Showing posts with label plummery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plummery. Show all posts

family portrait 2024

Thursday, February 22, 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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mushroom skirt!

Sunday, January 14, 2024

I made another skirt! It's this dark green one with a mushroom print. I saw the fabric, which I really love, and thought it'd make a cute circle skirt for Blythes. For this skirt I relied on this video tutorial/pattern, rather than just kind of winging it, like I did with the last skirt I sewed.

This one has a lot of gathering; I've never successfully gathered anything before, and to be honest, I didn't find it very easy to arrange and settle everything how I wanted it. My skirt did not resemble 1:1 the skirt in the video while it was in progress. But the process was an educational experience, haha.

I would very much enjoy attaining more skirts that are about this length, or a little longer. I recently got one of these from CraftyCoraShop and I really like it; it's long and gives historical dress vibes! (I scooped three more in other colors just now!) Shorter skirts and miniskirts don't always feel right on some of my girls.

I miiigght take another swing at this pattern sometime, with some other fabric?

Between the hat, the top, and the skirt, I made almost this entire outfit!!! :)

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Plummery looking autumnal

Sunday, December 10, 2023

I thought before it's too close to Christmas time, I'd share these pics of Plummery looking autumnal! Dressed for the chill in the air! Her dress is divine and to die for. Look at that bodice!!! Look at that little orange Peter Pan collar!

Recently a tag was going around on Instagram: "Post your favorite stock Blythe." I'm not sure if I have absolute favorites in terms of Blythes, but I adore Dear Lele Girl and to this day consider myself so lucky to have this little mori girl. She was a grail doll for me and I love her, and so I posted her on my Insta stories for that tag. And I felt motivated to take pictures of her today.

It's hard to see her socks, but they're rust-colored and I sewed 'em! I also made her scarf!

dress: DressingBlythe
ear muffs: Reve de Rui
boots: helloCoolCat
scarf: knitted by me!
socks: made by me!

I'm quite simply aching to take a redhead family picture, with Plummery, Winny, and Citron!!! As of yet I've only dressed Citron once, and I'm the most puzzled about her personal style. I gotta figure that out. It's tempting to stick with the Victorian theme?? Adventurous yet vintage? Gibson Girl Archaeologist? Hmmm...

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video: Get Plummery Ready With Me

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Hello, loved ones. Today I am posting a video! Someone said I should call this series "Dolly Dressup," and so I shall.


I'm trying out a different style of thumbnail!

Dressup vids are my favorite to make. Just getting to dress my dolls is fun for me, and I like to edit them the most. I've said this before, but it bears repeating: I don't particularly love the filming part of the process, but I like the editing a lot. It might just be because I have a lot of prior editing experience and can get into that "flow" state when I'm focused on it.

This is the first video I've made using my new microphone to record the voice over. I had just been using an old webcam Scotch-taped to the end of a ruler and stuck in my pencil cup. Really, though! Like, whatever works, you know? But I knew a real mic with a pop filter would be beneficial to me if I intended to make videos with lots of voice overs. (Which I like more than being on camera, personally.) I've listened to past videos with VOs and I think I can tell a difference. It's probably worth fiddling with settings on some day when I am feeling patient and willing to listen to my own voice more.

In other news, people have begun to send me pictures of dresses they kindly bought from my decluttering series and IT IS SO EXCITING! I like feeling connected to people in this hobby. Someone sent me pics of their Licca doll in an outfit, and they had styled the piece they bought from me ingeniously. (Brava, Marco!)

Well, I am fighting off the savage self-sabotaging attacks of my inner critic, so off I go to fortify with positive self-talk and cleaning.
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video: Blythe Styling Tips

Thursday, April 16, 2015


The past few days for me have been dedicated to getting this video finished up! You wouldn't believe how long it takes to make a ten-minute video when you are filming so many small things, working with so many shots, and have so many gigs of HD footage that your little ol' computer starts warning you that you have no space left.


Anyway, I made this in response to a request for such a thing, and before I went ahead with it I put a lot of thought into whether I really had any styling "tips" at all. As I say in the video, this kind of stuff is so subjective! It's not like there's a right or wrong to any of it. I was wondering, what are legit ideas I can share, and what are the things I do that simply boil down to personal preference? Do I really have advice to share that is useful to anyone? Like, literally helpful? I feel funny saying this video has styling tips, when really, I think it's more like me saying, "Well, this is what I do and what I like..."

This was hanging around half-finished on my hard drive for a month so I'm really happy to have it done, even with my general tendency towards mixed feelings in regards to my videos.
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Spring! Sprung!

Monday, April 6, 2015


Spring has arrived, and brought all its local eccentricities with it. Tornadoes! Wildly fluctuating temperatures! Being too hot indoors because it's not A/C time yet, and easily getting too cold when you do enter establishments with A/C turned on! Everything was brown until a recent spate of thunderstorms, and then seemed to turn green literally overnight.


Plummery is rocking this little mustard yellow helmet from The Crochet Factor! I bought three items from this shop and I'm only opening them up one at a time, to prolong the "new clothes!" excitement. I just love these helmets, though. They're so simple and sweet, but the texture of them is wonderful and the color selection is great. I'm going to buy more sometime!

Also, Plummery is wearing a dress from Sweet By Nim. I ordered these in mid-December (I mentioned them in my end-of-2014 Blythe haul video!) and there were lots of delays in every phase of delivery, so I didn't get them until the end of February. It was crazy.


Still romancing my 50mm lens. It's taking some getting used to since it doesn't have a zoom, but I increasingly enjoy it. I must position myself relative to the framing I want in the picture rather than let the zoom do that for me. But it's worth it for that creamy bokeh. The kit lens my Canon came with is awesome and the lazy part of me loves dat autofocus, but I also love controlling exactly where I want the focus to be with this lens. The kit lens is also very, very long, and very heavy, and the 50mm is so much lighter.

I continue to wait for my replacement light bulbs to arrive. It's been over a week since I ordered them. People have been subscribing to my YouTube channel a lot lately and asking where I am... eek!!

Stuff I've Been Up To:
  • tons of spring cleaning! Room in disarray; checklist isn't even half done
  • watching iZombie (if you like Veronica Mars, this feels extremely similar) and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (if you like 30 Rock, you'll like this)
  • painting pots for my sweet little cacti
  • finally attaching a ton of granny squares
  • tentatively writing again...
  • tentatively knitting again...
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tiny knitting part two

Monday, January 5, 2015


I have to say, I am immensely pleased with the way these toothpick knitting needles turned out! (By the way, I had been intending on finagling some playscale knitting somehow, but this post on Blythe Life was the bizzity best.)


I made three sets because I've had these great wooden beads on hand for years now, and only use them rarely on hats and such. They come in three shades and they are a perfect fit for the toothpicks! Super perfect!! I'm really pleased! I can't wait to make a whole knitting basket...

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Ripple Throw Progress Report: 5/7

Sunday, October 19, 2014



Just checking in on my 2014 ripple throw's progress (and indulging my crazy color compulsions with my Blythes; nothing new here)! I'm currently estimating it'll have seven swathes of color, but that's only an estimate. I feel like I'm about 70% done.

I had no particular vision for this throw's whole look besides knowing that I wanted to do larger swathes of color, but not just two alternating colors. Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about it! I enjoy the process of rippling, so the outcome isn't everything, and I'll only know how I really feel when I lay it over the end of my bed, probably.


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New family portrait!

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

(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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end of the year Blythe haulin'

Tuesday, December 31, 2013


Lately I've been looking more actively for Blythe clothes than I have been for much of this year. I've gotten this cute sweatshirt from Tinkerina, two adorable dresses from Chubby Whale with lovely colors and pretty bodices, and these two knitted outfits from StorybookBlythe!


I didn't meet my Blythe goals, let me tell you! I didn't do ADAD, I never found a good pull charm for Mallow (though I looked many times on Etsy), I didn't do a closet cleanout! All I did this year was work on my writing project!! But I did take a new family portrait to include Lamb, and I did practice knitting the same hat over and over. I still feel happy and satisfied with my doll family! They are always there for me when I need some quiet companionship. Hard to believe I've been Blything it up for four years now!

Happy New Year, everyone! See you in 2014 with more random posts!
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I'm a fool for April

Monday, April 1, 2013


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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sweet Sunday

Sunday, February 10, 2013


I decided to revisit this gnome hat pattern with yarn I actually like, rather than the only DK yarn I could find at the craft store. My BFF E gave me two skeins of delicious Malabrigo Silky Merino some time ago, and they've been decor for me since, sitting on a shelf with other pretty things. I guess I'm a cheap acrylic yarn girl at heart; I feel bad if I can't make something really nice with really nice yarn, and my skills are just not that great with crochet or knitting, so I haven't had the heart to use it till now. Anyway, I decided to bite the bullet and use the Piedras skein for this hat, which once plopped upon Plummery's wee head, was perfect.

I confess, after the first time I made this hat a while ago I was quite elated and tried twice more to make it again, only to mess up both times, get discouraged, and quit knitting for a while again. But I've been practicing my knitting rather a lot the past couple of weeks. I've made two dishcloths and this hat, and I was so pleased with myself that I decided to make the hat again.


This yarn looks and feels like bubblegum. So soft.

So far, I haven't messed up and been unable to fix it. I've "tinked," I've had the needles slip out of the loops twice and had to carefully re-insert. Knitting, man. It's stressful.

I have yet to block anything I've knitted; it's just something I don't understand as of yet, and will have to research on YouTube to figure out.

When I went out to the table, I found my mom decorating cookies. How cute are they? My mom is the literal cutest. I need a cookie decorating label for this blog. You don't know how often we decorate cookies in my house.


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fire and ice

Monday, January 14, 2013


Plummery makes it look practically warm outside. Nope! It's icy!


Currently I'm...

  • listening to: a playlist called "90s Pain!!!"
  • eating: toasted peanut butter and banana sandwiches -- so Elvis
  • working on: three short stories (only one has a good prognosis, probably...)
  • thinking about: what my UOL Blythe's name is!!
  • watching: everything YouTube has to offer on the Antikythera mechanism

Happy Monday!
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pumpkin girls

Monday, October 15, 2012


Oh, yes. It is October. The weather here is mild and there is absolutely no color. My mom and I bought pumpkins for a little color and they are the only fall-ish things around other than my felt garland and cinnamon-scented candle habit.

My best friend (since 2003!) K is arriving tonight from the San Francisco area, and she'll be visiting me for two weeks. We met online and have met up in person many times, but I haven't seen her in several years. I adore her, have happy memories of our previous visits, and am excited to see her again, but I'm also a little nervous... If my ex-boyfriend is anything to go by, most people get at least minorly freaked out with a row of Blythe dolls looking at them. I don't think it will be a huge problem, and I've already offered to pack them away if she finds them disturbing, but it seems to be a random anxiety that I have latched onto in place of more esoteric worries.

But who could not love my precious Aury's face?

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tripping the fox fantastic

Tuesday, May 22, 2012


What to do when you're looking back on an exhausting month, you've finished your ripple throw (aka Reason For Being), all your TV shows are ending for the summer, and your yellow ukulele was backordered till August?? (Why does this always happen to me?) That's right. Window shop!

I've got it so bad for foxes + florals!


little dear's felt face Blythe dresses are always fabulous but this one just takes the cake!


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goodbye, February; hello, March

Thursday, March 1, 2012


Still ripplin'!

Here is what I accomplished during the month of February. I would say it's about 18 inches in height right now. If you're a Blyther, here's Plummery as a height reference.

I have discovered that this is no longer a throw. It's a full-fledged blanket, son. It may only be a foot and a half tall, but it's six feet and four inches wide. That's the entire length of my mattress from head to foot! That's taller than many Hollywood leading men, and about a foot taller than me. It's become so tall that it's cumbersome to try and hold in my lap as I work on it. It totally gets in the way... but that's satisfying!

It takes me a little over an hour to crochet across it once. Good thing I actually have learned to love that ripple pattern and really enjoy the way I don't have to think much about what I'm doing as I work.



On my mind lately (besides rippling):
  • my rice cooker; it's a full-fledged romance
  • Dan and Blair on Gossip Girl!
  • so sad about Davy Jones passing; The Monkees may have been popular way before I was born, but when I was very very little, reruns of The Monkees re-ran on Nickelodeon. My first musical memories involve The Bangles and The Monkees; my first favorite song, when I was a toddler, was "I'm Not Your Steppin' Stone." I have always loved them, even in the face of criticism! I suspect I'll be listening to The Monkees a lot in March!



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foxy

Saturday, October 15, 2011


My girls are all getting dressed for autumn and colder weather this past week... I'm really ready for cooler weather! I've been watching Sleepy Hollow (I'm in the thick of my annual Katrina van Tassel obsession) wearing this adorable knitted fox hat around since I got it (from awberry)! It's still a bit warm here during the day, but who cares?? You know how I love an animal-eared hat!


Other stuff I love this month:
  • Adventure Time
  • Gossip Girl (it's so bad, but I'm invested in Dan and Blair's relationship, okay! They are soulmates!)
  • "Hungry Heart" by Bruce Springsteen
  • the mint green manicure my sister gave me
  • writing... I've been trying to write a lot!
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easy as one-two-three

Wednesday, April 27, 2011


Made a trio of frost hats for someone on Etsy! I hadn't been to the craft store in a couple of months when I was asked if I could make three white hats, and so didn't know whether they would even have the frost colorway or not (they were very picked over last time I went). But they did!

Here's something I'm excited about: my friend L is coming for a visit! She was here last March, too, and then also in the summer of 2009. But this time she'll be bringing her CS, Clementine July, with her, and we're going to have a mini-Blythe-meet with my friend E and her SC, Cora. I recently also found out that Moofala (who made my blue-haired custom girl, Drew) lives in my neck of the woods, so the three of us combined won't even have the most Blythes in the city...!!
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March family portrait

Wednesday, March 30, 2011


I finally had a new family portrait session!! I have been a bit nuts about color-coordination in my girls' outfits as of late, so I kept putting it off and putting it off because it didn't look right somehow? I cannot help it, I just get like this about things that are next to each other much of the time. There's a lot of green, some yellow and brown, and pink happening. Frankly I am proud I didn't compulsively dress them all in yellow head-to-toe. (Although that sounds fun... I don't think I have enough yellow dresses.)



Looking forward to April!
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2/12...

Friday, March 4, 2011


I did manage to do A Doll A Day for two months -- ha!

Problems I ran into: sometimes just not being in the mood to fuss with it, or being too busy; not having daylight or places to take pictures; not being able to choose who to take a picture of sometimes! Yes, what a burden, to have too many choices! I also felt like doing it somehow cut into my time/creative energy. I don't know that for certain, but I felt like I crafted less, was in the mood to look at other people's Flickr streams less, was in the mood to blog less... that kind of thing!

One of the reasons I tag my shop with "a finger in every pie" is because I do have too many hobbies. I have been writing fiction lately and I didn't want ADAD to just become a chore I didn't think much about.

Nonetheless I really liked the spirit of participation and checking in on other people's ADAD shots, so I think ADAD is still pretty cool and wish everyone else who is doing it much luck!

Random outtakes:






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