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!

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.

Still Crocheting Away

Hats I made this weekend, modeled by Jane, who is also showing off some of her new Cool Cat eye chips. I may put the hats in my Etsy shop when I get a chance.

Molly Brown and Violet Jane are here; Lilly showing off as usual

Jane, my new French Trench, arrived this week, along with Molly Brown, an adorable mohair by DollyMolly and Pheisty. I'm just getting used to her Licca body, having learned how to tighten up the floppy legs, and I've been changing Jane's eyechips, one pair a day, after I learned the hard way about that, too.

Jane is wearing a navy dress set I got on Plastic Paradise along with the sweet red mohair sweater by DollyDressUp on Etsy. I also used a gold 'J' charm from a Juicy Couture perfume bottle for her pull ring. So far I've given her dark brown chips, but I have light brown, olive and red/green combo all coming, all by Cool Cat.

I wish there were more hours in the day; there's so much I want to do. I flew to Indiana this weekend and only packed one girl, trying to be practical. Besides, I also brought my knitting, crocheting, books to review, magazines, blogging, some other projects and some real work. Plus I came here to go to the doctor, dentist, get a hi-lite from Alica, my all-time favorite hair girl for 11 years now, get a nail fill, go tanning, and otherwise get an overhaul. Too bad I can't get liposuction on the weekend also.

Meanwhile, Lilly, my Star Dancer, wanted to show off her lovely purple set from Megipupu that looks great with the crocheted skirt we got on PP and her Marc Jacobs-like designer bag. She's such a fashion plate! Drives the other girls crazy. Stayed tuned for new pictures of Jane and Molly and the crew when I get back; Libby of Pistachio Libby on Etsy has been making us a fantastic wardrobe with some fabrics I picked.

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.

Weekend Mini Blythe Meet!

First off, you can click on this awesome mosaic for a larger view. These are some shots from a Dolly gathering this past weekend with Maggie Stimson, Theo Malloy and myself in Columbia, MD. Everyone had incredible dolls and fashions. We had some swapping, selling and gifting, and Maggie showed me how to change eye chips with the hot glue stick and hot cotton ball method.

Theo showed us all her Momokos, Azones and Fashion Royalty and their massive wardrobe. We talked about Blythecon, Fashion Royalty Convention and the International Fashion Doll Convention. And our theme was Alice in Wonderland. A great time was had by all (three).

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.

It's been so busy around here lately that I haven't had time to do proper thank-yous or proper introductions, so without further ado, big thanks go to Carrie, Memeeps on Flickr for the wonderful goodies from the Blythe in America swap, co hosted by LucysPostcardQuilts and myself.

Carrie was a thorough swapper and perused my pics and blogs to suss out that I had three Blythes, and she sewed them all darling matching pink and white dresses (shown above). She was aghast, although she needn't be, when she saw my latest Flickr pics and realized I had quickly acquired two more, a Mondrian and a V-Smash. She even apologized for not sending them Valentine gifts also, which is crazy. She had already gone above and beyond the call of Blythe swapping duty! We love all our gifts, and the girls can certainly learn to share!

So, although Mondie/Tuesday has been pictured here before, today is the official posting of the first pics of Jolene, a fiery redheaded V-Smash. I love her combo of red-orange hair and red-orange eyes, although of course like other Blythes, she has options! I am too chicken to do an eye chip change or they'd all have options. Only Violet, who came with custom violet chips, has anything non-stock about the eyes.

The girls are also posing above with some of the crocheted hats I've made with the pattern from Zoe Aarden's new book, Grrlie Designs, 22 Unique Crochet Patterns for Blythe, which I edited, and which is available on ebay, etsy and Blurb, or link below in my 1/31/08 post. You just gotta get it!