plus, we've had some pretty bad storms in the past decade that have left us without power for multiple days, our city really wrecked and my family really stressed, so we all have fearful trauma responses to power outages now. It was only off four about three or four hours, but that was time enough for us all to run a super weird gamut of emotions.

(The next night, with our power back, we successfully got our Harry Potter on. I know you were worried.)

I can't believe it's so far into October, and almost Halloween!! It just doesn't feel like it!

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bubble bubble bubble pop

Highlight of my October: I got a Simply Bubble Boom!

(Yes, of course I hear Bubble Pop in my head.)

Bubble Boom has been the one Blythe on my list of wants that I wanted to definitely get someday, but never seemed to be able to catch her on eBay at the right time, and have been like, "Maybe I can find her used, or something..."  But thanks to one of my clients really dragging out the work I was doing for him and giving me a bonus entirely because of this (literally! He said, "I'm going to sweeten the pot and give you some more money.  I've been such a pain"), I had a bit of extra dough kicking around and thought, "Bubble Boom!!!" So long, guy, and thanks for the Blythe!

I deboxed her for my YouTube channel (which is still getting lots of subscribers... when I last mentioned it, it had 86, and as of this post, it has 155).


I cherish having these deboxing videos, actually. I do like to do them because they are easy to edit and upload, but they are really for me, so I can remember the moments of first laying eyes on them, holding them, touching their hair... I can document all my initial thoughts. Deboxings are part of the bonding process for me, and something I cannot rush through.

Simply Bubble Boom is breathtaking. Like, I'm over the moon! Her hair is perfect! She's from 2010, around the same time as Very Vicky, but she has none of the hair issues that so plagued my pair of FBLs that I got that year (VV and Vinter Arden). Like, she has the best hair of any Blythe I've gotten since Dear Lele Girl. There's not a strand out of place. It's soft. There's zero tangles or snags. Her fringe is super straight. It looks so good.

And I love her little FBL faaaaace!

As I say in my deboxing video, I don't care for her stock particularly, and she may never wear it again after I change her, but these skates and the way they fit on her are way cuter than I expected.

Four Blythes is the most I've expanded my collection by since the first year I was into Blythe. It's acutally a lot for one year, for me, and I am beginning to run out of room where I prefer to display them. I'm not sure whether to consider downsizing or not...

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Ripple Throw Progress Report: 5/7

Just checking in on my 2014 ripple throw's progress (and indulging my crazy color compulsions with my Blythes; nothing new here)! I'm currently estimating it'll have seven swathes of color, but that's only an estimate. I feel like I'm about 70% done.

I had no particular vision for this throw's whole look besides knowing that I wanted to do larger swathes of color, but not just two alternating colors. Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about it! I enjoy the process of rippling, so the outcome isn't everything, and I'll only know how I really feel when I lay it over the end of my bed, probably.

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Burgundy and blue.

I bought a few blouses from dollykiss on Etsy recently, and this is one of them. The first thing I thought when I saw it was, "Bad 90s!" Actually, it reminds me really powerfully of a bedding set I had in sixth grade, burgundy and navy florals!

If you'll look closely, one sleeve and the collar (and one cuff) are in a totally different fabric with hot pink and brighter blue. The clashiness aside, when I saw it, I thought instantly, "Oh, Petaline would rock that." I think it's because she has these burgundy-brown chips, as well as two sets of blues.

I paired the blouse with a navy blue MINI JIJO tutu skirt and these burgundy tights (shown on the very left here) from sunnybobo.

It makes for a look that says "late autumn" (after it says to me, "my bed in sixth grade...") even though it's early autumn for me, yet. It's been rainy and cool the past few days. Bliss.

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Cookie crumbles.

After a particularly stressful week last month I decided I wanted to get a couple of Blythe dresses; retail therapy strikes again! Seriously, my September was... woof.

When I was cruising around Etsy for Blythe dresses I was caught by this one, by Kuloft. At $25 (for the dress; the headband was $15), it was over my Blythe budget. I have only a couple of times paid more than $20 for a Blythe item. $20 is just kind of my personal limit, even though so many items cost well over that! I understand why, as the hats I charge $20 for are very time-consuming to make, but there's only so much I'm willing to spend in an already expensive hobby! But I splurged because I knew this would be a perfect Mallow dress. And because Kuloft's shop was having a promotion where you could get a flower dress + headband with free shipping for $39! (With shipping, it was more like $46-47!)

However, luck was not really on my side for this purchase. I couldn't find a coupon or promo code or anything despite searching around the shop and Kuloft's Instagram. I left a note to Kuloft with my Etsy purchase saying that I couldn't find a promo code but that I saw that there was free shipping for this promo. But I didn't get it applied to my purchase. I'm confused about that, but... hey. It's fine. It's ten dollars.

When I opened the package I was awestruck by how beautiful this dress is!!

Seriously, I love it so much! It's not my usual thing to get a "statement" outfit like this. Usually I like to buy little dresses that are really layerable and suit lots of my girls. I did layer a Minijijo tutu/petticoat/skirt underneath this dress for even more frill, but it's gorgeous all on its own. The tiny bells at the collar jingle oh so softly, little fairy tinkles. These colors are right up my alley. So I am really happy I got it!

This headband, though. It broke in two places before I even got it out of its plastic bag. I'm so bummed... it's a lovely headband, but also it's something I got just because there was a promotion. I wouldn't have bought it on its own or if there hadn't been a promotion. Which, of course, I didn't get the benefit of after all! So to have it shatter before I could even hold it in my hands or see it on my doll's head was vexing. I didn't handle it roughly or anything... it broke while I was opening up the bag it was sealed into. I should have carefully cut the bag open with scissors, but I opened it more like you would a bag of chips, just pulling the plastic apart, and that was enough to break in two places.

I hot-glued it back together. You can't really see it in pictures, but it doesn't sit on the head well now, and I expect it will fall apart over and over and I'll either be hot gluing it till the end of time or it will just never get worn. This is a travesty, man!

The fact that I broke this headband is certainly my own fault, as was the assumption that I would perhaps be refunded the shipping cost for the promotion. But alas, I spent waaay more than I normally would on a whole ensemble well outside my "norm," so I feel this broken headband keenly. I could cry. Why!! This was my splurge!! Oh, so upsetting.

Still, at least this dress is still the most beautiful thing ever...! I would certainly buy another one of these, although... not the headband.

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