Christmas Eve 2017

The Advent period leading up to Christmas is always busy in our home.  I have been doing some sewing and knitting for various dolls (more to be revealed in future posts) however apart from that there has been very little time for doll play, especially with various concerts we have been involved in as well as work and school. 

On 23rd December my younger girl and I were able to spend some lovely relaxing fun time changing outfits and rearranging the Sasha doll shelf to accommodate the Christmas tree which Emma F had kindly given us when she and her daughter stayed with us the weekend of the Chat 'n Snap in October.  With some new additions to our Sasha family this year (Theo, Louisa and Davy) there was a bit of shuffling and swapping of Christmas outfits amongst the dolls and one new outfit made.

Nicholas James wore his Noel sweater and Florence wore her white dress from the first Sasha Secret Santa Christmas swap Lorraine organised in 2011. Trendon Elliot and Reuben elected to wear the 'Hug me its Christmas' and 'Merry Christmas tshirts' which Dorisanne sent us in the 2012 Secret Santa swap.  Timothy was pleased to have the Dollydoodles Rudolf sweatshirt while Miranda changed into her blue and green Christmas trees dress I had made for her a few years ago.  Melanie wore a burgundy and gold party dress we got at a Sasha Celebration weekend and Laura changed back into the blue velvet outfit I made for her Christmas arrival in 2012 (when my daughter wore the identical dress, now well and truly outgrown).

Babies Nina, Amy and Daisy wore the Christmas dresses they received in the 2016 Secret Santa swap, while Mabel and Theo wore outfits I had made some years ago.  Leo wanted to wear the snowman outfit and our most recent baby, curly headed Davy, wanted to be Rudolf the reindeer.  Edmund decided to be very smart - he wore his white shirt with a red bow tie. 

But we didn't have a Christmas outfit for Louisa, except for the new Nordic themed tights I had bought for her at the Chat 'n Snap.  So I set to work making an outfit to complement her new tights.

I decided to make up the Sasha Sundress with brettels from the Sewing for Sasha dolls book in toddler size for Louisa, I used the skirt pattern from the pattern which we received at the Sasha Festival 2017 however I didn't use the top pattern as I wanted to use the bodice and brettels pattern instead, which I resized.  I found small amounts of fabric which work well together and used dark green ribbon, embroidery cotton in 4 colours (2 shades of green) and a heart shaped button to finish off the outfit decoration.  The two toddlers have one thing in common in their outfits - I used the same decorated hair ribbon for Louisa as a cumberband for Edmund, which makes Edmund look very smart and Christmassy at the same time.

Below are our Sasha family of 17 in their Christmas outfits, wishing you a very Merry Christmas 2017.  The toys in the photos are either ones we've been given or ones I have made (the sailing boat, model trains, wooden horse, aeroplane, push along duck and marionette).

Merry Christmas 2017 from our Sasha family

l-r: Nina, Mabel, Amy, Davy, Theo

l-r: Davy, Theo, Leo, Daisy with Edmund and Louisa in the background

back row l-r: Reuben, Melanie, Florence and Miranda

back row l-r: Timothy, Laura, Trendon Elliot, Nicholas James, Reuben

What is going on here?  It looks like Lady Crazie (the green budgie), who quietly spends most of her days on top of my elder daughter's dolls house (Mrs Harvey's shop), decided to join the Sasha family.  Lady Crazie flew all the way from Germany in time for Christmas 2014.

Miranda with the marionette and Lady Crazie

Lady Crazie

But that is not all - it looks like the kitchen has been taken over not by busy cooks preparing for Christmas dinner but by a mixed bunch of reindeer and snowmen with their Christmas teddy friend sitting on the pram!

Reindeer, snowmen and bear invasion in the Sasha kitchen

Dorisanne's Keuka College banner above the reindeer, snowmen and bear invaded kitchen

Edmund, Lady Crazie and Louisa got together to show off how smart they look in their Christmas clothes.

Edmund, Lady Crazie, Louisa

Nicholas James, Louisa, Reuben

Louisa in her Christmas outfit

Edmund and Louisa with the tree (with Nicholas James and Reuben)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Hello Kit

On a cosy winter day Lady Crazie found the perfect perch on Laura's shoulder as she read to her new little friend Kit.  They found a book in the bookcase about spinning tops (which came with its very own top) and were learning about some of the tricks and techniques of spinning tops.

Laura, Lady Crazie and Kit read about tops

Laura turned the page

Lady Crazie, Laura and Kit look at a picture of lots of different tops

Lady Crazie and Laura

Lady Crazie, Laura and Kit

The bookcase, with another spinning top,
a mini cooper and the little music box from Waldkirch

If you are wondering about Kit and when she arrived, well a certain little girl had her birthday in February and Kit with her mini book was one of the gifts she received.  Kit was one of 3 mini American Girl dolls I bought during my wonderful trip to the AG doll shop with Norvell in Washington DC last November.  Some of the things I bought were Christmas gifts (and I haven't blogged about them all yet) and some were birthday gifts for my younger daughter.

Lady Crazie visits the Gingerbread House

It is Epiphany, the Christmas decorations have been packed away apart from the crib scene as the Wise Men have come to visit.  However one item from Christmastide hasn't gone. In fact, I only made it a week after Christmas day - the gingerbread was cut and baked on 31 December 2014, the icing and assembly of the house was done on 1 January 2015.  This was my first attempt at a Gingerbread house (pretty messy) and Lady Crazie, all the way from Germany where these houses are very traditional, came to inspect our efforts, along with her new friends Clemence the bear and and Laura's Owl.

Owl and Lady Crazie perched on the Gingerbread house while Clemence enjoyed the rich smell of Gingerbread and icing

Owl liked his perch on the chimney, while Lady Crazie liked the roof

Clemence wanted to sample the house, but was afraid of upsetting the owner

Lady Crazie and Owl chirped and hooted to each other on the roof

Clemence tried the front door to see if anyone was at home

Clemence peered around the side of the Gingerbread house, was anyone there?

While the owl and Lady Crazie chirped and hooted at each other,
Clemence the bear went exploring round the house
to see if anyone was at home, he even looked through the back windows

Clemence peered around from the back of the house

Clemence was quite sure by this time that no one was at home,
Lady Crazie checked the front door again just to be sure.

Lady Crazie sat on the front door step of the Gingerbread house

Lady Crazie seemed to like the house, the owl came to perch on the roof

Clemence started to gnaw off some of the icing snow on the roof

The owl pecked at the roof icing

then flew with a piece of icing in his beak to the chimney perch

Clemence sat down to enjoy his piece of icing, with Lady Crazie

Lady Crazie with the gifts she brought from the Sasha Commoneos

The chocolates which Lady Crazie brought with her didn't last very long, my younger daughter (who helped me with this scene) ate the last one - the wrapper is shown in the photo above.  Also shown is a gorgeous little Christmas card, two beautiful miniature wooden reindeer and a photo card of the Sasha Commoneo family and Lady Crazie with her family whom she has left at home.  Thank you Anne for sending her to us, she has now gone upstairs (safely away from our dog), so who knows what adventures she will encounter next in our home.

Christmas Day arrivals

Rudolf arrived with a special Secret Santa delivery

some exciting packages (from Rosie L)

Baby Jesus has arrived in the manger,
however can you spot who else has arrived in the DollMum house?

Lady Crazie from Germany is perching on the mantle piece with the Christmas stockings

Lady Crazie hops down to visit Baby Jesus

Lady Crazie and the crib scene

Jenny gets to know Lady Crazie who is inquisitive about the ice skating penguin on Jenny's dress   

Lady Crazie is pleased to meet Lexie as well