SUNDAY SO SOON

 

Well what a wet old week it's been here ! I am getting fed up of all this rain and grey sky. It would appear that the sun has lost that hat that it likes to put on and it's not coming out to play any time soon !

Some parts of the country are getting a months rain in a day on top of previous rain that's already soaked the ground. So not a good time for some people in area's where they get flooding. So a change to some nice cold but bright sunny days would be good for everyone.   

On Tuesday we had lunch with our friends and talk of decorating occurred that made me decide it was time, once back home, to get on with our bedroom before Spring arrives and Paul's back outside wanting to deal with the garden. So I finally took the photos of our large pine wardrobe and put it on ebay and much to my delight it was sold in a couple of hours and due to be collected on Monday.

So now it's going , next week I will order the parts for the fitted wardrobe that will take it's place and then the refitting and decorating of our bedroom will finally get underway. 

At last it seems everyone's waking back up from the aftermath of Christmas and the January slump, where we are all recovering from all the spending around Christmas and the sales, although they even they were said to be quite quiet this year.

so my knitting has turned into a jacket !

The finished jacket shown on a Roche doll. I'm pleased with how it turned out and will tweak the pattern to make a slightly altered style. The next thing to knit.

If you read yesterday's blog post , you will have seen that I almost sold one of my newer to me, no navel dolls. But I really didn't want to part with her, so pulled her off and found another way to get the doll I was after and did a swap with another doll, so sorted.

Today's headliner is a pot of Sasha babies from years back all of who were sold a long time back when I did a big cull of my babies and went down to just Elton Ron. However last year I went of a spending spree on , of all things, babies !! Going from one to double figures in no time.

Naturally once I had all those babies I was wondering if I'd been hit on the head ! So I did sell a few off to reduce them down to a more reasonable figure.

So on the sales front, I have sold a wardrobe plus two dolls, one big Sasha and one baby. These two dolls were sales towards my small layaway of a Sasha.  Finally I can have a rest from selling until the spring when I can go look out all the props etc that I could really sell as they are not being used. Which would give me some space and some doll money for the summer.

I don't know how many of you are still selling on ebay but I am constantly finding people making offers on dolls that are not only a big drop but they include me 'paying the buyers insurance! So I'd get even less ! When I put items on to sell I usually have dropped the price already by taking into account how much the overall price will be once they have added the 'buyer's Insurance ' which means when people come along and want a doll for next to nothing and want me to pay the buyers insurance on top , I get mightily annoyed. 

Well that's me moan for the month and with that I will wish you all a lovely healthy fun filled week ahead.

Dee

OH NO! WHERE DID THEY ALL GO !

 

So yet again one sees the error of their ways ! That one being me and the error being my chasing of another doll over the years.

When I see the photos of the no navel dolls that lived here in the village and that I have foolishly moved on, no doubt in order to buy some other doll that's taken my fancy or when I have had my almost yearly cull when I think there are too many dolls just standing about ! 

I did at one stage have around twelve no navel girls all together living here. But if I was to be able to count them up I would expect I have owned around twenty or even a few more ! 

It's probably lucky I cannot remember who bought most of them or I would be sending emails asking if they'd like to sell some of them back to me !

I cannot quite believe what gems I actually owned and sold on !!

Winter and Raven standing either side of the middle girl, were my first brunettes .

Three brunette's in this photo and at present I do even own one !! That will be on my radar to add back into my collection this year.

At least Martha and Ashley are still with me, but then Ashley was my first ever blonde NN and Martha was my Holy Grail doll, a red haired full blue eyed lass. While others searched for NP's I searched for her.

Seven of the ten dolls above are no navels.

 x

Even a no navel boy, extreme rare , came to stay but just for a while. Why only a while you ask ? Because he was too rare and too perfect ! But it was nice to have him come and stay for a while before going off to a new home.

Still here is Ginny , my first ever no navel, who is a waif and was the doll that made be fall in love with the no navel sculpt.

Still here is Ashley , my second ever no navel doll , who totally confirmed what beautiful dolls they are.

Of course Martha, the HG is still here 

Here is the lovely Saffron, a beautiful re root who came to live here a long time back now.

A new arrival last year, arrived to help increase the no navel numbers. I do love the dolls with short hair.

Now this little NN arrival used to belong to Gill but she then went off to the US for a few years, then when I saw her , I was good and pointed her out to Gill but Gill is much batter than me at being good. So she said she'd love her but was being good, so I bought her.

The last in at present is this waif with a short fringe. She had a bad arm, which we fixed with a new arm hook. I did put her up for sale towards another doll but then realised what I was doing, so pulled her off and found another way to get the doll I was after , a non Sasha, by doing a swap instead.

So at present I have three blondes and four red heads. 

Which means I will be on the look out for a lovely brunette or two and maybe another brown eyed blonde later in the year. 

FEBRUARY 5TH DOLL PHOTO DAY

 Oh yes it's doll photo day again, time to have a look at the lovely dolls owned by the blogs watchers.

We start with two of Emma in Indiana's dolls helping to clear some of the eleven inches of snow !! Yes that's right eleven inches ! We here in the UK have a panic attack if we get 11cm ! 

From Ronny, up in the north of the country, we have a photo of two of her girls staying the warmth. Just loving her beautiful curly re rooted girl, she can come live here anytime ;)

From Gill we have a trio of No Navel Sasha's , who met up for a gossip. Cilla used to live at Gills before she took a trip across the pond for a few year, then returned to the UK late last year to join the village clan.

From Gregoropolis we have Marta and Colin doing a bit of unintentional co ordinating , looking good since you didn't make a plan 

Also at Gregoropolis are the Ken's excited that it's time for the winter Olympics ! They love to watch while wearing their skates then go out and practice the moves. This can sometimes lead to then staying on the sofa recovering from an injury but hey ! When you gotta skate you just gotta skate ! 

At RoRoPo , Caleb is out in the snow looking for the pet leopard Pardel , He finds him by following his paw prints , Pardel is some what annoyed that he's been found so quickly !

"Pardel ! " calls Caleb " Are you enjoying all this snow ? " 

Pardel lets out the biggest sigh/ growl and moves out from his spot in the bushes, where he was planning on frightening the life out of next doors cat ! But will have to leave that for another day.

Soon Pardel's forgotten his annoyance and is rolling around with Caleb having fun.

This photo appeared on my fb feed , a Gotz Sophie , that I sold back in 2018 I had her for a long time because she had come in her blue working overalls and been left in her tube and I promised her she could wear a dress and never have to go to 'work' again. 

A fox was seen out in the garden checking out the stream, I hope it's not going to cause trouble.

Also from Gill we have her two dungaree girls wearing two lovely green hats and coats by Sarah w, looking just right to keep warm when out in this winter weather.

Many thanks to everyone sharing photos of their dolls, still time to have yours added, just send them in

Thanks 

Dee

FEBRUARY

 

Well January did the usual thing of starting off slow and then racing to the finish. It's also actually been a proper winter month of cold and also wet weather.

Which is great, I do like the seasons to be their normal selves and not to be unusually warm or dry or wet whichever that season is. Cold weather is good , well not freeze people to death cold, it's needed by nature to allow it to lay dormant , to recover from it's hard work, ready to renew come spring and also so we can wear lovely woollens and clothing to keep warm and hopefully look good! ;)  

I prefer cold weather to wet weather, at least you can wrap up against the cold and it's so nice when you get back indoors if it's cold and and it feels lovely and warm. Mind you , we do not have weather like other countries, of eleven inches of snow to deal with !

So I have moved on from making large lap blankets to doll blankets !! I was peaking to Michelle and said if I only had some of this yarn I had bought in 4 ply I'd make some small granny squares for some doll bed blankets.  She said just only make the centre and that way they are small squares, not as detailed but good enough.

So I spent a couple of evenings making up a dozen squares in seven of the colours, then using half a dozen of each colour made up this oblong.

Then I edged one in the green and the second one in the blue. I originally used up some oddments of a green and blue and made up some mini squares but then being me once I started on more colours I made up a dozen of year. Which meant the odd numbered amount, made with the ends of the ball, could  not be used with the blanket above cos it would not match !! 

So I was speaking to a friend about doll blankets and beds and decided I could make the odd squares into a blanket for my friends small doll bed.

So after making up a few more squares in the peach , I sewed them together and edged it. I showed my friend the blanket and said how the peach squares were vanishing into the edging, did she wat me to change the edging colour to a deep green or blue but she said no it was lovely as it was ! So I finished that final edge and another one done.

Which meant I could finally get some knitting started !

So I have started on this wool/silk yarn jacket for the Roche dolls. Being me , I decided I could not be getting into cabling the parts shown here that are plain ( they should have cable running up them ) along with working out the rest of the pattern on this jacket, so have left them plain. Once I have made it , if it looks okay, I will maybe try cabling on the next one or amending it another way. Time will tell.

Today's headliner who is no longer here is this beautiful 68 brunette in the centre. The twins Violet and Sapphire are still here and I have to confess I would love this lass to still be here because a decent 68 brunette with no falling hair very rarely comes up these days. But that's how the cookies crumble in this house ! 

On the doll front no dolls left but one did arrive !

This sweet black baby re-root by Jackie R arrived ! She was on auction and I decided I would bid and truly did not expect to win but much to my delight I did. So now she need's a name 

I may call her Oti after the dancer from Strictly. since she arrived in her ballet outfit, so obviously likes to dance. 

Well it's February, so doll photo day is but a few days away ! So please send in those photos, so we have something to look at on these winter days.

Wishing you all a lovely healthy warm week ahead

Dee

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY

Yep It's Sunday ! another week's shot past at a great rate ! The world is spinning ever faster I'm sure of it! 

I've been carrying on with my granny squares blankets.

So while I was making this blanket with the balls of wool that were left from making the others, being me, as I started I decided I needed more colours, so went online to gat a few extra colours in, some yellows and deeper blues and greens! Just a few balls you understand.

I have to confess I missed a ball of this photo of what then arrived ! I'd added some lilac's/purple to the order too, so what should have been just a couple of balls became this lot! Also why I was waiting for it to arrive I decided that I quite liked the colourway I was working with, so then decided to stick with the colours I already had ! !

So that meant I could have saved myself from buying the extra colours. I also started to get some cramps in my hand from my arthritis, so had to rest up a few times. So now this one is made , I'm going to step away for a while from making any more and maybe start some knitting! 

I also needed to repair a no navel's arm hook, whatever they'd used was making the arm stick out either behind or in front, so she was taken apart and a new proper hook fitted .

Another repair was to Betsy May, who arrived with really bad caving to her chest. Once I took her apart I found she had really strong loop of brown elastic, that when in and out of her neck twice, so four large brown cords filling her neck. So that had to be cut in order to get it removed and the ring taken out of her neck.

So a few moments in some boiling water and the torso was back in shape.

So now she's dry, she needs to be put back together again with some new elastic and lots of bad words, as we try to get just the right length, so she stands nicely and isn't too tight or too loose ! That's the problem of having different tensions of elastic working out the length needed.

The headline doll is another who came and went in a very short space of time. A waif NP boy with amazing eyes and a well cut hair style! 

I'd intended to not buy any dolls this side of the summer , however as is usual a couple of dolls have come along too nice to miss out on. One is a Roche doll , so alas I need to sell a few Sashas and others towards her adoption. I have a Sasha on layaway and another doll appeared on ebay and I bid and much to my delight and surprise I won her. So she'll be shown in the week

So not out of January and a new to me doll on the way, another who will appear next month and no doubt the Roche either then or in early March ! Which means I need to get on with sorting out props and other items that can go towards all this early buying! The problem with all these dolls appearing, is that the doll cabinet is running out of space, so the dolls have to stand around. I need this year to get my act together not just with all my doll items but also parts of the house and garden. 

I also need to get back sewing and using up more fabric , so lots to do , just need to get my creative side in action! 

Wishing everyone  a happy healthy doll /fun filled week ahead.

Dee

ANOTHER COLD JANUARY SUNDAY ON TUESDAY !

 

So who forgot to put the post on , on Sunday ? Paul. . . . okay it was me ! I did get as far as putting up the starting photo and I sort of remember thinking about it late Sunday, then realised I'd forgotten yesterday and meant to do it then but was in the middle of doing something so it slipped away again! 

Then one of my readers sent a message asking if I was okay since I'd not help her fall asleep with my usual Sunday post ! Cheek! 

I've become fixed on making up granny squares and turning them into blankets !!

When I placed out the squares after making the sofa back blanket, I had enough to almost make another one ! That's what comes of just making them nightly without stopping to check just how many I'd made.

I did think about just putting them together and making a second one and started sewing them together until I got half way across and then re arranged them into a different patten and made this one above which is a nice size for a lap blanket.

So that left me with roughly a third of the original squares, which I then arranged on the table, working out I needed another four squares to make the pattern up, I had two and two more that were not right for the pattern, so I set about making two more of each, so I could decide which way to go.

So another lap sized/ sharing blanket.  this meant I had four squares left over, Which would only have been two if I could have made me mind up or spotted what I did in the end , before I made them, which was put a complete line all round of the ones edged in dark blue around the outer edge. 

Now I really need to be knitting but it's so easy just to pick up the hook and make a few granny squares I now have another dozen sitting in my basket ! So another blanket may be on the make!! Do I need all these blankets? no ! But I do so love colour lol and they are nice and bright ! Maybe I'll put one up for my followers. So watch this space. . . . . well not this actual space . . . but you know what I mean.

So the beautiful Belle ( Belinda ) is todays headliner, who I should never have sold , but it was in my less is more stage , which if you saw just how much I have , you'd be amazed I can have those stages ! 

Since there never seems to be any less before they gather again.

I'd like to say that on the doll front I have not bought anything but that would not be true! I have got a second issue gotz doll on layaway. Now years ago I am sure I bought this doll because I liked her but I cannot remember what happened to her ! Did she arrive and almost straight away turn round and leave? Is she still in her tube somewhere in the loft ? attic?  If I was to send Paul to search would she appear like one of those poor dolls that have spent years in the boxes never to see the light of day for more than the time it took an owner to make sure she was okay then put away to keep her nice !!! 

I am a release the dolls! person ! get them out of the tubes, stand them in a cabinet if you must but let the poor things at least be able to watch the world go by, even if you don't let them out of the cabinet to enjoy some play ! Remember Toy Story !!! 

I wonder where Belle is now? I hope she is getting lots of attention. I should have kept that Petrana outfit too . . . . . . story of my life ! Thank goodness it was frowned upon to sell your children. . . . who knows what could have happened, if I'd seen another I wanted more . . . . . . ( just kidding )

So have a great happy healthy fun filled week ahead,

Dee

Where's that snoring coming from?. . . . . . Icy is that you ? . . . . . . Icy icy !!!!