THE LAST POST....

OF 2016

Well what a year it's been! Full of change in the UK , the World and also our house!But we'll leave all those UK and World changes to sort themselves out!.

This year from my point of view has been very much the year of the doll! Not just Sasha's but others too! Most of the dolls have been unexpected purchases ! Some lucky finds and others waited for.

It was in February that a totally unexpected purchase happened, when I found myself the owner of a NP blonde boy waif!

James was a totally unplanned and unexpected purchase ! I had no intention buying an NP boy when I saw him but at first , being my usual self did not read the description and placed a bid, then read that it was a boy not a girl with badly cut hair as I'd first thought! I then had to decide whether to bid again, did I want an NP boy?
Well I decided as he was a waif, I would try for him and much to my surprise I won the auction! I was so sure someone would come along and outbid me!

So the handsome James came to live in the village !

Then in April the truly unbelievable happened !  I found a Pongratz all wooden boy for auction starting at a low price. Again I placed my bid and waited and was over the moon when I found I had won! After a little to-ing and throwing between I finally managed to pay for him and he was on his way home!

Was this to be the year of the boy? by April it was looking that way with these two totally unexpected arrivals!

I love these wooden dolls and so having Bruno is fabulous as I truly did not think I would ever get one of the all wooden dolls by this maker. But it just goes to show , never say never !

Other dolls arrived and some left , the incomers I will show on my dolly dreaming blog which you can find the link to on the side bar of this one..Then towards the end of the year...

I was waiting on a doll that should have taken 10 months from placing the order but took in fact two and a half years! So finally she arrived in October!

She arrived in her underwear and luckily I found a dress to fit her on the my doll best friend website, I already had the boots and the cardigan was one I bought from the Chat n Snap from Jane Woodward, which fits her quite well.

She does have the prettiest face and beautiful hand  painted eyes, I hope to spend more time with her in the coming year.

Then it unexpected happened again !In November I saw an NP waif on ebay, was just going to watch her but happened to go on just before the auction finished! So had a good look at her, she'd not gone off into the realms of the price of a small car, she was a redhead and so I decided ,very last minute, to bid and again it was meant to be as I won her.

And so this young lady arrived in the village! another totally unexpected purchase ! I had been up to this point , very good and selling off some dolls to reduce numbers.Then I spent the money on  Christie, so named as she arrived near to Christmas and Christie is a very sixties name.

and so it is, as the year comes to an end , that there are not one but two Np waif's living in the village!

If you had told me that this would be the case at the beginning of the year , I would not have believed you! and if you'd said there would also be a Pongratz all wooden doll I'd have just fell about  laughing .

Then the year ended with my Christmas Sasha , whose been waiting patiently to 'arrive' since early December.

Wren who you met in an earlier post this week

another wonderful Sasha now living in the village.

The Chat N Snap was a lovely peaceful day with everyone enjoying a good chat and finding a few purchases for their dolls or even buying a doll. I would like to thank everyone who supported this event by either attending or donating items or money to the raffle.

I also attended the Sasha celebration weekend, which was lovely, a chance to meet old friends and make new ones, and also have attend a Sasha get together where I don't have to worry about whats happening and if everything's ready or spend days getting ready for!

I made some small headway in reducing dolls and things.

On a none doll note, we finally made the decision to move our bathroom upstairs, split the old bathroom into a cloakroom and separate utility room and fill in and incorporate the covered porch into part of the house, which meant I could finally get the lovely wooden front door I have always wanted for the house.
This is still a work in progress but I'm pleased to say progress is going very well !

Paul managed to finish the new bathroom by Christmas Eve! and so I can now share some photos. The design of the whole room stemmed from me falling in love with the wallpaper! It's called Marchwood by Colefax and Fowler, when I saw it, I thought Paul would say no to the fact it was black but he loved it too! So having decided on this wallpaper we changed the colour of the laminate , the shower and the flooring to match. Then having ordered and received the shower etc we were then told that the wallpaper had been discontinued!!!

However I went straight online and found a company that stocked the wallpaper, so was able to order it ! Which saved our bacon as I am almost sure we'd have not been able to find another black and white wallpaper we loved as much.

I have waited patiently for the wallpaper to be put up as until that happens you don't know if the room will turn out as you hoped or if you've made a big mistake, thankfully I loved the look as soon as Paul had put up a couple of drops.

The view from the door. I was beginning to worry that the wallpaper might make the room too dark with the black floor but it does not.

The shower, we decided to place a chair in the room and at present, are using an old chair we were considering giving away. It's a little big but we'll leave it a few months to see if it's okay and if so we may get it recovered, if not we'll look for a smaller chair to go in the room.

Back towards the door. The board at the side we are using to cover the small window until Paul has a chance to make a pair of shutters.

The old small doll cupboard that I just knew would make a better towel cupboard.

The sink and towel radiator complete with new towels. I am very pleased with the colour of these towels which is called Sulphur, I was looking for as close to an old gold as I could get, to link into the gold in the leaf of the flowers.I have also bought purple towels and just ordered some Crimson ones. Those who know me well, know I have to have some colour somewhere and when Paul thought the nutmeg........would be a good choice !!! well my depression lasted half an hour until I said no way! I'm going to get the Sulphur , I don't do beige! ( Apology to those that love the browns and beige's ) they are just not my colours.

The view from the small chair looking over to toilet.

.I have bought some crimson towels in the sales to add some more zing  ! :)

Even though it's the Christmas holiday break Paul's continued to work on the house and now put in the coat cupboard.

We ordered a pair of sliding mirrored doors from a local DIY store which were delivered just before Christmas and since I have worked on Wednesday and Thursday this week, Paul decided to work on the cupboard.

Plenty of hanging space plus a shelf to store things

The other side with the ironing board in but this  will be stored on a hook in the utility room.
This cupboard is one of the reasons we made the porch part of the house, so that we could have a decent sized coat cupboard and by using mirrored doors it will keep the area looking big and allow us to check we look presentable before leaving the house!

So the house refit is moving along at a steady pace.

I would like to thank everyone who pops along to have a read or look at whats happening at the Sasha Village, leaves comments, takes part, sends me emails and also tells me when we meet up how they are enjoying seeing the photo's , stories etc. It does help make it worthwhile spending the time keeping things new and up to date. I like to make sure that there is not too long between each post, so you have something different to see when you visit.

2016 as been a very good year doll wise and also home wise, I wish you all a happy and healthy 2017 I'll be back for a chat next year.


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