Sadness...

I totally scored an Aztec Arrival Blythe Sunday night off ebay - it was such an impulsive buy that I was shaking afterwards as I couldn't believe my luck. The post office attempted delivery yesterday, but I wasn't here to accept her (that was fast!), so I picked her up this morning. It took a good 5 or 6 traffic lights to get the tape off enough for me to open the box.

This is what I should have seen:



This is what I saw instead:



Does that look like the same box to you?

My heart sank so fast. The minute I got to work, I emailed the seller both via email and through ebay's automated system, and over 12 hours later, I still haven't heard anything. I'm tempted to email the girl who bid on the doll I got by mistake (as I presume she got mine) and just see if we can exchange, but it would be nice to hear back from the seller about this. I mean, it is her mistake! I'm hoping this was just an honest mistake and that we can rectify it, but gawd it's unnerving not to hear anything...

It's so funny, I don't think I've ever been so sad to receive a doll, and even though I'm sure she's lovely, I can't tell you how much I dislike her at the moment - just because she's not the girl I paid for. Ugh.

Been a Long Time...

I've been really naughty - since my last post I've brought home a few more girls, with one more on the way... Let's just get this out of the way: "Hi, I'm NxtDrGrrl and I'm a Blythe-a-holic." ;-P They say the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, and oh boy, do I have a problem. At least I've sold some other things on ebay to help pay for my addiction, and I've been really busy with the sewing machine... So, not only will my girls be very well-clothed, but so will all the other Blythe-heads on the TIB forum ;-) You could call it the only positive aspect to being a long term insomniac.

I can't wait to get rid of as much stuff as possible (except Blythes and books) so that I will finally have the room to set a bookcase up with all of their stuff. I'm trying to do it the Flylady way with baby steps (ie - a little at a time so I don't get overwhelmed by the sheer size of the downsizing task!). There are days when it feels like nothing is being accomplished, and other days, I see great strides forward. This weekend, I'm going to take a load of stuff to Goodwill, and the cans and bottles will be recycled (Exciting, huh?). That'll help with the clutter that's building up (seeing as I despise cleaning and only want to play with my sewing machine or knitting needles - is that so wrong?). Speaking of sewing... If you happen to enjoy sewing, I'm planning to list a whole bunch of vintage patterns on ebay - some really cool stuff from the 1930s to present day. It's time to prune the collection.

Aside from sewing, I've also been going crazy with the knitting needles. I've got somewhere around 10 projects on needle at the moment, which is just insane! I usually carry the easy ones with me to work so I can knit during lunch with M. I bring the "brainless" ones - ie - simple stockinette or garter stitch projects. I've gotten to the point that I don't need to really look at the needles unless it's something like rib (or lace - ugh) where I would have to see where I'm placing the yarn. I'll post pictures of those soon - I've just realized I haven't posted any of my knitted objects (except the Branching Out scarf) for quite awhile.

M's mom, S, was out last week - she's a really nice lady. She got me a lovely scarf from Loehmann's, and I got her the Knitting Answer book and helped fix the shrug she's working on. It's too bad my mom cancelled on dinner with us at the last minute... Not cool - even if she wasn't feeling well... S said I should tell my mom that she was going to take it very personally - she was very kind about the cancellation, but I was mortified - especially since my mom also cancelled the day before because she forgot she was seeing my sister's mother-in-law. I haven't felt that embarassed and stoopid in a long time.

One last thing before I get to my new girls: I picked up the latest Katamari Damacy game tonight and I'm so playing it after I finish blogging!!!!!! Gaaaar - I love that game!

So now, my girls can finally make their official debuts!



On the left is my Samedi Marche, Henrietta (Hattie for short), and the lovely Lounging Lovely, Lucretia (Lucy) on the right. I am absolutely in love with these two! Both have had their hair washed, and bangs have been trimmed (what is it with Takara and the uneven bangs?). I would absolutely love to get another LL and custom her to look like a Goldie (especially since Goldie's are fairly rare/expensive). I think it would be a good way to get my feet wet with a custom without doing anything that couldn't be undone later (just in case).




My latest girl is a Pinafore Purple named Penelope or Penny for short. She's so pretty and delicate in person. M totally adores her! This is going to sound really odd, but when I pulled her out of her box and dressed her in her complete outfit (including crochet hat and 70s sunglasses) she reminded me of a young Hillary Clinton. How weird is that?

You may have noticed the Mouseketeer hats in both photos... That was one of the things I made this weekend. I'm really impressed with the pattern, and have to give credit to the fab Oriettacat of TIB forum as it's hers. A huge hug and major kudos for sharing it with the forum. :-D

On top of Lucy and Penny, I have one more girl coming this month - shhhhh - be very, very quiet... She's paid for, but until she arrives, I'm afraid I won't believe it...

If you've read this far, then you deserve to hear the real news of the day: I pitched a story to the local paper and am waiting to hear if they'll buy it from me (there was some initial interest - I'm not brave enough to do this completely blind!). Fingers crossed!!!!!!!

Twins!

Timing is a funny thing... I've bought a few new Blythes over the last two weeks, and two of them arrived within a day of each other. So, although I ordered my Merry Skier 2 weeks ago, she was shipped late and arrived the same time as the Disco Boogie I bought last week. I picked them up at the Post Office this morning and waited for M to get in before we each grabbed a box and pulled the girls out :-D

So, here's Daphne, my Disco Boogie. I have to say when I took her out, she looked so sad! I let her hang with Georgie for awhile to see if that would help cheer her up. I think that and my brushing her hair a bit helped. Here's the pic I got with Georgie trying to console her:



Once I finished taking photos of Daphne, I pulled out Magda, my Merry Skier. She is so much prettier in person! I had planned to cut bangs, but think I might leave her alone for a little while to really bond with her. Here's her first official photo:



I'm really digging the braids - maybe because it reminded me of this:



I'll leave you to guess who that might be ;-)

Red, White & Blue

I've had a head cold the last few days, so haven't been in the mood to do much of anything (including post). So, I finally got myself together a bit tonight and created an adorable striped tee shirt using xoxoblythe.com's long sleeve tee pattern. I've dressed Deirdre up in the new tee, as well as the SVB dress I picked up and some red boots and glasses to match. Doesn't she look cute? I've discovered the secret to finding stripey fabric for Blythe tees: Thrift store children's shirts. They're so freaking cheap and the patterns are positively adorable. I won't be sharing my particular favorite for fear someone clears out all my lovely selection, but do recommend you try your own local one and let me know how it goes :-D



I'm going to Pixelleposse's place tomorrow for a mini-meet (prior to the big Blythe meet at Meltdown next weekend), and have to figure out which one of the girls is coming with. There have been requests to bring them all, but I don't think I'm ready to take all 6 girls out with me. So, I guess I'll figure it out in the morning...

I'm tired or I'd keep going on the other clothes I've cut out. At the very least, I can now say I finally finished a sewing project this year! I've been sadly neglectful of my machine - to the point I had to put the dust cover on - that's how infrequently it's been used. :-( Hopefully, this will be the beginning of a major creative streak! ;-)

Ooooo - Pretty!

As most of you know, I've been struggling with learning how to knit lace. Well, I can now tell you that the struggle is finally paying off! I've finished 8 repeats (19 to go) on my Branching Out scarf from Knitty.com, and I am in love! I don't think I've used this many exclamation points in a long time!!!!!!! Yes, it's that pretty! So, once I'm done, I'll block it a little to really open up the lace, but even in the following picture you can see what an improvement it is over its previous incarnation ;-)



One note: I really should listen to my own advice and NOT knit this around others. I got a little *cocky* and tried it after work and a co-worker came over to talk to M, and he just has one of *those* voices and before I knew it, I'd lost count, a string of "fcuk, fcuk, fcukity fcuk" came out of my mouth and I started to sob. I really thought all was lost, but thankfully, the Noro yarn I'm using is not slippery and holds its loops, so I was able to frog back 2 or 3 rows and start all over again (just in time for co-worker to return for more blah blah blah - thank goodness M distracted him and walked him out into the hall so I could finish the row). Love my M!

Centennial Celebration

Ah, my Neon... Yesterday morning, on the way to work, we passed 100,000 miles together. I think we may have technically passed them earlier, as I vaguely remember a time early on in our relationship (when she was still under warranty) when her circuit breaker went out, and none of the electonics worked for a day or two. But, since I can't prove the earlier, actual 100,000th mile, I have chosen to celebrate the one that showed up on the odometer yesterday.

The moment before:



The moment of:



It's kind of exciting - I've never driven a car this long before. The one I had prior (currently retired and waiting for me to resurrect her), was driven for 8 years, so I'm pretty loyal to my cars - but I never expected to keep the Neon for almost 10 years (next month is her b-day to be precise). I thought 5 years sure, but didn't expect 10 years. I think if it weren't for her color (Magenta), I probably wouldn't have been so attached to her for so long. She's just too pretty to part with (and cheaper than buying and insuring a new car)!

Cholesterol Sucks, Part 2

I had my follow up with my doctor regarding my health and overall, I'm doing much better. Lost 3 lbs, blood pressure is back to normal, and even the scary grown-up medical thing I had to go through came back clean. I'm thinking, "Hey, if all that's good, well, then my blood work will be good too!" Kinda, sorta, not really. Overall, my cholesterol did go down - a whopping 18 points! But, the bad stuff aka LDL only dropped 2 points. Fcuk, fcuk, fcukity fcuk. My doctor now wants to put me on crestor, and truth be told, I don't want to be on it. I mean in three weeks of being decent (not great), I got my numbers down. Give it another month (excluding the last three days of ignorant bliss where I ate everything that wasn't nailed down) and my numbers should be in a very good range. I'm going to pick up my prescription tomorrow, but I think I'm going to hold off on taking it until my next meeting with him. Call me stubborn (which I am - thanks, Dad), but there are things to consider: possible liver damage, and I can't get pregnant while on it. Not that I'm actively pursuing having a child this particular moment, but it could happen.

I think I'll call the office on Monday and let them know - just so there isn't a surprise and/or hurt feelings when I come in next time...