IT'S COMING ALONG SOON

 

Yes , the Chat n Snap is getting closer. The photo above is of the two , at present, raffle dolls. The brunette doll, which I have donated is wearing a new smocked dress set donated by Shelley B-O. 

The baby is also wearing a romper that was also smocked and made by Shelley but he came in this and will also come with another newly donated outfit by Michelle S.

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I already have a lovely big box of raffle prizes, mostly donated by the lovely Leslie H and also some others by Ronny C and myself. There will be many more on the day.

So If you have a ticket or are on the list, my family and I look forward to seeing you on the day. There are NO admittance to non ticket /listed people on the day, please no turning up last minute as this would be unfair to all those who committed to the event and paid up early to ensure it could go ahead,

There are a few parking spaces at the front of the hall, please leave those for our older members with mobility issues.

 Please once parked up , make your way to the front doors and have your name checked off the list, please don't try to enter through the kitchen door at the rear. These will be locked.

All sales table sellers please park at the front then move your car to the rear once unloaded. Sellers can arrive from 10 15 onwards, non seller please try not to arrive before 11am

The sales tables will open when announced ,there is no selling or reserving items before they open. Let's be fair to everyone attending.

There will be the usual doll adoption table this year but with a slight twist. You can put up to three Sasha/Gregors on the table to sell but this year you can swap up to two of those for non Sasha dolls. All dolls need to have a tag with price and owner, so people can come and search for you to do the deal. If you want to buy a doll you can pick it up and go hunt the seller and do the deal. The seller must put a donation of a minimum of £2 into the box for selling the doll at the event.

Please do NOT carry any doll around if you are just thinking about buying it, this could stop the owner from making a sale to someone else on the day.

Food and drink are available for donations, there will be a box for that at the refreshment area. Please bring a mug if you can but there will be some available for those who forget or have travelled from abroad.

Raffle tickets will be on sale and the raffle will start to be called around or just after 2 pm.

There will be some new people attending, so please help them enjoy the event by having a chat.

This years display is a 1960's/ 70's playground. You can add a suitably dressed doll to the display but only one but you do not need to add any. Please be careful of the play equipment , also note there was no proper health and safety back then so safely surfaces. Your doll uses the playground at it's own risk.

Hopefully this is all not too bossy but hey you know me  !! But you will enjoy yourself honest !! 

Dee

FIVE YEARS OR MAYBE LONGER. . . . .

 

I had this little brunette baby with falling hair and decided to remove the falling hair and re root her with maybe red hair.

So I removed all the old hair and started to re root however before I'd gone far , I set her to one side and wandered off on other things. I had stored her and all her parts in an old Tupperware box, that I'd used to keep my knitting needles in. 

And there she stayed for several years, by the time I remembered her the arthritis in my hands was way to bad to push needles of hair through the hard small holes. Mm what to do ? I decided to remove the hair I'd rooted and sell her for someone else to finish off.

But the neck hook was broken ! So back in the box she went and several more years went past ! 

Then a few months ago I was hit by my. . . . I need more babies phase ! Babies began arriving like I'd opened either an orphanage or nursery , although It must be an orphanage has they are all still here ! But this meant |I went looking for the bald baby who was still in pieces. Then sent for a new neck hook, only for it to arrive and me to realise the one I already had was not broken but it was meant to be put together ! 

Yet again the poor girl was left in the box when I realised I had to heat up her neck to get the plastic bar back in. 

Finally today I decided  was the day she'd get put back together. The kettle was boiled, the neck dipped and the fight began ! I hate restring dolls ! Finally the neck ring was back in and now it was just a case of putting her head and legs back on to the body, which I had cleverly left the arms in place, so yet more time was spent trying to get the legs strings in place and the legs hook back on ! 

Then the poor girl was finally after five ( I maybe well out with that number ) years, she was whole ! Well apart from her hair ! But I had bought a wig for another non Sasha doll which I decided may do her and a lovely new smocked baby dress by Ruth Hartley , which had been sitting around waiting for her to come together .

So this is Romilly , finally getting to enjoy life again.

I think the dress suits her and she deserves it due to how long she's been tucked away !

Although the wig from the back appears more suitable to an older doll, I think from the front she can get away with it.

So Romilly is now getting to meet her baby brothers and sisters and there is one less box sitting around.

And  one tick on the to do list ! 

THE FIFTHS DOLL PHOTOS

 Yes It's already October and the fifth, so time for the wonderful doll photos kindly sent in for us all to enjoy.

From Gill we have this fabulous photo of her Sasha babies all ready for some ballet moves, along with their two sisters on hand to help. Some kish dolls watch on.

The ballet Babes kept still, barely, for a class photo.

Meanwhile up in the wilds of Newcastle a bunch of illegal immigrants are crowding round George asking to be looked after , Oops sorry it appears they are Paddington bears from deepest Peru, who came here after hiding in a boat and landing up at Paddington station. . . . . . .

Here in the village, Irka and Bob  decided to spend some time in with the teddies.

This was after they managed to escape from Lucas, who was insisting they all had to play together because they had the same clothes on. The babies were fine for a while but soon got tired and needed a nap.

Sadie, Zara and Coco enjoyed having their photo taken out in the sun although the wind was getting stronger and had a slight chill to it !

Down in Broxbourne some lucky lad is enjoying posing with his new motor ! 

From across the pond , we have Nicholas Sahara and Scott Michael , out for a walk among the leaves, enjoying the good weather while they still can. Daddy John did warn them not to kick them all over the garden or there would be trouble but. . . . well boys will be boys. . . .

Meanwhile Marta and Randell, also have been out in the garden refusing to find any warm clothing because it's been 90 degrees!! Daddy Steve has warned them it cannot last but they just whisper about old folks not really knowing much once they hit a certain age ! and they are sure Daddy Steve passed that years ago , he's got to be at least thirty ! ancient !

 I thought I'd also share this photo of the two dolls that are for the Chat n Snap raffle this year,

the brunette is wearing a lovely smocked dress donated by Shelley.

Still time to have your photo added, just send them in.

Thank you once again to all those who kindly send a photo or two to be included.

SUNDAY SEASIDE MEMORIES

 

Well I've had a lovely week because Paul and myself have just spent five days on the isle of wight, a wonderful gift holiday break gifted by our three gorgeous daughters for our 50th wedding anniversary which was in August.

We stayed in a ground floor flat overlooking Ventnor beach. This wonderful Art Deco building called the Winter Gardens, was just along from the end of the road, on the way down to the beach. A stunning building that alas is empty at present. With commanding views across the sea, it really needs someone to bring it back to its full glory, feeding and entertaining tourists and islanders alike.

I needed something to do in the evenings, so decided to take along my bag of kits, that need making.

The bag contains quite a few craft kits from the Sasha Celebration Weekends. A few years back I put them all into this bag, also from a SCW with the intension of making them up over a few months. Well that didn't happen, obviously. So when I saw them a week ago I decided to take them with me.

These are what were in the bag, along with some small teddy/animal kits I'd also bought and not done.

Naturally it turned out that a few needed some gluing but since I was not in my own home, I had to put those aside to do when I returned home.

So first one completed was this gorgeous bag by Frances Trickett, I only had to sew the sides together and add the ribboned handle. 

Next was another Frances Trickett designed bag. This one I did do the chain stitch design on and added the beads, sewed up the sides and added the rope/cord handle.

Saffy was quick to decide this was the perfect bag for her holiday sight seeing trips and that was that. So two items completed.

I also managed to complete a third item, the ballet skirt but I'm not happy with how it turned out so will probably redo it .

While I was on the Isle of Wight I met up with some lovely Sasha / doll friends for an afternoon of doll gossip and chat.

Catherine and Jane's Ten Ping Dolls and Gigi's.

Chris's Ten Ping's etc enjoying a gathering on the side. It was Chris's house we met at.

More of Chris's dolls along with my Roche doll Esme in green and yellow.

More of Chris's dolls, this time the Sasha's and babies.

Now I could  and should have taken many more but well you know what it's like when doll people get together ! Laughter and chat gets in the way of almost everything else. Chris laid on a lovely meal for us, before Jane and Catherine needed to catch their ferry back to the mainland and we needed to head off back to our holiday home, as did Gill.

They have a wonderful model village in Godshill on the island which we visited. When I was a child I lived in London and the local park, called Vauxhall park used to have several small cottages, just like these in a row along a border with a small hedge behind and a Victorian style metal garden fence in front. 

In the photo above the church had a wedding party outside and music and hymns played.

Naturally if you go to the Isle of Wight , you need to visit Osbourne House Queen Victoria and Prince Alberts holiday home. We'd book tickets before we went has you can save 15% and picked the last day of our stay to visit as it was not far, 5 minutes, from the Ferry terminal in Cowes.

Wouldn't mind this statue for the garden , I'm sure I'd be able to fine her a nice space . . . . . .

Being a Cancerian , I like nothing better than to be by the sea and what a beautiful sea it was. We were very lucky with the weather and did not need to wear a coat until the last day when the sun was hidden behind cloud most of the day and there was a slight chill.

I'll say just one more thing before I finish boring you all with holiday photos and news.

I had to live with these for five days !! Honestly who would want an orange radiator and foot stall !! 

So we are almost at the start of October which will be the rundown to this years Chat n Snap, the last one.

Amazingly all the playground items are made and finished and just sitting and waiting for the day. This is unheard of in the history of the Chat n Snap apart from the very first one, when Paul made a small row of shop fronts. It's a great place to be in, mainly just waiting until the week leading up to the day ,for the items food etc that cannot be sorted any earlier.

Today's headliners are Saffron and Kyra, they came with me on holiday and to Chris's doll meet up. I didn't take photos of them there as they had a window behind them. 

On the doll front, well just before I left I had an offer of a swap on one of my non Sasha dolls and we agreed on a swap along with some cash. So the doll whisked off on the day I left and yesterday the doll I swapped for arrived. 

A lovely early black baby , now wearing an outfit I bought from Michelle which arrived this week.

Since I was away nothing else as left but  a lovely box of raffle prizes did arrive, so that's two lovely boxes in just two weeks. The raffle will be lovely and full of treasure as usual.

So on that note I will wish you all a lovely healthy happy week ahead

Dee 

A SUNNY SUNDAY

 

Well the days seem to be rushing past ! The world goes from good to bad and back again , on a daily basis ! But at least we can push that aside and enjoy our dolls.

I've been carrying on with my sewing. However now I have loads of piles of fabric, pins, scissors, half made dolls bed quilts sitting about on the kitchen table! 

I have finished quite a few items, even having to unpick and resew three pinafore dresses that went slightly wrong. But I am enjoying having a sewing machine that's working just fine and is easier to use.

I am having tussles with the press studs, it seems half the ones you buy have faults and you cannot get a needle through one of the holes or have to fight to get them to snap together, which stops a lovely relaxing finishing of an item into a stressful time.

The items for the chat n snap are now mainly all finished and just waiting for the day to arrive, which is another thing heading rapidly towards us. Lovely Sasha friends are sending items for the raffle already, so already we have a box of goodies slowly growing, we always have lots donated on the day by all the people who attend.

Today's headliner is Cilla, who is wearing a beautiful and beautifully made pinafore dress set by Petrana, whose pattern I have been using to make my pinafores from. 

On the doll front, things are moving along, I have done a part exchange on my last Schoenhut doll for a baby Sasha and cash. So not really one out because one, although much smaller , is coming in ! 

I have bought a few t shirts off Ginny, who has a sale on and also an outfit for one of my many babies , who have suddenly filled the place.

I just had to buy this when I saw the beautiful Christmas fabric blouse, Ruth had made to go with the rich red cord dungarees.

So baby Rebel Ronnie is now already for Christmas, so one down and . . ...  . many more to go !!

Well we are off next week for a small holiday, Lindsey will be home looking after the dogs, while Paul and I, get to visit the isle of wight and also get to attend a small doll meet up with some good friends.

I will wish you all a lovely happy healthy doll filled week ahead.

Dee

 

ON THE MOVE

Alas Ruairi is on the move.

Ruairi is now up for sale , he will come in his original clothes not the outfit and shoes he is wearing here.

He is in perfect facial condition, his body has the usual gotz bumps but is fine.

A lovely head of hair

I have only ever seen two, a brunette in the three Ann's book and this lad. I am asking what I paid for him.

If interested please message/ email me. Details on my sales page.

Dee 

****UPDATE  Ruairi is off to his new home and looking forward to meeting his new mum ***

A WET RAINY SUNDAY

 

So another busy week. It's mainly been dry and sunny but a few showers have started to come in during the last few days and we needed the rain so much. The ground's been just so dry. So the fact that it's been raining constantly around 1.30 this afternoon and is still raining, is fine because it is so needed.

Have had a good week, a health issue I had as resolved itself, so no need for a little op. So now I can get on without that hanging over me. I didn't realise it was hanging until after my appointment when I found myself feeling a lot brighter! 

Now I have been using my sewing machine most days, tackling little projects, getting used to it. I have made twelve pinafores!! yes twelve! Six for Roche dolls and six for Sasha's. 

Roche pinafores

Roche Pinafores

Two Sasha pinafores 

two more Sasha pinafores.

Part made quilt, from a pack of four fat quarters.

While I have been sewing away, Paul's made the last of the playground items. Seven items in total. Paul's really enjoyed making them, working out how to put them together and a good size for the Sasha's.

I cannot wait to see them all set up together on the village hall stage ready for the event to start.

Kyra is todays headliner. wearing her beautiful blue cord dress along with her scarf and gloves.  So things are happening all over, which is lovely.

So on that note I will wish you all a lovely happy healthy week ahead.

Dee

On the dolls front. One doll left , non Sasha along with a large bear and one Sasha baby arrived. So still going slowly which is good , especially since I have not really been trying to find any more things to sell, which I do need to start doing again soon.