Welcome Opree June!

A gorgeous confection recently came to Blythe Manor via California. Opree June is a Friendly Freckles Blythe on a Disney fairy body and was painted by customizer Melly Kay with Valspar Java Brown Satin. That alone cracks me up - I think it is the same paint used on my deck!
But Opree (fka Abrianna) turned out much sweeter than a deck, and her she is with her matching pony in a Squeaky Monkey dress recently acquired from Lovebucket on BK.
Don't know if Opree will make it to Blythecon in Dallas; her hair is a little big for a cowgirl hat. I also have 18 (eep! I just counted. Didn't know that. That's a bit unmanageable for me.) girls and only nine cowgirls outfits with hats and boots. Some anyone with problematic hair will be ruled out asap.
I used to never take my Star Dancer Lilly anywhere, even though she was my first Blythe, because I was so worried about losing her hoop earrings. Finally, I decided I never planned to remove them, so a little Super Glue to the rescue. Lilly's a perfect cowgirl, so she'll definitely make the cut.
Can't wait to photograph Opree June more though; she's a fun one.

Meet Delilah Dala!

It's amazing what can be achieved with a stray scalp and body! Meet Delilah Dala, a beautiful ghostie girl by Blythe Stole My Heart (a.k.a. Aunt Maggie, if we're allowed to say!) I got the white mohair scalp secondhand on Blythe Kingdom. It was originally done by Moofala. It is a thick and gorgeous reroot. The head and body came from nearby Blythe friend Jenn. This was an unfinished, scalpless girl with two good sets of chips.
Our 'aunt Maggie' offered to take the parts and make a surprise girl. Boy, did she ever! Delilah is spectacular, with gently glittered pink lids and lips. She also has a pair of zombie chips and some interesting reddish-brown sparkle chips that work very well. Maggie did the pull charms, and I added the pink feathers from a pair of earrings.
In these photos, Delilah is wearing a Madeleine dress. Her friend is a Barbie afghan, gifted from Meester X. I think the hound looks like the actor Fabio, hence the name Fabio Dala. I guess it is now a boy dog wearing pink.
Their last name is a tribute to the customizer, her time in Scandinavia, and her time now at one of my favorite Scandinavian-style stores: Dala being a Swedish term for a type of sheep, and a style of Swedish folk art painted horse and other animals. When she once explained 'Dala' to me, I realized I had had a small painted wooden 'Dala' rooster ever since childhood.
Delilah doesn't look too spooky in pink, but maybe I will try to 'goth-her-up' next time we get dressed!

Meet Sofia Sylvia Sylvana Gina Maria Melacaccio!

A couple things happened at Blythecon. That's another way of saying a funny thing happened on the way to the forum....
I saw several beautiful, customized Prima Dolly Paris Blythes. And, as some of you know, I won two dark-haired girls with this same haircut, and came home to a third. At least two of them were a base of Punkaholic People, which is very similar to Paris, except different face mold and dark hair.
While still at Blythecon, I started imagining a Paris for myself. And I had a chance to meet the lovely, lovely Sylvia of S. Coladolls, formerly known as Sylviecoladolls. She was rooming with my dear friends, Maggie and Angela. I was rooming with glam Lindsay, and we all hung out.
I had seen her work on many of Maggie's dolls. Sylvia is humble, quiet, unassuming, and verrrry talented! So, I decided I would buy a base Paris doll and send her to Sylvia for a faceup. This happened quite literally. As Sylvia is moving very soon, we ended up just swapping faceplates and eye mechanisms, so she could finish more quickly and get on with packing up her studio.
Meanwhile, at Blythecon, I met another Gina of G*Baby on Flickr. I bought a beautiful set of pink eye chips for Yumeko from her and wished I would have bought more. So I contacted her and ordered four pairs: blue, green, lavender and brown.
Then, in another coincidence, the talented eye chip artist Amy, known as Zaloa27, El Duende or Melacaccia contacted me to buy one of my three brown bob girls, the Punkholic People, and we worked out a partial trade to include two sets of her chips, the pink and the grey now seen on Paris.
Patience not being a virtue of mine at all, I was thrilled when everything came within a day or two of each other in mail from all points west, and base doll from Singapore! I quickly put her together with a little help from Maggie, and voila! Exactly as I had envisioned.
Next up: A BIG Petite suprise in the mail!

Blythecon: Real Friends and Real Plastic Friends Meet

The girlz left for Blythecon like this, and had to make quite a bit more room on the way home! I was lucky enough to win not one, but two Blythe dolls plus a Petite Blythe and two outfits: Atelier Blythe and MinkiDynamite. If that weren't shocking enough, my tickets for the two dolls were drawn one right after the other! I was weirdly lucky!
The Portland Roller Girl Ruby Blythe was created by Lynne Rutherford from Texas, a.k.a. Happibug. She has an incredible face-up, chips, pull rings, outfit, hat and tattoo. On top of that, I won a NRFB Punkaholic People.Both of these girls have brunette bobs. Then I came home to Yumeko in the mail from Scotland, a custom by RuiRui/Neroli, and also a brunette bob. And Bunny Velvet with her wig is a, say it with me, brunette bob.
It is only by coincidence that my earliest Blythe friend, Linda J and her PE Ebony, Molli, have brunette bobs! Heck, I didn't even know what Linda looked like until Blythecon! As you can see above, she looks a lot like her MiniMe, Molly. Linda also has a darling real-life mini me now.
That's Molli's sister Zelda, a Star Dancer custom by Kyle, hanging out with my Star D Lilly. Molli and Zelda sent Lilly and me our first-ever Blythe gifts and Blythe swaps about four years ago-- back when I still had SO much to learn. I remember asking Linda to explain Re-ment to me! Seems so funny now.

Look Who's Coming! It's Yumeko by Neroli

This was always a "girl of my dreams." I missed her on Ebay when offered for sale by customizer and friend Rui Kamata, known as Neroli. Rui made my Daisy. In fact, Daisy, whom I love, was the first custom I ever bought. And I bought her because I missed this one (above) by procrastinating over the decision to spend for a custom (which is kinda funny now).

This beautiful girl is named Yumeko, and she is winging her way to me (with this dress- squee!) via Scotland and obviouszebra, who bought her first. Yumeko will keep her name, I believe, as it was chosen by Rui. I need to find out what it means. She will be a welcome addition to the family, and just in time for Blythecon!!

These boots, umbrellas and raincoats were not made for walkin'. Just 4 lookin' cute!

Take it from the top, girlz! Polly, Molly, Bunny, Wednesday and Lilly.

And thanks to DollyMommy Sandy for my fab new blog design. (It needed it!) See her ad below right, which will take you to her shop. She also pointed me to Smitten Blog Design for cute little trims, and then I got on a roll looking around and still ended up going back to an old fave, Shabby Blogs. I can't believe how many free blog background sites there are now. No one need have a naked blog.

Behold! A Bevy of Blythe Manor Beauties

There was a lot of commotion this week at Blythe Manor. Actually it started a little over a week ago, with the arrival of a blank Cool Cat scalp and three ounces of loose purple and blue mohair from Phillaine. I knew I wanted to give it a try, because I had been decidedly underwhelmed by the arrival of my lavender-haired Factory Girl, Polly.

I think Polly was a Takara Lilac Blythe anyway, but her thin hair and weirdly-colored eye chips just weren't cutting it around all the pretty girlz here. I thought sanding some of the shine off her face would help. Then I decided to add some pastel chalk and oil pastel blush. Then her lips needed to be a different color. So after many rounds of sanding and painting, touching, messing up, sanding, re-painting, using gel pens, acrylic paint, nail polish and more, I was finally able to leave a plump set of pink lips alone, long enough for them to dry.

I knew I wanted her to have a beauty mark, and I got lucky that my wildness with a marker actually worked. But she still wasn't looking that exciting. Then two things happened: I saw the leftover mohair from Phillaine's new girl for sale on Plastic Paradise, and I saw the results of a first re-root by ellabellasmommy on Flickr. She did a great job, and it looked so cool! I decided after Googling (or should I say ogling?) a few tutorials that I could do this.

After about four solid days of threading strands of mohair through a tapestry needle, and using a thimble to help me poke them through a thick plastic scalp (maybe that's what's wrong with men- they have thick plastic scalps. Oops, I digress....), voila! Polly's scalp had a full head of mohair. Well, almost. In all honesty, out of respect for my first-ever mohair job, I have to admit I started the mohair a little too thick, holes too close together, so while that looked great, I sorta ran low on mohair at the end. I came up with a working solution that satisfies me, and if I ever decide to find more of the exact mohair, her scalp will easily come off for me to add more. Meanwhile, I don't think I will spill how I solved the problem.

Then there was the matter of figuring out how to get her stock scalp off; never had done that before either. Was not in the mood to break her face after all this work! Also, I wanted to create four sets of unique eye chips, using the flat clear and colored chips I ordered from Cool Cat as well as the foil stickers, designs, nail stickers and other paraphernalia I had gathered. So I made some pink skully chips, purple and green with cross-eyed tiny pupils, dark purple size gaze chips with a white fleck and no-pupil grey, white and blue flower chips. Can't believe I did that either!

I had no patience for changing one set per day as I had done in the past, to avoid other new chips coming loose inside the head, and since her head was already off and open, I changed all the chips at once, which was so much easier! What was not so easy was painting her eyelids. I decided I wasn't about to remove the eye mechanism, since I didn't know for sure how to route the pull-string when putting it back in. So, word to the wise, painting eyelids when the eye mech is in the face is not easy. It is messy; the eye shadow gets messed up, and if you mess up the lids, you run the risk of getting them too thick when you re-paint, causing the paint to be scraped off every time you change her eyes.

After several hours of this nonsense-I must have painted, sanded and re-painted 10 times- I finally was able to leave well enough alone and again get satisfaction long enough for them to dry. I nearly messed it all up again when I tried to add white dots-which had to be re-done several times also. Add stabbing in extra eyelashes with an Exacto knife is also apparently an aquired skill that I hadn't acquired. And just to add to my "never-done" work ethic, I started messing around by painting the tips of her eyelashes white for sparkle. Sheesh!

During all this action with Polly, you'd never know that Miss Bridgette Hansen, the beautiful pink mohair, had arrived Saturday from PP and all points north. I gasped when I saw her and her beautifully-detailed outfit by Devout Dolls--the same outfit featured in the December 2009 issue of Haute Doll magazine. But, I wouldn't let myself touch, photograph, change or enjoy Miss Brigette until I had cleaned up my days-old Polly mess, and I was determined to have her done before I went to bed on Sunday night. Success. And then I found myself trying to photograph Brigette at midnight! Note to self: there is NO photo lighting that is good at midnight.

I have no plans to mess with anything about Brigette, from her name to her chips, even though she has two sets of pink and two sets of gray, they are gorgeous! And her name....she was named Brigette by her previous owner, Blythe friend, Deb Hansen, and since I used to have a nice next-door neighbor Bridget Hanson, well, it all works. I think Bridgette and Polly will be fighting for the spotlight as my glorious, candy-colored mohair sisters. And perhaps Joey (remember this Joey?) will be Brigette's little sister.

Meanwhile, on Thursday of this same exciting mail week (that's yesterday as I write this), Wednesday the Mondrian arrived from Down Under. I had had a Mondrian once before, that I had gotten from Ebay from a person who as it turns out lived one county over from me. I quickly sold her, I think not only because I was shocked about what I had spent then (cheap compared to now), and because I didn't know her floppy body could be fixed with rubber bands or that her stringy hair could get help at the Blythe spas or that her gaudy eyeshadow could be tamed. Live and learn. But, as it turns out, that Mondrian, Tuesday, went to a great home with Blythe friend Carmen in Spain, who named her Elaia Tuesday and who has since swapped her with a different Mondrian with a bob haircut, from Vainilladolly. That Mondrian remains E. Tuesday.

My "new(er)" Mondrian would be named Wednesday; I decided right away, after spotting her marked FA on Flickr by a user name I did not know. However, I quickly found out that gal was the same Justine, under a former user name, who had customized my Abby. So it was all good, and not only did I buy the Mondrian from her, but we exchanged friendship gifts across continents, too. Did you know the USPS no longer sends ships to Australia? Postage has gotten quite salty when the only way you can go is by plane!

I am grateful to have received Wednesday this week, as well as the lovely and cool Frankie magazine, and some great Blythe clothes and shoes. I sent fabric, sewing notions and Dr. Pepper, by request! Gotta love Blythe friendships. And speaking of those, can't wait to see everyone at the Annapolis Blythe Meet June 20, 2010. That's tomorrow as I write this. Have been making a pile of goodies to take for gifts, swap and sell, girlz to show off, and of course my camera. So you know a post is forthcoming.

Welcome, Molly Brown!

I just want to eat her up, and she isn't even here yet! If Miss Molly Brown looks familiar, it's probably because I got her from Tammara, a.k.a. DollyMolly on Etsy, who has a very similar "regular" girl, model, mascot, whatever you want to call her, named Sandrine.

This gal above was done by Pheisty with the wefted mohair Cool Cat scalp added by Tammara. I've GOT to stop looking at Plastic Paradise; the freckles just sucked me in! I have a weakness for mohair anyway, and DollyMolly fashions, and this little sweetie will be traveling with a mini-new DollyMolly wardrobe. Can't wait!

Welcome Urban Cowgirl Charlotte

I realized in all my frenzied blogging, knitting, crocheting and Blythe-meeting that I did not properly introduce Charlotte. She is a slight custom Urban Cowgirl who came with eggplant eyechips and a slightly sanded face. Since the eggplant/purple eyechips look almost brown, I also added a pair of rainbow eyechips with purple pupils. I have more eyechips coming from Cool Cat, so we'll see if she needs any more.

Charlotte has absolutely gorgeous silky hair. In the top photo she is wearing a secondhand dress, originally by La boutique de Lupi along with red vinyl bunny boots. The dress has a felt bunny on it, so the boots are just perfect with it. And I think Charlotte is pretty perfect, too.

Meet Virginia. Finally.

I've found my Red Queen, and she comes in the form of this lovely mohair customized by Tamilla in Perth, Western Australia. I found her on Plastic Paradise in late January, and thanks to a couple blizzards and other things that are not supposed to deter mail carriers, she sat at the post office for nine whole days! Eek. I didn't even know she was here.

But she is, and for her photo shoot I kept trying all sorts of things but nothing looked right. Her hair is an interesting shade of red, between orange and strawberry blond. Her eye chips are light brown, dark brown, yellow and orange. I think she's perfect!

I've been saving a Barbie Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland for almost a year, planning to de-box her at some point for an All-Alice All-the-Time photoshoot, which I've yet to do. But knowing I was finally picking up Virginia today, I decided to "de-box the queen" (off with her head!) last night. That became even more true than I'd planned as the dress was sewn right on to Barbie! No snaps, buttons, velcro, nothing. And this Barbie had a permantly bent arm, so getting the dress off was a real challenge.

But it was well worth it, I think. She looks pretty perfect in the dress. We'll try it again when I do the Alice shoot, but for now Virginia is relaxing in jeans and a sweater. Perfect when there's still four feet of unwelcome and unexpected snow on the ground.

When I was searching on line late one night, the song "Meet Virginia" was playing. And my late mother's name is Virginia. So I didn't really have a choice. This one named herself. And my mom was always collecting something, up for a run to a flea market or gararge sale and always interested in various collectibles, so it's all good.

Eeps! Get me a shovel. Blizzard-based buying binge besets me.

No idea what's up with the alliteration. That used to be considered proper headline-writing back in the day in journalism school. Maybe the 30+ inches of snow here near Washington, DC has left me stir-crazy. Or just crazy.

Having been house-bound since early Friday (my work instructed me to work at home), I've had to resort to my little laptop for entertainment. After updating two out of my three blogs, organizing, photographing and carrying out my own little Blythe virtual garage sale, staying up until 5 a.m. to read a book (see my art blog), watching Julie & Julia (loved it), watching the Puppy Bowl and Kitty half-time show on the Animal Planet channel (did you see the hamsters in the press box and the rabbit cheerleaders? Who are the Colts anyway?), I finally succumbed to internet shopping again.

Virginia isn't even here yet from Down Under, and now this little cotton candy fluff of a Blythe (Pinky? Punky? Pookie?) is en route, also from The Outback. I almost traded Maggy for her, but couldn't do it. Thank goodness I made a little money in my Blythe sale. There's still some goodies left, too.

That's good. Especially since I kinda, sorta, not accidentally bought Urban Cowgirl also. I've been coveting her and Casual Affair for a few months. This one has one set of custom eye chips and a little sand matting. I later saw this one I missed. How pretty is she? Anyway, 'cowgirl' comes without her stock, so I may have to break down and find a Blythe-size cowgirl hat.

Yeehaw!

More more mohair!

I have been searching high and low for a new Blythe that moved me, preferably with mohair. And, poof! She appeared on TIB by supervelma (these are her pics), who also has the coolest Lady Gaga Blythe for sale. But forget the Lady, I went gaga for this white mohair, who is as yet unnamed and only en route, but I am already envisioning fashions and photo shoots for her! Oh, the %$*&# Blythe Bug bites again! Won't this one make a great Alice in Wonderland or Snow White?

And speaking of Wonderland, I have been so taken with the OOAK creations by myownlittleworld2 on Flickr and Etsy! I finally bought one of her dresses. Should have gotten the matching hat, but just didn't think I should. Have done enough Blythe *damage* lately. And being back with "the bug," I am kicking mysef for ever selling my Mondie, French Trench, V-Smash and Gentle River, and even my ADG PP. At least I know they all went to very good homes.

I had been able to by my Mondrian on Ebay a few years ago for $400 and sold her for same a short time later because I didn't like her floppy Licca body and her stringy hair, even though I loved her boggled eyes. I just saw a first version today on Ebay for $2,000. Sheesh.

Gotta go crochet a hat. Found a great pattern site (knit, crochet and sewing) Creative Blythe, which led me to her Flickr, which led me to discover Plastic Paradise. All my Blythe friends are there. I must have been living under a rock not to know about this! Have a Blytheful day.

Hair today, chopped yesterday

The saying "hair today, gone tomorrow" might still apply to Miss Bunny Velvet (bottom). I can't seem to stop cutting her hair. When she arrived as an ADG Roaring Red, she literally had piles of hair (here). But when I "unpiled" it, it became all crazy and fuzzy and just kept getting bigger and out of control. Sometimes I think I should have left well enough alone. Then Miss Maggie cut it into a bob, but still it remained crazy. I've cut it twice, thinking to attach a wig permanently, like Maggie did with Georgia Peach. But, the wigs came, and they were too overpowering. Then I tried hats to no avail.

But now I'm starting to think she doesn't look half bad as a gamine, pixie-fresh version of Audrey Hepburn in her adorable stage. What do you think?

There will be NO messing with Daisy's hair (top). Her red finger curls are gorgeous and silky smooth, thanks to ruirui, her customizer from Tokyo. Daisy is so gorgeous I thought she deserved a pet, so now she has Daisy Duke, or Duchess, from the Liv doll series. Daisy wears vintage Blythe clothing from Bohemian Beats Again.

Isn't she lovely? And I'll be needing a name!

The itch for a newbie and the itch for a custom intersected on Ebay last night. Oh my gosh- is she beautiful or what? The name Daisy keeps coming to mind, but I am still ruminating while she's in transit from Tokyo. I just love her skin! her hair! her eyes! her eyelashes! her dress! I guess it was love at first sight!

Meet Miss Bunny Velvet

Glamour-puss? She's all that. And now she has a name: Bunny Velvet. No explanation can be found, other than the great comment by Sarah that she looks like Elizabeth Taylor in the movie National Velvet.

I tend to agree, and if the fictional character Charlotte in Sex and the City can name her dog Elizabeth Taylor, then I can name my fictional character Bunny Velvet. Done. Stay tuned. The other girls are hopping mad, especially Lilly.

Thanks again to "Aunt Maggie" for the great customization. See you in Balto or Hotlanta!

And now, my fab yellow eyes

Yellow, brown, boggled sparkly blue and one more set of eye chips...to be shown later. And another excellent excuse for changing clothes yet again.

The September Issue

Let's focus on our brown eyes today. Work it, lady. We'd call you by your name, but you don't have one yet. Sarah says Velvet, so I say maybe Sarah Velvet. We shall see.

Lester helps her get ready for her close-up. And did we mention the makeup artistry by Maggie? Check those eyelids, and the post below for the 411.

In need of name and a hairdo!

This little beauty returned today from a stay at Aunt Maggie's spa. She's just gorgeous! Anyone wanting to chat with Ms. Maggie about her work, should look her up on Flickr as momoko_girl_1. She does outstanding work!

Here's what she did to my Ashton Drake Roaring Red:

Boggled*Gaze corrected*Sand matted*Lip carving*Nostril carving*Philtrum Carving*Painted lips*Eyeshadow (hard to tell from this pic)*Blush*New chips (4 pairs)*Painted lids*Details on eyelids*New eyelashes ("Romance")*New pullrings (sleep eyes)*Spray matte*Fingernail polish*Toenail polish*Put her all back together*Condition and trim hair.

The hair was an ADG mess which I asked Maggie just to cut until I can decide what to do with it. Check out her own Georgia Peach on Flickr for a cute hairdo Maggie did with a wig!

I'll post more pics soon of this girl's other eye chips and lids as soon as she has at least a proper name and maybe a proper hair-taming!