Sasha Doll festival 2012 - part 5

On the way to lunch on Saturday we admired Dawn Law's display of the baby nursery.

Lunch was held in the normal restaurant, rather than downstairs to save messing about with the room layout which needed to stay the same as the morning.  We sat at the same table as Fran, Boo, Karol and Dawn, her daughter and grandchildren.  The table gifts were lovely - a red mug with a pen, both labelled with the Festival name, and containing more of the outfit - shorts and top for sport, with an Olympic theme.  Dawn, our table hostess, provided lovely knitted sweaters and matching hats as gifts, I got white and fawn while my girl got white and pale blue, perfect for Miranda.  I had a good conversation with Karol, who told me about the dress she had made for the Children's fund auction and handed out sweets from Maine.  Dawn had arranged for a beautiful cake to be made celebrating the festival.

writing with the new red pen

Our doll family on the lunch table

Karol's lovely Sasha doll

The festival cake

my girl says thank you to Dawn for the lovely gifts

the girls play with the dolls in new outfits from Dawn

Fran's beautiful doll

The CFA was back in the downstairs room.  The children were happily occupied all through the auction by holding up the items for everyone to see, and taking them to the table for packing up ready for new owners.  I watched all 2 1/2 hours of the auction, helped Jackie a little with putting the bagged up items in a plastic crate, took photos and made notes of how much each item sold for, as I knew I probably wouldn't be able to bid on the items I liked.  Sure enough, everything I wanted went over my budget but it was fun seeing other people bidding, and hearing Pat say 'but its for the children' when ever bidding was a bit slow or when she felt something was worth more than the current bid.

CFA before the start

CFA before the start

CFA before the start

the dress Fran won

CFA before the start

smocking by Catherine French

CFA before the start

Bagging up the auction items

Boo's new baby

the item I donated, awaiting its new owner

Pat in charge of the auction

I was very gratified that the item I had made and donated (the sleeping bag & nightwear set) went for a respectable £45, and Tina told me afterwards she was very pleased to win it (she wasn't the only bidder), which made the enjoyable effort of creating it worthwhile.  And my girl didn't come away from the Auction empty handed - all the young helpers were treated to a lucky dip and what a lucky one it was for Miranda, as my girl opened a parcel with a new dress, pants, shoes and hair ribbon which perfectly matched Miranda's eyes.

opening the lucky dip

Boo's lucky dip prize

Miranda in her new outfit, donated by Rosemary Shortell

The CFA raised over £6,800 for 3 local children's charities (including Helen & Douglas Hospice) which was brilliant.

We returned to the caravan for some food, then I brought both my girls to the evening sales which started at 7:00 pm.  I was looking for shoes and managed to purchase a pair of turquoise sandals by Jean Jenson, as well as some red boots, purple Mary Janes and some baby shoes of pale green from other sellers.  I also bought two smocked items from Ruth Hartley (a dress and pants for Florence, and rompers for baby Mabel), and two hats (a cowboy hat for Nicholas James and a French hat for Miranda) from Jackie.  I haven't yet taken photos of all these items and didn't take photos of the sales rooms. My red haired girl admired a beautiful rewigged red head on Ruth Hartley's stall, but we couldn't buy her unfortunately.  Having now seen several reds 'for real' now, I know what I'm looking for, but will have to save up.