SNOW!!!!! In sunny Spain!!!

Last night we suffered horrendous thunderstorms down here on the coast and they seemed to go on for hours!  I always get worried when we have thunder and lightening down here because we are literally surrounded by very high Eucalyptus trees and I fear them getting hit by lightening and coming crashing down.

We are also so close to the sea and the waves really were making a racket last night!   We have a dry river bed  just behind us.  When it rains torrentially, the 'dry' bed fills with water and rushes down from the mountains bringing all sorts of 'debris' with it, and carries it past us and on to the beach!!!  It's amazing what sometimes ends up on the sand!!

However, my photos this morning are from my son who is at home in Estepa, Sevilla.  He woke to ...  SNOW!!!  The whole area is covered in a thick blanket of the chilly white stuff, so I had to have photos!!  Apparently it was so heavy that it brought our gazebo down, completely bending the metal frame with the weight on the snow on the bamboo roof!! Another job to be done when we get home!!

The annoying thing is, on the few occasions when it has snowed in Estepa, we always seem to be at the coast!  I think my hubby has a hotline to the weather people as he just HATES snow!!!

The roof of our kitchen, bathroom and our covered patio.....

Looking up our street towards the convent.....neighbour Magdalena is already sweeping!

The roof of the covered part of our patio.....

Again looking up the hill towards the convent....

Looking down the hill, north towards Cordoba...the olive groves are completely white!

The palm trees look very odd coated in snow!

My poor lemons!!!!  And the collapsed gazebo!

And just because...here are a few photos I took this morning down here on the coast...

Snow on the distant mountains of Malaga

Ahhh, there it is!  The sun hiding in the Eucalyptus trees!

Some lovely Jasmin in bloom on our deck!

Dolly travels....

Whenever we come to the coast, I like to bring some dolls with me....and this time is no exception.  I brought three of them.....Leona (Iplehouse KID Lonnie), Olive (JerryBerry Sleepy Berry) and my beloved Heather (Heather Sky Blythe customed by me).  I also brought my sewing machine and all my sewing paraphanalia, my camera, my laptop (obviously) and my Kindle.  I like to come prepared!!

So far I have finished three books and started on a fourth......incidentally, I didn't think much of The Stepford Wives!!  I mean, what husband in his right mind would exchange his shaggy haired, tracksuit trouser wearing, Chihuahua hair covered,  saggy boobed, chocolate munching, dolly loving, slovenly wife, for one of those perfectly groomed, housework loving, pert boobed, perfectly groomed, automatons???  Mine probably!!!

So the sewing machine hasn't been touched yet, but maybe at the weekend I'll adapt some of the patterns I've been meaning to work on.

In the meantime I have actually taken some photos of my dolls, but only on the deck.  I meant to take them down to the beach and photograph them there, but I got lazy!!!  So here are just a few photos that I've taken over the last few days.....

Heather (Prima Dolly Heather Sky Blythe) customised by me.

Leona (Iplehouse KID Lonnie in Peach Gold skin, Faceup B) 

Olive (JerryBerry Sleepy Berry)

 

A trip to N...Iceland!!!

Today we went to Iceland!! No, not the country but somewhere equally as exciting for a Brit Abroad! We went to the British supermarket chain, Iceland, in Fuengirola!!!

We usually only go there at Christmas time when we buy 'goodies' that we really can't substitute with other locally bought items but we thought we'd go today and stock up with stuff for the freezer!

Of course we always end up buying far too many 'naughty' things and so our cupboards are now full of 'English' goodies that we really didn't need to buy! But my excuse is that a little of what you fancy does you good....I'll ignore the fact that it also makes you fat!!!

So just a few things that we bought...Caramac bars (Ronny's fault as she keeps mentioning them); Cadburys Cream Eggs AND Caramel Eggs, Hot Cross buns, Ready Brek, Double Decker bar, Spotted Dick, Victoria Cream Sponge, Doctor Pepper....and too many other nice (read FATTENING) things!

It wasn't all sweet stuff though...I did buy a nice swede too!!! Can't get those locally!

Oh and I forgot to get crumpets!!! Looks like we might have to go again!!!

Ahhh ... To be beside the sea...

Here I am down at the coast for a few days. There's nothing nicer than just being able to relax to the sound of the waves and the wind whistling high up through the leaves of the eucalyptus trees. From one window I can watch the swaying of the bamboo canes, and see the white frothy tips of the Mediterranean waves a couple of hundred metres away, and through another I see groups of the small green parrots that are indigenous to the southern part of Spain. They are a sight to be seen as the wing their way from branch to branch!

In two days I have finished reading two books. I love to read when we're down here, so much more so than when we're at home as I usually feel there is something else I should be doing. Here I just feel that the time was made for reading and for anything else that takes my fancy!

So I finished two books by Jennifer Worth, on whose books the BBC tv series Call The Midwives are based. And now I'm starting The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin. I read it years ago but thought I'd read it again. The problem with me is once I start a book that I enjoy, I just can't put it down!!! So I get through my books really quickly, which is why I'm so glad to have my Kindle. I am lucky enough to have more than 250 books on it just waiting to be read.....it's an avid bookworms dream!!

Have a lovely Sunday everyone! Now where was I in my book!!!

A warning to LUCAS!

For those of you who might follow my blog and wonder what on earth I'm on about or have I lost the plot, I will give you a brief run down.  Lonely is a tiny little Sasha toddler (by Sasha Morgenthaler) and she lives with a lady in the UK, here is a link to her blog:  absolutely-sasha.blogspot.com   If you can stomach it then please go and support the Plight of Lonely!!!!

Anyway to cut a long story short, this poor little girl gets treated abyssmally by the other dolly toddlers who live there, and in particular Lucas, who is a VERY NAUGHTY BOY!!!! (Spoken with the voice of Brian's mother in the film The Life of Brian!)

So today we just want to give Lucas a bit of a warning that the girls and boys of Dambuster Dolls are NOT going to put up with his nonsense anymore.......and they want to show him just what happens to dolls who are mean to other little dolls:

(Actually I have to add here that poor Olive (JerryBerry Sleepy Berry) in the photos below, had been minding her own business and hadn't been horrible or mean to ANYONE!  But those Secretdoll Persons of mine only need to be given the 'N O D' and they'll be winging their way over to England to deal with Lucas in their own S P E C I A L way!) 

 

 

Simplicity for Blythe pattern giveaway.....

I was sent this pattern by a lovely friend of mine in the US, OliveOil, as she knows I like to sew for my Blythes.  However, I'd already got this pattern so as she didn't want me to send it back to her, I have decided to do a 'give away' competition on Flickr.

All you have to do to be in with a chance to win it is to make a comment under my photo on Flickr, I will allocate you a number and then on Tuesday night, 19th Febuary, at 9pm Spanish time, I will use one of those random number selector thingies to choose a winner.

The pattern is new and uncut, and there are quite a big selection of items that can be made for Blythe to wear.

Here is a link to my Flickr account:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9168922@N04/

Thanks for looking and Good Luck!!!

Picking oranges...

Today was a really lovely day, the temperature was in the low 20s, centigrade, and I decided to pick some of our oranges.  They've been ready for picking for more than a month now but the funny thing is, even after almost 9 years here, we still love to just look at the oranges and lemons on the trees....it is still a novelty to have citrus fruit growing so abundantly in our garden!!

So today I had a little helper!  Olive, my little Sleepy Berry, came to help me.  And she really was a great helper!  She went up the tree, pushed each orange off and down they fell into my hands!  She even brought her little cat friend with her to help out! 

What a team!!! 

"These oranges are bigger than MY head!"

And then she rolled them along to keep them all together for me! (which is quite a task for such a tiny girl!)

Three lovely fresh oranges, all in a row!

 

Balancing Act!

Gardening overalls, sewn by me.
Cute Doc Marten boots from Ebay for Blythe!

Happy Valentines Day!!

Roses are red....and heart shaped lollypops are pink!!!

Happy Valentines Day to all my friends....I hope your day goes well wherever you may be.....
(but hopefully you're not going for a gyny appointment at the hospital in half an hour like me)!

(That wasn't meant to rhyme!) nervous LOL.

A group shot....

I am very OCD when it comes to my dolls and I have to display them in a certain way.  For example I can only display those of my BJDs with what I call 'in scale' heads,  together.  So if I have a bunch of MSDs (Mini Super Dollfies) who's heads are sized between 6 to 8 inches maxiumum then they are fine with YOSDs (Young Super Dollfies) who's heads measure 6 to 7 inches maxiumum and the tiny Lati Yellows, who's heads are 5/6 inches, fit fine with that group too. 

So today I put all the dolls that I consider to be 'correctly in scale' together and took a group shot.  I find group shots very hard to do.  I don't want to take them all outside to photograph in natural light so I have to depend on flash, which is never great, is it?  And of course someone always moves or closes their eyes, don't they!!! ;-)

I am embarrassed by how many there are in this photo and they're not all here!  There are still those who's heads don't 'fit'.......but they are for another day!!!

Back row - Left to right:

Fairyland Mni Fee Rheia, Volks MSD Toppi, Iplehouse JID Real Skin Amy, Unoa Sist, Light tan French resin Narae;

Middle row - Left to right:

Volks Yosd Papi, Dollzone Tanned BB Kay, Volks Yosd Ayumu, Narsha by Dollmore, Iplehouse KID Peach Gold Lonnie, Volks Yosd Neon, Elfdoll Lovely Dami (seated in brown fur hat), Kaye Wiggs light tan human Tillie;

Front row - Left to right:

Lati Yellow tanned Pirate Lea, Lati Yellow Anniversary Edition Dragon Gabbie, Lati Yellow tanned Pirate Miel,  Home tanned Custom House Ange Ai Uri, Fairyland Little Fee Ante, Hometanned Lati Yellow basic Miel, Volks Yosd Megu, Bambicrony tanned Caio Bella Judy. 

Back to school!

Oh dear, someone doesn't look so happy that she's got to go to school......

(This is my basic Sleepy Berry by Jerry Berry, her head is made from resin and she has a handpainted faceup, including very detailed handpainted eyes.  Her head is size 7/8 inches but her body is a skinny plastic jointed Obitsu.  She is approx 25cm tall.)

Photo fun with Sasha....

Today it was Millie's (1971) turn to be in front of the camera.  She chose to wear her hair in pigtails for the first photo and show off her new 'heart' shaped hair bobbles.  She looks so pretty in blue, it goes really nicely with her eyes. (Wish that darn collar would stay flat though!)

 

Who'd have thought Millie would be so famous that her photo would end up high on a billboard over Times Square in New York City!!! There'll be no stopping her now!

She really has enjoyed her camera time today!

Introducing my daughter...I mean SON!!!!

It's that time of year again....CARNIVAL time and my son, as usual, loves to get into the spirit of things.  He normally goes to the carnival with his girlfriend, Virginia, but she is still away studying at the University in Barcelona, so this year he is going with her parents!!!  (I'm not sure that Virginia would have allowed him to go dressed like this!!!)  Her parents are also dressing up, but for the life of me I can't remember what they were going as!!!!

So I did Brendan's makeup and helped him with getting his tights up.  He had to wear his boxer shorts over the tights because the crotch of the tights was almost down to his knees.....and he had to borrow one of my camisole tops, a cardigan and a small handbag....he doesn't have any of his own!!! LOL

I have to say that before he put the wig on, my hubby and I thought he looked rather like Julian Cleary!  But Brendan was worried that he looked a bit too 'tarty' in the wig!!!!

I just wish that my legs looked as good as this in a short skirt.......(not that I even own a short skirt!!!! )

 

Blue skies, nothing but blue skies.....

Today was another beautiful sunny day but there was a definite chill in the air.  However, that doesn't really show up in photos, does it, so I thought I'd take some new ones of my lovely Iplehouse KID Lonnie as I've been changing wigs and clothes and she now has another new look which I really love!

She now needs a proper name, she can't be Lonnie all the time....it's too similar to Loonie!!!!

Sorry to be repetitive but I really liked these photos and couldn't choose, so am uploading them all!

I hope you'll enjoy!

Yeaaah, she's here!

My Iplehouse KID Lonnie arrived from Australia today, in fact just an hour or so ago as my elderly neighbour took her in for me earlier today.  So I didn't have much time to photograph her before it got dark, so please forgive the flash photos.  She's very cute looking!  I quickly changed her eyes from the acrylic she came with, to these hazel glass, although I think they are a fraction too small for her.....I will try some others tomorrow.  I had already planned for her to be a brunette, but again will try some other wigs too. 

I took these quick photos in the garden, it had already got dark by the time I took them so they're taken with flash.....and apologies for her outfit which is came straight out of my dolls clothes box and therefore needs ironing!!!!  I just wanted to get some photos and needed to dress her in something!!

 

Other good news is that I received notification today that my basic Sleepy Berry has been shipped by Jerry Berry, so she should be here in about a weeks time.  I'm looking forward to seeing her because I've heard a lot of good things about these little dolls and would like to see if she is as cute in real life as she appears in photos!

Spring continues here in the Province of Sevilla, it's beautifully sunny and bright but still chilly once the sun goes down.  February is often quite a wet month here, but so far so good!