Sasha Festival 2021 outfits and welcome Roxane

 A few weeks after the Sasha Festival in the USA which we couldn't attend, we received our souvenir outfits in the post from Gabi Bolland. The souvenirs also included two Bolland doll stands, the festival craft kits (the rainbow tutus and underwear) and the white sneakers/trainers for decorating with felt tip pens, which we haven't done yet. I've made up one tutu, and my younger daughter hasn't made up her tutu yet, so these are not included in our photos.

Nicholas James, Melanie, Laura and Trendon Elliott in their 'Sasha Reads a Rainbow' outfits

I completed my last module of my post graduate degree in September after 2.5 years of studying, so treated myself to a new doll. She is my first Sylvia Natterer doll (a Minouche which is the Natterer toddler) and is made by Petitcollin of France.

"Hello, I'm Louisa, this is Edmund. What is your name?" asked Louisa as the new girl arrived.

"Hello, my name is Roxane"

"Here Roxane, have a teddy bear" said Edmund

"Oh, lovely teddy" exclaimed Roxane

"Thank you for the teddy, Edmund and Louisa" said Roxane

Louisa, Edmund and Roxane posed with their toys before going off to play.

The Natterer toddler is fractionally taller than the Sasha toddlers however her feet are narrower. I bought 2 other pairs of shoes for her so will make her some outfits of her own to match her other shoes.

Sasha Celebration Weekend 2018 - Part 3

It was late Saturday afternoon at the 2018 SCW and my daughter had sold a few hair accessories at her sales stand, much to her relief after all her crochet work - it was gratifying to have some customers.  We returned to our room with our Sasha dolls and the remaining hair accessories then picked up our violin, flute, music stands and music and met Mary with her flute in the dinner room.

We had corresponded via email about the live music group to complement the Red Carpet Fanfare Band.  Janet had asked if we could play music from the movies and we found a trios book of fairly straightforward arrangements - there were various books with the same parts for different instruments, so I bought the violin and flute book while Mary bought the flute book.  Mary also sent us one piece via email which we printed out and she brought a book of Harry Potter tunes for us to sight read.  We decided to play one piece before the starter, one before the main course and one before the pudding / dessert.  We had such fun rehearsing together for 30 minutes having rehearsed separately because of the big pond between the UK and USA.

Our trio started with Harry Potter - Hedwig's theme (starter), then played Hallelujah from Shrek (main course) then played Raiders March from Raiders of the Lost Ark (pudding). People seemed to enjoy it and Alan filmed us playing for dinner and shared the videos with the Sasha Morgenthaler group on Facebook.

Discussing our parts just before playing Raiders March

The SCW flute and violin trio for Saturday night dinner

After dinner Dee gave the second talk about Sasha eyes following Jocelyn's talk the previous evening - this time all about the Gotz eyes.  The other display at the SCW was a long table of serie (production) Sasha dolls of all the different eye styles and production periods.  It was really interesting to see how the eye styles had changed over time on the serie dolls of the Gotz, Frido and Trendon productions.

Eye display - early Trendon Sasha dolls

Eye display - early Trendon Sasha dolls

Eye display - Trendon babies with their siblings

Eye display - later Trendon Sasha children

Eye display - the prototype Trendon toddlers and some early Gotz dolls

Eye display - early Gotz Sasha dolls

Eye display - early Gotz Sasha dolls

Eye display - early and later Gotz Sasha dolls

Dee explains about Gotz Sasha eyes

During dinner there was also time for a bit more hair styling - my girl did a fishtail plait for Laura's beautiful Sasha doll.

Doing a fishtail plait on Laura's doll

Completed fishtail plait

Arranging the front hair strands into soft ringlets

Matching - Laura made both dresses

We also had some doll visitors to our table.  It was delightful to meet the gorgeous Sasha Studio toddler we had first met in Dorisanne's home last year, this little red haired beauty now lives with one of the biggest collections of Sasha serie toddlers in England.

Sasha Studio bebe and Toddler

This cheeky lad in the tea cup was one of two small BJD (ball jointed dolls) who visited us.

Small BJD boy in a tea cup - this lad was full of mischief

The next post is all about the Awards for the Red Carpet entrants - the Oscars of the Sasha Celebration Weekend.

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Toddlers on ice

Dancing on Ice has been on TV in the UK for a few weeks with Miranda and Timothy having their photos taken some weeks and featuring on the Sasha group on Facebook. 

Miranda and Timothy during Week 2 of Dancing on Ice

Harriet, Miranda and Timothy during Week 3 (Disco week) of Dancing on Ice

However our Gotz Sasha toddlers Edmund and Louisa started asking for skating lessons.  On the principle that the sooner you start children on the ice (once they can walk and run) the better, their big siblings decided they needed to find some skates to fit the toddlers little feet.

Lisa Hartley made the boots and after looking up a few methods online, my girl and I decided that making the blades with wood was probably the best solution when we don't have all the tools or materials needed to make metal blades.

So out came my stock of lolly sticks, we also ate had some ice creams of a certain brand which have shaped wooden lolly sticks for the blade mounts on the bottom of the boots.

I used the bigger Gotz / American Girl doll ice skate blades as a guide for the shape of the blades and drew onto a lolly stick to fit the size of the smaller boots.  Cutting individual lolly sticks with the slightly complicated shape was not easy if done individually (I split a couple when trying) so the portable bench vice was brought into the house and I set to work with a razer saw, fine carving chisels and sandpaper.

Four lolly sticks side by side in the bench vice were cut and carved to shape while clamped together to make the ice skate blades

The blades glued to the base plates to make the skates

Once the glue was dry, I sprayed many layers (over several hours to allow drying time) of chrome coloured paint to try and get the wooden blades to look like metal blades.

The spray painted skate blades

This morning, with the paint dry, I glued the finished blades onto the base of the boots.

The Toddler Ice Skates

At Christmas time I knitted Louisa the long tunic sweater with front pocket (number 18 in the book by Jane Woodbridge and Patricia Evans), I used 4 ply wool but smaller needles to scale it down to suit a toddler rather than a Sasha.  Today, on the car drive to and from a birthday celebration walk and meal with family, I knitted a hat to match.  Edmund is wearing the hat and cardigan I made for him when he arrived a couple of years ago.

Toddlers Edmund and Louisa take to the ice in their new skates

Now they need to have fun on the ice getting their balance and learning some basic moves.

A small wish - part 2

At Lorraine's house when we visited to collect the toddler, Henry gave Laura a very lovely denim handbag which he brought from the Sasha Festival.

Henry's gift for Laura from the 2015 Sasha Festival

In addition to helping the toddler from SusanLK make his way to England for my daughter, Norvell enclosed a gift for him which she bought at the festival.  It is a delightful outfit made by Sheila Foery - Superman shorts, t-shirt and socks.  After he had tried on his shorts made by his new mum, it didn't take Edmund long to decide he wanted to be Superman and do brave things so on went the new outfit from Norvell.

Edmund as Superman

Edmund strikes a Superman pose

Edmund was sitting on the sofa when he started to slide off it to go exploring

Peggy Sue spotted him and thought he was falling, so she helped Edmund back up onto the sofa again

Edmund managed to climb back up again with Peggy Sue's help

"I hope you're sitting comfortably away from the edge now" said Peggy Sue.  Edmund just smiled at her.

Peggy Sue sat down feeling pleased that she had arrived in time to help Edmund back up to his seat

As Peggy Sue wandered away, Edmund watched her go

Edmund slid down from the sofa again and stood behind Peggy Sue but she didn't notice.

He climbed off the stool and toddled off towards an interesting looking box

He discovered his swimming shorts in the box (made by his new mum) and some pretty fabric which came with him on his journey to England

Feeling bold, Edmund climbed into the box

and settled on the fabric for a rest 

Soon it was time to go home, my girl wrapped Edmund in his towel as it had been raining outside and she didn't want him to get wet.

Cuddling Edmund in his travelling towel

However in the end Edmund travelled on the final part of the journey to his new home in the doll bag made by Lorraine

SusanLK very kindly send the Mary Engelbreit fabric to me as a gift - maybe it will become a quilt, I'm still considering ideas.

Thank you Norvell for hosting Edmund on his journey to England and for his lovely new clothes.

We had a lovely time visiting Lorraine (and her glorious collection of dolls) and are so grateful that she offered to transport this little red head from the USA to England for us.

A small wish - part 1

I saw a Sasha toddler for the first time at the 2012 Sasha Festival. Later, the antics of Lonely, Lucas and Connor on Ronnie, Dee and Jen's blogs kept my younger daughter laughing and drew her attention to toddlers.  More recently in 2014 there was a big gathering of toddlers at the 2014 festival in the US and then at the Chat 'n Snap in the UK.  My daughter kept asking if she could save up for one, so we started her toddler fund (mainly any sales I made at the Chat 'n Snap, kind donations and she has been doing helpful chores around the house which she keeps track of in an account book).  I wanted her to understand that you can't just have everything you want straight away - it often means saving up and working hard.

Earlier this year I posted a request on Sasha Mart for anyone who might be selling a toddler to contact me.  Lorraine had suggested that if a toddler was for sale in the USA she could bring it back after the 2015 festival as these days the additional cost of UK customs and international shipping can really make buying a doll from overseas expensive.  After a few days I was contacted by SusanLK in Massachusetts who had a Claudius for sale.  A lot of emails flew back and forth, arrangements were made and in due course the toddler was posted within the USA to Norvell who was going to the festival (Susan couldn't attend and we didn't want the doll to be sent direct to the hotel).

Norvell kindly took photos which she emailed to my daughter when he arrived at her home.  This certainly helped increase the excitement about him as the waiting for his arrival continued.

Gotz toddler Claudius (photo by Norvell)

Close up of the toddler Claudius (photo by Norvell)

My daughter reading the email from Norvell with the picture of the toddler doll

The next stage of his journey was with Norvell to the festival in Texas where she gave him to Lorraine.  He is in such lovely minty condition that Lorraine decided not to take him out at the festival to photograph him attending it (we had given her permission to do so if she wanted to).  Norvell added a gift from the festival to his tube and he travelled to the UK in Lorraine's hand luggage with Henry (his tube went in her suitcase).

Lorraine arrived back in the UK just as my daughter went off to the first of 2 summer camps, so it was only today that we were able to arrange to meet up (at Lorraine's house) for my girl to finally get her longed for toddler boy.

Laura and Florence help open the toddler's tube

He was carefully wrapped in a towel and in tissue paper

Oh he is beautiful

One very happy girl with Laura, toddler and Florence

My daughter asked me to photograph her toddler's introduction to his new big sisters.  As he is a sailor boy, to make him feel at home Florence had dressed in her original Marina outfit and Laura wore the union flag with sailor collar dress which I made a couple of years ago.

"Hello, welcome to England little brother, I'm Florence and this is Laura"

"We have a gift - our girl made these swimming shorts for you" said Laura

"We think he likes the yachts on his swimming shorts"

"Thank you big sister Laura"

it is good to have a welcome cuddle

"Look, my new swimming shorts fit"

My daughter decided to name her new toddler 'Edmund' (Ed for short) an old English name which means 'fortunate protector'.  She was also considering 'Kelvin', a Scottish name which means 'friend of ships'.

giving Edmund a cuddle

I would like to thank SusanLK, Norvell and Lorraine for enabling my daughter's wish to come true in such a lovely way and helping to nurture her doll hobby.

There is a part two of meeting Edmund which follows in the next post.