The Cranberries - Dreams.mp3

I did a load of doll-dressing yesterday. As you might recall, I undressed ALL twenty-one of my girls back in November, and have been slowly dressing them one or two at a time since. I had nine girls dressed, but twelve still standing around naked. I got some kind of bee in my bonnet, I guess, because last night I dressed all twelve of those girls! I don't mind saying it took a few hours. I wasn't even being super picky or trying on/rejecting lots of things. I just enjoyed each dressup, brushed out a few girls' hair, took a while to get out/put away again all of my dolly wardrobe stuff. (I have so much, after fifteen years of collecting.)

One of the first dressups I did was to put Holland in this 90s-ish babydoll dress from PrettyBomb, which I got FOREVER ago, in 2023; I included it in a haul video where I even said, "With a pair of combat boots and knee high socks?? Please." I decided to finally execute the look I was envisioning! I found some yellow knee-high socks in my stash and fortunately I had some black boots without heels.

I wanted to try and make a mood board to see if I could represent the exact 90s fashion moment I was recalling...

This was actually way more time-consuming than it should have been, because the internet doesn't want to show actual 90s fashion pictures when you look up "90s babydoll dress," et cetera. It wants to show you Gen-Z's ideas of what 90s fashion surely was, which is mostly inaccurate and what I would call "tumblr soft grunge" at best. I'm not mad at Gen-Z for this, though. I definitely think they should feel free to take 90s trends and do their own versions, incorporate them into a "now" look; the 90s did that with the 1970s, after all. Every fashion cycle revisits/reinterprets its predecessors. But it's really hard to find actual 90s images for some reason.

The 90s was my childhood (I turned 7 in 1990, and 17 come the year 2000) and I remember veryyy distinct phases of fashion as the decade went on. 1992 fashion (think Full House, still reminiscent of the 80s) does not look like 1998 fashion (think post-grunge: Spice Girls, baby tees, Madonna's "Ray of Light."). You weren't going to find Blossom hats past a certain year (in fact I've never seen anyone revisit Blossom hats -- only bucket hats). Early 90s and late 90s fashion are completely different!

The look I'm going for with Holland here is more early/mid-90s, maybe 1994-ish. Pre-Delia's catalogues. Pre-Hanson. I remember the celestial themes (what might now be called whimsigoth) and the Zodiac motifs all the Claire's jewelry had; the yin-yangs and the smiley faces. Chokers were "in" but those tattoo chokers were not a thing yet. I recall all the Nirvana/Loony Tunes/D.A.R.E. tees and plaid shirts and Vans and baggy jeans (pre-JNCOs). I had plaid babydoll dresses and wore scuzzy navy blue Converse high tops that I'd written/drawn all over. I recall the sheer knee-highs (a la Clueless, hence the inclusion of Cher on the mood board) and Doc Martens and the grunge/skater influence. Even feminine styles had a lot of that grunge influence with more masculine notes. The pink Power Ranger was wearing floral babydoll dresses paired with biking shorts and hiking boots, okay! DJ freaking Tanner looked like a construction worker with a cute bob and a choker.

All that about accuracy and stuff being said, I don't think of this hairstyle as 90s at all, but I don't want to disturb Holland's curls! At the same time, I really wanted to dress Holland in this dress. And I just had these bits of black yarn hanging around because I took them out of Zasha's hair. So, I am just a hypocrite.

Anyway, if I could add a single thing to this outfit, it would be either a little plaid shirt to tie around her waist or a denim vest. Often outfits in this era of the 90s were very bedecked with accessories; lots of silver jewelry, buttons and pins. I think she could use some more visual interest/clutter like that, but I'm not sure what...

Get ready for more doll outfit posts. I took some pics of Citron and Tiphanie today too.

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lofty ambitions part 1

So I know I said that I felt like doing some more doll-dressing, but what I actually ended up doing is taking off all my dolls' clothes. All twenty-one Neos are standing around nakedly in my room this past week.

I did this because:

• I wanted a blank slate for all the girls. Some of them have been wearing the same 'fits for a really long time (over a year) because I liked them, and I just realized all of a sudden, "I'm never going to want to change some of these outfits, but I should anyway."
• I wanted to see every single pair of shoes I have, specifically!
• I wanted to see if I had proper storage, still. All my dolls being totally undressed is a thing that never happens, really, but I wanted to see the state of my storage options. I need to change some of what I'm doing; boxes are overflowing as it is.
• I wanted to see if all my girls had underwear. A couple don't! I don't strictly think they need panties. Some things fit better without that layer in the way, taking up valuable space. But I also irrationally don't want any of them to feel less loved because they don't have undies. Hahaha.
• Just really want to do Blythey stuff right now. I want to do dressups I've never done before. Revisit my doll wardrobe and find pieces I've never used (I have many, haha) and use them, finally. Maybe even declutter??

I kind of had fun grouping my girls somewhat, as I put them all back where I keep them (atop my desk and on a ladder shelf). All the blondies and peachies. The gingers. The sandies/brunettes. I love seeing new (old) girls like Olive betwixt Fey and Zasha. I love seeing Lamb and Holland side by side -- those curly girlies. It's inspiring me. And the utter hilarity of Klara and Tiphanie sitting on the same bench when they have scads of hair that fells them so easily...

So, I'm going to have to dress all these girls again, when I hardly have the time to even do so right now! Because I am trying to do a lot of stuff right now. So as ridiculous as that sounds: Dressing all these gals again officially falls under the heading of Lofty Ambitions. I'll post about another Lofty Ambition I am undertaking quite soon. I feel insane for trying to load more onto my plate these days, when I have sort of bitten off more than I can chew already.

Finally -- and this has nothing to do with any of the rest of this post -- I did some light Halloweening with some cat ears and makeup for a family party. My mom took this pic of me and my nephew, who has grown so much lately. He is fifteen months old, a big boy who has started walking and can say "hello," "bye-bye," "kitty," and "night-night," and I have been treasuring time with him especially of late because he and his parents are moving a few states away in just a few days time. So this is just an addendum of a memory, for my own enjoyment.

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family portrait 2024

Yooo! Class picture!

I've actually gotten a few requests for an updated family portrait in the last couple of years, but even with five less dolls than I have now, I have been like, "I have no idea how to accomplish such a thing..."

I used to take my dolls out into the backyard and pose them on a bench we had, but we don't have the bench anymore, and ~20 dolls makes a quick hike to the backyard not terribly feasible anyway. It took long enough with seven dolls, and now I have just one shy of twenty. You might not think it's a lot of work to wrangle them, but just moving them across my bedroom to line them up here took sooo long.

(I know that people have far larger Blythe collections and manage to photograph all their dolls at once, but I don't know how these people do it!! Lots of time?)

For this, I turned some plastic storage boxes upside down in order to create a riser, like this is choir class, and draped the boxes in fabric so they wouldn't be too distracting. The dolls aren't in any particular order per se, except that the back row is RBLs, the middle row is FBLs, and the front row is RBLs again. Also, Aury is in front because of course she is!! The newer dolls are in front just by virtue of having been farther away from the desk, and so the last to be placed on it.

There was nothing on god's green earth I could do to keep the dolls' hair from sticking to each other and falling in their faces. I tried to fix Gavin's hair so many times, but it just wouldn't cooperate! So, what you see is what you get, in terms of all that doll hair.

Speaking, you might notice that Drew has her original scalp back on, even though the fading on it is so atrocious.

As a bonus, I have a couple of other group pics to share:

The redheads! The gingers, really, as Fidelia is certainly a redhead too. I have been seriously wanting a little pic of all my gingers together since I got Citron!

Also:

The blondes! Are you seeing these ringlets on Holland??

I thought of breaking down the family into groups by hair color and doing a whole series of portraits, but the rubric breaks down by the time it reaches dolls like Gavin and Miette. I didn't want to have a group I was mentally thinking of as "the leftovers." I know they are just inanimate objects and cannot care, but I still would have felt bad! So I stopped here.

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Lady Gaga - Hair.mp3

I finally brushed out Holland's hair and gave her a treatment.

It had gotten downright wiry-looking, as you can see above in the screen cap from her last dressup video.

It softened it up a bunch after a dip in hot water with some fabric softener. I scrunched it several times in my hand while it was still hot and I was kinda gently squeezing water out, so the curls she's supposed to have appeared out of nowhere.

These were not present before! I didn't take "before" pictures but it was just a gnarly mess. I really did not arrange her hair in any particular way as I left her to dry. I didn't try and form curls or anything. If I had, I might have gotten even cleaner results, but as it is, this girl's hair looks crazy shorter than it did, just because the curls have tightened up! When I put her in her stand, I was like, "She looks so different... her hair is like, an inch shorter...!" So crazy!

I'm inspired to give Lamb (another curly girl!) a refresher dunk, and maybe even Wisp, too! (I know... I have to try and figure out how to film it... I only have so many hands.)

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Nice rack!

Happy October!!! It's the best month. Am I right? OF COURSE I'M RIGHT!

This just arrived today: a standing clothes rack and set of six hangers from Ninabella9 (with, of course, a few articles of clothing... and the purple dress on the right end)! It's tremendously cute. As I slipped each dress onto a hanger, I kept squealing. It's so cute, I want to cry!

I'd like to do a little video on it, I think, with my impressions.

I'm hoping to use this mainly as a feature of my future room box. Some dresses are so lovely they ought to be displayed! Right now I'm getting a major kick out of displaying some dresses in alternative autumnal shades. Of course, brown and red and orange are classic go-to autumnal looks, but I like plum and mustard, and choosing little color palettes is one of the most satisfying things in the world to me. I can tell I'm going to have fun picking out dresses to display.

In other news, today I hit 1000 subscribers on YouTube, and while I know that number is always fluctuating and will likely dip down again, I'm still amazed/taken aback/excited/trepidacious and don't rightly know how it happened. At this time last year, I had about 100 and was very shocked to see that number, too.

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video: Get Holland Ready With Me!

This weekend's project:


I've been ill this past week and I absolutely hate touching my dolls when I'm sick or dirty. My hands gotta be CLEAN to grace their plastic. I also had a hard time doing the voice over because my voice would give out mid-sentence, so I just left it a little spare. That's okay.

I actually tried on three different outfits, which I cut from the video; I really wasn't feeling anything. But I dig the outfit she wound up in.

Yay, autumnal vibes!! Yay house-shaped bag!

Bless Holland. Her hair is a real mess. It needs a treatment. But she's precious anyway. Presh to death. I adore FBLs.

Wisp is rocking neutrals right now too, and coincidentally... she also needs a hair treatment. The filename for this pic is "two girls who need hair treatments.jpg." No lie. But I've wanted to take a picture with these two together since I got Wisp. Curly hair?? Lovely brown tones?? Aiee! The sun started to come out as soon as I started taking pictures, so I only got a couple. I then literally stood up and shook my fist at the sun like Grandpa Simpson in the "old man yells at cloud" bit.

Another thing I did this weekend: I finally switched out a pair of Holland's chips for a neutral set (the pink front-facing got booted; the neutral set I put in is pictured above). I have several pairs of wheat/brown/gray chips still waiting to be installed. I just really love them. I'm wondering if I should give Holland a darker brown pair??

In other news, I'm desperate to crochet. I want to be rippling... but I haven't found the right yarn yet. It's wigging me out!

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P.I.P.

Wait, it's Sunday again??

About time a girl wore this MINI JIJO dress! I've had it for a good long while and even though I've considered it many times as I'm dressing a girl, for whatever reason I usually pass over it.

Frankly I didn't know it would wind up on Holland, of all my girls, but paired with this pink tutu (also from MINI JIJO) and her own stock shoes, I think it looks cute, if a little atypical of the way I usually dress Holland.

Holland's also wearing University of Love's pink hair bows and Didee Eureka's stock socks... remember how one of them didn't even fit?? I turned it inside out and cut out a bunch of fabric along the inside hem. Now it will fit, but it's still noticably smaller/snugger than the other sock. I actually don't think it's too noticable in these pictures, but just look how the hem where the lace is attached to the top of the sock bulges around the ankle! Why so crazy thick??

The primary reason Holland's hair is up in these odango (buns) is just because her hair is a real mess whilst down. Holland and Wisp are both in desperate need of hair treatments, and while I'm at it, I might as well give Lamb one, too. Curly girls need a lot of help! Holland's hair is not as curly as Wisp or Lamb's, but I don't think I want to eradicate her waves.

What I've Been Up To This Week:

• worrrrkk
• making deer hats!
• watching anime while I cut felt for said hats (Puella Magi Madoka Magica; Wolf Girl and Black Prince; Kimi ni Todoke)
• working on a channel trailer for YouTube... so much harder than it sounds!
• playing around on my electric guitar, which I just realized I've had for nearly a year now -- I still mostly reach for my acoustic guitar, but really jamming out is just a must sometimes, and when one must jam, one must reach for the Stratocaster!

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hat swap part one

Andi and I are doing a hat swap! I think I've only ever done one... so I'm pretty excited. Yesterday I crocheted this hat and today I stuffed the antlers, attached them as well as the ears, and beaded it.

Since my mind is on video-making right now, I kind of would like to make a video about making these deer hats. I like having something to do with my hands, so I don't mind making them, but the white hats in particular take a lot of time. A lot of people sew dresses by machine but all my crocheting and sewing and stuffing and beading is done by hand. But it's just an errant desire and not a plan I have.

Today is very cold; I've piled on sweaters, socks, and a blanket. I've had a weird week of work stress; I can't wait to unwind tonight and have (a hopefully hot) dinner and bury myself in bed, and I'm so glad tomorrow's Friday.

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Leopard Sass!

The final addition to my Blythe family for a while (... I mean, probably) is Leopard Sass, an FBL with this lovely wheaty-goldy hair and sweet brown chips.

You guys, I can no longer hide my crazy bias for FBLs. I just love FBLs! Every single official release I got this year was an FBL -- Wendy Weekender, Simply Bubble Boom, and now Leopard Sass!

I did a deboxing video, as I often do.


Because I'm an oddball, I always leave new dolls in their stock for a few days before changing them. I can be quite nervous about changing them into other clothes. I'm really very happy with her but even moreso now that she's out of her stock and those dumb red tights and silly-ass hat™. I think she blends into my family beautifully.

I still need to give her a little hair treatment to see if that will improve the state of her curls at all. Curly-haired Blythes' tresses can be quite hard to tame.

Sweetheart! Sweetheart!

I want to take an FBL family portrait!

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