Ellie....

Whenever I photograph my Little Darlings, I think it's really not hard to love these girls, but then having six of them living here, I guess I'm prejudiced.  I honestly don't have a favourite but Ellie was my first girl to arrive here, having been adopted from a lady in the US, back in May 2014.  I never realised that I would love her so much!  But I really do, she's just so special to me.  And it honestly hasn't anything to do with the fact that she's handpainted by Dianna Effner herself.....I think it is that there is just something about her that really pulls on my heartstrings!

So this weekend she's been modelling for me as my current commission, for a lovely lady in Sevilla, is for a Little Darling.  In fact this lady is just about to receive her first one, so she's incredibly excited! 

All the dresses are sleeveless with hoods:

The lady also wanted white socks....

When Ellie had finished with her modelling she wanted to show you her own newish outfit......actually it'd been made for about a month but I only got around to putting the snaps on today!!

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed seeing Ellie as much as I love showing her ;)
Here's wishing everyone a lovely week ahead!

Pretty Maids all in a row....my Dianna Effner family

I just realised that I forgot to post these photos that I took the other day of my Little Darlings and my little Boneka Tuesday Child.  I took them especially for my blog, and then put them elsewhere and that was it!

So here are some photos showing all the girls together and some showing the same sculpts together.  I have to say that I was glad no-one had a camera on me when I was taking these photos.  I put some artificial grass down on the deck next to the fence, then I put an old sheet on the ground to lie on.  So far so good.  But my dogs decided that the artificial grass was for them, so they go and sit on it.  Right in front of where I wanted to pose my dolls.  I got down on the ground and started lining the dolls up.  Lucy decides that she wants to get between them and the camera, then she wants to lay on her back and push her chest into my face for tickles.  Then three of the Chihuahuas decided to run up my back, Choco started to dig into my hair, Yoda went up the back of my skirt and in the process pulled my skirt right up over my waist so revealing my 'not so sexy' knickers to the world.  And then the dolls started to fall like dominoes!

Honestly the lengths we go to to take photos of our dolls....thank goodness we're not overlooked is all I can say!

All the girls together, left to right:

Gem (#2 sculpt by Dianna Effner), Daniela (Boneka Tuesday's Child), Antonia (#1 sculpt by Nelly Valentino), Nikola (#1 sculpt by Nelly Valentino), Ellie (#1 sculpt by Dianna Effner), Reece (#2 sculpt UFDC factory painted) and Finn (#2 sculpt by Pat Green)

A closer look at the line up:

The #1 sculpt girls: 

The #2 sculpt girls:

And finally some photos of Antonia in her new outfit that came from a French seamstress in Germany!  The outfit consists of the dress which is half knitted and then a fabric 'skirt' attached and the hat.  I added the apple green spotted socks myself, to go with the green flowers on the skirt fabric.

Thank you for looking, I hope you all have a lovely week :)

Lunch in Torremolinos...

On Thursday we went to Torremolinos which is situated on the Costa del Sol in the Province of Malaga.  Before the growth of tourism in the late 1950s, Torremolinos was a poor fishing village and one of the first resorts to develop on the Costa del Sol.   The town is particularly popular with British and Irish tourists and in the summer months it is very crowded with young tourists in particular and has, in the past, had a bit of a bad reputation because of the rowdiness of these tourists who are attracted by the abundance of bars and nightclubs.  However now that the height of the season is over, the place is now back to being a regular but bustling town.  There are still lots of tourists but these are of a different generation....I have to say that when I visit Torremolinos at this time of year, I almost feel like a 'spring chicken'!!! 

Although many people probably only think of Torremolinos because of the above, it does in fact have a very interesting history, here is just a small sample to whet the appetite! 

Archaeological finds including human bones, tools, and pottery prove that the Torremolinos area was settled as early as the Neolithic Age. Some remnants are neanderthalians and dated 150,000 years old by radiocarbon dating.


According to the Egyptian Greek geographer Ptolemy, the Phoenicians had founded here a colony named Saduce, but the Romans are the most likely to have founded the current town, as shown by findings of edifices and a necropolis (from whose size it has been deduced that the settlement had around 2,000 inhabitants). They also built the road joining Cadiz with Malaga, passing through Torremolinos.  (Courtesy of Wikipedia, where much more can be found on the history of this interesting town).

All that aside my reason for wanting to go there is an art shop in the high street that I wanted to visit for some supplies, and after that we had our lunch in a lovely Asian restaurant that served Chinese, Japanese and Thai food.  The restaurant was very bright and airy and they had a roof terrace but we preferred to eat out of the sunshine as it's still very hot.

I thought I'd just share some photos that I took, hope you enjoy them.....

Looking out over the rooftops down towards the beach...

 The modern mixed in with the traditional architecture...

 The restaurant's roof terrace, which is particularly lovely to sit on in the evening...

I hope you enjoyed this little bit of Toremolinos, and hope you all have a lovely week ahead.

A new outfit ...

Yesterday I quickly made an outfit for one of my new Little Darlings.  I have mentioned before on here that when I have a new doll coming I like to make an outfit for her/him before they arrive.....well that's the intention anyway.  Of course it doesn't always happen and when my new dolls get here they often have to scramble around in the dolls clothes box for something to wear.

One of the new girls was more fortunate and I did indeed make her a dress which she was able to instantly put on to cover her blushes, but this little one didn't get anything.  Well that's not completely true, I actually did make her a skirt and some tee shirts to try, but the tee shirts are still waiting for snaps to be sewn on, and the skirt was nicer in my head than it was in reality, so I never put it on her.

So here she is in an outfit that I made.  It is made from knit fabric and has a hood.  I thought if it gets cold she can put a long sleeved tee shirt underneath.  ;)

This is the blue eyed twin modelling and her name is now Nikola, or Niki for short.  Her sister with the grey/green eyes, who you met in a previous post,  is called Antonia.

I think she looks like a real child in this photo, standing with her tummy sticking out, as children often do!

Thank you for looking.  I hope you all have had a lovely weekend and that the week ahead is great for you too :)

New Arrivals....

Yesterday my 'new arrivals' number went up by two....when my Little Darlings arrived from Nelly Valentino.  They'd had a long journey as they travelled via a lovely dolly friend in the UK, making it so much easier than if they'd come directly from the US and having to pass through Spanish customs!

I ordered these two girls back at the beginning of January and the artist started painting them at the beginning of August.  I chose two #1 sculpts, one with blue eyes and the other with a sort of grey/green eyes.  Both girls are very pretty.  I did think that I might make one into a boy, but they do look so 'girlie', don't they? 

Anyway, the grey/green eyes girl came with a brunette wig, it's lovely and soft and the curls are nice, not too big and out of scale for her size.  And the blue eyed girl came with a red faux mohair wig with a single plait at the back.

I've also added more blush to both girls as they tended to look a bit pale, I much prefer my girls to have more colour on their faces.

I've changed the blue eyed girls wig for a couple of other wigs with reddish tones.....as you will see below:

Girl A: (seen here wearing her default brunette wig)

Girl B: wearing a Monique Gold Tessie wig in Reddish Blond

Both girls together:   The blue eyed girl on the right, is trying a Monique Gold Jojo in these photos:

I thought I'd see how the brunette girl looked in a Jojo wig too:  

And here are both girls wearing the same style of wigs, I think they make lovely twins so I might keep them this way for now.

They still don't have names, but I'm working on that!

In the photo below, taken with flash, the girl on the right looks slightly bigger and maybe even a little older....it's a trick of the camera of course but even in real life she seems a little chubbier!  So she will be the 'older' twin....only by a few minutes of course ;) 

Thanks for looking, I hope you all have a lovely weekend :)

The 'in' and 'out' s of my dolly world in 2015....

As Dee has been honest with us about her dolly purchases this year, and Kendal has posted on a similar vein about hers, (except her post is more about the 'outs'), and even Jenni has made a start on sharing hers with us,  I thought I'd have a look at who came and went this year in my dolly collection.  Of course my blog is not just about Sasha, it's about all types of dolls that I collect, so mine is more of a mixed bunch.

My first Sasha purchase this year didn't come until March, and that was a sweet brunette baby which I purchased from Ebay.  The seller said that the doll was a very early one and had raised eyelids and good hair.  As I'd been saying that I didn't do anything with my one existing baby, and everyone said "you need more than one, they look better in 'groups'" I thought I'd go for this one.  She arrived and yes, she's very sweet, but she didn't have raised eyelids, so not so old as I was told.  Having said that, old or not, my interest in babies hasn't been affected in the least.....I still find them incredibly boring although I enjoy seeing other peoples photos of theirs!  And in the 6 months I've had her I've taken one set of photos, took her clothes off then left her at home when we came to the coast!!!  And Bertie my other baby is only here because I had to sew an outfit for a baby! No, I have to say that babies are NOT for me!

Here she is on the left with Bertie:

And on her own:

Next, in the same month, came a Gotz No Navel with blond hair.  She was really pretty but again not for me!  I wondered if I was in 'dolly dolldrums' at the time because two dolls had arrived in quick succession and I'd not liked either of them much.......luckily though, we all have different taste and she was traded with Jenni for her lovely little Gotz Toddler Erik, who was already known as Teddy, and came to live here later the same month!!

Here he is at the Bioparc in Fuengirola, I LOVEs him to bits!!! :)

 
In April, I spotted this sweet girl on Shelly's website and decided she was definitely for me.  I made an offer on her and luckily it was accepted and she came to live here in sunny Spain.  Her hair was quite dry on the ends and I decided to cut it into a longish bob.....she's such a pretty little thing, she is from 1969 and her name is Skye.

My last Sasha purchase this year was a gorgeous Cora who I bought from Renate in Germany.  I have been looking at Cora's for a while but it had to be just the right one.  As soon as I saw her photos on Facebook, I decided she was the one for me!  She has a wider face and lovely eye paint,  and I'm told is an early girl, she's so sweet.  She hasn't changed her name, she is currently still called Cora! :)

This photo was taken by Renate, she looks very cute in pigtails, doesn't she!

And here she is with Teddy, who loves her to bits! :)

Then there were the other dolly purchases, I sold some BJDs but I also bought some!  I added four ball jointed dolls to my dolly family this year.  The first, purchased in February, was Reira who is sculpted by the Spanish artist Lola Palacios, who sells under the name Atelier Momoni.   The doll is a Reira in 'toffee' resin, which is a nice creamy tan.  Reira came to me nude, bald and blank, which basically means her face was unpainted, and without eyes, so I gave her a 'faceup', wig and nice glass eyes.  I named her Sarah after a certain Sasha friend who, like my Sarah, likes to wear vintage outfits and big black boots!!  After a few months I did her face again as I wasn't happy with the first one:

I've always wanted a tan Little Fee Ante by the South Korean ball jointed doll company Fairyland, so when I spotted one for sale in June on the Denver Doll Emporium website, I was sorely tempted but didn't quite have enough money in my paypal account.  However, as luck would have it, my dear hubby asked me what I would like for my birthday....so this little sweetie came winging her way over from the US!  I was not disappointed, she's such a lovely little thing.  So far she hasn't told me her name, but I think we're getting close to finding it out as she settles in more and more!

The next girl I bought was another that I'd wanted for along time.  You'll probably notice that I really like tanned dolls and so in June when I saw this little Secretdoll Person #21 up for sale I quickly contacted the seller to find out her 'adoption fee'.  The seller was a lovely lady in France who was selling off a lot of her BJDs, and as luck would have it, she was just off on her holiday and was happy to take a layaway.  So I paid my deposit and then when the seller came back from her holiday in early July, I paid the balance and Valentine was on her way home to Spain.  Valentine was the name given to her by her first owner, so I decided to keep that name for her.  She is from the 'Person of the Past' release and is 19cm of 'attitude' and I love her to bits!!! 

Finally in the 'BJD Section' came Bordy.  Bordy is from Iplehouse in South Korea and is a BID which basically means 'Baby Iplehouse Doll'!  She is 26cm tall and 'Special Real Skin' which is another lovely tan!  I actually ordered Bordy mid June, even before I bought Valentine, but Spanish Customs (booo, hisssss) kept her for a month and charged me a hefty ransom for her release, so she didn't arrive her until early August.  I have named her Brodie! 

One little girl who came here quite unexpectedly is Ten Ping by Ruby Red Galleria.  A lovely dolly friend of mine in the US bought two of these little plastic and vinyl jointed girls and asked me if I would like to trade some of my dolly sewing for a brand new Ten Ping!  As those of you who know me well will remember, I love a trade!  So Ten Ping came to live here at the end of April.  She is called Pipsqueak or Pip for short!

Also back in April I received another lovely vinyl girl who was quite an unexpected purchase.  Another dolly friend of mine in the US contacted me out of the blue to ask if I was interested in adopting her last Little Darling, a gorgeous #2 sculpt painted by Dianna Effner herself.  How could I refuse!!!  Apart from the fact that I love the Little Darlings, to have a second girl painted by Dianna herself is just, well just perfect!!!  So Gem came to live here with my other Little Darling girls!

Justifying myself like mad here, but I have wanted a little 10 inch Boneka girl for ages...and ages....I thought she'd make the perfect baby sister for my Little Darlings.  I didn't want to risk customs yet again by buying on Ebay, so I decided to wait it out in the hope that one of my favourite doll shops in France would, as promised, receive a special order of them sometime this summer.  As luck would have it, when the shop sent out their newsletter to say that the dolls had arrived, I had some money in my paypal account so at the end of July I was able to purchase this sweet little girl.  She is a Tuesdays Child Daniela and is sculpted by Dianna Effner.  I have kept the name Daniela as I think it suits her, but around here she is just called Dani  :)

Finally, I've made a few dolly purchases that were bargains that I couldn't resist.....a couple came from the secondhand market in Fuengirola, a large felt doll of unknown origin.....

The same day as the felt doll came home with me, so too did an 18 inch (approx) doll with 3 quarter vinyl limbs and cloth body....I bought her purely because I felt sorry for her, she just looked like she needed to go home with someone.....I don't even like cloth body dolls but her sweet freckled face won me over and, an always an added bonus, she was really cheap!!  She is from Zapf Creations and marked on the back of her neck "B.Paetsch"....

And last but not least (I think!) is this young lady who I introduced recently on my blog, an approx 18 inch vinyl doll by the Spanish doll company, Juan Antonio.  I mentioned that I bought her to customise and this is still the plan, although I don't think she needs much doing to her, she's very sweet as she is!

I do have two new girlies winging their way to me as I type....but as they're not here yet I won't include them and will blog about them when they arrive.

I don't think I've left anyone out!  And there are a couple that haven't quite settled here so may well be looking to move on later in the autumn!!!!  Watch this space!!

In the meantime quite a few dolls have also left (justifying like mad here!!!!) ......  so I don't feel so guilty, in fact I don't feel guilty at all really :) (the lady doth protest too much perhaps?!)

Thanks for looking, and have a lovely week!