I've been incredibly lax recently with my blog and thought I'd get a post in quickly before it's the end of another year! I last wrote that it was Autumn already....and here we are, it's winter! Thankfully though, the winters here in southern Spain are short and mild, we've had some rain, which we really, really needed, but apart from that it's been sunshine during the day, temperatures of around 19C - 21C, and cooler nights. Perfect winter weather for me!
So what's been happening in my world since I last posted on here? Well my husband Brian was really sick about 5 weeks ago and I was extremely worried as he's rarely unwell, but he was bad, really bad, collapsing a couple of times, which was very scary and this was just before he was due to go to the UK to visit with his family. He wanted to leave going to the doctor until he returned from his trip but I was concerned that he was sicker than he was letting on...so I made an appointment and it turns out I was right, the doctor took his blood and his sugar levels were sky high....he was immediately diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and she injected him with insulin straight away in the surgery. Now, 5 weeks later he's doing so much better. Obviously he had to cancel his trip, which was a shame for him but at least if he's going to be sick then he is close to home. But thank goodness he's doing well, he's testing his blood and injecting himself every day and although his legs aren't great, they're at least working to hold him upright!!!
Brian also bought himself a mobility scooter which he's enjoying!! He tells me he's named it Thunderbolt 2!!! It means that we can get out together, he can ride his scooter and I can walk along next to him with Lucy, our Miniature Pinscher, which is great!
On the dolly front, I have been enjoying my new Dandelion by Bimong and also I recently received my Xiao Yu head from Black Cherry dolls, a Russian artist. The head sculpt is beautiful and has a gorgeous faceup by Blisslacosta, who is also Russian. Four months ago I ordered her an Elf body from Dollstown and hopefully that will arrive soon. In the meantime she is using my Volks SDMidi body, the colour match is really good (the head is Oriental Copper and the body is called Sunlight). But my Volks girl is looking forward to getting her body back I'm sure!!
I love the way this faceup artist paints the lower eyelashes on dolls, they looks so incredibly realistic.
I have also received some gorgeous gifts from two of my lovely dolly friends. One of my friends in the US said that she wanted to send me a gift as she enjoyed reading my blog. I don't like the idea that people think I 'deserve' anything for the fact that they enjoy my photos, I just am happy that people do enjoy them....but this lovely lady asked me what I would like. I finally suggested that maybe she would like to send me a fat quarter of fabric which I would use to make an outfit for one of my girls and would think of her when I looked at the dress.....and then lo and behold not one fat quarter but THREE fat halves (I think that's what they're called) arrived from her, such pretty fabrics, thank you so much my dear....you know who you are!!!
Using two of the fabrics, I made this dress for my Dandelion, I hope you like it D, and that you think I'm making good use of your very pretty gifts!
Another present I received was a complete surprise from my friend J who also lives in the US. She sent me a box and inside were two BJDs (ball jointed dolls), both BIDs (Yosd size) from Iplehouse, an extra BID head, another manikin doll (you'll remember seeing two others that she sent me earlier in the year), some outfits, a wig and a pattern!
Here is one of the new Iplehouse dolls, she is a Elin and I enhanced her face a bit as she was a little pale, I gave her some new eyelashes, new eyes and new wig. She then went through the dolls clothes box and found herself something to wear!
I haven't taken photos of the other doll and the spare head, but will get to that soon.
Thank you both, D and J, for my lovely gifts, I'm just so incredibly lucky to have the dolly friends that I have.
I'm off to the UK on Saturday for nine hours....yes you read that right, just nine hours!! I'm going over to meet my mum and brother and bring them back to Spain with me on Sunday morning and they are spending Christmas and New Year with us. I will then go back with them to the UK on the 3rd January and spend a few days there meeting up (hopefully) with my friend Sue and my son :)
Well hopefully I will get to post maybe one more time before Christmas. Thank you so much in advance for visiting and have a great week ahead!!
Big hugs Sharon xxx
It's been more than a month since I last wrote anything here on my blog but now that the evenings are darker, I'm more inclined to be sitting inside using my laptop, rather than outside so thought I'd do some catching up! I don't like putting the clocks back, the sun sets here at about 6.30pm and I thought that was bad enough until my son, who lives on the south coast of the UK, sent me a photo this afternoon at 5pm UK time, and it was completely dark!!!! We are very lucky here to be honest, as even in the middle of winter, it never really gets dark before about 6.15pm.
That aside, the weather here has been beautiful. The temperature during the day is still in the low to mid 20s centigrade, so I really cannot complain. I think waking up to bright mornings with blue skies and lots of sunshine really does help my frame of mind. And it has certainly made my morning walks easier to get up for!!!
On the dolly front I have been busy. I have recently sold another 6 dolls and a Super Dollfie sized body, so of course that money was burning a hole in the bottom of my paypal account. I ended up buying two dolls, one was an impulse buy and the other was a doll that I have wanted for absolutely ages but had not been able to find within the EU and I was not prepared to buy from elsewhere as I didn't want to get caught for customs charges.
So the impulse buy is by an artist that I've admired for a while but never thought I'd find one of her dolls for sale within the EU. She is a Madeleine by the Australian artist Liz Frost and she is approx 12 inches tall. Madeleine is a tan resin ball jointed doll (BJD) and I adopted her from a friend in the UK....I am thinking that I might give her a new faceup or at least partially redo her as I'm not sure about her current blush. We shall see. The good thing about this doll is that she can share the clothing belonging to the Little Darlings, so that gives her a lot of options as they have a lot of clothes!!!
Here she is on arrival day:
The second doll that I bought recently is one that I have wanted for AGES! I mean a really long time! Probably since she was released back in about 2011. I remember wanting to pre-order her but again the customs charges put me off as she would be shipped from the US. So I decided that if I was to get her then it would be secondhand ... but each time she was for sale within the EU, so I was broke! In the end I sort of moved on. However about three weeks ago I saw one for sale on Ebay and she was being sold in France. The seller had stated she'd only ship within France but several messages later she was coming home to me! She is just what I was looking for. A Kaye Wiggs Gracie in sunskissed skin tone with a default faceup. She arrived last week and she is just so incredibly cute, I'm really glad to have found her and can honestly say that she was worth the wait!!!
Also my new body (I wished!!!) arrived for the Dandelion head I bought back in September. I bought this head actually as a full doll but I didn't like the body so I sold that body and ordered an Elf body from Dollstown. Now I'm very happy with her new look. I took a few very quick photos of her when the body arrived and some photos of the head on the first body....
And some quick photos of her with her new body. I will take more detailed photos soon.
I quickly made her this blue top but need to make her more of a wardrobe of clothes, as I don't have much in this size :) I'm actually looking forward to sewing in this bigger size again after years without a Super Dollfie sized doll, even if she is actually considered to be a 'smaller super dollfie'. 😉
There are some other 'newbies' here but I will leave them for another post. I hope you've enjoyed seeing a brief post of what I've been up to.
Have a great week ahead!
Hugs Sharon x
It has been a long time since I posted on here, I apologise for that....I didn't have the heart for it back in July when we lost our little dog and then things just got busy! I threw myself into sewing for a while and time just rushed by. I can hardly believe that we are almost at the end of September already.
The weather here continues to be beautiful and sunny but you can tell that it is 'Autumn' because of the change in the quality of light and the way the sun doesn't stay as long on the one spot that I like to sit in to catch a few rays on my deck 🌝
Back to the sewing though. I did a trade with a dolly friend in the UK, she sent me a cute doll that she no longer wanted and I made outfits for two of her dolls. The doll I received is Winona by the American artist Connie Lowe. I wasn't sure that I would like the doll at first, but when she arrived I really liked her face. I wasn't over keen on her body shape, she has a very big tummy, but I can work with it. Here are some photos of her, she hasn't got a name yet...maybe she will just be called Winona.
This is how she looked when she arrived.
I didn't think the red wig
did her any favours so I changed that and her eyes. I saw her as being
an Asian child and decided to give her brown eyes....it's funny but most of my BJDs seem to end up with brown eyes, regardless of their ethnicity, I just love brown eyes.
I don't think this girl is pretty but I do think she has an interesting face. For me pretty dolls are great, I love how they look but sometimes....sometimes they're just that, pretty..and pretty sometimes gets boring, so hopefully this interestingly faced little girl will have lots of adventures here with me in sunny Spain.
So here are some of the outfits that I made for the trade, the first ones are for the little Olivia doll by Helen Kish. Olivia is one of my favourite dolls and it was nice to sew for her for a change, even if my own Olivia didn't get to keep the outfits!
Summer dress with short socks....
Striped overalls in pale blue and white, with gingham 'accents', red cropped tee shirt and head scarf...
Skirt in lovely Japanese print fabric, with white with pink hearts knit 'body/leotard' and short striped socks...
Machine embroidered smock type dress with matching loose shorts underneath...
The next two outfits are for my friend's new Kaye Wiggs Missy doll so my KW tanned Layla, being the same size, is modelling for me....
First we have a simple summer dress with a simple ribbon bow for her hair....
And finally my friend liked the Japanese print so much that she asked if I could make something for her Missy in the same fabric.
This outfit consists of skirt, short sleeved tee shirt, hoodie with front zip opening and socks....
Another of my lovely dolly friends got her first BJD recently and she had nothing in this size for her new girls. I made the following outfits for her....her doll is off having a new face up at the moment so she's not able to wear them until she is all put back together again, but hopefully she'll be happy with the fit.
Firstly this little dress which I actually made by downsizing a Sasha pattern!
Then I made this outfit for a boy doll....Tyrone, my tanned Little Fee Ante is my 'boy' model!
My friend wanted a tutu and so I cheated and made this 'no sew' tulle skirt with printed tee shirt and ankle warmers....
I believe I made some other things too, but it's possible I forgot to photograph them!
Another dear dolly friend of mine in the UK got some gifts for her girls...a flowery summer dress....
Flowered shorts and machine embroidered tee shirt....Shorts are made of cotton pique.
Shorts have a big bow on the back....
I also made the same shorts in a spotted cotton pique too....but forgot to photograph those.
Finally I made an outfit for one of my own girls, well actually I made this first but never got around to showing it on here!!
Erin, my Harucasting Eminor, got herself a nice summer outfit consisting of shorts and cotton top....
I have more doll news but will keep that for another post. I hope you've all enjoyed seeing my girls modelling for me and that you've enjoyed your summer :)
Thanks for visiting, big hugs Sharon xxx
