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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["Britney Spears - Oops!... I Did It Again" plays in the background]

Happy December! This is the last post I have about my little Ever After/Monster High painting adventures!

Here's the regal Apple White; it's an official picture, not mine, so she looks pretty well-coiffed. I included it so you could see the plain crown in comparison with the repaint.

First I gave her crown some depth by painting bronze on the inside portions. Then my friend washed some very very light pearly white over the pearly bits -- anyway, I assume those bits are supposed to be pearls, but it's not like I'm intimately familiar with crowns. I didn't want to paint them straight-up pearly, so my friend just did a really thinned-down little coat to make them catch the light a little more and help exaggerate the difference between the golds.

I painted her little apple darker red, thinking ideally it would look like a ruby or something, then glazed over it with a shimmery red. It makes it stand out from the bright reds on the rest of her outfit, but it doesn't clash too badly. (Also, to give you an idea of the depth of cool and expertise of my friend's MLP-customizing girlfriend, she suggested sawing off the apple entirely and literally replacing it with a red jewel...!)

I did some painting on Apple's shoes as well. All you need to know is that they were solid red, aside from the gold straps with their gold bows. I added some gold paint to the leaf shape on the outside of the shoes, as well as the outside of the stems. (I didn't to the inside of the stems.) There are also beads, or studs more likely, along the sides of the straps, so they got dotted with gold paint, too, and now they stand out! Her heels have this interesting spiral shape happening... maybe it's a vine or something? I really don't know. But it was originally red and I painted it gold as well.

The bows on the straps, while already gold, got a couple of coats of the gold paint I was working with, and now they're more glimmery and light-catching. I don't think you would even notice this particular detail unless you had an unpainted Apple shoe literally right next to one of these. Then your eye would see that the bows are just a little brighter. It's really subtle but I can see the glint of gold from feet away as she stands on my shelf!

Thus ends my little series. I had so much fun repainting and fussing with tiny details with my doll friends! Seriously, it was one of the more enjoyable things I've done this entire year.

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["Tweet feat. Missy Elliott - Oops (Oh My)" plays in the background]

My C.A. Cupid had quite the poof of pink locks when she came out of the box. (See also: Dracubecca's pink-soled boots.)

Whilst not entirely un-cute, these tresses needed some taming, so her hair was rinsed and conditioned, wrapped up in little curlers, dunked in boiling water and then soaked in ice water to set it, and left in the curlers for four-ish days!

Now she has lovely fat sausage ringlets. I'd like to take credit, but I totally can't. I just watched attentively while my friend wrapped up her own Twyla and then my Cupid.

Cupid also got the arrow on her headband painted gold... originally it was the same hot magenta-pink as the heart wreath, or whatever it is.

And also her tiny, tiny, tiny little fingernails got a gold manicure courtesy of my steady-handed friend. It blends in with her look so nicely, it's as if they were meant to be gold all along!

Just one more post on Ever After High -- my Apple White also got some little touch-ups.

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["Blu Cantrell - Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!)" plays in the background]

I've disappeared a bit lately... I've been visiting with friends more than usual, and also helping my mom plan a holiday thingy (more on that later).

In non-Blythe-but-still-doll-news, short story long, I've reconnected somewhat recently with a friend of mine from my preteen/teen years -- it's because of this girl I felt encouraged to pursue writing just for the love of it and enjoy Meat Loaf (the singer) to the extent that I do. Man, the days when we would hang out eating ramen noodles and watching Wayne's World on VHS...

We've had some rough patches in our friendship and drifted in and out of contact over the years. But I do know that several years ago, she was really into collecting original My Little Pony. Fast forward to now, we've been in touch more, and I discover she and her girlfriend (who, by the way, makes amazing custom My Little Ponies) both collect Monster High/Ever After High dolls.

You know I'm reluctantly/gleefully getting in on this Much Much Cheaper Doll action. Not a lot -- but enough! Actually getting to talk to "doll people" in real life is pretty sweet.

I've checked out Monster High dolls in the past, since there's some overlap on Flickr with the Blythe community. Honestly, I find Monster High slightly overwhelming, as there are so many dolls and so many versions or iterations of the dolls. Also, Monster High's aesthetic uses a lot of neons and fluorescents and color combinations that are jarring to my tender mori girl-loving eyeballs.

But... I've actually had a C.A. Cupid and an Apple White from the Ever After High line in boxes in my bookcase for like, several months! I really like this line. It's a little more white bread, but the color schemes are less phantasmagoric.

(I'm legit obsessed with Apple White's round apple basket/bag. I would carry that IRL so fast, even if it was plastic and looked like one of those old McDonald's trick-or-treat buckets.)

I really don't know why I left them in their packaging for months. Well -- I do love the packaging!! It's actually so attractive and cute. But also, I think I felt a little weird about having bought them. Why? I don't really know. It's probable I feel I have too many dolls as it is and my mind was not adjusted to having dolls other than Blythes.

But a couple of weeks ago, my friend and I headed to Target to scope out their Monster High row. Having seen her collection, I was wanting to try and take a closer look at what was currently on the shelves. Although I felt more open to getting another Not Blythe, I experienced some uncertainty in the store, because the selection was so huge, and the colors overly bright against the black packaging.

So, Dracubecca was The One. My friend took her off the shelf for me to consider, and I was like, "...Yes!"

She's from the Freaky Fusion line, which means she's two of their "regular" dolls, Draculaura (a pink-skinned vampire) and Robecca (a steampunk robot with bronze skin and blue hair), made into a hybrid. I'm only just learning about this stuff and don't know all the dolls, like, at all, but Robecca is probably high up on the list in terms of the original dolls that I like. Draculaura is cute, but the black/pink combination gives me these Avril Lavigne vibes...

Dracubecca has some atrocious hot pink in her style that I'm not real into, but her skin is this really lovely, slightly lilac-tinted, muted pink. I even want to say it has a pearlescent quality. She's actually very pretty! She has bronzey wings and some kind of little steampunk bustle-esque thing around her waist, as well as heart-shaped goggles. You can see rivets all over her body, since, I guess, technically, she's a robot? Haha, I don't know.

Anyway, I really don't care for this blue/pink color scheme, so I'm going to find her a different dress than this one, which I think will make me like her even more. And I really did not dig the hot pink on her black boots. So I repainted them!!

This was too much fun. I've never done this kind of customization before, since I don't do more than change eye chips or install sleepy eyes on my Blythes. Beatrix has gotten the brunt of it all.

But my friend and her girlfriend are both so freaking talented. (Did you even look at those My Little Ponies??) They had already both made some changes to some of their dolls, and both knew what they were doing, so it was fun to sit around the table with them, tubes of acrylic paints, and many tiny little paintbrushes, making cosmetic adjustments under their helpful guidance.

I chose to do Dracubecca's boots before anything because they were so terrible already, I didn't think I could really do any harm to them, even if I turned out to be very bad at what we were doing. I went in with copper  paint because it's more steampunk-y and also more neutral. The shade doesn't precisely match her plastic accoutrements, being metallic and shiny, but that's fine with me.

Originally, the soles, heels, and heart-shaped buckle at the ankles were all hot pink, and I don't know what was going on in the factory, or whatever, but it was so sloppily dashed on! There was really no very discernable shape to the sole. The paint on the heart-shaped buckle was wearing off, even. It was not good. I did my best to give the soles clean lines. I also painted the heart buckles. The gears/screw and heart dials on the upper half of the boot weren't painted at all, just like many other little features in the plastic aren't. I decided to paint those too, and am happy I did. My friend also did a little bit of clean-up with black paint for me around the soles.

In my opinion, the boots look sooo much better!

My friend did an epic detail job on a pair of (I think) Lagoona's heels, and her lady also did some crazy detailing on a pair of boots belonging to (I thiiiink?) Elissabat, who I had never seen or heard of before then, but who I thought was so cute. If I had seen her in the box at the store, I don't know if I would have thought twice about her. But I think the majority of the Monster High dolls I've seen look better out of the box. Many are hella cute and creative and super detailed.

Thanks to the expertise and styling tools of my friends, Dracubecca and Cupid got they hair did, too. A hot water rinse and lengthy conditioner soak worked wonders on Dracubecca. Her hair was left in a big twist for several days and now it's got some nice natural-looking wave.

My Cupid and Apple also got a few little embellishments done, which I'll share later. This is already far too long a post.

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Licca Life

My Wendy Weekender (who has been, finally, dubbed "Fey") came with a very loose body! When holding her by the legs, her hips were very slippery and the weight of her head would cause her to fall backwards, bending in half at the waist. It's really hard to take pictures of a doll that just falls over, so I thought maybe I should try a Licca-chan body out on her.

Lots of people prefer Licca bodies since older Blythes had them. Their size is almost identical but their stance is very different. Licca bodies look very innocent to me. With the less graceful "pose" to their arms, it really makes them look childlike -- especially with Blythe's big eyes.

Some clothes fit differently and some shoes I have and love (like the Takara Mary Janes) don't fit Licca feet at all. I'm also getting used to the way their heads tilt. Middie heads tilt too! I've had girls who are pretty much stock for four years now, so I'm accustomed to that. If I'm making a hat or something, I use a doll at various points as I pin and stitch on the antlers and ears (and sometimes snaps). I definitely don't want to fit the hat and sew on antlers and ears onto a swiveling, tilting head. They come out crooked!

Still, Miss Beatrix also got a Licca body. I've always thought one would suit her.

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a wee bit terrifying

Mallow's new Brainworm chips arrived yesterday, so I had another go at removing her chips with the gluestick method. It did not work. I've never had this issue before; that method has always worked for me! But after the twentieth time, I just had to accept that those chips weren't coming out. So I opened up her wee fluffy head, pried out her eye mech, and disassembled it so I could soak her individual eyes in hot water.

Um... SCARY!

Luckily this was really effective and when I broke out the gluesticks again, this time they popped right out. But I must admit it was very puzzling to me to try and re-assemble the mech. There's a first time for everything?

Now I'm not too sure what I think about her dark brown chips... they look almost opaque! But at least if I change them out again, they won't be so difficult (I hope)!

Next up will probably be a hair treatment. Mallow is in Hermione Granger territory!

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spring in ya step

Greetings, loved ones!

Recently I gave Petaline a gaze lift. She came out of her box with a noticably low gaze. When lined up with my other girls, both FBL and RBL, she was clearly looking down a lot further than the rest of them. Thanks to lots of playing around with the inside of Beatrix's head last month, this month I was able to give Miss Petaline an easy, painless fifteen-minute gaze lift. (Most of those minutes were spent just slowly getting her head open - the gaze lifting part took like two minutes.) Now she has more of a default-height gaze, like most of the rest of my girls. My only look-uppers are Drew and Beatrix.

MOST DELIGHTFULLY, I have been practicing my knitting diligently the past few days!! I learned how to bind off last night!! It went not-so-well the first time, but the second time I realized it was basically just like the last stitch of crocheting, so now it's no biggie. I'm still practicing doing practice squares. I know it sounds redundant if I say it like that, but I still mess up so frequently that even doing a practice square is a major achievement for me, and I want to get to where I really feel confident with the process of everything before I even attempt a real project.

Crocheting is so much easier for me, since your hook can slip out or you can drop a stitch and easily go back and pick the stitch back up or fix where you dropped the stitch. When I drop a stitch in knitting, I am SCREWED. I assume with time and frequent squinting at my practice squares, I will someday be able to determine where I went wrong or lose my place in a pattern less frequently, but right now, it's still newbie knitting for me.

The sky this evening, facing east:

What you can't see is all the dogwoods and redbud trees out in beautiful spring bloom!

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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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Gavvy's new chips

Last night Gavin got two of her sets of eyechips switched out with chips I ordered from Brainworm. Her stock green got replaced with black (I love! She looks so, so sweet and doe-eyed) and her stock pink with milky pink (a little creepy). Here she is modeling a custom-made by request fauna deer hat with a chin strap and button instead of pom ties. It's dim and rainy-ish out, not very good light for pictures, but how can I resist??

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them peepers

My Brainworm order - aka my reward for writing and then biting the bullet and editing my horrors - arrived today! I busted out the gluesticks, put on a bunch of songs from the Glee soundtrack, and got to work.

Beatrix's chips are all changed out now. It's really hard for my camera to pick up the muted colors of some of them with Beatrix's wildly bright hair overtaking all, but she has moss green, wheat, mango, and olive Brainworm chips now. The moss green and wheat look similar in these pictures but not so similar in real life. The wheat ones are more gray than you'd imagine. I might someday get a set of toffee ones instead. I like her so much in mustard yellow, that's why I got the yellow chips for her!

Plummery got the lilac set - I switched out her front-facing stock blue chips. I just found that I never liked leaving her eyes on the blue set. They are pretty with her red hair, so I'm not sure why. I'm not sure how I feel about the lilac, either, though. For now I'm leaving them, but I might get a different blue set instead. It's nice to know I can switch all these chips out again if I feel like it. You never know what you're going to wind up liking or not.

Aury is being left completely stock. She's perfect. I feel like I would really miss her greens and blues. Hopefully she doesn't feel left out.

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turn around, bright eyes

I changed Beatrix's eyechips today :) I used the gluestick method, of course.


It took like ten minutes! It was incredibly easy to do; the chips popped right out. The hardest part was scraping out the old glue, which I did with a little screwdriver I have on hand for the tiny screws on my glasses. I just did it slowly (indeed, most of the time it took to change the chips was spent scraping), gently, and obstinately.


Now she has wheat-colored Brainworm chips and I think they suit her really well. I have been letting her sit since I put the new chips in (I haven't pulled her string and changed her eyes yet). I really hope I glued them in well enough!

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The Continuing Misadventures of Poor Beatrix

Beatrix's side-swept hair is holding up fairly well -- without a clip or something, it hangs down in front of her face, but that's miles better than snapping instantly back into a center-part! I may do another ironing session sometime in the near future to help set it extra-well.

This morning I went through the terrifying process of CUTTING HER HAIR. I liked the way her shorter layers gave her this natural face-framing bob look, so I just cut off the scruffy longer layers to give her a real bob.




To be honest, I didn't do the greatest job in the world. I've obviously never done this before! My craft scissors are heavy and sharp and powerful, but they tended to "chew" the hair a lot during the cutting process, and it was much thicker-feeling than you would imagine this tiny amount of hair to be. The back will need some neatening up in the future, but for now I'm relatively happy with her bob and side-swept bangs and also, my Total Balls.

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"go boil your head"

Dipped Beatrix's head in BOILING WATER (okay, I waited a minute, so it wasn't so FREAKY FOR ME) this morning.



Oh the trauma of a first time!! Hopefully this will aid me in my quest for side-swept bangs!

LATER:

Okay, okay! The boiling water was a good start to Beatrix's hair. It definitely swept the hair I had parted more to the side, but the roots were still adamantly bouncing the hair up off her scalp like she was Alicia Silverstone in clueless or something. AS IF!

So I decided to try ironing to force the hair down and set it further. very carefully wrapped her head with a strip of cotton fabric. This took FOR! EVER! It was so hard to get her hairs to stay in place when they wanted to bounce up off of her. But I finally prevailed and set about doing the scariest-sounding thing ever, even scarier than BOILING WATER + BELOVED DOLL. Yep. I ironed her head using that reliable bang-cutting method as seen here. My little sister took the pictures for me! :) Doesn't she look like a little prisoner being sent off to her execution?


It really wasn't hard, although it was very intimidating a thing to try... after the boiling water this morning, though, I was feeling ballsier. It really does get easier to try things once you get the ball rolling! I was so afraid I'd melt her forehead, but she's just fine! I think it worked pretty well, and I might do it again, if her bangs act like they want to snap back into a mid-part. Otherwise, this girl is well on her way to a DREAM HAIRCUT!

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