Summer sets for the Little Darlings and little BIDs...

After a lot of sewing for Sashas, I recently had a couple of commissions which included outfits for the Little Darlings and the YOSD sized Iplehouse BID ball jointed dolls.  It was nice to have a change to different smaller sizes before coming back to Sasha again.

Here are four different sets, for two different collectors in the UK.  The Little Darlings are ready for summer!  Outfits being modelling so beautifully by Ellie and Gem, my gorgeous girls painted by Dianna Effner herself.

And finally a dungarees set for a little Iplehouse BID, being wonderfully modelled by my sweet Brodie :)  who is sporting the 'windswept hair' look!!

Thank you for visiting....and now I'm back to Sasha sewing again :)

A little outing for Leoni...

I know we normally have our little 'dolly outings' on a Sunday but today we went out for lunch and I decided to take Leoni, my Zwergnase Junior Violet, out with me and take some photos afterwards.

We went to the beach first, it was lovely, very quiet and not many people about, although the chiringuito (beach bar/cafe) was quite busy.  A few 'hardy souls' were actually swimming....ooooh I'm sure the water was pretty cold at this time of year not having had the summer sunshine to warm it up a bit.  There were a few groups of people sunbathing too as it was warm enough to get a tan for sure!

Leoni  enjoyed a stroll along the edge of the beach, not venturing too far because she had her new suede boots on and didn't want them ruined ;)

 
I really like how realistically Leoni is posing in the photos below, the uneven ground worked well with her non jointed legs :)
 

Reflections of the palm trees on the puddles behind her, puddles left after a recent big storm...

I put Leoni's hair into two braids today to keep it off her face in the breeze, I really like how it looks....and of course it keeps her wild curls more tamed!

On the way home we stopped for me to take some photos by some sandstone rock faces across the road from the beach.  These are just a 10 minute walk along the road from us here at the coast but I've never stopped to look closely at the before.

Leoni amongst the wild daisies....the air had a wonderful scent of wild thyme as we walked through it.

The sandstone 'caves'...

I couldn't climb up these rocks but Leoni was quite happy to do so!

I would love to know who or what formed these 'caves' ....they don't seem to be very deep into the rock face.

A wild pomegranate tree, they seem to thrive well in the dusty Andalucian soil.

Thank you for stopping by my blog, I hope you've enjoyed seeing Leoni out and about today.  I hope you all have a lovely weekend and enjoy the week ahead.

Gotz me some new girls!

I was recently offered the opportunity to buy a couple of Gotz Happy Kidz by a lady in the UK who's doll collection is going in a different direction.  The price for the dolls was just too good to pass up, firstly because one of the dolls is from 2012 and therefore no longer available and the second one has only recently been released in the shops so is brand new.  I can resist anything but temptation!!

The first girl is Sophie, she is a redhead with brown eyes, released in 2012.  She is in excellent displayed condition and her hair is in it's original style.  She came in her full outfit with tags and certificate.  This face mould is my favourite of the Happy/Classic Kidz face sculpts and I now have three with this face, except all are different hair/eye combinations.  I didn't take any full length photos of Sophie, but here are a couple of closeups.  She is wearing her original outfit which is in perfect condition.

I will take some full length photos of her soon.

The second girl was such a surprise to me.  I had seen photos of her from the Nuremburg Toy Fair back in January and then as she started to arrive with collectors, so I saw some 'in real life' photos.  I thought she was nice enough but she didn't 'grab' me.  Then last week I saw some photos of her and thought "she has potential" but is she for me?  But because of the excellent price (who doesn't love a bargain!) I decided to buy the two girls and have them shipped together. 

Well what a surprise!  The second girl is beautiful!  Her default outfit and hairstyle don't do a thing for her in my humble opinion.  The outfit is very well made but the fabrics are too 'grown up' for a child doll.   This is NOT my photo, I have borrowed it from My Doll Best Friend's blog and was taken by Maxine when she visited the Nuremburg Toy Fair.  These dolls are available to purchase from her website:  Happy Kidz Charlotte

So after removing her outfit,  I immediately washed and restyled her hair to remove the styling products that Gotz put in and changed her outfit for something more childlike.  Below she is wearing a baseball style tee shirt that I made this afternoon, having already embroidered the Monster High skull on a piece of fabric in anticipation.  The skirt is a BJD denim skirt from Iplehouse.  I've had the shoes for ages and have no idea where they're from and the hairband was lurking about in my dolls clothes box.  I think she looks so much younger and cuter dressed like this, don't you agree? 

Thank you for visiting, I hope you've enjoyed seeing the new girls that have come to live here in Spain with me.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

The hills are alive with the.....sighting of dolls!!!

This morning we got back into our 'routine' of going out for a nice drive in the sunshine and as usual I took along a couple of dolls so that I could photograph them.  Today I took two of my Little Darlings, Ellie, a number 1 sculpt and Gem, a number 2 sculpt, both hand painted by Dianna Effner.

We drove up into the hills behind Torre del Mar, into the area of Lake Viñuela and beyond to the edge of the town called Rio Gordo.  The roads were very quiet except for the usual groups of cyclists....I really admire how they cycle up those mountain roads, it wears me out just thinking about it!

The clouds love to hover over the mountains like a protective wrapping of fluffy white cotton wool!
 

As in most parts of Andalucia, there are olive groves everywhere.  Always planted in straight neat lines!   

We stopped at a point in the mountains where the girls could get out and stretch their legs and of course have a few photos taken.  The lake can be seen in the distance.

Ellie was glad she wore her hat because the breeze picked up a bit as we got higher up.....Gem wasn't so fortunate ;)

The girls spotted their first ant of the year, quite a biggy too.  He seemed to be on a mission and was completely oblivious to us pointing the camera at him!

We drove a little higher....

Gem's hair really got windswept!  

Before turning around and heading back down to the lake.....

We've not seen the level of the lake this low before....it is incredible.  There has been so little rainfall that it's beginning to look more like a large 'puddle'!!!

Even Ellie is looking a little concerned about the level of the water ;) 

Whilst Gem just wonders how I can dare to show her on my blog with such messy windswept hair!

Olives, olives, everywhere!  As far as the eye can see...

After we left the lake area, we drove to a local bar where we sat outside and had a welcome cup of coffee ...

And you really can't have coffee in a bar without sampling the tapas, can you? ;) 

We chose a half portion each of......

Pork meatballs in almond sauce......

Ensaladilla.....which is tuna, hard boiled egg, olives, boiled potato, raw tomatoes, onions, orange and peppers all mixed together in a light mayonnaise.....

And another ensaladilla, this time chopped up peppers, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, chopped up prawns, seafood sticks and pulpo (octopus) all mixed in olive oil and vinegar....delicious!!!

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you have had a great weekend and that the week ahead is a good one for you :)