While I was editing pics of my styled IKEA bookcase, I took one of the pictures I took and edited it into a little Christmas card. It's cringe but I am cringe, and I am free.
But seriously, thank you to anyone who reads this blog. I have been enjoying posting here this year and I appreciate your eyeballs passing over my pictures and words and thoughts and feelings. Hope you have a happy holiday season, whatever you celebrate -- or don't celebrate.
Okay, so I've been slowly collecting miniatures for years now. A couple of times I've been so lucky as to score furniture from thrift stores or eBay or Etsy, and I have even made some things. But mostly, my miniatures collection comes from the various craft stores that sell that kind of thing. Don't hate -- no ethical consumption under capitalism, et cetera!
I've been especially wanting to gather enough miniatures to believably fill in my IKEA Huset bookcase! Lately I've been putting stuff in it at random, loosely sticking to themes, and I decided to take pictures of some of my themed setups...
First is easiest: a kitchen display!
Jam jars; wooden dishes; pots and pans; ceramic teacups and saucers; a basket with a tiny pear and orange; books, including cookbooks and plant books; I am pretending the damask cube is one of those fabric drawer things. My favorite favorite favorite thing is the little gold scissors!!
Next idea: Christmas!
This one's pretty simple! I don't have much in the way of Christmas miniatures, because Christmas tends to be very primary in terms of colors. Red and green, of course, but also blue and yellow. Whereas I lean more pastel toned or earth toned or metallic. But these mini gifts are always everywhere in every miniatures section each year, so I have acquired a couple of packets on deep discount in the last few years. I got the mini bottle brush trees from the Target dollar spot a couple years back, and although they are large in scale for 1:12 or 1:16 scale, I think they still make for a super cute display!
Also in the shelf: a small scarf I knitted, all rolled up, and some miniature Christmas books. This gold mirror isn't Christmas-y per se, but I still think it works!
Finally: a cottagecore witch shelf!
I love this one!! I can imagine the owner of the items really clearly. I could have gone 100% witchy -- just spellbooks and spooky stuff -- or 100% cottagecore, with baskets and gardening supplies and herb books. But the rose quartz rabbit figurine, which I've had since childhood, inspired me to mash up the crystal boho white witch aesthetic with cottagecore! Bunnies, knitting, gardening, tiny mushrooms! I crocheted this rainbow rug from the same pattern from which I make rainbow pillows. I imagined it would go well with the yellow gingham sofa cover I have for the Huset sofa. But it looks sweet and soft here by this shelf, in my opinion!
I need you to know that this box holds a tiny but full deck of tarot cards!!! It's a bit hard to hold, so I put it in the lid of a small paper box I made years ago. I'd like to finagle a basket that's the perfect size for the deck. I'll probably need to get some twine and wrap a box to make a bespoke basket just for them...
Those are the three styles I messed around with today! Other ideas: craft/art room shelf (lots of knitting/yarn, an art set, maybe miniature paintings or drawings); bedroom shelf; shoe/bag collection shelf; an entire shelf of nothing but various mini mushrooms!
As I recently mentioned in a blog post or two, I've been hardcore focused on prepping for a craft fair! It happened this weekend!
This was my second year manning my own table. Which is a big deal for me! As an intensely shy person/introvert, this is a whole freaking undertaking for me in a social battery sense, let alone in the sense that I've been making enough items to even warrant having my own table in the first place. A ton of work! Executing my plans has taken up a lot of time and energy for me in the last couple of months.
I also invested a little chunk of money ($50! Nothing drastic) into my display, since I felt like last year's wasn't the most effective for me. Let me show you what I had going on this year...
I blocked out the background a little because I feel like it's hard to see, up against this highly textured 70s brick wall with photos hanging on it. I'm in the same spot as I was last year, so the background's the exact same!
Some other things are the same, too: some of my offerings, plus my little craft paper bunting! But I feel like the wire shelf added considerable height and the ability to display more, and that was an upgrade. I also bought a bracelet display stand so I could better display the bracelets I've been throwing together since October.
I didn't take many pictures at all, but I did take a quick video, and I captured some screenshots for it to show you what's on the table...
I had a lot of crochet on offer: rainbow pillows (also a couple of mini rainbow pillows), fingerless mitts, and earbands. I also had some other wearables: bear-eared barrettes and beaded jewelry. The rings are ones I've been making as a hobby and the bracelets are inspired by Taylor Swift friendship bracelets, but with Christmas lyrics instead of TS lyrics. Actually, I had a whole mess of Swiftie bracelets too.
All the jewelry was a dollar. I just feel like that's fun and accessible for people who didn't come to the market prepared to spend 15, 20, 30+ dollars on an artisan piece. And for kids/teens, of course. Also, I was just working with plastic and cheap glass beads! Nothing that would encourage me to charge any more than a single dollar!
I drew all my signage in Procreate on my iPad, printed it, and put them all in secondhand frames. Some of the frames are one I've had for like a decade, and painted. Others were one my mom had on hand.
BTW, yes, the misspelling of "barrettes" drives me nuts, but I had no idea it was even misspelled till way too late!!! "Barettes" looks more correct to me, even if it's not...
Last year I sold far more in the way of beaded rings than anything else. I foolishly expected that again, but this year, it was the reverse! I sold only a few rings and bracelets, but sold 4/5ths of my crochet mitts and earbands -- plus a couple of rainbow pillows.
Pictured above: the bracelet display, which rotates (!!! my bestie told me it has a nice ASMR sound) and my favorite pair of mitts. I didn't manage to get any better photos of these mitts with the bows on them, but I was thinking of the coquette fashion trend when making them, and they sold really quickly, both to the same gal. I only have this screencap from the quick video I took of my table, so the quality's not good. But I love the bows; I made them with a little french knitter!
I'm genuinely shocked at the way the mitts in particular flew off the shelf. I have been making them quite a lot over the past few weeks. But due to not selling much crochet last year, I expected the same this year. In fact, I said to my sister, "If I just sell one pair of mitts, I'll be happy!" But mitts were my first sale, my last sale, and people bought many more of them than any other item. One woman bought three pairs towards the end of the day. Another woman got on FaceTime with someone (a sister? mother? bestie?) and showed her all of my stuff. I heard the woman on the other end enthuse over the white and pale blue coquette mitts, with the bow. The woman bought the two similar pairs for herself and whoever to whom she was speaking. It was such a fun yet bewildering moment for me.
I mean, I think the mitts are cute, but I'm me. I have specific taste!
A fellow vendor at the fair bought a pair of flower-inspired mitts and they looked incredibly cute on her. She wore them the entire afternoon!!
I also saw a guy who had bought a rainbow pillow last year. He came up to my table, picked out some mitts for his wife, and said, "Last year I bought a rainbow pillow from you, and I love it!!" His enthusiasm struck me as so genuine -- rather than a nicety, know what I mean? -- that it makes me really happy just thinking about this interaction. It was so nice of him to say that!
Some awkward social moments aside (because, you know, Unfortunately, People) overall the market went super well for me. I didn't sell out of any particular item, but I came startlingly close with the mitts. Since I've been working adamantly on them, this is super rewarding.
Also, I made enough money outright to buy a Blythe and have some left over. So, fair warning, I absolutely bought a new Blythe!
I thought before it's too close to Christmas time, I'd share these pics of Plummery looking autumnal! Dressed for the chill in the air! Her dress is divine and to die for. Look at that bodice!!! Look at that little orange Peter Pan collar!
Recently a tag was going around on Instagram: "Post your favorite stock Blythe." I'm not sure if I have absolute favorites in terms of Blythes, but I adore Dear Lele Girl and to this day consider myself so lucky to have this little mori girl. She was a grail doll for me and I love her, and so I posted her on my Insta stories for that tag. And I felt motivated to take pictures of her today.
It's hard to see her socks, but they're rust-colored and I sewed 'em! I also made her scarf!
dress: DressingBlythe
ear muffs: Reve de Rui
boots: helloCoolCat
scarf: knitted by me!
socks: made by me!
I'm quite simply aching to take a redhead family picture, with Plummery, Winny, and Citron!!! As of yet I've only dressed Citron once, and I'm the most puzzled about her personal style. I gotta figure that out. It's tempting to stick with the Victorian theme?? Adventurous yet vintage? Gibson Girl Archaeologist? Hmmm...
Haha, well! I have been crocheting so much that I've effed up my left wrist. I've done this before, and sensed in these past couple of weeks it would happen again unless I was careful. I have been trying to be careful... but I was still shocked Pikachu when yesterday my wrist seized up while playing the guitar. Who could have seen this coming??
Waaah. All I want to do is crochet, so. It's a bummer!!
If you read my last post, you might have seen that I learned how to do the tulip stitch. With that knowledge I made the above pictured little cream-colored fingerless mitts, with pale pink tulips and dark green "stems." I love these and have been wearing them everywhere. They already look super beat up because I've been wearing them on an almost daily basis.
I've been crocheting so much in large part because I'm prepping for a small craft market -- the same one I did last year. It's T-minus one week out! I have until the 15th to finish stuff up.
I honestly do not anticipate a ton of interest in my wares, but did my hyperfocus get activated nevertheless? Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes. I'll have beaded jewelry again, in addition to crochet pillows and these mitts and earbands. No pics of the jewelry just yet, but I did get this wire shelf off Amazon on Black Friday and think it'll make a better display than the one I had last year.
I've just been piling stuff up here as I've made it. I'll only figure out how exactly I am going to arrange everything the night before or day of, I believe. But look at these cute blue mitts with the daisies appliqued on! I think they're super cute. I have a coral/gold/brown pair of tulip mitts finished, and a pair with purple tulips in the works currently. (I can only hope I'll finish them in time; it depends on my wrist.)
I also have some plain mitts with zero froof or frills, but most of the mitts have scalloped trim crocheted on, and some of them have crocheted bows at the wrist!
I feel like my eyes are bigger than my plate, so to speak. If my wrist was in good working condition I would be crocheting some appliques for both the earbands and the mitts, and I'd be making up some more miniature rainbow pillows. And besides that, I meant to make some clay ornaments and never got around to it!
There's always next year, and it's never too early to begin prep. Or so I've learned.
Crochet post! Been very hook-y lately, partially because I'm prepping some stuff for a craft fair, and partially because I've been trying to finish WIPs. First, I have lately finished this pastel rainbow ripple I've been making for ~2 years. Half of it is colorful stripes separated by a single white row, and the other half is white stripes separated by a single colored row. I made it with a bunch of leftover yarn from my rainbow pillow madness (still ongoing, but not pictured here).
I'm pretty whatever on it at this point, but I definitely enjoyed making it. I always love to make a ripple.
I have made a few pairs of these granny square mitts, and pictured is my fave pair. I don't really make wearables too much! At least, not human-sized wearables. And I'm not sure how I feel about acrylic yarn for these. They're super duper warm but feel bulky. And doing small ribbing can hurt my wrists easily, so I have to take breaks and do no more than about half a mitt a day. But it's always fun to come up with color combinations. I think I'll try another mitt pattern.
Lots and lots of ear warmers!!! Far more than pictured, in all kinds of colors and yarns. I want to have these on my table at the upcoming craft fair I'm doing.
Crochet pumpkins. Made these with bulky yarn left over from ear warmers. I think they're super cute. I free-handed the stems with tweedy yarn, so they're each a little different and a little wonky. But, as one of the ladies from my knitting club said, that adds realism. I have no use for these except as random autumnal decor, so I've had to cut myself off from making 45 of them.
Finally, some panels made with the tulip stitch. I followed this video tutorial for them and made a couple of panels. Not for anything in particular, but just to learn the technique. I might stitch them together into a little pouch or something. These work up ridiculously quickly and I loved the crocheting process, but weaving in the ends (of which there were manyyyy) took a lot of time. Ain't that just the way...
Not pictured: several rainbow bobble pillows, a miniature rainbow rug crocheted for my little dolly dressup sets, a Blythe beanie with a pompom on top!
So relieved I finally had enough energy to make this haul video I've been meaning to make for literally months! Just been saving up so many little purchases for the video...
That's actually a bad habit of mine from my more active video-making days, and one of the many reasons I began to feel that doing semi-regular YouTube videos negatively impacted my doll hobby. I used to buy doll clothes and then save them, hoping to make a haul video, but then I'd just not touch my purchases for months. I felt irresponsible, spending money on doll clothes and then never unwrapping them, never enjoying them, never using them.
But, I really felt like making a haul video. It sounded fun to me, to talk about the clothes and appreciate them. Generally I don't save up purchases like this to share anymore because it so easily leads to me hoarding items instead of enjoying them.
I really enjoyed making this one though. Gingham and lace doilies and purple were the aesthetic staples! Used little sound bits from Animal Crossing games. Sourced so many little extra images to illustrate things I mentioned. Shot so much extra B-roll.
In other news, I got some storage boxes for my too-hefty-for-a-person-who-sews-so-little fabric collection. Time to organize!!
Happy October! Which is almost over already. I've kinda missed it.
As usual when I neglect Cure Touch it's because I'm having A Time. A highlight reel:
Well, this is wild beyond belief for me to be typing. But I was gifted two dream dolls for my birthday: Lady Panacea and Shelley Victorian. My Neo Blythe family has expanded by four dolls this year. It's been a long time since it's seen that kind of growth, and I am in a state of shock, a bit!!
Of course I filmed my unboxing of them both, if you would like to view it.
I named these girls Vesper (Lady Panacea) and Citron (Shelley Victorian). Currently they're standing on my desk with Zasha and Winny. The new girl gang!!
They both break my heart with their beauty.
Directly after unboxing these girls, I lost power for a full week. (!!!) There was a huge wind storm and the vast majority of my city was without power for multiple days. It was a miserable week, to say the least.
As a result of the outage, I kind of lost out on what is ordinarily a super special time for me as a Blythe collector... those first days after I unbox my new girl, wherein I am bonding with the doll via touching, dressing and undressing, combing out and washing their hair, changing them out of their stock for the first time, shopping especially for them, and other general fussing. It's such a fun time for me. Feeling happy and spoiled and thinking about the dolls' name, their style, how they fit in with my Blythe family.
So that experience was delayed by the power outage. I felt sweaty and grimy and grumpy 24/7 while the power was out, and after the power came back, I was exhausted. I had work to catch up on, Etsy orders to complete and ship. I had to throw out everything in my fridge and get replacement groceries during a time when the store was picked over and swamped (because everybody had to replace their groceries). Et cetera, et cetera!!!
Finally editing my unboxing video afforded me the belated opportunity to get tactile with my new girls, since I wanted to take pictures of them for the video and for this post. My twins, my special purple-eyed gworlies. That time fussing with them was something I needed, emotionally, after such a rough week. I feel doubly blessed, let me tell you!
Nearly two weeks after getting power restored, I'm still recovering from the week without it... or so it feels. I want to dolly-sew and crochet and craft and spend even more time with The New Girls so bad!
My hand-sewing ambitions have lead me to making legit shirts! Well -- knit tops! That counts!
I kinda can't believe it?? Like, look at this dark green top. I made this!!! Waaah! It's kind of peasant blouse-inspired, with the lace on the sleeves and the bow at the neck, which is crochet thread. (It was experimental...)
Honestly! I sewed it inside-out on accident. This is the "wrong" side of this knit fabric. It is so hard for me to put things together correctly. But I am sooo stoked on it anyway!
This was my second attempt at this pattern -- the boatneck tee from xoxoBlythe.com. My first attempt came together wonderfully. Full of ambition, I sewed some rick-rack onto it, around the bottom hem... and it ceased being stretchy enough to close in the back. So I can't really use it now. Lesson learned, hahah. Or maybe I'll just cut off the bottom and make it into a crop top. And maybe next time I make this pattern I will make it correctly?? Who can say.
My second (technically third) long-sleeved top is this turtleneck (pattern from Like These Dolls). As I have a goodly amount of this ribbed knit fabric on hand, from which I make socks, I made a white ribbed turtleneck.
This pattern has a video tutorial, which was very handy for me, despite it coming together in similar ways to the boatneck tee in the end. Even with the video, I managed to do several things wrong... or wonky, at the least. I sewed the collar on backwards, so the "wrong" side faces out. I hemmed things in the wrong order. I congratulated myself on getting it hemmed in advance. But surprise surprise, order mattered! So the back is not hemmed at all. Hilarious.
Still, I ended up with a perfectly wearable item...
Look at this! LOOOK AT ITTTT! That's a TURTLENECK if I ever saw one!! HERE IT IS ON LAMB! (And look at this Farrah Fawcett hair on Lamb...)
Despite all my mistakes (at least four very distinct ones) I am elated! I think when it's actually on a doll, you can't really tell it's riddled with mistakes. Rather than a snap, I sewed a tiny square of velcro onto the neck, and I'm so happy with the way it sits. Even if the wrong side of the fabric is showing.
I don't feel I have become good at sewing. I don't feel confident I can tackle any pattern. I can't. I need really great instructions, or really clear video tutorials. I have bought patterns I don't understand how to make. But I have still gained experience and ambition, which was a goal of mine a year ago. To quote myself: I've wanted to re-enforce my hand-sewing skills and just practice a lot, with the aim to increase my comfort level with sewing in general. These skills are imperfect but hard-won and I'm very happy I have kept trying new things.
Another thing I have been sewing a lot of is these tiny... crop tops? Sports bras? Not sure what to call 'em. But they're awfully cute. This yellow one on Klara, here, was the first one I made and it's a skosh wonky. Almost everything I make is wonky the first time around, because I don't really have a handle on it yet. All the ones I've made since look better!
The pattern is really nice and I highly recommend it, especially because in the scheme of Blythe wardrobe items, this one is super unique, IMHO. I don't have anything like it already! T-shirts, yes. Blouses, yes. Turtlenecks, yes. But crop tops...no! And I could totally see it styled cutely under overalls (in fact, Drew's wearing one under overalls right now!), loose sundresses with thin straps, and vests. I'm just dying at the idea of a little denim vest over one of these!
I've yet to make the undies, but I do believe I will, since Winny came sans panties! Not that I think dolls need underwear. I would imagine some outfits fit better without that layer at the waist. But since all my other girls have panties, I want Winny to as well, for egalitarian reasons!
You can see a better picture of Winny in this rainbow top here.
I've got a bit of a backlog of sewing-related posts to share. All I've got are terrible phone pics that I took when I was sending my friends pics in the moment, so like... pardon me! But if I didn't have phone pics I probably wouldn't post about this at all, when I do really want to catalogue it for my own personal satisfaction. I'll take 'em!
As you may know, I've been getting into hand-sewing for Blythe this last year or so. I made a little cosplay for Lamb (it's not 100% finished, even a year after starting); I sewed a circle skirt; I have made (and sold) innumerable socks; I conquered tights!
I have been doing my best to gain experience and confidence in something that, for me, easily confuses and overwhelms. My ability to fathom construction remains somewhat low. But my cherished dream, friends, is to be able to make a Blythe dress!
I want this so badly my spit tastes like pennies.
It would be so, so much fun to make simple little dresses, because I think having a simple dress and accessorizing it is so much fun when dressing Blythes. I am not yet super close to this achievement, but it's what I'm working towards, if slowly.
In the meantime I have been trying to up my skills with smaller things, such as miniskirts. (The pattern I've been using is this old one from moshi moshi.)
The ironing board and iron I got for my birthday last year were indispensable in this process! The excitement I felt in pressing down seams! Let me tell you!!! Game-changer. My little ironing board has legs that fold in, so I can store it away easily. But my iron is of standard size, and a little clunkier to store away. But I feel it's been of great help to me!
Using mostly fabric I've had on hand for years now, after making a lot of miniature suitcases, I've managed about a dozen skirts. I want to make a bespoke skirt for each Blythe I have, so that's sixteen skirts total. Just four shy!
The blog post on the old moshi moshi blog recommends sturdier fabric for these skirts, like corduroy, and I have to agree. The thinner cottons don't make for a super structured skirt. But also I feel like these could do with some lining? I just don't know how to do such a thing! It's something I need to learn and don't understand at all, despite the many many costube sewing videos I've watched.
I have been making them closable with smol velcro, which is a bit of a pain to hand-sew, even though I got the thinnest sort I could find via Etsy.
I knoooow I need to learn my machine, but honestly on top of being intimidated by it, I could really use one-on-one help from someone who knows what they're doing and can answer questions as I have them, and tell me whether I'm doing things correctly or not. I'm not sure that'll happen anytime soon!
Here's Zasha looking secretarial in a navy blue skirt, blue PrettyBomb blouse, Very Vicky's stock Mary Janes, and glasses from idek!
I haven't felt much like posting the last couple of months. It's been a busy season of life. My birthday is creeping ever-closer and that always tends to bring on a little depression cloud. But this year happens to be my 40th birthday! And that is just too weird. It doesn't feel accurate. I feel 28, tops. (At the same time I feel like I'm 86.) So I have been dragging around like the Grim Reaper's breathing down my neck.
I decided this year I would like to get a bike for my birthday. I've been feeling like I want to get more vitamin D and be out and about, yet not be around people, so cruising around on a bike has seemed more and more appealing to me. The weather's been incredible; springy and damp and cool. That's made my yen even greater, and I have been scared that by the time my birthday actually rolls around, it will be too warm to want to be outside. So I have jumped the gun and gotten one a week early: this Huffy cruiser with 26" wheels.
It's a chromey maroon color (Alexa, play "Maroon" by Taylor Swift) and has a low-key bee theme? With hexagons on the seats and cup holder (!). I must acquire a water bottle or something that fits in the cup holder!!
I've already slammed the seat down to the lowest possible setting and taken it around my neighborhood. It really cruises along on a level street. But the second there's an incline that lasts more than a few seconds, my thighs are like, "Nope."
(I have not ridden a bike since I was perhaps, at the latest, 12.)
I'm fantasizing about 9 am cruises around my block, before it's blazing hot out, and I'm fantasizing about increasingly my ability to pedal uphill.
Thighs of steel. Heart of a champion.
edit: Have I wiped out on the bike already? Yes, I have lost balance and bashed the heck outta my right knee.
My cat's very scared of the bike so far, so I've made sure to sit still on it so he can know I am in control of it. He's coming around. (Side note that my cat walks right up to cars and tries to get into them.)
Anyway, y'all, I've been hand-sewing a lot and I want to post about that soon. I've also been window-shopping relentlessly for Winny, who needs more mod/flower power-y clothes than I have in my collection. I do intend to eventually make dressup videos for both Zasha and Winny!
Been looking forward so much to putting this sweet little coat from SamodelkaTeddyArt on Zasha -- I bought it just for her! Love the dark brown fur collar and the pattern of the fabric, and how it's quilted!
Here's the picture from SamodelkaTeddyArt's Etsy, which is very cute! The fabric is more beige than it appears in the above pic of Zasha, which is influenced a lot by the green backdrop.
Oh, happiness. Styling this coat could go any number of ways and it has my imagination alight with different combos to complement the colors of the coat. It's a statement piece for sure, and when it's snapped shut, it doesn't much matter what's on underneath. But here's the fit besides the coat:
Z still badly needs a hair treatment. Those ends are lookin' bushy. I am waiting on something in the mail, and then I'll be having a little spa day for a few girls!