Originally published at Super-Junk. Please leave any comments there.

On March 1, I moved into “my first place.” Looking back, it’s amazing how long I lived with my family, and how much different it is living alone. It took me about a month to get used to all the quiet, but after my school’s “spring break” ended, both my jobs are keeping me busy as ever. I’m teaching two more classes than I used to, and building websites in-between.

In the mix of moving and working, I tried to fill every spare moment with thrifting, organizing, and working with Paul on a girl for the CWC Anniversary exhibit (Wish we could make it to Japan this year to see her and all of the amazing contestants!).

Not only does this spring bring a big change to where I’m living, but I resolve to make big changes in how I live. Living alone has shown me just how many resources I waste - I’m making a big effort to re-use and re-purpose what I have, resisting the temptation to shop the big-box-marts to fill my empty cupboards. I’m also trying to eat healthier - I’m currently addicted to raw green smoothies (made a big batch of mango parsley this morning - YUM!), and walking or riding my bike places I used to have to drive to. I’m already noticing a change in the way I feel waking up in the mornings.

Now that the dust has settled, I’m looking forward to having a bit of time to take pictures and write again.

Shoot me a comment if you need my new address for your books.

1. What are your initials?
MMC

2. What is your favorite thing to wear?
new socks

3. Last thing you ate?
green tea cake kit kat


( why am i answering these when i have work to do? )

Do yourself a favor and get a Saffy! Get two! Get three and have foofy, buttery triplets!

seriously though, I am nuts for my saffy. Ebi got all the attention at first (she really needed it) but saffy is the one that made me jump up and down when the postal carrier arrived with my primas.

I named mine Ume, mostly to go along with Ebi, but also because she has such a cute little round poof of a head.

after an absolutely black weekend (I wrote a very long post on saturday and immediately deleted it, as soon as i put it out there I had to suck it back, but the short of it is that my immediate family has been completely betrayed by the rest of our surviving family over money, and it's the most disgusting feeling...)

anyway, there appears to be a light in the distance. spring has arrived and we're getting better at bouncing back from these cold moments.

several things cheered me up this weekend, including:

an awesome bunka doll and outfit from Christina. I love it so much. As soon as it arrived, i thought "this is going on Dash!




you have no idea how much amusement I got out of putting Dash in a bonnet and a bow.

( more bunka baby! )

* also must note that a few weeks ago, I broke down and had paul give dash proper makeup. she's never had green eyeshadow before and it took me some getting used to, but I am so happy that she's been fully restored now. it only took two years!

Hi Guys, Just doing a little closet-cleaning out in preparation of our upcoming trip to Japan this spring. I've listed some Blythe and Re-ment stuff on eBay!


( more stuff )

whee, check out my listings!

so I have been cross posting like crazy this morning, but it's because I'm excited about this thing I made:



The Blythe-a-lizer

It's still a work in progress, but I figured i might as well share it because who knows when I will have the time to work on it again.

I originally wanted to make an interactive blythe-vector-dealie so that people that worked in front of a computer all day could play with a blythe doll, but then I learned this nifty script for the color pickers, and my whole objective changed. I think this could be a way to work out color combos before painting a blythe and deciding you don't like it, or for non-customizers to figure out creative color combos before asking a customizer to make it real.

anyway, I hope you find it either fun or practical!

credits:
body model: lenore
hair models: river II, lenore
face model: lane
vocals: newt
sound capture: paul
testing: linda, melisser, christina

I had to plug my web-dev company at the bottom, because I want more fun clients!

hello journal, long time no see!

I'm back to teaching in the evenings again. They moved me up to the advanced flash class, which is quite intimidating to teach, but so far, so good (we're only 4 working days into the class, so that's tenative). I like teaching, I'm trying to focus much energy on really doing the best damn job I can at it. Anyway, it's not too exciting to write (or read) about, but it's why I haven't been present online much.

The trouble with working eveningsis that my day is back-asswards. This was a big obstacle for me - I am a person who needs a full 8 hours of sleep to function, so when I get home at 11:00, can't fall asleep until 1:00, and then have to get up at 7:30 to do my other job, I just suck at the other job! Instead of fighting nature, I've decided to shuck the traditional schedule and flip my day over. Usually you wake up, go to work, come home, take care of personal and family stuff and then wind down for bed.
So my new plan is to wake up at 8:00, eat a healthy breakfast and do my errands, cleaning, personal stuff (including exercise, which I'll explain in a bit) in the morning, then tend to my web clients from the hours of 11 to 4:30, and then head off to my class which starts at 6 (the big time pocket in there is for the ridiculous traffic I must sit in on my way to work... nothing I can do about that but whine). that goes until 10/10:30, and I will do everything I can to get home and fall asleep by midnight (it is so hard to make your brain shut off just an hour after a lecture. I think the bathtub will be instrumental in this goal).

anyway, so I said the E word up there. now I have always had a hard time exercising with my desk jobs and absolute lack of athletic ability and distaste for sports... With the exception of skiing and ice skating, I suck at all of them.

It's pretty tough to make time to ski living in southern california, so that leaves... figure skating! one of the many hobbies I have quit once in life, I'm coming back to it with much eagerness to remember allmy old skills. I just went this morning, actually, and I feel great. I remember being told that I should exercise because exercise makes you happy, but I think when you are a kid you have so many weird hormones and shit running through your body that you don't notice the emotional effects of exercise... or at least, I didn't. I literally feel relaxed and confident after just an hour on the ice. I don't even care that I have a dime-sized blister burning a hole through my left heel - who needs pretty feet when you have just a smidge of emotional fullfillment? If i get four hours a week of ice time, I'm doing allright.



oh yeah, and Paul digs skating, too, so I am feeling quite grateful to be with someone that shares so many of my biggest interests.

anyway, yeah, so the plan... I'm already mucking it up by sitting here writing this, I gotta go!

*weekends, of course are still reserved for doing whatever, freestyle. like.... dolls!

I had the most vivid nightmare last night.

For some reason, my former best friend when I was in high school was with me (she lives 500 miles away now) to celebrate christmas, and this was a pretty big deal. I was trying to think of the PERFECT gift to give her, but i was out of money. I looked around my room for something to give her, and my eyes stopped on the dollhouse. I decided that I should give her Lotte. I was very sure that this was the perfect gift and she would never forget it.

( cut for length )

Happy Holidays to all you wonderful friends and people who poke in and read my journal, too. These past few years would not have been the same without a place to vent and share stuff with my friends.

These are the images that I used for my christmas cards this year - I was naughty and didn't get my cards out in time to send any outside of the U.S. and have them arrive in time, so to my international friends, know that I am thinking about you and want you to have a wonderful holiday, too! (oh, and I didn't do one of those cool address polls like my on-top-of-it friends, so hopefully not too many of you have moved in the past year :P)

_________

The girls helped me put together the tinsel tree, hang the ornaments, and wrap the dollie presents. we wanted to keep it as vintage as possible, a tribute to all my mom's old ornaments and decorations that we have broken throughout the years. The pipecleaner tree was surprisingly simple - I will make a new, sturdier one next year now that I know how to do it!

I made sure to be almost completely ready for christmas a week in advance, because something in the air tells me this is going to be a super-double-time-busy week in the office.

anyway, hope everyone gets what they want for christmas, or at least gets to spend it with people or things that make them happy!

I worked ten straight hours on a boring website. It's 2:00am. Here's some outfits I sewed what seems like ages ago, presented in photoshop-o-vision:





buy the dolly dolly mook 4. you will be pleased.

normal pics on flickr. I have to go re-set my head now.

Mr. Cheeks is upset that he had to stay home for thanksgiving, but I am not.  I couldn't run the risk of him embarassing me by putting his butt in people's food, especially since this year was only the second occasion where I have spent any time with Paul's dad and his wife. It was a wonderful holiday - it's has been a couple of years since I spent thanksgiving in a big family-style environment.  When I was growing up, I remember being so embarassed of my goofy uncles and cousins, but have come to learn that all families have that element of weirdness, and if they don't, they should!  if you can't be weird with the people you love the most, something is not right.  anyway, the holiday was very warm, comfortable, and nice.  I was good and ate until just-before stuffed.

As I sit here eating a leftover slice of caramel-apple pie, our turkey carcass (the one that I was not home for) is simmering on the stove for soup, filling the house with the most incredible smell. Reminds me of my mom and her domestic-awesomeness.  I'm in charge of the soup this year, I'll be trying very hard to make it taste like hers.

I'm also thinking about just how great this weekend was overall.  My evening-job wrapped up on tuesday, so I was able to leave on wednesday night for longbeach, help get the house ready for thanksgiving, relax a bit, sew (I spent all day friday sewing clothes for Paul's Blythes and did not take any pictures.), and prepare for Paul's housewarming party on saturday.

I was in a great mental state for this party - last couple of times there have been gatherings at the house I have been kind of an anti-social butthole, but I was in great spirits for a change.  and thankfully so, since in addition to the usual people at the party, a couple blythe/doll people showed up.  Hilary (snoopygirl), Katie (lifelessmind), and Julie (blukat), all made the party very much fun.  Thanks hilary and katie for listening to my drunken dolly babble, and thank you julie for encouraging the pyromania that always ensues at these things.

Sunday was reserved for sleeping, sleeping, and waking to consume large quantities of meat and deep-friend onion rings of joy. 

And now, back to the lonely work week. Is it any wonder I hate mondays so much?

so I am totally dumbfounded as to what I should do with my pullips.

I have a mostly stock carol, a stock Wind, and a very experimented-upon moon head.

I kind of... outgrew them, put them away for over a year, figuring when I got them out, my enjoyment of them might return, but, sadly, I just don't really want pullips anymore.

I looked them up on eBay and it looks like the old girls ain't worth squat.

anyone out there have interest in the first version pullips? I always liked that body the best.

( I had to go digging deep in the photobucket o' truth to find these pics )

The two latest re-ment sets we've gotten definitely triggered me to do a little apron research. We don't want them getting muffin mix and permanent marker on their little clothes!

Flickr groups are an absolute blessing when it comes to the archives of vintage pattern packages. I turned to Vintage Apron Patterns and Vintage Children's patterns for the inspiration for these two.

Mame's looks a little bit like a bag on her, but dammit, she's so cute she could make a bag look equally cute!

Also, many thanks and headrubs to P for restringing mame. She's only a year old and she was already getting too limp and lazy to pose for pics.

I am so so happy that I listened to the poll results and decided to finally debox and tune-up my DD!



I made very teeny changes, but I think the difference is amazing (I'm amazed! I didn't think my plan for the lips would work, and I didn't think they left enough hair in front for me to work with).

I've decided to name her Impatient. She still has a very huffy, spoiled look about her.

I dressed her up in this awesome Jam Fancy dress (which is not mine, one of christina's girls is here and she brought it with her), because I think she was made to wear pink and black!




wheee! new dolly day!

thanks volks for the pumpkin boobie "hat"

Darling Diva's Punk outfit Rocks!

she's still in her box though...

my sister found half a carton of the new woodmate petite living set last weekend. she called me up and of course I told her to buy them all for me. I figured mitsuwa had another box in the stock room and would bring them out within a few days. I kept checking on my way to work, and the slot on the shelf was always empty! I stalked that shelf 3 days in a row I finally asked an employee when they'd get them and he said "tomorrow" (which is today.)

So finally, i was at the market on the right day. I went for the toy aisle and saw a big shipping box from kabaya on the ground, ready to stock the shelves. I casually opened it and dug through a bunch of crummy tomas the tank engine toys until i finally saw the woodmate box. I grabbed the carton and ran!hooray! new toys!

unfortunately, our mitsuwa orders these one carton at a time, and they go fast, so I have to be a rabid hound to get them!

mame needs a playhouse now that she has a living room and a kitchen!





( real life stuff.. it's been a while )

hi friends,

long time no post, lots keeping me busy - mostly good things which i will post about soon (oh joy), but i have a question for the blythe-minded:

my darling diva arrived (to much fanfare... and it really is an amazing set. thanks CWC!), and of course, mine has funky bangs. Now, I don't want to sell her, she was a prize and it would feel wrong to sell her, but I know she is a limited, expensive dolly and i would also feel like i was violating her if i fixed her hair with a little trim. Her lips kind of get on my nerves, too. I'm torn between customizing her (slightly) into the gorgeous girl i know she can be or just leaving her boxed and on display. it is a pretty cute box set-up.


Poll #851631 Darling Diva Dillemma
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

What would you do if you were in my shoes?

I gotta stop wasting time....

after returning from the post office



allow me to sing the praises of Christina for just a moment...
She's been making amazing things for blythe since the dawn of time, and has developed a super distinct style, yet she's always reinventing herself and never seems to get sewing-block. She sews everything by hand and never overlooks the tiniest of details (I sew on a machine and as soon as that piece is "done," I stop, often scratching my plans for pockets or buttons because I'm spent.)

christina, you are a blythe icon. I would bow at your feet (chanting "I'm not worthy!") if we lived in the same country.

now, back to squealing over how fabuki (© David) my little princesses look...





*gush*