Slumber Party

The rats are having a slumber party! We have been without power off and on all week, and no one has really gotten out of their pajamas, except to get outside to shovel snow (a lot of snow, I am telling you!) We had an ice storm, followed by a snow storm, and several days with power off and on, a couple of days for the entire day and some of the night. I was thinking about pajamas all week. When the power was actually on, I made 4 little rats in lovely pastel shades of pistachio pink and an English rose. They are all wearing pajamas.

This little girl is called Libby. She is a lovely pistachio green mohair girl with her own unique style of pajama-wear.

And of course, her pal, Clarice. Clarice is a lovely shade of English Rose pink. She, too has her own unique pajama style.

Next up, Pearle. She is Libby's sister.

And finally, we have Patrice, rhymes with Clarice. They are sisters.

I got a new wooden dollhouse bed that I painted pale pink and made a silk shabby comforter to go with, which turned out pretty well. Paula of sweetredcottage had given me some little pillows as a gift, and those worked in perfectly.

The slumber party girls fit nicely into the scene.

They are lovely lounging about. They don't care if we have power or not.

At the last minute, one of the Blythe girls joined in on the party.

She is maybe a little too large for the furniture, but it doesn't really matter.

It's all in fun anyway, and the good news is, I was able to take photos even when we had no power, as my trusty camera is battery operated and always ready to snap a shot or 2. Crossing fingers power stays on for the weekend. Hope you all are finding the weather where you are to your liking!

September Girls

It's been over a month since I last posted. I am getting really bad about this blogging business! I have been so busy. I customized a lot of dolls. I cleaned my house (sounds like nothing, but you've maybe never seen my house!), which meant 3 trips to the dump because the flattened cardboard boxes alone were overwhelming. Most of what went to the dump was actually recycled, but it was still cluttering up the place. My parents were here for a week's visit, in which it rained the entire 8 days they were here.

I think they didn't mind too much, because they have been so many times we are running out of things to do to give them the Vermont experience. We mostly just ate a lot and hung out at the house. Not much different from the rest of the year for us :)

Here are the dolls I customized for the month. As before, I like them all. They are all different. Some really fun hair colors were in there this time. All client requests, so I don't get to take too much credit for selecting them. I did dye them all to their specs, and tried my best to work up the doll to what they were hoping for. I think I did a pretty good job.

Hope your fall is less rainy than ours. I think we are on the 12th day or so of straight rain here. On a positive spin, we do need the water :)

Blythe Couture

I've been busy this past couple of weeks. I've set about to change around my Etsy Shop and add in some of the things I really love to make. I still like making hats, but I have made so many of them, that I am losing steam. It is really important to me to make something different each time I make something.



I don't like to repeat myself, and often I can't, even when I try. I want every single person who buys my wares to have something unique. Something that no one else has. What I love about the Blythe dolls is that they are all the same, but each is so very different. Sometimes that doesn't make sense, but it seems to be true. Especially with the customized dolls, which are my favorites. People taking photographs of their dolls all have their own style. Every picture, every doll, is different somehow. I love that.



I like to make things from scratch and just see what I come up with. I tend to do the same thing with cooking. Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much. But, for me, it is how my creative impulse works. If I have a clear idea ahead of time of what I want to make, it seems pointless to me to make it. I won't be surprised.



I like the element of surprise, and that's why I make things. To surprise myself. I put sort of random things together and I want to be surprised at how they come out. Some of the surprises I am more happy with than others. That is human nature, I suppose. In the end I am just pleased that anything came out at all.



So, I have been making lots of things. I spent a week making leather masks. I had never done that before. It surprised me. It was fun. I even sold some. This past 2 weeks I have spent making little dresses for Blythe. They are really something. Each one is different. Each one is interesting on its own. Together, they make a collection of so many different dresses it amazes me.



I set a goal to make at least 1 dress a day, and usually 2. I have no idea what I will make when I start out. I have a lot of silk. I love using silk. I dye it up first in shades that also surprise me, and I put it together into tiny dresses that I think Blythe collectors will love to have their dolls wear. People who have my dresses say they love them even more when they have them in their hands. I leave out a lot of the details (I rarely show the back of the dress, for instance) when I photograph them. I want the buyer to be surprised when they open the box. The element of surprise is something that drives me. I love it when people are surprised in a good way.



Stop by my shop periodically and see what I am up to. Hopefully you will see something you like. Maybe you will be inspired to try something new today. I hope so.

Coming up Roses

Here's a fun hat I made yesterday for a friend and her Blythe dolls. It's a charcoal colored wool felt with a giant black grosgrain ribbon made into an accordian pleat at the front and topped off with a matching charcoal gray leaf and a hand-rolled silk velvet rose. I am quite happy with how it turned out. I was having fun with the pictures and thought I'd share.

Fascinating Blythe

I think I have finally kicked some of my creative slump. Here are some fascinator hats I did up for Blythe. I think she looks fantastic. These hats will fit other dolls, but if you are a Blythe fan, there is no other doll that is quite as fun, funny or fashionable as the big headed, big eyed queen.



I think Blythe is pretty much my doll focus these days. I really can't resist, to be honest. Somehow I have acquired 7 Blythes. All but 1 is customized to some degree by me. My 1 stock doll (though she may not stay that way long) is a Guava given to me by my friend, Jeany, in Canada. What a cool gift! I was so stoked to receive it, I can't tell you. I am just finishing up a mohair root for Jeany this week. I figure it's the least I could do.



I have a couple of Blythe projects on the table that I am thinking about. My good friend, Amy Taylor, jeweler extraordinaire, is collaborating with me on what I hope might be a series of OOAK Blythe customs. I think we'll concentrate on 1 first and see how we do. There is no one who can do jools like Amy, so I think whatever we come up with is bound to be quite smashing. Between the 2 of us, we ought to be able to do everything ourselves outside of manufacturing the actual doll.



I hope you doll people are having a lovely fall. It is bordering on winter here in Vermont, and we have already had one day of snow! I can hardly feel ready for that, but it's the way it is here. Gives me an excuse to stay inside and play with dolls, I suppose. Hope you all are enjoying playing with dolls and finding fun ways to express yourselves. There doesn't seem to be a shortage of creative people out there. I am sure you are one of them. Enjoy!

Blythes in Hats

I'll start this post by saying, I have been so, so lazy! I looked at my last post and it has been literally months and months since I posted last. Thump to me!



Cold weather is creeping back here in Vermont, and that's about the time I start getting creative again. Finally! That's all I can say. The summer this year was quite lovely. Lots of sun. A bit too much water here and there, but all in all, quite right.



I made 4 new hats this weekend. I was thinking, since it looked like I wasn't lifting a finger, that maybe I was just done making hats for dolls. I mean, I haven't actually even looked at my sewing machine for most of the summer. But, the weekend was cold. We barely went out, and I got to thinking, maybe I'll sew something. So I did. 4 new hats. I like them. They are whimsical and romantic, and I am showing them off here. My newest Blythe doll, Jeany, has pink hair. My dear friend, Jeany, for whom she is named, actually gave her to me as a gift! This is her first time in photos. She likes her new hat. Hope you do, too.

Stomp Fest

Yesterday was the first day of spring for me here in Vermont. Spring sometimes comes a little late here in these northern parts. But, we had SUN. And I mean real sun that lasted all day! I can't tell you how giddy that makes a northeasterner. I lived in the west most of my life and I really just didn't get that excited when there was sun. There was always sun it seemed to me. But here in the east, after a winter of pummelling snow, the sign that spring may be here is overwhelming. I finished up a couple doll dresses, took these photos of 2 of the girls (Lynette and Cappucine) stomping happy and then sat outside for a lot of the day. There are still 4 feet snow banks in the front, you still can't turn around easily in the driveway, and most of the yard still has a foot of snow on the ground, but ground has poked through, the blueberry bushes at the front of the house are uncovered, and the warming trend has begun. Life is good! I hope it's sunny wherever you are.

Blythe Rocks It

My husband makes and sells various musical genius things - hand-wired boutique tube amps, pedals, and things I don't know what are. He was taking some photos last night of a finished piece and asked if he could use a doll in the photos. We decided Capucine was a good model, so I dressed her up and sent him to take his photos. They turned out really cute, so I dressed her up again this morning and let her rock out. She cracks me up. I think I am having way too much fun. Hope you are having a lovely day and rocking out doing rockstar fun things :)

Fairy Couture

My friend Amy of HingedJewelry is busy making me some really fun things to go in my store. Think fancy headwear. In the meantime, while I am awaiting the postman, I am getting some dresses ready to go with them, and well, these are pretty much fairy couture.



I am having fun putting together all the silk fabrics, namely washed charmeuse, velvet, chiffon and gauze, and dyeing them into colors I love. Add a little adornment, and voila' you've got a gown perfect for any fairy or wanna be fairy. I've got them very form fitting for Blythe, so they also happily fit Pullip really well, who is a bit on the slimmer side. They also give my new Mango (Capucine is her name) a chance to show off her lovely face and groovy new eyeshadow.



Hope you like them. Hopefully I will have the jools and photos ready to go and in my store mid-week.

Blythe Blathering

If you talk to me much via email, you know that I have been trying to find a way to get myself a Blythe doll as a hat model. Blythe is a trendy vinyl doll with a giant head (about 11 inches around at the head, when the doll is only 9 inches tall) that has been trendy for about 10 years, I think, though that sounds kind of oxymoronic to me. But oh well. I didn't really want one that looked like it came right out of the box, and was feeling kind of chicken to spend $150 or $200 (minimum) on a doll that I was just going to pull open the head, pop the eyes out and start sanding and painting. I found a temporary solution that in a way seemed easier at the time that I thought it up. I bought a clone doll off Ebay from a person in Thailand. Mixed feelings about that, but really wanted to try my hand at popping this girl's head right off. It took quite awhile to get through the mails to me here in Vermont, and man, when I opened the box, cheapy plastic as all get-out! I sure hope the real ones aren't like that for $150. I doubt it. But I am talking cheap, cheap, cheap plastic. But, I took it apart, sanded it up, drilled a bit out of the nostrils, carved up the lips, had John, my husband, drill the eye chips out of their sockets and set to painting. Lo and behold after a bit of TLC, she turned out quite well.



I got her a new black and white wig, cut her regular hair a bit Marilyn-esque, as I continue to be obsessed with Marilyn Monroe, got some fabulous custom blue eye chips from a lovely gal in Argentina named Ana Karina and put her back together. Okay, I didn't really, John put her back together, but he also took her apart, so when I went to try it, it was more like Greek to me. I didn't really want to hover over him while he was doing it, but once I had the eye chips in the mail box, I was wanting that thing together pretty immediately. So anyway, I now have my Blythe hat model. I like her. I named her Ariel. I made 3 hats for her today and put them up for sale in my Etsy store. Giant hats, for giant headed dolls. Quite amusing. And, to tell you the truth, I am now quite a real Blythe fan. I think if I sell enough hats, I'll probably get a genuine Takara Blythe and use that one to show off my hats, too. In the meantime, I have a fancy-schmancy resin Asian ball-joint-doll young Super Dollfie coming, hopefully in about a month, but I'll save that for another story and another time.