Say hello to Mei.
She didn’t arrive until 10 pm yesterday, so the light was limited. I took her up to our room for the night – I did this with Pip, as well. She didn’t arrive until 9:30 pm.
If you notice a resemblance, you’re right. She was customized by Natalia, the same woman (of VegaDolls) who customized Olivia and Pippa.
But there’s a little story here. Natalia bought her over a year ago. She had already been customized by someone several years ago, but the skin was yellowing and she needed to be restored. Natalia wanted to save her. When she felt ready, she worked her magic by re-carving the face, restoring the skin, adding makeup and coloring, and adding beautiful new eye chips and now we have this new Mei. She’s called Mei because that name was written on the inside of her head and I’m going to honor that. (Plus, we called my sister Meredith a variety of loving nicknames when she was a little girl, one of which was ‘May.’) Mei, in honor of my beloved sister.
So. Natalia rescued her and you know I also am a rescuer. When she rescues a doll she has an auction for it, rather than selling at a specific price. You can message her with a bid and when the auction is over, whoever has the highest bid wins. I debated on this one. Did I need another doll? Of course not. Did I want this girl? Yes. I felt drawn to her. So I took a deep breath and submitted a bid and figured I would lose. One afternoon, as I was working on the puzzle, I got a message from Natalia saying I had won. I was completely surprised.
She was shipped from Spain on Monday and she arrived here two days later. Amazing.
I will dress her in something else later this morning and take some photos.
Shoelaces gone wild.
She is dear, isn’t she? There is a wonderful winsome quality in all of Natalia’s dolls. I’m completely charmed by the sweetness in her face.
Bless Don. I hadn’t yet told him about the impending arrival of another doll and I suddenly had to when DHL informed me they were delivering the package a day early. He was excited and supportive and delighted and…well, he was Don, the best man I know.
It’s warmer here today. We’ll get a break for a couple of days then back to the cold and maybe 3-5 inches of snow on Monday.
Stay safe.
Happy Thursday.
I like this Mei. I love her little rosy nose. This girl, for reasons, I cannot put my finger on is my favorite. Do you have back stories for them as you get to know them ? I hope so.
Take Care,
Kaye
Park City, UT
Not really. Their back stories are really just my stories about discovering each of them.
So glad you like her, Kaye!
Stay safe.
Welcome Mei! She is very cute. Love that long hair. Can’t wait to see them all together!
She is really beautiful. I dressed her and took some photos today. My heavens, she’s lovely!
Stay safe, April.
She’s really sweet, Claudia. I love her untied shoes!
Very cute, those shoes!
Stay safe,Jeanie.
Mei is beautiful!I love her look. The robins (they over winter here in NC) are outside eating the berries off of our wild holly tree. There are a few other birds out there on the tree but it’s the robins I notice, being from the north where they aren’t around in the winter. It is cold here too and we are supposed to get snow here on Sunday, so the whole place will shut down.
And ours will be on Monday, a work day. Oy!
Stay safe, Jane.
Mei is so sweet and very special. Rescues are the best. Natalia does an amazing job on these girls. Don is the best for sure! Enjoy and stay warm. I’m pretty much recovered from Covid but the low energy is awful, some of that is of course this time of year. Hugs!
Glad you’re recovered, but I hate that you still have low energy, Linda. Sending you love, my friend,
Stay safe,
Mei is very sweet! So glad she found a home with you. And she has lots of sisters!
She sure does! I’m looking all of them right now!
Stay safe, Judy.
Darling girl. Mei seems to me to be a bit more of an intellectual (your pose in the first photo). When you mention about Natalia ‘carving’ their face, it sounds like quite a process.
Unseasonably warm here – very welcome. I’m expecting a rascally kitty for the weekend. I just start to fall in love with him and it’s time for him to go home. But it’s definitely so nice to have an experience with him again.
Keep on going XO
It is. I’ve watched videos of carving. I’d be way too nervous to do that!
Have fun with that kitty, Martha!
Stay safe.
Omg – I’m watching Quantum Leap and there’s Don! Good fun role, it looks like. Wish I had tuned in earlier to see more in this episode.
A flash from the past!
xo
Another darling doll! I can see why you were drawn to her. I have a weird request, but I am so into houses and how they are decorated. I love the pictures of your main floor on your cottage. Is that what you call the den? I would love to see what your second floor looks like. Is it possible to post some photos here or on Instagram? Just giving you something else on your “to do” list since you don’t have enough already! Stay warm!
The room you see that is sunken is the den. Just to the right of the pew.
I generally don’t post photos of upstairs, though if you search the blog you’ll find some photos of our bedroom, especially when we got our new bed. We have ‘attic’ rooms (2 of them) with sloped ceilings and taking photos of them isn’t easy. Lately you’ve seen part of the bookshelf by my bed (where I moved my TBR pile) and of course, I’ve posted many photos of the office/studio – both my section and Don’s. There’s a search box on the sidebar. Hopefully, you’ll find some of them. It’s just a basic upstairs with two rooms. It’s gone through a lot of different setups since we moved here. I used to have my workspace under the skylight at the top of the stairs. Then, when we decided to get rid of the guest room bed, we turned that space into a joint workspace, so all my stuff went in there.
Stay safe, Deb.
Hi Claudia, Thanks for responding. I did find the pictures with your bed in them. I love that you have the sloped ceilings! I grew up in Illinois and our family lived above my grandparents. It was a two story house and they turned the attic into an apartment. It brought back memories because we had the sloped ceilings in our bedroom there. We lived there until I was 11 years old and then we bought our own house. I wish we had those kind of ceilings in our house now (even though we would probably hit our head on them all the time!) I just love your house and the way you have just decorated with things you love. That is how it should be. It looks like you guys might be getting some snow. Stay safe and warm!
I like the look of a sloped ceiling, but in practical terms, they effect furniture placement and the options are greatly limited. If I had my way, they wouldn’t be sloped, but that’s what we have.
Thanks so much for your kind words, Deb.
Stay safe.
Okay, this one did it for me. How do you buy one of these dolls? I want one just to play dress-up with!
I find them on Etsy. Search for Blythe Custom or Blythe Custom Dolls. There is a large range of prices from around $200 all the way up to $1000 and over. Prices depend on the reputation of the customizer, the base doll (if the doll that was customized was a genuine Takara Blythe (all of this is very confusing at first) or is a TBL or Fake Doll. A few of my dolls are TBL dolls: Sophie and Maeve, for sure. That made them affordable for me when I was first considering buying them. Then there are the modifications: if the doll has a neck joint, then the head can tilt and is more posable. Maeve and Sophie don’t have that, so they always look downward (an original Blythe doll trait). I will add neck joints for the this year. Whether the hair is synthetic or has what is called a reroot – usually of mohair or alpaca (rarer.) Mei is my only girl with a reroot and hers is made of alpaca, so the starting bid was higher than normal because they add value to the doll.
If you’re just starting out, stay at the low end of the range. And then you can search for Blythe clothes and go crazy for the variety of things out there. I’d also suggest following Blythe accounts on Instagram. I’ve found most of my clothing there and definitely found my favorite customizers there.
Start with Etsy. Most everyone who does good work is there.
Hope this helps!
Stay safe.
What a cutie! Thanks for the phonetic pronunciation of her name. Bet her sisters are glad to have her home with them. The shoelaces are perfect. I remember always hollering about untied shoes when the kids were little!
Oh, I do remember when your workspace was that alcove at the top of your stairs! It is always kind of fun to change things up, isn’t it, and look at our homes in a new way. When I think it is time for a change, or know that a change has to be made to make things work more efficiently, I always pretend I am looking at the the rooms/ spaces like it is a new (to me) house. Sometimes it does help. Your changes over the years have always been so inspiring.
Saw Don on Frasier last night!! Have a good evening and take care.
Yay for Frasier, one of my favorite series, ever. Don and Kelsey are old friends – They did theater together in Los Angeles and Kelsey used a lot of our fellow West Coast Theater actor friends on his show. Very loyal guy.
Stay safe, Chris!
welcome, mei! will be fun to see photos of all the girls together sometime (no pressure intended) so I can imagine that it’s fun for you to do some virtual clothes shopping and see so many aspects to the world of blythes … :)
we are to get up to a foot of wet, heavy snow tomorrow morning through midnight or later. we need precipitation, but hopefully don’t get that much all at once. most is to get here in the afternoon and i work 9:30 until 5:00 pm so am dreading the commute and praying it all goes well.
stay safe in every way, everyone!
kathy in iowa
I’m sorry you’re getting so much snow, Kathy! Especially the heavy, wet variety. Stay safe at all times, but especially during the communte.