Simply Chocolate and Vanilla Blythe (Out of the box)

Umm... you know, I can't say I'm like blown away or anything. Aveuch, one of my contacts on flickr said that "Simply Vanilla" looks like an 80s anchor woman and I have to agree. I'm way more into "Simply Chocolate" but not enough to run out and break my bank over her. I'm starting to realize that so far, the only stock Blythe I have ever purchased that I love for her pure stockness is my Hammy(Hamsa) "Punkaholic People" Blythe. I kept her in her stock outfit for quite a while after I bought her. For me, she works so well just as she is and I have not dreamed of customizing her in any way. But on the other hand, of all my other Blythes, I love most the ones I have customized extremely from head to toe because they are truly mine, truly one of a kind. I am pretty certain I'm about to let Molly, my SBL Takara PWP (Pow Wow Poncho) go soon. I just don't think I want anything other than my two ADGs and RBLS in my collection from now on because RBLs are just so easy to customize and that's what I like doing best. Especially since most of the stock Blythes that have been released lately are just not doing it for me. I actually like the factory illustrations better than the real thing!

I am also looking to swap Sabine's Prima Dolly Aubrey scalp for a "Simply Mango" scalp because I just loved playing with that hair! I had "Simply Mango" on my wishlist for a while before I realized, I don't need to buy a whole other Blythe! I just need the scalp! And you can only do that with RBLs. Really, it's time for me to start being smart and downsizing a teeny bit. This being said, yes I am getting the "Buckles and Bows" Petite Blythe and Lps set probably next week but they're like so cheap! *Sticks out tongue* So there!

Buckles & Bows

Buckles & Bows
Originally uploaded by lalasmom

OMG! HOW CAN I NOT? HOW-CAN-I-NOT????
LOL!

The Gemini Twins: Neige and Angora

Originally uploaded by Zanalee

I took a trip to Central Park this Saturday and took Neige and Angora with me. It was a singularly beautiful day this Saturday, warm but with wonderful breeze. I took some food and a book along with me and sat by the lake on the West Side with the ducks where I used to hang out years ago in High School. After a few hours, on my way out I decided to walk along a gravel path that I've never walked down before which goes along the opposite side of the lake. It was near a large mountainous collection of rocks that I hadn't visited since I was a teenager with my best friend. We used to go up there to sit and talk and engage in unmentionable adolescent hijinks.

I ended up climbing up there and finding the perfect remote spot to take pictures, unafraid that I might be discovered by passers by, because I'm still pretty shy about taking pictures of the Blythes in public. I think this is because I kind of disappear into a world apart when I'm doing it and I hate to be reminded of that other reality while I'm in the midst of Blythe world and nature. I've probably always been that way.

As a child, I loved finding beautiful remote places in nature where no one but me and my family seemed to go or know about. And I would get very annoyed whenever strangers would appear and destroy my meditative reverie.

This Saturday was such a day when there the tranquil reverie of my little world lasted for hours and everyone around me just seemed to be enjoying the day. I sat on the rocks taking pictures, watching people go by, observing brides and wedding photographers, basked in the shade of tall trees with long branches and stared into the green lake. I kept telling myself, "one last picture and I'll stop" or "I'll go up a bit higher and then head home. But I ended up coming down a lot later than I had planned and following that gravel path along the lake until I came upon a beautiful weeping willow with her branches swaying in the breeze and occasionally dipping the tips of her leaves in the lake.

I took quite a few pics of Neige and Angora on the rocks which were very beautifully lit. I'm really coming to have a special affection for these two especially when they are together.

Neige is sweet, childlike, friendly and playful. She is very attentive to how she looks. She likes to look cute and stylish. Angora has a childish face but I've discovered that she is actually quite surprisingly old, older than Neige and wise but but not bossy. She is adventurous and doesn't care about getting dirty or looking fabulous all the time. She's quite mysterious and has more going on than I think I will ever know about. The both of them are well matched partners in adventure, very different but almost like two sides of the same coin, like a Gemini. I think the fact that they both have Licca bodies with legs that I never really got right with the spray paint brought them together initially. But since their transformations they have grown to be true friends in earnest.

YEA!

YEA!
Originally uploaded by Zanalee

This beautiful piece of fabric from Hollychan2 one of my flicker buds arrived in the mail at work yesterday. I had almost forgotten I'd chosen it from a few pictures she'd posted of some free fabric she'd received several weeks ago. It looks even better in person! I love it! I've hung it up on a wall in my bedroom and I'm hoping to get some good sunlight on it so I can use it as a back ground for dolly pics. Holly is so awesome!

I'm hoping the light's good this weekend so that I can take some detail pics of all the fun things going on in this illustration. It makes me happy just to stare up at it when I'm at home.

Speaking of home, I have some small renovations in mind. Just some shelves really. Can you believe a bunch of dolls are my motivation to get shelves put in? Well they are. My large plastic family really needs a central place to be that's not on my bed where they happen to be right now and have been for a few weeks. Not that I mind sleeping with them every now and again. But they deserve their own space and it would be nice as well just to have them on display. I'm excited.

Sabine Before and After

I decided to give my Prima Dolly Aubrey, Sabine a make over one early morning this weekend. She just hasn't been getting much attention lately so I sand matted her face plate, carved her lips and gave her some pastel lip color which I didn't quite understand until recently although I had been told about this several times by some some people whose doll customizing skills I really admire. The pastel is like a stain on the lips so that unlike the heavy pigment of acrylic paint they give the sense of  a more natural lip shade. I'm really liking it. I also gave her some pastel make up on her cheeks and eyes. I think I may go back to a more neutral look for her eyes though. I got a little to excited and went with green this time but she looks a bit too made up that way. I may be doing Reya's lips over again as well. The coppery color is not working for her anymore. See what happens whenever I learn to do something new? I just lose it. LOL!

Sale at "I Love George"

I can't say no to a sale.

And I ♥ "I Love George."

: )

GOOD NEWS!!!

Simply Vanilla and Simply Chocolate
Originally uploaded by Zanalee

So not only is Hipstamatic 170 being released on iTunes this Friday (JOY!!!!) but Simply Vanilla and Simply Chocolate Blythe are coming out in October!!

Just when I thought I had capped my Blythe Doll intake by restricting my remaining wish list to a BL Blythe and Simply Mango, this happens!! Now I see how we become addicts. How will this ever stop? Oh but I love them both! I love their stock, their flipped hair dos, their 70s outfits!

I'm hoping I'll like one more than the other they way I like Simply Mango better than Simply Guava. That way, maybe I won't have to go all out with spending. But then again I could end up not liking either. The sun-kissed Hawaii Blythe that came out a while ago that I was so psyched about was a total disappointment. But I wanna like these guys! So I hope they look as good in person! If nothing else, I need to get my hands on both sets of earrings. I love earrings on Blythes!

Welcome Sesamina!

Originally uploaded by Zanalee

Littlest Pets, a toy I'm not really a big fan of but with a considerable cult following has a series of Blythe Petites out in four themes. They are so cheap, I couldn't let this one get away. She's the "Perfectly Plaid" petite and she comes with a Littlest Pet horse, (not shown here) riding gear and two apples to feed the horse. I'm not sure she's a Takara Petite though. Her eyes don't move or close when she lies down and her head tilts from side to side which I love! I adore her entire outfit! She's such a cutey pie! I've named her Sesamina, because apparently I'm obsessed with naming Petite Blythes after small things. Besides, I like the word sesame. I like saying it. It's fun.
LOL!

Blythe Post Made a Sale!

 (Do ya see those sleeves?)

Ok first of all, that's not even the first best thing to happen in the last half hour. It started when I succeeded in nagging Plastic Fashion out of retirement to put her amazing Blythe dresses up for sale again instead of torturing us by posting all the goodies she's been making for her girls alone. Her dresses are usually characterized by beautiful, vibrantly colored prints, sweet sort of retro 30s 40s silhouettes and impeccable pleats, sleeves and seam work. When I first started seeing her stuff, she was still selling on Artfire and Etsy. She made one amazing shirt dress that I missed out on and so settled for another baby doll which I liked but not as much as that shirt dress.  Shortly after that she announced that she was not going to be selling anymore but would still make stuff for her own dolls. I was so saddened! Lately, she's been super prolific, making like one or two dresses a week, and like several of my fave Blythe Dress designers, it's often the highlight of my day to see her work pop up each week in my "contacts" stream. Today she posted the dress above and said I pulled her leg so she posted it in her etsy. YESSS!!! I rushed to her artfire shop: nothing, so then to etsy and there it was. As I was signing into my paypal to purchase it, I noticed a credit in my account. What?  I had no idea I had anything in there. I though about checking first before I made the purchase but then I decided to buy first and check my paypal status later. Thank God I did! I was lucky enough to be the first person to even comment on that dress in flickr. Seconds later, people were clamoring for it! But I got it! It's on it's way to moi! And I could not be happier. Or could I?

Sold!

I checked the email account linked to my paypal and there I saw that someone from England had purchased not one, not two, but three postcards from Blythe Post! Oh my gosh!! I haven't made a sale in ages! I dis receive an email a while ago though that one of my postcards, "Vida in Autumn" was placed in someones etsy treasury. Not sure exactly what that means but I imagine it's a good thing and I sent a kind thank you note back. Anyway, I was thrilled to the marrow! It's a great feeling selling your own work. I so hope they enjoy them! It's also inspiring me to get off my butt and make some new cards.  So today there was a complete cycle of handmade goods exchange in my world. I wish every weekend was like this.
: )

Mary Mary...

I don't know know very much else about the man other than that he does best Kenner Blythe Hair restorations I have ever seen and travels everywhere with a pale blonde Kenner Blythe names Mary Collins. Yatabazah: perfectionist, a bit creepy, a ton private; whatever he is, he brings a life to this doll with his photos, his creations and video media I have not seen before or since. He's just so serious! Check out more of Mary Collins here.

My Bedroom Has Become my Studio

I woke up early Monday morning while my fiancee was still asleep and went into my bedroom to continue re-rooting Emily's scalp with the thermal changing orange saran I got from restoredoll.com. And it's taken me some time to realize it but my tiny bedroom is my studio. My fiancee and I sleep in a futon in the livingroom. He stays with me in my apartment during the week so technically we live together but it's really my apartment that I share with him.

My bedroom is kind of like the only room to go to for privacy. Inside there is a huge television I rarely ever use which sits on an Ikea chest of drawers. There is a tower of used journals, books and a Blythe stand on top of the television. I have a hope chest at the foot or head (depending on how I sleep) of my wooden captain's bed with more clothes spilling out of it and a stack of books and shoe boxes nearby but then it kind of gets taken over by my eight Blythes, two Barbies, a Domo Domo Kun Doll, my shark hand puppet, two shoe boxes full of doll clothes, one filled with accessories, a toolbox, bottles of acrylics, pastels, and a bag of spray paint and hair and customizing tools. Presently I still have that Blybe doll from the Netherlands sitting in parts in it's box waiting to be turned into, I'm not yet sure what. It's my studio/bedroom is what it's become. And I go in there there to continue projects, to start projects, to style the dolls for photo shoots or just to listen to music and upload pics to flickr on my laptop like I did yesterday after I'd gotten tired of re-rooting. I wish I had more time to do stuff like that. This weekend the weather was incredible, ideal actually. The light was lovely. There was no humidity.

I took a trip to Knitty City this Saturday because I can feel my knitting bug coming on whenever it starts to get the slightest bit chilly. I bought one skein of yarn and a ball of small scale yarn because I'm toying with the idea of making something for the dolls. I had to buy a pair of thin knitting needles for this. I'm sure I could have gotten everything cheaper at Michaels but I really missed the ambiance of Knitty City. It's just one of those cute lower level yarn shops that's crammed with yarn and has a knitting circle towards the back. Someone's always sitting behind a wooden loom behind the counter spinning yarn by hand. I just really like that. I will be visiting Michaels again soon though since I can't afford Knitty City regularly on my salary. Knitting calms me and I've been pretty stressed out lately. I find that focusing on making something with my hands always puts me in a better space when my mind is mucked up. I really desperately want to learn how to crotchet and knit in the round so I can start make something more than just scarves. I think I'll start focusing on that for the Fall.

Fave Blythe Photo of the Day

outtakes :)
Originally uploaded by MorganOrton

I cannot find the words to say how much I love this pic of my flickr contact Morgan Orton's daughter and her Blythe in the pink Jonathan Adler Barbie couch.

Top Model Nikki is here!

 So the first thing I do when I first open up a new doll, besides check for underwear (LOL!) is see if they have a swivel waist and if their legs bend. Nikki has neither and her legs are perpetually posed like this. I was so annoyed by the lack of my favorite dolly perks that I almost thought of keeping her fierce stock and putting her back on the market. But then she struck a pose and I was like WHAM! I guess the limitations of her pose ability will make for a good photographic challenge. Even the insanely articulated and jointed Integrity Dolls have limitations and can't always pose the ways I would like them to.

I couldn't have two Nikkis in the house because "Surf's Up Nikki" was the first so I have named my Top Model Nikki "Zaltana" which is Native American and means "High Mountain." I think it suits her. She comes with one other outfit, a denim mini skirt, a silky orange camisole and a pair of strappy black heels. She has a black pleather "go see" portfolio with pictures of like four or five different outfit combinations inside. She is serious business!