A Blythe, just like that.

When I started to look after BJD's for many, many years ago, I came across Blythe dolls. There was something odd about these dolls, with their big heads and small bodies. My mind went to those bobble head figures. I was curious, but not in a way that I wanted to own one. I had the same feelings for Pullips and similar dolls. 

She arrived to the cottage in her beautiful box, never removed from it.

But suddenly something happens. I went to the site Tradera, a Swedish second hand shopping place like eBay. A gentleman had several adds on his page and among those adds I saw a Blythe. She was a University Of Love doll, released in 2012 and you can read about her here. She is a Neo Blythe, in the size of 28,5 cm and that is about 11 inches. I let my family know and said that there were no bids on the doll and I would keep my eyes on it. I knew that sometimes the bids would come about 10-15 minutes before closing time. 

Looking tired after the trip. And no, her light green eyes are not pink around.
Do not know what the daylight did. Lol. 

That closing time for this add was after 7 PM. I checked and saw one bid and thought 'here we go'. The prize will increase and there is no way I will keep up and she will end up at another home. Such a bummer. My husband said that I should try, just to see if I have any luck. Just do it! I was uncertain, but really wanted her so I went in on the add and made a bid just for 3 dollars more...seconds before the add closed.

In a Barbie dress on a windy summer day at the cottage.

I saw the seconds tick and the add close and in the same time a got a message saying: "Congratulations, you won the auction!" That was a surprise and I got so happy. I made the payment and got her some days later. She is my first Blythe and it is really fun to own one. 

Road trip on a very hot summer day. I felt as glossy as her.

On a outdoor day in the middle of October.
It was still warm and the trees were amazingly green.

Her blue eyes. She has two pair of green (light and dark) eyes and one pair of pink eyes.

Her hair was a bit tangled when she arrived, even or maybe because she's been in her box since she was released. Her face is very pretty, the radiance version. It can be a bit difficult to photograph because of it being so glossy, but maybe I learn something new while trying to photograph her.

When the leaves finally fell.
My favourite photograph of her.

I bought some new clothes for her and these arrived some days ago. I have tried them on her and will take some photos and post these later on. 

Enjoy your day!

Some L.O.L Dolls

It is November and I am so surprised how fast time has been flying. It was not long ago when we packed our car and drove the 6 hours to our cottage and looked forward to a wonderful Summer. And now we are back at home. Where did the Spring, Summer and Autumn go? 

I hope that you have had a wonderful time and I am sorry for not being around so much lately. But here I am now and I want to show you my latest little collection. 

A shelf with some trinkets and L.O.L Dolls.

I took a visit to the local toy store near our cottage and I saw some surprise balls with L.O.L Dolls based on Hello Kitty and Friends called Lol Surprise x Hello Kitty and Friends. Could not resist, so I bought one. Later on I went and bought some more and found three on sale from other collectors who had doubles. 

L.O.L Doll My Melody in the sun.

The first one I got was my childhood favourite, My Melody. I remember being in the stores in Finland with my parents or with with grandparents, showing them pens, cute coloring books and note books with My Melody and often having the luck to coming home with new things. 

Pompompurin, a rare one, in the collection Hello Kitty and Friends.

Even Haribo have a collection.
This is the candy version of those bottles that taste like Coca-Cola.

A Crayola L.O.L Doll. One of nine dolls!

Boo! A mummy L.O.L doll, one of two. 
And Bentley taking a nap.
Then you see my husband's leg and shoe.

Pumpkin spice, candy corn and everything nice.

In total this collection has eight dolls. Then there are other collections, too, with several amount of dolls - so you can collect these tiny cuties for a long time. During Halloween there was a collection of two L.O.L Dolls and of course I got those.

Kuromi.

Kuromi on the shelf.

The last L.O.L doll for this post is Kuromi, from the Hello Kitty and Friends series. I ordered it from a private seller and it felt nice to find her to my collection. I squeezed her in between the two Halloween L.O.L Dolls.

These dolls are cute and rather easy to come by. Here you can buy them and the toy store, at the grocery stores that have a section for toys and online. The down side is that you do not know which one you get and there is a risk for getting a doll you already have. Three of the dolls I bought from Tradera (similar to eBay) because the collectors had gotten the dolls twice. At the moment I am looking for the rest of the dolls in the Hello Kitty and Friends series, especially Keroppi, a frog. Have seen her on eBay, but would like to buy her from someone closer to home because of the shipping costs.

Enjoy November! 

Cleo DeNile, Summer memories

It is in the middle of the winter over here at the moment and you really need the thick socks, scarfs and shoes that can make it through the snow. Even Bentley, our dog, has a jacket on during the later evening walks so that he does not freeze and can be seen in the darkness. 

In the coldest of winter days you really long for the warmth of the summer. Went through some photos I took of Cleo DeNile, my Monster High doll from the Generation 3. I had thoughts about a little story line for these photos - she was on her way to a party, got lost and ended up home, because “What's a forest party? After all, I suppose it would be frightfully dull, and boring, and completely ... completely wonderful.” Inspired from Cinderella. 

I never came to posting this during summer 2024. So why not post it now. Better late than never. 

Enjoy and Happy Valentines!

Ready for a summer party in the forest.

It will be so fun to dance!

I will dance like the wind is carrying me.

Is it this way? I feel lost!

Help, a bug!

Everything is up-side-down!

Better find my way back home.

Good to be home again. I can party another day!

Comic Con in Stockholm

The last days of December. 2024 is soon to be just a memory and sometimes I feel that the most parts have been just nothing to cherish. But there is some moments that have made my year a better one. Last year I and my youngest daughter won some tickets to the Comic Con and this year we bought our own tickets for the same event. We booked a long weekend at a family house outside the big city. We stayed at them last year too and felt safe and slept well. It is a family father that has made his two floor house to a living place for his family on the upper floor and the first floor he rents out to travelers. This year we had luck to get the master bed room. There is a bath room and a kitchen that is for every one. It worked very well. All the rooms were taken, but it did not feel crowded. 

Stockholm and Comic Con. The Q&A, some cosplayers and artists at work.

We had three days at the Comic Con fair hall. So many people in cosplay, selling stuff and so much food in every corner. We did a lot of walking during these three days. This time we focused on the Questions and Answers with three well known actors. It was nice to relax and listen to the interviews and get to know them a bit better. It was Paul Wesley, well known from The Vampire Diaries. I watched that serie with my kids when it was aired here in Sweden. And then he was in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds for a couple of years ago. Husband and I saw that movie. Sadly the Q&A's focused more on his time in The Vampire Diaries, and some young girls in the audience still dream about him as their future husband. 

Mark Williams, from the Harry Potter movies, visited Comic Con too. He is even a comedian, so it was a up lifting and fun time to listen to him. He told a lot of the pros and cons with filming the Harry Potter movies and shared some anecdotes from behind the scenes. He is even well known from the series Father Brown. 

From my 'younger' days, Tom Welling from Smallville had a Q&A too. I watched the whole serie while nursing two kids, in the beginning. It was nice to hear that he is still active. While listening to him, my daughter had an awakening and showed me a picture of Tom Welling in a serie she had seen recently, asking "Is this him?". Said 'Yes, but much older than in Smallville'. We had a good giggle.

Cosplayers.

He looks so sad. Poor thing. 

Some cosplays were really amazing. We went to a short lecture, last year, on how people build up these cosplays and it can take many years to the finished product. This year we listened to other lecture about acting and how you can build your own Falcon (the ship) from Star Wars in real size - if even just a part of it.

Kasia Nie's amazing work on the the magazine.

We had some lovely days. Bought some stuff, especially a Fantomen-magazine to my husband and talked to the artist who had made the front of the magazine. She was really nice and gave us a poster for free and autographed both the poster and the magazine. 

Cute bags from Loungefly. Almost bought one.

Amazing collectibles from Warhammer. Look at the books!

Handmade cute dolls, Amigurumis. Totoro, Zelda and Link as some of the characters.

Keychains!

Lechonk! A Pokémon, a hog, a hungry one! He came home with me!

Optimus Prime, a cosplay. Saw Transformers as a young kid and have seen all the movies. 

Steampunk! Wanted to buy the black watch, so badly. 

Huge LEGO Stormtrooper from Star Wars. And other figurines and more Steampunk...

We both were rather tired after this long weekend, but we felt happy and we had a blast. And probably we will visit Comic Con next Fall/Winter too!

Happy New Year to you and hope the holidays have been lovely! See you in 2025!

Winter time

Surroundings nearby our cottage.

Hello, hello! Hope that you are doing well and are embracing the season you are in. Over here the clocks have been turned back to Winter time and it gets darker and darker earlier in the afternoon. But according to the weather forecasters it is still summer here where we have our cottage. It has been rather warm lately and this morning I had my coffee in the garden.

I have been having some difficulties with my knee. The doctors suspect knee osteoarthritis, so I have some physiotherapy I do and have been twice at the doctor to get an anesthesia for the knee and then a long term injection with cortisone. I was so much in pain but after these injections I got my life back and could walk well and sleep through the night. Such a relief. 

One very sad and heavy happening was getting some mail from The National Board of Forensic Medicine with the results for the autopsy for my dad. I will not go into anything at the moment, maybe later is a post or if you want to ask about it you can in the comments. I will answer. It is good to know what happened, but at the same time not.

And now over to some more fun stuff. 

The lovely forest and Bentley enjoying life.

My daughter at the castle.
Here she is playing a role as the King's alchemist.

The summer time has been lovely, but different. Our youngest daughter worked the whole summer at the castle in Kalmar. She even moved to the town and just visited us at the cottage when she had free days. My husband worked a lot too, so it was mostly my oldest daughter, our dog and I. Did not study this summer, but tried to make some time to work in the garden and the forest nearby, cleansing up and making it nicer. We had Bentley's friend Dante and his owner over a couple of times and they could play. And now our neighbor has a dog too - for hunting. He is still a puppy, Elton, and very cute. Playful too. He finds his way to Bentley every time and they go so well together.

So happy to have Sindy 60th anniversary doll.

She came in an outfit in silver the glitters. 
And some accessories.

Here she is in some clothes that are made for Barbie.

I have ordered some dolls too. Two to be honest. Have been thinking about this a lot and ended up ordering a Sindy and a Betsy. The Sindy doll is a 60th anniversary doll numbered to a limited edition of 1963. Some weeks ago they had some dolls left, but I do not know how it is now. She is really pretty but does not have the old body as I am used to from my childhood. She has even a smaller body, which makes it easy to use Barbie's clothes. Her head is not the soft one, it is harder - but I am pleased with her. 

Betsy on the way out of her box. 
Looking like she has been at the dentist.

Betsy in the sun.
And the little red heart, so adorable.

Betsy on a sunny day in the middle of October.

Took some photos playing with leaves. 
Down left corner - taken some days after she arrived.

Betsy is a BJD made by Gu M.J at Mydolling. Betsy was a one-off doll. She is a beauty. Love her! She and even Sindy arrived safe and sound to our cottage - and got stuck in the customs. Betsy arrived to the door but not Sindy, even if I ordered her like that. Had a discussion with the post office and they said that it was a small letter/parcel that I had to pick up by myself. Told them that I know what it says on the box - deliver to the door. Well, anyway. Betsy is a Janmang : Betsy. There is even Janmang : Sue and even a Janmang : Classic. She is very delicate and has the cutest nose. Sometimes she needs to cheer up! Had some plans to change her name, but my husband told that she is a Betsy, so I kept her name. 

De De in two handmade outfits. The pink one in the down right
corner is made by an older lady and she sold it for almost nothing.
A simple dress, but it works on De De and Betsy.
The other dress is made by Tess Creations.

De De in the sunset with a lantern.
Cleo De Nile doing some dance moves.

Bought some new clothes to De De, my Robert Tonner doll. Could not resist. Then I took my Monster High doll Cleo De Nile and cleansed the glitter parts from her hair. Took her out one windy and sunny summer day and took some photos. The one above is one of my favorites. The dress she has on is made by Kamelia Dolls. it is a skirt for a Barbie sized doll, but I took a blue ribbon and carefully tied it around Cleo's waist. It became like a dress for her. Worked well for the photos I took. 

Everything was in such a pretty yellow color.

In the beginning of October we had such lovely weather. Took my Rainbow High doll for a photoshoot. Some days later we had 2 degrees below zero and that week the leaves started to drop. Most of the trees are naked at the moment and it is time to travel home. We have packed our stuff and hope for a safe trip soon. In the beginning of November it is time for Comic Con, for a whole weekend. 

Hope you are doing well. Stay safe! Will visit you later this week, when I am back home!