Happy Mothering Sunday!

Although it's not Mothers Day here in Spain today, I'd still like to wish all my lovely friends, whether they be mums or not, a very Happy Mothering Sunday.  But in particular I would like to wish my own mum, who incidentally is the BEST mum in the world, a lovely day!  I know she won't read this because, in her own words she's not into "all that new fangled stuff!" but I wanted to say it all the same!  She really is the best!!!

My mum, with my son Brendan (left) and my brother John at our wedding in Gibralter.

My Blythe Girls....especially for Steve but hopefully others will enjoy too!

A friend of mine has just got his first Blythe and so I thought I'd do a blog post especially for him.  Steve, I hope you'll enjoy seeing my girls!  I have 8 of them, all Takara girls and all but one customised by me.  I will share just 4 of them here for today!   Steve was asking how I like to dress them, well they are a real mixture to be honest.  Here are some photos of them!  (Be warned, there are LOADs of photos!!)

This is Heather, (Heather Sky - RBL) she really is my favourite of all my Blythes...I carved her face, philtrum, nose and chin as well as giving her new eyechips, painted eyelids, new ringpulls, sleep eyes, a haircut and all new makeup.  I like that Blythes can get away with fabric that has large patterns, patterns which would usually be 'out of scale' for such small dolls.  I think that having such a big head helps to balance it all out, as do the 'oversized' shoes that they tend to look good in. 

Puss in Boots!

Hoodie from another doll, trousers and loooong sleeved tee shirt by me!

Cute outfit from Etsy, lovely portrait of Heather by Fifi and Blythe in Scotland.

 Yellow doggy print dress by me!

This is what I mean about larger prints, normally a small doll would look a bit overpowered by this print.

Next up is Noelle, she's an RBL Nicky Lad. She's had all the same customisation work as Heather but I carved her lips in what is usually referred to as 'sucky lips', the bottom lip is made to look like it is being sucked, like a shy young child!

Lovely nautical dress was a gift, hat and socks made by me!

These hoodie sets (hoodie and leggings) were made by me.  They're either appliqued or hand painted/drawn by me.

 

This lovely knitted set was a gift from Feltland here in Spain!  Socks by me. (Noelle was trying out a jointed Flection body in this photo).

This is Hershey, she's an FBL Simply Chocolate.  She's had the same customisation work and now has a very short bobbed haircut.  Hershey was my first custom.

This is a Riley Kish sized outfit by M.E.G Designs on Ebay.  Hat is by a German seller on Etsy.

Another Riley Kish sized outfit, this time by the Kish Company.

 

Spanish football kit which was actually made to hang in the window of a car!!

 

A close up!

 

This next girl is Paisley, she's an RBL Bohemian Peace....I personally think she's my best work so far, so I thought I'd share some portraits of her!! 

A perfect example of how Blythes can get away with big prints, these corderoy flares are in a very big print but they seem to suit these girls quite well!  (Hat, flares and tee shirt by me, lovely cardigan by the late Maisiedoats in Australia).

And finally for today because this post has got very full of photos, we have Candy who is an RBL Border Spirit.  She got the full customisation plus I rerooted her scalp giving her a pale pink long straight look.  Her original hair was blond, but it was quite yellowy and thin.  I first tried dying it but in the end did the new reroot instead.  She's seen some changes over the years!!!

Here she is with her original blond hair, wearing a gorgeous lady-like outfit which was a gift from my friend Sue in the UK.  Outfit is from Etsy I believe.  Parasol and flowers by me!

Here was my attempts at dying her hair, it came out a nice raspberry colour but still very thin.  Tee shirt and skirt by me.

And as she looks now, her fully rerooted scalp in pale baby pink.  I made this dress and I think it really suits her so she's not taken it off in ages.....here she's showing off her pearly painted eyelids and long flowing lashes!

 

And finally she got freckles!!  I decided to add them because she just needed that 'something' to make her more interesting!!!  Her hat is actually made as a human 'hair accessory!" 

I hope you've enjoyed seeing these photos and hearing a little about some of my Blythe girls.  I will share the other four another day perhaps!

Olivia on her Vespa....

Olivia by Helen Kish is the only doll I have who seems to fit this model Vespa scooter well, and even she looks a bit tall in these photos for the bike....but I've wanted to take photos of a doll riding it for ages.  But what a palavar!  I got down on the ground to be at the right level, and the dogs decided this was a fun game and jumped on top of me.  Two of them almost knocked her off the bike onto the hard tiled floor, Yoda decided to tug the wig off...she has a thing about doll wigs, and Kara just wanted to press her nose against the lens of my camera.  So I only actually got 5 photos and three of those are exactly the same!!!!!  Oh, except one has Karas tail across the front of the photo!!!

Here are the best of a bad bunch!!  Perhaps I'll try again tomorrow!

Versatile Blogger Award given by The Doll Barn

Nymphaea from the lovely dolly blog The Doll Barn  awarded 15 readers of her blog with the "Versatile Blogger Award", and I am one of them. Thank you Nymphaea for this award!

 

The rules of this award are: choose 15 bloggers to pass this award on to, and tell the award giving blogger 7 things about yourself.

So here are the 7 things about me:

1. In a previous life, I worked in Scenes of Crime for the City of London Police and then afterwards for Essex Police.  I used to attend post mortems as part of my job as well as have to fingerprint severed hands......however, since then I have become very squeamish!!!

2. I once got lost in the centre of the City of London driving a marked police car......I was soooo embarrassed I could have cried!

3. Again in a previous life, I once did a blind folded walk through a busy London high street being guided by a Guide Dog in training.  Absolutely fantastic experience!

4. I love reading and my favourite book is The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough, I have read it about 10 times!

5. I got married in Gibraltar at the very same Registry Office where John Lennon married Yoko Ono!

6. I used to look after the working Guide Dog belonging to the late David Blunkett MP, when he went away on holiday.  He gave me a box of House of Commons chocolate mints as payment! LOL 

7. I had my eyes lazered in September 2005 to correct my short sightedness.  I now have excellent long distance sight...I wish I'd had it done years before!

Next I have to pass the award on to 15 other bloggers but I don't really know too many bloggers very well and those I do know, have already received the award, so here is my short list:

1. Dee from The Sasha Village

2. Kendal from Kendals Sasha Brood

3. Anna from  Doll Mums Blog

4. Digne from Sasha Commoneo

5. Barbara from Dollsgardens

6. Nikola from NixiPixiPuddingPie

7. Ginger from Sasha Shangri-La

8. Sarah from Vintage-Sasha

9. Jenann from The Bryn Derw Kids

And anyone else who would like to take part!!!

Please don't feel obligated to do this if you don't want to!!!  It's all just a bit of fun anyway!

Thanks to Nymphaea for awarding me!!!

 

Oh what a change in the weather!

This morning we came back from the coast and although it was lovely and sunny when we arrived here in Estepa, by this evening it had got quite chilly and then we had a bit of light rain.  Our house is cold too, I always find that it takes a long time for the rooms to warm up, it's usually well into the spring before the house feels warm enough for my liking.  Being a typical Spanish house, it's not really designed for warmth, it's more inclined to keep the heat out!!!! 

Anyway, all that aside, I had a little bit of dolly play-time when we got home.  I dressed and rewigged my little 12 inch tall Primavera Olivia by Helen Kish.  I didn't like her original wig because it was a very blond mohair one and I felt it was not only too 'grown up' for her, but also rather 'brassy' so it came off.  Her default outfit was rather 'fantasy' so that come off too! 

In my wig box I found an old lambswool wig that I made ages ago for another doll.  I trimmed it a little bit and love it on her!  Such a surprise because it is dark auburn and I'd visualised her as a brunette!  She fits so many of the Yosd clothes that I have, so here she is trying on a pair of jeans with a dress I made last year.  When I looked at my photographs, I remembered a question that Dee had asked some time ago "why are all bjds so sad looking?".....well I realised that it's not so much that 'all' bjds are sad looking, it's more that I really love sad looking dolls, no matter what type they are!!!!!

A flea-market find!

This morning we went to the big flea-market in Los Boliches, Fuengirola.  We made the effort and got up earlier...and let me tell you it was an effort, as Kara, our littlest Chihuahua had one of her epileptic fits late last night and she had me up and down nearly all night long!!!  Anyway, that aside, we were fortunate enough to actually find a parking space this week having arrived quite early! 

First, we headed for a little Danish restaurant for some breakfast.  They do a lovely Danish breakfast for just 4,95 euros, consisting of all Danish products, including crusty roll covered in poppy seeds, butter, ham, cheese, cucumber, green peppers, tomato, a very dark bread, half a Danish pastry, home-made strawberry jam, a slice of fresh orange and a cup of coffee!!!  Delicious and just the perfect way to start the day!!!

And with nicely full stomaches, it was on to the market!  As usual a lot of the stalls are full of junk....I've thrown better stuff away!!!  But today I found a little treasure, a 12 inch tall Paola Reina doll for just 10 euros!  She was wearing her full original outfit, which is her 1st Holy Communion dress, including underwear, socks and shoes, as well as head-dress and little matching bag.  She smelled dusty but she wasn't really dirty at all.  In fact, I believe that her outfit had never been removed.  I have since removed her clothes and given her a wash, she has no damage and is in perfect condition.  Her hair was very dusty and I've washed and conditioned it, she's now wearing a very attractive sock on her head, poor girl!   I've also washed her outfit, the dress has come up quite clean but her socks and knickers are a bit yellowed from age.  I will put the outfit away because I intend making her something more suitable when we go home.

These are some 'before' photos, I will take some 'after' ones tomorrow when her hair has dried.  She will look very cute with my little Asian girl from Imaginarium, that I showed on here a couple of weeks ago.

So all in all, well worth missing that little bit extra time in bed this morning!!! 

  

Nautical But Nice outfit listed on Ebay....

I have listed my four piece 'Nautical But Nice' outfit for Sasha on Ebay and hope you'll take a look!

Here is the link:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=231184030089

Here are a couple of photos just to refresh the memory!

Thanks for looking!!

A bit of sewing....

Today I had one of those days where I really wanted to sew but the list of things I've got to sew couldn't be started as the fabric I need for them is at home!!  So because I didn't want to lose the momentum, I decided to make something from a couple of dresses I got at Primark last week.  I made a very simple tee shirt shape and then added a couple of 'frills' to the bottom, and I used the 'ready made' edging from one of the dresses to edge the neck and sleeves of this dress.  I'm not sure that I'd do that again next time as I think it added length to the sleeves that I didn't want.   I thought it looked quite nice on Wren, particularly as I photographed her just as the sun was getting a bit lower in the sky....it gave her a nice golden glow.  No shoes and socks though, she is a bit of a 'free spirit'!!

I quickly added a strip of the same fabric around her hair just to hide how untidy it is at the moment with all her modelling!  She was, of course, mortified that the piece of fabric isn't edged or anything!!!! 

(Sorry that there are so many similar photos, I liked them all and couldn't choose!)