Halloween Greetings

"I don't remember wearing that silly outfit, but apparently I did, because this card is proof!"

Halloween greetings from Brock and all the girls here at Blythe Happy!

New Girl in the House

I wish I could buy every Blythe doll ever made...but since I'm not a millionaire, I have to pick and choose, which makes each of my dolls really special to me.

 I am particularly drawn to the fantasy-haired girls, with pink and green at the top of my list. Here's my newest arrival: she is a 2007 release called Prima Dolly Melon. I managed to find her in "used" condition, so she was affordable, but she didn't come with her stock outfit (which I don't mind because I rarely use the stock clothes.) I love her soft coloring.

Naming a new doll has gotten harder with each one, because I've used all my favorite names already! My first thought for her was to incorporate her given name and call her Melany; but I don't love that name, so I thought of Melody. That's a little too musical for her, so I took off the "M", and now she is...

Elody!

She has moved right in and has taken quite a liking to our My Little Pony collection.

Welcome, Elody! We are so glad you are here!

The Surprising Origin of my Heart Pockets

I've started making these Heart Pocket dresses to sell in my Etsy store. Aren't they cute? 

I love to choose fabrics that coordinate well for the dress, and then come up with the perfect pocket design. You might be surprised to hear that these pockets started out as....

...scissor fobs!

I've always loved hearts, and a few years ago I challenged myself to make one heart every day for a year. I kept a blog about it here: 365 Sewn Hearts . It proved to be more and more difficult to come up with different hearts to make, until the middle of the year when I hit upon the idea of sewing scissor fobs out of felt. They were so much fun, I kept on making one every day for two months! 

I gave away a lot of the scissor fobs, but most of them just sat in a mason jar on a shelf until recently, when I decided to try using them as pockets on Blythe dresses. I was thrilled with how well they worked, so I plan to continue making these for the foreseeable future. 

 Here's how I started the bee dress: I had these perfect fabrics to match the bee fob, so I simply cut the fob apart to remove the back of the heart, then ironed it flat. I made the dress as usual, and added the pocket using hand embroidery. Cute!

I'm still using a lot of the scissor fobs for the pockets, but I'm also making new designs, or re-making some that I gave away. For these two identical dresses, I started by choosing the fabrics, then made new flower pockets to match them.

You can see all my newest creations in my shop: Blythe Happy

My Fun New Camera

I've had my eye on the Fujifilm Instax mini 8 camera for a while. It is a polaroid-type camera that takes small photos the size of a credit card. I first saw it on the blog My Blythe and Me, and I wanted it!  I saw it in two different stores for about $129, which was more than I wanted to pay for a "just for fun" camera. So, when I found it on Zulilly for half price, I jumped at that bargain! My daughter, Jenna, likes it too, and we've decided to share it.

My favorite subject to photograph is Blythe. Here you can see how the camera and a photgraph compare in size to my dolls.

My daughter's favorite subject is her white cat.  She loves that cat!

We have other cats in the house, and they have made it into a few of the pictures...

The film comes in packs of 10, and I splurged on a few packs with colored boarders. You never know what color will appear when the picture pops out of the camera!

 I haven't taken nearly as many pictures as Jenna has. There's been a bit of a learning curve for me, as I work on finding the right distance to stand from the dolls. If I get too close the pictures are blurry and overexposed. If I stand too far back, the dolls look too small in the picture.

I want to think up fun ways to use my Blythe photos. So far, I've thought of framing them to use on the walls in the doll house; or I could cut them up and use them when I make Artist Trading Cards. Do you have any other suggestions?

Happy Independence Day, America!

New Shoes

There is one thing I don't know how to make for my dolls--SHOES. I love little dolly shoes, and with close to 30 Blythes in my collection, I need to have a collection of shoes that will go with all their different outfits as well.

Recently I purchased these shoes from actongtong on eBay. The seller is located in Hong Kong, so before I made the purchase I inquired if he would offer combined shipping if I bought several pairs of shoes. He quickly replied that yes, he would, so I purchased 7 pairs. I was happy with how fast they arrived (they only took 11 days to reach me in the U.S.), and I was very happy to see that the seller included a free pair of shoes!

Profiles

I love Blythe profiles! These girls look so thoughtful when seen from the side. Here are two pictures I've taken recently...

...this is Charity (Mod Molly) with the morning sun coming in the window behind her:

...and here are London (Prima Dolly London) and Patience (Veronica Lace); they seem to be looking at something interesting.