Collections....inspired by Dee's post!

After seeing Dee's blog post yesterday on collecting, Sasha Village, I thought I'd share some photos of my Lladro by Nao.  I took these photos some time ago with a view to doing a blog post, but as often happens, life got in the way and I never did get to share them.  Until today! 

I've been collecting Lladro since March 1986 but haven't added to my collection for a while now as I have about 19 pieces and would struggle to find more spaces to display them!  I've had some breakages though.  My big ballerina got damaged when Brendan was small, he climbed up to the window to see a fire engine and knocked her straight off the window sill!!  She suffered quite a bit but I've still kept her!!!  Also, we used to have a cleaner who suffered badly with her nerves and as a result had very shaky hands.....she managed to knock a few over in her time!  That'll teach me not to do my own cleaning!!!  Please forgive the dust in the crevices of some of these.....I no longer have a cleaner! :) LOL

There is one piece missing from these photos, it had been broken and the glue was drying! 

Ice and lemon with that?

Early this morning it was a chilly 9C here and when I looked out the window I could see the trees were glistening with damp and there was a big plate of ice on top of the cover of our hot tub!  OK, so it wasn't thick ice, but it was ice all the same!  It looked funny seeing our trees full, not only with lemons and oranges, but their respective flowers too...and then the ice! 

When Alex saw the ice, he immediately wanted to put on his new duffle coat and go outside to see the ice!  Living here in Spain, he'd not seen ice 'growing' in the garden before, so he wanted to touch it and see how cold it felt!  And yes, it did indeed feel COLD!! 

Then he jumped up and down on the icy sheet breaking it all into tiny pieces, like a jigsaw puzzle!  But then we had to go inside because already his little bare hands were getting cold and his new boots were starting to get wet, we didn't want the leather ruined!!

(Outfit including knitted stiped jumper, corderoy trousers, socks, leather boots and duffle coat all by Bonniejean on Ebay).

Alex can hardly believe his eyes...."ICE!!!"

Stomp, stomp, stomp!!  Alex breaks up all the ice!

Alex wishes he had some skates!

But skates or no skates, Alex did have fun stomping on the ice!!

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!!

Just a short post to wish all my blogger friends a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.  I hope that 2014 brings you good health and happiness!

I know that some of you will have seen this photo already, but because I've not had time to take any other photos recently, I hope you'll forgive me sharing it again.  

From left to right:  Lucy (Miniature Pinscher), Suki (Long haired Chihuahua), Yoda, Choco and Kara (smooth coated Chihuahuas).

A trip to the hairdressers...

This morning I had an appointment at the hairdressers so thought I'd take Emilio along with me, just in case Loli, my lovely hairdresser, had time to cut his hair for me.  When she'd finished with mine and there were no other clients there, she made a start on him.  She was really nervous about cutting all his long hair off after all my work rerooting him, but I told her to go ahead.....what's the worse that could happen!!!  Anyway, her scissors wouldn't cut his hair that well, they're made for real human hair after all, but she did cut quite a chunk off.   I think I might try putting some layers in one day, but for now he is wearing his beanie and hoping that his hair will lay flat eventually!!!

Drake on Ebay!

A little while back I blogged about a little baby Sasha called Drake who came for a visit, here and told how he would eventually be going on Ebay to be auctioned to raise funds for the homeless!

Well he is now up for grabs!!  So I hope that everyone will take the time to look (and bid too if possible!) because it would be really great if his mum, Ronny,  could raise as much money as possible to help those people who have to spend their Christmas on the streets.

He really is a cute, well behaved little fellow as you can see in his auction:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181280043754?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Now wouldn't it be lovely to find him, and all his wonderful goodies, in your stocking on Christmas Day?

Lindt gets ready to shop.....

Lindt donned her warm woollen dress, woolly tights and boots, grabbed her handbag and has gone off Christmas shopping......I wonder what she'll buy?

A Bakers Dozen!

Well the challenge was set by Ronny and Dee who, back in October, said that I'd have a dozen Sashas by Christmas.....well I'm afraid I've exceded that number and now have A Bakers Dozen!!!  Yes, as of yesterday, I have 13 Sashas and Gregors living at my house!  I never meant to have this many as I've said before, but it just sort of happened and they just kept turning up.....!!!  I sold quite a few BJDs and have replaced each and every one of them with Sashas!!!

So here is my latest girl who arrived yesterday.  She has yet to be named but I'm really, really happy with her.  I gave her a little spruce up today, although to be fair she was nice and clean, her hair even has a faint smell of new dolls, so it was just a matter of tidying up her bunches and changing her clothes.  She is a 1969 Kilt girl and arrived in her full original outfit. 

Here she is wearing her new clothes!  The cupcake tee shirt is by Sashapotamus, skirt, hat and teddy bear were gifts, socks by me and lovely navy leather sandals by Jean Jensen.

A whole lot of hair ... and a little bit of Alfie!

That's Alfie Boe.  I've been listening to him today as I've finished my reroot on Emilio....who might even change his name to Alfie!!  Well, you never know!

Anyway, all the plugs are now filled and I'm finished with the rerooting part!  Now to decide on the style and how it will be cut...oh, and who will cut it!  I'll probably just leave it until after Christmas now though because I have so many other things that I should be doing.

I'm pleased with how the hair looks but because this Gregor doesn't have any parting in his hair, I'm not sure how it will look once it's washed and settled.  I also keep thinking that it almost seems like a shame to cut it....maybe he should be a 'she'!!  Then again, I'd have to suffer the wrath of Dee if I decided to make him a girl!!!! ;)

Here is a rather hazy 'before' photo:

And here is how it looks now, fully rerooted but prior to any styling:

Rerooting...On a roll!

After a very slow start yesterday, today I've been really working well with the rerooting of Emilio's head!  I put a few plugs into the fringe area yesterday but thought better of that, so today I've started at the crown and worked from there.  I'd say that I got about 20% done today, AND never broke any needles after the two I broke last night!!  This time I've been careful not to make the plugs too thick, and I have to say that's coming on nicely!  I hope it won't take me as long as it did last time to finish the other reroot!  The problem I have now is I just want to stop doing anything else and keep going with it, but I have so many other things to do that I'm going to have to be very disciplined with myself! :)  Oh and when he's finally done, the next challenge will be to cut his hair in a boy style.....I only know how to do one style, a bob, and that really isn't going to suit him!!!  I might have to take him to my hairdresser and see if she can work her magic on him for me!!

In the meantime, I found I had an audience whilst I was working!!!  I expect these two are a little worried that they're next, bearing in mind that they're both previously brunette wigged kids! 

Jack and Bailey

Fiesta Friday!

Today is yet another Fiesta here in Spain, as is Sunday, but because Sunday is not technically a work day, then Monday will be the other Fiesta instead!  I find it hard to remember when all the Fiestas are because we have local ones, Provincia-wide ones, Andalucia-wide ones and finally National ones.  But if we rely on their being one every month then we can't really go wrong!

So today I woke thinking it was Saturday....Oh and thinking I was still at the coast.  The alarm went off and I immediately sat up in bed, grabbed my mobile phone and called my son, as I do most days from the coast, to tell him to get his lazy bum out of bed or he'd be late for work (yes, he has to work on Fiestas) ......all sound normal? Well it would be except that he was only in the next bedroom!! Doh!!!

Went for breakfast with our friends Joaquin and Magdalena and had churros and coffee....it was warm enough to sit outside at the pavement tables in the sunshine but instead we went inside where there was a roaring log fire....Lovely!

On the dolly front, yesterday I prepared Emilio for rerooting!  Emilio is the head that I got from Ronny for rerooting practice, but when I saw his lovely face I felt that he needed a body....now that he has one I decided to make a start on him.  His brunette hair wasn't falling, but it had been given a bad haircut...Ronny assures me that she didn't get scissor happy on him but that a previous little Vidal Sassoon did the dirty deed (really showing my age here, aren't I!!!).  It took me a month of Sundays to remove each and every tuft using tweezers but I have to say that it's a bit like weeding or painting walls, I found it strangely relaxing!!! 

So now Emilio has 12 hair plugs!  I've already broken two needles and have decided that's enough for today, I will continue tomorrow. I'll get a bit more done tomorrow and will share some photos.  Anyway, we are going out shortly to this:

 

I was going to take a Sasha with me but this is a small town and people know us.....I think I'll just take my camera!

Have a lovely weekend one and all!

 

 

Change of Email Address....

I'm adding this here as well as having sent emails to everyone in my Yahoo address book.  I have finally finally had enough of Yahoo and have moved over to Gmail.  Today, not having been able to access ANY of my emails via my laptop, it was the final straw!  So I have spent the last few hours forwarding and fiddling!!!

Here is my new email address, please amend your email address book!

dambuster0662@gmail.com

So that is:

dambuster zero six six two (at) gmail (dot) com

Thanks very much and I look forward to hearing from you!!

A year goes by.....

I can hardly believe that a year has passed since my beautiful African Grey, Cocoa, died in my arms.  I still miss her so much and the funny thing is, occasionally I think I hear her whistle, which is probably one of the neighbours in the next street to ours, who has an AG called Luna....African Greys have quite loud voices! 

I would love to have another African Grey but so far have done nothing about it.  I have thought about it often over the last year and did casually mention it to hubby this morning, he said he understood why I'd want another, but that was the end of the conversation.  Maybe come the spring I'll bring the conversation up again and perhaps we can make some enquiries about breeders here in Spain.  I think Brians main concern would be that it might be hard to find a good breeder here in Spain as we'd not want to go through the same thing again as we went through this time last year.  

Cocoa giving the Evil Eye!

One of her favourite foods as a baby!

And one of her favourite perches, the wall mounted soap dish (soap free!!) in the bathroom!

She was very clever too...always 'on' the computer!!

It looks here as if Minnie Mouse was about to club her!!!  Not sure who'd have come off worse though!!!

Good old Cockney Fare!!!

Yesterday we went to Nerja for lunch in a sports bar called OLAS. OLAS means Over Land And Sea which is the name of the West Ham Utd football club fans magazine, and as hubby and son are big WHU fans, we had to go there.  However, my main reason for going was that they have started to serve good old traditional Cockney Pie n Mash with Eel Liquor!!!!  And that, I have to say, is my all time favourite food! (And you thought it was chocolate!!!)   Sam, my 20cm Elfdoll Hana Angel, also came along....here she is showing you the menu!!!

 

And here is the meal prior to splitting open the pies and adding Sarsons Malt Vinegar....and traditionally Pie n Mash is eaten with just a fork and spoon.

 

The minced beef pies were excellent, the pastry had just the right amount of flakiness to it, the beef was really tasty and the bottom of the pies was just the correct consistency.  The potato had been mashed with butter, whereas the traditional way is for it to be just mashed without any butter, spread or milk, but the taste was nice and it was good and fluffy.  The eel liquor was tasty but could have done with being just that little bit thicker, and maybe a bit greener.  Apart from that, it was lovely!!!  Plus it really was the only time I've ever eaten this traditional East End meal in full sunshine with the beach and sea in front of me!!!!

In other news,  I changed the eyechips on Heather Sky for her new handmade glass ones...they are really pretty and easy to apply.  I like them a lot!   Here you can see she's stolen Baileys beret!!

Heather was one of my earlier Blythe customs and I can't decide whether I want to redo her a bit, maybe give her more of a philtrum and carve her lips a little more.  I am always worried that anything too drastic will change my favourite dolls to the point that they are no longer the dolls they were....I've found in the past that even a new faceup can change the 'personality' of a doll to the point where I no longer want him/her.....so I'll have to give it a lot of thought.  But she really could do with some more work I think!

And finally, I removed all of Baileys hair, she is now a little baldy again!  Well almost bald anyway.  I realised once I'd tried pulling the plugs out, that I really had done a great job of the knots inside her head! :)  I thought I'd try the Prince Gregor wig on her because I'd seen Sarah Williams' (Vintage Sasha) little wider faced ex Gregor wearing it as a girl and she looked so incredibly cute!  Well I think Bailey looks so sweet too that now I'm wondering if I might save myself the job of rerooting her again, and might keep her as a wigged girl!!!!!!  I've not quite got the wig on her right yet, but will keep trying and see how it goes!!!!