sand matting

as i mentioned - when i sanded her face i went ahead and tried to leave stock makeup, just in case someone would want the matte look and stock make up. you'll notice that i actually got a ice anti-glare matte finished and you can still clearly see her makeup on the side i left it on. to do this i used my extra extra fine sanding sponge (320 grit) to go over her makeup and i used the 250 grit followed by the 320 grit over the rest of her face. yay!

she's so rosemary's baby!

are you ready for this? i cut all of iliad's hair off for a bit of fun before i scalped her. she loved it, said it made her feel tough. it was ever who pointed out how much like mia farrow she looks. check it out!

i told you i did it!

my first blythe size hair cut! (& a note on sand matting)

it's actually not uneven, though it looks it a bit in that first picture. she is absolutely darling, don't you think she'd be wonderful with some freckles! too bad that's not in the plan this time around. what is in the plan? well, as glad as i am that you asked, i can't tell you. you'll have to watch it slowly unfold! muah-HA-HA! (that's an evil laugh, in case it failed to translate...) um, and i don't think that it will be that slow of an unfold BECAUSE everything really seems to be easier than i thought. maybe not easy so much, as i have not yet opened the head, re-rooted the hair, carved the lips or applied the makeup - it's just that i thought it might be a month before i got that far what with sanding and all, but i sanded the back of her head just a smidge to test out the whole process and it was really fast and worry free. it's like when bob ross (painter) would paint a whole picture and then just throw a "happy little tree" in the for ground - i would see him paint a big black trunk and think what if you change your mind? he always said you just have to do it, decide and commit. well customizing is the same way. i guess because i bought her to "destroy as i learned" it was easy to just jump right in and now i am really glad i did because i have A LOT more confidence! i have not even destroyed her yet!

below is a picture of the back of her head after i sanded it - there is a small glare that comes from the part of her head where the "Blythe TM" stamp is (i chose not to sand that off just to stop glare that would be under her hair.) there is no glare off the rest of her head because it's sanded and it's beautiful and SO easy. grant it you can't do it if you want to leave her makeup on but i am going to experiment with sanding around makeup before i just take it all off. i'll post pictures and blog about that when i get there!

something interesting

these are pictures of iliad (aubrina, rbl) and ever (enchanted petal, slb) side by side. iliad is on the left of the screen/pictures and ever on the right. i did not photo their orange eye chips because they were the same as far as i could tell. while the color difference is what i am documenting you might also note the shape and size of the eye socket and the color of the eye shadow and the shape of the lips. hmmm....

by the way:

iliad's arrival

so here is the first blythe of 2009 - she's a prima dolly aubrina. it's my first time seeing a rbl in person and it's really striking how different she is from my sbl girls. now, she will be a full custom with mohair. i have her eyes ordered and her hair picked out and i have had her sketched for a while now. it was hard to stay committed because when i saw her i fell in love BUT to help i called her iliad from the beginning and i took her out shot a video of her first eye click, just like the other two, and then i decided to cut her hair. why not? i have been wanting to try only not on my girls so i figured i should give it a go on a scalp that was to be fully re-rooted anyway. problem? OF COURSE! she came out wonderfully and looks so cute! i decided to pull out a few eye chips - i did it with out the head open so that i can do rj and ever if i want to.

did i say that?

omg, i can't believe that i thought i could give up blythe. i even put my darling babies up for sale at one point. thank God the buyer flaked on me. i can't believe that i thought that i could stop at two. (actually i think i quite knew i'd be buying more, i just wanted to think i could control it.) what i realized is that this is going WAY past rj and ever. this is doll love. i played with dolls all my life and i realize now it's always going to be that way. so here it is, a list of my 2009 doll goals: to fully customize the aurbrina doll i have coming, to add two more girls (hopefully an asian butterfly and a goldie) to my blythe family, to get another rbl girl to customize, to take more pictures of all my dolls!

*deep breath* i have big plans for my first custom blythe and i am just itching to get started. i have to catch up with my scrap booking first and i have ?four? i think, layouts to go! i received my sponges and my mr. super clear and a few other things i have ordered. i feel like a child dancing away waiting for Christmas to roll around.