It's been a while....but a little dolly activity!

Once again I'm writing that I can't believe how neglected my poor blog is!!  I'm beginning to sound like a stuck record, but I have no excuses, I've just not really been in the dolly frame of mind for months now but finally I have a bit of dolly news so thought I would share.

Back in the summer I placed a couple of orders with companies in South Korea for BJDs (ball jointed dolls) and as most of you will know now, you order, you pay and then you WAIT!!!  I placed one order in July with expected shipping date of mid September and another order in September with expected shipping date of late December, and Sods Law, the July order was more than a month late in shipping and even more surprising for me, the September order was a month early!  So both dolls arrived within a few days of one another!!! 

In the meantime I also purchased another BJD from someone in the US and so I have three new BJDs to show you but will start with just two as one is still waiting for her face to be painted.

The first doll I want to show you is a Volks Super Dollfie Midi, she is 42cm tall and her skin tone is a light tan which Volks call 'Sunlight skin'.  She came to me blank and although I bought her secondhand from a seller in the US, she is like brand new with all her defaults still sealed in their packaging.  She is a lovely heavy doll and I had planned initially to send her to a faceup artist to have her face done but in the end I decided to do it myself.  I made a start this morning and finished her a few hours later.  I'm very pleased with how she's come out.  Outfit is by a company called Tree Designs in South Korea.  Now she needs a name :)

The second doll that I want to show you is from the South Korean company, Secretdoll, and she is a Meng, Version 4, in tanned resin.  She is 17.5cm tall and as you can see is a little cutie with her big head and pouty face!  She has a default faceup, wig and glass eyes.  Her outfit consists of corderoy flares made by me and a little knitted sweater by Feltland here in Spain. 

I have decided to call her Marley!

Here she is with Valentine, my tanned Person #21 also from Secretdoll.  The new doll has a much better body and posing ability than the older girl, but I think they work quite well together.

The third girl to arrive is a tanned Adori from Harucasting, also in South Korea but I will keep her under wraps for now until she has her faceup.  Hopefully she will go to my friend Olga, Vainilladolly, very soon, to be made beautiful!!!

In other news I continue to walk in the mornings and go to my aquagym classes and have now lost 44 pounds and 13cm from my waist!!!  I still have a long way to go but am feeling so much better about myself :)

Here are a few photos that I've taken on my walks:

I just spent a weekend with my family in the UK and although it felt bitterly cold to me (and I came back with a stinker of a cough and cold) I had a great time seeing them. 

Some photos from my UK morning walking!!!

Worthing pier:

Elegant houses on Worthing seafront:

Chichester cathedral:

Chichester main street:

Hayling Island:

 
I won't see my son now until about February when he hopes to come over to Spain for a visit, but my mum and brother will be coming here for Christmas from the 18th December!

My son Brendan and his wife Virginia in Hayling Island:

Well, I hope you enjoyed my photos.  Here's wishing you all a great week ahead, thanks so much for visiting!

Big hugs Sharon xxx

Wedding revisited....

I can hardly believe that after a year in the planning, my son Brendan's wedding to his beautiful bride Virginia, has now been and gone.  Two weeks and two days and now it seems like 'ages' ago!!  Anyway, I thought I would share some photos of the day on here.  I did take my own 'proper' camera with me but the truth is I was so 'caught up' in the day that I never got to even take it out of it's case so am relying on photos taken by other guests, most of which were using mobile phones so the quality is not always great.  But regardless, I hope you will enjoy seeing some of the photos and memories of their day.  It was a fantastic wedding, the best wedding I've ever been to, to be honest, and I've been to lots, but it really was....OK I appreciate I'm prejudiced, but so many of the guests said the same!!!  One friend said to me that she'd had three of her own children's weddings and hadn't shed a tear but at Brendan's she cried buckets!!!  (It wasn't that bad, was it Carmelita?!! ;) )

The day started early with me having my hair done at 9am, my hairdresser did an 'up do' but in what she called an 'informal' style.  I was really pleased with it and it stayed in place for 15 hours and would have stayed more had I not taken it all out when I went to bed.  Thanks to a ton of hairspray and a million metal hair pins! :)

Here is us three just before we left the house....my stomach was doing somersaults and I thought I was going to be sick, I was so nervous!!!  Pity about the hanger in the background, I didn't realise that the neighbours would 'storm' the house to take photos of us!!!

(Apologies to those of you who are 'friends' with me on Facebook, you'll have probably seen all these photos posted by my hubbie and are sick to death of seeing them by now!)  Photographer below is my closest friend Magdalena.

Our closest friends, Magdalena and Joaquin had a surprise for Brendan, they'd secretly hired a convertible Chrysler LeBaron car to take us to the ceremony and wedding location!!  Brendan was delighted as he loves all things American...and it went well with his Converse sneakers!!

Virginia leaving her house with her parents and her sister:

Her parents had also hired a vintage convertible car for their journey to the ceremony, as a surprise for Virginia!

Doesn't she look just gorgeous!

The ceremony, in fact the whole wedding, was held in the open air.  It was so incredibly hot but fortunately there were a lot of parasols and shade!!!

The ceremony was beautiful.  Both Virginia and Brendan read out lovely 'statements' in both Spanish and English and Brian, my husband, actually wrote and carried out the ceremony.  The representative of the local mayor did the 'legal' bits...it was very emotional!  I was glad to have waterproof mascara! ;)

Below, in the first row sits Virginia's grandmother in pink, my mum and my brother.

After the ceremony the newly weds went off with the photographer and video guy for photos etc.  The 160 guests were served all sorts of lovely tapas and very welcome cold drinks....it was so incredibly hot, 36C in the shade!  Fortunately only two guests succumbed to the heat, two Spanish ladies, who thankfully were better later.

The following photos are random ones of the afternoon and evening.  The music and dancing was great fun, I had to admire the DJ who played non stop for more than 7 hours!!!  However, when this wedding was over at midnight, he then went on to his next wedding and didn't finish up until 8am the next morning.  Now that's what I call stamina!

I love this photo which is just so 'them'!!

 Enjoying all the delicious tapas....

The tables were all set out ready for the guests to sit down and enjoy the food to come.... 

An area was set out with 'props' for guests to have fun taking photos....this proved really popular with everyone!

Two of our Brit friends, Jackie, who lives quite near us and Lynn, (who with her husband Dave, owns and runs a bar/restaurant on the coast here in Spain), enjoying themselves!

With the help of my mum and Virginia's sister Rocio (who supplied me with photos of Virginia) I put together this collage to go on the wall at the reception....

The first dance of the evening..... 

 
The DJ played lots of fun music to get everyone up and dancing....not that it takes much for Spanish people to dance :)  They know how to enjoy themselves!

The Conga is fun in any language, don't you think!

My dear hubbie and me enjoying ourselves!

I love these photos, they are so natural!

It was such a relief to get my heels off and these canvas plimsolls on....and they matched my dress perfectly, don't you think!!! (My ankles were so swollen from the heat!!!)

My brother John with Virginia's mum Mari Carmen...

Friends and neighbours....

Another dear friend, Sue, (below) and my godmother's husband, Colin, who with their partners came over from the UK to share in Brendan and Virginia's special day....

My lovely godmother Mary, and her equally lovely husband Colin....

Brendan's two best friends from school, James and Eamon, who came over from the UK especially for the wedding...

The newlyweds are joined by their respective grandmothers and Virginia's mum, to watch a video made especially for them :)  By this point Brendan seems to have lost his shirt!!!!  Fortunately he got it back on again when he'd cooled down!

Brendan with my brother and my mum...

And with our closest friends, Joaquin and Magdalena...

And Brendan with his proud mum!

Two of Brendan's closest friends here in Spain, Mario and Mangas (Jose)...

Soooo, what is a group of archeologists called?  No idea?  Me neither!!  But below is just such a group, Virginia with her friends who are all in the same profession :)   What a great bunch!

Well I think I've shown you all enough photos but really hope you've enjoyed seeing them......I'm sure there'll be more once the professional photos are released.....please come back LOL!  Thanks so much for looking!

We really did have the best time, it was a day that was so incredibly special that I'm sure my family and I will be talking about it for ages.