A LOOK INSIDE

FOR BERTIE.

Bertie our button friend from Wales asked what book Claudia was lazing in front of , so Ollie, his good friend decided to show him.

"Here it is Bertie " says Ollie " A Life Drawing by Shirley Hughes. Mum used to read her books to her 'real' children when they were little "

"It's all about her life spent drawing people and places "

" This is my favourite drawing in this book " says Ollie " I wish I had a giant bird like this one!"

" Shirley likes drawing and she's very good at it!" says Ollie

"This is the page you could see behind Claudia , It shows a lady reading to the children, just like Maude was reading to Claudia "

" look at all the children on this page!"

" I would like to do some drawing " Ollie studies the picture closely.

" Alfie and Annie Rose starred in lots of books mum read to her girls "

"So there it is Bertie. I think I'll be an  ill ust.. ust..rat.. a drawer when I am bigger !" declares Ollie " but only if I cannot be a fireman first oh or a footballer.. or a detective or a police man or....... "


I think we'd best leave Ollie  here as he's still deciding  ( a baker , Ollie continues... or an archer or ... ) he likes lots of different things and since he's only six, he's got lots of time to make his mind up !


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THE LAST SUNDAY OF FEBRUARY

I'm not going to say it! But I will say that on Wednesday it will be March! The start of Spring! Which will be wonderful! I'm so looking forward to seeing the garden start to awake and the buds start to push through the earth to start filling the garden with some colour.

It's amazing how a bright spring day can lift the soul and fill you with joy. There is nothing like standing outside in the garden or the countryside and feeling that small touch of sun on your face while you look about at the surrounding view as the earth starts to warm.

Okay enough of this sentiment! ;) What's been happening here in the village, well quite a bit in one way and another!

When Spring starts to encroach I always start to fill with ideas and plans and the need to change or alter things and so it's been these last couple of days.

Those of you who read this blog regularly will know that I've been working on my Sasha ' Studio' with a view to moving my blog photography into a space that could be left as room setting etc and also for storing the few.. cough cough.. dolls I have.

And so Paul gave me the end of his workshop and I set it all up and ready only to not get round to using it because It's a little small with all the things I have! I had originally considered this building...

This started Life as an open topped Gazebo which a few years back we roofed. However we have been concerned that we don't know just how the posts it all rests on are sturdy. They could be rotting depending how the previous owner fitted them.Last year we did a temporary fill in on two sides, so we could over winter some of the more tender larger plants.
We had intended to remove these temporary walls and lay a concrete foundation round the edge and rebuild the walls with insulation between and make it into an outside office cum summerhouse.Therefore making sure that if the posts failed the roof would be held up by the new walls.

This photo shows you that it's a much bigger area than my corner in the workshop. So I said to Paul that I'd like to have this space for my dolls and sewing machine and other things etc.Then he could have my old Studio for his stained glass workshop.
But I knew this would be an awful lot of work to get this was is mainly a gazebo with a roof up to scratch so I went to look at what was available on line.

and look what I found...... a lovely log cabin that can be put together in a couple days. It would be big enough for my daughter Lindsey , who works from home a couple of days a week to be able to have a corner for her desk, it's double glazed and 40mm thick logs but we will insulate it as well. So we are considering this and to that end I'm selling a few dolls to pay for it.

I'm needing to doll fund it due to working for a major bank that's just announced it's results of losses for another year and there is going to be branch closures and redundancies. My branch I know won't close as it's been modernised but that does not mean we won't lose our jobs as they may have other people they want to keep and move to us. So to that end I need to not spend money, if you know what I mean to fund this.

So I will be selling a few dolls , not just Sasha's, but some of my other unused dolls, I've already sold my Little darling girl as although I loved her , she just sat about and I did nothing with her and it was nice having her but I can honestly say I won't miss her as she took so long to arrive I'd grow cold about her and it did not change.

So look out on my sales page as any Sasha's I decide need to go , will be listed there along with anything else clothes etc .

Nothings happen house wise as Paul's spent this weekend making the new compost bays for the garden. We made a point of getting the wood at the same time as we bought the wood etc for enclosing the porch.

He's using scaffold boards and treating them in the hope it will help them last longer. With such a large garden we need a big compost area.

Thought I'd share this old photo of my 68 brunettes, Jenny, Ragnor and Meredith. Especially as Ragnor keeps telling me he needs a castle  ! and he says our garden is plenty big enough and if I'm getting a big studio, him and his brothers should get a castle .....


Well enjoy the coming week, I'll be trying to get a good couple of photos ready for the doll shelf photos on the 5th , so please send in your ready for the day of sharing.


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FOR THE LOVE OF

BOOKS.

If there is one thing everyone in the village loves to do it's read! Well almost everyone ..

Maudie May here is very into reading.

She loves to sit high up and read aloud, enjoying the sound of the words, which give her a little thrill that shivers down her spine.Today she is reading Anne of Green Gables, one of her favourite books.

But what's this? Claudia has heard Maude reading and decided to make herself comfy and listen to the story.

It's not long before Zak appears and listens closely to Maude's tale.

He turns to settle in against the books to listen.

 Soon a third person arrives to stand and listen, Paige plans to just listen for a little while...she's things to do...

But she's still there when Jenny appears carrying an empty biscuit tin onto which she sits and rests back to enjoy the story along with the others.

an hour later , Paige and Claudia

Zak and Jenny are still listening. You could say that the second favourite thing those in the village like to do is listen to a book being read aloud.

And so Maude reads on , thrilling the others with her turn of phrase.

It will soon be time for tea , when Maude can have a break, before her audience ask that she continue with the story and her audience grows bigger.



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EVERYONE SHOULD .......

BUTTON IT! 

GOTZ GLORIOUS GOTZ

On the FB group they are celebrating Gotz Sasha's and Gregor's, so I decided to take some up to date photo's of some of my girls and I'm sharing them here, bye Ronny :)

First up is Sansa, my blonde ,half painted brown eyed no navel girl., she is wearing Vintage Sasha dungarees with Ruthdoll shoes.

A close up of her sweet face, with long fringe.

Now it's Raven's turn ,a brunette with half painted blue eyes. she's wearing Karen Warnaka with J J shoes.

a closer look at her face.

 Next is Ashley, a blonde with full painted blue eyes, wearing a Ruthdolls set , she was my first blonde no navel doll.

a close up of her pretty face.

Caitlin , a red haired full pained brown eyed no navel girl.wearing Ginny cords and a Diane Dukes Kaffe jacket and hat.

Caitlin's close up, she was almost mint when she arrived.

Ginny, my red haired half painted brown eyed waif.wearing Petrana with Lisa H boots. Ginny was the first ever No navel girl I purchased , she's the girl that made me fall in love with the no navels which I'd not really been keen on when I first saw them.

a close up of my sweet Ginny.

Wren, a brown haired full painted brown eyed No navel girl. Wearing Vintage Sasha with boots from Gayle R. Wren is my most recent no navel purchase.

I was trying not to buy any more No Navels but Wren just kept looking at me from Shelly's site until I gave in !

Martha my red haired full painted blue eyed No navel. wearing Petrana with Lisa H boots. Martha is my holy grail Sasha, not for me a longing for an NP but I so wanted a red haired full blue eyed No Navel and when the rare ones appeared I was always too late to nab them. Until this girl was offered to me by a friend.

I just love this girl and am very happy she lives here with me.

Now we have Winter, my brown haired, half painted brown haired no navel girl. wearing Karen Warnaka with Jj shoes.

Winter was my first brunette no navel, a little bit of a waif but a sweetie.

Last up of my no navel's is Mary  a red haired Shelly painted blue eyed girl. I bought Mary from Shelly's and because her eyes were a little faded and her hair had been trimmed I felt able to ask Shelly to paint her eyes in the NP Frido /Trendon style.

And Shelly did a fantastic job as you can see in this close up. There's a little bit of magic in Mary ;)

So the blondes Sansa and Ashley

close up

The Brunette's Winter, Wren and Raven

a close up.

The Red's, Ginny, Martha, Caitlin and Mary.

Close up.

Well they are my No Navel Gotz girls, I still have the button nosed kids and a couple of other early Gotz and a few later Gotz but I'll show them another time. I don't want to spoil you all too much . eh Ronny ! :)



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