Blythe dolls — Page 22

Prudence

November 1, 2023 at 9:19 am by Claudia

I felt very poorly yesterday – I think the sudden change in the weather from summery to 30 degrees colder and windy was behind it. I seem to suffer for a day or two and then I’m back to normal. Still, I tested myself for Covid yesterday given my upcoming trip to Wonderland of Play. Negative. It was just ‘the crud.’

Tonight, it’s going down to 27 degrees. Tomorrow, the same. So some of the porch plants will come inside for 48 hours. The impatiens are pretty scraggly, so I might just let them go. I will save the rest because temperatures will soon be warmer for a week or so. It’s my yearly struggle: when do I give in and let nature take its course?

I succumbed again. I saw this girl was up for adoption and was able to negotiate a very very good price. The original owner lives in Amsterdam, so she had a long journey to my little cottage, with the usual obsessive checking of the tracking number. For a few days there, I couldn’t get a consistent status. But she arrived safely on Monday.

First photo was taken late Monday afternoon:

She was customized by Dragonfly Blythe, the same person who customized Nina. Right after I made the decision to buy her, I read that Ola was no longer customizing. I’d been trying to message her for a while because I hadn’t seen any activity on her IG account and I was worried about her. And then, since she lives in Israel, I grew more concerned. I do hope the decision to stop customizing is only a temporary one because, to me, she’s a truly unique artist – there’s no one like her – and I adore her creations. (Someone did get in touch with Ola, by the way, and she and her family are safe, but she has friends who lost family members in the recent attacks by Hamas.)

Anyway, this is Prudence. I didn’t come up with a name until I opened her box and saw her up close – that’s a first. I’ll call her Pru. She has no shoes on because I’ve run out of shoes, but I rather like the barefoot look.

The next day, after a hair trim:

I love her eye chips. All four pairs are striking and perfect. That’s a rarity. There’s usually at least one pair I don’t like.

My only quibble with Ola is that she does something weird to the body and neck, She adds some sort of cement-like covering to the upper chest and neck to strengthen the body and therefore, if you want to add a different neck joint, you can’t. It doesn’t work. In this case, her head is wobbly, so a friend of mine is bringing a new body to Wonderland of Play. Nina needs a new body as well, with a proper neck joint as she can tilt her head.

But it’s a small quibble. I can change out the bodies/neck joints. Pru’s need is a bit more urgent than Nina’s so she’ll be fixed first.

If you’re able to zoom in on her face, you’ll see a gorgeous face up. Tiny, subtle little freckles, shadows under her eyes, beautiful lips. I love the way Ola paints a face.

Pru is now sitting on the edge of the shelf where Lily sits on the bed.

Don is quite impressed with Pru. (I think she’s one of his very favorites.) Thank goodness for a husband who fully supports this passion of mine. When he saw Sophie, my first girl, he immediately said “she’s a work of art.” Also, he understands that I’m happier when I can ‘play’ and that these girls have brought much-needed joy to my life, especially as I struggle with anxiety and a bit of depression.

Grateful.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Autumn Beauty

October 23, 2023 at 9:50 am by Claudia

Moody skies, zinnias, and fall color. There was quite a bit of wind over the weekend, so there are huge catalpa leaves on the ground all over the property. Time for Don to rake again.

Speaking of Don, I woke up in the middle of the night coughing. When this kind of thing happens in the middle of a deep sleep, it usually takes me a while to realize that I need to get up and clear my throat and suck on a cough drop. Usually, Don sleeps through it, but this time it woke him up and he couldn’t get back to sleep and now he’s very sleep deprived. I feel terrible! Usually, it’s a snore that keeps me awake. Anyway, he always, always has a better attitude about it than I do. I apologized to him this morning, and he said “It’s find. The coughing woke me up, but my brain kept me awake.”

Anyway, I’m going to do my best to help him through the day. Mainly by being quiet, so he can grab a nap or two.

I finished The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith – all 945 pages of it. I think it’s the best yet in this series. I quite literally couldn’t put it down. So many twists and turns and beautifully detailed characterizations. It’s still in my brain this morning. Rowling is such a gifted writer – to produce a book that is, let’s face it, very long, but so well written that one reads page after page after page without stopping because it flows so beautifully. She is brilliant.

If you are not familiar with this series, it’s written by JK Rowling but the author name she originally published under was Robert Galbraith. If I remember correctly, she chose the name so as not to be linked with the Harry Potter series, but the news that she was the actual author leaked pretty early on. You should definitely read the books in order because the recurring characters undergo a lot of changes and knowing and understanding their journeys is pivotal. This is #7 in the series.

And now, I’ve just begun reading Richard Osman’s The Last Devil to Die, the newest book in the Thursday Night Murder series.

What would I do without reading? It’s been the one constant in my life and has, quite literally, saved me.

Two weeks from yesterday I am going to attend Wonderland of Play/BlytheCon in New Jersey. It will be held in Jersey City, about a two hour drive from my house. Before Covid hit, there were various BlytheCon celebrations yearly; BlytheMadrid, BlytheConUK, Play and Party Prague, etc. These events bring together Blythe artisans and Blythe lovers and I’ve witnessed how amazing they are in my IG Blythe feed. This may be the only time I get to go to one, so I grabbed a ticket back in February and on November 5th, I’ll be meeting a lot of friends and artists in person. (I’ll be wearing a mask, but I’ll take it off for photos.) Lots of people I know are going, favorite vendors will be there, and it will be wonderful to be with fellow Blythe lovers who understand the hold this doll can have on a person.

I’m starting to get excited.

Okay. I need to zap my now cold coffee in the microwave.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday,

Roses, Books, Cleaning & Sorting

October 16, 2023 at 8:33 am by Claudia

Our white roses are sitting on top of the kitchen island. They’re awfully pretty. Don has decided that the entirety of October shall be our anniversary.

So, we’re still celebrating. Next year, in July, we’ll celebrate being together for 30 years. Not bad when you consider the fact that we didn’t meet until we were in our early forties!

Yesterday, I went up to the office/studio to reposition a piece of furniture. That, as you know, inevitably leads to other changes. I contemplated Don’s guitars and amps and cameras (as well as all of my stuff) and I called down to him. Would he come up and weigh in on a few decisions? He did. We moved a few more things around and, though I hadn’t planned it this way, he was inspired to clean up his desk which had become a dumping ground. (Mine gets that way often.) So he grabbed a trash bag and started sorting things while I moved plants around and pruned them and vacuumed and sorted a bit more of my little cubicle. It turned into a few hours work, but it’s much better in there now.

When I’m getting ready to work on something like the Beacon Hill, I like to have everything in some sort of order.

Then I came downstairs and vacuumed everything. Then Don made egg salad sandwiches and we had a piece of apple pie. I flipped on the heating pad, as my back was complaining after all that bending over.

Very satisfying, though!

I’m reading The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling). I’m a big fan of her Cormoran Strike series. I started reading them when the very first book was published. She’s writes so gracefully that you’re immediately immersed in the story, carried along without a lot of effort, though the plots are highly detailed and complex. The last 3 books have been considerably longer than the earlier books. This one clocks in at 900+ pages. But I’m already at page 200. This one involves a cult and it’s fascinating. If you are interested in this series, read them in order. The characters/relationships grow and change over the course of the series and it won’t make a lot of sense if you read them out of order.

And yes, I know there is a television series. I’ll say it again – I never watch the television/streaming adaptations of favorite books. If I’ve already read the series, the characters are completely realized in my imagination and I don’t want to suddenly have an actor intruding into what I’ve co-created with the novelist. If I haven’t yet read the series, I don’t want to start in already knowing what actors played what roles. It imposes something on my reading that I don’t welcome. So, as good as a series might be, I won’t watch it. I know you like to tell me about those things, but 99% of the time, I’m already aware of it and I won’t watch it. Though I certainly appreciate the fact that you care!

Yesterday’s Blythe photo:

Little miss Pippa, in the middle of an eye roll. Not everyone wants to get hauled off the shelf for a photo op!

I’m going to spend a good chunk of the day reading – I’ve already read quite a bit this morning. And some laundry needs to be done. But first, it’s my turn to make our second cup of coffee.

It’s cool out there today but it’s sunny and that’s very welcome.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Prudence

Autumn Beauty

Roses, Books, Cleaning & Sorting

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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