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

How did you get here?

I realised yesterday that somehow I had 10 of my Sasha family down here at the coast with me!  Now how did that happen?  I'm sure I only brought a few down here when we loaded the car to come to the coast for the summer.  I am assuming they must have made their own way down here by bus or maybe by the high speed Ave train! ;)

Anyway, here they all are, they wanted to show you their new outfits too, so I thought I'd take photos of them all, even those who aren't wearing anything new!

Here is a group shot:

L to R: Gabrielle, Eden, Willow, Skye, Wren, Teddy (in front), Devlin, Nuria, Stella and Bailey (trying another new wig)
 

I love how, despite having the same face sculpt, they all look so different because of how they have been painted.

I know that readers of my blog will have seen most of these kids before, but I thought I'd still share some closeups. 

Gabrielle is a late 70s Sasha Pink Dress but her eyes have been repainted by Shelly of Sasha Dolls UK and I added freckles and blush.  Her wig is by Mary Madeco Smith and is made of Tibetan Lambswool.
Her outfit is made by me and her shoes are by Marti Sanders Murphy.

Next up is Eden who recently joined us here in Spain from her previous home in the US.  She is a Sasha Gingham from 1970 and is wearing an outfit I made last year, plus boots by Ruth of Ruthsdolls:

Next we have a little newbie who slipped in last week having come to live here from her previous home in the UK.  Her name is Willow and she is from 1969.  She is wearing a lovely new smocked dress by Marilyn Hotchkiss, socks by me and shoes by Marti Sanders Murphy.  I have since changed her socks for white ones as I don't think these striped ones go well with this dress:

Next up is Skye, she is a 1969 Blond Sasha and is wearing another new outfit also made by Marilyn Hotchkiss.  The outfit is made up of a blouse, shorts and this lovely biscuit coloured pinafore over the top, so in effect could be two outfits :)  The socks are by me and shoes are again by the lovely  Marti Sanders Murphy and were a Christmas gift from my dear friend Louise who knew that I really liked mustardy yellow shoes :)   Although you can't see it very well in these photos, the blouse and shorts fabric has orange and yellow owls on it, so the shoes are a perfect match :)

Next we have Wren who is a 1969 Sasha Kilt.  She is wearing yet another new outfit, again by Marilyn, consisting of white shorts, blue and white 'angel' top and sun hat!  I love Wren in blue as it really brings out the colour of her eyes.  Her socks are by me and her shoes are by the late great Jean Jensen.

Next we have Wren's twin brother, Devlin.  Devlin is a 1969 Blond Pyjamas Gregor and poor lad doesn't have anything new to wear.....but I struggle to take off his blue hoodie as it matches his eyes perfectly!!!  His tee shirt, hoodie and denim cap were made by me, his brown cord trousers are Dollydoodles I believe and his shoes are by Boneka.

Squeezed in here is little Teddy!  Teddy is a Gotz Toddler Erik from 2001.  He is wearing striped dungarees and matching cap plus lemon knit tee shirt, all recently made by me especially for him and his shoes are by Lisa Hartley. 

My little redhead Nuria is up next and she is a Ballerina Sasha from 1968.  She is wearing an outfit that I made especially for her last week, consisting of bubble shorts and top.  The shorts are made from a lovely soft fine needle cord which I got from Finland.  I also used the fabric for decorating the top.  Her socks are also made by me and her boots are by Ruthsdolls.

Alongside Nuria we have Stella, the second little brunette girlie who arrived a couple of weeks ago from the US.  I think Stella is from late in 1969 but not completely sure on that.  Regardless, she is a little sweetie and is wearing a pretty three piece set by Passion for Sasha with yellow socks by me and leather shoes by Noreen Walters.

And last but by no means least is Bailey.  Bailey is my wigged ex Brunette Sasha from 1971.  Today she's trying out yet another wig  but will probably go back to one of her others tomorrow.  I am not overkeen on this look for her!   She is wearing white dungarees and navy and white gingham blouse and socks all made by me and her shoes are again by Jean Jensen.

Finally, some photos of groups together:

The boys, Teddy and Devlin:  (Cute teddy bear being held by Teddy, was a gift from the lovely Ginger!)

The Blonds:

Skye, Wren and Devlin:

 

Thanks so much for visiting with me and the Sasha gang.....I hope you've enjoyed seeing them all and hope you have a great 'rest of the week'!

Sewing and embroidery...

I've been very busy sewing and embroidering this past week and so thought I'd share some finished items on here.

The first two outfits are a commission and are off to live with a nice lady in the UK.  One Toddler and one Sasha outfit:  The lady didn't want any appliques so tops are plain.

As you can see, Teddy is once again in touch with his 'feminine side' as he models this outfit for me!

 Whilst Nuria as usual looks gorgeous in any colour!

Then between commissions, yesterday I 'played' again with my embroidery hoop on my lovely (I cannot say it enough times how 'lovely' this machine is!!!) new machine.....

The first design is some simple flowers in red and blue which is being modelled by Meredith, a Journey Girl from Toys R Us.  You might remember that when I was in the UK last October I went with my friend Dee to buy a Journey Girl from her local Toys R Us.  At that time they were not available on the Iberian Peninsular apparently.  However, the other day I visited Toys R Us in Malaga and there they were!  It seems that they are now available again in Spain and Portugal, so I decided to buy two....just in case they stop stocking them again! ;)  And the great thing is they are much cheaper here too!  They are £30 each in the UK, €29,99 each in places like France, Germany and Belgium (plus the postage of course) but here in Spain they are ONLY €24,99!!!  Which at today's exchange rate is about £19!!!!  Don't you just love a bargain!

Anyway, I digress, here is the top, I also made the circle skirt and socks to go with it.  These photos were taken today on our usual Sunday morning 'jaunt'. 

Close up of the simple design.  I embroidered it onto sweatshirt fabric.

And the second design which I've made up into a similar sized sweatshirt is of four cute and colourful owls sitting in a row on a tree branch.  This one is being modelled by Claudia from Bonnie & Pearl:

I have also embroidered a Sasha sized sweatshirt which is not made up yet....I am thinking of making it into a full outfit and putting it up for sale here on my blog, so if you're interested, please watch this space!!!

Thanks so much for looking, I hope you've enjoyed seeing my weeks' sewing photos.

I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend so far and that the week ahead is a good one for you!!!  We are off home to Sevilla on Tuesday, after more than 10 months at the coast!  I think I'm going to be doing a bit of dusting before I can start any more sewing, wouldn't you agree?!!!

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).