Piano man...

...or piano petite might be a little more appropriate.

Actually, with the pearl white paint and the baby blue gimp, this looks a bit more Liberace than Billy Joel. I love the little cover that comes down over the keys. I used a thin strip of linoleum again (with the wrong side facing outward so it could be painted) for the front lip of the cover. The keys are just a printed strip of paper I added after. Quite fun this is, and as you can see no adjustment of height here.

And here is Evangeline and Petal making use of the living room set. Again the chairs seem a decent fit so I left the height alone.

And here's Elliot and Cookie in the lawn chair and rocker, now all nicely painted. A bit of a warning here. Blythe and rocking chairs (whether full sized or petite) don't go well together. Something about that big giant head of hers... just lean her up against the wall as you see Cookie here or carefully prop a little something under the back of the rocker so gravity wont take it's natural course. : )

This desk and chair is a pretty simple set... now all Evangeline needs is a computer. Hmmmmm

Now this vanity and chair have been changed up a bit. The original "mirror" that came with it (by "mirror" read piece of wood vaguely shaped like a vanity mirrior and far too small for a Blythe's Big Giant Head {lets just call it BGH from now on shall we}) has been replaced by the larger full length mirror that was meant to go next to the beds that I'm not using. I then used a rectangle of actual mirror from an old eyeshadow compact to finish it off. Cookie seems quite pleased.

And lastly...

I've left these guys unpainted as my dolls have no children of their own, but I'm posting them for anyone who's interested in the set, because you never know... some clever person may have fashioned some baby Blythes for their Blythe. And size wise (for possible petite Blythe infants) these just might prove useful.

Moonyeen

This my Kenner Moonyeen....

Originally she looked like this...

As you can see she was missing a leg and her scalp had some very serious issues. I'd been wanting a Kenner for quite some time. They are after all gorgeous and as I like to put it, 'the holy grail of Blythedom'. I'd tried many times and failed. Then after seeing this girl and deciding I'd give it one more try, I placed my bid. The day the auction closed I was at work, but during the course of the day I injured my foot to the point that I had to go home early. I got home feeling especially bummed and then decided to check how the action had gone down, expecting, of course, to be disappointed. And I'd won... I'd really won her!

I limped over to my husband and excitedly told him that I'd won my little injured leg Kenner. We both jokingly noted the oddness of acquiring a girl with a missing leg on a day when I was limping around the house. I don't know if it was truly kismet, but I'm going to count it as such. Both of our leg injuries are now much better. After much love and work (and a whitening toothpaste that I had to order from Bulgaria) I finally manged to make her look like this...

A video documenting her restoration, and unusual leg repair where I tried to salvage as much of her original leg can be found here.

I've improved on her a bit since then. She did have a rather unfortunate run in with lip stickers (she still has some of her original eye shadow, but as she had no blush or lip color I thought I'd give them a try). I finally just decided to paint her some new lips in a soft pink. I haven't bothered with blush and I don't think I will anytime soon (but never say never).

These days you will rarely see her with her original hair, not because I don't like it, but because in it's current condition it's not particularly versatile and also I believe her scalp was doing damage to the plastic of her head.


It's rather odd really, the hair on the scalp is quite aged but the scalp itself is very supple and fresh... I shudder to think what sort of elastisizers were being used in toys in the 70s but whatever is in there keeping the scalp so flexible it doesn't seem to react well with the plastic. There were several melt marks wherever the scalp was making contact which the plastic of the head. So for the most part I only use her original scalp on special occasions, and only with a bit of a barrier in between it and her head.

Mainly you will see her with brown hair and bangs... as this is what she originally came with and what I most think of as "her hair" (She was named after my sister who had the very same hair color and  hairstyle most of the time). But occasionally I let her be blond...

Why? I dunno, I guess just because I've always admired some of those awesome blond Kenners out there. And there's no reason why dolls can't have more fun too :)

She comes bearing gifts...

Well I got some work on the puzzle furniture done. As I said before the chairs seem to work perfectly...

The girls seemed to enjoy them... now Petal is asking for cards and poker chips *sigh*

And these next two aren't perfect but I feel they are at least passable...

I added about half an inch under them with some crafting blocks. They're not perfect, but as shelves and wardrobes can vary a bit in size I'm not too concerned about it. The girls haven't got much yet to set on the bookshelf... just a cute little shell but I'll see about getting some knicknacks for it later.

And now for something completely different....

You can imagine how happy the girls were to receive these... Cookie's response was "and about time too". Actually, the only reason Cookie is in a state of undress again (as she was with the rocking chair) is that she's the only one of my girls that can bend her knees. I only added a fourth inch rise in hight to these little guys, and it seems to work well.

And lastly (as least for now)...

This one was the most fun to do. Again there's only a fourth inch rise on this one. The girls can easily reach into the sink and put pans on the burners (if they had any pans that is). I used a bit of linoleum on the front and for the backsplash behind the sink. And just like the wardrobe....

The drawers open for storage! : )

Betts

Betts (short for Betty of course) started life as a very damaged Candy Carnival. She was my very first Blythe doll... I guess I always intended to try some customizing and I was far too green (and scared witless) to try experimenting with a perfectly sound dolly. Her previous owner decided to try a little lip carving.... with some truly frightening results. Being new to the whole customizing procedure I really had no idea what to do with this sad little girl. Over time and after several less than stellar attempts I made a polymer mold from another SBL's lips and finally managed to reform her lips perfectly.... but... um... as you can see I couldn't leave well enough alone. I'd always felt right from the get go that Blythe had a Betty Boopesk quality about her so while looking at some pictures of the cartoon legend I reshaped the lips to match.

Getting her hair to take spitcurls was an interesting trial in and of itself (and takes some upkeep let me tell you) but I like the result.

She's got a number of different bodies that I switch her around on to get the most versatility of posing.

I'd say she's probably the most extreme custom I've done. She's my first Blythe, and I cant imagine ever giving her up.

A Petite Experiment

A little examination of those wooden 3D puzzles that they sell at Micheals (I work there so these are really easy for me to find). It looked right from the start like the chairs would fit my girls perfectly but the rest... well there was just no way to tell with the sheets all bound up in the package like that. So I bought one (they're only $5 anyway and I get an employee discount). My girls were skeptical at first...

but they got into it as I went along. I've never really done these 3D puzzles and they actually are quite fun. I did the chairs up first as those looked like they would be the most successful fit of all the goodies in the set.

Oh dear, I didn't intend for this to get indecent (no, actually I just had to get Cookie here out of that damn rubber dress in order for her to sit down). The chairs all seem to fit quite well and the tables, though small, do work with my petites. In fact it looks as though they could play cards on them. Hmmmm... I'll have to see if I can make little playing cards for them now.

Overall the set is pretty good. There are some items that are meant for a baby that are obviously tiny. But all the tables and chairs are perfect (I think). The kitchen sink/cupboard/stove combo, book shelves, and wardrobe are somewhat small but passable, it's more a height issue than anything else and raised up a half an inch they would be perfect. Same goes for the bathroom items (except the tub which I'll explain later). I don't know why but the tiny little toilet is just adorable to me. The piano is a might small but workable (as it's an upright and was never meant to be that huge anyway). And now for the things that didn't work, the vanity -- the mirror is just too small, a larger real mirror could be glued over the existing one and it might be just fine. Come to think of it, it would probably be better with a real mirror anyway. The beds are just way too small. And I don't think there's anyway to make them work. But the tub was the worst fit of all... only if you have need of a sci fi torture device for your petites would I recommend the tub.

Overall though, it's a nice set, a good number of the pieces will work for my petite girls and those that don't can be altered a bit so they do. I'll post more pics of the furniture in use after I've painted and spruced them up a bit.

Wren

Wren (who started life as a Prima Dolly Aubrina) was the first girl that I customized where I wasn't trying to go for anything in particular... I'd done Betts and Cheri (which you'll see later) and I definitely had an agenda with those girls but with Wren it was more of an organic sort of creation. I knew she had to have black hair (though I have no particular liking for black hair, and nothing against it either) and I knew that she needed some vibrant blue eyes, but beyond that I really had no idea where I was going with this girl. Over time of course she began to tell me where she wanted to go.

The dark face up and the purple eyes were entirely her idea (I swear it's true!). And I think she is far more adventurous that I would be. She seems to favor wearing browns, blacks, and purples. And although I've never asked I'm betting her taste in music is pretty distant from mine.

Still who am I to argue, go where the spirit leads you : )

In the beginning...

I think I, like most people, discovered Blythe on the internet. To those of you knew about Blythe in the 1970s when she originally came out, my hat is off to you. In my particular case I first met Blythe here... http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring05/PATTblythe.html and after that there was no going back. I'm not even entirely sure what it is about this particular doll that grabs me.

She is an oddity, that much is certain, but there's just something about her. Since I first encountered her I've come to know quite a few Blythe lovers out there, and I think perhaps the attraction one has to this doll actually has very little to do with the doll itself, and more to do with what we project unto her. Through her, people express themselves in so many creative ways. She can be goth, she can be mod, she can be a girl, she can be a woman. She can be just about anything you can imagine. Heck, many have even shown that she can be a he if the need arises.

But for me personally? Hmmmm.... I dunno. There's just something about her that can't be named. And I think if I did I would be limiting the experience somehow. So for myself I'll just be satisfied with the fact that simply looking at my little collection of Blythes makes me happy.

And really that's all you need to know.