Advent Calendar Day 6

The pocket for Day 6 of my elder daughter's Advent Calendar contained snowflakes! The picture was a snowman with snowflakes so my younger daughter took inspiration from them and made a variety of crochet snowflakes with white sparkly wool or white cotton crochet thread. She found the patterns via YouTube videos (rather than reading crochet patterns). 

Day 6 pocket

The snowflake collection on the Advent calendar fabric

The larger crochet snowflakes

The smaller crochet snowflakes

She was very impressed with the snowflakes and their intricacy. Via our video call we showed her the even larger one her sister had made which would need stiffening with starch as it was too floppy and was too big for the pocket, so hadn't been included in her Advent Calendar.

Sasha Celebration Weekend 2018 - Part 2

The Raffle at the SCW is always epic in length as people are so generous.  This year the top prizes on a separate table included TEN dolls and several outfits or doll related sets, some of the dolls were one of a kind (re-rooted hair or repainted eyes).  The first ticket is always a top prize then throughout the draw for the mound of other lovely prizes occasionally a top prize would be announced (and we would all say 'ooooh' in anticipation of the draw).  I was flattered that when sorting the prizes, Janet and Tricia decided that our donation of the turquoise shweshwe dress, hat and underpants set which I made along with the crochet hair accessories made by my younger daughter would be a top prize.

The day before the SCW my Florence modelled the Raffle outfit I made while Melanie wore the dress I had previously made to match the 20" Studio doll outfit for Emmalee Rose

Florence showing the plain side of the hat brim of the Raffle outfit

Florence models the turquoise shweshwe outfit for the 2018 SCW raffle

Front of the dress, with hat and underpants of my 2018 SCW raffle donation

Back of the dress, with hat and underpants of my 2018 SCW raffle donation

The first lucky prize winner was Laura, who was thrilled to claim the re-rooted beauty wearing a Ruth's doll Scottish dancing outfit donated by Mary.

Janet draws Laura's winning ticket

Laura's excitement as she chooses her doll

Thanking Mary for her wonderful donation to the raffle

Laura was sitting with us and after returning to her seat she remained transfixed by her luck, carefully examining her lovely doll.  My girl would have loved that doll or the doll called 'Syria' or the doll donated by Petrana, or any of the them but this year we didn't win a top prize, instead we collected several lovely prizes from the main table, some we chose from the main table were ones which Laura donated, this made us laugh. When Laura's ticket was called for a top prize later on she held up the outfit I had donated and said to me 'do you mind me choosing this?' I just burst out laughing again.  She had helped me with the resizing of the same outfit to Studio doll size when I was making that dress for Dorisanne's doll, we had photographed our dolls together when we visited her in Devon and now she was collecting the 16" Sasha version of the dress I had made for the SCW, she clearly likes the style and fabric!

Delighted with the dress

My girl and I were pleased that the youngest child at the SCW won a baby doll in her crib from the top table.

A delighted young Sasha collector claims her baby from the top prizes

The last prize in the draw is always a specific doll, this year Janet won the last prize doll with her beautiful eyes.  The Raffle raised a staggering £3,000 which was match funded by a corporate sponsor to increase it tenfold for Save the Children International.

After the raffle we set up my daughter's sales table items on the same table I had used for the craft workshop during the morning, sharing the space with Jenny who had made lots of lovely outfits.  My daughter had learned to crochet and in addition to making Animal's headgear, she had crocheted several flowers and flower headbands - hair accessories for Sasha.  The individual flowers had a hair clip stitched to them and were sold in pairs or as singles.  She only had 3 headbands (5 flowers in a row) and sold one of them, as well as taking an order for another in a particular wool (she had a basket of wool for people to choose from).  She was pleased to sell nearly half of what she had made.  Laura and Louisa modelled a floral headband and a flower on a hairclip.

DollMum's daughter with her crochet hair accessories for Sasha

Dealing with a happy customer

All smiles about the hair accessories!

We both looked at all the sales items but this year I did not buy anything (I was very restrained) as we've got a big expense approaching and we had been very lucky with the Raffle.

Beautiful outfits and bedding

A range of colours, patterns and styles for this outfits

Petrana's fine outfits

The Dollydoodles outfits

Some miniature figures from Germany

A range of Sasha goodies

Lots of dolls for sale

Laura changed her new doll Jackie into the dress I had donated and clipped one of the flower hairclips into her hair peeping out from under her hat and we photographed our dolls together, wearing their sundress outfits.

L-R: Laura's pram, Melanie in her shweshwe outfit, Laura's studio doll Sela in her sundress and hat I'd made as a prototype, Laura's Jackie in her new raffle outfit, my pram and baby Nina playing with her abacus (my prototype)

There was more fun to come as the evening approached, which will be explained in the next instalments.

Chat n Snap 2016 - part 2

The Scouting and Guiding Jamboree wasn't the only display of Sasha and Gregor dolls at the Chat 'n Snap.  Plenty of dolls had come along to enjoy the fun and were put on tables around the sides of the hall.  I went round a couple of times to take photos as the displays grew, they were fluid through the day as people showed off their dolls to their friends and rearranged them a bit in the process.

Two blond toddlers and red haired girls

A pretty little Iona Gotz toddler girl wearing a ra ra skirt outfit

Toddler twins - one pair of only two Trendon prototype toddlers

Red haired girls in hand made white dresses, and friends

Jocelyn's two dolls (left in Emma Flood outfits) with a Red haired Gotz and a course doll

Two beautifully dressed Trendon girls

A Trendon boy in a wonderful Christmas sweater and a Trendon girl with her attractive beret and cardigan

Some gorgeous red haired girls

Dawn's lovely pram she restored this year

Reuben, Trendon Elliott, Melanie and Edmund brought some of the Summer Music Festival to the Chat 'n Snap

Three of our babies Nina, Daisy and Amy babble to each other while Florence (wearing the lovely Emma Flood outfit I bought at the Sasha Celebration) dreams as she listens to the music from the Summer Festival.  Beside our babies is the soft bodied baby made by Janet for Tricia

Caleb and Cora playing it cool on their motorbike!

A well behaved group of toddlers and babies with the older Sasha and Gregor dolls

A baby with a glove puppet entertains the other babies and toddlers

This collection of Muller Wichtel dolls was brought together for the day by those who collect them as well as Sasha

A doll made by Theresa using a course doll pattern and baby rerooted by Theresa with soft body by Janet joined the display

The Trendon toddler twins were joined by the only other pair of Trendon toddlers, a baby and a puppy

This was the dolls for sale table where anyone could put their doll for sale if they made a small donation to the charity pot

Three lovely Trendon dolls pose in the window, I managed to capture them on camera with the light behind them

Gayle's beautiful re-rooted Cora

Close up of Gayle's re-rooted Cora

Teddy had brought his lovely jointed wooden doll

Close up of the face of Teddy's wooden doll.  She is a bit bigger than Sasha serie dolls and wears Magic Attic and American Girl doll clothes.

Some Sasha children stood behind the motorcycle

This Gotz girl wears a lovely coat and hat set

This Trendon girl likes elephants

Three gorgeous early Trendons

The three gorgeous early Trendons are joined by another lovely early Trendon and a Gotz Claudius toddler

It is impossible to stop the toddlers and babies crawling and playing around and a Mexican copy of Sasha has crept into the lineup

A wonderful Studio girl

close up of the wonderful Studio girl

When eating our lunch and during the afternoon we sat at a table near our dolls and chatted with various people.  I brought out my Heather Maciak dolls - Jenny and Lexie wearing their knitted sweaters and my new Heather Maciak UFDC 2016 Convention souvenir doll Emily and journal which I bought recently via ebay.  Heather had told me all about the making of this doll and her companion doll when we met last year in Vancouver.  Teddy and I had an animated discussion about our Jenny and Lexie dolls and Dee showed me the two she had very recently purchased, inspired partly by my blog posts on them.  My daughter and I also made friends with Joanne who was crocheting a dress for her Sasha baby.  My girl sat stitching her first Cross Stitch kit (and finished it during the afternoon) and I knitted a few rows of a sweater for Emily my newest doll so it became a bit of a working crafts table for the afternoon.  I later saw Diane D knitting at another table as well.