BPC 42

Blythe's Just Desserts

I have been carrying around various dolls, hoping for some inspiration to strike or at least a pretty display case.

I tried a Thanksgiving theme but I wasn't happy with it.


Last weekend, we were overtaken with a hankering for Cuban food and the closest place is in Downey, so after a 40 mile drive (including a detour to Occupy Los Angeles), we finally got to Habana Cafe.

Detour! Picture from moving car since I was afraid of the overwhelming stink to really walk among it.


Unfortunately, Habana Cafe was having like three parties and the only seating was in the bar or the bakery. I opted for the bakery since I was planning on hitting it pretty hard after I had dinner.

That should have been the tipoff, really. It all went downhill from there. The place had really, really gone downhill, like a complete 180, it was horrifying. My lechon asado was lechon secado and the mango margarita tasted like the mango had gone bad. Super unhappy face. To add to all that, that night they had a singer there, which was probably why there were so many parties, and he was just BLARING as all get out and I couldn't even hear the waitress who was shouting in my ear.

I hold this man responsible.


Don't hide from me Edgar, I see you.


I figured I would try and salvage this with at least a Challenge photo so I tried posing with the dessert cart but I got chased off.

Also, the lighting was bad.

I ended up back at the bakery cases. It's possible these pastries were Cuban but by that point, I wasn't taking any more chances.

Final Photo:


Oh, and the bathrooms were devoid of seat covers and one stall had no SEAT and the other didn't have a lock. Right.

BPC 41

Blythe and the Letter Q

This one doesn't really have an interesting backstory. I had to look up local businesses that had "Q" in there somewhere, even though there's a bar in the area that's actually called "Q's" but I was hoping for something more exotic. I didn't find it. This place is actually called "Big Q Lube" and I had hoped there was some nice big signage that said so near the street, but they didn't have any! I guess they got too many comments and disappointed perverts.

On the day I took this, which was the last day, of course, it was overcast and crummy. This was what the picture actually looked like:


I had to edit it out in the field, but that's why I pay for a premium Picnik account, so it worked out.

Final photo:

BPC 40

I am a member of The Blythe Physical Challenge Group and thus far, I have completed every single durn challenge. Most of the time, I would say about 95% of the time, I do not have an opportunity to complete the challenge until the last possible day and then my big plans go sideways. So I thought I would start keeping track of where things go wrong.

Challenge #40: Blythe is Scared to Death!

I could not think of anything, maybe one doll chasing another in a mask or something. Then I remembered I had a Revoltech Jason Voorhees! Great! I scouted around and in the parking lot of a crappy store, I saw the perfect site. Under a parking lot light, a little puddley from the recent rain, a bunch of abandoned furniture and construction debris piled up, it would be great. I didn't have time until Friday, of course, but Friday morning it was raining pretty heavy. I returned Friday night, only to find the lot light was completely out and the lot was pitch dark. This always happens.

So I packed up all of my gear, doll, Jason, camera, and walked around until I found anything suitable which I finally found at a government mall. Because of the rain and cold, the homeless people and skaters who usually live there were somewhere else which was a little reassuring since I was by myself and it was like 9:00 at night.



Specifically, a strip of landscaping underneath a light on the mall walkway in front of a courthouse.



I shot about 40 frames or so in various poses. No flash, this was all the mall lighting. Obviously, I had to use a Hollywood, duh. She's on a Kaiyodo stand that seemed to work pretty well at holding her up on uneven terrain. Some people walked by but no one stopped.

Final photo:

To benefit the Pasadena Humane Society

The local collectors had a meet for Halloween and held an auction to benefit the Pasadena Humane Society. I made and donated this dress set (dress, necklace and bow) which was won at auction by Ellewoods 2007. There were a lot of other items in the auction and in total, the auction raised $268!

What I have learned from Den of Angels

I hold these truths to be self-evident:

1. There is only one car for all of the BJD collectors in any given area. Everyone else must arrange a carpool with that person to get to meets and to drive to the post office to mail out items they have sold.

2. The one person with a car will inevitably have a car accident and will end up in the hospital for a week, usually while in the middle of running a group order (only after the order has been received, not before).

3. Anyone who puts color to a doll's face is a face-up artist.

4. All male BJDs are homosexual cross-dressers who prefer group sex with like-minded BJD homosexual cross-dressers.

5. All female BJDs are dirty, dirty sluts. Some are lesbionic, the rest are bisexual. It is unknown at this time what the bisexuals are bisexual with since all of the male BJDs are homosexual cross-dressers, see above.

6. Anything can be purchased on layaway, even a $4 wig.

7. Anyone who purchases a BJD has a cat. Every box opening will involve the cat sitting in the box. Every box opening will have a startled doll who is ashamed of his or her nudity. The same doll will seldom wear clothes ever again.

8. A person will spend $1,200 on a BJD but will not spend more than $20 on clothing for the BJD, including eyes and wig.

9. At a BJD meet, there is no topic off-topic except for mainstream religion and real-life politics. For example, a person may freely discuss the Arthurian Dragonistic religion of his or her BJD and the BJD's political stance of enforcing laws concerning vampyre hunting with maple vs. ash. A person may also discuss their need for realistic hirsute genitalia for his or her BJD and whether it would be more appropriate to give said doll's genitalia a piercing or an oozing syphilitic sore. In both instances, the person would like to describe their position in detail and would like to hear your opinion on the matter.

10. If ever an item is sold in the Marketplace, one should not expect to receive it at any time within 45 days because:
a. There is only one post office in the seller's area and it is only open from 10:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. on alternate Mondays.
b. The seller has to arrange transport with the one person with a car in the village to this post office as it is 400 miles away.
c. Before transport can be arranged, the seller must either become very ill for at least two weeks and/or be hospitalized for a week or more. Even in the U.S.
d. Before transport can be arranged but after the terrible illness, the seller's "internet" will cease to work and the seller will not have access to a smartphone, neighbor, internet cafe, library, Apple store, or a friend with a smartphone or access to a neighbor, internet cafe, library, or Apple store. The seller will therefore be unable to communicate the details of the health and transportation crisis.
e. In an effort to satisfy the buyer, who has been forewarned because the seller's ad did say "can only ship once a week" which automatically gives buyers notice that shipping may take 30 days or more, the seller will give the package to his or her boyfriend/girlfriend, sibling, parent, neighbor, roommate, roommate's sibling (none of whom had any internet access during the Troubles) with instructions to mail the package to the buyer. The seller will them promptly go on vacation to PagoPago and will not have sufficient coconuts to construct a router until his or her return to civilization.
f. In the meantime, the seller's boyfriend/girlfriend, sibling, parent, neighbor, roommate, roommate's sibling, will misunderstand the instructions and will leave the package in his or her car, behind the dining room sideboard, or propping up the gimpy leg of the coffee table.
g. After the seller has once again been alerted to the delay in shipping, the seller will then take matters into his or her own hands and use the the $50 the buyer paid for shipping to mail the package out Bulk Rate Overland Donkey Cargo with no insurance. Unless the buyer has specified with exhausting detail precise packaging instructions with additional money paid for materials, the seller will assume the buyer prefers the merchandise wrapped in a Tesco bag and heavily taped with an address label affixed to the outside in water-soluble ink.
h. Also, unless the buyer has specifically asked, the seller will assume the buyer prefers their merchandise to smell like cigarette smoke, mothballs, B.O. and hot garbage.

This concludes our presentation.

Ghoulia sweater

I know I just have to be patient and eventually some non-ugly Monster High clothes will show up somewhere, but it's already been a while. So I ended up making my Physical Deaducation Ghoulia a sweater. I'm really hoping for skinny jeans that go all the way to the ankle, maybe even some corduroy flares, but to the ankle, not these cropped everything. I'll probably take a stab at making gluing a pair together myself.

Dress blocking

For maximum poufability, I like to block dresses over the upturned half of a vintage marmalade pot. I don't usually block unless I have to, but these I like to do. And it looks funny, I like that too.