Saturday, April 30, 2011

Her Charms are Many

Her many charms by Gina2424
Her many charms, a photo by Gina2424 on Flickr.

This is the former Cadence of simplychictiques, or as Momoko_girl_1's girls call her, Miss Tinkles (not Cadence, Anita of simplychictiques!). She is a custom by Pheisty with a Unicornmime skinny scalp.
Names pending: Catrine, Catrina, Katerina, Katrina, Celine, Catherine, Katy.

Here she is showing off her pullrings- very steampunk!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Early Mornings May Not Be Blythetime

So here's why one possibly should not leap out of bed to "play" with one's Blythe....

I fell asleep thinking of outfits I wanted to put on my new Blythes, Poppy and Pixie. Okay, that may sound lame, but it is easier falling to sleep with that on the brain than world peace-- or the grocery list.

They both have such beautiful eyes: Poppy with her baby blues against her blue hair and Pixie with her long, flirty lashes. I woke up extra early with the sun streaming in and the cat meowing. I guess Tinkerbelle wanted to play Blythe, too.

I had been thinking about changing a couple pairs of Poppy's plainer eye chips, and while pulling her strings through her series to review, I broke one of her pull strings. Already short from a bead change, it broke inside her head. Oh, snap!

I carried her the the kitchen counter, and waaaay before 7 a.m. CST (civilized standard time), I had her head open. I went through three kinds of string before I found something strong enough, and already tired of the exercise, I decided to hook her spring and forget about sleep eyes for the moment. I put her back together, thankful that she cooperated, and I filed off a couple little marks I had made.

Then, in the moment of truth, I realized the string I had fixed was the sleep eye string, and so even though I replaced the spring, her eyes still wouldn't change. Opened the head back up. Had to change strings again to have enough length to match. Tried burning the end of the string to keep it from fraying. No dice. Switched strings. Put her back together. No way was I messing with any of her chips now!

As if enough time had not elapsed and as if I were not already fully awake without coffee or food, I made the mistake of bringing Pixie to the work table. Decided her stock green and orange chips had to go. Used artist's tape to protect her long eyelashes out of the way. Heated glue sticks in the gas stove flame. Stuck them on her eyes. With the first one I realized I had grabbed the too small glue sticks. All I got was a mess and no traction.

Between scraping excess glue off everything and getting out the fatter glue sticks, I managed to leave a couple nail polish scratches on her face. Applied the new glue sticks. Seemed good. Waited. Longer. Yanked them out after the appropriate time, and managed to yank out ALL her new eyelashes. Came out lash by lash. No seam to hold them together to replace them.

Trying to be the model of efficiency and smarts, I decided to remove the other pair of chips while I was at it, instead of waiting 24 hours for the first set to dry. Now mind you, I had not put the first set in yet, so all was well.....not so much.

Too much excess glue remained from my first mess, so her eyes wouldn't change to the next set to be removed. More scraping. No luck. Had to open her head. Cleaned up glue. Removed other chips. Finally. Glued in first new pair. Let set a good long time. Not. Got impatient to glue in the other set and admire my handiwork. Besides the excess glue from the new chips, and the old glue from my fiasco, eyes would not turn again AND I lost a new chip inside her head.

At no time did it occur to me to go back to bed, in case you are wondering. Opened Pixie's head again. Tried to shake new chip out, but it was stuck inside. Fished it out. Glued it in while head was open, and glued in other set, too. Gently closed head, put her away, and did NOT admire any handiwork. I put her down like the plague, to admire her new chips a full 24 hours later, at least!

Total time elapsed: three hours. I need a nap! Dreaming of Blythe....

Hip to be hip

Hip to be hip by Gina2424
Hip to be hip, a photo by Gina2424 on Flickr.

Poppy looks fab in a hip tunic by My Own Little World which I got from Auntie Iveta on The Doll Page. I had always wanted one of these tops and missed out the first time they came around. I am still swooning over Poppy's blue eyes with her blue hair!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Monday, April 18, 2011

New girlies at Blythe Manor! Meet Poppy & Pixie




A very impromptu swap occured today when in-person Blythe friend Jen and I decided to swap a couple girls. We both had Blythes for sale and bills to pay (bah, humbug), but with no action on those fronts we made a little action of our own.

These beauties were called Ever, a blue-haired custom by My Poppies, and Sixx, done by Jen herself. I traded my new black mohair, called Piper by Amelie and created by Morgan Orton, as well as my Phoebe, a Sookie custom. I sure hope Jen is happy, because I am thrilled!

Ever will be known as Poppy and Sixx will be known as Pixie, or more fully, Pixie Sixx.

Blythe, and Barbie, and Petite Princess, Oh My!





The Blythes haven't even taken a back seat; they've just had to share my day with another new old obsession- three quarters scale Petite Princess Fantasy dollhouse furniture by Ideal (1964-65), a tin litho dollhouse, and Tomy and Renwal 1:12 scale furniture.

My newest project, started on vacation, has been re-acquiring pieces from my first childhood as well as finding just the right tin litho dollhouse to refurbish and decorate. The fun is going too fast though. I'm running out of room already.

It is amazing what supplies you can find for the dollhouse hobby. There are literally thousands of miniatures on-line, both handmade and mass produced and some very intricate. More to show later!

Got to get my beauty, I mean Blythe-y sleep! Big day tomorrow. Swapping two girlies with Jen for two new girlies. More on that soon, with photos, of course! Meanwhile, I have tons of vintage Barbie stuff and a Petite Blythe listed in my Ebay here. And I loaded up my Etsy shop today with vintage treasures, supplies and ephemera. Maybe you feel like shopping?!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Vacation memories



We're home now, but Phoebe wanted me to post the last few vacation pictures. Here she is at the pool at the condo in North Myrtle Beach, called Nautical Watch. We have been lucky enough to know someone to rent the same first floor ocean-front 2BR/2BT condo for nearly 30 years! of course Phoebe is too young to know that! Here she is in another vintage Skipper bathing suit.

Now we're home to gloomy weather, laundry, cleaning, bills and work. Vacation always seems to end that way. *sigh*

Monday, April 4, 2011

Finding Frog


First Frog finds Neemo! Then she finds a shark tooth! A very exciting beach day. Good thing she had her Madeleine shovel and bucket that came with her Madeleine swim suit. She couldn't wait to come in to tell Phoebe all about it. Note: Frog-size shark tooth is real. I don't care what size they are; I don't swim in the ocean anymore. I used to. Too many creepy crawly things and riptides. Just not smart.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Phoebs & Frog: At the beach


Phoebe and Frog were The Chosen Ones to accompany me on my flight to North Myrtle Beach, SC. When Frog heard there was a beach, she promptly put on her vintage Tutti & Chris red European-issue rain boots. Turns out the sand hurts her webbed feet.

On the other hand, or foot, Phoebe brought her vintage Ken green scuba flippers so she could swim in the ocean with Frog. She also brought her groovy Teen Queen surfboard and no less than five different swimsuits. Sounds like a lot of photo shoots to me.