An amazing surprise gift....

Some of you will have already seen this on Facebook but I had to share here.  I have a lovely friend in the US who I met through my blog.  Many years ago now, my friend, who I will call J, emailed me saying that she'd found my blog and had been reading all the posts.  We started to correspond via email and became good friends.  We share a common interest in dolls but we chat about all sorts of other things too. 

A few years back my friend had a stroke and her emails stopped for a little while.  Fortunately though, her husband knows of our friendship and he wrote to tell me that J had been unwell and I continued to email with news of the things going on in my life until J was able to write back to me.

J has often written that she wanted to send me things but I have always tried to discourage her as Spanish customs are so awful and the charges so excessive, and I've always felt that she was way too generous with sending me things, but out of the blue she wrote a few weeks ago to say that a package was on it's way to me and was currently in Madrid.  I felt slightly panicked that the parcel was in customs and I would be sent a hefty charge which I couldn't afford.  Then J wrote to say that the parcel had now reached my home town's post office and was awaiting collection.

Last week I went to the post office to collect the parcel, which thankfully, had not been caught by customs.  The box was big, it had cost a lot of dollars to be sent, but what was inside?

The first thing I saw when I got into the outer shipping box was this......(Please excuse my poor photos, they were taken on my phone!!) 

I was sure that J must have been using the tube as protection for what was inside, surely this could not be who was named on the label?

But sure enough, once I opened the tube, there inside was the most precious gift, the little Gotz Toddler Iona!!!!  I could hardly believe what I was seeing... 

My dear sweet friend had sent me her Gotz Toddler Iona as a gift "to cheer me up" as she knows I have been very 'down' over the last 5 months or so.  

I could hardly believe it, my eyes filled with tears that someone would send me such a gift.  

Iona came in her original tube, wearing Toddler Elke's outfit (minus Elke's sandals) and carrying her own canvas shoes, her original bag and beanie style hat!!  Plus a pair of lovely silky knitted socks that maybe come from another Gotz Toddler?  

She is in beautiful condition, with silky soft perfect hair!  I haven't undressed her yet as I have been busy with my mum visiting but I will soon take proper photos of her and maybe dress her in something more appropriate for our warm weather.  Recently I had to put my little boy Toddler up for adoption, so this little girl will be my model when I start making Toddler clothes, hopefully very soon!

There were two other gifts in the box which I will photograph and share with you here very soon.

I am truly blessed with the dolly friends I have, I can never thank J enough for such a generous and thoughtful gift.  

Thank you for stopping by, and for sharing my lovely present with me.  


Big hugs
Sharon xx

If we have to have winter.....

....then I'm more than happy to have a winter with weather like we're currently having!  Today was another beautifully sunny day, and once again we were able to go for a nice morning walk along the beach before having a coffee at a cafe on the promenade.  This week we went to Algarobbo Costa which is about 20 minutes east along the coast from us.  Algarrobo has a dark sandy and stony beach and is more residential than a holiday resort.  It was lovely this morning, quite a few people were walking, jogging or cycling along the promenade or sitting chatting at one of the several cafes.

If you're interested in reading about this interesting area, more information can be found here:

The Village of Algarrobo

Looking back towards the mountains, the ancient tower you can see  one of the two ancient watch towers in Algarrobo:

 
The Mediterranean was particularly calm today!

Looking along the coast towards Torre del Mar and Malaga....

I particularly wouldn't mind living in one of these houses, facing straight on to the beach....perfect!

Banana trees growing on the beach...

Lovely tall palm trees swaying in the breeze....

And plenty of seagull footprints in the sand!

I decided it was Nuria's turn to come with us today, but little Toddler Teddy insisted that he had to come too!  So the two of them got ready and off we went!  Most of the photos are of Nuria as poor little Teddy is a bit unsteady on his feet! ;)

"Mama, why can't we go in the pool?"  

 

 

This lovely tile 'mural' was on the wall of a restaurant.  The kids wanted to pose in front of it as it was so pretty.

I hope you have enjoyed this little stroll along Algarrobo Costa with us, and hope you all have a lovely week ahead!

(Sasha's lovely smocked top and shorts are by Marilyn Hotchkiss and along with her straw hat (from Sasha Morgenthaler Harlequin) were bought at the Chat n Snap last month, her pretty white leather sandals are by Marti Sanders Murphy.
Toddler Teddy's gorgeous cardigan was knitted for him by Rosie Laird, his shoes are by Lisa Hartley.
Teddy's shorts and cap, and both kids' striped socks, are all made by me).

Teddy plays in the sand....

I took Teddy to the beach on Monday morning as he'd been a good and patient boy whilst I've been sewing and enjoying my BJDs!  He has some new sand toys so he insisted on taking them with him and he had a great time building sand castles and playing with his new truck.  I got this perfectly sized truck with several spades and some sealife shapes all in a little plastic string bag for just 1 euro!  Teddy was delighted with them.  He already had his bucket and spade (again came with several digging implements, also 1 euro) so he had plenty to play with in the sunshine.  And...he kept his clothes on this time, even though it was really hot and he'd have been much more comfortable without them!  Such a funny little boy!

The sand on our local beach is quite dark, though not as dark as it appears in my photos.....I took the photos with the rising sun behind me, so as to catch the natural light on Teddy.

Somehow he managed to get sand all up his nose!!

Besotted!

Little Teddy the Toddler, is absolutely besotted with the new girl, Cora, who's yet to tell me her name....everywhere she goes, so he is two steps behind her.  He tells me she is "Zotic" which I think means "exotic"!  Though where he gets his ideas and 'big' words from I really don't know....

 

I have to practice taking photos of Cora because as I expected she is more of a challenge for me with her very dark skin and eyes.....I thought by leaving the photos until the sun had almost gone down would help, but I think I left it too late and as a result needed flash!!

Fortunately Cora is a very easy going sort of girl and has no problems with letting me photograph her over and over again, neither does she seem to mind this little ankle biter following her around everywhere!

A great dolly week....

This week has been a great dolly week!  I have done not one but two dolly trades and I LOVE trades!!!!!  As some of you will have already gathered, I did a trade with Jenni, Jenni is adopting my 'No Navel' and I've adopted Teddy, her Toddler Erik.  Well Teddy (who's real name is Theodore)  arrived today and he is sooooo cute!  Jenni sent him in the outfit he is wearing in these photos and his default outfit will follow :)  I'm not sure but I think this jumper and hat are made by Michelle.

I took some photos of him with his big sister, Liesl, who he'd not seen since he was a baby and of course he doesn't remember!  But I think they look so cute together, wouldn't you agree?  There are no photos of Teddy on his own yet because the ones I took didn't come out well, the light was too bright and washed him out.  I will take more tomorrow :)

Liesl is wearing a lovely knitted set that I recently won on Ebay, knitted by the very talented Rosie :)

Some individual photos of Liesl as she tends to get a bit forgotten here sometimes, I don't know why, because she's very sweet looking.  Maybe now that her little brother is here she will feel more confident about herself ;)  Isn't this set lovely on her!  It's getting a bit warm here now for jumpers and hats but I couldn't wait until next winter to try it on her!

My second dolly trade this week was for a Gotz Sylvia Natterer boy and he is very cute too.  I will take some photos of him during the weekend :) 

Have a great weekend everyone and thank you for welcoming my new little Toddler, Teddy!