August Already.....how did that happen!!!

I cannot believe that we're already in August, how on earth did that happen so quickly?  I can only think that because our summer seemed to take ages to come this year, so it seems to be passing quickly too.  Hopefully we'll see good weather well into October though, which is an added bonus.

Well the temperatures here have been very high, it's not dropped lower than the mid 30s centigrade for weeks and last week we saw temperatures into the mid 40s.  I always say that I love the heat, and it's true, I really do, and I'd be more than happy to have summer all  year round, but even I had to admit that it was hot!  Perfect weather for the beach though, especially later in the day when the sun isn't quite as intense.  Having said that, apparently the weather this year has been perfect also for jelly fish, so we've had to be careful when swimming in the sea!

I haven't done much with my dolls for a while although I have sold a few and taken some photos of a few others.  I am selling some vinyl dolls so will add photos here in case anyone is interested.

My BJDs are still getting most of my 'play time' and attention and today I took a couple of photos of the Fairyland crew.  I would love to take the second photo in a beach setting, perhaps with a camp fire in front of them but we all know that that isn't going to happen with me!  So here they are on our deck.

This first photo is of the Minifee girls, (all tan resin, all 42cm tall) it would have looked better if I'd had them standing further away from the 'backdrop' but they kept wanting to fall down so I thought it was too risky....I did NOT want to damage their faces!!

L to R: Chloe, Mirwen and Ris:

Now joined by the two Little Fee Antes: Fiona and Tyrone.  Ris is strumming a nice chill-out tune for them:

Another girl who got a change of clothes, twice in fact, was Jo (Zwergnase 55cm Junior Miriam), in the first two photos she's wearing a summer dress I made from an American Girl sized pattern....

I really like this girls unusual face:
 

And here she is wearing a dress I made for her in anticipation of her arrival last year.  I made the pattern from looking at a photo of a child's dress so it isn't perfect on her...but she's happy enough! ;)

Another thing that I've been doing this summer, apart from relaxing and reading, is making dolls eyes!  I watched several videos on You Tube on how to make resin eyes and decided that I would give it a go.  I love to change my BJDs eyes but I hate that I can only get the eyes I want from outside of Spain, from either Greece, Hong Kong or South Korea, and I sooo  hate the long wait.  By the time the eyes arrive I've often forgotten who it was that I ordered them for!  So I ordered the supplies and also some silicone molds on line and thankfully they all arrived quite quickly.  And I was off!  I've only made 8 pairs so far and some of them have been...erm...pretty disasterous, but I have also had some small successes so I'm happy.  And I will hopefully improve as I continue making them.

Here are the first ones, these came out a complete mess!!!  I'm not sure what happened but the domes all went flat!  And there were a lot of air bubbles......the little balls you see in the blue ones are not air bubbles though, they are tiny little balls that I found in a shop selling finger nail decorations!

The second batch came out a lot better, there were minimal air bubbles and the green pair are actually better than they appear in this photo....LOL....but not a lot!!!!!

And finally I was able to make a pair that were good enough to use!  I wanted a pair of brown eyes for my little Secretdoll Meng as she came with a sort of lavender eyes that I thought I'd change.  I know you can't see the details here but they are definitely wearable!

 And here she is before her eye change, I had to add these photos as she looks so cute!

Now on to girls for sale.  I am selling only vinyl dolls at the moment. I have a Gotz Happy Kidz Sophie looking for a new home.  Sophie is quite a 'hard to find' girl these days as she is from 2012.  She is a beautiful redhead in lovely condition and includes her full outfit with shoes and shoulder bag.  The only fault she has is her knees are quite loose, although the hips are fine.  She can stand on her own, but she really could do with those knees being tightened, I just don't know how it's done so I've not touched her.

I'm asking £125 for her plus postage from Spain.  I do not have her large original box but she does have her wrist tags.  

I am also selling this 18 inch girl by Robert Tonner, she is a Tonner My Imagination Deluxe Basic girl with jointed knees.  She is all vinyl and comes with two wigs, the brunette in the photos and a blond one that has never been used.  You may remember that I opened the pate on the top of her head under her wig and repositioned her eyes as they were very 'deer caught in headlights' looking.  Her eyes are her original ones and are now held in place with eye putty.  She will also come wearing her original underwear as shown in the photos.  I don't have her box either but she will travel safely packaged to her new home.

I'm asking £75 plus postage.

If you're interested in either of these two, please email me:

dambuster0662@gmail.com

I will also be listing some other vinyl dolls in the next few weeks or so, so please stop by and see if there is anything that takes your fancy ;) 

Finally I just wanted to add a couple of photos of my handsome son Brendan and his beautiful wife Virginia.  These were taken last weekend at a wedding near Pisa, Italy.  I thought they looked too lovely to just keep on my laptop, so thought I'd share here:  

For a young woman who, as an archeologist, spends her working week thigh deep in mud, Virginia certainly 'certainly scrubs up well' as us Brits say!! :) 

 

Thank you very much for stopping by, I hope you are all enjoying your summer and hope you also have a great 'rest of the week' !!

Big hugs Sharon xx

A Little Bit of Sewing....

Just a short post today!

Last week I did a bit of sewing for the Boneka Tuesday's Child sized dolls.  These dolls are designed by Dianna Effner and are all vinyl with five joints.  They are also almost exactly the same size as the Yosd sized BJDs so I have a lot of patterns that I can use!

I made these two outfits for a friend and they are winging their way to the UK as I type.  Sorry for the poor quality photos, they were taken on my iphone.

However, before the outfits left I tried them on my two Fairyland Little Fees, and despite the Little Fees being slightly slimmer in the torso, I think the fit is good on them too :)

The girls actually look a bit sad that I wouldn't let them keep the new clothes, don't they!  I guess I'd better get sewing and make them something new.....as if they haven't got enough clothes already!!!!

Apart from that, a couple of new BJDs are in the pipeline but that's for another post.

I hope you've all had a lovely weekend and that the weather is good where you are, and hope the week ahead is even better!

Big hugs
Sharon xx

Summer's end.....

I won't apologise again for my blog being neglected, that's getting a little 'old' now, but thought I'd do a 'Summer's End....' post and share some of what I've been doing over the last couple of months or so.

In my last post, Summertime and my poor neglected blog  I wrote about my 'new' healthy regime, well I have continued with that, and am now 26.4 pounds or 12 kilos lighter!!!  I have continued to walk every morning with Lucy my Miniature Pinscher, and we now walk approx 8.5km (just over 5 miles) most mornings.  I have also joined a local municipal swimming pool where I attend two one hourly Aquagym classes every week, and I really love it!!!  It's hard work but definitely good fun!  I've ridden my bike a bit, but I honestly think I'd like to replace it with a mountain bike as mine doesn't have any gears and is really suited more to shopping in a town rather than riding out in the countryside!

I've taken lots of photos during my walks, and will share some here, but please forgive the lesser quality, they are taken on my iPhone.

We've seen some lovely sunrises....

Some beautiful empty beaches, now that the children have returned to school....

Views from the hills above where we live, and towards the mountains.....

We have also seen lots of flora and fauna!  Donkeys, horses and asses.....

Goats and sheep......

Herons....(or could be an egret!)

Chili peppers....

Female peacocks....peahens? 

Lovely flowers!

I also decided to have all my long hair cut off about six weeks ago too, it was down to mid back in length but I never did much with it apart from put it in a ponytail, so I went really short, and I feel like a new woman!!!  (Apologies for the 'bathroom selfie', I don't take photos of myself very often!!!)

 It's almost the same as I had for my wedding back in December 2005....

Hope those weren't too scary for you!!!!


On the dolly front I have been relatively quiet because my interest waned, probably due to the very hot weather.  My doll/sewing room here on the coast is small and gets very very hot despite having the window open and the fan going full time....plus I really don't like spending time inside when the weather is so lovely.  So as a result I've done very little sewing or playing!  But I have done some ordering!!!!  I have two little BJDs on order and hopefully they will arrived from South Korea some time before Christmas :)

However, I am currently customising a Blythe doll for a friend of mine, and am just waiting on the eyechips arriving.  Once the doll is all completed and put back together I will share photos on here.

I have done a few wig changes with my bjds and today took some photos of my Fairyland Little Fee Antes.  Fiona, the normal skin Ante, is one of the new wig recipients.  I bought this Monique Gold Bubbles wig for her in Honey Blond but I thought it was too pale and made her look 'washed out', so yesterday I dyed it with tea and the colour has turned out perfect for her!

Both of my Antes, Tyrone (left) and Fiona, are playing with their new little baby cousin....under adult supervision of course ;) 

Well that's about it for today, I don't want to bore anyone too much!  I hope you've enjoyed seeing some of my photos and also hope that you've all had an enjoyable summer. 

Here's to the autumn!!!

Hugs Sharon x

Beach babies!

Well not really 'babies' at all but definitely the beach!  The last week has been beautiful weather-wise, so I thought I'd take full advantage of the empty beach before people head to the coast for Semana Santa.

My two little Elfdoll Monnaemi Sisters (14cm tall), who I call Sunny Song and Minx, wanted to take their horse to the beach and ride him in the edge of the surf.  The waves were a bit too choppy for them to get too close to the water but they enjoyed taking their 'magical' horse for a trot along the sand.  Magical?  Well if you look at my photos you might spot one glaring error on my part!  The horse doesn't have any footprints!  LOL!  Oh well, next time!!

The girls did have one little 'mishap', a wave came further up the beach than I anticipated.....

Fortunately no harm done, just a bit wet....and they soon dried off on the sand!

Two other little girls wanted to join us on the sand, my Fairyland Little Fee Antes, Fiona (normal skin) and Tyrone (tanned).  They were a little disappointed that they couldn't go in swimming but it really was a bit rough and they are not strong swimmers! ;)

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the girls at the beach, and that you're all having a lovely weekend.  I hope the week ahead, leading up to Easter, is a great one for you :)

Big hugs Sharon x