Sasha Celebration Weekend 2018 - Part 5

After the SCW Oscar awards in which those of us who had run a craft workshop were given our own mini teddy, we chatted some more at the dinner table and my girl did another fishtail plait for her own doll Laura.  Trendon Elliott and Laura had come to dinner in their best music themed clothes (made by Lorraine who could not be with us at the SCW unfortunately and who would have joined our music trio playing her clarinet).

Trendon Elliot with my craft workshop thank you gift bear and Laura at dinner

Laura's fishtail plait

Emma and her young daughter invited a few of us back to her room for more socialising, so we joined Emma, her girl, Alison and Jocelyn for some late night chatting. My girl re-plaited the fishtail plait for Jocelyn's doll.

Chatting in Emma's room after completing the fishtail plait for Jocelyn's doll Ella

Enjoying a good Sasha chat

Happy with Ella's restyled hair

Closeup of Ella's fishtail plait (photo Alan Hinchcliffe)

It had been such a long, fun, busy day but that didn't stop us talking until late.  On Sunday morning Laura and baby Theo took Animal's SCW Oscar to breakfast so that immediately after breakfast we could photograph the Fanfare band with the award before packing up the band until their next appearance.  Many of the Red Carpet dolls had left the carpet when we arrived, it was sad to see the display denuded of many of its finely dressed occupants.

Laura and Theo with Animal's SCW Oscar

The Fanfare Band with SCW Oscar

All my other photos of the Fanfare band have not shown what was written on the labels for each doll, so I photographed them to show.

Louise Armstrong with his trumpet from High Society - in tribute to the great jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong providing a fanfare fore the red carpet entrants!

'Animal' from The Muppets - a toddler is never far from being an enthusiastic, dangerous, untamed … music maker - give him a set of drums with a crashing cymbal and he is happy!

Janet - a classy lady plays her flute in the band - providing the melodies and trills to accompany the entry of the red carpet Sasha and Gregor beauties!

Janet and her flute

Janet the very classy lady in the Fanfare band

Alan took a group photo of most of the SCW people at 9.30 am, some had already left to catch trains or planes, some were loading their cars but we had all three children in the photo.

Most of the 2018 SCW attendees

Alan had his photo booth for those of us who wanted our dolls photographed in front of a scenic backdrop before we left.

Reuben as Louis Armstrong (photo Alan Hinchcliffe)

Louis Armstrong and his trumpet (photo Alan Hinchcliffe)

Animal and his SCW Oscar (photo Alan Hinchcliffe)

Closeup of 'Animal' (photo Alan Hinchcliffe)

Animal in the street (photo Alan Hinchcliffe)

And so it was time to say goodbye to everyone at the 2018 SCW, it went far too fast!  I would like to thank Janet and Tricia for another triumph of organisation, exercise in patience, great ideas brilliantly realised and positive encouragement - their work made the weekend memorable for all of us.

Now I need to work out what the wooden craft will be next time...

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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Sasha Celebration Weekend 2018 - Part 1

At last it was time to meet up with many Sasha friends again - I collected my younger daughter from school and we drove straight away to Nottingham, collecting Gillian from the station on the way.  We arrived at 5.45 pm and were soon unloading our Sasha dolls into our room.

First we found Janet and Tricia so we could set up our Fanfare band at the end of the Red Carpet Display, Mary joined us as we placed her beautiful flute player into the scene and together we admired the amazing outfits and dolls (included hair styles) on the other Red Carpet dolls and made plans for the live Fanfare band to rehearse the next day.

Louis Armstrong, Animal and Janet the flautist in the Fanfare Band

We had missed the £1 bazaar before dinner because it was held when we arrived, however we were soon meeting and chatting with other friends as we gathered for dinner.  Mary played her flute at intervals during dinner much to everyone's delight, we've never had live music before at the SCW.

Mary playing flute for our entertainment at dinner

After dinner Jocelyn gave a fascinating illustrated talk all about Frido and Trendon Sasha eyes and how they changed over time.

Friday evening dinner at the SCW

Tricia introduces Jocelyn for her talk about Frido/Trendon eye styles

On Saturday morning we met up with more Sasha friends at breakfast before setting up our craft table.

Louisa and baby Amy at breakfast

Gillian's childhood babies at breakfast

Our table was right beside the Red Carpet display, alongside our Fanfare band, I was relieved to see that Reuben had not dropped his trumpet during the night and Edmund was looking as wild as ever alongside the cool elegance of Janet, Mary's flute player.

This year all the craft kits were given to Janet and Tricia to sort into the gift bags so all we needed on our craft tables were the display materials and any tools/accessories needed to complete the craft kit, so it didn't take long to set up.

Abacus craft table before everyone arrived

Baby Nina holding her Abacus alongside the big abacus

Alan set up his time lapse camera on a stand alongside our table to take photos for 45 minutes (900 pictures apparently) which were later compressed into 30 seconds of film showing the progress of the crafters (I cannot share the video as it is unlisted).  The other two tables in our room were Jenny teaching smocking and Laura with her embroidered denim bag, in the other room Mary was demonstrating how to make fishtail plaits/braids, Judith was running a ballerina outfit (tutu) making workshop (she had provided the leotards ready made for the tutu) and Janet was teaching how to make an origami doll in decorated papers.

Fishtail plait/braid table

Ballerina outfit table

Embroidered denim bag table

Smocking table

The crafters were busy all morning and people seemed to enjoy making the little abacus.  I was personally delighted that it was possible for a person who is partially sighted to make the abacus and I adapted the table height for one person who could not sit down due to a back injury (I put my large plastic box on the table to bring the height up to a better level for her).  The younger girls were also able to manage the abacus without difficulty too.  Everyone who did the abacus did their own patterns for the beads, which was fun to observe, one child insisted on doing her abacus to the power of 8 not 10 (she didn't want 10 beads in a row).

Abacus table crafters 1

Abacus table crafters 2

Abacus table crafters 3

Abacus table crafters 4

Abacus table crafters 5

Abacus table crafters 6

Abacus table crafters 7

Ballerina tutu table crafters 1

Ballerina tutu table crafters 2

Origami doll crafters table 1

Origami doll crafters table 2

Abacus table crafters 8

Abacus table crafters 9

Abacus table crafters 10

Abacus table crafters 11

Abacus table crafters 12

Abacus table crafters 13

Abacus table crafters 14

Smocking table crafters 1

Embroidered denim bag crafters 1

Abacus table crafters 15

Abacus table crafters 16

Abacus table crafters 17

My daughter's origami doll

With her origami doll

Abacus table crafters 18

Abacus table crafters 19

Abacus table crafters 20

Abacus table crafters 21

Smocking table crafters 2

Embroidered denim bag crafters 2

We stopped for lunch at 1pm and tidied up (this didn't take long).  Then it was time for the Grand Raffle draw - which I shall write about in Part 2.