Blythe dolls — Page 33

Tuesday Cups & An Introduction

April 4, 2023 at 9:23 am by Claudia

Still sick. So is Don. This morning I spent my first two hours coughing. Lovely way to start the day.

Anyway, we’re hanging in there. I did a bit too much yesterday, so I’m cutting back today. I do have to vacuum – it’s been way too long. And I have to go back to rehearsal this week – hopefully, not until Thursday or so. What a damn pain in the tush this is.

Egg cup tour continues:

• On the left, an egg cup from Prague. A gift from my husband. Darn it, he’s so sweet.

• Two morning glory egg cups found at the Paris flea market. First of all, morning glories! Secondly, PARIS! I think they’re fairly modern, but I love the design. You can still see the price tag in one of the cups.

• One of my favorite egg cups from a line by Carlton in England. This one was made in 1973. The name of the line is “Walking Ware” and consists of, you guessed it, egg cups with feet and shoes and socks. Some of them have long legs. I think they’re so whimsical and charming.

We have a few more to go and then this year’s tour will be over.

Oh, almost forgot! (Just kidding.)

I’d like you to meet Ella.

Yes, she arrived yesterday all the way from England. Ella is a Ferro Doll – like Harper – and I’ve often mentioned on this blog that I wanted one of her dolls with curly hair. They’re hard to find as Elena is concentrating on a different sculpt lately. I’ve missed out on a few over the past two years, sometimes due to my relative ‘newness’ to Blythe collecting and not being sure about what I wanted and sometimes due to timing. I’ve had a long back-and-forth with Ferro Dolls about it and, though she doesn’t take commissions, I asked her to let me know when another one of these curly-haired girls might be coming up for adoption. But she hasn’t – mostly because, like any true artist, she is expanding her designs and going in a slightly different direction. Long story short, one morning as I scrolled through my Blythe feed, a woman from the Liverpool area mentioned that she was going to let go of some of her dolls and to please let her know if there is one we’d like. I responded with the speed of a cheetah because I knew she had this girl. And somehow I ended up first in line for her.

Like most Ferro girls, she has an intense, slightly fierce look. I love her coloring, which is darker than many of my girls, making the combination of her skin tone and her blondish tousled hair quite striking. Her face-up is beautifully painted.

Harper (my other Ferro) is pleased to meet her sister and I’ll try to get some photos of them together today.

Side note: This is the first time – ever – that I received a doll without any clothes on. Nothing. And in a cardboard box rather than the original wood Ferro box she came in. I remember watching a video of her ‘unboxing’ and she came with a little romper and a hat and shoes and socks in the always beautiful Ferro box.

I was rather shocked when I signed for the package. It was so light in weight that I thought something had gone wrong! Anyway, there are no hard or fast rules, but every new or second-hand doll I’ve ever seen both here and online has arrived wearing something. I was a little miffed, I’ll admit it. But I let it pass because, in the end, I’ve got what I really wanted, which is this beautiful girl, and I’m sick and don’t have much energy. Also, I have plenty of wood Blythe boxes so I really don’t need another one!

I renamed her because ‘Ella’ just kept coming to mind when I looked at her. She already has a new body because she came with a licca body and I don’t like them. My friend Tania calls them ‘noodle legs’ and she’s right. So some of my time yesterday afternoon was spent replacing her licca body with an Obitsu 22.

Too much info I expect, but I’m sick, so give me a pass.

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

Art, the Girls, and Egg Cups, Part 4

March 21, 2023 at 9:43 am by Claudia

Second day of Spring! Fittingly, I happened to look outside yesterday afternoon and four robins landed in the yard. Two pairs. Hurrah! It seemed like they’d just arrived from somewhere else, but I might be reading into that. We watched them, entranced, as they looked for food, right on the very first day of Spring.

This morning is sunny. My mood, as of yesterday, is so much lighter. I’m sure some of that is due to the knowledge that Spring has arrived. It’s also warmer and sunnier and I know it isn’t a mid-winter fluke, but the harbinger of what’s to come. I was talking to a friend yesterday – it happened to be her birthday – and she said the same thing. She felt a lift in her spirits and her mood.

We moved the sheet music cabinet upstairs to the office yesterday. As impossible as it might seem, we managed to cram yet another item into that space. We switched it out with a table that was next to the overstuffed chair. The table went to the wall at the top of the stairs. While playing with that space, we moved the big framed poster that was on that wall downstairs to the gallery wall and hung the beautiful watercolor that had previously hung above the music cabinet in its place.

Eventually, we want to fill this whole wall with art and take advantage of those high, skylight-lit spaces.

Pippa urging Mei to go outside with her because it’s Spring.

Both girls had been wearing sweaters, so they needed a change of clothing. Mei is rocking her Crocs.

Egg cups, part 4:

1. An adorable pig holding up an egg cup. Made in Japan.

2. A goose pulling an egg cup. This one is beautifully painted. Made in Japan.

3. Another Fanny Farmer egg cup. I have two of these – I believe they were a gift from a reader. You can sort of see the words Fanny Farmer on the base (in brown.)

4. And another favorite, this little girl in a bunny costume holding a polka dot egg. I am always smitten by this cup.

I’m off to start in on some more research.

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

Mabel’s Outpatient Surgery

March 10, 2023 at 8:42 am by Claudia

I apologize for the heavy Blythe content this week, but that is the way it’s been around here. We’ll get back to whatever seems to be “normal” next week.

First of all, we’re getting about 6 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow and more on Monday and Tuesday. I’m fine about it. I wouldn’t be, perhaps, if we had already had a winter full of snow, but we haven’t. So I’m looking forward to it. Since it’s late in the season, it will melt rather quickly. We moved here because we love the seasons; the Southern California weather, at least when we lived there, was very consistent, and though I loved it, I missed the seasons more. So, bring it on! I’ll be eating apple pie while it’s falling.

Yesterday: I decided to change the body on my Blythe from a licca body to an Obitsu 22. I watched a video showing the steps I needed to take. In the meantime, Don went to Lowes and had them cut a piece of 1/4″ plywood, which looked far too thin to him, as well as a piece of 1/2″ plywood. I took Mabel’s head apart, removed the licca body, and started to work with the obitsu body. The obitsus are notorious for having weak necks that can’t handle the weight of the Blythe head. So I had also ordered a neck strengthener/neck joint. That meant I had to take apart the torso of the new body, replace part of it with the new, stronger piece and then add the neck joint that allows the dolls head to tilt, etc. It was very fiddly work and when I was finally ready to insert the replacement inside the torso, it wouldn’t fit. I tried again and again and I couldn’t figure out what I might be doing wrong. I sent off panicked messages to Palma dolls (the creator of the neck strengthener and joint) and to my friend Natalia at VegaDolls, who also uses these in her dolls. Both of them are in Spain, so they were six hours ahead. It was evening.

In the meantime, Don came home, so I left the doll and came downstairs and we proceeded to attach the bookshelf to the wall. It wasn’t easy. Our floors are funky, and the bookshelf itself is wonky – I’m not sure why, as it was assembled correctly. It leans to the right. Maybe this narrower unit needs to be right next to a wider piece in the same system? I don’t know. Long story short, we attached it to the wall. (And we went with the 1/2″ plywood, by the way.)

The wonkiness drives me a bit crazy, but really, I’m the only one continually gazing at it, so who cares? The shelves are level, the girls stand up straight, so I need to let go of my need for perfection.

After lots of water and some lunch, I went back upstairs to give the body another try. By this time, both women had contacted me and given me guidance. I finally figured out what I needed to do. It took a bit of time, but I was successful! Ta dah!!! But it was exhausting.

Mabel with her new body:

You can see the many joints on this body and that is why I love it and why you can do so much with it. Mabel is happy her head feels more stable.

Having survived surgery with grace, Mabel decided she needed a change of clothes.

If only the rest of us looked so fresh after surgery!

Today? No more craziness. Rest. Reading. Puzzle. By the way, I finished all the leaves in the puzzle! Now I have to fill in some blue background pieces and finish the patterned edges and it’s done.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Tuesday Cups & An Introduction

Art, the Girls, and Egg Cups, Part 4

Mabel’s Outpatient Surgery

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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