THE LAST SUNDAY IN MAY

 

Well not just the last Sunday but the last day of May ! Best of all it's come with a massive, over ten degrees, drop in temperature! So finally it's cool enough to get on with a few things.

I did manage to get a couple of  things done last week,    before the temperature just got to hot , but nothing to make any big difference, so now I will be able to get back to cleaning and sorting out the doll studio and hoping to find a couple of long lost items as I do so.

I did ,if you saw yesterday's post , get nine of the dolls dressed in summer wear and just needed to sort out a couple of them with shoes and socks. But once I had dressed them , I didn't want to put them all squashed back up in the cabinet, so for the moment, while I decide just what to do with them, they are standing, still two deep, on one of the sideboards in the living room. 

I'd like to display them better but having two large dogs, they bring in a lot of dust, which settles everywhere, so I'm constantly having to wipe the duster over. So some thought needs to go into maybe displaying a few here and there and then maybe switching them around.

Today's headliner is Elizabeth, who was one of the girls who finally got put into some summer clothing, she still needs some socks but is otherwise happy.

She is one of my few blondes, for some reason I tend to go towards the red heads and brunettes, much more than the blondes. 

On the sales front, not much has happened, I did sell a couple of small items, which was good as it's a little less sitting around.

But I did have a small Roche doll and a Larger Roche doll arrive. The larger doll had been on layaway which I completed a week or so back and arrived Friday, along with a small doll that appeared on Ebay and which I decided was a good price , so added her to my collection.

I am also waiting on a couple of gingham dresses from Ginny but from tomorrow, I'm on a Dry June, so no buying any dolls, doll clothing, shoes props etc. Which naturally means just the doll I've been waiting for will appear ! But I will try my hardest to sit on my hands and just watch her /him go by.

We , the royal we that is, are still slowly working on the garden and it's starting to fill with colour, naturally because we are taking part in the village open gardens, we are hoping it doesn't all open too early and all be done by the time the day arrives. But it it happens that way, so be it, there is still enough to see anyway.

Since I will be having a Dry June, I will be getting the sewing machine out and having a go at making more items ,using up my stock of fabric's etc. Which will be good for my bank balance and my making more space.

On that note I will wish you all a happy healthy week ahead 

Dee

ALL CHANGE . . . . .

well nine at least ! 

 I brought in a bundle of clothes for the dolls from the doll studio but naturally 

I did not think to add a mix of shoe colours, so a couple need shoes and socks, where other could swap

shoes or keep what they were already wearing.

x

Well It's starting to cool down a bit, so I'd best go find their last few shoes and socks and remove them from in front of the tv or I won't be popular later ! 

HOW MUCH ?

 

A new arrival in the village this week . But I didn't buy her but swapped her , for one of the other village children who was happy to move on.

Since it's still hot, she makes her entrance, at the entrance ;)

She tells me her last Mum was obsessed with Chocolate , so called her Cadbury ! Which meant she was more than happy to have a name change, so she's now called Calico Kate , Callie for short. She tells me she is a country girl at heart.

We are both happy with our new family members and it's a great way to add a new face to the family without spending any money.

GREEN AND BLUE

 

I have been wanting to get this dress set in this colourway off Ginny at A Passion For Sasha for ages and finally got round to it the other week.

Because of the hot weather when it arrived, Ava had to have an indoor shoot along side Magda in the hallway by the front door.

So another girl dressed for the summer . although I may have to give Ava's fringe the hot water treatment to see if I can just get that side to go down and not stand almost on end like it does.

That or see if I can get just her fringe re rooted either as a fringe or long to match the sides. . . . 

DAY FOUR OF THE HEATWAVE HITTING THE COUNTRY

 

Well the south of the country at least. We are now in the second day of the thirty four degrees ! All the back curtains are closed , the sun hitting side , doors wide open and two fans going and it's still just tooo hot !

I was hoping to take Magda outside to take some photos but walked out the front of the house , the slightly shaded side and walked straight back in again. So used the book shelf by the front door.

Which turned out quite well as it meant with the mirror behind could show the pretty matching ribbon that goes with the dress set. Which I bought off A Passion For Sasha on Etsy made by Ginny.

A very pretty ribbon held on a clip.

It's a shame that it's round the back, but then again it does add a little plus when you see the doll from behind.

So despite the weather I did manage to get some photos after all.

A HOTTER THAN HOT SUNDAY

 

So the sun has got it's hat on and it has come out to play or rather to bake ! Most of us Brit's, have to stay in the shade when it gets this hot, only the younger and foolish go out and about for hours.

We have gone from temps of around 15 /18 degrees to 26 and now 30 in a matter of a few days.

I've even started thinking I may have to buy shading for the flower beds !!! Many years ago we visited a place called Mount Grace Priory in Northallerton, up above Leeds in the middle to north of England. and the reason it's stuck with me so much is that it had a building that's small garden had covered walkways along the side of the garden against the walls with the garden set out in the centre, I came back with plans to encourage Paul to build the same style of walkways round the edges of our flower garden, he resisted long enough for me to give up on the idea ! 

see photo above.

This is similar to the one I saw, that stayed with me but the covered walkway ran down both sides and round the end with the garden in the centre and reached from an opening either side. If we'd have done it, it would have had to have been of wood, due to having fencing not walls around our garden, but now that area of the garden has been paved in the centre so dreams of a covered walkway must remain just that . . . . a dream.

This week has been the Chelsea Flower show, many years ago we did attend one and it's wonderful but very tiring and by about 1 pm the place is heaving with so many people. Luckily we are early birds so we were heading home come around 2pm. But the flower show is shown each afternoon and evening on the bbc , so you can get to see the gardens and plants and if lucky get the names of the nurseys having wonderful displays of plants in the pavilion. Only problem with that is you do/ can land up with boxes of plants arriving as the week goes on. 

I have to say this years programmes were disappointing and we landed up turning some off as it was a repeat of the same thing. What we wanted was more time looking at the gardens and the presenters telling us what that gorgeous Iris was called or that Hosta etc. I didn't really care what Mary Berry or some other celebrity was looking for and then they had Michael Ball singing his latest release !!!!!!!

Oh and they had garden 'influencers!!!!! Telling us what they thought and liked...... the second word is . . . off 

I very much doubt we'll be bothering to watch any of it next year.

Talking of garden's we are slowly getting ours ready for the open day at the end of June, a few small jobs to do but mostly just sweeping and weeding, watering and planting. 

I did intend to get back into the studio last week but did not, but now it's really warmed up I will try and get in there in the morning before it starts getting too warm and sorting things. 

 Today's headliner is the lovely Arabella, who is wearing a Catherine French smocked dress. 

I took the photos of Arabella on Saturday afternoon but was so hot and sunny it was hard to get a good photo.

These two were out in the sun and the first two under the gazebo. Way too hot to be wandering around the garden looking for a good backdrop.

On the sales front, I did sell a doll and a couple of Maileg items, which gave me enough to finish a layaway I had for a Roche doll, so I'm very happy that she is heading my way.

I am also doing a swap one Sasha for another Sasha , but more details about that once it's happened.

 

Oh and I did buy a little Roche doll that popped up on ebay at a too good to walk away price. 

She is a small, 9 inch , soft bodied doll with porcelain head and hands , here she is settling in and making friends with some teddies.

So due to how hot it will be this week, I'll be trying to get a little bit done each day before it gets too hot to be moving about too much.

I need to finish redressing the dolls for this hot weather as well, so another thing that needs to get done.

Have a lovely healthy happy, not too hot, week ahead

Dee

JEAN GENIE

 

This week on one of the FB Sasha groups it's the Sasha's and Gregor's in their jeans. Well much to my surprise I could only find two pairs still in the clothing !

Valentine offered to wear a pair , since he does like jeans and it meant he only needed to remove his red dungarees and slip them on.

Then we had Annie wearing a pair by Vintage Sasha.

Unfortunately no jeans for baby ted, he'll have to make do with his romper suit.

MAY'S MIDDLE SUNDAY

 

Well I survived the infection that attacked me the other week , although it's taken a good week to recover from whatever it was ! But I am now back and starting to do more, although the weather immediately turned cold and rainy, so I have not managed to get back into the doll studio. But at least the garden's had a good watering over this last week.

At the moment it's been mostly about the garden, which is starting to fill up with all this sun and rain, although the couple of cold nights did damage a couple of the plants , but most we were able to protect.

Naturally while recovering from my illness, I was forced to wander the world wide web, popping into various places and I did land up treating my dolls to a couple of items from Ginny, at A Passion For Sasha on Etsy. She had some of her aprons reduced to half price, along with other reductions here and there, so of course I had to have a few bargains.

But I am pleased to say I didn't buy any dolls or props, which was a bonus! In fact I have been sorting out some dolls to sell, a couple of Sasha's and a Gregor, I just need to get my act together and put them up for adoption.

Today's headliner is Nancy , wearing a purple gingham dress set by Ginny and Rosie Bloom sandals.

She was pleased to finally be out of her Christmas dress ! and to finally have some ribbons to match. 

The doll's kitchen still needs to be finished and the washing machine and other bits put in place again. Then I need to work on the next section plus the cupboards below need to be checked and a list made of what's inside and taped to the door, which will save on time when looking for things.

 

Hopefully next week Paul will make the table /shelf for the twin's garden shed to go on along with their greenhouse.

On the downsizing, clearing side, I'm pleased to say that I have sold on a few of the Maileg furniture items and a baby Sasha and another non Sasha doll.  Selling the last few item I had on of Maileg furniture, meant I emptied out a large shopping bag I was keeping them in , so I didn't lose them, which was very satisfying. 

Hopefully I can find some more unused items, to help carry on clearing some space in the doll studio and the overspill. I will get back into the studio to carry on with the cleaning, tidying and finding this coming week. I definitely need to sort through the boxes and bags I have left on the patio table under the gazebo, since we asked Lauren's partner to come and take a video of the garden with his drone, along with some photos. I don't think it flying and looking around the gazebo with a massive pile of items filling the table is really what we want to see in the finished edit ! 

Sadly these two sweethearts are up for adoption , because they have had to stay in their boxes ever since they arrived as I had nowhere to display them. They are by Aldegonde Ceelen. I had originally bought them to do little stories with them but this is the first time the poor girls have been together and outside in the garden. If I manage to find them a place to display , they may well land up staying. The designer who made them, also made lovely clothes you could buy for them too.

So the sun is actually trying to shine out there and dolls are waiting to finally get out of the winter clothing, which means I'd best get on with it.

Have a happy healthy week ahead and hopefully, more will have been done to report on next week

Dee

NOT A DOLL BUT

 

 Just wanted to share this photo I took of some bearded Iris's that have flowered up on the raised bed near to the greenhouse. A lovely early clump of colour. 

CHILLY SUNDAY IN MAY

 

So this week I have been ill, all week. I'm still not 100% , which means nothing has been happening with regard to the house, the garden or the dolls. Although that's not quite true, the garden as been moving along slowly , since Paul does all the work.

I did manage to get out into the doll studio for an hour and get the larder cupboard and dresser back in place and that area is starting to look better, but now the temperature has dropped for the next couple of days, so any more work will have to wait until it warms up and I get better.

So today's headline photo is an old one of the dolls, Claudia , Ginny and Elizabeth. 

Three brunettes but only Claudia is still here.

One of the things I did think on this week is how many dolls have come into the village last year and some of this, so a couple of dolls will probably be going as I now have no space for them to stand. 

So some dolls will be back on the adoption market once I feel up to dealing with it all.

I'll end with this photo of the lovely Magda who will be going nowhere any time soon.

Have a lovely healthy happy week ahead

Dee

SLOW RESTART ON THE KITCHEN TIDY

 So finally got back into the doll studio today to get a little more done. Paul has sorted out the missing hinge to the larder cupboard door and added a couple of shelves to the tall upper cupboard.

Back in the kitchen and now filled with goodies.

Plenty of storage for those larder staples.

Now the older readers of this blog will hopefully know just what this is and may have even seen their mothers using one in her kitchen.

Yes, it's a mincer. My mother had one , into which she would feed beef, turning the handle so it came out as mince. 

Here it is fitted to the larder cupboard side ready for use.

Also in the kitchen 

a few more treasures.

The great little wall holder for kitchen utensils, I found on the Ruby Lane website , the rolling pin I already had. The prefect addition to the working kitchen.

On the table is a lovely set of scales , kindly given to me by my lovely friend Jenni in Wales. It did have four weights but alas the smallest two have gone missing, but may hopefully turn back up over time.

On the left is a miniature Peek Frean's biscuit tin. I just had to have this, my Nan used to work for the Peak Frean's biscuit factory when I was a child and on the odd occasion, my dad would take us to meet her from work, she worked late in the evenings. The workers were about to buy paper bags full of broken biscuits for just a few pennies. The factory also made chocolate biscuits for the Queen, which my Nan would also buy a small bag of those broken ones. They were wonderful, similar to club biscuits but twice the size and twice the depth, a big chunk of chocolate at each end !  

Another tin I have.

The now painted dresser is back in place with the China back on the shelves and the cupboard full.

I bought this range stove off German Ebay a good few years back. It came with a good few brass/ copper pots.

Alas the kettle was minus it's lid, so at some stage I should really try and find/make a replacement.

I love the little rail that runs round the front and sides, perfect for the tea towels.

and of course one needs a dustpan and brush to keep the kitchen floor clean.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of the kitchen items. There are a few more which I will share next week.