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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four blue eyes

It's been gray, rainy, and increasingly chilly out, which for me is more than welcome. I have the opposite of seasonal depression. When it's gray out, I come alive and feel very cozy and energized. But it has made it challenging to get some pictures of my girls in some autumnal duds. Luckily it's only a little wet today, so outdoors I tromped! backstreetboystellmewhy.gif I simply had to take two girls who have the very most hair out to model in the wind?? Well, it's because I got Vesper's dress especially for her! And Klara was already wearing this outfit, so I grabbed her spur-of-the-moment.

Klara's mushroom dress: TiredMomKnits
Klara's petticoat: MINIJIJO, many years back
Klara's boots: her own stock

Vesper's autumnal dress: BostonBlythe
Vesper's crown: I made it yonks ago
Vesper's shoes: her own stock

Personally I love both of these shops very much! I have several dresses from each and can't recommend them enough! And you know that Vesper needs elevated wardrobe pieces. I always have my little eye out for things Vesper and Citron especially can wear.

Goodness, can't you see the bonkers difference between the FBL face mold and Radiance Radical or whatever (give 'em the boot, the roots, the radicals -- just kidding, I looked it up, it's Radiance Renewal) mold? Vesper's eyes look humongous!

Well, pals, I picked the ideal day to make beef stew in the crock pot. It's chilly enough out that the hearty vibes of nice, hot, slow-cooked stew are just hitting the absolute spot. I loaded my stew down with carrots and those very fancy baby peas from that brand with the silver label, and made some cheesy toast too. I'm devouring it as I type this and the angels are singing overhead, I swear.

And I'm so frickin' inspired by the dolly dressing I did today that I'm going to attempt to do some more, haha! I just haven't had the time for months now. Sometimes I go for a while without doing Blythey stuff and when I get back to it, I am hit hard with serotonin.

Tonight: Evening walk through the neighborhood and band prep. Tomorrow: band. Friday: Halloween hangs with my great friends J and L. Saturday: Halloween dinner party with my family!

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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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adventures in hand-sewing, part 3 - long-sleeved tops

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.

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adventures in hand-sewing, part 2 - crop tops

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.

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springy skirt on

Another post?? Yes!

Ah, sewing. I'm not good at it! I desperately wish I could be. I do not have the kind of brain that understands construction and how things go together. It also does not understand sizing things or conceptualizing things in steps. We all have our strong suits and understanding how things work is not mine!

But I've been dinking around with hand-sewing tiny doll clothes this past week because I want to make that cosplay for Lamb, as I mentioned. So the other day I made this floaty circle skirt. Klara is kindly wearing it with an old butterscotch-y MINIJIJO petticoat, on top of an ancient pale green Sugar Mag shirt that has a peplum bit the skirt entirely covers. (And a green deer-eared headband felted by me!!)

I did not use any kind of pattern whatsoever making this, which I think might be somewhat obvious. I just cut out a circle and nipped a bit out of it for the waist, and made a waistband for that bit, and hemmed it clumsily. It's even got a snap on the back. Since I don't know what I'm doing, the slight gather at the waist doesn't help the skirt sit prettily. No freakin' clue how to make it look better. Also think I want the skirt to have either more fabric to it, be really ridiculous, or less fabric to it.

I think I could really like sewing if I could acquire the skills necessary. Admittedly I'm very scared of using a sewing machine, so that's a massive hurdle in trying to tackle the whole concept. I looked up local sewing classes just now and got so petrified at the idea of trying to interact with a sewing machine.

But it's a thought. Maybe I'll feel brave and/or reckless enough to sign up for a class.

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holiday dressup

Final video of 2020!

She said, as though she has been making videos for more than a couple of months.

Well, four videos is a lot to make after several years abstaining from such a thing! That's a whole lot to suddenly do. I've really got no plans for how I want to spend my hobby time in the upcoming months, but I may take January off from making doll videos so I can do other stuff: work on my novel (which I've had a hard time with the past two months), crochet, maaaybe get some stuff up on Etsy, finish up other video projects. Or I might film another dressup! Who knows! I'LL DO WHATEVER I WANT!

Anyway, here's a double dolly dressup!

My heart squeezes when I see these girls.

Have a nice Christmas, y'all, and STAY SAFE.

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all about that lace

The amazing Anne sent me a long, fluffy blush-pink tutu/crinoline (uh, amongst numerous other confections!) and it's the definition of "I can't even." Visions of sugar plum fairies, I'm telling you.

I was re-dressing some girls the other day (Beatrix and Plummery) and decided to try it on Klara just for fun. I don't really have a top that does it justice, but I did remember that I bought a vintage Barbie petticoat off Etsy at least a year ago and have never gotten the chance to make an outfit with it, so I layered them!

The petticoat is really, really pretty. It feels delicate and it's embroidered with thread that (I believe) is light pastel and might be variegated. It gives it an iridescent effect without being literally iridescent. Super, super pretty. The blush crinoline makes the petticoat stand out to its fullest potential.

I'd love to find a leotard or some kind of top to complete this ensemble. Right now, Klara's just wearing white knee socks and a white t-shirt. Still a stunna.

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video: Get Klara Ready With Me

Here's the latest video in my "Dolly Dressup" series -- Klara! This was also a request.


This dressup had several technical difficulties, so definitely watch it if you want to witness me breaking headbands some more.

I believe Beatrix is next in line for a dress-up, if I'm remembering my YouTube comments correctly. I also have a couple of other requests that I do want to try and do, but I'm not totally sure how I'll tackle them. (I puzzle about the technical side of video production a lot.)

However, before I do anything else, I think I need to do a channel trailer. My camera's SD cards are full of footage that I keep on them rather than on my very small hard drive, but I'm out of room on the cards, so I really can't film another video until I clear those off anyway. (I need to get another external hard drive!! But my money must go towards therapy this month.) YouTube tells me on the reg to create a channel trailer, so I also want YouTube to shut up.

I've watched several trailers for different types of channels over the past month and I have yet to see one that I really like, that gives me some inspiration as to what mine could perhaps be like... I'm also bad at trying to summarize and sell myself or anything I do. I wonder what to say, et cetera.

Originally, I started Cure Touch because I really wanted a place to talk about my Blythes! I didn't have any fellow doll friends then; I was only out the outskirts of the community -- still am, to be honest. But I could tell RL people didn't grok Blythes and didn't want to hear me talking about them. I just had to gab to someone, somewhere, even if it was just to Blogger.

At the moment, I feel bad for talking about videos here what seems like a lot, but I don't have anyone to talk about videos/YouTube to and so my thoughts want to spill out here. I should feel okay, since this is my hobby blog and I'd post about crocheting or hair dyeing or whatever relatively guilt-free. But those are pretty pleasant topics for me, and you can illustrate with pictures, at least, whereas video-making is more technical/boring, and I'm usually not showing something I'm pleased with, but instead perpetually bemused and riddled with a feeling of uncertainty or frustration for a myriad of reasons. Usually I keep that kind of thing to myself and just post happier things to Cure Touch.

I definitely never meant to have a YouTube channel in the sense of producing content specifically for a YouTube audience. For instance, in terms of the haul video I'm going to film ASAP, I would normally have put the new clothes on my dolls immediately and maybe taken pictures to post here or on Flickr, but now I'm saving them most of them to film for the video. I actually quite like haul videos. But it's a change...

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Ripple Throw Progress Report: A foot in...

Here's 2014's ripple throw with Klara for size comparison. It's about a foot in height!

This is two and a half week's worth of crocheting... I don't work on it every day. Just when I feel like it. It's that kind of thing that makes afghans the perfect project!!

By the way, I am pretty much winging this one. When I finished with the creamsicle color (it's more vibrant in real life than in the pictures I take, for some reason) I hopped right into the melon shade, Vanna's Choice Goldfish, but about a third in to the row, I ripped it out again, thinking the colors would look more distinct if they had a row of white between them. That's my plan!!

Today it is an astonishing 58° here. Extremely cool! I got cold during the night and piled on a blanket and fuzzy socks. It's so wonderful, I have my wind open. This is exactly what I've been craving. Thank you, weather!

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New family portrait!

(click here to embiggen!)

From left to right: Gavin, Lamb, Aury, Klara, Mallow, Bonnet (the Middie), Clarke, Plummery, Petaline, Beatrix, Fey, and Drew!

It was about darn time for new family portrait, seeing as how it's been a little over a year since the last! Oh my gosh. Toting eleven Neos (and a Middie) out into June heat, trying to find shade, is quite an undertaking. And now that I have so many girls, they're kind of hard to fit into a line up-style picture! There I was, taking picture after picture where Aury looked like she was about to fall over, and I didn't even see it in real life.

It is definitely amazing to see how my gaggle of girls has grown over the past four years. They each have special memories attached. Some were gifts (Plummery, Petaline and Lamb were given to me by friends!); some have traveled with me; some have been my muses; some had technical difficulties; some have been deboxed on YouTube; some have been called particularly creepy; almost all have worked as models for Etsy.

And it all started with my Ice Rune, Aury. I love her so much. My favoritism is absolutely blatant. If my house was on fire, she is the one thing I'd grab to rescue.

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I'm a fool for April

Dressed up all my Blythes for a family portrait! Lamb (second to right) fits right in. Alas for Bonnet, I am not too great at taking pictures of Middies.

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Blythe goals

My gang of Blythe dolls standing in a row atop my desk has really been a source of great joy for me the past several years. They truly make me happy when I look up at them, and it can be relaxing for me just to spend time looking at them.

It's fun for me to style them and take pictures of them too, but they often reflect my aesthetics and current color passions, so I derive strange joy from just having them standing around and also being really particular and fussy with the way I have each girl dressed.

When I go places, sometimes I sneak a girl with me like a talisman of strength, or just a friend. I like to have one standing or sitting by me when I'm crafting. I like to make little hats for them, so they give me something to do with my hands. If I didn't have dolls to make hats for... well, boxes of other things I've made are still sitting around in my room, so in my nightmarescape my room would look much more like an episode of Hoarders waiting to happen.

So Blythes for me are a creative outlet, and also like art/decor and comfort objects all at once. I don't consider myself a collector, even though by now they number enough to be considered a collection; I just think of them as my Blythe family and I have such an affection for each one. I even had a dream about Beatrix last night!

Anyway, even when I haven't changed half of them in a month (or sometimes several months if I really like the way they're dressed), I enjoy them literally every day. I want to indulge myself in some focus after a year of spending a lot of my free time writing, and not buying too many dolly duds or taking too many pictures. So I have a little list of "Blythe goals," or just things I'd really like to do in the coming year...

Easy:

• do ADAD for a month (I'm thinking February or March)
• find a charm for Mallow's pullstring
• buy some more tights, socks, and separates
• give Gavin and Mallow a spa day
• new family portrait to include Lamb!

Medium:

• sew another felt A-line dress
• knit another hat!
• finally, finally do a closet cleanout on Blythe Kingdom... why is this so hard??

Laughably Ambitious:

• really make my dumb DIY lightbox more usable
• make a little scale doll room/diorama
• get a faceup for Bonnet and possibly Gavin

I have no hard, fast goals -- besides very definitely picking a month to do ADAD and sticking to it, no matter how boring I feel my pictures are or if I'm totally nocturnal and have no light -- but lots of thoughts/shoulds!

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ruffled feathers

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box-fresh Mallow

I always leave a girl in her stock for a few days; sometimes I am nervous to take them out of it. I know this is probably weird -- I don't even like Coco Collette's stock too well, nor did I like Prima Dolly Paris's or Simply Peppermint's -- but I just like to get to know a girl on my own time. I think it's part of my "bonding" process.

But the other day I took a new family portrait (yay!) and of course, because I have weird color organization tendencies, they all needed to be wearing pink in their own special little ways. I had bought this little floral frock on Etsy quite cheaply, but when Mallow arrived I held it up to her and thought, "Oh, this seems too plain for her," and put it to the side to slip onto another girl. Just before I headed out into the unbelievable heat to take a portrait, though, I did give the dress a go... and I think she looks perfectly sweet in it! Meant to be, I think!

How pleasing! I am already really in love Mallow and how she fits into my family.

As I've said, like most CoCos, she has an eye mech issue that I'll eventually attend to, and I do want to switch out some of her chips... and I know she could do with a hair treatment. Her bangs are pretty wonky and uneven on one side. But at the moment I love the floaty quality of her hair, which has a tiny amount of wave and curl in it. Something about Mallow is very delicate and airy, despite her flawed eyes and crooked fringe, and I don't want to lose that airiness somehow.

My last NRFB girls were Very Vicky and Vinter Arden a while back, and both of them came with traumatizing hair issues that required treatment before I had even named either of them, so to be honest, I am just glad Mallow didn't arrive with her hair in literal knots!

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hot outside; cold inside!

Surrounded by embroidery floss and hoops... florals... scraps of felt... and a bad tendency to sort things into color families kicking up and causing me to rearrange all my shelves and dress all my Blythes accordingly!

While embroidering, I've been watching (or rather, listening to) makeup videos on YouTube, just as background noise. I don't wear makeup all too often, even though I like it in general -- much more, I like watching organization videos! I love seeing how people organize their collections and talk about their passions!

Particularly fun was to see some of these big beauty gurus who actually borderline make a living off of doing their videos do a $20 makeup challenge without their high-end products or brushes. There was some glorious schadenfreude happening on my part, let me tell you.

Other stuff I've been up to:

• fantasizing about rippling again... I really want to!
• writing, writing, writing for a project that ends June 15th!
• watching a BBC show called Antiques Uncovered - obsessed!
• listening to "Threw It On The Ground" a lot... because it's inspiring???

PS: I have an adorable Deena and Ozzy wallet that I love so much I haven't been in the market for a new wallet for some time, but when I saw this one at Target, how could I resist? Well, I couldn't! Sheesh!

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Ripple Throw Progress Report: three-quarters there

(Pardon my pajamas and feet.)

Yes, it's That Time. The time for me to bask in the ever-increasing glow of my ripple blanket. It really is quite the beast now! I would guess it's about 70-75% of the way done. It's very warm and heavy. As the weather grows warmer, it becomes a sweaty sort of affair to work on, covering my lap and legs as completely as it does. There are cooler days here and there, or evenings when the air conditioner is on, and I like to work on it then.

So far it's about four feet tall, and getting hard to take pictures of.

Here are some visual aids...

Currently I need to buy one more skein of yarn (I'm using three different whites, although I'm not sure you can tell, and I want them to feel evenly distributed between snow white, dull white, and cream) and then I think from there the goal will just be to keep going till I'm out of the yarn I have left, and call it done! I estimate a couple more feet or so! It's all by ear, so whatever works out is pretty fine with me. This has been such a fun project for me so far. I hardly ever do things bigger than little Blythe hats. I have liked having a pet project that I can pick up and feel like I've made progress on, even if it's one stripe here and seven there.

Today's delights:

• nachos - yummm
• springy, stormy weather
• doing hard burn on a writing project! Tunnel vision!!

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big blue eyes

I can't believe March is almost over already. I lost about 3/4 of it to allergies. I'm looking forward to April just because it won't be March!

Today the mail brought a pretty blue-green floral dress from princess51. I have another blue floral dress from her that I bought last year, and I love it! When I went to grab her URL just now I and I saw an apricot floral dress. Snatched!!

April is quite a blue month. When I saw this picture of Allison Harvard (internet sensation and two-time America's Next Top Model contestant) I thought, "It's April blue!" With my slight color synesthesia, I see Mondays, January, February, April, and August as various shades of blue.

Allison, who basically looks like a human Blythe doll, seems to have one, if I am to believe this picture. Is it just me, or is that an ADG Pleasant Peasant?

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