IT'S GETTING WARMER

 At last! Mind you the temperature will probably dip again next week!

Martha, who is casually leaning against the tree asks if she is finally going to be allowed to remove her boots and maybe get into more summer clothes?

"Cast nar a clout till May is out!" say I " which means " I explain " Don't remove any clothing until May is finished"

"Well, I'll be removing these tights and boots!" declares Martha " and changing this dress but I will make sure I keep a cardigan handy, just in case I need a clout"

Yes, I was tempted, very tempted...

BUTTONS UP!

 This week it's button ( no ) nose week on the Sasha group on Facebook! So lots of lovely button kids showing their sweet little faces.

Of course my ever shrinking  band of buttons wanted to go see everyone.

Arabella, wanted to change but i say she looked fine and if she wanted her photo to be put on, she'd best accept it or she'd miss her chance!

Margo was more than happy to stay in her dress, she is being very serious at the moment and spending her time writing her diary and reading.

While Magda knows she looks good and with the weather keep chopping and changing at the moment she was more than happy to not to change.

The girls come together for a group photo.

WHY IT'S SUNDAY!

 Are the weeks going faster or is it just me? Either way I know I'm not getting any faster just slower! I can only think it's because now I'm retired, I don't have to fit things into the weekend or evenings, but this doesn't seem to be working for me! Because I'm still just wasting my days faffing about and not getting on with much.

Each evening I go off to bed and land up thinking " Tomorrow I will get on first thing in the morning and do X, Y or Z and then save my faffing for the afternoon" but it never happens, at least not yet.

When I do actually get a few things done during the day, you think I'd been short of time and miraculously fitted them in, instead of having still wasted plenty of time!

Like for instance I planned on making a dress for a new to me , non Sasha, doll before she arrived. So I set about sorting out some choices of fabric, found some patterns, bought some other patterns. Looked at said patterns and fabric, planned on cutting out a pattern or two and then some fabric, went to try and find some missing patterns, which remained hidden, so gave up and went off and bought another pattern and a couple of pieces of fabric.

Problem was/is could not decide which dress pattern to make! None was quite what I was after! So instead of settling on a couple and starting on them, at this moment I have still not started even though the patterns are sitting beside me!

Even worse the doll's arrived and is now sitting in a dress that doesn't quite fit, having had her clothes washed and dried and put away! and still no decision made!

Once upon a time, when I was much younger, I'd have cut and made up a couple of dresses before the doll was even in the post! Even I used to go on holiday, the cases would be packed and ready at least a week before, where as now I'm throwing things in a bag the same morning I'm leaving to go away !

On the doll front, as stated earlier a doll arrived. Another Roche who makes up a pair with one I already own, I'd watched this doll since last year sit on eBay and did make an offer last year but wasn't accepted so left it. Then made another offer a few weeks ago, which again wasn't accepted but then she changed her mind. So since she's arrived another has been listed to go for my one in one out policy.

I have also sorted out several pairs of Sasha/ Gregor boots/shoes, because I have so many that the one's I'm selling haven't been on one of my dolls for a good few years! There are more I need to go through and also sell on, the sun's come back out, the weather is improving and I need space!!!!

So on that note I'm off to look in a drawer or three and then cut out some patterns and fabric! I will honest! I need to, no more faffing!  

Have a great week ahead and give your nearest and dearest a big hug, it will brighten their day 

Dee xx

HAPPY ST GEORGE'S DAY

 

" God for Elizabeth, England and St.George ! " Cries Erik " Happy St George's day "

Today is the 23rd of April when we the English remember our patron saint George.

out takes ;)

" You do know I'm not English mum? " asked Valentine " and that I'm wearing colours in support of Ukraine ? "

Mum gives him the look and shouts " Erik !"

ORDER ORDER!

 

 Arabella is looking very serious! I wonder what she's doing?

Mmm she seems to be studying her notes.

Suddenly the door opens and in rush Marth and Violet " Sorry we're late " says Martha out of breath

" Yes Sorry Arabella " adds Violet " we got caught up with mum and couldn't get away "

"No problem " smiles Arabella " I totally understand how hard it is to escape mum sometimes "

The girls smile back " Come and take a seat "

" So " says Arabella " I am expecting Percy to join us but we cannot wait any longer, So lets bring this meeting to order "

"If we are ordering I'll have a burger!" say Toby coming into the room.

Arabella rolls her eyes " We are not ordering food! We are bringing the meeting to order " 

Toby grins while Arabella looks confused " What are you doing here? "

"Oh yeah! Percy said to tell you, sorry he cannot make the meeting but I'm to listen and report back to him"

"He sent you to report back? " Arabella asked not believing anyone would send Toby on such an errand 

" Yep" confirms Toby " but he said you had best make a note and send that with me in case I forget something "

"Well" sighs Arabella " you'd better take a seat and pay attention!"

Toby sits next to Martha 

"Now we will bring the meeting to order.. No! " Arabella warns Toby has he opens his mouth to speak

Toby laughs but stays quiet, so Arabella continues " This is the first meeting of the Queen's jubilee tea party "

Turning to Violet she continues " We will need flowers for the table, which we be very long so that we can all get round it "

" So how many are you thinking? six? eight? ten? " 

"Maybe have ten available, even if we don't use them all on the table, we can use them elsewhere "

" Any particular colours? " Violet questions

"What do you think for colours Martha, Toby?"

" Mm Purple and white ? " says Martha

"Red?" says Toby at the same time

"Purple and white sounds good" agrees Arabella " so lets go with that " She makes a note 

"What's wrong with red? " Argues Toby" I love red flowers!"

"There is nothing wrong with red bu  "

"Well then we need some red!"

Before they start arguing Violet jumps in " We could have some red flowers too, they could go around the table area ? "

"See " says Toby smirking at Arabella " let's have some big red flowers too!"

Arabella gives Toby a glare but adds red flowers to her list 

Arabella decided to ignore Toby and carried on with the meeting, looking over towards Violet she continues.

The girls are now talking about tablecloth's, crockery, colours of fabric etc, Toby is soon bored and Martha feels the sofa move. she looks over at Toby.

She's shocked to see Toby's helped himself a drink and a gingerbread man!

"Toby!" Martha whispers " we don't eat and drink until the interval "

"When's that? I'm starving!"

"It's usually halfway, so about 30 minutes " Martha whispers " So you'd best up those back!"

but before he can move Arabella looks over to see what they are whispering about.

 Arabella is not impressed to see Toby's already helped himself to refreshments! She knew he'd be problem the minute he arrived!

"It's not quite time for refreshments Toby " she states quietly 

" Why not? " Argues Toby " surely if it's there it doesn't matter when it's eaten? Why does it need to wait? Some of us are hungry now not in half an hour!" 

Arabella tries to explain " We are holding a meeting which needs to be run in a correct order" Toby opens his mouth, but Arabella's eyes take on a hard glint, so he shuts it again has she continues " Which means we eat at the halfway point, that way we get some work done first "

"Well" Toby thinks about what to do? does he really want to seat around with cakes staring at him for another twenty minutes? 

Toby gets up " Well I'd love to stay and stare at the food for ages, but I need to go on an important errand, so I bid you all goodbye!"

Arabella carries on the meeting ignoring Toby as he leaves, but she still sees him stop and help himself to a couple more biscuits.

Pockets full of biscuits Toby leaves watched by Violet.

but there are still plenty of cakes etc left.

The girls giggle as the tension drops with Toby's exit. 

"He is such a tike that boy! " Exclaims Arabella as the other two nod agreement " Martha can you give Percy the note about the meeting once we finish? " Martha nods " Right then let us continue. We will need Percy to make us a lovely long table to eat our jubilee tea at"

The meeting continues in peace with the girls stopping halfway through for refreshments before finishing in time to go off and start getting things agreed on underway.

Sometime later that afternoon the room is once again occupied

"Come to daddy!" Toby pulls the gingerbread man towards his mouth! " I knew those girls wouldn't eat all the cakes! "

All's quiet apart from the sounds of the smacking of lips and the sighs of bliss coming from the room.

NB

It's been lovely and warm here today so I set up the room on the patio table!

Need to use earlier before the sun starts to affect the area 

TUESDAY TWITTERINGS

 Well, that's Easter over and done with. The weather was lovely and warm and dry, so great for getting outside.

Thankfully my mouth started to recover from the tooth removal last Monday, so I did not go back to the dentist, just was careful in what ate. Now it's almost fine but at least no longer aching.

We went to lunch with Gill and Tony, which was lovely, gave us a chance to catch up and see their new space in their garden after the storm, blew a neighbour's metal gazebo over two fences which then bounced off their greenhouse and into the next garden. The greenhouse did not come off well, so they used it's demise to reconfigure the garden. We came back with a large plastic box of their no longer needed clay plant pots.

Now that the sun is around more, yes, I know it's always been around, but it is now like we are coming out of hibernation, we are starting to get the little things done. I don't know about you but there is always something that's been removed and left elsewhere taking up space. You know when you have redecorated or organised a place and things do not go back because they no longer fit or the place no longer exists.

We finally found a place for this Greenman bottle opener, it used to be on the door of the old outhouse which was taken down a few years back when the new patio was laid.

My garden hooks are now on the gazebo as well, I had to find it a home as I love them. They used to hold my garden tool bags but lost their home when we removed the wall between the breakfast room and the dining room, and the dresser went where it lived.

It's also the time of year where plans are starting to be made about the different things that need to be done, mainly garden ones because we have been doing things outside. But there will be inside things to go on any list.

I packed all my dolls away for the winter, non Sasha's, and they were kept up in the bedroom while the weather was cold. Now the bags are back in the studio waiting to be unloaded back onto the shelves.

Naturally over the winter I have used the top shelf for the new dresser I bought, so they will now have to squeeze into the shelves that are left. I am still fighting the less is more battle, so I will need to look again at what can go.

The Sasha's and Gregor's are all still in their winter wear, although Zak at least, is in long shorts however he could get rid of his hat! Mind you when the cloud came over today it got very cold.

On the doll front, none left, one Roche doll arrived, I'd had her on a small layaway. No clothes have been purchased but I did receive a lovely outfit as a gift for one of my Roche dolls, from a friend.

I have purchased a few dolls clothes patterns, to make a few items for my bigger dolls, now just need to get round to actually doing it. Still have knitting to do, that box won't empty itself of all that yarn!

 I hope you all had a lovely Easter break and the weather, wherever you are, was nice and dry, so I wish you all a lovely fun filled week ahead

Dee

HAPPY EASTER

 

Wishing you all a Happy Easter and to those you don't celebrate a fun filled weekend.

SUNNY SUNDAY

 Well it's Sunday again ! The day is lovely and bright but still with that edge of a chill in the air ! Not a lot's happened this week mainly due to me still being in pain due to the tooth removal. The gum is taking it's time to heal and so it's been awkward to eat or drink most days. But I'm hoping it will have improved this coming week or I may have to pop back to dentist just to have it checked.

It's also given me a cold ,just to add insult to injury !

I did however get to go and see the princess and her little brother, the prince , and spent a lovely day playing and chatting with them. Adam is now big enough to want to be included in all princess Clara's games and is at that stage where he is constantly jabbering away with lots of golly golly golly sounds. 

Courtney sent me a photo of him this morning, wearing two of Clara's cardigans, one on top of the other ! He likes to wear/ do anything like his big sis !

I have been knitting the sweater for my friends Roche doll and finally finished one and have almost finished a second one then they can be sent off and I can start knitting other things. I have to say I will be glad to finally not have to keep changing colours in odd ways and be able to finally just knit ! Once I have knitted a few other doll items I will have to get back to Adam's other cardigan and then a few more things for them.

You may remember way back years ago, we stopped work on the kitchen because , after completely refitting it, we decided that we would change the range for oven's that could go into a higher unit ? This I had suggested due to getting older , well now I have decided that since I love my range cooker and replacing it with something else involves another refit of part of the kitchen , I'd rather keep it and worry about any problems in that regard when they happen , if they ever do !

So finally Paul made, painted and fitted the kick boards under the units ! Next we have to decide if we replace the wooden worktops or sand them back as these ones have not been as good as the ones they replaced. Then finally Paul can tile the walls behind the cooker and between the worktops , mind you going by our previous work rate this will take a while ! But at least a plan is now in place !

On the doll front not much has been happening. I'm still waiting for my doll to arrive, she'll take a couple of weeks , I have to confess I did make a cheeky offer on another, who is now also on her way and also had a Sasha put on a short layaway ! So maybe a lot happened !!

Well I'm off to finish knitting that sweater , so I can start on some others while making plans of all the things I need to start doing or that will need doing now that springs arrived.

Wishing you all a happy healthy week ahead

Dee

ATTICUS CHECKING OUT

 The garden

These are pretty thinks Atticus looking at the tiny blooms.

Mm these tulips are flowering despite the freezing cold weather !

That's a lot of bricks ! I wonder what they want to use them for ? 

This is a lovely pink flower Atticus says.

This pot is great for getting a higher view ! but I'd better not fall in or I'll be stuck !

But this is even better !

This is just like being in the woods !

This will be a great place to play with the others , thinks Atticus, especially when the plants get even bigger !

APRIL FIFTH SO IT'S DOLL PHOTO DAY !

 Yes it's that time again and what a beginning to the month it's been as can be seen in the first photo sent in below.

Yes that is SNOW ! Caleb even had to go and build a snowman so we would all believe it snowed that much in Germany just this week ! Mummy Hildegard calls him back inside for some hot chocolate to warm him back up !

Even all the way over the pond in the US, Steve's girl Lulu decided that she'd best keep on her lovely warm dress because it may be Spring but the weather seems to think it's still winter ! She says if daddy Steve would actually put some money in her purse she'd be able to cover any changes in the weather by buying things ! especially chocolate which solves all problems !

Meanwhile Wanda is thankful for Mummy Ursula finishing her lovely warm sweater , so she can enjoy a trip round the garden looking at the lovely spring flowers without freezing.

Atticus is so glad he didn't leave his hat inside because the wind is just so cold ! But since he is feeling nice and warm in his sweater and hat he's going to go and explore the garden just in case the snow decides to arrive !

From Karin in Switzerland we have Lucy who changed ready for summer only for the snows to return ! She's off to find a cardigan as soon as this photos taken !

Thank you to everyone sending in a photo and taking part. There is always time to add another, so just send it in.