And the rain, rain, rain....

...came down, down, down,
In rushing, rising, riv'lets
Til the river crept out of it's bed
And crept right into Piglets....

Well thankfully it wasn't quite as bad as that, we never had rain (or piglets) in our bed, but my goodness the weather has been awful over the last few days!  It started off so well at the beginning of the week with Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday being delightful, and warm enough for me to sew outside on the deck....but come Wednesday night, well "Oh what a change in the weather..." springs to mind!

The rain and thunderstorms were frightening in their intensity, the dry river bed behind us became a raging river, rushing past carrying everything with it as it hurtled towards the Mediterranean sea, flowing frantically through the culvert under the road!!!!  There, it crashed headlong into the massive waves, and between them deposting branches and other debris on it's way, across the beach.

In the meantime, we had lakes forming all around us and the puddles were ankle deep!!!!  Neighbours were frantically trying to sweep the water towards the road before it came in under their doors....old Spanish residences are just not designed to cope with heavy rain!  And to top it all off, we then had hail stones as big as marbles!!!!

Here I was on Tuesday, sewing in the sunshine to my hearts content...the temperature was 25C!

And this was two days later!!!  Temperature dropped to about 18C...brrrrrrr! 

In the top right hand corner of the photo below, you can see what appears to be a 'lake'...it is!!!!

I think the blue tinge below, is my top is reflecting on the window as I tried to photograph the hail stones....I didn't want to venture out with my camera in such awful weather!!! 

The sky looks pretty 'angry' during the brief break in the rain!

 Although the photo below looks like just mud, it is in fact the water rushing along in the what is usually a dry river bed!!  To give you an idea, the river bed is about 8 feet below the surface of the water!  In the background, what looks like another body of water, is in fact the road!

The churned up water, taking everything with it....I actually saw a childs plastic scooter rush past on it's journey to the sea! 

And finally, a write up in the local paper!!

Sur newspaper report!

So as you can see, the rain in Spain DOESN'T always stay mainly in the plain! :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend and a good start to December!!

One of my favourite shops....the haberdashers!

Today I went to one of my favourite shops down here on the coast.  It is the local haberdashers and is called Mar del Plata, or Sea of Silver, and is located in Torre del Mar, (Calle San Martín, 7 - 8, Torre del Mar, 29740, Velez-Malaga, Malaga).  It really is an Aladdins Cave of gorgeous things for anyone interested in sewing and needlework crafts.  They specialise in quilting fabrics and have a wonderful selection, they even offer patchwork quilt making classes which one day I will attend.....but one thing is sure, I know that if I go there for something, you can guarantee I will come out with several things, particularly quarters of fabric.  You can actually buy as little as a 10cm length from the bolts, but I generally buy a quarter metre, I find it more useful than a fat quarter to be honest.  So today was no exception, I bought some Christmas and other fabric, as well as ribbons and Christmas themed novelty buttons....and was given one packet as a gift....I guess they want to keep me visiting, after all I tend to help the Spanish economy every time I do! ;)

But that is not what I wanted to tell you about, what I really wanted to share was their window display!  As soon as I saw it from a distance when walking to the shop, so my steps increased to an 'almost trot' leaving my dear hubby straggling behind....well I guess he wasn't in any hurry to see what I could see!  And here it is:

(The photos aren't great as they're taken on my iphone with the window reflections, but I've tried to enhance them to help show this lovely display!)

 

Apparently these are made by one of their customers and form just a small part of her whole collection.....sound familiar!!!  And she makes them all herself.  I think she must use kits because there is a kit called Tilda Seaside Girl shown in the last photo above.  I think the doll may be called Tilda!   I recognise a lot of the fabric in the outfits though, as I'm very familiar with the fabric they sell ;) 

Well I do so hope you've enjoyed seeing the photos as much as I enjoyed their window display! 

Sasha/Gregor Anniversary!

Yesterday it was two whole years since I got my first Sasha....well actually, let me explain it better.  I actually bought my first Sasha, a 1971 blond, from Shelly at Sasha Dolls UK, but because I'm not known for my patience, whilst she was in transit from the UK, I happened to spot a very handsome blond Gregor for sale with a BIN on Ebay, so I snapped him up too!!!!  He was also coming from the UK and as luck would have it, both dolls arrived on the same day, 19th November 2012!!!!

I was completely smitten with both of them and the blond Sasha became known as Millie as I'd just that week finished reading the sad story of the young school girl Millie Dowler, and it felt like a fitting tribute to name my first Sasha girl after her.  And the boy, who incidentally had come from our very own Ice Queen, Ronny, was given the name Devon. 

Here are their first photos:

Look at this funny jumper Devon is wearing!!!  I made it myself.  Knitting is not my forte!! ;)

However it wasn't long before I realised that Devon's matt vinyl face and pristine makeup were not for me, for some reason I preferred the less matt surface of Millie's face so I put Devon up for adoption and he quickly went to live with a lady in the US, who incidentally went on to become one of my great dolly clothing customers!!!

In the meantime, Millie is still here and is a regular model for me, as well as having enjoyed lots of trips out over the last two years.  She's since been joined by quite a few more Sasha and Gregors but still remains close to my heart, probably because she was my first girl here!!

Here are some of her photos from her time here :)

Christmas 2012, visiting the Grotto :)

Lagos Costa, September 2013 

Fuengirola Bio Parc, June 2013 

Poster Girl in Times Square, New York City!

And now, November 2014 :) 

Trying out a different wig on Elise....

Yesterday I showed Elise, my newly customised Kidz n Cats, in a short choppy wig and there was only a quick photo of her in the plaited wavy one.  A couple of people on Facebook wanted to see more photos of her in the plaited wig, so I took a bunch of them today.  Elise is wearing a knitted sweater dress and grey leggings by Dee, her pink knitted beanie hat is from My Doll Best Friend.  Her boots are the ones she came in.

I think this wig suits her and makes her look sort of Afro-Caribbean.....maybe she is a child from somewhere hot and exotic.......