Rob Ryan bunting

It's the Queens diamond Jubilee this weekend. I would have loved to have a street party or some kind of celebration but the people on my street are miserable sods and Lee doesn't really like Queenie or any of the Royals either. So I'll have to make do by printing some of this gorgeous bunting By Rob Ryan via Stylist.co.uk

I know I didnt make a lost loves post yesterday. I'm busy working on some things for my friend Sween. I'll be back to normal next week.

Lost Loves: Iris

IRIS

Custom EBL Black Blythe

I wanted a black Blythe really badly and I wanted her to have a retro 60’s feel. When I made her there were very few black girls being made. 'Hey little girl' had made some beautiful examples but they guarded their customising secrets as though they were a matter of International importance.

I figured out that Montana gold spray paint would work on her head but that spraying the rubber body would not. When painted the rubber remains sticky no matter how long you leave it to dry. After much internet research I decided to use a Disco girl body. It was a good size match and the neck only required a minor adjustment for it to fit Blythes big head.

I carved her eyes a little and used blue, glass eyes rather than the original eye mech. This was mostly because I didn’t have an eye mech to use! It gave her an original look that I loved. Her hair was a cheap mohair weft that I chose because it would be easy to backcomb in to a beehive. The fact that the cheap fibre matts worked really well.

So that’s how Iris came to be. When I sold her she went to someone that had admired her for a long time. I’m sure she was much loved.

All the pretties

Today I just want to share some prettiness with you. The first pic is of two gorgeous mugs I picked up from Llandudno last week. One was £6 and is brand new, the other was £1.50 from a charity shop. Can you guess which is which?


And now for lovely, lovely Willow. she's the prettiest of them all I think.

Packaging

I love packaging up my items just as much as making them! 

And after looking at these, I should really start taking proper photos with my proper camera.

New stuffs

Head on over to the shop for new blythe stuffs.

Lost loves: Frankie

This is a scheduled post as I'm currently (hopefully) having a lovely, relaxing time in Wales.

FRANKIE

EBL Hollywood Blythe

My favourite thing about Hollywood is her childlike look. Frankie was definitely the baby of my little dolly family. I always dressed her in pretty dresses and cute socks. 

I would love to own a Hollywood again, maybe she could be Frankie II.

Moelfre

I'm going on holiday with my parents and Dan next week. We have booked a cottage in Moelfre, Anglesey which looks great and is ideally placed for our planned days out. Dan and I love rock pools and looking for sea glass so we are very excited about blustery days at the beach. Mostly though I cant wait to relax and enjoy the company of the people I love.

See you when I return.
x


The Watcher by i.m.j on Flickr

Fight club

I'm sure you've always wanted to see my dogs play fighting so I filmed them. Can hear how poorly I sound at the end? My nose is so blocked.

Instagram round up

I'm going to completely copy Racheles idea for an Instagram round up now.
Here's a few recent ones.

Lost Loves

Having to change computers as lead me to look through my old photos and along with discovering some really good images that I hadn't even bother editing, I also discovered lots of pics of the Blythes I've lived with. Some were only with me briefly but others I had for a while and they brought me happiness in huge amounts. 

I think I started collecting in 2004 and the first Blythe I bought was a lounging lovely who I named Sid. I became interested in customising almost immediately and that led to me taking commissions for custom girls. I even made a custom black girl for Blythe queen mama, Gina Garan. I enjoyed my hobby but as in all online communities there are people that are just really, really shitty and I got fed up with all the bitchiness. I couldn't stand to see my girls sat on a shelf with dust in their hair, so I sold them. I suppose part of my decision to sell was to do with how much they were worth. It's had to justify having a doll worth $1000 when you don't play with it. 

My plan is to look back and feature one of my lost loves every week, just because they really were special to me at the time and I've learnt a lot from having Blythes, especially in my knitting and sewing. So here we go.

JACKIE

1972 Red Head Kenner Blythe

Finding and successfully buying Jackie was relatively easy compared to my previous attempts. I had made the decision to purchase a Kenner having saved money I'd earned customising neo blythes for other people, but finding the perfect girl was hard! I had just missed out on an Ebay Kenner after sitting up until 4am and leaving it too late to bid so I posted a wanted ad on This Is Blythe forum on a whim. The rest is history. The lady I bought her from bought a hot tub with the money! I can remember opening the box and being shocked at just how different she was to my Neo Blythes. You can see the differences in photos but the plastic on Kenners has a translucent quality that makes them all the more special.

She was with me for a couple of years and was one of the last I sold. I'll admit that when I boxed her up for shipping I cried. I knew I would never be able to justify buying a Kenner again and even if I could, it wouldn't be Jackie.

Would you buy this house?

Did I tell you we are selling our house? Well we are. I have mixed feelings about it. It's not something we planned on doing but circumstances dictate that we have to. I thought I was more attached than I actually am. Sure, there are things I'll miss but there are also things I have never liked, such as the artexed ceilings and those horrible windows. It's also really small upstairs. There is no room for decent furniture so we are stuck with cheapo, small stuff from Ikea. I am not looking forward to the viewings however, or the valuation by the estate agent. Generally I find estate agents to be quite..icky. My plan is to make Lee deal with them as much as possible.
All I can hope for is a quick, uncomplicated sale so we can move on to the next chapter of our lives with relative ease.