Happy New Year!

I just wanted to stop by and wish all of my readers and blog followers a very Happy and Healthy New Year.  I've been a bit lax with my blogging recently but plan to try harder in 2017.

The last year has been a really mixed bag for me.  At first I thought to myself "WOW, 2016 has been a really sh*tty year!"  But then I had to slap myself around the head a bit to remind me what great times I've also experienced this past year!

The biggest being my son's wedding of course, gaining a gorgeous new daughter in law in Virginia, and really the wedding itself was just amazing.  I cannot count the number of people who've told us how wonderful it was, in fact everyone who spoke about it, actually said that it was the most beautiful and romantic wedding they'd ever been to, so that can't be bad. 

Also I had a great trip to the UK in November with my friend Magdalena, her first trip outside of Spain and of course first time flying.  We went to visit my mum to celebrate her 80th birthday with her and we had a very good trip.

And of course after my health scare back in September, it was excellent news in October to hear that I was in the clear.....I cannot tell you how difficult the seven weeks 'without knowing' were!! 

There are lots of other things that I could put on here but I wanted to keep this short and don't want to bore anyone!

On the dolly front, there were some comings and goings.....probably more comings than goings to be fair, but I'm happy.   I know that I've not been sewing my commissions but I'm slowly getting back to sewing, so who knows what the future may bring.

I will leave you with a few photos of my newest addition, the last doll to arrive here this year.  She is a tanned Mini Fee Chloe by the BJD company Fairyland of South Korea, and she is MSD sized, approx 40cm tall.  She has a custom faceup by Caroline of Viridian House in the UK.  I have been hankering after another MSD for a while now, so when this lovely girl was pointed out to be as being for sale here in the EU, I decided to go for her.  I plan on making her some clothes in the New Year but for now she is borrowing from other dolls! :)

Thank you all for visiting and commenting on my blog in 2016, I hope you will continue to come here in 2017.  I wish you all a very Happy and Healthy New Year, may it bring you all that you would want for yourself...and then some! 

With love and big hugs
Sharon xxxx

A little bit of sewing....

I haven't been sewing much since August, in fact I've really had no inclination to sew either, however just recently the urge to do something 'creative' has been niggling there at the edge of my brain, so finally, after a few false starts, I've made a new outfit for one of my dolls.

The doll who was lucky enough to get a new outfit was Devlin, my blond 1969 PJs Gregor.  He is a cutie but is seriously in need of restringing, and hasn't had anything new to wear in ages.  So I looked through my photo album of 'clothing ideas' and found this photo:

It's a little boys outfit from my favourite children's clothing shop, Raquel's in Torre del Mar, a lovely but very expensive shop I might add! 

 Because I was feeling a bit lazy after so long without sewing, I decided to make my boys outfit with short sleeves rather than long cuffed ones, (plus it is still warm enough for him to wear short sleeves in the sunshine!) and whereas the shirt in the shop window was without a collar, I wanted this rounded collar on mine.   I also added knee high navy blue socks and he is wearing black leather boots by Ruthsdolls.   I'm very happy with how Devlin looks in his new clothes.

I now want to make two more boy outfits for my other Gregors but so far 'thinking about it' is as far as I've got! LOL

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you all have a lovely week a head :)

A new outfit for Becca by Paola Reina...

Whilst I was in the UK I thought I'd have a look at the newly released Sindy who is available at Tesco supermarkets.  The famous teenager doll of the 1960s onwards has been reproduced but this time instead of being a small fashion doll, she is now an 18 inch child doll aimed at much younger girls I would think.  The doll herself does not appeal to me in the least, she has a flat bland face in my humble opinion but I did buy one of the outfits that are available separately as I thought it was quite cute and might fit one of my other dolls in this size range.

The outfit I bought was called simply "Sindy Winter Outfit" and cost £11.95.  It consists of a pink fluffy jumper/tunic with a silver vinyl heart applique, pink and white sort of snowflake patterned stretch knit leggings, a pink puffed sleeveless body warmer with a turquoise lining and collar, this does up with Velcro but has silver snaps on the front, just for show, pink fabric boots that do up the back with Velcro, pink nylon fabric 'mittens' which are actually not shaped in any way, and are edged with the fluffy fabric and a pair of fluffy pink earmuffs!  A lot of PINK!  Although Velcro wouldn't be my first choice, remember this is an outfit made for young children so would be great for them. 

However, the outfit is quite cute and well made and I tried it on my Paola Reina Becca who is approx 17.5 inches tall and is from the Soy Tu range of dolls.  The fit is great and I think it looks good on her even though some people would not dress a redhead in pink :)

She decided to wear it to the beach yesterday because although it was bright and sunny, it was a little on the cool side.   I hope you'll agree that the outfit does look sweet on her!

(Someone asked me if this outfit would fit Sasha dolls.  I've not tried yet but think it would probably work for the later larger dolls, but I will try it soon).

 

Happy Monday everyone!  It's pouring with rain here today.......!

A trip to London....

I have just returned from a week in London visiting with my mum who turned 80 years old on the 10th November.  She had organised a party to celebrate with her friends and family and she worked like a Trojan on the catering and all the things that need to be sorted out for it....I hope I have her energy when I reach her age!

My friend Magdalena came with me on my trip and my hubby Brian stayed home with the dogs....he won't leave them with anyone, although to be honest, he wouldn't want to go back to the UK even if we didn't have the dogs....he's only been back twice in 12 and a half years and both times under sufferance LOL.  So off I went with my friend who'd never been to the UK before, in fact this was actually her first time flying!  Thankfully she loved the journey and wasn't in the least bit nervous about taking to the air for the first time.

Because Magdalena was with me, I thought we would do the 'touristy thing' and go into London for the day, so we go on the tube last Sunday and headed for the centre of town.  We were joined by my son Brendan and his wife, Virginia, and spent the day walking from sight to sight taking in as much as we could in the one day. 

Here are a few of the photos from that day, I hope you enjoy them!  (Please forgive the fact that they are all out of order!!!)

Tower Bridge

The Gherkin

Some very nice sailors!

(that hat was waaay too small for me, looks like a pimple on a mountain!!!!) 

A police launch on the Thames

The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

The London skyline

The Houses of Parliament again...looks like they've got the builders in!

Thames cruises

Magdalena, Brendan and Virginia in front of the London Eye

The Cenotaph  

We visited on Remembrance Sunday, hence all the beautiful poppies

 

 

The monument below is situated just along from the Cenotaph above, and commemorates the women of World War 2.  

(We were a little saddened that it had so few poppy reefs in comparison :( )

 

 Downing Street

A guard from the Household Cavalry

Brendan, Magdalena and Virgina in front of the Tower of London

And in front of Tower Bridge

And Magdalena gets to meet a Beefeater or Yeoman of the Guard as they are called.

 The Mayor of London's office on the South Bank

Magdalena at Tower Bridge

The London Eye 

(you can see we were lucky with the weather that day!)

Some more Big Ben photos

(most people will know that really Big Ben refers to the clock's bell inside the tower)

 

Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square

I hope you've enjoyed seeing a little bit of London, thanks for visiting.  I hope everyone has a great week ahead!

Winter warmers..

I've not been up to much recently but did get a few of my dolls into winter clothes, although to be honest, the weather is still quite warm and I felt guilty that they were dressed up in woolly hats whilst it was 26C and I was walking around in short sleeves.  Yes, I admit it, I'm completely nuts thinking that they mind what they're actually wearing ;)

Unfortunately all photos were taken inside....I know, I know, I'm a wimp but there were too many people about for me to be seen with a bunch of dolls!!!

So my four Gotz girls were changed into warmer clothing first.  Here is Asian Hannah at the Ballet, wearing an outfit I made a couple of years ago.  She is also wearing a woolly hat that I found in a toy shop here, plus boots from Primark which are made for babies of 0-3  months!  What a find, bearing in mind the price of doll footwear, these ones, made for human babies were only 5 euros a pair!!

A close up of her sweet little face:

Next Happy Kidz Charlotte from 2016, who is also wearing an outfit that I made some time ago.  She is also wearing the same type of baby boots from Primark.  Her dress is made from a child's hoodie which I bought and unpicked to use the fabric.  I love this fabric, as well as being pretty, it's a lovely weight of knit fabric to work with.

Although the Emily sculpt is my favourite of the Happy Kidz sculpts, I really do like Charlotte too, she has grown on me a lot since she's been here:

My rewigged Emily from 2015 is wearing a knitted dress from My Doll Best Friend, I love this dress and wish they did it in other colours, but the deep pink and turquoise works so well on her.  Her boots are doll ones and she is wearing Gotz leg warmers over her tights.

 

 My sweet little wigged Emily in close up:

Next we have Sophie, a beautiful brown eyed redhead from 2012.  She is wearing a skirt and sweatshirt that I made earlier this year.  Her brightly coloured owl hat was a gift from a dear dolly friend in the US a couple of years ago, I thought it went perfectly with her outfit!!

 And a close up of her owl hat, and very pretty face :)

Finally of the Gotz girls we have my new 'replacement' blond Emily from 2016.  She came here in August but what with the wedding and everything else, I never got the chance to photograph her until now!  I'm really pleased to have a blond Happy Kidz again, I really should learn my lesson from this and keep the scissors away from them!! ;)

She's wearing another outfit that I made previously, I loved this on the original (now wigged brunette) Emily so new Emily gets to wear it:

And a close up to see her sweet face, she is almost exactly the same except she has a side parting whereas original Emily's was middle parting if I remember rightly!

OK, so five down......quite a few more to go though!  I hope you've enjoyed this brief post of a few of my girls.  I hope everyone has a lovely weekend and a great week ahead.  I will be off to the UK on Wednesday to help celebrate my mum's 80th birthday.....I'm away for a week and hope to take a doll with me, but at this moment in time, I can't decide who to take!!!!  All suggestions welcome.

Big hugs Sharon xx