Blythe Con Europe 2017....Part One!

Last Saturday, the dawn broke, bringing with it the long anticipated Blythe Con Europe, at the Palacios de Congresos in Malaga.  I have to admit to having feelings of both excitement and slight trepidation because I was hoping to meet friends that I'd previously only spoken with on line!

The Palacios de Congresos in Malaga is just about 30 minutes drive from us and we've attended quite a few events there in the past, but never a doll event, so I really had been looking forward to it.  When we arrived the queue snaked quite a way from the building although it was a tickets only event.  There was lots of excitement in the queue, with people holding their Blythes and chatting away to old friends and making new ones.  Finally the line entered the building and we were greeted at the entrance desk by the event organisers who gave us our goody bags, wrist bands and one free raffle ticket.

The goody bags were great!!!  The illustration on the bags were designed by Olga, Vainilladolly, who was the main organiser of the event, and is a friend of mine. She is a brilliant artist, her work is beautiful and this design was no exception.  Below you can see a part of the design and further down you'll see the bag with all the things that I brought home in it!!!

The goody bags were really exciting in themselves, they contained soooo much stuff!  There were things that related to Spain, such as a fan , there were sunflower seeds which are eaten by the sack load here in Malaga, and then there were lots of sweets, a very cute badge, note pad and folder all designed by Olga, Vainilldolly, a very cute pen that looks like a medication capsule!, soap, a plastic egg full of little rubber dinosaur toys for dolls to play with, fruity lip balm in a little 'Russian doll' type container, a small jointed teddy bear made of denim, a tiny paper doll sheet with clothes to cut out!  Another sheet to cut out and make a doll in a box for your Blythe, dolly sized hair decoration and bead bracelet!  Soooo many things, I'm sure I've missed something.  And everyone had a lanyard to wear which was designed to look like the pull ring that changes the colour of the Blythe dolls eyes!

Anyway, there were 96 stands full of delightful things to buy, and oh my goodness I spend waaaaay more than I intended but my excuse is I'm helping the Spanish economy! LOL.

Here are my gifts and purchases.  The big bar of Milka chocolate was a gift from my dear friend Barb who lives in Madrid and came down to Malaga for the event.  She's such a lovely lady, it was great to finally meet her!  The blue and white striped socks were a gift from TTYA of South Korea, as were two very nice and unusual metal book markers which you can just see lying behind the egg at the front right of the photo:

Here are some close ups of some of the items I bought...

This lovely pale blue and white dress by Pomme Pomme from Kentucky, USA:

Great striped overalls with leather front pocket by TTYA of South Korea:

Lovely mohair fur rabbit helmet by Dafnery Dolls of Granada, Spain:

Cute tiny leather boots with working buckles also from TTYA of South Korea:

This pretty printed teeshirt dress from Shabby Village Bunny of Germany:

This pretty little tutu from Mi Mundo Blythe, also here in Spain:

This tiny wooden and leather catapult Tekubi Customize,  also from Spain:

My biggest purchase was the lovely little tanned Enyo who is made by the Spanish artist Laura of Irrealdolls.  Enyo is approx 17cm tall and is a fully jointed resin BJD.  He has a beautiful face up and as the artist pointed out to me, a quirky eyebrow!!!!  Below he's wearing his default outfit but I will take more photos of him in something less cosy soon!

Here he is stirring my hot chocolate at McDonalds....such a helpful little fellow!

Because this post took me longer than I expected, and it is now bedtime for me, I'm going to leave it here for tonight and tomorrow I will post photos of the actual event.  So please drop by tomorrow for masses of photos.....yes, I took photos of EVERYTHING!!!!

Thanks for visiting, hugs Sharon x

That was the year that was!

I thought I'd do a summary post of how 2014 was for me, I hope you'll enjoy it :)

The year 2014 started for me with the usual New Years resolutions!  This year, amongst other things, I was going to try to downsize my doll collection, try to find more 'props' to use in my doll photos and for about the 3rd year in a row I was going to be more confident, or maybe I'll rephrase that and say "less embarrassed" about taking doll photos in public.  Oh yes, I was also going to try to lose weight having put quite a lot on over the last 10 years.  OK.  So how did I get on?

I guess my biggest achievement this year has been the weight thingy.  I started a more healthy eating plan on the 13th January.  I had intended starting on the 2nd but all the best laid plans .... plus my mum and brother were still here from the UK and also the festivities aren't really finished with here until after The Three Kings on the night of 5th January, so I kept putting it off.  But finally, I started.  And it wasn't so bad! :)  The weight came off and I got used to eating well instead of eating everything in sight!  This morning I weighed myself and I am a little over 57 pounds lighter, or 4 stone and almost 2 lbs, whichever you prefer!!!  I even lost almost one pound over Christmas, but that could be a fluke as I'm not well at the moment and so not eating much.  Anyway, I'm very very pleased with myself, as I'm sure you can imagine!

On the 'reducing dolly numbers' front, maybe I wasn't quite as successful! LOL.  I did indeed reduce my BJD (ball jointed doll) numbers, and one or two customised Blythes, but unfortunately I spent the money on vinyl dolls.  My biggest purchases of the year was probably Ellie, my gorgeous Little Darling painted by Dianna Effner, she came here back in late April, early May:

and then Núria, my beautiful 1968 Sasha Redhead Ballerina, who came here in July.  Talk about "in the right place at the right time!"  I just happened to spot her when Sarah of Vintage Sasha posted her for sale on her blog and jumped in quickly with an email!!!  I was very fortunate to get her, she's a real little beauty to me :)

A little later in the summer, August in fact, Finn, my sweet Little Darling #2 sculpt arrived from the Effner trained artist, Pat Green.  She was ordered back in March and took 5 months and I love her!  I recently changed her wig to a different one from the photo below but I think she'll be changing back soon, as I love this faux fur one on her :)

A week or so later I was tempted by Ana, the #2 sculpt Little Darling UFDC souvenir doll, so I contacted the UFDC and managed to snag one.  And so Reece came to live here :)  The UFDC girls are not handpainted by the Dianna Effner artists but they are produced by the very same factory as the artist painted dolls, which I'm told arrive 'blank' to the artists.  I have since enhanced my girls eyes a little so that they have more shine and therefore come alive.  I will have to share some close up 'after' photos at some point.  I have to say that once I'd changed this girls wig and removed her default outfit I love her every bit as much as my other two artist painted girls :)

Since the summer I have added a few more vinyl girls to my dolly collection, one is Hannah at the Spa by Gotz (below left) and the other is my Limited Edition Giselle also by Gotz in collaboration with Steif.

Also, earlier in the year I adopted a sweet Zwergnase Junior, Tanya from Maru & Friends, and Olivia Kish, all three dolls fit in nicely with my growing vinyl family :)

Zwergnase Junior Marlene, now known as Marlie:

 Maru & Friends Tanya, who's kept her default name but received a new wig:

And my sweet little Olivia with her now bright red hair :)

And then, you might remember I bought a couple of Kidz n Catz dolls which I decided to customise, Grace and Elise.

Grace, now known as Sian:

Elise, who currently keeps her factory name:

And then my recent purchase, my little Sidika Himstedt:

There are a couple of other girls here waiting to be introduced but they're for another day ;)  Plus I have a sweet little visitor here from Wales, who wants to show her face to her Mamma on here, just to prove she did as she was told and didn't go elsewhere :)

So I'm not really sure that I actually 'achieved' my goal of reducing dolly numbers, but haven't counted, so just maybe...... ;)

As for the other two 'resolutions', getting more props/furniture and taking more dolly photos in public without embarrassment...I don't think I've really achieved those two at all. :(   Unless you count props sent to me as gifts, which I have to say were most welcome :)  And we won't mention the second one....how does one learn NOT to be embarrassed?  I end up looking 'furtive' and that's not a good look when you're in public places, especially shops, and are poking about shoving things quickly in your handbag ;)

So those two will go to the top of this years resolutions list, along with doing more exercise and continuing with the healthy eating plan.

Finally, one of the highlights of my year was my trip to the UK where I was lucky enough to meet some of the lovely people that I'd only previously met on line.  I had the greatest time at Dee's Chat n Snap and it was super to meet other dolly lovers :) and not feel ashamed of gushing over dolls!

I look forward to the New Year, 2015, and to continuing with my dolly hobby, meeting new people who share it and keeping in touch with those I already email/phone with.  I wish everyone who reads/follows my blog the very best for the coming year, may your lives be filled with fun, may your larder/fridge be filled with food and may your hearts be filled with love :)

Big hugs, from Sharon in Spain xxx

Some Chat n Snap purchases.....and gifts :)

When I was at the Chat n Snap, I realised that I'd concentrated more on the 'chat' part than the 'snap' part.....which was fortunate for my wallet, but not so great for my dolls.  Several times I headed in the direction of the stalls that I wanted to look at, only to get sidetracked and end up forgetting where I was headed!!!   But I have to say I don't really have any complaints,  it WAS lovely to meet up with people I've only spoken to on line before! 

So I made very few purchases, but what I did buy I'm very happy with.

Firstly I managed to nab one of Sarah's lovely Vintage Sasha outfits.  I chose this pretty coral dress and shorts sets and decided to team it with some striped socks (instead of the white ones it came with) and brown Ruthsdolls shoes.  I would like the dress with different coloured shoes so will need to invest in a different, more appropriate colour, at some point.  Even though Nuria attended the CnS with me, she still managed to be the first to try this outfit out for size :)

I bought this set from Dolly Doodles, Lindt tried it for size and is happy with the pale pink as she thinks it suits her colouring:

 

I also bought one of the DD gillets and a beanie hat, both items of clothing are being modelled by Emilio, who looks super in red and they go really well with his grey shorts and 'Granada' tee shirt:

 

I got some gorgeous pressies too from lovely Sasha friends.  I've not photographed them all yet but did change one of my girls, Millie, my first Sasha, into this lovely 'one off' Ruthsdolls set which was a generous gift from Steve.  Doesn't she look pretty in this!

I will hopefully take more 'gift' photos this week and share them asap :)