Monday 29 February 2016

THE 29TH OF FEB!

Well what to do with a special day that only comes round once every four years ? Mmm

I know let's have a little competition ! But first let's reveal this years Spring trend for the Sasha Village girls or boys !


Well naturally it involves COLOUR!


We are going for bright spring /summer coloured cords.


we have from the left. Lilac, Aqua, Pale Pink, Peach, Purple,Yellow, Sea Mist, Blue spot and Pink spot.
The lovely Ginny of A Passion for Sasha made them all for us.


Helping us today is Mabel Lucie who is already wearing the Candy Pink cords, which is naughty but they went so well with the Rosie Cable sweater we could not resist!. Even the sun's trying to show what lovely colours they are.


Now to go with them we have a long sleeved white t shirt by Ginny but this we intend to customise  !


Mabel Lucie what are you doing? Oh you are showing them all the colours piled up, I see .Are you sure your not just having a rest? No ? well then can we continue please..


Thank you Mabel Lucie

So the competition is to customise a white long sleeved T shirt by Palm Sunday which is the 20th March and also the first day of spring. Send a photo of it either on it's own or being worn by a Sasha.
You can use buttons, pens, paints, dye,motifs, what ever takes your fancy.

The t shirts will be posted on the blog on Monday 21st without peoples names and then voting may start, each person can vote for two t shirts and no more, voting will finish on Good Friday at Midnight GMT, the winner will receive a pair of cords by Ginny ,  they will chose the colour they would like  from the range available on her Etsy shop and they will be paid for my me.

So get those creative juices flowing and start sewing, dyeing and just trying!!

You can make your own t shirt or buy one , only requirement is it must be white and long sleeved !



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Saturday 27 February 2016

SNOW AND ICE CAN BE NICE!

If you like to skate...


and someone here loves to ice skate!


Belle whose been out skating for an hour is enjoying sliding along the ice twisting and turning and doing little jumps.


She whizzes past again..


Oh look how she glides on one leg balancing carefully..



She comes to a stop panting gently after all that skating.


Suddenly she catches movement out the corner of her eye !


It's her new brother Jamie  " Hi Belle I saw you skating and wondered if I could join you? "
" Yes It will be nice to have some company  " she smiles


" I could only find these old racing skates !" says Jamie showing Belle " They won't fit with my trainers, so I'll have to just wear my socks!"
Belle looks worried " What if you fall ? you could hurt your feet 1"
Jamie just smiles " I'll be fine I'm not afraid of the ice I lived for years in Scotland , this feels warm to me!" he boasts .


He's soon back and they spend sometime getting used to skating together circling round and doing small moves, until Jamie says " Ready? " "Yes " laughs Belle and they start to raise their arms and spin..


x

x


They spin round twice coming to a graceful stop !


They look at each other with big grins " You're good " laughs Belle
" You're better" laughs Jamie , knowing Belle's gracefully movement makes him look like he is novice!
" Come on lets try a jump together " says Jamie
" Alright just one then I must go in, it's starting to get cold "


They complete their jump which they managed to land safely with only a small wobble and then Belle makes her way back to the house and a warm shower and some hot chocolate.


Jamie starts skating slowly round the ice, increasing his speed with each circuit .


 Soon he's cutting through the ice at speed, this is what he loves, speed skating, he enjoyed skating with Belle but now with the wind whistling past his ears and  his legs pumping he felt free!


He starts leaning forward and with a whoop, races on filled with joy.


In his head he can hear the cheers and the commentator " Yes it's Jamie MacKenzie Owen 1st for Great Britain and Northern Ireland in this Olympic speed skating contest , well done lad !" he pushes himself harder until finally he realises he can no longer feel his toes, so had best go back in.. a speed skater needs his toes!!


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Thursday 25 February 2016

RANDOM

Photo's from my computer... I've had a busy week, so thought I'd share a few old photos along with a couple of more recent ones.


Oliver Button nose


At the ballet!


Paige and Edward with Mossy looking on.


A young Hattie


Ginny and Mossy meet


Paige and Edwards first meeting.


Setting off to sea... when they find it!


Four of the best but where's the rest??


Well I hope you enjoyed looking at these photo's from my archives and I'll take this opportunity to remind everyone that it will soon be the first of March and so far I have NO doll shelves to share, so please get out that camera and see what your dolls are up to and send in a snap or three ! Everyone loves to see peoples photo's of their dolls and clothes, props etc.




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Monday 22 February 2016

WORTH A COPY?

There was a debate on the facebook group about copying other peoples work. Copying can be a big thing that can cause the person whose been copied much grief and annoyance. Some people do on see what they are doing as copying but them some see that have a right for others not to use the same materials have them.

Basically there are only so many patterns both knitting and sewn out there that are original however if someone as taken time to adapt a pattern , correcting the size and making it fit only for someone else to make a direct copy and start churning them out at a cheaper price or not, it will cause friction and ill feeling.

However , noone has exclusive rights to use a certain fabric or wool on a basic pattern and call it there own ! Who knows ,especially if you are new ,to the making for that group that some else as not already used that style to knit or sew already. However if someone as taken that basic pattern and cut or styled it in a new and clever way and then you copy it exactly then that is a direct copy!

Lots of people have ideas that maybe they never put into the public eye and may then see someone else whose had that same idea and actually run with it.

I will show you how it should be .. she says...


Many years ago I bought this gorgeous cardigan as part of a two piece outfit with some fake suede trousers in pink, the trousers are long gone it was this cardigan I wanted.


I bought it from a lady who had her own website selling clothes for Sasha and Gregor, her could be Sheila Vincent but I am not sure, so I apologise if it's not made by her and by someone else.


Well I love this cardigan with it's ruffled edge, cuffs and collar and at that time I was knitting and selling sweater dresses and hats on Ebay. At that time I would make my hats and put a flower on them with a button centre, how soon with me having very good sales did sweater dresses appear and also hats with flowers with button centres..anyway , I thought that the ruffle might look good on one of the sweater dresses, so I did some research.


and found that pattern details in one of my knitting books.


I can here you knitters ! muttering .. that looks interesting... that looks easy ..

anyway, so I knitted a sweater dress with a ruffled bottom in 4ply yarn however once I had finished I did not like how it sat!


and here it is because I was not happy with it I just put it aside and left it.


What I should have then done is knit it again in 6ply and a plain yarn and adjust the cross over between the ruffle and the stitches above but I did not , I left it and this is the only one I ever made. When like me you work all day and knit quite slowly if it does not work the first time you tend to move on, which is what I did.
About six months later Jackknits came out with her pattern for a pleated/ruffles skirt on a knitted dress/tunic for the 18 inch doll and those dresses started being sold for Sasha's.


So you can see that I was inspired by the cardigan to start to adapt it for a sweater dress and this is what should happen when you see a design you like by someone else.
I am and always have been an idea's person unfortunately I mostly do not have the skill or if I do the time to put those ideas into production but for those that do, I do understand where you are coming from if others copy or appear to copy.

Lets see what happens... :)


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Sunday 21 February 2016

WHEN I WAS

Fourteen or fifteen I went with my school to a career's show , I cannot remember where it was probably Earls Court.

Anyway I remember only one thing from that day and it was this I went to a stand for British airways and I think it had part of an aircraft which you entered and there inside were seats and air hostesses giving out leaflets about a career in that industry.

However any thought I had of boarding a plane and inviting people to take their seats was cured that day by a glamorous  lady in full uniform who when I asked for a leaflet for her job  and my request came out as Hair Hostess ( the problem of a south London accent and an inability not to swap or add H's to words that start with an A ) , she repeated what I had said  loudly and mockingly to the merriment of all the other girls from various schools present.

Mortified I took the proffered leaflet and turned and left, I have no idea if I added it to my bundle of others or threw it in the bin,probably bin!  the only thing I remember is her and the others. But although she had caused me to feel embarrassed for a while , my inner self soon surfaced to realise that it was not I who should feel in the wrong but the person who chose to score some cheap laugh by correcting a young girl in front of others. Her behavour showed me that it was not a place I'd want to work not because of my accent but because of her behavour, if there was one there would be others.
God forbid you should be called Hannah Anderson and I be required to tell it to another.. it's fifty fifty if you'll be Anna Handerson / Hannah Handerson or Hannah Anderson it's not much better with Ellen and Alan...

Amazingly there are still people who have felt the need over the years to point out when this sort of thing  happened again, my adding or leaving that H ! Or to repeat a sentence I may have said that's been full South London , thinking it's funny and okay to want others to join in the laughter !
I have even had cause to point out that I do not find it funny I find it rude but they will brush it off because they think it's fine ! and they cannot be in the wrong ! I have yet to have anyone apologise for their behavour in believing that they have a right to correct a grown woman on how shes just said something! It's no different to  someone from Newcastle or Birmingham's accent but for some reason but they are seen as accents, where as a South London accent is seen as poor speech or common !

 If it will make someone feel superior, that's fine if they need it to help them lift themselves up so be it, but I know it to be rude and unacceptable in whatever manner they use.

No doubt the grammar and spelling on this blog leaves a lot to be desired , spell check is a marvel but not quite so good due to it being the American way of spelling, So I use Paul who will read something after I have posted it ,usually, before if I'm lucky, then point out either if the spellings wrong or I have used the wrong word that's is spelt two ways and I have chosen the incorrect one.

It's very frustrating to be in full flow of writing only to want to use a word that you have no idea how to spell or even how to start it off ! Yes spell check is a marvel but only if you know how to start the word off ! And sometimes I will sit here repeating a word trying to work out what letters it starts with!

Up in my bedroom is a book I wrote many years ago when my children were young on a typewriter and by hand, no computers back then ! My eldest daughter offered once to type it up onto the computer and she did type some of it but she'd come across a space, where I had paused in full flow trying desperately to spell the word in my head, so in the end I'd leave a gap planning to return and fill in the space but sometimes once returned I could not remember the word! I think it was my eldest daughter who bought me a small hand sized recorder telling me to tell the story into it and she'd type it later  ( she is a fabulous speller, you could open a dictionary at any page when she was ten and ask her to spell a word and she'd be right! obviously does not take after her mum for that!) but I had to explain that for me the story comes from the writing down /typing of the tale...it flows from me to my hands and then onto the paper then, screen now.

For me I can sit at this computer with a selection of photos that could have just been meant to be for a photo shoot, start typing and placing the photo's in and finding a fully fledged story by the time I have finished.
Over the years my spelling and grammar has? as ? :) improved or maybe not!

But I do appreciate those teachers amongst you who have not printed up my posts, corrected them with red ink , marked then C- must do better and put them to me in the post !

Oh and It may be worth mentioning that I seem to type faster with one hand than the other and will therefore hit a letter that will appear in front of one it should be after !

Well I may go search out that book and try typing it up, problem I found when I tried before is that I change is as I type... but then being so much older maybe it will turn into a masterpiece.. or not...



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TINY STITCHES

Well Jamie was not the only one to get a new sweater this week , the girls also received one, but who to wear it first?

Lots of discussion, s few tantrums and a few tears  before Mum took over and made the choice! along with a list of who gets to wear it next!


Why do they always look through the trellis? what are they hoping to see?


Well why they look we get to see the beautiful detail at the back !


Ah It's Mabel Lucy ! who is first to wear the new sweater by the talented Rosie Laird , I think mum chose her because she was not fighting over it but getting upset that everyone was arguing !



A close view of the tiny cable stitches.


 Mabel Lucy's also wearing a pair of the new cords from Ginny of a Passion for Sasha with a pair of grey JJ shoes.


Now she's talking to Boris one of the gargoyles whose protect the house and garden.


How sweet , she holds his finger her hands too small to hold his.


She looks off down the garden but Boris watches and waits.


He knew it! Mabel Lucy always leans against him for a rest! have you ever heard a gargoyle chuckle?
me neither but you do feel the earth shaking slightly...so deep is the sound.


Boris watches Mabel Lucy while Mable Lucy watches the garden.


Friends


Later Mabel Lucy moves on down the garden stopping at the covered benches.


No sun today to cast a shadow but a strong breeze that could take the feet out from under a wobbly strung Sasha, so Mabel Lucy makes her way back to the house to ask Dad when he's going to sort out her strings!!


I must apologise to Rosie for not pulling the sleeves down into place! But when dealing with a wobbly strung Sasha , I tend to forget about those things while getting them to stand and not dive into the gravel or shrubbery ! I could have chosen another of my girls but thought Mable Lucy would look good with her short bobbed hair .
I was so happy to nab this gorgeously detailed and perfectly sized cable sweater made by Rosie definitely a winner and I am sure she'll have a waiting list by now.




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NB for Rosie.


Stachys Lanata... Lambs ears/ lugs