Tuesday 25 June 2013

Fun in the Garden

Today Rosabela and Silver Snow headed into the garden.

What are you two hatching?

Would you like a strawberry?


We fell jumped into the wild strawberries

Laughing together afterwards 'cos Rosabela sat on a strawberry and nearly lost a shoe!


















Now we're playing hide-and-seek          



Ready or not here I come.....


I'm posing hiding against this backdrop of plantpots, wearing my Sugarmag top and accessorised with my Pollymakes backpack (free pattern)!


and now we're looking at cloud pictures (a favourite game for all of us girls).

Thursday 20 June 2013

A new girl....

...has come to live with us.  She's a beautiful, beautiful Silver Snow.  I first saw her up for adoption on FB and she immediately caught my eye.  However, in all my Blythe browsing I'd vaguely decided that SBL's weren't that high on the list for me, so I didn't act immediately.  I couldn't get that little face out of my mind and after about 4 days of checking whether or not she'd been adopted (slightly more anxiously each time) I offered her a home.

She arrived today and she's just gorgeous.  I have to keep looking at her.  And I LOVE her hair.  There's just something about that girl!!  Thank you Amy for letting her go. 

 She arrived in this beautiful little knitted dress - isn't it just perfect for her?  (Again, thank you Amy).
I haven't named her yet - any thoughts?

Monday 17 June 2013

Two More Blythe Girls

I'd like you to meet Jonquil and Jos (short for Jocelyn).   Both girls arrived together from far-away shores, and have since decided that they'd like to be twins.  For now anyway.



Jos is a Prima Dolly Saffy - and I'm at least her second owner - (with hindsight I didn't know which questions to ask when I bought her).  I bought her used and without stock.  There's a slight colour mismatch between her faceplates and scalp but I'm pretty sure she's the real thing.  There was slight damage to her arm and a little bump behind her knee but none of it actually matters - I bonded with her on sight.  To be honest I'm not sure whether she's a PDS or a PDS Encore - if anyone can tell me the differences I'd love to know - or are they the same and one is just a later release?

Jonquil is a Simply Love Me - I love her yellow hair.  Her hair was very greasy when she first arrived and she and Iolanthe enjoyed their first spa together. 




Jos' hair needs some serious attention.  Hopefully her first visit to the spa will end in curls!



Jonquil's gaze is slightly downward - I watched a video yesterday about gaze adjustment....I think I'll leave that to the experts too!


Jonquil and Jos have decided that they'd like to have signature colours - although they're not sure which yet.  All suggestions welcome <3

Thursday 13 June 2013

Introducing Iolanthe....

...a stock NRFB Cappucino Chat, with non-stock forward violet eyes.  Iolanthe means violets in Greek.

Iolanthe is very aware of the effect of her long silvery hair, pale skin and dark violet eyes and is very keen on reminding me that only one other person as far as she's aware ever had violet eyes, and that's the phenomenally beautiful, Hollywood legend that was Elizabeth Taylor!  How she knows that little fact is beyond me!  Iolanthe has decided that she will only ever be seen in black - to increase the contrast with her pale skin-tone and hair.  (She's been to the spa once, which has tamed those frizzy ends a little, but some more treatment is still needed - I'm working up to straightening her hair!!!)

Here's Iolanthe (working the hair):



and the eyes:

I do think she is very beautiful.  Missy has also decided that she'd like to up the glamour stakes - definitely heels and less of a grunge-y look.  Hmmm.  I'd better get sewing and designing, though with all the other girls clamouring for outfits she's going to have to be patient.

Iolanthe and Rosabela's initial greet:


Not a great pic - nontheless, Iolanthe's wearing a Sugarmag outfit (if I'd known at the time I'd have kept all the wrapping and backing for if/when I come to resell).   Rosabela's wearing another of her Quenne Doll knits and a pair of cargos picked up in a thrift store.  She likes the lace edging.  Rosabela's showing signs of being the polar opposite of Iolanthe, in dress anyway.  She really likes vintage, loose, baggy - might have to introduce her to Mori - I think she'd really like it.  That sewing list of mine is growing....




Claimin' with Bloglovin'

This is a short but necessary post to enable all you Blythe lovers out there to follow my Blythe lovin' blog!

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/8235305/?claim=e2dsje73ywx">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Wednesday 12 June 2013

Introducing Rosabela

Not long after winning the delightful giveaway (see previous post), I adopted my first girl, Rosabela Liliane.  She's a Manuheali'i Paradise Girl, and arrived in her original box with her original stock.  I'm her second owner.  Rosabela has the most beautiful, thick, silky hair.  That, with her non-stock eyes (especially the side grey), meant love at first sight.  

Here is Rosabela (stepping out in the garden):

I also fell in love with the shine on her face (more shiny than I'd expected) and with that, I realised that I preferred the stock shine to the matted customs.  For the moment that has stalled my thoughts of customising a Blythe doll myself, although I'm dreaming of owning a girl with an alpaca reroot (blonde) one day.  

Here's Rosabela wearing one of her lovely sweaters (she needs it with this unseasonal summer we're having so far here in the UK).  I also love the pale brown front eye colour:



What I'm also enjoying is how much the girls'  (yes there are more than one now - Rosabela needed company) personalities do emerge - not to mention the different dress styles.  They're all very individual.

What these (and other) photographs have shown me is how skilled many of the Flickr Blythe owners are - it's very difficult to manage the light bouncing off the shiny face-plates.  This has spurred me on to improve my photography skills - not to mention sewing, knitting and crochet skills.  More of that next time x. 

A giveaway, and no doll (yet)!

Whilst I'd encountered the word Blythe here and there in blogland, I'd never had cause to associate it with anything in particular and, to be honest, my eyes just skimmed over the word whilst reading what I was really interested in, namely anything to do with quilts.

Then, one day whilst browing a quilting blog, there was a photograph of a doll on a quilt.  I looked at this doll - and she looked right back at me - a very sassy stare!! (and she was wearing a very beautiful dress).

I was intrigued  - and then I found Blythe on Flickr!   We won't mention how many hours have been spent looking at beautiful Blythes on Flickr.  My interest was especially piqued -  not only because of the beautiful clothes (which touched a long-forgotten chord of wanting to be a fashion designer - I side-lined into psychology - how did that happen?!!), but I also noticed how beautifully the dolls were lit and staged in the photographs and how attractively some of the dolls are customised.  What a showcase of talent.  I was hooked, and thought I'd like to do all of this.

Initially I thought I'd like to customise dolls - I spent hours looking at eyechips and alpaca wefts and watching "how to" videos.  I was researching anything and everything to do with Blythe dolls.  I even entered a giveaway on BlytheLife.com and unbelievably for me, I won it!  All this before I'd even found my first girl, so I took it as a very good sign.  

I won 3 adorable little sweaters from Quenne Doll dolly knits on Etsy (a huge thank you to Quenne).  Here they are:




Aren't they just too sweet?  All I needed now was a girl to wear the sweaters....