Dianna Effner sculpted dolls.....

The weather has been awful for the last week and as a result all the photos that I intended taking, didn't get taken.  So I decided to have a look through my photo 'archives' and post some of my favourites here.  I apologise in advance to those of you who've seen these before, I hope you'll forgive me but I don't want to get behind with my blog posts again and ruin my 'New Years Resolution' of posting more often :)

Starting off with my little Tuesday's Child Daniela by Boneka, sculpted by Dianna Effner.  She is ready to do some modelling for me as I'm going to be making a couple of outfits in this size, hopefully starting this coming week :)  Isn't she a cutie!  I sometimes think her curls are a little bit too large for her face and that I might trim them a bit....then I remember that I'm NOT a hairdresser!!! ;)  The outfit below, I made for my YOSD sized BJDs but it fits her perfectly.

And here she is again in her default outfit, with a straw sunhat that I added to keep the sunshine off her face:

Next we have Ellie, a #1 sculpt, who I'm sure most of you know by now as she has been on here so often!  For those who don't know her though, she is a Little Darling handpainted by Dianna Effner.  Her beautiful eyes, which look like glass, are actually painted layer by layer to achieve this wonderful look.  Ellie arrived in May 2014, the first of my Little Darlings to come and live here.

It's hard to believe that her eyelashes, both upper and lower, are actually painted on too....they look like they must be applied lashes, don't they!

Another of my Little Darlings, this one is a #2 sculpt or 'Asian sculpt' and is also sculpted and handpainted by Dianna Effner.  I call her Gem, she came to me secondhand from an old friend in the US back in April 2015....l love this girl too!!!

Next we have another of my sweet Little Darlings, Nikola, another #1 sculpt, this time handpainted by Nelly Valentino in September 2015.  She had a twin who went to live in Switzerland last year, but I kept Nikola as she was my favourite of the two.

Below we have Rory, another #1 sculpt, who is a tanned Little Darling handpainted by Lana Dobbs....I waited so long for this girl, 26 months, that I thought I'd never warm to her!!  But she is so cute that she is still here, having arrived in June 2016!  Although I've not taken that many photos of her, I've no idea why!  I suppose it's a bit like 'first child' syndrome, the first baby always seems to have loads and loads of photos taken of it....as in the case of Ellie who was my first Little Darling, whilst the others only get their pics taken as an 'afterthought'!!

And an extra photo of Rory in the rain because she's been so neglected!!!

Finally we have Reece who is the only one of my Little Darlings that isn't handpainted by  Dianna or one of her artists.  She is factory painted but I enhanced her a little by adding some finishing touches to her face.  Despite her not being an 'artist' doll, I still love her as much as the other four :)   She is a #2 sculpt and came here in September 2014, my second Little Darling to arrive if I remember rightly. 

 
I hope you've enjoyed seeing my Dianna Effner sculpted dolls again, and apologies that these photos aren't new, but I thought 'old' was better than nothing at all :)   I will try to get more photos of my dolls once the weather improves :)

I hope you all have a great week ahead and that if you're having problems with your weather too, it soon improves :)

Big hugs Sharon x

The new girl gets a dress...

I thought I'd better quickly make my new girlie a dress this morning as, firstly we were going out for lunch and I wanted to take her with me to show my friend who owns the restaurant.  She is another dolly lover, although not a 'collector' and enjoys seeing my dolls.  And secondly, if I didn't make something now, I knew the poor girl would be waiting for ages.

A couple of days ago I bought a little girls dress at Primark, the Irish clothing chain who are also here in Spain.  Their clothes are not always of the best quality, but their children's clothes are often really cute.....and I guess you get what you pay for.  The dress I bought, which is made of a nice blue chambray fabric with 'broiderie anglais' was only five euros and I should be able to get a couple more doll dresses out of it, which is great!

I used part of the dress for the 'skirt' part and I made the simple lined bodice with blue and white gingham.  I added four little white buttons to the bodice for added interest.

 And I took a couple of photos of her with Ellie, who was my first Little Darling.  You can get a much clearer idea of her skin tone in these photos:

And finally, because I just couldn't resist, here are some more of the 'new girl'....who still needs a name, something Spanish I think :)

 I hope you all have a lovely weekend and a great week ahead :)

A Little Darling cometh.....

Some of you may remember me mentioning a Dianna Effner Little Darling, that I've had on order for some time from the artist Lana Dobbs.  I ordered this little girlie back in March 2014 and was beginning to think she would never come home to me.  But lo and behold, some 26 (and a half!) months after I placed my order,  she has finally arrived and she is lovely.  Although I have to say that my photos were taken very quickly a couple of days ago in the middle of the evening, and I rushed to get them taken before I lost the light.....I was so keen to record her arrival on 'film'!

She is a tanned number 1 sculpt and I do believe that Lana is the only one of the artists who still tans the Little Darlings....and I'm not even sure if she still takes orders for tanned ones either.  But I had particularly wanted a tanned girl as I thought she would make the perfect little Spanish child, and I think you'll agree that she does.  Her colour is quite dark but my photos do not show this, even at 9pm at night, the light is bright enough that she looks paler than she actually is.  She has the most beautiful brown handpainted eyes, they have so much depth...I love how Lana creates her eyes, making them look so realistic and as if they are made of glass.  The eyelashes look so full and soft that you'd swear you could touch them with your finger and sweep them across....and yet they too are painted onto the vinyl doll.  Amazing!

Like the cobblers children lacking shoes, my poor girl hasn't a thing to wear as I didn't have time to make something....yes you read that right, 26 months waiting and I didn't get to make her anything in advance of her arrival!  Oh well, she arrived wearing knickers and it's so hot here now that I'm sure she's delighted not to have to wear anything :)

Apologies that the photos are a bit repetitive but I wanted to share how she looks in different light.

Here you can see just how real her eyelashes look, you'd swear they were applied rather than painted on!

 This last photo, taken inside, shows her colour more like it actually is.

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 :)