Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone who visits my blog!  I am sorry that it's been such a long time since I last posted on here, but like a lot of people, I've lost interest in my dolls over the last five months or so and the interest is only really coming back now!  I suspect the virus has got a lot to do with it, l suppose you'd say that 'real life' got in the way.  

I would like to apologise for not commenting on any of the blogs that I follow.  Sadly with the loss of dolly interest, along went any interest in dolly blogs.  I hope to rectify that really soon.

Well a fair amount has happened in the last six months since I posted. First of all we moved home and we are now living just five minutes from where we were before, but we have a lot more space and I have a lovely new doll/sewing room, which unfortunately hasn't seen much action recently, but I do have a lot of things planned for the spring.  The house itself though is lovely, we have beautiful views of the sea and two nice terraces which I need to utilise more for dolly photos.  Having said that, I did take a few photos recently, so I will show them here.

Dolly news, I have received two new dolls recently.  The first to arrive was Nora by Irrealdoll here in Spain, she is very cute but I've not taken any photos of her yet because she is waiting on a wig.  So far I have made the wig cap using white glue but am now waiting on the lambswool to arrive from the UK.  What with the virus and Brexit, I suspect it'll be a while before it arrives, so I will have to be patient and poor Nora will have to stay safely in her box.

The second doll to arrive, who also arrived just before Christmas, is Johanna, who is an Wichtel artist doll by Rosemarie Muller.  She is 32cm tall and all vinyl and such a cutie.  She came in this beautiful smocked dress, lacy socks and pretty sandals, and she even has tiny gold studs in her ears.  You might remember that I had three of the Wichtel dolls before but sold them in 2019, and I missed them so decided to add another to my collection.  I decided on this sweet girl with her small smile....and although I don't usually go for smiley dolls, I'm glad I did on this occasion as she is very pretty. 

Isn't she a cutie!  I can't wait to start sewing for her 😊

In the meantime, I finally got to take some photos of my latest Zwergnase Junior doll, Rixte, who arrived here last October.  She is one of the 45cm girls and has such a cheeky face.  I changed her from her default outfit into this super Brownie dress made by Passion for Sasha on Etsy....she is now looking forward to starting Brownies very soon! 😉 ☺️

Apart from that, all is well here.  My mum and brother came over here to stay with us on the 4th November because I was really worried about how things were going, virus-wise, in their area and they are still here some two months later.  I think it was the best thing for them to do, coming here, because not soon afterwards, their borough, just east of London, had the highest numbers of new virus infections in the whole of England.  Scary stuff.  Thankfully they are safe and well here and long may that continue.

I hope you and your families are staying safe and well and that 2021 will be a good year for us all.

Big hugs and thank you for visiting

Love Sharon xxx

Life in the Lockdown!

Well I was going to write about something other what is happening in the world at the moment, but the truth is, I haven't really got much else to write about but wanted to post something on my blog.  So I thought I'd try to show a more creative side to being locked down at home.

Firstly a little about the lockdown.  We are currently on Day 13 as lockdown started for us from midnight on Saturday 14th March.  It's been very strict from Day one, which I feel is the best way to go. I do not feel that my freedom is being taken away from me, I hope that this will help save lives and certainly help to ease the strain on the Spanish health service.  For example, we are only allowed out to go to the supermarket to buy food, to the pharmacy for medication, you can walk a dog but only 50 metres from your home, and it must be just one person, you cannot walk in pairs.  No cycling or jogging, no meeting up with friends or family, you can only stay with those you live with.  And only one person per car except if you are taking a vulnerable person to a medical appointment.  And fines are pretty high.  Police are checking where you go and you have to prove where you've been.  So yes, pretty strict.  The number of people who've died from the virus is very high here in Spain, so if it works, and saves some lives then I'm more than happy to do as I'm told.  

So what have I been doing with myself?  Well I started out with the intention of making some doll outfits.  I got all the pattern files out, I printed off some new patterns, I sorted through my fabrics and cut out a few outfits.  I started by making a pair of tiny overalls for my friends doll.  I cut them out wrong, and then when I'd recut them, so I sewed them up back to front.  I really could not concentrate, so I decided to stop that and sit and read.  I've read two or three books but my mind keeps wandering.  I've been spending so much of my time chatting on line, looking at the BBC news, Facebook, YouTube, everything apart from doing something productive with my time.

That is until a couple of days ago when I had the idea to sew some face masks for myself and Brian....then I thought "what about the neighbours?"  So I got started, it was fun to match the fabrics to the personalities of my friends....and so it started!  I have now made 22 masks and distributed them amongst the neighbours.  One friend has a fabric printed with items of clothing, another has one with little Scotty dogs all over, another has doggy pawprints.  A few of the men have skull and cross bones!!!  Others have fish, or flowers.  I even got an offer from someone who doesn't live here to buy some but instead she has made a donation to our local Animal Rescue charity because with the lockdown they cannot open their charity shop which they depend on for income.  So that's what I've been up to!

Waiting for the pleats to be put in.....

All neatly ironed!! 

I asked my friends to share selfies with me of them in their masks, so here are a few of them!!!

Thank you to my lovely friends and neighbours for being good sports and wearing the masks, I hope they help to keep you safe and free from harm when you go to the supermarket or walk your dogs.

I hope every one of you who reads my blog keeps safe and well.  Please don't take risks with your lives or those of your loved ones, it really isn't worth it.  And I would just like to add a special shout out for all the health care workers, street sanitisers, refuse collectors, supermarket and pharmacy staff, and anyone else in one of these critical jobs, who're helping to keep us safe.  THANK YOU!!

Big hugs Sharon in Spain xx