An early birthday present....

I've liked the cuteness of these little dolls for some time, in fact really since seeing them on Barbara's blog,  Dolls Garden  but it wasn't until I recently saw some of them 'in real life' that I decided that I would like to have one.  So when my husband asked me if there was a doll I'd like for my birthday, I asked if maybe I could have one of these.....the doll in question is a Wichtel by Rosemarie Müller.  Of course being the very kind and generous person he is, he said no probs, and told me to go ahead and order what I wanted!!!

So along comes this little sweetie from Villa le Bosquet in France.  She arrived safely on Thursday of last week and being the 'child' I am at heart, ;)  I couldn't wait to open her box.  She was packaged so nicely, her brown box is very 'natural' looking, sort of corregated brown cardboard, and then that box was wrapped in bright lime green paper.  The doll herself was peeping out through the cellophane front and she was safely tied in with strands of natural coloured rafia.  She was dressed in a very well made and pretty outfit, consisting of a check blouse with short puffed sleeves and rounded collar with real little buttons and buttonholes up the back, then she had a  pink fine needlecord pinafore over the top that did up with buttons and metal loops, and was decorated with an applique flower on one side at the bottom.  This too did up at the back with a tiny button.  Her knickers and socks were white and she had pink real leather Mary Jane shoes from the company Wagner in Germany.

These two photos are borrowed from the Villa le Bosquet website:

As you can see she has a blond wig which is styled into two plaits which are then wound up onto the top of her head and then tied with pink ribbons.  Her eyes are handblown glass eyes from the German company Lauscha.  I understand that these are considered to be the very best glass eyes on the market :)  She's such a nice sturdy little doll and stands very well without needing support, I'm very impressed with her!

In anticipation of her arrival, I decided to make her some overalls so that she could go and play as soon as she got here ;)  and so the next photos show her wearing those and the white short sleeved tee shirt that I also made.

The doll herself is one of a kind in that although the facemould is used on other dolls, the eyes/hair/outfit combination is only used the once.  And her given name is Neele.  I think I will keep that name as I am told it is actually a little flower.

I hope Neele will have lots of adventures here at our house and I look forward to sharing them with you here on my blog.

Have a great week everyone and I hope the sun shines where you are!