Welcome party

There was a party going on

Music was provided by the band with Laura singing the vocals

Laura was wearing a dramatic red velvet cloak as she sang and danced

Edmund had joined the band with a guitar though was in danger of being deafened by Trendon Elliott's trumpet!

The flute, guitars, drums and backing singers were in full swing

The backing singers Matroshka, Jayne and Harriet were dancing and moving their arms in time as they sang while Matilda and Belle danced on the balcony and Nicholas James played the guitar

Clemence the bear fancied himself a singer too and held the microphone stand for Laura

Peter the drummer and Matroshka the singing dancer

Matilda and Belle were loving the music

Trendon Elliott was playing the trumpet, Anna the flute and Samantha the guitar

Reuben, Miranda, Florence and the babies Amy, Mabel and Leo were loving Laura's singing as they danced along to the music

The music drew two newcomers into the room - they were astonished by the welcome to their new home

Reuben rushed over to greet them "Melanie, Nina, at last you've come" he yelled in delight to see his new sisters

"Welcome home" cried Reuben as he hugged his new sister Melanie while Miranda greeted baby Nina

"Hello Melanie and Nina, we've been looking forward to meeting you" exclaimed Florence and Miranda as baby Amy peeped between their legs to see Nina

The Sasha and Gregor family gathered round Melanie and Nina to welcome them, there was a lot of excited chatting

soon they were all partying together as the band started playing again to welcome their new sisters to the family

Melanie, Reuben and baby Nina (with Nina's basket)

Melanie and Nina my two new Trendon Sasha dolls arrived at the end of January via Susanna Lewis's site. They both came with their complete original outfits and boxes, and Nina has her basket.  They are both minty, in fact Melanie still has the new vinyl smell and Nina, who was a shop display doll until she went to the same private collection as Melanie also has a faint new vinyl smell and her basket is perfect.  Melanie is the 1983 Cora Flower dress and Nina is Little Flower.  Reuben, who is a later Caleb is slightly shorter than Melanie (though it may be her hair) - he doesn't seem to mind though as he is delighted to have two new sisters.  The elder sister of my childhood playmate Reuben was called Melanie and another Sunday school playmate I had at the Cathedral was also called Melanie.  Nina is named for two Nina's - one was the mum of three neighbouring children whom I knew all my childhood and the other is a current friend.

My daughter was playing music from Queen while we set up and photographed this story, including Bohemian Rhapsody, We are the Champions. Somebody to Love, Another One Bites the Dust, I Want to Break Free and We Will Rock You.

I've had so little time for the dolls in recent weeks so it was fun to carve out some time with my younger daughter today to play dolls again together.

Adopt a polar bear in the snow

A lonely polar bear was trekking across the snowy wastes...

He was hungry, however his black skin under his thick white fur kept him warm.

His big paws stopped him from sinking into the snow

Three children out for a walk in the snow spotted him

One very intrepid toddler showed no fear as he ventured across the snow towards the polar bear (maybe his panda bear hat made him brave)

His brother and sister decided to follow to be on hand if the bear did anything to scare their little brother

The bear saw the children and turned towards them

he picked his way across the snow to the children

Bear and children were fascinated with each other

with their adopted Polar Bear

My younger daughter's godparents gave her an adopted Polar Bear from World Wide Fund for Nature as a Christmas gift.  There is an information booklet and a cuddly toy to go with the certificate about a bear.  She has been learning lots of interesting facts about Polar bears and this toy has become a favourite.

The overnight snow on Saturday/Sunday was enough to prompt a photo story. Taking photos of dolls and cuddly toys in the snow is always a challenge because tracks show up and sometimes they fall over.  They all got a little surface damp on their clothes so warmed up indoors again afterwards.  Nicholas James is very attached to his polar bear sweater by Halyna, Laura wore an outfit by Dee (with boots from Rosie S) and Edmund was well wrapped in his Dollydoodles outfit and panda hat.  The Polar bear said he was quite warm enough thank you with his own coat of thick fur!

Sasha Secret Santa 2015 - what we sent

I've participated in every Christmas Secret Santa Swap which Lorraine has organised since the first one in 2011.  This year I knew I would be up against time for making outfits as I was away for a week during November in Vancouver for a work conference and I was also completing some outfits for a doll which we raffled at our church Christmas fair.  As a result Lorraine made sure that I would send to a UK based person rather than overseas (the deadline for sending gifts is end of November).  In the event my parcel (which our dolls unwrapped on Christmas day) arrived on the 27 November (from the USA) and I managed to sew and send gifts to Rosie L a week later.

I had received the following message from Rosie's boys (via Lorraine):

Dear Santa

We have been very good and hope we're on your nice list.
This year the Laird Gregors would like a reefer jacket in navy or grey (if
that's possible) or another style of jacket without a hood.
We would also like a Star wars t shirt and a messenger bag.
If that's not possible we would be happy with some shirts. please don't send
us knitwear as our Mum knits ALL the time!

Thank you

The Laird Gregors

I found some Star Wars fabric online.  The motifs on the fabric were the largest I dared use on a Sasha doll sized shirt so I adapted my dashiki pattern to make large t-shirts for the boys.  Sending them one Star Wars themed t-shirt seemed silly, much better to send three, to prevent arguments.  I cut out the motifs and stitched them onto plain polyester non stretch fabric using a fine zigzag stitch.  From the fourth piece of fabric I made a messenger bag.

Nicholas James, Trendon Elliott and Reuben model the Star Wars shirts

NJ, TE and R tried very hard not to feel jealous of the Laird Gregors who would receive these Star Wars shirts, even though none of them had ever seen a Star Wars movie.

Trendon Elliott modeled the red light saber shirt and carried the messenger bag

Reuben modeled one of the blue Star Wars shirts

Nicholas James modeled the other blue Star Wars shirt

The Star Wars messenger bag

The open Star Wars messenger bag

I suggested in a note to Rosie that the boys would need some popcorn when they went to see the new Star Wars movie.

A few days later the following email arrived from Rosie L:

I just wanted to say a really big thank you for the super T shirts and Messenger bag you made for me. We are delighted with them. When I asked for a Star Wars T shirt I didn't really know if it would be possible - but to get 3 and a matching bag is just amazing. Your sewing is so neat I am envious! You are right - all my boys need now is some popcorn to munch while watching.

As you can see from Lorraine's blog, Rosie's Gregors are delighted.

I still have some Star Wars fabric (I bought a fat quarter of 4 different patterns).  None of my family have ever watched Star Wars - I could make more shirts if anyone wants one for their Gregor doll.

Sasha Christmas day 2015

On Christmas morning the Sasha and Gregor children and babies gathered around the new fireplace to find the sleigh bearing Secret Santa gifts.

Nicholas James and Reuben were wearing Christmas t-shirts from the 2012 swap (from Dorisanne)

Florence was glad to greet the reindeer (she was wearing her dress from the first Sasha Secret Santa we joined in 2011) 

Edmund toddled in still wearing his dressing gown and pyjamas.  "Merry Christmas, sleepyhead" laughed Miranda when she saw him. "Mewwy Cwismas Miwanda" mumbled Edmund, who was still tired from his Christmas Eve climb down and up the stairs.

Edmund's stocking was bulging with gifts from Father Christmas

"Pwesents!" cried Edmund in delight as he clutched his stocking (and showed off his pyjamas made by his girl from fabric bought at Dressew)

The others gathered around to watch as Edmund pulled a candy cane out of the stocking

This was swiftly followed by a model aeroplane kit.  Reuben offered to help Edmund assemble the plane later.

Edmund discovered a dinosaur stencil in his stocking

"A wacing car" yelled Edmund in delight as the next gift emerged from his stocking

The last gift from his stocking was a rubber ball.  Edmund was thrilled and asked the others to play ball with him later.

After Edmund's excitement, the Sasha and Gregor's turned their attention back to the sleigh full of gifts. They were all presented beautifully in draw string bags. We had requested gifts for the boys this year when Lorraine organised the swap.

Reuben carefully lifted down from the sleigh a gorgeous polar bear with chocolates

There was a lovely pair of black shoes in one of the gift bags

A superb hand knitted sweater with a polar bear motif and matching socks was in the next bag (made by Halyna)

There was also some dark chocolate (sea salt caramel) in the wonderful collection of Secret Santa gifts

The boys decided that Nicholas James would wear the sweater, socks and shoes first.  NJ was so pleased he tucked his jeans into the socks to show off their stripes

Mabel, the polar bear, Edmund and Trendon Elliott (wearing the 2011 Secret Santa sweater) were pleased to pose for a Christmas photo.

This wasn't the end of the Sasha Christmas surprises. In a basket belonging to her big sister my younger daughter discovered her new baby. She came (via Shelly's site) with a hand knitted sweater and original Sasha baby Ginger trousers.

After dressing her new baby ginger in the clothes

The only blue eyed red haired Sasha baby (made by Trendon) is an unsexed baby, it is described in the Three Ann's Sasha Identification book as 'she' however the baby comes wearing trousers. After some thought my girl decided the baby would be a girl and she will be called Amy.

Florence, Laura, baby Leo, Nicholas James, baby Mabel, Miranda, Reuben, Edmund and Trendon Elliott meet baby Amy

Leo, Mabel, polar bear and Edmund say hello to Amy

Welcome baby Amy

Thank you so much to Halyna for the gorgeous collection of Secret Santa gifts and Lorraine for organising the swap again this year. We enjoyed participating and I'll blog about the gifts we sent to Rosie L in the next post. Our Sasha and Gregor family (now 10!) wish all our friends and other readers of this blog a Merry Christmas and happy 2016.