Violet takes a bow.....

A new girl came to live here yesterday, arriving safely from her 'birthplace' in Germany....she is Violet, a new Zwergnase Junior from the 2016 collection.  I have loved the Zwergnase dolls for a while now but I was unhappy with how sparsely rooted their hair is at the front.  It's a shame because the rest of their hair is so thick and full, but the front does let it down, and it has put me off buying another Junior from them.

So imagine my delight when I heard that their 2016 collection included some girls who were now wigged instead of rooted!  Zwergnase Juniors used to be wigged before 2008, when they were discontinued and they first released rooted girls.  But finally the company seems to have listened to their customers and have brought back wigs......I hope this continues.

I was atracted to Violet straight away, but hesitated too long when she arrived at a doll shop in France that I sometimes buy from.   But in the end I decided to order directly from Zwergnase in Germany and I must say, if my experience was anything to go by, I would highly recommend them.  All of my emails and questions were answered quickly and my order was processed with speed.  About two hours after I paid my invoice so I received my shipping notification and my doll and two pairs of extra boots that I purchased, arrived within 5 days, which is really good!

So here she is, my sweet little Violet who is now known as Léonie, because of her 'mane' of lovely hair!  She is handpainted and her wig is full, soft and curly.  Her outfit which consists of lightweight cotton trousers with elasticated waist, sleeveless grey cotton smock top, striped socks and a fully lined vinyl hooded raincoat with patch pockets, is bright and colourful and well made.  Her big boots are real suede. And she has an attractive wooden necklace.   I think I'm going to have fun with this pretty and quirky girl!

Now for photo overload!!!!! ;)

I hope you've enjoyed meeting Léonie.  

Thanks for visiting, enjoy the rest of your week!!

Another little glimpse.....

....of my little girl who was once a boy.  I was taking some photos of her modelling the wig and thought she came out looking particularly pretty in them, so I thought I'd share on here. 

The sun has been well and truly shining for the last few days and this morning I actually saw people in the sea as I drove back from my trip to the supermarket.  We are already experiencing temperatures in the mid to high 20s centigrade :)  Ahhhhh spring and summer, my favourite seasons of the year :)

Just as I took the photos so there was the slightest breeze which blew the 'tendrils' over her face but I thought it looked quite good so didn't take 'replacement' photos ... (wig is a Monique Collection Christine, size 8/9 in Chestnut Brown that I've styled and trimmed)...

Here she is in front of the Jasmin which is absolutely smothered in flowers, and the smell, particularly at night, is just wonderful ....

Hope you all have a lovely week!

A new little friend for Bertie....and other changes :)

I finally decided a couple of weeks ago that maybe having two babies was better than just the one....maybe, just maybe, the arrival of a second 'ankle nipper' would make me pay more attention to the one I already have....and if that isn't the case and the two of them end up sharing the dust that collects on them through lack of attention, then at least they have each other!

So I got this little girlie on evil bay, she is a 1970's sexed brunette with non falling hair and is in very good condition.  One thing though, in her listing the seller said she had "raised lids"...she doesn't, she has the flat lids of the slightly later babies.  Her face is matt which I don't usually like but will see how it goes!  She arrived wearing this pretty light mauve romper, beautifully sewn by A Passion for Sasha....now I want a boy version maybe in polkadots!  Oh and I nearly forgot, her name is Mattie (thank you Jenni!), short for Matilde, a name quite popular here in Spain!

Here she is with Bertie, he does seem to be quite taken with her actually :)

You put your left leg up......

In other Sasha news, I felt a bit bad about one of my Gregors, Jack, who is seriously neglected.  He hasn't even got a wig that is actually 'his'.....you may recall that Jack came to me in October 2013 and he had a serious 'body odour' problem, which wasn't helped by the smelly pop sock that was on his head when he arrived...yuck!  I called him Stinky Boy for a while and he sat in the garden for several weeks to get rid of his smell.  Thankfully he has a much more acceptable 'aroma' now but he did loose all his hair.  I know that I shouldn't have washed it but anyone who'd invited this young man into their home would have done the same....he really was quite grubby.  So he borrowed a wig and then when the owner of that one wanted it back, so he borrowed another.  However, the other day I decided to try him as a girl.  So he was given some eyelashes and lips using watercolour pencils (he didn't have lips when he arrived, they'd been almost completely rubbed away) and finally he was given Bailey's old wig and a girls summer outfit.  I think he makes a very cute girl and for now he will remain as such.  From the stringing, I think he/she is probably from 1971, the same as Bailey. 

 

And finally with Bailey!  I think these two could almost be twins!!!

I think I might redo the eyelashes again when I have time, I've not sealed them so it shouldn't be a problem and will take more time over them, but I'm really quite happy with ex Stinky Boy now as a more sweet smelling little girl! :)

Have a lovely week everyone!

A little Toddler visitor from Wales.....

This little girlie, who's name is Angelina, was supposed to come home with me from Dee's Chat n Snap, but when she heard that she'd have to travel in my luggage, she stamped her little foot and demanded to be sent 'first class' instead.  Well who were Dee and I to argue?  So she was duly sent to me and arrived a little while before Christmas, all ready for a holiday here in Spain.

I was going to do a story about her arrival, but firstly I had so much to do in preparation for my family coming over and Christmas, and secondly I'm hopeless at stories, so she really only made a quiet entrance and enjoyed playing with my other kids until now.   Yesterday I started to sew for her as she tells me that she's really here to get some new clothes!  I think she might actually be here to give her dear mamma a rest because this one is a bit of a handful!!!!  ;)

I have to say though that I've fallen for her quirky charms and have told her that if her mamma ever feels she's just too much to handle then I'm more than happy to let her stay ;)  LOL

Here she is modelling a ra-ra outfit that I finished today.  I hope it's not too 'girly' for life on the farm where she lives.....and hope her mum will like it on her too :)

Making friends with the local 'wildlife'...

A picture of innocence...ahem....

Tap, tap, tap....tapping her foot with impatience at all the photos I'm taking of her....

Right, I'm off......

Oh OK, just ONE more photo....

Such a pretty little thing with her Shelly painted eyes and curly black wig...

Jenni, I hope you like this, her first outfit.....she seems pleased with it and will write home to you soon :)

One out.....errr one in!!!!

I always used to try keeping to my own 'rule' for myself, one doll in, then one doll out....until Sasha came along it was working so well, but I must admit that particular rule has fallen by the wayside a little, over the last (almost) two years!

Having said that, I have been good recently and although I did buy a couple of vinyl 'play' dolls, I have also sold one of those, and also a couple more of my BJDs, so I felt justified in 'treating' myself to this new girl who arrived today! 

The new girl in question is a light tanned vinyl 'play' doll from the Maru & Friends range of dolls. 

 Tany's page on the Maru & Friends website.

From the website: "Maru is the true story of a young Hispanic girl, separated from her parents because of political discord, who leaves her native land (Cuba) to go and live with her estranged uncles in America.  Maru must adapt to her new surroundings and her new way of life."  The website goes on to tell the story of how she meets and becomes friendly with a number of young girls from "different cultures", which is where my new girl comes in!  Her name is Tanya and as I already said, she has light tan skin.   Her eyes are inset hazel acrylic and very pretty with long attached eyelashes.  She is actually sculpted by the artist Dianna Effner who also sculpted the Little Darlings, of which my Ellie is one.....so I expected this new girl to be nicely done.  She is much bigger though, being about 20 inches tall compared to Ellie's 14 inches.  Tanya is also wigged, which is great because that does leave lots of options for change, should I get the urge!  The doll is very good quality and the vinyl feels nice and smooth.

Her default outfit, consisting of jade green long cardigan with tie belt, matching leggings, white cotton knickers, white cotton vest and black leatherette calf length boots,  is lovely and very well made, but it being knitted, had to come off in this heat. I also added a second outfit to my order but that too is a 'cold weather' outfit with boots.  She tried out the ra-ra skirt outfit that I made recently for my Zwergnase doll of roughly the same height, but Tanya is wider around the hips and waist than Marlee, but at least I now know what adaptions are needed to my pattern for her.  The tee shirt is a good fit, so no adaptations needed there, thankfully.  Hopefully though, soon she'll have some things of her own to wear!  In the photos below she is wearing Sasha shoes made by Ruth of Ruthsdolls, they fit her perfectly, which is great as I have several pairs of Ruth's nice footwear.  The Jean Jenson T bar shoes are just the tiniest bit too small and I didn't want to force them on, but they would fit fine without socks.  This is great as I have several pairs of Sasha shoes that she could borrow from my Sasha kids....I'm sure they'd not mind....after all, I can see them borrowing Tanya's boots at some point too!!  I do believe Super Dollfie sized shoes should fit her too and will try them once we go home from the coast.

And now for some photos:

Who is this....? A newbie in Spain???

No, no new Sashas here at the moment, I'm more than happy with my group....but who is this little girl?  Perhaps she slunk in when no-one was looking?!!

It is in fact my lovely little Lyric, a Gotz girlie from the mid 60s!  I couldn't bear how much more of a baldie she was getting, and I've almost exhausted my search for hair of the same colour to re-root her, so I decided to cut her hair off and give her a wig.  I haven't got a lot of wigs in this size and wanted to keep her as a blond, so that left me with just two choices.  A Monique Gold Ginger in Golden Strawberry that really has seen better days, or this one, a Monique Gold Roxie in this very pale Peach Blond.  I decided to go with this one for now, although I would like it in a slightly darker blond.  Unfortunately, unless you try and get a 'custom' colour direct from Monique Trading Co, there are only four choices in colour for this particular style. However, I was thinking that I might look out for a dye for synthetic fabrics and see if I can darken it.....although I'm reluctant to ruin it, so shall see how it goes!

I do like this style on her though, I think she looks sooooo cute and I like that she looks more 'pouty' than she did before....I love pouty looking dolls!!!

Here are a few more of her sweet little face....well I say 'few'...maybe I should have said 'a whole bunch'....I just couldn't choose which I liked best!!