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....