The Month of June....

The month of June proved a very busy one for me this year, what with my trip to Barcelona, my birthday and then later in the month my mum and brother John were here for two weeks holiday from the UK.  I don't know where the time went and of course my blog suffered once again from a lack of posts!!!

So I thought I'd do a catch up for the past month and hope it's not too boring for you :)

Now, although I shared masses of photos of the Dolly Day Barcelona, I didn't share any other photos that I took.  Although there aren't a lot of 'non dolly' photos from the weekend away, here are a few:

This is my lovely friend Sue and I in Parc de la Ciutadella, a really attractive and tranquil place, located near the Barcelona zoo:

And Sue with her husband Ben:

And here are some photos from the parc itself:

This memorial bandstand is dedicated to the 'transexual Sonia' who was brutally murdered here for her gender identity.  We three read this independently and all said how it made the hairs on the back of our necks stand on end.  So sad.

The Arc de Triomf....

 

This is the entrance to the Catedral Basilica de Barcelona, apparently this is the most important temple within the Archdioceses of Barcelona.  If you would like to read more about this cathedral, their website can be found here: 
Catedral de Barcelona

 Passeig de Lluís Companys:

Below is the statue of Christopher Columbus...more can be found about this statue, situated at the end of Las Ramblas, here: Columbus Monument, Barcelona

The Time Of The Doves is a 1962 novel written by exiled Catalan writer Mercè Rodoreda.  The book is named after a square in Barcelona's Gràcia district, Placa del Diamant.  As a tribute to the novel, a sculpture of La Colometa by the artist Xavier Medina-Campeny was installed in 1984, depicting the main character with her doves.

There is another very interesting thing about this square.  I quote here from the Barcelona website:  "The symbology of the square took an unexpected turn in 1992, when the air-raid shelter beneath the square was discovered during the execution of road works. Built twelve metres below ground level by the residents of the neighbourhood during the Spanish Civil War, it gave shelter to more than two hundred people during the many air-raid attacks launched on the industrial district of Gràcia of that time, with its many factories that were the main target of the attacking aircraft. This shelter was one of the more than 90 in the neighbourhood, and it is one of the largest of the 1,300 that were built in Barcelona, one of the first cities bombarded systematically from the air in a war. Today, with the objective of recovering the area's historical memory, the History Workshop of Gràcia arranges guided tours to explore the site and it is well worth visiting the shelter and seeing its tunnels which saved the lives of so many people."  

The below design is actually made from coloured sawdust....and is located in Placa de la Virreina....I believe it is a tribute to political prisoners. 

Well you can see that apart from my last post, packed with dolly photos, I didn't take photos of much of the beautiful architecture and city of Barcelona.  A long weekend, with one full day taken with a doll convention and another full day of heavy rain, is really not enough time to spend in this attractive and vibrant place......I think I will have to go again!!

Ahh and here is my seriously depleted money box!!!  Yes I actually save up 2 euro coins and they really did go a long way towards paying for my trip!!!

So that was my trip to Barcelona.  

Well June was also the anniversary of me starting my 'healthy lifestyle' regime.  It's now been a year since I started walking and exercising, as well as cutting out a lot of the 'extras' that I was eating.  I'm really pleased with how the last year has gone and I'm now 32 kilos lighter (that's 70.4 pounds or 5 stone, whichever you prefer!!) and I've lost at least 22cm off my waistline.  I've also gone down a lot of clothes sizes, about 6 to be exact, and I no longer have to take either the high blood pressure tablets or the calcium/vitamin D supplement that I was previously prescribed by my doctor!  And the great thing is, I feel like I've taken years off my age too, I feel that good!!!  

I never liked having my photo taken before, and I'm still not that confident being in front of the lens, but thought I would just share this photo that my husband took a couple of years ago......

And because I felt so ashamed of how I looked in the above photo (with my mum and brother), I got Brian to take another of us now: (please bear in mind that the camera allegedly adds about 10 pounds!!! :D ) 

I think I prefer the second photo ;)

Apart from that, I've now 'upped the ante' on my walking distance and sometimes walk as much as 7 miles with Lucy, our Miniature Pinscher, who incidentally has also lost some weight!!!!  This distance is a big improvement on when I started, I could only manage about a mile previously, and then I almost needed an iron lung to breathe with!!

On the dolly front, I have adopted another Fairyland Mini Fee in the last month or so, a very pretty Ria with custom faceup by the Spanish artist Rakeru Sensei. I decided that she should have a more 'daring' wig than I'd normally go for, so I got her a Monique Gold Fantasy, which is light blond with pastel coloured highlights running through it.  Her gorgeous eyes are from a Greek seller on Etsy....

Whilst my mum and brother were visiting, we went to a garden centre that we've recently discovered.  It is enormous and packed with interesting things, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for some doll photos.  I was going to do a post of those photos separately but at the rate I'm going, I'll never get around to it, so will include a few here:

Teddy wanted to buy this lifesaver ring to use at the pool......

He also quite liked these macaroons until he realised that they were made from hard resin and were fridge magnets!!

It's such a big place that Teddy quite welcomed riding in the shopping trolley, he only has short little legs after all!

He made friends with a couple of very well behaved and friendly Labradors!

And chatted a while with a couple of nice lads who were also shopping there....

Sam (Elfdoll Hana Angel) also came along...Sam is only about 20cm tall so she was dwarfed by the giant toadstools....

But said she'd love a play house made from one, like this one!!

Sam was besotted by this beautiful foal and wanted to bring him home, but sadly we don't have the room for a horse!!!

Sam loved this colourful Macaw and enjoyed feeding him some peanuts ;)

Well I guess that's all we have time for now, so I will wind up by saying I hope you're all having a great summer (or if you're in the southern hemisphere, your winter isn't too bad).  I hope the month of July is a great one for you!!!

Thanks for visiting, and have a great weekend!

Big hugs Sharon x

A little visitor from the US...

Yesterday I received a wonderful package which contained a lovely and most generous gift from a dear dolly friend in the US.  I was expecting a parcel but I really was not expecting what was inside.  This sweet friend had told me that she'd bought some dolls and that they smelt strongly of smoke and she wanted to send one to me.  She spoke about the Spanish sunshine and being able to leave the doll outside to get rid of the smell, as I'd had some success in the past with doing just that.  Because of Spanish Customs I said to her that it might be better if she could send him to someone in the US but she said that no, she didn't want me to work on 'them', she wanted me to have them as a gift!!!!

Lo and behold the parcel came and inside there were two very sweet, and very CLEAN non smelly dolls!  One of them is a brown eyed Sasha who is bald, so needs rerooting or a wig, so I will introduce her at another time.  The other was a very sweet little Caleb who has pumpkin strings and tight non-falling curls.  I'm thinking with this string colour he is probably from 1973/74 and probably wore the Mushroom suit outfit, but as I haven't got my book to hand, I may well be wrong.  Regardless, he is a nice little boy and now that I've dressed him he is fitting in well with the other boys here :)

And here he is on his own, outfit by me, socks by Ruthdolls and shoes from Boneka.

He tells me his name is Conor, "just one 'n'" but I already have a Natterer boy here called Connor!  But I guess we can have two, as long as we remember that this one is the one with "just one 'n'"!!!

Hugs Sharon xx

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.