A not entirely disappointing thrift store trip.

There's a fairly large Salvation Army thrift store a short walk from my house and this afternoon I thought I'd head over there and see if I couldn't find Cordi a nice chair to sit in. Or if not a nice chair, at least something to sit on so she doesn't have to stand all the time. But I had no luck whatsoever. I spent what felt like hours sifting through the bins and boxes in the toy section of the store and the best I found was a cheap plastic bookshelf with peeling stickers. Grrr!

So I gave up and went upstairs to look at clothes. I'm feeling inspired after my success with those doll jeans and figure the cheapest way to get cute fabric is probably thrift-store kids clothes. I had better luck there. For $14 I got two plain t-shirts and enough of the following fun prints to clothe a Blythe several times over:











And I lied about finding nothing downstairs. I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did find three tiny pillows with pillowcases and one of those Jack Sparrow dolls they were giving away with Happy Meals a while back, all for $0.25 each.

Cordi Shows Her Softer Side

I had a day off and was finally able to make some clothes for Cordeliane. I started with a striped sweater, which I was sure she would never wear, just to make sure the pattern fit. Surprisingly she suits the 'pretty' sweater as much as she does the black one. The jeans are a major accomplishment for me. I haven't done any real sewing since just after high school, and even that was minimal and I've never tried my hand at anything this small. But I get how a pattern works so I thought I'd try my hand at it. I used to do a lot of needlepoint so figured hand sewing would be reasonably easy. Unfortunately I only remember how to do two stitches - the french knot and the backstitch. Lucky for me, the backstitch is useful for sewing, so all was good. But I'm going to have to refresh my memory if I want to sew more stuff for her.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, here are a few more Cordi picutres. (Again, click the pictures to see them full-size.)

Meet and Greet

I've got the morning off today, so before I run away to work let's do this thing right, shall we?

This is Cordeliane (named after a character in one of my favourite books, although unlike her namesake she seems to have rejected Liane as a diminutive form in favour of Cordi - which is unfortunate because it reminds me of Cordy, who I can't stand... but I digress) in her current home on the shelf above my computer. I haven't made her any clothes yet (no time) so she's in one of the outfits she came with.



I didn't do a proper photo shoot because I'm a little crunched for time, the weather's too miserable to take her outside and I'm not so good at photographing dolls aparently, but if you're interested, here are a few more (click pictures for full-size):

She's home; safe and sound!

I came home from work tonight and the first thing I saw was a large cardboard box on the coffee table. I knew immediately what it was - the only thing it could be. Exercising all the restraint I could muster, I put my coat and shoes away before allowing myself to break open the tape. The box was full of crumpled pages from a Chinese newspaper, and tucked safely in the middle of them was another, smaller, cardboard box which I opened to reveal yet a third box - this final one was decorated in a cheery plaid print and contained my new doll.

If you've never bought a Blythe before, let me tell you that taking one out of the box is an experience to itself. Getting the doll out wasn't such a huge problem once I undid the twist-ties and cut the tape holding her head down. At that point all I had to do, really, was slip the protective plastic off her hair and poke and prod at her a little bit before freeing up her extra clothing and accessories. The Piccadilly Encore doll comes with a lot of stuff; black pleated skirt, red jacket, white button-up shirt, sleeveless printed shirt, black newsboy cap, two pairs of tights (red-and-black striped, and sheer super-shiny white), two pairs of shoes (red loafers, and navy pumps with orange heels), two belts (red with a white buckle, and black with a silver buckle and painted-on silver studs), a bracelet (matches the belt), a silver pendant on a chain, and a large red bag. Besides the few items she was wearing, each and every one of these was in its own plastic bag and held to the box (and sometimes everything else) with tape. Honestly, I have never seen so much tape in such a small box in my life!

Anyway, I got her out and tried on all her clothes (just to see how they fit) and then put her back in the box. It's late, and I had to work early today and need to go to sleep. I'll take some pictures tomorrow, hopefully, and introduce her to you properly.

She's Almost Here

I've been tracking my Blythe parcel ever since I got the tracking number. It's a thing I do, I guess, the same way I watch flights people (mainly Josef) are on when they're leaving town, so I know they've landed okay. Except this isn't a person, but still...

2007/02/15 11:00 International item has left the origin country and is en route to Canada

2007/02/17 02:39 VANCOUVER, BC International item has arrived in Canada

2007/02/17 23:30 RICHMOND, BC Item has been processed and is enroute to the delivery office

So if she's left Richmond (where the airport is), and is on her way to the delivery office (not sure if that's the main Post Office building downtown or the postal outlet up the road) could that mean there's a chance I'll have her here by tomorrow? This is all happening so quickly. I don't even really have a place to put her right now. My office is clean, more or less, but I was hoping to have an empty surface to display her on and that hasn't quite happened yet. But I'll figure it out. This is very exciting.

In other news, I think she might be a Cordeliane. But I'll have to wait and see if the name fits when she gets here.

I just bought a Blythe!

I've gotten into the habit, recently, of browsing eBay. Not with the intention to buy, at least not immediately, just as a way to see what's out there. To see if anything will jump out at me. Over the months, a few things have:

Exhibit 1 - Rovam

Pros:

• She's a pirate (girl after my own heart).
• Those Pullip eyes are adorable.
• I love her hair.
• Also, she's a bloody pirate!

Cons:

• I can't seem to find her for sale anywhere anymore. At least, not anywhere that takes PayPal and isn't selling her for way out of my price range.

Exhibit 2 - Greggia

Pros:

• This girl knits!
• She has a pet/toy lamb.
• Those Pullip eyes again.

Cons:

• I really, really don't like her clothes.
• The bright pink lipstick's a bit too much.
• She's kind of pricey - her US $ price is about what I want to pay in Cdn $.

Exhibit 3 - V-Smash



Pros:

• Red hair and freckles.
• I like the versatility of no bangs.
• She's really darn cute.

Cons:

• Come on. Tennis?
• I'd have to do something about those clothes.
• Again, she a little bit on the pricey side.

All three of these girls are great, but for one reason or another none of them have been quite right.

That ended this morning. This morning, I stumbled upon a listing for a little Piccadilly number and everything changed.


This girl is all 'pros'. She's got the hair. The clothes. The saucy attitude. She called to me. A call I couldn't resist. I tried to distract myself by running some errands, but she was in the back of my mind the entire time.

When I got home, I went straight to the computer. Normally I like to give myself at least 24 hours to think these things over, but I knew that it wouldn't make a difference. This was the Blythe I've been waiting for.

It took me no time at all to find a reputable seller offering what I wanted at a price that fit into my imaginary budget. After a quick calculation to make sure I had the funds in my account, I clicked the Buy Now button. (Why bid when you can buy?)

And then I paused. This was it. The moment. With one more button click I would, my browser admonished me, be entering into a legally binding contract. I would be agreeing to spend more on what is essentially a toy, for myself, than I did on any of my family's Christmas presents this year.

It's not like this was an impulse buy. This has been a long time coming... but then, when you're going to spend more than $100 on a doll, it had better be something you're good and sure about, right? I'm definitely good and sure about it. I've been feeding money into my PayPal account, little by little, for the better part of a year-and-a-half. I've been dumping my coins into the old scooter fund jar since getting back from Hong Kong, and I have more than enough money in there now to offset the cost. So there's really no logical reason for me to feel the way I do.

I feel conflicted. On one hand, I'm excited - practically giddy. On the other hand, I feel like I've just been caught doing something wrong. I feel like spending that much money on something so frivolous is breaking some sort of rule. I feel like my mom's going to come over and explain to me, very patiently, why this is not the sort of thing a responsible adult does.

Well, at the risk of sounding like a rebellious child, maybe I don't want to be a responsible adult. Maybe I want to reward myself for finally cleaning out my office. Sorting through my yarn stash. Getting my bookshelves in order. (A task, by the way, which involved getting rid of more than seventy-five of my books, most of them novels. Some of you will understand my pain.) Maybe I need to ignore the voices in my head that insist I feel guilty ever time I do something fun for myself. Because it's too late to back out now. I clicked that second button. The money has been transferred. And sometime in the next couple of weeks, I'll finally have a Blythe of my very own.

You Wanna Hear About My New Obsession?

Of course you do. Who wouldn't? They're vaguely horrifying, and yet so compelling. They're the toy I wish I'd had when I was a child. Unfortunately, they were originally released nearly a decade before I was, and I don't keep enough up-to-date on new toys to have known that they existed before today. In fact, the only reason I found out was because Knitty released some patterns today that just happened to be written for them. They look like this:







and they're called Blythes. And I want one more than anything right now. I want one more than I want the new Harry Potter book, and that's saying a lot. (Admittedly, if the book was available tomorrow instead of two months from now, I'd probably think differently.) The problem with things like this is, they don't take over my old obsessions. I seem to have an incredible ability to allow these things to pile up on each other. Hence the plethora of candles I collect but almost never burn. The thing is, these dolls are expensive - over $100.00 average, and that's for the new release version. But maybe that's their saving grace. If they were cheap and easy to get, my house would be full of them by tomorrow!

Right now I have over $50.00 in coins in my 'scooter fund' jar. I'd love a scooter, but realistically, I'm never going to buy one. The jar was really just to freak out my mom, who has visions of me splattered across the highway. But I will buy a Blythe doll. Someday. And if I turn the scooter fund into the Blythe fund, I'm pretty much halfway there!