beret life in miniature

Ahhh, Junie Moon just dropped BERETS!

I have been really into berets this winter, and have been joking about living the "beret life." I'm only making any kind of deal about it because I tend to get comments when I wear berets?? I don't know if it's because I can't pull them off or I look too twee or just what, really. I have been spoken to in French! I have been asked about my "raspberry beret." (To be fair, I was wearing one in a color that could be considered berry-ish. Berry-adjacent.) Thus I have wholly embraced BERET LIFE, which includes all the commentary that for some reason comes with it!

I think people mean well and the berets are, for them, something they feel they can make conversation about. But at the same time, I can't term a lot of what people have said to me as complimentary?? I don't know; they make me feel playful and happy. It's just dopamine dressing, you know?

Anyway: When I saw Junie Moon post about these new items, I was like, "I HAVE TO GET AT LEAST ONE!" To me it's so delightful they'd come out with these great-looking berets right when I'm notably into berets and have been looking on Etsy for Blythe berets and waffling about which to buy.

But Junie Moon posted them on Instagram before actually making them available in the shop, so I had to wait. I slapped Japan onto my world clock and scooped a couple of these the minute they went live! It was noon in Japan but nine o'clock at night for me. (This was nostalgic for me because I used to do PoupeeGirl on JST.) I actually had a dream the previous night about buying them, so you might say I made my dream come true.

I got the ones pictured at the top of the post, in camel and ivory. I have a camel colored one too, so you just know I'm eager to twin it up!

PS: I'm still in the market for more types of berets for Blythe, like knitted/crocheted ones!

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mushroom bag!

Just thought I'd post about this mushroom bag I got from Maobabie! (Direct listing here!)

I saw prototypes for this bag a long time ago on Twitter and waited ages for them to drop! When they did, I became paralyzed with indecision about what color to get. So paralyzed that I never pulled the trigger on getting one. I don't usually spend much on purses. Buuut I finally ended up getting one when they went on sale months later. As you can see, I got the yellow one!

It's not the roomiest bag ever, not gonna lie! I can fit my Switch Lite and phone in it, but not much room remains.

If I have the time to Tetris things out, I can fit all this in it, but I don't really want to have to Tetris on the fly. Especially not in front of people! A woman at the grocery store stared at me as I went through self-check out and was fitting my wallet back into the bag. She said, derisively, "I don't know how you can fit anything in that bag. It's cute, though."

"It's not very practical, is it," said my dad, another time.

I have gotten compliments on it too, though! From a random dude who works at the pharmacy, even. "Is your bag..."

"A mushroom!" I said.

"A mushroom! That's so cute."

So true, bestie, and thank you for refilling my Prozac on this day.

I've been carrying it for a couple of months now and I think it's more of a "going out and socializing, accessorizing a cute dress" purse than a "running daily errands" purse, if that makes sense. A conversation piece, for sure.

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paint it pink™

So, dealing with health issues is only one thing I've been up to. For the past two weeks or so, my room has been torn up in various ways, as I've been painting it pink. (Duh!) My room has been green for at least ten years, and I've been planning to paint it pink for 2+ years; I've had paint samples I got back in 2014 sitting in my room all this time.

Last week, I was at Home Depot five out of seven days, picking up samples and finally gallons of paint, and new outlet covers, as mine had been essentially painted to the wall. I was painting patches on the wall and wasn't satisfied with any shade; I was having a hell of a time getting the pink to be light enough. I was moving all my furniture in stages, gathering up tons of stuff in bags (my dolls are all each individually wrapped and in my closet), spackling nail holes, taping, and finally painting.

I chose a very pale pink that was technically under the "red-toned whites" section.

The above picture is off my phone and I took it while in the process last week, so it's weird and grainy and not completely color-accurate, especially since that was only one coat deep. The green was gnarly to cover up, I don't mind saying. It literally took three coats to not be able to see green through it. It also took many days of revisiting, as I did my room two walls at a time.

In the midst of all this, I was going to doctor's appointments and getting bad news and immediately dealing with it. I was sleeping away from home half the time so I wouldn't be inhaling paint fumes all night. So coming home to my room being not so much the sanctuary it typically is, all my stuff packed away or otherwise inaccessible, has really contributed to my sense of stress. I really didn't know I was going to be dealing with health stuff or I might not have started the project.

Painting my room was, in the first place, something I was finally doing for myself, something in the vein of self-care. A change, something else I could put focus and energy towards (e.g., substitute obsessive thoughts about bad things with obsessive thoughts about painting) -- something to make me happy. The process hasn't been super smooth, but now that I'm rounding the bend with my progress and have the actual painting part totally done, I'm really looking forward to getting my room back to being functional and tidy. I think that will actually help my mental state a lot.

It's time for me to tackle the cluster of furniture, move stuff back where it's supposed to be, get rid of things I think I can part with, and ponder about more small changes to my space.

Currently I'm also repainting my bedside bookcase, and I still need to spray paint my mirror, but I haven't been able to make myself get back to Home Depot just yet.

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e.c. mini (my bag, baby)

Happy Friday the 13th! I'm getting good vibes off this day.

Last weekend was the ol' b-day, and I don't mind telling you it was a prosperous one. I got hella gifted! It was a pleasant surprise. I kind of dread birthdays, for every conceivable reason. I'm getting older? I have to socialize?? I have to think about my life whilst feeling it run out like so much sand in the hour glass and reminisce and wind up feeling existentially horrible?

I am not a hugely material person (although I know my propensity for going "yay!" here and taking pictures of things I've recently gotten doesn't make it seem such; I appreciate stuff, of course. I am a Taurus) but get truly touched at the notion of anyone thinking of me in particular. Being known as a person is just nice, and I got a few gifts this year that made me go, "Wow, this person really knows me and my whole steeze." My best friend K sent me a package with lots of stuff in it, but I wanted to take pictures of this item in particular just because it's so stinking cute??

It is a wooden box bag from the 60s, made by Enid Collins, and it has a pink mouse (!!) on it! In person it looks extremely good, too -- the eye doesn't catch the imperfections that the camera lens does. It is so buttery in person. I love vintage as much as the next Beatrix, but it also it tends not to suit my personal style, but this is PERFECTION!

K and her mom both collect these box bags, which can be carried as a purse or just displayed. She called it "mid-century Etsy" in style, and she's delightfully right. But more than that, UUGHHH!! She said that she thought of me when she saw this design and hunted one down for me, and it really is perfect. It totally just goes with me.

I can probably fit my phone, a pack of gum, a tube of lip balm, and a small card-holder situation in here if I want to really carry it. It has this gigantic mirror in the lid!

Right now it's just on display hanging from the toadstool hook by my mirror. Looks so cute!!

(Oh, and for posterity, I found a couple of "this looks like it belongs in my room" tissue paper sets in the dollar section of Target and have been making these little tassel garlands out of them. My room absolutely doesn't need this going on, in retrospect.)

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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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Moody!

Pardon these blurry phone pics. I just put them together randomly for this post, but they are pics of some of my rings! Specifically, the upper shot is was taken the day before I lost that mood ring. I took the picture because I was anxious and it was lingering in a half green, half purple state, which I was bemused by.

I am in deep, deep mourning for my lost mood ring. I had to go through a metal detector at security someplace, and somehow it disappeared from the plastic tub where I had put my hoodie and this ring, delicately perched atop the folded hoodie. I even asked the security guards and they looked around for a few minutes for it. I don't know where it could've gone, but it's not in my hoodie's pockets or anything.

It wasn't an expensive ring, or anything. I got it at Claire's back in December, in a little set with a few other rings, for about $7. It's just that I've already gone back into Claire's to try and find the same ring set, as well as looked at their online store, and haven't been able to.

I have just recently gotten into wearing more rings, and different rings every day. My hands are small and my fingers are stumpy so I don't really like to call attention to them -- nor do I like sparkly, blingy rings. But dang it, I've worn the same ring every day for so long that I can't remember when I got it (I feel like it's been 10 years, or something), so it's been nice to shake things up.

Anyway, as much as I want that mood ring back, I don't need it to tell what kind of mood I am in. I'm in an abnormally low mood so far this month. This just happens sometimes, you know? Brain chemistry. It will pass, and until it does, I am just doing the best I can to take care of basic day-to-day things.

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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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September styles

Right now, a bunch of my girls are wearing a particular combination: sweaters + shorts. I'm so ready for fall, but acknowledge that it's still summer out, so I wind up compromising with a little of each.

Beatrix's vintage Ken doll sweater is actually too big... the sleeves come down over her hands, and I have a bobby pin cinching the sweater in back. But it's such a gnarly retro look! I love it! She looks ready to get back to school and nerd out in the library.

Still doting on Wisp. This is only her second outfit change. I'm sure I'll put her in something other than lovely browns, but her hair is swaying me big-time.

Wisp and Aury (I love taking pics of my first girl, Aury, with my latest doll!!) are wearing mimundoblythe sweaters -- I highly recommend them!

I haven't just sat around taking pics of my dolls in what feels like a good while. I enjoyed it so much!

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hustlin'

So much on my plate lately. I feel really behind in almost every area of my life. I wish there was a defragging process for my brain.

For the past couple of months, I've had a YouTube channel trailer in the works. I finally finished it up and posted it last week.


For a 30-second affair, this took me an unreasonable amount of time to finish.

I didn't save any of the footage from my videos prior to somewhat recently. It's dozens of gigabytes, and my little old computer just can't handle holding footage for more than one video at a time... maybe two, max, depending. I pretty much had to trash the footage as well as the finished copy of the video every time I made one, so I don't have most of my videos in any format anymore. They only exist on YouTube.

However, when I realized I was going to attempt a channel trailer, I knew I needed to keep my hands on as much footage as I could manage. I kept everything I could manage to on my camera's SD cards. This summer, I invested in a second external hard drive to be able to transfer other files off my computer and clear some room, as well as back up footage shot for videos.

Just to create the trailer, I had a dozen or so huge, huge files of footage from various different videos, plus the transcoded footage also, so it took up far more room than it should've while I slowly picked out three-second bits from ten-minute chunks of footage and wondered what I was even doing.

Even at the best of times, I have very mixed feelings about YouTube, and sometime, I'll talk more about that. Right now, I'm just happy it's done!

Recently, also, Michelle from BlytheLife.com interviewed me! You can read that here if you want! I talk a little about blogging vs. vlogging. Looking through my folders for pictures to include was a real trip down a very happy memory lane. Five years in and I'm still convinced my Aury brightened my life.

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Two-Day Trippin': Treasure Trail

I don't need to tell you this, probably, but Texas in the summer is boiling hot! While there, we had meant to do some more sight-seeing than we did. There's a toy museum right next to our hotel and we were all interested in visiting it. However, after walking to some antique stories nearby and giving them a look, we all felt absolutely miserable from the heat and agreed to come back when it wasn't the height of summer.

One antique store had a puzzling amount of fairy figurines. ABSOLUTELY PUZZLING. Hundreds of them. I liked this one. She was sitting amongst geodes.

For some reason I took a picture every time I saw a clown painting, picture, figurine, whatever... but I don't want to post those on my blog, haha. There were tons of them.

I had been looking around in all the antique stores we visited specifically with an eye for miniatures. I saw several miniature tea sets and a few doll trunks that were out of my budget and not my taste anyway, and weirdly, I found an entire basket of doll hair. Just hair. Just hair in bags. Otherwise I didn't see too much. But I scored something at the last store!

I got a set of four Blythe-size wicker furniture pieces, all for a total of $14. I haven't sat a doll in them yet because they're a little bit grimy, and in some places, splattered with some kind of blue ink or paint.

I'm going to clean them as best I can and touch them up where they've been stained, but I like the shabby chic look, so I don't want to lose that. Size-wise I am fairly sure they'll fit my dolls well, but if not, I feel like they'll still be cool "set" pieces, if you know what I mean.

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Night & Day

Recently I was alerted by a YouTube viewer to the fact that there was a Takara Shoe Cruise Night Set on eBay -- I had expressed regret in not buying one when they were still new in 2010. Back then I purchased the Day Set, which is, as you might imagine, lighter.

I dug the red Mary Janes and brown strappy sandal-boot-things (what are these, even?) in the night set but couldn't see myself using the black boots with purple trim or the blue bowed boots. But that was then, and this is now! Petaline wears plums constantly and is almost always wearing the riding boots, so the Night Set's boots are now totally in her wheelhouse.

I definitely paid twice as much for the Night Set as I did the Day Set. Oof! I feel a little gouged, and wasn't expecting to make a splurgey purchase, but I also feel so certain that I will use at least three out of the four pairs of shoes constantly, since that is definitely the case for the Day set. It's been tremendously useful and I'm pleased to have some variations of some of my favorite shoe molds!

I'm sort of behind on posting, like with my decluttering videos (they're kind of outdated since I've already sent out almost everything I decided to part with!), but I've been so busy and utterly exhausted! I sort of want to post them here just for posterity, though. I have two other videos -- one that just needs editing and one that needs to be filmed -- on the horizon, as well, and neither have to do with decluttering, so that's exciting. For me. And only me.

More soon.

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Retail therapy.

R-R-R-Rough stuff lately! Yesterday I had a desperately-needed therapy session and was prescribed a new medication, which I hope works, but I've been on the same meds for years, so messing with that is producing some anxiety for me. I'd rather not really get into it here when I'm doing badly, so let's focus on the aftermath... which is that I've indulged in some retail therapy.

Earlier my mom and sister told me they were heading to a department store at the mall to look for clothes and asked if I wanted to go, and just to get out of the house and stop crying at the computer, I went. I wasn't in need of any clothes and really didn't look for or want any. I just followed my mom around, commenting about what I thought was cute. She got a couple of shirts. My younger sister didn't find anything she wanted.

We had some fries at the food court and chatted about various childhood memories of ours, which was lovely, and decided to stop off at a much younger-skewing store I got a cute cream-colored faux-leather jacket a couple of years ago. (The store is rue 21, by the way.)

My younger sister found some stuff she liked there, and I locked eyes with this bag immediately. It's so fricking cute!! And it was $20, so, yay.

I've found I really like small bags. They may not carry as much, but that just means I'm not digging around endlessly in them for stray this or that. I also found this wallet, which is very "me," with its pink and its lace...

They were having a two wallets for $10 deal, so I got this one for myself to go in my slender new bag and one with elephants printed on it for my other sister, who wasn't with us. We also got her a $5 shirt with elephants printed on it. So, we kinda hit the jackpot! I'm glad we decided to swing by that store.

(I also got another item, which hopefully, I'll post about here in the next week or two. It's a post I've been compiling for a few weeks...)

When we got home, my sis and I kicked back and played some retro video games (Tetris, Dr. Mario, Yoshi's Cookie, and the incongruous Killer Instinct) while we listened to Gwen Stefani. I'm not sure I can express how much I needed to get out of the house, to relax and play meaningless games with somebody. I am really pleased with my purchases, especially the purse. It's probably my fave bag I've bought in years.

But more than buying stuff... more than material items or how (in)expensive they were... I appreciate the unexpected nature of stumbling across something that really delighted me, and I appreciate spending time with some of the people who mean the most to me, and I appreciate that my mom and I got excited about snagging my absent sister some stuff, too. It was fun to bring some things to her.

I have other stuff I've bought on the way... Blythe stuff. I technically broke my rule to never spend more than $20 on a single item, but if there was ever a week to do it, it was this week. T.G.I.F., y'all.

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Cold Shower Challenge

And now for something completely different:

I'm on day 12 of a 30-day Cold Shower Challenge! This is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Instead of hot showers, I'm taking cold showers every day.

I came about this challenge because I'm steadily active on HabitRPG -- a site that makes a rewarding game out of completing your to-do lists and taking care of your daily tasks. I absolutely love this site. As well as joining parties, which can keep you accountable because what you do affects the other members of your party, there are many groups you can join there. For instance, I'm in the groups Introverts, Mentally Ill, The Wordsmiths, The Overachievers, Life Hackers, and Knitting and Crocheting... amongst some others. People can create challenges for groups (such as to use up your stash, if you're in the Knitting and Crocheting group). This is a general Tavern challenge, open to anyone. 435 other players on HabitRPG are doing this challenge with me at the moment.

"I don't know how you can stand it! It sounds horrible!" my parents have both told me, which surprises me because I've been finding it so easy, and even pleasurable.

Only the first two showers had me wincing like a wimp and internally shrieking. By day 5 or so, it ceased bothering me beyond the first ten or so seconds in the shower -- especially because it's just a mental game. Honestly. If you think it's going to be horrid, it will probably be horrid. But I immediately envision that I'm a mermaid in a blue lagoon and that the cold water crashing down on me is from a waterfall. It instantly transforms the temperature from unwelcome to refreshing.

Cold water is supposed to be integral to keeping color in your hair, so this is great for me right now, anyway!   I had been trying to use cool water when rinsing my hair before I began this challenge anyway. Because I don't want to wash my hair every single day, I've been using a shower cap for the first time ever and am finding that more bizarre than anything... I guess I'm just used to washing my hair every time I shower. I don't like to wash my hair more than twice a week. However, I really like the feeling of cold water hitting my head, so I look forward to hair washing days. It really does remind me of summertime when I was younger, going to the pool and rinsing off in the showers 'fore and aft. I think dousing your head immediately also goes a long way in getting the rest of your body quickly adjusted to the cold.

There supposedly are lots of benefits to taking cold showers. I'm no scientist, so I can't really make factual statements, but I repeatedly see people state that they're good for your circulation and good for your skin and hair. Also, you shower faster when you are taking a cold shower, and it's good to use less water.

In fact, I've cut my shower time down to under 4 minutes for shower cap days and under 7 minutes for days when I am washing my hair. (I've actually been timing it every day.) When I'm in there for 6 minutes, I actually feel like I've been in there forever already, and am shocked when I get out and my phone timer tells me I took under 7 minutes. I never really timed myself taking a hot shower, but if I had to guess, I would peg it more at 12-15 minutes. Minutes really stack up when you're just standing there.

Anyway, this is an odd post, I know, but I've really been enjoying this challenge. It's easy, it's super-invigorating, really helps me feel energized, and is helping me beat the end-of-the-summer heat.

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things to look forward to

Oh! I've been working so much; it brings me lots of stress, so I have trouble disconnecting from that and concentrating on pleasurable activities.

But with work, there are rewards! Here's some things I'm really excited about...

I'm going to go see Sucre, the Honey Trees, and Merriment on tour in September!! I'm very stoked. Concerts are anxiety-inducing for me to attend, but I have seen Eisley... four times? And Merriment opened for them the last time I saw them. But I never thought I'd be able to see the Honey Trees live. Liking all three bands on a single tour is so rare!

One of my paychecks went to this beaut, a Fender Squier Affinity Stratocaster in Surf Green.

I'm buggin'! Looking at guitars in pawn shops in June -- and getting to sit down and play a few -- really solidified my desire to get an electric guitar. I watched reviews on this model and it's cheap but very playable, and I love that it comes in fun, retro colors. (I almost got the pink one... of course. This minty one is almost the color of my bedroom, which I've been considering painting, so I thought if I did paint it, I'd still love to have something minty.)

Now I've just got to choose an amp! If they're not little $20 portable, battery-powered amps, they can be very pricey! I need one I can plug headphones into, so as not to disturb my family.

The new Sailor Moon anime, Sailor Moon Crystal, has started airing. They only air one episode every two weeks and it's strange to be watching the same story for the umpteenth time, but it's definitely something I've been enjoying. My favorite version of Sailor Moon is by far the live-action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. But I actually like the waify manga-echoing style of the new anime more than the old anime... which is pretty heretical, I know! A lot of people don't like the new henshin sequence but I think it's beautiful. I also love the new theme song. Mercury has been introduced, but I can't wait to see Mars, Jupiter, and Venus.

You can watch Sailor Moon Crystal on Crunchyroll for free.

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the dire diarist

Pardon my Lemony Snicket-style post title. I've been cleaning out my room and closet and I just realized how many journals I have sitting in my bedside bookcase alone. I have stacks more in my closet dating all the way back to elementary school! Do I really want to have my diary from third grade hanging around all my life? I'm not sure, but I can't bear to part with it yet. Ditto for my middle school diaries.

In high school, I switched to digital journaling -- at first just in a text file on my computer, then when I got internet access, on blogs, diaryland, LiveJournal. I began to write on paper again after high school, and have journaled steadily since then.

I seem to get a journal or two every Christmas and I almost always use them. I just started that green woodland creatures journal on the right in March and I'm already past half done with it, so I bought a few new ones with the gift card my grandma gave me for my birthday...

Heart, heart, heart! I really prefer a larger-sized ledger to these smaller ones, but there's lots of gorgeous options available in the smaller size.

In the back of one, I tested the set of Staedtler pens I also got and wrote down each of their names, which aren't listed on the packaging but are available on the website. How pleased was I to see Van Dyke Brown? It reminded me of Bob Ross.

I also taped in a little strip of all the washi tape I've shamefully collected as a guide to what they each look like off the roll.

I love emptying out my noisy brain into these things. It's mostly boring listing of activities, notations of worries, and grousing. If I die young, bury me in satin, and also just throw away these journals.

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bunnies in the backyard alert

I saw three little bunnies in the backyard this morning. My guess is that they were probably going to hide Easter eggs, but they froze when they saw me. Two scampered away and one remained and let me take a lot of pictures of him!

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