Sasha Celebration weekend 2016 - part 2

It was Saturday morning of the Sasha celebration and the Sasha dolls in our room were stirring from their sleep.

Lucy the polar bear was snuggled in comfortably with baby Mabel and baby Nina

The miniature Baby Born in a push chair was a gift to my girl from Laura H when we arrived on the Friday - thank you Laura.

Florence, Miranda, Melanie (behind Miranda), Reuben, baby Leo, Nicholas James (as Robin Hood) and Betsy the Schoenhut girl were all waiting patiently for us to decide who would join us for breakfast

In the event my girl's red headed family and Trendon Elliott came to breakfast

Baby Amy and Edmund were still in their pyjamas!

Edmund was pleased to meet Rosie Shortell's two little German toddlers.  They are a similar size to the Sasha toddlers though a little chunkier, with large hands and big feet!

After breakfast those of us running the craft workshops set up our tables while everyone else waited in the refreshment area.  It did not take long to put out the waterproof tablecloth (to protect the hotel tableclothes from glue), the marionette kits, trays for small parts, marker pens, glue and feathers. Reuben was pleased to hold the marionette demonstration model while Florence held the prototype marionette which I had decided not to mass produce as it would have meant too many pieces of wood for me to cut to shape and sand.

Reuben and the marionette on our craft table

Everyone waiting patiently for the fun to begin

Janet welcomed everyone and explained about the two rooms, the 5 craft workshops and Kendal's glorious display of the entire Sasha brood.

The marionette craft table just before people arrived in the room to start

Kendal's studio and course dolls and wonderful photos

Kendal's production dolls - part 1

Kendal's production dolls - part 2

Kendal's production dolls - part 3

Kendal's production dolls - part 4

Kendal's production dolls - part 5

Kendal's production dolls - part 6

Petrana took a photo of Steve and family with Kendal, Chon and Liss beside the Brood

At the table beside mine Emma F was teaching an eager group of people how to make felt shoes or boots

Lorraine, Jocelyn, Alice, Liss and Shelly started reading the instructions and assembling their ostrich marionettes from the kit of parts

Iris and Ginger were also getting stuck into making the marionettes while the sunshine streamed through the big windows

soon Ginger was very proudly holding up her ostrich all strung on the controller

In the room next door the three other craft workshops were a hive of activity.  My girl was running a production line of face masks.  She made one for Kendal and two for her own dolls (Laura and a baby). She had tested out a marionette prototype for me at Easter time so knew what it was like to make a marionette.

My girl at the face mask workshop

The face mask for Laura which my girl made, using stencils, glitter glue and sequins

Jonny, Jo, Janet and Iris were busy at the face mask table too (yes, Iris is speedy crafter, it didn't take her long to finish her marionette and move onto the next craft)

Theresa was teaching the face mask making workshop

Judith (Dollydoodles) was teaching a large group of keen sewers how to make a playmat for their Sasha and Gregor dolls

Jane W had made a large number of knitted and crochet hand and shoulder bags to embellish with beads and other decorations - Paula, Dee, Jane and Ann were busy selecting and stitching

Meanwhile Lorraine had finished decorating her marionette with colourful feathers

Lorraine's flamboyant ostrich marionette

Lorraine's new boy Edward was very pleased to be the first to hold the ostrich marionette

Jocelyn, Alice and Liss were also decorating their ostriches with colourful feathers

Liss had gone for orange and yellow feathers for her ostrich

while Jocelyn had chosen her favourite colour turquoise feathers for her ostrich

artist Janet had given her ostrich the most amazingly well drawn eyes, quite unlike any of the others and had made her ostrich pink and turquoise

I was thrilled that Ginger had brought Finn to the celebration weekend for her first ever trip to England.  I had knitted for him in Lorraine's first Secret Santa Sasha swap in 2011 and he was pleased to hold Ginger's ostrich, now decorated with purple, pink and turquoise feathers on the table with Florence for the rest of the morning.  I was delighted to meet Ginger at last after 4 years of corresponding via blog comments and email.

Finn with his ostrich made by Ginger, standing with my Florence and the prototype duck marionette

people swapped craft tables as they completed projects and tried another throughout the morning (we had 3 hours for crafts), so Paula got started at my table

Judith paid a quick visit to my workshop to collect a kit as she was teaching her workshop and couldn't spare the time to do another craft at the same time.    

A new group of people were soon sitting at Emma's table making shoes

The elves and the shoemakers hard at work

following marionette instructions carefully

Laura H with her completed shoes on the doll sized lasts

Alison and Laura being cobblers and chatting

A gorgeous girl modelling a completed 'Robin Hood' boot

Paula proudly showed off her completed marionette

Fiona joined Jane at marionette making

while Liss became a cobbler

Kendal was on hand to talk about her Sasha Brood, Kendal and Liss enjoyed a chat while marionettes and shoes were made 

Soon Jane was walking her turquoise feathered marionette

Janet M was the last person to come along to make a marionette before lunch

It was great to have 3 hours for craft workshops - it gave everyone a chance to complete or try at least one craft and at least one person did 4 of the 5 workshops in that time!  Those of us leading the workshops could not try other crafts however some of us had made up enough kits for everyone to take away to do at home, so my girl and I have the shoe kits, my girl also got the playmat kit and Jane gave us several crochet bags to decorate.

Sasha Celebration weekend 2016 - part 1

The night before the Sasha Celebration weekend I was busy cutting marionette strings, printing out instructions and bagging up the 45 kits.

A tray full of marionette parts before bagging them up into kits

On Friday I packed, collected an excited young lady from school at 3pm, welcomed Jocelyn who was travelling with us, loaded the car and off we went to Nottingham.  We were the last to arrive (just after 6pm because of heavy Friday afternoon traffic on the M1), so the others were already assembling in the bar area for pre-dinner chatting.  Jocelyn (who traveled light) was a star helper as we brought our workshop boxes and entire collection of Sasha dolls (12) plus 4 other dolls to our room.

Soon we were enjoying a delicious meal with Sasha friends - it was wonderful to meet everyone and renew friendships face to face which are usually conducted online.  Some people had traveled a considerable distance for the celebration - we had one person from Australia, one from Germany, one from Switzerland, one from Spain and two from the USA.  We sat with Lorraine, Jocelyn, Alison (whom I had not met before), Jo, Iris and Jane W.

Melanie and Nina  - my two newest Sasha girls at the dinner table on Friday evening

Isabel my daughter's Makie doll at the dinner table

Edmund and Laura like the look of their girl's chocolate and orange pudding

Melanie and Nina, my pudding, with Jocelyn and Alison enjoying their conversation

After dinner the £1 bazaar was held (we made 2 donations and bought one thing) and we took our raffle contributions to one of the rooms the Sasha Celebration was using, bought some raffle tickets and admired Janet's glorious dolls already on display.

Janet's beautiful dolls awaiting more friends

 The Robin Hood forest scene was being set up, at this stage it had Janet's dolls, the backdrop and the fireplace.

The Robin Hood scene with Janet's dolls

Janet and Ginger's lovely dolls as Robin Hood and Maid Marian (thanks for the correction Janet)

The top raffle prize was a doll with a beautiful sweater and accessories donated by Gayle, who could not join us for the Celebration.

Mikey waiting for the Saturday and his new lucky owner

There were 2 tables covered with raffle prizes and they kept on coming - everyone was so generous.  With this promise of an exciting Saturday ahead of us, we said goodnight to our friends and went to bed.

Preparing for the Sasha Celebration

I've barely had any spare Sasha doll time in recent weeks as my full time job and the voluntary project have both been intensely busy and have taken most of my time and energy.  The voluntary project has been coming to glorious fruition with celebratory events - wonderful and exhausting.

I'm running one of the craft workshops at the Sasha Celebration (last year we made miniature railway engines).  This year those attending know already it will be another toy - a string puppet - but they know nothing else about it.

I am not going to tell exactly what kind of marionette character it is - much more fun to reveal it on the day, however this photo shows Reuben giving you a tantalizing glimpse of the controller.

What will it be - Reuben knows but won't tell until Saturday

After the event I'll blog about the design and making of this little toy and how it goes at the workshop. Meanwhile I'm bagging up 45 kits with the instructions and certificates.

We're getting very excited about the weekend and look forward to catching up with Sasha friends, making things together and admiring Kendal's magnificent collection.

Exploring Blenheim

Laura decided to take her little brother to Blenheim Palace on the Sunday after Easter.  

In the long library they found the coronation robes which the family had used when Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953.

Laura and Edmund with the Blenheim Palace Coronation robes

The information board about the Coronation clothes

In the long Library is a historic Willis pipe organ - it was being played for the Sunday afternoon recital by an organist called Jonathan Kingston

Laura and Edmund were impressed with the sound of the Blenheim Palace Willis organ, even though it needs restoration it still sounded good because the organist was so good at avoiding the bits which didn't work.

Outside Edmund found a milestone path about Churchill

Laura and Edmund looked up at the bust of Winston Churchill in the milestone path, which was surrounded by daffodils

Next they visited the Blenheim cascade

Edmund and Laura stood on the bridge below the cascade and looked up at the falling water

Then they walked up to the viewpoint beside the cascade to get another look - it was very noisy

The information board about the Blenheim Palace cascade

On the walk along the lake back towards the house Laura and Edmund found the boat house

Edmund REALLY wanted to have a ride in a boat

Near the house were the water terraces, Edmund wanted to run on the grass to the water and Laura had to restrain him as she didn't think walking on that grass was allowed.

Edmund was a bit disappointed about not being allowed on the grass

However Edmund soon cheered up when he saw there were Easter egg cupcakes and hot chocolate at the Water terrace restaurant

Laura and Edmund found the entrance to the house overlooking the south lawn, which was vast

They stood on the steps in front of the big entrance door to look out at the south lawn

Edmund and Laura found the entrance to the Secret Garden at Blenheim Palace

The Secret Garden had been restored and was just waking up after the winter

Beyond the secret garden was a fountain called the Roundel - Laura and Edmund sat down to rest and watch the water jets spurting out of the centre

Soon it was time to go home - Laura and Edmund had one last look at Blenheim Palace

This happened at the beginning of April, however I've had so little time for blogging because of work and the volunteer project that it is only now, the last day of the month that I was finally able to find a moment to sort my photos of this fun trip.  Last year on Easter day we took Laura to Blenheim Palace however I never edited those photos and they didn't find their way into a blog post.