AMBER

My new Gotz girl arrived this week, so she had a change of clothes and came outside for a photo shoot on Thursday.

Yes another Ochre eyed girl.

While I was waiting for Sienna to arrive I saw this young lady on Shelly's and after going back a couple of times and stopping at her, I finally gave in and asked for her.

Her eyes are a lot deeper coloured than Sienna's.

A close up of her pretty face.

Her hair to the front is quite sparse , so I'll add some in when I have time.

She's enjoying wandering in the plants.

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I don't know what I'll do when we finally plants these! I'll have to look for another place to take the photos!

So I hope enjoyed meeting Amber .




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ANOTHER SAD LOSS

It is with great sadness that I have to tell you that today our handsome lad Hamish passed away.
He came into our family on the 30th September 14 years ago , he was a happy friendly character who loved to play even up until this last week.

He waits in his basket for us to find him a place ,tomorrow, in the flower garden near his sister , who passed away in March . Where we will be able to still have him near. He was a much loved member of our family and will be deeply missed as his sister is.

For the first time in over 33 years we will not be met in the morning by a happy wagging tail. We are heartbroken.




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INTERNATIONAL POETRY DAY

Today it appears is International Poetry Day! So....

BETWEEN ME AND YOU

Back in January 2010
so long ago I don't know quite when
I sat up to a computer here
and upon the screen she did appear

Her hair was blonde
and real hair too!
Not that I knew
between me and you

But bid I did and much surprise
I won the doll before my eyes
A Pintuck girl from USA
was soon to wing her way

To my cottage door did come
A Pintuck girl just the one
Well that was the general plan
until I saw a little man

Before I could draw a breath
the house was full of vinyl
Sasha , Gregors and Babies
stood like a crowd at the cup final

Now seven longs years have passed
and hubby's given up the task
of saying not another one!
Now he just lifts his thumb

And eyes the shed , yes that one
that's looking rather sad and glum
and dreams of maybe next year
another place will appear


Then out the house the dolls can go
all their props and clothes you know
that fill the place from floor to roof
If you came round he'd give you proof

Then finally he'll sit down
and dolls won;t watch him with a frown
They'll only be one or two..
or so he thinks between me and you...

Dee Owen

Liberty my first ever Sasha Doll from January 2010.




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SIENNA

I took quite a few photos of Sienna in her change of clothes for the autumn/winter, so thought I'd share a few more with everyone.

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" Could you look out into the garden " I ask
"Like this? "
" perfect!"

" Don't you think it's a little warm for a scarf? " Sienna asks

"Well " I say " I'm getting you ready for winter"
"But it's only just autumn 1"

" I did save a lovely dress for you to wear " I confess
" So where is it? "
" That's the question!"

" I'll just hold the scarf for now , Okay? " says Sienna

"Fine " I reply

" Maybe you could smell the flowers? "

" Like this? "
"Perfect "

" Shouldn't these be in the garden? "
"Yes but it's finding the time!"

"You have a lot to plant"
" I know!"

" Look These one's are really tall!"

" I think you'll need to plant them soon if you want them to get bigger for next year!"

" Yes we will but that's just another job on the lists of jobs to do before winter gets here! " I agree " Now we are finished here, so let's go in and you can tell me all about your sister Amber whose about to arrive!"


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IT'S SUNDAY

AND THE WEATHERS GLORIOUS !

After three weeks of sunshine and showers and turning the heating on a couple of evenings, the suns decided to return and bring some warmth with it.

Well one wall of the folly is finished!

and it seems someone's looking to take up residence!

I have told him , he'll have to wait until it's all finished to see if there's a place for him and his twin brother !

We have deliberately left a few knocks and crannies where we can plant a few ferns etc.

The side wall is coming along nicely.

and the first part of the arched doorway is in place, so this wall can be carried on to link into it.
Everywhere around looks like a building site! which it is!  As we build, I hope you are liking this WE! it's the royal one ;) , we are beginning to re design the garden space behind. So lots to do and see as this garden folly takes shape.

Well the clothes clearing out is going well.. ish , this is the cupboard today...

Now before you say it looks just the same as last time! I have to say I have managed to completely empty one of the smaller boxes and a few of the bags that contained clothes that were around the house!

I've had a tally up and so far have sold 43 items consisting of 4 baby outfits, 15 knitted items,11 dresses,6 clothes sets and 4 assorted items. Plus 4 dolls. Which sounds good but is in truth the tip of the iceberg! I need to be much harder!!

I decided also to redress my new girl who decided that it was time to tell me her name.

So here is Sienna amid the flowers waiting to be planted.

She tells me she loves flowers and so does her sister Amber ! Who it appears will be arriving next week!
How did that happen...... ;)

We also harvested the Tomato's and Peppers when we returned from our week away. We will definitely grow these again next year.

Well I need to go make some hard decisions re what goes and what stays and get them photographed and listed etc.

So wishing everyone a great week ahead.



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FINALLY...

Got round to setting up the blog site for this years Chat n Snap ! What got me to get my rear in gear was the arrival of this lovely gotz baby Celine for the raffle.

Isn't she lovely! She's looking forward to getting a new mum to give her lots of love and attention.

If you'd like to check it out , the blog for the day, it's www.chatnsnap2017.blogspot.co.uk

I'll add it to my side bar over the weekend.

I also spotted this out in the garden....

I wondered just what they were up to! so I got a little closer...

Jenny at the front was just humming happily to herself while Saffy and the new girl were discussing
clothes, the list of what they need seems to be endless!! Robin seems to think he's in the queue for a bus! while Toby heard the word cake! and figures if he joins the line he'll be able to get some!!
I think they are queuing for the Chat n Snap! Goodness They'll have a long wait if they are ! not to mention that they are in totally the wrong place..... I'll leave them for a while then send Zak to tip them off....



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THE SORTING BEGINS!!!!

First back in the box was the smocked dresses.... of course!

Well it's going to be a long task ! I have sent half of yesterday and most of today sorting and taking photos and listing and selling! But slowly things and going and I have one whole small empty box....

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SUNDAY AND IT'S TIME TO CATCH UP.

It's already the middle of September! I've just had a lovely two weeks off work but it's now time to get back into the swing of things.

Because we've been away , we've been inspired, as usual, to get on with things, change things, clear out things! I so love holidays they give you that chance to recharge the batteries and think about what you are doing at work and also at home.

First up, seeing all those gardens made us decide it was time to sort out one of the borders at home and this time we followed the recommended rules! We went off to one of our favourite garden nurseries and bought a few plants.

So this was what the garden table looked like after our visit!

They always tell you to buy three or five of a plant not just one if you want to get a nice big group of colour, so that's what we did , we bought three of most plants and just one set of five.

And an amazing thing happened! That evening I noticed this strange flying thing around the plants...

My daughter managed to get a photo of it and Paul identified it as A Humming Bird Hawk Moth!  It's wings were going so fast it was really hard to get a clear photo! This was the only one we managed between us! I have never ever seen one before in the garden or in life! So it's nice to know it's out there and we are putting in plants that will feed it and it's offspring!

The next day due to gale force winds being forecast I moved all the plants off the table and under some shelter , so a couple of days later Paul moved them back so they could get some light and water.

It's actually working out quite well as keep moving things about and some of them flowering more is enabling us to see what looks good together. I think they would all look quite good together in one bed!

Paul been working on the folly everyday although the rains made work very bitty but it's progressing well and we got to the stage that one of the windows could be put in. So I help Paul pick it up and almost immediately told him we needed to put it down.. it weighted a ton!! I knew there was no way we'd be able to lift it into place on the brickwork!

But luckily enough when it came time to put it in place, I messaged my son in law and he popped round and Paul and him lifted into place and I observed! Perfect ;).
Then the heavens opened yet again!

So I can only share this photo taken between heavy showers yesterday, no time to move things out the way to get a good photo.

but you can see it's coming along.

On the doll front it's been an arriving and leaving sort of month so far!

My golden eyed girl arrived.

I've changed her into something warmer due to this cold snap we are having.

Her sweet face.

So she's arrived and a few Sasha dolls and non Sasha dolls have left. There will probably be a few Sasha's that go up for adoption during the rest of this month and a few more non Sasha's.

But then having said that there are two Sasha's on there way in over the next few months! My other task this month is to finally be brutal and get rid of Sasha clothes.

This is a dress I got from the SC weekend and it's still in it's wrapper! I've also got things from the Chat n Snap from last October still in their wrappers or unused!.

So I'm going to open up every box and bag I have of clothing and shoes and whittle the whole lot down to two boxes of each to keep and the rest is heading for my sales page/ Ebay or the Sasha Bazaar or all three! So if you see something you've made on there please don't be offended because its not that I don't like it any more , I'd have never have bought it if I didn't, it's just I need to be hard!

And now I'm off to load up the camera battery and open the first box... wish me luck... you know I'll be needing it.....

Have a great week

Dee

Ps It's nice to see Hans and his Papa are still about and going to post when the mood strikes.

ROUND THE HOUSE and WERE WE ALONE......

Lydia was waiting outside, she'd been out for a stroll while we'd been in Montacute House.

She'd shelter by the large stone plant trough.

The large comfy living room which had two large sofa's that large footrest and also a small table , two chairs and a long pew in the window.

Now I will tell you something that happened here on the first evening. You can see in the photo a plug point and the lead from it  goes to my ipad. Very late on the first evening i when to either turn it off or put it on charge and as I turned away towards the sofa you can see,I felt  something rushing past quickly and quite solid on the side between me and the sofa!
I made it a point to always turn in the opposite direction after that and did not encounter that feeling again! I also did not mention it to anyone.

 A rather dark photo of the kitchen out towards the tiny courtyard.on this side of the counter was a table and four chairs where we had breakfast and snacks.

The smallest of the bedrooms

from the other angle.

The second of the double bedrooms.

some books to read while you stay.

The master bedroom.

another amazing fireplace.

and for once this is not how I've taken the photo, the window did run out that much !Thankfully the floor was more level!

The lovely fourposter bed!

The second strange thing that happened was with these chest of drawers. You can see that two of the handles are up instead of down..... well that's how they appeared in the morning after our first night!
I'd not touched the drawers and could not remember seeing them out of place the night before! It only happened on that one night! I checked every morning to see if they were still down!
Now I am not a believer in this or a none believer ! I'm open minded and would need to see proof for myself.. but would rather not thanks very much!

The only down side of the house was this was the 'garden' a nice suntrap but only two of you would be able to sit outside at any time. This is also what it was like when we arrived and this....

 was what it was like after we'd been to a couple of gardens...The bottle with the plant is , is where part of one of the plants broke off on our way back and Paul places the broken part into a bottle of water and then when we were ready to leave wrapped the stems in a damp tissues and a plastic bag, then potted them up once we got back to see if they'd root! So a possible couple of extra plants!

I have to say that because we'd gone in my little car for a change , it had restricted the amount of room we had to place purchases, so was quite good in one way although we did our best to fill it to the brim for the return journey!


So you'll be pleased to know that's the end of  holiday snaps! Did you see Mossy in some of those photos? No? Yes?

I'm going to add the photos where he's hiding so you can see if you spotted him. Below...




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