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

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

Summertime and my poor neglected blog!!

I cannot believe that we are now halfway through July, where does the time go!  I also cannot believe how neglected my poor blog is, I really do need to pull my finger out and get blogging properly again.  But we have actually had a very busy few months so I feel that I have a good excuse ;) 

Summer starts very early here and with it comes the intense heat and, here on the coast, very high humidity.  This years June seemed particularly hot and sticky but I admit that I love the heat....have I mentioned that before? :D  And I would take the summer months over the winter any day, despite how short our winter is!  But it does make me feel particularly lazy sometimes so I have spent my spare time just relaxing and reading, I've read loads of books.....but as a result my dolls have been seriously neglected too, poor things.

I had to buy a new eReader last month as my Kindle decided that it was going to stop working.  It wasn't particularly old but of course it was out of guarantee.  I looked around and finally decided on a Kobo Aura One with a nice 7.8 inch screen, and so far I'm very pleased with it.  In fact I've struggled to put it down sometimes!

My mum and brother came over for two weeks from the 23rd June and it was lovely to see them as I'd not seen them since Christmas.  We did a lot of eating out and more relaxing.....well in this heat you really can't do too much, can you!  On their first night it was the fiesta of San Juan which is celebrated in a big way here and denotes the beginning of summer.  In Torre del Mar, our nearest town, there was a large and colourful evening craft market which went on for several days, as well as musical performances, tastings of sardines, competitions, games on the beaches, in addition to the traditional bonfires that are lit at night on the beaches.  

I did a little bit of shopping at the market, well it would be rude not to, wouldn't it!  And having seen this stall, I had to buy my girls a guitar as they were the perfect scale for the MSD sized BJDs.  And at only 8 euros each, I couldn't pass one up!!

I was seriously tempted by the Beatles drum set and the violins too, and now I regret that I didn't buy anything other than one guitar from this stall!  Oh well, there is always next year!

Brian and John enjoyed the things that were put in place for the children!!!

Later, we ate in a nice restaurant called the Safari Lounge.  The food was lovely, but the portions were so big!!  Here's my mum and brother waiting for their supper.

We went to Nerja for a day and ate in a very nice Japanese restaurant.  I didn't take any photos in the restaurant but took a few on the Balcon de Europa which was busy with holiday makers.  I do like Nerja, but have to say it's much better in winter when it's not so busy.

 We also went into the church located at the Balcon de Europa, called El Salvador.  The interior was so lovely and cool and peaceful, after the heat of the street! 

Afterwards, a welcome drink in a bar...

We did lots of other things and ate many more meals in restaurants, but I didn't take my camera out with me at all, I have no idea why!!

As well as my family visiting, I have been working on my fitness because over the years I've got lazy about exercising.  After a whole bunch of tests over the last 3 months, I've finally been told that I have bone degeneration, so thankfully nothing too serious.  Anyway, I decided to start walking as I love to walk but had been putting it off and putting it off using the excuse that I wanted someone to walk with.  So for the last 6 weeks, Lucy our Miniature Pinscher and I, have been getting out of bed at 6.30am and walking from 7am for a minimum of an hour.  We head out into the campo and just walk!  It is a wonderful time of day, the sun is only just rising and there is a real freshness before the intense heat of the day.

We just climb higher and higher until we are able to look back down towards the sea, it feels like being on top of the world!!!!  

We've met some lovely people, Pepe and Maria, who, along with their little Yorkshire Terrier, are walking in the opposite direction to us and always stop for a quick chat about life as we pass, as well as a farmer who gave me nine of the most delicious freshly picked tomatoes that I've ever tasted!!! 

We've spotted quite a bit of wildlife too, including Hoopoe birds, which I've tried to get photos of as they are so pretty.  Unfortunately my iPhone doesn't zoom in far enough to get them but I plan on taking my proper camera out with me soon.

We also discovered a snake!  Unfortunately for the snake, but perhaps fortunately for us, it was dead, having been flattened by something.  But it was a biggie!  I have put my foot in the photo to show you the scale....I would put it at about 5 foot long including it's tail which was separate!!! (That's the snake, NOT my foot!!!)  Lucy was very interested!

Finally this morning, on our walk back along the beach, I spotted some dolphins swimming not that far out from the beach!!!  I rarely see them because they are quite 'elusive' but today there were at least three of them....oh to have had that camera with me....but you can just see the fin coming out of the water in the blurry photos below:

 As for the walking, well it is starting to pay off as over the last four weeks I have lost 11 pounds in weight, I'm walking between 5 and 8 kilometres per morning and am actually getting quite addicted to it!  And next week I'm starting Yoga classes!!!!

Finally a photo of the beach at 8pm on Thursday...and yes, the water was lovely!!

Well I hope you all are having a lovely summer and that the weather is good where you are.  I hope to post more often now and hopefully will remember to lug my camera with me (which will mean that all the local wildlife will take their summer vacations!!!)

Big hugs, Sharon xx