Downsizing? Me? LOL, if you believe that, you'll believe anything!

Well I told myself that I was going to downsize.....dolls would be going up for adoption!  And fair enough, I did indeed sell some dolls and my paypal account was looking rather healthy.  Ahh, but as I've probably mentioned before, when I have money in my paypal account, so it burns a hole right through the bottom!  So although my BJD numbers have decreased, I've replaced those adopted out dolls, with ...... yes, you guessed it, Sasha dolls!  Yes, I was the person who initially was only going to have the one, a girl, I didn't want any boys. Erm, then I 'accidentally' bought a boy, so I had a boy and a girl....but then lo and behold I saw my redhead 'waif' on Ebay and just couldn't resist her.....and so we had four! 

But suddenly, I just kept seeing girls that I loved, couldn't resist and could afford......so I brought them home and slowly but surely my Sasha family increased.  Of course I'm completely innocent here, it is all the fault of Shelly of Sasha Dolls UK!!!  Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it!

So now I have 9.  Yes, 9!!  Up until yesterday it was 8, but last week I saw another little girl on Shelly's site that I just had to have, and she arrived yesterday.  I had been looking at the later Gotz girls for some time, asking Sasha friends about them and looking at photos on Flickr and elsewhere but I was always a little wary of their eyes, which looked a bit 'staring' in photos so I wasn't sure.  Then I saw a little cutie on Shelly's site, a Wibke, who had repainted eyes by Shelly!!  Absolutely perfect!  I decided to think on it overnight   By the morning, having seen some very cute photos of a similar girl on Facebook, I had decided that yes, Wibke would be coming home to join my girls and boys.  The great thing was, between showing interest and making up my mind, the price of the doll was reduced by £50!!!!  Even better!  So here she is, and I'm really happy with her, she's so cute. I wasn't expecting her to be so petite, I thought she'd be bigger than my other girls but she is actually fractionally smaller even than the older Trendon girls!  I'm really pleased, she fits in perfectly with my darker skinned family.

So introducing Heidi, my little German pale skinned girl with lovely dark blue eyes repainted by the very talented Shelly!  She has borrowed an outfit from another of my girls because she had nothing to wear, but I will rectify that soon enough.  In the meantime, I think this dress suits her perfectly!!

A busy Sew and Sew....

I've spent the last few days sewing!   I've finished four outfits for my girls and having already shared photos of Gabrielle wearing hers, I would now like to show the other girls in theirs.  Also I finally got around to a group shot of my current Sasha family!  And a few 'special' photos of Devlin, my handsome blond boy, with his little dog! 

Hope you enjoy them!

Firstly here is my wide faced Brunette (1971), she is still unnamed, for the life of me I can't find a name that suits her!  Any suggestions carefully considered!!  Anyway, Little Miss No Name's outfit is made from an embroidered cotton pique in white with pink flowers.  I only had a small piece as it was given to me by my friend, so I made a short dress then made some pale pink short leggings to spare this little lady's blushes!

Next is Jojo, my mid 70s girl.  Her outfit is an 'angel' top made with knit fabric in mauve flowers and striped leggings to match.  Both items are made using girls leggings that I got in the sales! You will see that although her fringe is still crazily uneven, it is much flatter now!

  

And little Maggie, my puddle eyes girl from 73/74 is wearing a sleeveless A line dress with false placket front in contrast gingham fabric.  Are those buttons too big?  I used them because I felt they matched the big flowers on the fabric, but am thinking maybe smaller buttons would look better.

No new outfit for Ellory, my redhead 'waif', but she got a new Turtle necklace to go with her outfit that I made a few weeks ago.

Ahh, here is young Devlin with 'his' dog!  These photos were really taken for Ronny, who's dog Cooper finds Kara, my 5 year old tiny Chihuahua, fascinating when he sees her on Ronny's computer screen!!  They're not great photos because Kara wasn't over impressed with this big boy who just wanted to fall on top of her!!

And finally, here is a photo of my full Sasha/Gregor family!  It's not great and a bit rushed as it was hard to get them all to look at the camera at the same time!!!

A bit of sewing and a stroll on the promenade...

We are at the coast again, having come down here on Monday, and as usual I have brought with me all of my sewing gear and lots of fabric to work with.  I think my husband despairs of me sometimes because when we left here to go home the week before last, I said "I'm leaving this big bag of fabric here so that next time I won't need to bring any!" Yeah right!  I brought another large shopping bag full....he'll have a fit when he sees how much will need to go home again!!

Oh well!  So I've been sewing on our deck, I am much more 'productive' here as I love sewing outside rather than in my sewing/dolly room which, being a typical old Spanish house in a town, is quite dark....and rather cluttered with all my 'stuff'!!  I much prefer to sit here in the sunshine and sew to my hearts content.  I have made two outfits so far.  But I also spent quite a bit of time making some patterns from scratch.  I wanted something simple but that I could make as plain or as fancy as I wished.  I ended up with three different patterns....a simple A-line tunic/dress/top, a pair of capri trousers with openings on both sides at the waist, and a dress pattern to use with knit fabric. 

I used the capri pants pattern and the A-line one to make this very simple outfit for Gabrielle, my brunette with the Shelly repainted eyes.  I think this girl has a slightly more 'mature' look than my other girls, so she along with Ellory, my 'waif' redhead, might end up wearing different styles of clothing to the others. 

Today we went out to lunch in Nerja and I decided to take Gabrielle with us.  She wanted to wear her new outfit and have some photos taken.  It was very hot in Nerja, touching 40C, so I kept her well covered up whilst we were in the town, except for a few photos taken of her in front of the massive bouganvillia plants growing wild in the carpark there.  You'll see I added a headscarf to keep her head covered in the sunshine!

We then drove towards home, taking the scenic route along the coast.  As we drove through a small town called Lagos, I decided to stop the car and take some more photos of her by the sea.  It was sooooo quiet because it was during the siesta and in the summer months, most people do indeed take a nap inside in the cool instead of staying out in the sunshine...like us crazy Brits!!

Tomorrow I will take some photos of Jojo in her new outfit too!

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer! I love the summer, it is my favourite season!

Sandals and wigs.....

Yesterday I thought I'd try making some sandals for Devlin, my blond Gregor, as his feet were very hot in his sneakers.  I have bought some leather on Ebay but it's not arrived yet so in the meantime I thought I'd practice by making a pair with some fake leather that I had here already.  I'd hate to just cut into the proper leather with practice!!!!  Anyway, I made this brown pair by hand, only using my sewing machine for the row of topstitching along the upper edge of the sandals.  I used some thick real leather for the soles and the buckles were from a pair of my own sandals!!  Oh well, they weren't all that comfy anyway!

I'm quite pleased with how they've come out although they're far from perfect.  But they have given me an idea of where the pattern needs adjusting and where I can do better.  I can see that they gape a bit at the sides particularly on the inside, so I'll sort that out next time I make a pair.  I think I'll also use a piece of sandpaper to scuff the toes a bit, as boys often have scuffed toes, don't they!!  All in all I think they will do him a 'turn' for the summer months until he gets his lovely boots from Ruthsdolls!!!! 

Apologies for the flash photos, they're taken inside my workroom!

After the shoes, I was just wondering about wigs and if the wigs I have here for my BJDs would fit Sasha dolls.  Of course I currently don't have anyone who needs a wig but as my brunette girl is losing her hair at a rate of knots, I thought I'd try a wig on Devlin, just to see the fit.  This is a very blond Monique Gold Roxie in size 8/9 which I've had a while and is currently being worn by my Volks SD10 Nana.  She has a big head so the wig has been stretched a bit and it fit quite well over Devlin's own lovely blond locks.

I think you'll agree that he looks very cute with this style, the wispiness really suits his little face!  But makes him look like a completely different boy!!

This is who the wig is normally worn by......I think she and Devlin both wear it well but in such different ways!!

A little infatuation....!

I thought it was about time I shared some photos of my lovely little blond boy.  I got him recently from Shelly in the UK and he is a 1969 Gregor Fair Pyjamas.   He has the most beautifully blue eyes.  I have named him Devlin.

Some of you may remember that my first Sasha Morgenthaler doll was actually a Gregor!!!  I got him from Ronny and he also was a 1969 blond Gregor Fair Pyjamas with lovely blue eyes.  However, he had a matt face and I found that I really preferred the non matt ones so after a few months,  I sold him to a lovely lady in the US. 

However, as soon as he'd gone I missed him and vowed to replace him one day...and that day came a couple of weeks ago!  The original boys name was Devon and I was going to re-use that name, but decided to make it just a little bit different, hence Devlin.  The two boys are incredibly alike, the only difference being their 'skin'.

This little lad sometimes has to wear glasses as he has a 'lazy' eye.  But I think you'll agree that he is handsome both with or without his 'specs'!!

Someone else who's very impressed with our new little lad is my sweet little wider faced brunette from 1971 (who is still in need of a name!!).  She seems particularly taken with the little blond fellow and keeps following him around like a puppy!!  I'm not sure that Devlin is overly impressed though....he is at that age when he thinks that all girls are 'sissy'!!! 

Actually, I have to say that he doesn't look THAT upset after all, does he?!! 

A Spanish Fiesta...and not a doll in sight!

Last night we went to the Mass and party I mentioned a few posts ago, to celebrate the 25th Wedding Anniversary of the parents of my sons girlfriend.  We've known them for quite a while now as Brendan and Virginia have been together almost 7 years, but it was still a nice surprise to be invited as it was just a small gathering of family and close friends.  So I thought I'd share some photos of the event here for those who might be interested in seeing how the Spanish people celebrate!!

The Mass to renew their wedding vows started at 9.15pm but prior to that we were invited to go to their house so that we could all walk to the church together.  It was HOT, I mean really hot, at 8pm we were cooking in high 30s centigrade, and it didn't cool down much for the whole event.  Thank goodness for hand held fans which are sold in abundance here in Spain!

Virginia's mum, Marie-Carmen, wore a lovely long dark turquoise strapless dress, Virginia wore deep coral and Rocio, Virginia's younger sister, wore pink with light mauve/plum I think it would be called.  Both daugthers wore their hair in an 'up do' with plaits intertwined.  They are both such pretty girls!  Although I appreciate that I'm prejudiced!!!

 

Brendan looking like he's an extra in Men In Black in those sunglasses!

They had two anniversary cakes, one was actually a 'fake' one to go in the window of their patisserie, and the real one which was four tiers.  The real one was made of light sponge on the inside and decorated with soft meringue!  Very sweet!!  That weird looking brown thing on the second layer is actually a flower.....I thought it was something 'living' when I saw this photo!!

The 'fake' cake, made from polysterene but with real icing and fresh Gerberas.  The little people on top are made by a local lady using craft foam!

As is the tradition here, each of the women were given a little 'keepsake' of the event.  In this case, we all received a cute little metal cup and saucer which contained a candle.  And pushed into each candle were two cookies on sticks.  One was heartshaped and was iced with '25' and the other was decorated with a rice paper photo of Jose and Ma.Carmens wedding back in1988.

The tables were laden with all sorts of food, including large cooked prawns, various Spanish hams, green olives, calamari, anchovies, stuffed red peppers, different breads, pate with pine nuts, and as much drink as anyone could want.  And as each plate was emptied, so it was replaced with another full one.  Oh and cup cakes!  Lots of chocolate cup cakes decorated with flowers, brides and grooms and more meringue!!  All the 'sweet' items were made by Virginia, Brendan, Rocio and Marie Carmen the day before the event.

  
I seem to have focussed rather a lot on food here, so thought I'd add some photos taken at the Mass, which incidentally was lovely.  Virginia and her sister did the readings and also gave a tribute to their parents, which was really nice and very touching!

And obviously humorous too!

The exchanging of new rings!

And finally, before we all left for the 'party', which is a whole different set of photos, here is a group shot of all the guests outside the church.

I hope I've not bored anyone with my 'fiesta' photos, and hope that you'll enjoy seeing them!  I hope to add a post with photos from the party afterwards, once I get them all edited.  All photos taken by my son Brendan, edited by me!

And finally, "Enhorabuena y felicidades" to Jose and Marie Carmen....here's to the next 25 years!!