Dolly Jolly 2022 part 1

The long awaited Dolly Jolly had arrived and we started driving north as soon as my daughter got out of school early. Despite the heavy traffic we made it to Darlington by 6:30pm so were in time for dinner at 7:00pm with the others who were attending - private dining in a large room with the windows open.

The first evening dinner included the raffle. I brought in the picnic prize I had made which Janet decided would be the final raffle ticket of the evening.

Raffle prizes including the picnic hamper, picnic rug and Easter bonnet outfit I had contributed

Raffle prizes galore!

We all admired the other prize table, displaying the prizes for the Dolly Bingo for the second evening, a tantalising array of top prizes.

The Dolly Bingo prizes table

Most people had brought one or more doll to dinner and after we had eaten I went round the table taking photos of the dolls. We brought Laura and Florence to dinner with us.

Florence in her Windmill 'Ted Menton' pinafore dress
and Laura in an outfit by Lorraine Tyler and a Dollydoodles hoodie

Dolls at dinner

Harry Potter with Hedwig and Dobby

A little sweetie with her toy dog and bear

Two little Helen Kish dolls

Three doll friends

A Gotz Sasha with a Dionne Quintuplet

A glorious rag doll, very huggable

Two beautiful Sasha girls

A Zwergnase girl having a glass of wine!

We bought several strips of raffle tickets and were amazed to win 12 lovely prizes (I haven't taken photos of them yet). Thank you to all those who donated prizes, everyone attending won more than one prize. It was such a fun evening and so good to catch up with previous doll friends plus meet some new doll friends.

The following morning Teddy, Alice and I went shopping for our contributions to the picnic which I had organised for that day. It was a glorious spring morning, so we were hopeful the picnic would not be rained on. 

Tricia had coordinated the room hopping - this involved those who had dolls they wanted to display putting them on show in their hotel rooms, each of us being given the list of room numbers plus the times they were open. There were 5 rooms in the morning session and 5 in the afternoon session. My daughter and I did not have a room display because she was revising for her examinations in our room, so I visited the morning rooms after returning from picnic grocery shopping. My photos only indicate the order I visited the rooms, I am not labelling these to indicate ownership of any of the dolls and scenes depicted.

Sasha Bakery in Room 1

Sasha Bakery in Room 1

Sasha Bakery in Room 1

Sindy room in Room 1

Sindy room in Room 1

Lenci doll in Room 1

Sasha dolls and friends in Room 1

A mixed collection of dolls (including Sasha, Maggie Iacono, Lati Yellow, Topper Dawn, Schoenhut, Pongratz, Ruby Red and Ten Ping) in Room 2

Some Sasha and Gregor dolls in Room 3

A Roddy doll with Roddy and Rosebud friends in Room 3

Some Sasha dolls in Room 4

Trendon Sasha sisters joined by their Gotz Sasha sister in Room 4

Close up of a Sasha in Room 4

Sasha, Lenci, Frozen Charlotte and the Dionne Quintuplet in Room 4

The Dionne Quintuplet in Room 4

A mixed collection of dolls (including Pippa, Jakks Pacific, Helen Kish, Ball jointed dolls, Xenis, Rainbow High) in Room 5

Some of the dolls in Room 5

Rag dolls, Rainbow High, Chrissie and others in Room 5

Ball jointed doll in Room 5

Two restored dolls in Room 5

Then it was picnic time! 

Pram day

Three of us have been planning pram day since before the Chat 'n Snap - Alice H asked for some help and advice with her pram (a Red) which she had purchased from someone in the USA and I suggested she some to visit us, then we invited Jane S and Teddy who were interested to see the pram work in action and it became doll and pram day.

Alice's pram had been delivered to her via a friend with the hood detached from the body of the pram and with some loose stitching on the hood, so the inner lining was coming off the frame. Alice wasn't sure how to attach it.  Thankfully all the nuts and bolts were present and the pram was in very good condition, with only a few minor scrapes to the paintwork.  These could be touched up using a fine paint brush, or left alone.  We inspected the hood to see if it was aligned correctly, it was a bit stiff to make the hood clip up so my husband gently but firmly manipulated the hood wires a little so the hood fabric wouldn't catch on the inside of the straps which hold the hood up.  I stitched the lining back in place then my husband fitted the hood back onto the chassis and Alice's pram was complete once more.  This happened while we talked non stop about the various dolls which Teddy, Jane and Alice had brought with them.

Alice's reassembled 'Red' pram, with a miniature Baby Born resting on the cushions

Both Teddy and I have Heather Maciak's wonderful Jenny and Lexie 8 inch dolls (and I have Annie and Emily as well) so he had brought his Jenny and Lexie as well as his two 7 inch Helen Kish dolls (Riley and Tulah). He also brought a Sasha girl and boy.  I brought out my four Maciak dolls plus the three Patsi dolls by Heidi Pluszcok.

Alice brought her new 10 inch Boneka doll Valetta (similar to the Little Darling dolls) which she had redressed.  At one point during pram day this little girl tried on the sundress I had made for 8.5 inch Annie and it fitted her fine.

Jane brought along three Sasha dolls, the long haired blond had frizzy hair ends.  She had been treating the lovely two tone blond hair with conditioner and argon oil but the ends were dry.  Teddy asked for a spray bottle with water in it, the iron and ironing board and proceeded to demonstrate the technique for improving dry frizzy nylon hair.  He combed out a section of hair flat onto the ironing board, sprayed it with water then ironed it firmly with the iron on a nylon setting.  It was amazing what a difference this made as he slowly worked through all the hair on her head.  Jane was delighted.

Combing out some hair before spraying it with water

Ironing the hair!

We cleared the dining room table for lunch and plenty more doll talk. Some of our 19.5 inch Gotz dolls came downstairs to join Louisa and Florence who were hosting the visitors.

L-R: Teddy's new boy, Teddy's girl, Claire with her newly ironed hair, Florence in her 2017 Sasha Festival outfit and Jane's boy in his new striped sweater

Toddler Louisa with her new bobbed haired friend Lucy (Jane's girl)

L-R: Harriet in her purple skating outfit, Jayne in the background, Louisa and Lucy

After lunch we went upstairs to the doll/sewing room as Jane was keen to see Belle and Matilda, the Australian Girl dolls and decided they were a nice combination of cuddly and attractive to look at (the lower half of their torsos are cloth, while the top part is vinyl which means they can wear summer clothes without showing the cloth bodies).  Mrs Harvey's toy and cake shop was shown off, the other Sasha dolls who hadn't already come downstairs to greet the visitors were admired as was the modified Our Generation doll kitchen and the Gotz Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley dolls.  Then we looked at my unfinished Greenleaf dolls house, my doll cabinet, Susie (Palitoy), Anna (Gotz), Jakob (Kids n Kats) and Betsy (Schoenhut) as well as the teddy bears Bruin and Panda with Poodle.

Downstairs I held a doll photo session of the visiting dolls along with their host dolls, my pram and Alice's pram, which temporarily held one of our miniature Baby Born dolls.

L-R: Teddy's blond Kish (Riley), my Emily, Teddy's Lexie, my Lexie, Alice's new Boneka doll Valetta, my Jenny, Teddy's Jenny, my Annie, Teddy's blond Kish (Tulah)

My Lexie and Jenny with Valetta, the Boneka girl

Jenny, Jenny, Annie and Tulah (Kish)

Riley (Kish), Emily, Lexie and Lexie

L-R: Jane's boy, Teddy's boy, Louisa, Lucy, Teddy's girl, Florence, Claire with her newly ironed hair

L-R: Jane's boy, Teddy's boy, Louisa, Lucy, Teddy's girl, Florence, Claire with her newly ironed hair

Teddy's girl, Florence and Claire

Jane's boy, Teddy's boy, Louisa, Lucy and Teddy's girl

Teddy's boy, Louisa, Lucy, Teddy's girl and Florence

Our full size pram chassis holding our little street organ also became part of pram day when my husband played some music on the organ for Alice, Jane and Teddy.

While we continued to talk dolls everyone reluctantly packed their dolls and Alice's pram away for their journeys home.

We had fun hosting pram day.