An amazing surprise gift....

Some of you will have already seen this on Facebook but I had to share here.  I have a lovely friend in the US who I met through my blog.  Many years ago now, my friend, who I will call J, emailed me saying that she'd found my blog and had been reading all the posts.  We started to correspond via email and became good friends.  We share a common interest in dolls but we chat about all sorts of other things too. 

A few years back my friend had a stroke and her emails stopped for a little while.  Fortunately though, her husband knows of our friendship and he wrote to tell me that J had been unwell and I continued to email with news of the things going on in my life until J was able to write back to me.

J has often written that she wanted to send me things but I have always tried to discourage her as Spanish customs are so awful and the charges so excessive, and I've always felt that she was way too generous with sending me things, but out of the blue she wrote a few weeks ago to say that a package was on it's way to me and was currently in Madrid.  I felt slightly panicked that the parcel was in customs and I would be sent a hefty charge which I couldn't afford.  Then J wrote to say that the parcel had now reached my home town's post office and was awaiting collection.

Last week I went to the post office to collect the parcel, which thankfully, had not been caught by customs.  The box was big, it had cost a lot of dollars to be sent, but what was inside?

The first thing I saw when I got into the outer shipping box was this......(Please excuse my poor photos, they were taken on my phone!!) 

I was sure that J must have been using the tube as protection for what was inside, surely this could not be who was named on the label?

But sure enough, once I opened the tube, there inside was the most precious gift, the little Gotz Toddler Iona!!!!  I could hardly believe what I was seeing... 

My dear sweet friend had sent me her Gotz Toddler Iona as a gift "to cheer me up" as she knows I have been very 'down' over the last 5 months or so.  

I could hardly believe it, my eyes filled with tears that someone would send me such a gift.  

Iona came in her original tube, wearing Toddler Elke's outfit (minus Elke's sandals) and carrying her own canvas shoes, her original bag and beanie style hat!!  Plus a pair of lovely silky knitted socks that maybe come from another Gotz Toddler?  

She is in beautiful condition, with silky soft perfect hair!  I haven't undressed her yet as I have been busy with my mum visiting but I will soon take proper photos of her and maybe dress her in something more appropriate for our warm weather.  Recently I had to put my little boy Toddler up for adoption, so this little girl will be my model when I start making Toddler clothes, hopefully very soon!

There were two other gifts in the box which I will photograph and share with you here very soon.

I am truly blessed with the dolly friends I have, I can never thank J enough for such a generous and thoughtful gift.  

Thank you for stopping by, and for sharing my lovely present with me.  


Big hugs
Sharon xx

The Girl With Golden Freckles....

I've been having a bit of a sort out in my doll/sewing room and trying to decide on what I want to keep and what I want gone!  Same old same old, I hear you shout....and I know that several of you will relate to this because you've also blogged about it!  However, this didn't immediately have me sorting out things to sell because I came across another Disney Animator doll that I'd bought with the intention of customising, so instead of carrying on with the sorting, I decided to give her a makeover! LOL I'm so easily distracted.  

Anyway, I took this little girl from her box and she had such a cute face I thought maybe I should leave her alone, but then I remembered that either way I wouldn't want to keep her, I really do not want more vinyl dolls, I want to get rid of some, not add to their numbers.  So I decided to work on her.  

Here she is in her default state, she's a cutie but her features are stamped or printed on and I wanted to make her 'different'.  I love her quirky eyebrow, although I'm not sure if it was intentional for her to have that or not!

Firstly I removed all of the factory face paint, you can see that her eyebrows haven't completely come off as the dark paint stained the vinyl, but that's actually quite useful to me for positioning of the new eyebrows.

And here she is with her new look.  I apologise to anyone hoping for 'in progress' photos, I never did them, but maybe will do that with the next Disney Animator doll I customise, if anyone is interested.  Her cute dress and hat set are by a seller on Etsy, her socks are by me and her lovely white sandals are by Marti Sanders. 

Here is a close up of her eyes which I did using several different watercolour pencils, I wanted them to have the same variations in colour that real human eyes have, I hope I've achieved that.
 

You can also see her 'golden' freckles here, they were just an afterthought really, I wanted them to catch the sun and the ones I'd put on first with regular watercolour pencils didn't show up enough for my liking.  They're just tiny dots of golden acrylic paint put on with a cocktail stick!

She also has applied human sized false eyelashes....

I think she looks like she's full of mischief, don't you?!!

Her lips and blush are done using artist chalk pastels, I grind them down and apply with soft brushes of various sizes, then seal several times with a clear matt sealant.

 These dolls have the cutest profile, they are so sweet with their little ski lift noses!

You can see that I also cut her hair before washing and conditioning it.  It was very long hair, right down to her ankles almost at the back, and full of some sort of sticky white styling product.  Now she has a shorter, more manageable bobbed style.  Much better suited for playing in the garden in the sunshine ;)  

I hope you've enjoyed seeing this little Elena of Avalor.  She is now going to live in the UK with the 2 year old granddaughter of a special friend of mine, as I would rather gift her to someone who might enjoy her than have her collecting dust here :)  Hopefully little Sally will have fun with her new 'one of a kind' dolly!! 

Have a good 'rest of the week' and thank you for visiting!

Big Hugs Sharon in Spain xxx

A little visitor from the US...

Yesterday I received a wonderful package which contained a lovely and most generous gift from a dear dolly friend in the US.  I was expecting a parcel but I really was not expecting what was inside.  This sweet friend had told me that she'd bought some dolls and that they smelt strongly of smoke and she wanted to send one to me.  She spoke about the Spanish sunshine and being able to leave the doll outside to get rid of the smell, as I'd had some success in the past with doing just that.  Because of Spanish Customs I said to her that it might be better if she could send him to someone in the US but she said that no, she didn't want me to work on 'them', she wanted me to have them as a gift!!!!

Lo and behold the parcel came and inside there were two very sweet, and very CLEAN non smelly dolls!  One of them is a brown eyed Sasha who is bald, so needs rerooting or a wig, so I will introduce her at another time.  The other was a very sweet little Caleb who has pumpkin strings and tight non-falling curls.  I'm thinking with this string colour he is probably from 1973/74 and probably wore the Mushroom suit outfit, but as I haven't got my book to hand, I may well be wrong.  Regardless, he is a nice little boy and now that I've dressed him he is fitting in well with the other boys here :)

And here he is on his own, outfit by me, socks by Ruthdolls and shoes from Boneka.

He tells me his name is Conor, "just one 'n'" but I already have a Natterer boy here called Connor!  But I guess we can have two, as long as we remember that this one is the one with "just one 'n'"!!!

Hugs Sharon xx

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!

Sewing a birthday presents....

It's my brother's birthday on the 7th April and every year I struggle with what to buy him.  I always say that he has more clothes than Marks and Spencers and because he has learning difficulties, he is unable to read or use a computer.  He loves the Carry On films but has all those, and a person can only have so many pairs of slippers, can't they!!!  So I generally send vouchers for the local theatre and he and my mum go and see a show as John particularly likes musicals.

However, this year I thought I'd do something completely different.  John has a nautical themed bedroom so I thought I'd make a small 'quilt' for him.  I had some ideas in my head and went to the local haberdashers to get some supplies. I bought some thick beige linen, some natural thick undyed cotton (I think there is a name for this but I can't think what it is) and some fabric for the back.  And I also bought something which I think is called 'batting' a sort of thick stuff for in between the two outside fabrics.

I bought a set of ten 'nautical' themed embroidery patterns on line, downloaded them and made a start.  I didn't use the suggested colours for each design as they were all a little bit dull, instead choosing various colours that I thought would work well.  

When I got to this point, I wasn't quite sure where I should go from here, having never made anything remotely like a quilt before!!!  And it took me ages to realise that I had to use a damp cloth to make the batting stuff 'fuse' to the fabric!!!!  I wondered what on earth was going wrong when I'd stood for more than half an hour ironing it only to find each time that it hadn't fused!

And then I just winged it.  I made all the embroidered 'motifs' into the same size and then I sewed them by hand onto the linen using running stitches.....now please don't laugh, my hand stitching is not very good but I thought the running stitches looked quite effective!!!  After that I started just sewing straight lines all over the place!  And then I attached everything together and this is the end result. 

If you click on the photos they will enlarge and you can see the details better.

This is the fabric I chose for the back, I thought, being of old maps, it suited the theme quite well.

I really really wanted to mitre the corners but I just couldn't do it so in the end I just made them overlap.  I sewed on this tiny metal 'made with love' tag on to one corner....

Hanging on the fence to dry after all the steam ironing!

The finished size is 112cm wide by 56cm deep.  And it's quite heavy.  I cannot imagine how someone could sew a full sized quilt on a home sewing machine, but know that lots of people do it and I really admire them!

I'm not sure I will do another too soon but might consider doing something for my mum for her 80th birthday later this year.  But this time I hope to start sooner and not try to make it all in 3 days. 

It's not perfect, but I'm very happy with how it came out and hope my brother will love it too!

Thanks for visiting.  I hope everyone has had a lovely Easter weekend and that the week ahead is great for each of you!

Mothers Day or El dia de madre here in Spain....

Today is Mothers Day here in Spain and so I thought I'd take a break from sewing.  My son Brendan bought me some lovely flowers, so I just wanted to share them with my friends.  Aren't they a riot of beautiful colours and they smell delightful!!

Then hubby and son went off to watch football, so I started on another commission, this time a Blythe customisation that I'm doing......I carved and sanded for several hours and I'd say I have another hour or so of sanding left to do.  I only stopped because my arms were aching and it got too hot where I was sitting in the garden!!!  More of that another day!

I hope everyone else is having a lovely Sunday too!