Welcome

I've been very remiss in not welcoming people to this blog recently.  However I do think that being away on holiday for 3 weeks and then moving house in January are pretty good reasons to be a bit 'behind', so I do hope I am forgiven.

princessclaire1000, Aunt Lou and Korianne don't appear to blogs so I know nothing about them

Christine is in Australia, and like me enjoys collecting things, especially vintage dolls houses! You can find her blog at http://rosemyne.blogspot.com/ 

Julieta lives in Holland (she is Dutch and Mexican) and you can find her blog at http://lamunecajuanita.blogspot.com/

Olga seems to have several blogs (both in Russian and English), I like http://dollshobby.blogspot.com/ as she also collects Gotz dolls

'Never Grow up' is the name of Beast'sbelle's blog http://nevergrowupdollguide.blogspot.com/  - I'm with you on that one!

Carly at http://drearydomlarks.blogspot.com/ collects Robert Tonner dolls at 'Grimm's Fabled Academy for Girls'

Susan has a blog at http://susansminitalk.blogspot.com/ and makes and collects all kinds of miniatures

M and M specialises in miniature crochet at http://www.hotpinkhook.com/ for dolls, she has even made some yummy donuts!

Please visit their blogs if they've got one - welcome to you all and I hope you enjoy reading my doll blog.

Update - Korianne has got a blog, it just didn't show up for me when I looked at her profile - you can find it at mintydolls.blogspot.com and she collects mini play dolls of various vintages.

Big and little house moving

Since returning from the SA adventure the dolls and us have had a hectic time because we moved house 2 weeks ago.  Not far, but everything still needed to be packed up and with the amount of stuff we'd accumulated after 18 years in one home (including the addition of 2 daughters, 3 dolls houses, lots of play dolls,  as well as my husband's hobby things) this was a mammoth task in less than a week.  Our former neighbour kindly allowed us to put the dolls houses in her spare bedroom so we didn't have to move them with everything else, but I made sure all the doll family came in our car rather than the large removal van.

Since the move we've been very busy unpacking boxes (we have approximately 2,000 beloved books), flooring the loft, putting up beds and finding places for things in our new home, so it wasn't until Sunday afternoon that we were finally able to go and collect the dolls houses and put them into their new positions.  The Triang has gone in my younger daughter's bedroom, so that her Christmas expanded Polly Pocket collection is able to make the most of it, Mrs Harvey's shop has gone into my elder daughter's bedroom and my unfinished Greenleaf Westville now lives on its special table in our bedroom.  As yet the 2 larger dolls houses are unfurnished, as we've got further decorating to do to the full size house so there is no point unpacking things only to put them away again soon afterwards.  But having the Westville in my bedroom is a constant gentle reminder that I started building that house about 21 years ago and it is about time I finished it!  However for the past couple of nights tiling the full sized bathroom has been my main focus and I'm rather tired tonight, so the Westville will have to wait a bit longer before I can give it my attention.

We've got the TV set up so haven't missed an episode of Dancing on Ice since it started 3 weeks ago, and nor have the play dolls!  What is more there is a new addition with skates to the play doll line up and he belongs to me. I'll keep you guessing though, as I haven't taken photos of him yet.

Samantha's South African adventure

Blog silence during December was purely because we were preparing for and flying to South Africa for a long anticipated visit to see some of my family who still live in Cape Town (the last time we visited as a family was 5 years ago).  One of the Gotz girls was lucky enough to join us on the trip.  I know my little daughter would have loved to have taken 2 of the dolls, but she didn't have enough arms to carry both her favourite fluffy bunny, pull her hand luggage and carry 2 dolls, so Samantha, her original Gotz ice skater doll, was chosen.  We selected a few outfits, and took the pink sleeping bag which proved to be a useful way of carrying the clothes inside hand luggage.

As you can see, Samantha wore sensible clothes for travelling.

On our third day in Cape Town we took our daughters, my nieces and Samantha on the open top red bus trip around the city of Cape Town, which all of us enjoyed.

Admiring Camps Bay beach from the red bus

Samantha loved the Agapanthus at Vergelegen Wine Estate, Somerset West.

We did take our girls ice skating at the wonderful Olympic sized rink in Goodwood, however although Samantha had the golden dress and the matching skates, we didn't take her to the rink because it was too crowded, so she had to pretend that she had been ice skating in hot South Africa!  On Christmas Eve she came to the Nine Lessons and Carols in St George's Cathedral with us, wearing her pink summer dress to match her owner's dress.  Fr Christmas brought her a new outfit and shoes which were perfect for the summer weather.

 Fr Christmas and Samantha on Christmas Eve

After Christmas we went to Clanwilliam Dam for a few days.  It was too hot (33 - 40 degrees some days), so shade was the thing - here you can see her sitting in her deck chair enjoying a view of the dam, wearing her new outfit (which I believe Fr Christmas sourced from a local craft market in South Africa).

Samantha's new outfit (including the shoes)

Relaxing at Clanwilliam Dam campsite - Lebanon Citrus

Now we are home again and she is telling the other dolls all about her fantastic holiday in the sun.