Day to Day

Creating

Here's what I've been busy with:

New Blythe headbands for my Etsy store - available HERE.  There are some new knitted dresses (also for Blythe) too.

Blythe instagram photo challenge - week 1

I'm also a week in with my Blythe instagram photo challenge, and thoroughly enjoying it.  Here are my first seven photos for #blytheaday:

Day 1 :: Nostalgic :: My bear money box, Kenner blythe doll & my Dad's old box camera.

Day 2 :: Floral

Day 3 :: Water 

Day 4 :: Something bought :: A sweet dress from Stitched Bluebird.

Day 5 :: Something made :: A lovely gift - handmade by the lovely Janelle.

Day 6 :: Morning :: In the garden

Day 7 :: Friends :: Blythe dolls - Vintage Kenner + Milky Way Sugar

I'll be back a little later in the day,

Blythe dolls and camping

Do we take the Blythe dolls camping?  Why yes, of course!

{Sweet crochet hot water bottle covers in the background, available from HERE}

Meet Pippi

Thank you for all of the name suggestions for our new Blythe. A lovely reader (hi Kathleen!) suggested Pippi after one of her babies....well, Pippi it is!  Lots of other names made the list, but that one just kind of stuck.

Thank you! My readers are the best :)  

Kenner Blythe doll

Bella and I went out and visited another lovely Blythe doll owner late this afternoon.  I may or may not have come home with an original vintage Kenner Blythe doll from 1972.  Eek!  

I say 'may not' because my Mum & Mum-in-law will read this tomorrow morning and I don't want to get into trouble for purchasing such a doll.  So, let's pretend I did not.  ;)

Meet Stella - she is so beautiful.

Buying a blythe doll

I've had a few lovely readers ask about Blythe dolls recently - where do you buy them from, how much are they, etc...  I had planned on typing out a comprehensive post on this, but remembered that the delightful Miss Emily Wind had already blogged about the topic several months ago.  Her post is full of information, with everything you'll need to know about owning your very first Blythe doll.  Go HERE to read.

If you have other questions, please leave them in the comments section here and I'll do my best to help.

In our house we have bought second hand dolls from We Play With Dolls and new dolls from Ebay, Junie Moon and we also picked up three when we visited Hong Kong, back in March.  Like Emily mentions in her blog post, if you are buying from Ebay remember to ensure that the seller has fantastic feedback, has sold items before (not just bought) and is happy to ship with a tracking number.

A few of you also asked about the knitted Blythe cardigan pattern.  I bought the downloadable pattern from HERE on Etsy.

Another frequent question that I'm asked is how many Blythe dolls do you own in your family and which ones are they.  Well, here we go:

• Friendly Freckles - Ruby
• Tweedly Do (bought second hand) - Tillie
• Prima Dolly Ashlette - Hazel
• Milky Way Sugar - Jemima
• Urban Cowgirl - Mabel
• Simply Mango - Alice
• Dear LeLe girl - Emily
• Nicky Lad - Bessie

Until yesterday, we also owned Enchanted Petal and Nostalgic Pop!  Yes, we've just sold both of these dolls to purchase a new custom girl. Bella is beyond excited!!  This is a doll that has been customised and in our new Blythe doll's case it means - freckles added, sanded face, new scalp, carved lips and nosed, new eye chips, licca body (it's bendable) and lots of other little bits of goodness.  Who knew dolls could be this complicated?

She hasn't arrived yet, but her lovely previous owner said that I could borrow one of her photos to share:

via www.flickr.com

Any name suggestions would be welcome - Bella has a list already, but can't decide.

I hope this information helps a little bit and as I said, feel free to ask questions below.

Blythe doll house

Remember my blog posts about the Blythe doll house extension?  We finally finished the project on Sunday and it's now proudly set up in Bella's room.  It's big, it's colourful and she loves it!

As I mentioned in a previous post, Bella chose the colours and I think she did a great job.  It was a great 'budget' project - we used sample paints for the walls and the flooring was a freebie that we printed off the internet (source) which Rich adhered with watered down glue.

Bella spent Sunday afternoon video skyping her lovely friend Emily and together, via the modern technology of a laptop, they decorated and filled each level with Blythe goodness.  

Here's level one (bottom) which has been turned into a double blythe bedroom and is currently home to Alice, Jemima and Tillie.

I'll share photos of the other levels soon!

Blythe doll

Meet Bella's new Blythe doll, Tillie.  I think I've shared a photo of her before, but Bella thought a formal introduction was in order.

She is a pre owned doll that we found over at the We Play With Dolls forum and although Bella had some pocket money saved, there wasn't quite enough to buy her.  So, we started a loan tally on the black board and each week when pocket money day rolled around, she excitedly altered the total down.

On Sunday she wiped off the final part of her tally (hooray) and Miss Tillie is permanently part of the team. Bella has bought four of her own Blythe dolls to date - admittedly some of the funds were given to her by Aunties & cousins as birthday presents, but a large portion of her Blythe doll purchases have stemmed from pocket money saving.  I love that she sets big goals for herself.

Do your little ones save for big purchases or do they prefer to buy smaller goodies?

Blythe doll house extension - part 3

I just thought I'd pop in with a Blythe dolly house update for those that have been following along with part 1 and part 2.  Bella is anxiously awaiting the second and third floor to be finished and they're pretty close with just a couple more coats of paint to be done.

Over the weekend we did some altering to the existing green level, changing it from a kitchen/dining area into a bedroom + sewing room.  There was one happy girl when the room was finished, although we still do have a few more bits and pieces to pop up on the walls.

I bought the little machine, sewing box and threads off Ebay recently, just as an extra mid year treat for Bella because she's been dreaming of a sewing room for her Blythe dolls for quite some time now.

Excuse the dodgy photos - I snapped these quickly tonight after dinner.  That sweet crochet rug (above) was crocheted by Bella's lovely penfriend (Emily) and the gorgeous quilt with matching pillow set was a gift from her too. We bought the orange cabinet (re-ment) in Hong Kong and the little light on top actually works - it's powered by a battery in the back of the cupboard.

We printed those miniature maps off the internet from HERE along with the board games that you can see in the second photo from the top.  Oh yes, Bella's Blythe dolls do have a bit of a shoe collection going on!

Hopefully I'll have more photos of the other two floors to share shortly.  It's been so much fun putting this together with my girl.

Blythe doll house extension - part 2

My second guest blogger post for the day should have been magically appearing right now, but the photos aren't quite loading properly onto the post for me, so I will be back a little later in the day once I get it sorted.  For now, I'll share our Blythe doll house extension - part 2!

In the past few days Bella has been doing a whole lot of planning and dreaming about her dolly house.  Paint samples have been acquired, quick floor plans sketched out on paper and there's been a whole lot of  - when is it going to be finished, Dad?

She's been drawing a lot of inspiration from Georgia's lovely dolly house that appeared in Frankie magazine a few months ago, pouring over all the details inside. Below is a super quick sketch of what the bedroom is going to look like.  I might add that we don't actually own the bed, bunk beds or wardrobe that features in the drawing, but it's all about the planning and dreaming, right?

Working out which wall colour to use in which room is a tricky process, apparently.

Here's our Richard's structural progress.  He's up to the filling in the imperfections at the moment and then sanding, joining it properly to the original box and undercoating is on the plan for the weekend.

Perhaps by the end of next week it might even be ready for flooring, we'll see.  In the mean time I'm just enjoying watching Bella's designing  progress and excitement build.  

P.S. Just so you get an idea of size, it's huge! The three levels are now sitting at 1.1 metre high and 70cm in width - eventually they'll be a triangular roof structure added as well, to make it more 'house' like.

P.P.S. I'll see you back here as soon as I get these photos sorted!