Introducing............Ellyn

I'm happy to announce that my doll family has recently grown by one.  I've added an American Girl doll to the mix.  She arrived about a week ago, but I'm only just now finding time to share about her.   I have to say that I'm completely impressed with the quality of this doll.  She is truly lovely and I can't find anything not to love about her.  Her hair is absolutely gorgeous.  I'm looking forward to styling it.  It will be a treat for me since I only have sons.  An extra bonus that she won't scream when I comb out the snarls.

For those of you with lots of American Girl (AG) knowledge, she is a My American Girl, #55.  I wanted to choose a doll that would most likely resemble what my daughter might look like if I had a daughter.  So I chose a doll with hazel eyes and brown hair just like me.  I don't have freckles, however.  If I'd been able to choose a doll with wavy brown hair, hazel eyes, and NO freckles, I probably would have.  But I really liked her and had seen good reviews and beautiful photos of her on other blogs.  I'm so glad I chose her.  I've named her Ellyn.  That's a combination of my middle name and maiden name, at least the way I've chosen to spell it.  As of now, she doesn't have a middle name.  I am SUPER excited to sew for her.  I've already made her a pair of jeans using a Liberty Jane pattern.  I'm going to start selling exclusive outfits for 18-inch dolls in the new year in my Etsy shop.  Ellyn will be my model.  She'll probably be sad that I'm selling all the beautiful clothes she's modelling, but I'll let her keep some for herself too.  Here are some photos I took of her right after I opened her box.  I will take more photos of her soon.

Here she is in her box right before I opened it.  

Close-up to show she's a #55.

Somewhat poor quality photo, but I was snapping this super-quick before one of my piano students arrived for a lesson.  This is how she looked right out of the box.  She still had her hair net on at this point.

Even with the distracting background and less than ideal lighting, you can see how gorgeous she is.  LOVE HER!! 

I'm still here........with new goodies for Talia

I am so sorry I've neglected this blog for almost a month!!  I have a sewing business on the side and have been so busy getting custom orders done for Christmas.  Things are finally settling down a bit and I wanted to pop in here and show you two AWESOME items that came in the mail for me today!  With some of the money from my own Etsy shop sales, I decided to buy Talia (my Blythe doll) a few items for Christmas.  I'm so, so happy with her new items and so glad to support other fine ladies making lovely handmade items.  It was also really fun to tell my oldest son (who loves geography) that we got a package from Great Britain and from Sweden on the same day.  THAT has never happened before!!  

Without further ado..........I present Talia in her new winter duds.

From the Etsy shop, Cannonbelle, in the UK, I ordered Talia a little green sweater.  Green is my favorite color and I fell in love with this sweater as soon as I saw it.  It fits perfectly and is completely adorable. 

NOTE:  I'm still getting used to how to best photograph Talia.  I realized after just adding this to the post that I should have slipped her stand under the sweater so it wouldn't show in the photo.  Oh well!!  She still looks sweet in her new sweater.

From GenePDollShop in Sweden, I ordered this fabulous Christmas hat. I loved the white eyelash yarn trim and the Christmasy buttons.  SO SWEET!! 

Since we just got our first snow of the year last night, I decided to take Talia outside to photograph her in the snow.  Although I'm still practicing how to get good doll photos, I thought these turned out pretty good!   The jeans Talia is wearing in these photos were made by me.  I'm hoping to have some Blythe clothing for sale in my own Etsy shop in the new year.  I'm completely revamping the shop website and blog right now.  I'll be sure to share more about the shop when it's ready to launch in its new format.

SQUUUEEEEEAAAALLLL!!! The Story of Laura and Blythe: Part 2

I told you this story would be continued, didn't I?  Well, exactly one week ago I took THE PLUNGE and ordered myself a Blythe doll!!  Online ordering is a dangerous thing because it's so easy to just click and purchase.  However, I have waited at least three years before allowing myself that "click", so I guess I do have self control after all.  I had some money from Etsy sales saved up and decided to treat myself. 

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I was able to track my Blythe doll as she made her way across the Pacific from Hong Kong to California, then on east until she reached me here in Iowa on Thursday.  I bet you think I immediately ripped the box open when it arrived, right?  Well, that's not quite what happened.  Since this is a day I've looked forward to for a while, I'm going to document the details of how this all went down.

First of all, we have just had new siding put on our house and garage.  Everything has been in disarray outside with all the construction gear and what not.  Also, I've been busy like crazy getting things ready for a Holiday Boutique that I participated in on Thursday.  Most of my extra minutes on Thursday went into last minute details for the boutique.  I knew from looking online that she would probably arrive on Thursday, but also knew I'd be SOOOO busy.  Anyway, I was rushing to get my oldest son to his piano lesson around 2 p.m. and quickly walked out to get the mail.  As I walked back to the house with the mail, I looked through it to see if there was anything interesting besides bills and catalogs.  That is when I noticed one of those slips from the mail carrier telling that they've left you a package.  It was a nice day and usually they just leave it right by our door.  However, the slip said it was in the garage.  I quickly checked and, sure enough, there was a neatly wrapped brown package in the garage.  I knew from the Hong Kong postmark that it was HER!  BUT...........I had to get to a piano lesson.  So I put the box in the house and headed on my merry way.

AFTER the piano lesson, I had just a few minutes to load everything for the boutique, change clothes, then drop the boys off at my mom's house and head to the boutique venue to set up.  NO TIME to open the box.  Truthfully, I would have had time, but I knew I wanted to savor the moment.  So I was determined to wait until later.

I had told my youngest son about the Blythe doll coming and he knew she was here.  He REALLY wanted me to open the box, but I told him "later."

After the boutique I went to my sons' Cub Scout pack meeting and picked them up.  When we got home, my youngest asked me again when I would open the "Blythe".  I told him "later."  As I put him to bed he REALLY wanted me to go get the box and open it with him.  I told him I really wanted to do it by myself and that I'd show him in the morning.  I really knew from the moment the box came that I wanted to wait for a special quiet time to open it all by myself.

SO............at about 10:45ish p.m. I finally went down to my craft studio where I'd stashed the box.  I took along some nail scissors to cut the tape and got busy.  As you may well know, it takes a LONG time to get toys out of their boxes and Blythe was no exception.  I took several photos to document this process.  They did not turn out great since it was at night with flash photography and no natural light.  But it is what it is.  The photo below shows the return address on the box.  My oldest son who loves geography thought it was cool that we got something from overseas.  (I did too.)

The package was very neatly wrapped in brown kraft paper and taped very securely.  After removing the brown paper, there was a brown cardboard box inside.  The photo below shows what was printed on this box.

After slitting the tape on the cardboard box, I could see the pink end of the Blythe box.  I slid it out and below you can see my first glimpse of my new Nicky Lad Blythe doll.

The next two photos show the back of the box.  All the Blythe boxes are different and I love the retro colorful graphics on this box in particular.  I also love all the Japanese (or maybe it's Chinese?) writing on the back of the box.  The second photo shows this close up.

After photographing the box, I opened it and slid out the insert.  As expected, everything was securely taped inside.  There was only one of those annoying wire tie things though, which was nice.  I took my time in removing all the accessories in their taped bags.  I didn't want to damage the yellow cardboard insert.  After I carefully removed all the accessories, I finally retrieved Blythe herself from the box.

One of my first observations of her right off the bat was that her legs were more rubbery feeling than I expected.  Her torso, arms and head are a hard plastic, but her legs are more rubbery.  They're still rigid, but have a different feel than the rest of her.  I also noticed (and loved) how silky her hair is.  I really love her hairstyle.  She is SO cute.  Of course one of the first things I did was pull her string to change her eye colors.  You have to pull kind of hard and her lids close, then there's a distinct "click" sound and her new eye color is revealed.  My favorite is her green eyes which are in all the photos below.  I really apologize for the crappy photos.  I can't wait to try to photograph her in natural light tomorrow.  In the photo below she is propped on my treadmill which is in the craft studio. (Blythes all come with a stand which is really nice since they can't stand on their own.)  She's wearing a dress I made a few weeks ago before I even had ordered her.  I was really happy that it fits perfectly.  I think it's very sweet on her.   I just need to sew some snaps on the back.  Another observation I made when taking these photos is that her head is slightly tilted down (and I couldn't figure out how to tilt it up anymore) which meant that I had to lie on the floor to get photos of her.  Otherwise, I don't think her face would have shown in the photos.

This next photo is her "meet" outfit.  It's pretty cute, although you can't tell in the photo.  ACK!  Flash photography.  It's a polo shirt with little white denim shorts.  She also has these bulky gray socks (which I don't care for and which are hard as heck to  put on) and bright pink high-top sneakers.  I love the sneakers.  Probably won't use the socks much for her though.

She also has a pair of hot pink glasses and a yellow "raincoat" with pink trim.  I will try to get a better photo of her tomorrow in natural light.  

After playing with her a bit, I set her on the table behind my sewing machine and did some other things in my studio.  It made me VERY happy to look over and see her there.  I am SO glad I am finally a Blythe owner.  I definitely don't want to stop at just one!  Now I know why they're so addictive.  I LOVE HER!!!

Oh..........I'd decided to call her...........Talia.  Many years ago when I taught in a Montessori school in Iowa City, I had a student named Talia and I've loved that name ever since.  I never had a little girl of my own to name Talia.  I was thinking of naming her Talia but wanted to "meet"  her to see if it suited her and I think it does. 

Well, I guess that's all.  For now.  I'd better go to bed as it's 1:00 AM.  I may just pop down to the studio first to say 'night to little Talia.

The New Boys

 I wanted to share with you all two recent doll purchases I've made.  And by recent, I mean within the past two decades.   Since I live in an all-boy household, I haven't had much opportunity to buy dolls.  HOWEVER, as I've recently really started to get into Blythe dolls I am spending a fair amount of free time online looking at Blythe-related things.  My youngest son noticed this one day and asked what I was looking at.  I told him I was looking at some dolls that I might want to buy.  He wanted to see, so I showed him.  He does NOT like Blythe AT ALL!!  And he made that very clear.  However, he surprised me by saying that he likes Lalaloopsy dolls.  (He's seen commercials for them on TV.)  So I got on the Lalaloopsy website and we looked at a bunch.  He really liked the pirate doll, Patch Treasurechest, and asked me to buy it for him.  SO I DID!!  I had to order it online from Wal-Mart.  We were both so excited when it arrived.  It really is a cute little guy.  The story behind the Lalaloopsy dolls is that they are made from the clothing of "real people" and they come to life when their last stitch is stitched.  Kinda cute.  Their "birth-date" is stamped onto their underpants on their tushies.  They all have a birthday that relates to a special holiday.  For example, Patch was born on September 19 which is "Talk Like a Pirate" day.   And Forest Evergreen (our other Loopsy) was born on September 26 which is "Lumberjack" day.  Each Lalaloopsy doll comes with a pet.  You can see that Patch has a pet parrot. 

I'm pretty impressed with the quality and detail on the Loopsy's clothing.  I love that Patch has a thermal long sleeve shirt under his Jolly Roger polo.  I also love that he's wearing corduroy shorts.  Great attention to detail.

After we'd had Patch for a few weeks, we were at Toys'R'Us and saw Forest Evergreen.  It is VERY rare to find a boy Loopsy in a store, at least where we live.  They had all the Loopsys on sale, so we snatched him up because my little boy really wanted a friend for Patch and he only wanted boy dolls.  Forest is just as adorable as Patch.  I love his buffalo check shirt with a fleece collar along with his denim overalls with leather suspenders.  His little beaver pet is so cute too!!  I really like the Lalaloopsy line of dolls.  They are super cute and so unique compared to other dolls you can find in the stores.

Since I'm a teacher by trade, I would really love to get Bea Spells a Lot someday.  Her birthday is October 16th, Dictionary day.   Do you have a Lalaloopsy doll?   If so, which one?  I'd love to hear from other Loopsy collectors.