bday 43 incoming

Taurus season? Another birthday on the horizon, a mere week away? Again? Already? Also, holy crap, why does 43 sound significantly older than 42?

Well, as an adult -- heavy airquotes right there -- I have for the past several years simply asked for monetary donations from any family members interested in giving me such a thing, in lieu of gifts, so I can put the money towards larger puchases for myself. Such as a chair for my sewing table. (I've moreso used the chair while playing my Omnichord but it's still been wonderful for using my second desk for any purpose!) And last year, of course, I had saved up for my gorgeous li'l Tiphanie, and it was so exciting to get her for myself in time for my birthday!

This year I'm sort of thinking that I'll spend whatever funds I get on a new tripod. I have three tripods I use on a weekly basis to film band videos. They reside permanently in the studio space now. That means if I wanted to film a doll video or something, I'd have to decide that well in advance, and make sure to take my most heavy-duty tripod home, get the filming done between band seshes, and take the tripod all the way back to the studio... whiiich is in a different town than where I live, and on the second floor of an old gutted building. It'd be a lot of toting and carrying up and down a steep flight of ancient stairs. That's why I just leave the tripods there now! So I'm not carrying them back and forth every single week! I was doing that for a while.

But, not having my tripod has effectively quashed my ability to film anything for YouTube, as I can't do anything spontaneously. A tripod is a piece of basic equipment I need to film any long form doll video. So I think I'll just get the exact same tripod (or the closest I can find) again so I can have one at home, too. I need one that can hold my DSLR and its lens, which are very heavy. And for me, it's not a bad thing to have another heavy-duty tripod!

Other things: I'm interested in properly recording/mixing music, so I'd love to get an audio interface; I need another micro SD card; I need another cute trinket display case because my Stitch figurine collection has seen some growth and now need their own case; this specific Litten plush (yes, I am still dreadfully Litten-pilled); and finally, tickets to see Micky Dolenz (of The Monkees)!

I saw back in the winter months that THEE Micky Dolenz was going to be in MY TOWN on MY BIRTHDAY and was like, eyes emoji! "Oh? On my boifday?? Should I go???" But, I don't go to concerts too often, and it didn't even really occur to me to ask for tickets or ask anyone to go with me, or anything of the kind. So I wasn't intending on going. I was just like, OH VERY INTERESTING MISTER DOLENZ... I SEE, I SEE YOU ARE IN TOWN TO CELEBRATE ME...

I was oddly sitting here working on this post when my dad texted me outta nowhere to ask if I wanted to go!

SO I GUESS I AM GOING TO BE SEEING MICKY DOLENZ NEXT WEEK!

I have only mentioned it here once (way back in 2012 when Davy Jones passed) but I am actually a lifelong Monkees fan. As I mentioned in that old post, "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" was the first favorite song I remember having, as a literal toddler. I have always listened to the Monkees on a regular basis and have my top jams and one of the first songs I learned to play on the guitar was "You Just May Be the One." But when Mike Nesmith passed in 2021 I went on a big Monkees bender and it reignited my long-standing love. Later in the lifespan of the band, the Monkees worked with Adam Schlesinger (RIP) who was a musician I really admire, so that was really fun and cool for me as a fan of both. So I am actually super stoked to go see Micky. How fortunate am I to be able to see a Monkee when I have loved the Monkees so much all my life!!!

Seriously, I think my heart might beat right out of my chest!

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figurine display case!!!

A while ago I posted about various cute tchotchkies that I will not be collecting, thank you very much. In that post I also talked about things I am allowing myself to collect. Amongst the things mentioned: little figurines of Litten! I was gifted three of the small figurines I currently have. Circa Christmas I found myself motivated to expand my collection and bought three more! One of them, of course, turned out to be way bigger than the other little 1"-2" figurines. But the other two are the size I wish to collect. And really, I have room in my heart for just about any Litten.

These figurines have been living on a floating shelf in my room, but as I attained more of them, I began to run out of room on my tchotchkies shelf and found myself drawn to a certain display case I saw on Pinterest and my brain was quickly eaten by Cute Storage Display Case worms.

Ahhh! I seriously got an absurd amount of pleasure from the idea of attaining one of these cases and filling it over time with Litten figurines. I would say this concept intrigued and thrilled me for nearly the whole of January. Distracted me, too, as I looked around everywhere at reviews and slightly different listings for what is probably the exact same plastic product with different brand names slapped on the listing title. I ended up finally going with a pink case... in reality the pink is very muted browny-rosy. But I thought the Littens would look cutest in it!

(Here's the whole gang!!! The biggest plush has been wearing one of my Blythe berets for months now. Clearly a Flamiaou.)

My review of this display case is: It feels very breakable, to the point where I'm not sure I want to try mounting it to my wall with the provided sticker. I can just see it falling down in the middle of the night and giving me the scare of my freakin' life when it shatters. The enclosure of the clear door is magnetized, and it's really such a strong magnet that whenever I shut the door, it rattles the case and my figurines fall over inside. They did come with little sticky things to put on the bottom of figurines so they won't move around, but as my collection is in flux, I don't want to use them yet. I want things to be easy to rearrange.

However, I will say, the act of placing of the figurines inside and imagining it full of Littens gives me so much serotonin, it's ridiculous. And my room is dusty, so I'm happy to protect my little Littens from that dust.

Five-ish (perhaps six) figurines of this size would fit comfortably per shelf, so I have room to expand! But right now I'm also keeping my modest Stitch figurine collection in it.

The Stitch figurine collection started just three years ago, when my little sister put one of the figurines (the pink innertube one) in my stocking for Christmas. She knows I love Lilo & Stitch, and I felt so loved and so seen! Later on I saw one of the figurines in the same particular series at Five Below, for $1, and I bought it right away. I asked her for another figurine that Christmas! Since then, every Christmas she's given me Stitch figurines in my stocking. I wanted to complete the collection in terms of this set. For a while I couldn't find any from this series at Five Below any longer. But miraculously I found one just after Christmas, and I dug through the whole box of random discount figures until I found the one I was still missing!! I was so stoked to be able to complete collecting the set I wanted. It's just five cheap figurines -- they each cost $1 -- but it took me three years to get them all!

Completing my in-progress Stitch figurine collection was really what motivated me to actually begin to seek out more Litten figurines on eBay. This is more scattered a task. There's no "set" or "series" to collect in terms of Litten -- the figurines are all from random places, produced at random times. From gachapon machines to bigger playsets to Re-Ment to figures that came inside chocolate eggs. There are some I can likely never attain and they don't all match up perfectly in terms of scale. That takes the "gotta catch 'em ALL" factor out of the idea of collecting them, which is a welcome thing for me. Completion isn't really the point with this collection. It's just my sheer Litten love. My excitement at seeing all these disparate figurines attained one by one all lined up together.

This is sort of inspring me to make a page for each of my collections that could be available via the dropdown menu on my blog, the way the "Blythe family" page is. Sounds satisfying but also like a lot of work. We'll see!!!

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leaning into it

The other day I mentioned indulging hyperfixations as a means of staying afloat in Times Like These. Not that I think one needs a reason (especially not a dire reason) to indulge a hyperfixation. It just, I have to say, has been such a lifesaver for me of late, and I am embracing it.

Litten, the Pokemon, is a weird accidental hyperfixation I developed last year. Like, this was not a choice I made, hahah. I don't know how better to state this, but my brain feels... sparkly when I see Litten? Like I can literally feel neurotransmitters shooting around in my skull. Sometimes I tingle. Sometimes I want to cry... out of love. Again, I need to express: I didn't randomly decide, "Oh, I think I'll get really into this random Pokemon all of a sudden. This will be my new obsession." I have no idea why this was my brain's response to this Pokemon. It isn't even the cutest Pokemon, imo. And I have enjoyed Pokemon in general, as a franchise, for many years without ever experiencing this type of big emotional response, either to the franchise as a whole or to a singular specific 'mon. This from a person who has a Top 5 Favorite Pokemon list. Even from my perspective it is bizarre to feel this strongly about a Pokemon.

I get a lot of really good brain tinglies and happiness from it, so I'm personally not mad at it. But I do recognize that it is confounding from the outside. I also find it inexplicable, and understand if it seems bizarre or irritating.

Anyway, for my birthday last year, my bestie basically gifted me a whole-ass Litten collection! I posted about it here (and I am going to post even more about it soon)! She gifted me several plush Littens and three tiny figurines. As I noted in that post, I thought it'd be fun to collect more of the figurines.

The figurines need their own post, and believe you me I am looking forward to that post SO MUCH! It's in the chamber!

However, in the meantime: the Litten figurine pictured here with Trainer Fidelia surprised me when I received it in the mail the other day. It's a McDonald's toy and three times the size of my other tiny figurines! I couldn't tell from the eBay listing that it would be so much larger. It doesn't fit in with the rest of the figures in my modest yet thrilling-to-me collection... literally. I doubt it will fit in the display I'm planning.

But I thought, while it's too big for my display, it is actually quite properly sized for a Blythe!!

"Litten! Use Ember!"

Litten used Ember! It's super effective!

It came with a plastic bit of "fire" (since Litten, a fire type, can breathe fire as one of its moves) that clicks into its gaping rectangular maw.

Fidelia and Litten have matching hair! Fur! Whatever! Litten's red-orange face and markings can sometimes lean more red or more orange, depending on the particular plush or particular screengrab. But I thought pairing Fidelia and Litten would be perfect! Sometimes trainers really match their Pokemon!

For Fidelia's trainer lewk, I was inspired by the character of Misty and the way her ponytail sticks up, but also by a sort of athletic look. I used Wendy Weekender's star-studded ponytail holder on one of Deely's pigtails. (I wish I'd adjusted them so they could be seen more clearly here.) I wanted her hair to kind of stick out in a Misty-ish fashion!

She's wearing cropped black leggings I got second-hand on one of the forums, either Blythe Kingdom or Plastic Paradise, back in the absolute day of 2010. She's also wearing a ringer tee with black and white striped sleeves, but you can't really see it because she's got on Sporty Lover Finesse's windbreaker. She's also wearing SLF's sneakers -- which are good, but I hardly ever use them. With the white top and black pants, it's an outfit very resminiscent of SLF's stock. That was accidental!! The windbreaker was a last-minute addition. But really, said windbreaker looks cute with Fidelia's hair, imo.

If I could change anything about this outfit to make it look more trainer-esque, I'd sew red patches onto the knees of the leggings. I think red sneakers would also be really good.

I think another cute trainer-ish outfit would be a pair of overalls and Simply Mango's stock stripey tee. It'd be so fun to do a whole post of trainer-inspired outfits. I'm also currently wondering if they make 1/12 size Poke Balls...

(They do. I will buy some next month, haha.)

Final note on these pictures: Between you and me, I photoshopped Litten's mouth in the first picture so it wouldn't be an empty square, but one of his typical mouth shapes. Not a big smiler, is Litten.

Okay, so, this delighted me beyond all good sense. I have more to share about my figurine collecting, and will do so soon.

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doll stuff haul video

Hello! Been working on a doll stuff haul video these past few days! Amongst some stuff I've blogged about here already (like these benches and my beret obsession) are some new items like this yellow knit beret and these green daisy applique bellbottoms!

I really do try to keep it posi here, but CURRENTLY, I am so sick of my face/voice/personality/everything that I wanna barf. I almost trashed the footage for this video because I felt so awful about myself. Eventually I got over it and decided to just soldier on, because I had been waiting and wanting to film it for weeks. By the time I was done editing it and doing the subtitles for it and got it all thumbnailed and posted, I could not make myself post about it to Instagram. I almost didn't, but forced myself to do that, too. And now I am forcing myself to blog about it. What am I gonna do, spend days making this and then not post about it?

In therapy a few years ago I hit upon the idea of neutrality, especially with regards to myself. I can't do self-love or self-positivity. To me it's nothing short of delusional. But, what I can do is say, "While I'm not the best, I'm also not the worst." So right now I'm telling myself, I'm surely not the most irritating person on YouTube.

OR AM I?? Bonus Litten pic:

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well,,,

Look, I sorta don't know what to say because it is wild, but... I can't... not... post about this...???

I got a birthday box in the mail today that was literally stuffed to the brim with Littens. Canny and dedicated readers might be able to guess this, but the culprit was L. As I posted about the other day, we've been playing Pokemon Sun together, and Litten's my Thing right now. I routinely watch an arc of three episodes of the Sun and Moon anime about Ash's Litten and become Emotionally Compromised.

Seeing so many Littens at once, I thought of my birthday list -- "Litten anything" -- and was like, "Whoa. Ask and ye shall receive." But a) I didn't actually ask anyone for Litten anything, and B) I put so many Litten things on the graphic for visual symmetry, mainly. Emphasis on "anything," not "everything." Yet!! The coterie of plush Littens manifested!!!

And there were things besides plushies! Little figurines, from both boxes and, I think, gachapons? Because they came in those little plastic egg-type containers. And a necklace!!! And an origami book! Neither of those things pictured, but oh my god. I asked L:

Hahaha! Here's a better picture of the figures. They're all soooo cute, cry emoji.

I'm boggled yet tickled beyond belief. I believe this is technically a collection?? Like, all at once I now have a Litten Collection??? I think I really will need to collect more little figures, at least. They're so small I might conceivably be able to fit them in my doll-crowded bedroom. The plushies, well... I'll make room!

ALTERNATE POST TITLES:

• LISTEN
• an Abundance of Littens
• Litten to your heart
• Emotionally Compromised By Litten
• Aly & AJ - Litten!!!.mp3

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self-portrait of a trainer on her birthday

Well, I don't really post art here (I think I have posted a couple of Blythe sketches) but I have been playing Pokemon Sun and Moon -- both! -- and decided to draw my trainer. Then I decided she'd be holding Litten, because of course! It's my starter and my main source of serotonin right now!! Then I put her in my own clothes instead of the outfit she's wearing in the game, so it became something of a self-portrait in the style of Pokemon. Or at least, this is my attempt at the Pokemon style!

I never post art here because all I draw is niche hyperfixation stuff or portraits of my D&D characters. Not that this isn't niche hyperfixation art -- but I wasn't sure what else to do with this one, and my birthday's as good an excuse as any to post a self-portrait!

(I want to credit correctly: The embroidery in the background is from And Other Adventures Embroidery Co. I did not feel up to painting flowers but wanted some texture in the background!)

(It's my birthday, you can't stop me!)

Lately my bestie L has been playing Pokemon Sun on an emulator and streaming it for me via Discord so I can watch!! This has been incredibly fun because I don't have to do any battling or decision-making, but she lets me name all the Pokemon she catches, so I feel involved. Because she is incredibly enabling, she chose Litten as our starter and we named him "Li'l Boi." LI'L BOI YOU ARE MY EVERYTHING!

The Pokemon Refresh feature of Sun and Moon is wonderful... I love watching L clean and pet and feed Li'l Boi the Litten. So much so that I took a bunch of screencaps! Sooo cute! His little myaaas!

L's playing Sun, but I have Moon, and because L can't play 24/7 for me, I picked up Moon again. All the better to pet Litten with, my dears. This gave me further feelings on Pokemon Refresh, especially as compared to other features like Pokemon Camp in Sword and Shield. I also do like that feature, because yes, of course I want to play with Vulpix. Don't be silly. But Refresh really feels a lot like you are actively caring for your Pokemon, and when Pokemon are well cared for, affectionate and full of Poke Beans, they respond accordingly during battles. I've lost count of the amount of times I've said, "Diaper Baby, I love you!!" because my Vullaby (... named Diaper Baby) dodged an attack out of a developed relationship with me, or landed a critical hit, hoping to be praised!

I have been dipping into Shield again as well, in my hyperfixation, and I miss carefully brushing dust off my Pokemon! I miss the cute status messages about how in sync my Pokemon and I are, and how they are looking at me with intense eyes, or are curious about my fashion. Refresh is soooo cute.

Okay, this post was a Refresh to my soul! Thanks for putting up with it.

Birthday plans include:

• not sleeping enough (I already feel it)
• a pink birthday table courtesy my mom
• lunch with my mom and grandma
• watching stuff with bestie K!

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the ol' b-day list

Another birthday creeps ever closer. (I can't believe it was almost a year ago that Vesper and Citron arrived!) Although there isn't really much on my birthday wish list I thought I would cobble together a wish list post, just because. It's fun, and I need all the fun I can get. I'm sorta not in a great place these days, and I get birthday depression pretty badly, so I want to try and combat that.

This image would have you believe I'm asking for all this stuff, the only thing I've actually asked for is a ring. I asked this of my little sister, when she asked me what I wanted for my birthday; I trust her taste so I just told her to pick whatever she wants. These are just a few from Etsy, not any particular rings I actually asked for.

I haven't asked anyone for anything else -- let alone a Litten plush! Litten is a Pokemon, for those who might not know, and it is my hyperfixation right now, and one of my only sources of serotonin, haha. But it's from an older generation of Pokemon at this point, and so it's hard to find Litten stuff now! Still, I might buy myself a plush as my birthday extravagance.

Otherwise, hand-sewing drawstring dresses has been my most reliable pastime lately, and I've already bought myself too much fabric and ribbon. So I have gifted myself this already! Still, I wouldn't say no to even more fabric. I need so little of it, yardage-wise, that if I play my cards right and there's a sale or whatever, it can be very cheap to buy just a foot or so of fabric. A dollar and change! And then I can make wee drawstring dresses.

This list is nearly non-existent, but honestly, I don't need anything. My best friend has offered to watch the Jane-est of stuff with me on my birthday -- she told me to "swing for the fences" and offered to watch both Power Rangers and Pokemon, like a maniac -- so I'm looking forward to that. I'm also looking forward to sending some of the dresses I've made to said bestie.

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some fall lists

Happy October! Which is almost over already. I've kinda missed it.

As usual when I neglect Cure Touch it's because I'm having A Time. A highlight reel:

• week-long power outage
• dad in the hospital
• sister having a scary medical ordeal
• weird dating/breakup experience
• COVID-19... after three careful years, I finally caught it 😥

Big sigh. I know this is just life. But I feel like I've not had much time to recover between each of these things. I felt really tired before catching COVID, so COVID's just exhausted me.

Really, it was rough. Not just because it knocked me on my ass, but because my bestie and I came down with it while we were having a much-coveted visit. Being sick as dogs together basically became the bulk of our visit. She stayed for a week and a half, and only two of those days were we functional. COVID hit us both so hard we couldn't stay upright. Even just eating took us both out. We slept a ton. It was really surreal, but also unfortunate and disappointing, since we only get to see each other every few years.

(That's my bestie's Daunting Drusilla with Vesper, Citron, Zasha, and Winny!!!! We got in a skosh of dolly time before taking to our beds like Victorian invalids.)

But, this blog is meant to be more of a place to blog about happy things and accomplishments and fun hyperfixations. I feel like listing some positive stuff too.

• I've made a new friend in the last few months. A rarity for me 🥰
• caught some Pumpkaboos in Pokémon Go (Pumpkaboo being my favorite, and I had only ever caught one before! I loveeee watching her on the AR camera!)
• made beef stew, so incredibly comforting while sickness dragged on
• finished up a big project I've been working on since December
• watched The Cat Returns and really enjoyed it
• went on a little 20-minute walk in the rain yesterday morning, and saw colorful foliage and Halloween decorations all over the neighborhood. The temperature was ideal, refreshing and cool, and the rain was mild. It did me sooo much good after three weeks of feeling dreadful!
• close to finishing a ripple throw

And my visit with my bestie wasn't a complete disaster, despite everything.

• As mentioned, she got a Blythe!!! Of her own accord! I can't believe it! We dressed our dolls together and it was so much fun. I also sent bestie home with a care package of socks, tights, and little crop tops I made! I loved doing this!!!
• we attended a concert together and made Swiftian friendship bracelets for it! Successfully traded 'em, even! And the concert was great
• we watched Over the Garden Wall together 🐸 (barely managed it, but we technically did it)
•  if I had to be that freaking sick with someone, she'd be my #1 choice. we both felt godawful but true comfort is being able to be in a bad state with someone without it being super awkward or damaging your friendship at all. New friendship level unlocked...?

I'm really behind on everything and that'll just have to be okay for a bit yet.

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