Disney bound

My family is off to Disney World again in a month.  I've been preparing travel garments for Moth.

I'm hoping to have more opportunities to photograph my doll this time in less crowded areas.  Last time (June 2012) with Gatsby was difficult to get decent photos since I had to stop in packed walk areas basically.

I've been working on gathering clothing. So far I have:

Tea and Tarts stock

Umbrella is actually Cute and Curious stock.  The headband is staying home.  I'm using Cousin Olivia's headband instead.

Sparkle Girlz set- white crop top and flowered shorts....I can't find a photo.  You should try these sets.  They are under 2 dollars at Walmart.  Fit decently and fair quality.  Not top, but nice enough for 2 bucks.  Here is a photo of the ones I purchased a while ago.

They have fair variety and not just everything is pink.  I try to pick the ones that aren't anyways.

Red polka dot Minnie Mouse dress. I am not fantastic at collars, but looks adorable with the felt Mickey Ears I made before the last trip which I forgot to take.

I'm probably going to use white sock and boots with all of the outfits.  I found that I prefer boots since they stay on better which reduces the risk of loosing them.  My favorite are the witchy boots.  I have 5-6 pairs now in white, cream, and black...red sparkle Jemgirl also! 

I'm going to try and post my new rement sets next!

Blythe a Day October 19th-22nd, 31st

October 19th Favorite ghost story- Lady in Black: A young woman fell in love with a man from a rival school and He left her for a freshman at his own school. The lady in black took her own life out of despair and today she searches out the freshman girl who stole her beau still to this day.

October 20th- fall: I cheated. Our fall colors are still pretty green at the moment

October 21st- Halloween decor:  My plastic pumpkin that goes up every year.

October 22nd- Hats:  Moth out in the yard in her casual clothes.

Then my nephew was born and my BaD fell apart, lol.  I had planned to jump into the middle of the month and do all of the fun Halloween themed days.

I never got this posted for the last day of BaD October 31st,  but this is what Moth wore for trick or treating:

The romper is little Lalaloopsy, Nicki Lad glasses, and Mandy Cotton Candy boots.  

New knitting pattern- Swimsuit for Blythe

Modeled by Moth

I've made all kinds of bathing suits for Blythe.  I have never written out the pattern though.  After releasing the one for Petite Blythe I had a request to write one up for Neos.  I took me a lot longer to actually get the pattern out than it did to knit it! 

I should work up one for Middie also.  The one for Wonderfrogs does not fit Middie.  If I remember correctly, the problem is in the shape of Middie's chest versus the frogs.  I would also like to design a few other suits maybe eventually.

You can find the pattern on Etsy or through Ravelry.  It's 3.50 USD.  

P.S.  The suit fits both Takara Blythe bodies and Licca bodies.

Moth Rowan, part 3

Simply Love Me scalp

Should I keep searching for a Frosty Frock scalp???

I can't decided.

Moth Rowan, part 2

Moth Rowan made it to me safe and sound.  It was a pleasant surprise when I found that her original Fruit Punch (FruPu) scalp was included.

Right off I  tried the FruPu scalp and then went to taking her apart.  This was the first time I've ever seen EBL insides first hand.  I figured why not since she had been opened before.  There are better photos out there, but I thought I would snap them anyways (see below).

Face inside

Back inside

One of my concerns about her Simply Vanilla scalps is that I have Simply Vanilla with her original scalp still.  Turns out the only similarity they have is the scalp.  

I would like to try a Frosty Frock scalp on Moth.  Dr. Blythenstein posted a comparison photo of Border Spirit, Simply Love Me, and Frosty Frock's hair colors.  Simply Love Me (SLM) and Frosty Frock are really close.  I found SLM one for sale on BK, so I nabbed it.  I have a WTB on BK, also.  I figure the chances of finding a Frosty Frock could be slim. The SLM will at least give me an idea if I want to continue the search or not.  

P.S.  FBL scalp is not a perfect fit on EBL.  I doubt SBL or RBL scalps are either, but I'm not really concerned.  However, I wanted to warn anyone who wants to try scalps on an EBL thinking they would be a perfect fit.

Moth Rowan

Another Blythe joins my ranks today, Moth Rowan.  She has been carved by Milky Robot and her face up is by Little Dear (Merwing on Flickr, also the author of Doodle Stitching.)

Merwing's photo from Flickr.

Moth Rowan will probably keep her name, but I think she will be known as Moth.  Moth started out in this world as an EBL Fruit Punch.  She has a Licca body and I believe she has sleepy eyes.

I have had a FruPu before and overtime I fell completely out of love with her.  I really love EBL customs.  I'm pretty excited to see Moth today (she is out for delivery as I type.)

Only change I may make eventually is her scalp.  I would like to see if I can find her a Frosty Frock scalp maybe.  I'm going to wait on it.

Blythe a Day: June 3rd- 9th

June 3rd: Rainbow- Knit the rainbow.  Monroe working on a silk rainbow top.

June 4th: Laundry- Gidget is having one of those days where she has to wash clothes to have something to wear!

Extra: A chihuahua is always nearby.

June 5th: Decisions, decisions- Merrick is debating, healthy orange or sugary cupcake.

June 6th: Seashore- Peach and Pretzel are packed for the seashore. I haven't broken it to them that we are land locked.

June 7th: Don't give up- Nova posing with my grad school official transcript.  It was a challenging two years, but I did it.

June 8th: Stars/Moon- Moon showing off her star on her cheek and moon eye chips.

June 9th: Birthday- Lemon says, "It's my birthday and I can wear my dragon suit if I want to."

Extras:  

Top view- placement of items to get a clear view of face

Close up

Toy soldiers and chihuahua

To show the scale of the soldiers

Moon

My Can Can Cat, Moon (previously known as Paris), made a journey to and from New York safely.  She received a full make over while visiting Coffeedove.

I'm loving her galaxy style shadow.  It is so bright and fun.  I quickly threw together the outfit she is pictured in.  I will have to dig through my stuff to find other items for her.  At the moment I cannot think of anything suitable, but sometimes the most unlikely outfits look good on the most unlikely candidates.

Here are all of her chips:

I have another idea for a custom doll!  She will have to wait until I get some other things taken care of first.  I am really excited, but it is sad having to wait.

Petite Valentine Swap

I'm in a Petite Swap periodically.  I think this is the 3rd that I've participated in.  The last I was in a rush to get everything sent that I did not take photos and the recipient did not either. Oops.  It's a secret swap, but by now my recipient knows I sent to her since she is the last to receive a package.  I shipped within days of getting her name for fear it would take a really long time for the package to arrive to her in her country.  I'm hoping the package shows up within the next couple of weeks.

I received from Charles, Potatoe-mouse, this time.  He ran with the theme Moulin Rouge (the movie) since it is one of my favorites.  Warning:  Many photos to follow!

Can-can dress with a working corset!

Unmentionables with a Gryffindor scarf

Grande Absente and the Green Fairy

The outfits are adorable!  I actually named Shanghai Season Satine once I saw her in the can-can dress.  I thought Charles used his Shanghai Season as model for the dress since it looks made specifically for her, but I got confirmation that he did not.  I picked Lemon Drop (Little Retro Mama) as model for the green fairy dress because of her green eyes.  Silver Crescent (Sweet Scarlet Spell) is one of my faves so I grabbed her too.  Seems like the same girls get to model just about every time.  Next time I will try to pick new girls for the job.  

I don't think I ever posted photos from the summer swap.  I will try to do that soon.  

One last photo of the green fairy:

The dress matches absinthe pretty perfectly.

Twinkle Princess and Macaroon Q-Tea Party

I keep saying that I will take real comparison photos of all my Middies.  One day that will happen, but this was not that day.

At one time I owned 5 of the 6 new releases.  I have lost count on the most current dolls, but I currently own 8 Middies.  I've only sold one from my collection years ago which was Milk and Honey.  It is interesting looking at the subtle changes that were made from doll to doll-  noses get more defined as well as fingers, eye shape and lashes changes, etc.

Up until recently Macaroon Q-Tea Party has been my most pale complexion doll.  She is an unofficial translucent doll.  You can see that she is different from all of my other dolls including Little Retro Mama petite who was released as a translucent.

Twinkle Princess (Tweedle) and Macaroon Q-Tea Party (Elphie)

Twinkle Princess skin tone is really white with a hint of pink. I don't think quite as dense as Cousin Olivia who has little to no pink tone.  It is always a nice surprise to have a doll that is very different from the others.  Sometimes it gets to feeling like I  have to same doll with only different hair.

Bonus photo: Twinkle Princess and Alicia Cupcake,

released two months apart.  You can really see a difference between skin tone here.

Toysfield Kuma

The last post I composed was supposed to have another post afterwards about my Toysfield Kuma.  A family emergency kept me from posting like I intended.

back together again

I did not take deboxing photos like with Little Grey.  I was so shocked to open Kuma up and discover his head rolling around inside his box.  I hoped that it was an easy fix.  Bah!  He was broken!!

The seller and I were both bummed.  It happened during shipping.  A very sad day.

I had two options- no repairs and have a broken doll, or, try the repairs and have a possible fixed doll.  If it went badly, I would still have a broken doll.  I decided to take a chance.

I seam ripped down the back and found the broken piece.  The neck is a ball and socket (like a hip joint). The socket part broke off during shipping.  I suspect the neck tie was too tight and any impact to the box put pressure on this weak portion of the doll.

neck ball joint

broken neck socket

broken piece

I found epoxy that's good for practically any application.  I rebuilt the neck like making a coil pot while holding the broken portion together.  I had to work fast!  The epoxy started drying in less than 5 minutes.  It was low fume, but I did miss the part about gloves. DOH! Yeah, wear gloves.  Epoxy is apparently poisonous while it is in the putty form.  I am happy to say I am still alive.

This epoxy stuff is incredible!!  It worked!  I was unable to get photos of the process.

My Kuma is back in one piece.  The head is a little shaky, but that's better than broken.

Tico and Kuma 

I hope to take Kuma out on some adventures.  So far all he has done is a truck trip in the woods.  We stayed in the truck since it was raining.  I wanted to see if a real bear happened by so I could try to get a photo of them together.  I then remembered bears are hibernating.  Silly me.

Poe's adventures

I bought Poe, SBL Pow Wow Poncho, from eBay maybe a little over a year ago.  The seller lived about 2.5 hours from me which I found interesting.  I only know of one other Blythe collector in my state.

She arrived without her stock eye shadow and that typical SBL downward gaze.  If I remember right, she had a slight melt mark from her pull chord which I buffed out.

I started following a fellow Blythe collector on Instagram named Coffeedove.  I was drawn in by her images of reptiles, and other animals, and her illustrations.  About a week ago Coffeedove posted an offer of free custom work.  I though why not!

I never could decide what to do with poor Poe.  She is the most neglected doll in my collection.  In preparation for her travels I opened up Poe.  I've had some experience opening SBLs, including the hack saw method.

Now, she looks amazing!  The following are Coffeedove's images:

First image and lid painting

Lids, Very Vicky chips (in prior to travels), pull chords

hand painted chips

Very Vicky chips with faceup

I should be seeing her on Monday!