Especially for Kazz!

This post is especially for Kazz, a reader of my blog who requested photos of one of my Little Darlings some weeks ago and I never saw the request until today.

My profuse apologies for the delay in responding.

I used to receive emails when someone posted on my blog so would always know when a comment was made on the latest post or on older posts too, but I no longer get those.  Does anyone know how I can get those notification emails again?

Anyway, without further ado, here are some photos of my tanned Little Darling who is handpainted by Lana, posted especially for Kazz in the UK who requested close ups of her face.  Because she's such a cutie, I've added some full length shots too ;)   I hope they're not too late Kazz and hope also that you don't mind me using older photos that you may have already seen here on my blog.

Sorry that there are so many photos of the same doll, but hopefully this will help Kazz with her decision making :) 

I just noticed that in all the photos she's wearing blue and white, which suits her perfectly and just so happens to be my favourite colour combination :)

Poor neglected blog!

I just realised that I've not posted anything on my blog since the 17th June, my poor blog has been getting neglected by 'real life'!!!  That's not good!  It's not lack of interest, or lack of photos, I have both of those, I've really just not had time recently.

My son Brendan and his lovely fiance have just been here in Spain for a few days sorting out more of their wedding plans, I cannot believe how quickly the year has gone since they announced the date of their wedding and how now it is just under two months until their big day......I don't suppose there's time now to lose the 2 stone in weight that I planned last September, is there? Oh well!!

On the dolly front I have been selling some dolls and doing some sewing.  I've been working on commissions, a couple of birthday gifts, a thank you pressie and a couple of things for my own dolls.  At the moment my dolls are in a big heap, as those of you who read Dee's Sasha Village blog will have seen.  I had to clear them all off the spare bed for my son's visit as I now use his bedroom at the coast for my dolls and sewing when we are down here.

I need to show you the second part of my 'Playing the Tourist in Malaga' post and will get to that soon but might wait until next week when I am meeting up with a dolly person in Malaga and she's going to show me her favourite place in the city.....mustn't forget the camera :)

So to make this not just a 'words' post, here are some photos I've taken recently:

I made this cream summer dress for Leoni my Zwergnase Junior Violet.  I thought I'd use my sewing machine to embroider the pansies on the bodice and think the colour of the flowers works really well for her.

A close up of the machine embroidery, I really enjoy using this function of my machine but just don't get to use it enough!

I made this blue and white summer set, plus the shoes, for my friend's Little Darling as a 'thank you' to her for helping me out with a couple of things :)

I made this set for a lovely lady in Switzerland :

I also took Tanya, my Maru & Friends girl, out for a nice Sunday morning stroll....we went to  Lake Viñuela and the Hotel Viñuela which was in the throes of being decorated for a wedding being held later that day.  The grounds are beautiful, to match the hotel, so I'm not surprised that someone would choose to have their special day there.

Below photos were taken in the hotel garden, the lawns were so green and the plant life very lush.

I think that's enough photos for now, I don't want to bore you all with my photos.  I hope everyone is having a great week and good weather too!

The new girl gets a dress...

I thought I'd better quickly make my new girlie a dress this morning as, firstly we were going out for lunch and I wanted to take her with me to show my friend who owns the restaurant.  She is another dolly lover, although not a 'collector' and enjoys seeing my dolls.  And secondly, if I didn't make something now, I knew the poor girl would be waiting for ages.

A couple of days ago I bought a little girls dress at Primark, the Irish clothing chain who are also here in Spain.  Their clothes are not always of the best quality, but their children's clothes are often really cute.....and I guess you get what you pay for.  The dress I bought, which is made of a nice blue chambray fabric with 'broiderie anglais' was only five euros and I should be able to get a couple more doll dresses out of it, which is great!

I used part of the dress for the 'skirt' part and I made the simple lined bodice with blue and white gingham.  I added four little white buttons to the bodice for added interest.

 And I took a couple of photos of her with Ellie, who was my first Little Darling.  You can get a much clearer idea of her skin tone in these photos:

And finally, because I just couldn't resist, here are some more of the 'new girl'....who still needs a name, something Spanish I think :)

 I hope you all have a lovely weekend and a great week ahead :)

A Little Darling cometh.....

Some of you may remember me mentioning a Dianna Effner Little Darling, that I've had on order for some time from the artist Lana Dobbs.  I ordered this little girlie back in March 2014 and was beginning to think she would never come home to me.  But lo and behold, some 26 (and a half!) months after I placed my order,  she has finally arrived and she is lovely.  Although I have to say that my photos were taken very quickly a couple of days ago in the middle of the evening, and I rushed to get them taken before I lost the light.....I was so keen to record her arrival on 'film'!

She is a tanned number 1 sculpt and I do believe that Lana is the only one of the artists who still tans the Little Darlings....and I'm not even sure if she still takes orders for tanned ones either.  But I had particularly wanted a tanned girl as I thought she would make the perfect little Spanish child, and I think you'll agree that she does.  Her colour is quite dark but my photos do not show this, even at 9pm at night, the light is bright enough that she looks paler than she actually is.  She has the most beautiful brown handpainted eyes, they have so much depth...I love how Lana creates her eyes, making them look so realistic and as if they are made of glass.  The eyelashes look so full and soft that you'd swear you could touch them with your finger and sweep them across....and yet they too are painted onto the vinyl doll.  Amazing!

Like the cobblers children lacking shoes, my poor girl hasn't a thing to wear as I didn't have time to make something....yes you read that right, 26 months waiting and I didn't get to make her anything in advance of her arrival!  Oh well, she arrived wearing knickers and it's so hot here now that I'm sure she's delighted not to have to wear anything :)

Apologies that the photos are a bit repetitive but I wanted to share how she looks in different light.

Here you can see just how real her eyelashes look, you'd swear they were applied rather than painted on!

 This last photo, taken inside, shows her colour more like it actually is.