summer of '77, fall of '21

All righty, y'all. Ya girl's a month and a half in on a new med, and a month and a half in on crocheting rainbow bobble pillows. This is half hyperfixation and half the result of my brain chemistry being all over the place. Last time I was trying out a new med, I couldn't do anything but make miniature suitcases. I have to stay occupied lest I spiral, but often I stop being able to concentrate on TV and stuff like that. Right now the only thing that gives me any sense of enjoyment is making these. (The pattern is from PoppieJoeandCo.)

I made one, and my mom asked me to make more for a holiday craft fair she does every year. So I just churned a whole load of them out. Here are 18 of them, but I've made 3 more that aren't stuffed...

Sorry these photos are so dark. My room is very dark!

I've made many more than I know will actually sell at that craft fair, but I really did it for me. I hope I can give any of these to family/friends who may want one. I certainly don't need them sitting around.

But would I make more? Yes. Alas, I'm out of stuffing. Probably for the best.

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who is she?

So Drew's blue hair is just simply no longer blue. It used to be a really lovely shade, as you can see on Kate Hardin/Moofala's Flickr stream. It's now a strange, extremely muted purple-tinged reddish color (kinda-sorta pictured here, last year). The pigment has faded in a very patchy, streaky way, so it's an uneven color as well.

Twice I've tried to dye it blue again with RIT dye, but the dye will quite simply not take, and I really don't know enough about the dyeing process to understand why that is. So I went shopping for new hair for Drew. I found no blue scalps that I liked, but I did like this mossy green bob, so I got it.

What do you think? I'm of two minds.

On the posi side:

• I do love this particular shade of green, and the fact that it's a bob with some fun curl. I really like Lady Panacea's green hair, and I don't have any girls with green hair, so this is a unique color amongst my Blythe family, as well as a unique hairstyle.
• Also, the hair is very nice to comb. It's very silky and soft.
• It's just REALLY nice to have Drew back together. She's been disassembled for a year, since I was trying to dye her scalp, and this took me a while to do.

On the other hand:

• I am very unaccustomed to this color on Drew (whom I've had for ten years), and so it is both cute and very jarring. Drew's always been my little blue girl.
• "Drew" is a very blue/purple name. I have color-grapheme synesthesia, so letters, numbers, days, and months have colors for me. Ds are purple, Es are blue. So it feels like, "But her NAME is the wrong color now." Ws are, admittedly, grass green. But I still see the name Drew as an indigo color.
• Drew has a sort of muted, slate-blue eyeshadow look, complete with lids of that color. Just for me personally, when that's matched with this green, it isn't my favorite look.
• This is silly, but I prefer whatever plastic Takara uses (... used!), texture-wise. It isn't nearly as shiny or slippery or soft. So this feels extremely different to the touch. It's not that this hair isn't nice, because it is. Rather, it's just a tactile thing that signals to me, "This isn't Takara hair."
• This hair is very voluminous, and thus it is quite wide. To me this is a very Japanese hairstyle, in that I used to see it on mori girls back in the day.

So, I am as of yet unsettled. I like it and yet I find it jarring. I think I am somewhat in mourning over her original blue hair, even though it's been faded for a number of years now.

I have options!

I might keep looking for scalps that are a Drew-ish color of blue. Or I could keep attempting to get her old scalp all fixed up. (I don't know how to do this!)

Another option is to get her faceup refreshed -- or even do that work myself -- so her lids and eyeshadow are a color that really complements the heck outta this green. A beautiful brown, maybe? I could get a new eye mech and brown lashes, gently sand off the blue shadow on her faceplate and do a brown lids/shadow combination, and replace her pair of dark blue chips with an attractive green pair.

But will she still be Drew then? I mean, yes, of course, but. She will have this whole different look. It's not that it's not a cute look, but also, Who Even Is This Doll... 

Change is very jarring and distressing for me, so I think I'm fretting just because of that.

(BTW this one of the headbands I've needle felted recently!)

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making my bed

(flower dance print from AshleyMorganArt)

Hey, pals!

I'm gonna just ignore that months slip by without me making a peep. Hope you do too! Right now I'm scraping by one day at a time. Hate saying that! But that is the way it is right now, mental health wise. I do better some days and think I'm over my slump, and then I just lose whatever progress it seems like I've made.

Today I made my bed. It is never made. AND I MEAN NEVER! I hate doing it. I hate having my blankets tucked at the foot of my bed, so they're always wild and free; I have too many pillows; I sleep with stuffed animals. That diamond patterned blanket is a weighted blanket and it's insanely heavy and hard to move, hard to spread. And as you can see, my bed is tucked to the wall. It's a huge chore to tuck sheets and blankets. So there's no point in making my bed. Not when it gives me zero dopamine, is annoying to do and will only be undone in one night, and impedes how I sleep in the first place!

Buuuut today I flipped my mattress and because I'd taken everything off my bed, I decided to make it nicely. Looking at this corner of my room, which would have you believe every single inch of my room is pink (this is untrue), I felt contented. (Am I pastel kidcore? Or kawaii Holly Hobbie?)

I crocheted that ripple throw almost ten years ago! I embroidered all those things on my wall over the years. I put up that washi tape honeycomb wall. My friend made me that origami star mobile. Another friend sent me a card a long time ago and I thought it was so pretty, I framed it.

I'm thinking about changing out a lot of this stuff for something new. Zero clue what! I have nothing made.

Anyway, I did just take pics of my bed because it's so rare to see it like this. And I did just want to check in here. I am still needle felting. I'm working on a ripple throw. I'm still sketching!

One day at a time.

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cinnamon girl

Hello! Happy June! Happy pride!

I've been in survival mode the past few months. Sort of painedly sticking out a rough season of life. Makes it a challenge to know what to even say in a post here on good ol' Cure Touch.

Here's Olwenn. Man, Takara knew what they were doing, putting Sporty Spice Lover (err, Sporty Lover Finesse) in red. She looks so dang good in it. I love her orange eyes, too. I think the only ones I want to change are her green set...

(Shorts: fromtheORN. Blouse: dollykiss, but it's from a long time ago. Boots: Takara I Love Shoes Red set.)

Haha, the last thing I need is more doll shoes (I bought both Takara I Love Shoes sets last fall), but I just bought a buttload of 'em on Etsy. Look, my Licca-bodied girls have but two pairs of shoes! One pair for each of them! I've been meaning to buy Licca shoes for years and only just did it. I hope they fit. It's a bit of a gamble when people lump shoes/clothing for many types of dolls under one umbrella, because surely what fits Barbie will fit Blythe.

Of late, I've gotten heavily into needle felting. I got a Woolbuddy felting mat and can't be stopped. My main interest is making Blythe stuff, such as small bags, and headbands in the style of sugarduckfairy (who doesn't seem to sell Blythe headbands currently, but her shop is dinosaurparties). I'm literally copying her designs. I have three of her headbands and love them so much, and would like thirty of them. I hope I can send her pics eventually. Like, as a fan. I really think these headbands are what inspired me to get into needle felting.

So, my guilty pleasure has become looking at wool roving packs on Etsy and picking out the perfect cinnamon colors, et cetera. Here's a pack that would match Olwenn today. All images sampled from oneoftheflock!

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playing catch up

Hello, 2021!

Your girl's been sick most of the year so far!

"I really want to concentrate on my novel in January," said I, thereby cursing myself.

I don't have COVID (thankfully), just a lingering cough. I try to speak and I cough instead. It's no fun. And there's some unfortunate overlap between this and the whole winter weather situation going on in southern USA right now. It is not as bad here as it is in Texas. I'm so thankful for that. I've been through severe, national-emergency-type winter weather before, sans power, and it was traumatic! But last week was still rough. I'm pretty much in survival mode right now.

I fell really behind in Animal Crossing New Horizons last year, so while I've been sick and snowed in, I've been catching up. I've only just started December in the game. Above is the entrance to my island. I can't believe that the game's been out for almost a year!

Another thing I've been doing is sketching, mostly digitally. Anne's been doing digital art lately and it's really motivated me to get back to it! I just dabble in self-indulgent fanart and the like (I like to warm up by looking at Adventure Time media and sketching off it by eye), but here's a rough sketch of Olwenn.

I am not an artist; don't think that's what I'm claiming. I just wanted to post this here just because it's representative of something that's kept my head above water of late. As you know, it's all about getting that SEROTONIN!

Stay safe, y'all.

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