Merry Christmas

I wish I had the time and energy to set up a small tree for the dolls this year. Instead I made do with posing Adeline by our big tree for a Christmas picture. She is wearing a new dress that Marti Murphy made from a vintage baby dress. C'est Magnifique!

Little Princess

Sometimes I stumble across one of Boo's dolls and have to smile. Here is Princess Kitty perched on her "throne" in the family room. The crown is child-sized (part of Boo's dress-up collection), and was simply wrapped around Kitty's head. Her sweet outfit was made by Norvell Jones, and is one of Boo's favorites.

More Happiness

My Doucet pram has arrived, and I'm very happy with this purchase also. It is in great condition, and I really like the texture of the black and how it contrasts with the white. I love, love, love it! Allegra is the first to play with it, and I think she feels the same way.

Meet Allegra

The eBay situation with Annabel left me feeling unhappy, but I cheered up when I found a 1968 blonde fringe girl for sale on Shelly's site. Since her descriptions are always accurate, I knew I wouldn't be disappointed again. Allegra is just as described, and oh so much nicer than Annabel. And she's a blue cord, like most of my other early English blondes.

The weather wasn't great for picture taking today and I didn't have time to mess with lighting, but I managed to find a spot of light coming through a south-facing window. It was so bright that I was having problems with shadows, but I like how this picture turned out.

Luckily I also wound up with a decent shot of Allegra's spectacular pale blue eyes. If you're curious, she's standing in front of Boo's doll armoire.

Doucet Pram

I made an online purchase today, and am so excited that I can't wait until it arrives to share! I have been searching for one of these for ages -- when I find one it's already sold or I get outbid. The seller had misread the label as Doucer instead of Doucet, which is probably the reason no one had snapped it up already. I'm doing a little happy dance, awaiting its arrival next week.

Happiness is ...

... getting a bed for your Sasha baby. This was the part of the auction we didn't win that made Boo most disappointed about losing.

I have one overjoyed daughter (with one very cozy Sasha baby). Thank you Dawn!

♥ 2012 Sasha Festival ♥

The 2012 Sasha Festival is happening June 21-24 in Stratford upon Avon, England.

I know that seems like a long time away, but it's time to start planning now. Here's a message from Dawn Law, the festival organizer:

Owing to the Olympic Games and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee there will be a large number of overseas visitors next June, and hotel rooms in England are filling up fast. I have been contacted by our Hotel, The Grosvenor, about our likely demand for rooms, as some Hotels in Stratford upon Avon (one of England's top tourist towns) are already full.
I had provisionally booked 40+ rooms, at the Hotel and more could be made available if we act quickly. There are only about 70 rooms in this hotel. However, owing to demand they cannot hold them for very long.
In order to secure a room here for the Festival, it is advisable to book NOW.
I have negotiated the following prices:
Thursday, 21 and 22 June 2012 - Double room with breakfast £99 (this is for 2 people, not per head).
Saturday, 23 June 2012 - (price is £20 lower than Best Western's fixed rate for Saturday nights) Double room £140.(for 2 people, not per head).
Sunday, 24th June 2012 - (for anyone staying over) Double room with breakfast £79 (for 2 people).
If you need accommodation at The Grosvenor, you can contact the Hotel on (tel) 01789 269213, (fax) 01789 266087, (email) res@bwgh.co.uk Website address is www.bwgh.co.uk . They will need a £50 deposit at time of booking.
If you are planning to stay at other hotels in England during your visit, I suggest you contact them now as rooms in London, particularly, are becoming scarce.
In view of the urgency to book rooms, we shall have to change our proposed registration system. Please let me know if you are planning to come to the Festival and have booked your room a.s.a.p. via email, and I will put you on the list, and also let me know if you wish to come but will not be staying at the hotel.
I will then be able to send out registration forms which you can return to me.
The cost of our Festival will be £150 per person, and we are limited to 100 full participants (meals only may be possible, depending on numbers - cost later). The fee will include three meals, 1 x dinner, 1 x lunch and 1 x brunch., and includes 1 outing.
Confirmation and payment will be required by 1st September 2011. Paypal details later.
If you need further information, please contact me.
The website will be available very soon.
Looking forward to seeing new and old friends again.
Dawn Law.

Sasha Festival 2011 - post 7

Since there were no table hostess gifts or gift swap this year, and I didn't win any auctions or buy anything for myself in the sales room, I didn't bring home much new beyond the festival souvenirs shown in my last post. I did buy a copy of Anne, Ann, and Susanna's new book (which is fabulous - everyone needs a copy!) and a set of the bookmarks they are selling to help fund their future books.

And Boo brought home a quite a few additional new things, first and foremost being a baby waif who she's tentatively named Kitty. Kitty is a sexed girl with raised eyelids, from the early-to-mid 70's.

Of course Kitty needed more to wear, so Boo picked a few pieces to start her layette. Notice I said I didn't buy anything for myself in the sales room.

Calla and Rose also have more to wear, thanks to the generosity of Dorisanne and Jackie. Boo was amazed how nice people were to her. Calla is standing with items from a special children's workshop, including a child-sized Sasha wrist tag that Boo made; Rose is standing with items that were given to the kids with helped with the raffle.

This concludes my posts for the 2011 Sasha Festival. Let the countdown to the 2012 Sasha Festival begin ... 10 months and 10 days to go!

Sasha Festival 2011 - post 6

I finally found time to take pictures of all the official festival souvenirs. Hopefully I didn't miss anything; searching my bags and my memory, I came up with the following:

Registration -- tote bag, festival booklet, auction booklet, auction paddle, and nametag
Friday Workshops -- quilted pillow and fishing pole
Friday Luncheon: "An Afternoon at the Sangamon River" -- overalls and straw hat
Saturday Dinner: "An Edwardian Garden Party" -- dress, dress stand, and pinwheel
Sunday Brunch: "A Farewell to Springfield" -- gingham bag, Lincoln Logs, tights and shoes

Here are Desiree and Adeline wearing the outfits Boo and I received, which consist of a dress, white tights, and black shoes.

The dresses were on wooden stands, with a different fabric at each table and alternating colored ribbon sashes. Thus each dress was five-of-a-kind, with 18 different combinations. Boo and I sat side by side, so we have the same fabric but different sashes. The other 16 combinations are pictured below (click on a picture to see a larger version).

Here's a close-up of the bodice, showing the pintucks and buttons at the throat. I'm not sure if each button was different or if there were duplicates, but I saw a wide variety. I guess taking the buttons into account, that really makes each dress one-of-a-kind.

There were no table hostess gifts this year, but Boo and I did get a nice surprise from another mother/daughter pair: a floral headband for Boo, and Sasha notecards for me. I couldn't resist including them in this picture with the dresses and pinwheels, since they go so well with the "garden party" dinner theme.

We received overalls and a straw hat at our luncheon for the boys, and the fishing pole made at the workshops is the perfect accessory for an afternoon on the river.  Now that Gregor Hiker has found a new home in Switzerland(!) my lone "male" is Sigmund, who makes a perfect fishing lad. Boo and I made the pillows at the workshops too (fortunately they were  already pieced, though hand quilting was a challenge for both of us). The pastel boxes contained the shoes, while the gingham bags contained the tights and Lincoln Logs.

These tote bags are so large that they are tough to photograph. One side has a picture of a Gotz brunette in farm pants, while the other side is embroidered with "2011 Sasha Festival"; both sides are shown in this picture. Boo and I chose different fabric combinations so we wouldn't get our bags confused -- hers has the pink stripes.

And lastly, the paper goods from registration: the festival journal, auction catalog, auction paddle, and our nametags (there was also some Springfield literature which isn't pictured).

Eye Candy

Sheila Foery took amazing close-ups of the faces of some of the studio dolls that were exhibited at the Sasha Festival for the debut of the new book Sasha Dolls: A History. She has graciously allowed me to post them here on my blog.

A big thank you to Sheila for sharing her photos!

And a huge thank you to the owners of these studio dolls for allowing them to be displayed and photographed.

Sasha Festival 2011 - post 5

NOTE: captioning is still in progress, but should be complete by this weekend. A million thanks to Meg Richardson for helping me put names with faces!

I uploaded almost 475(!) Sasha Festival pictures to an album on Picasa. There are pictures of Sasha dolls and Sasha doll enthusiasts, group meals and gatherings, Dress-A-Sasha contest entries, and Children's Fund Auction items. There are also pictures of two special displays: dolls and clothing in conjunction with the release of Sasha Doll: A History, and a Doll Quilt Display. The lighting wasn't always great, and my hand wasn't always steady, so please excuse any blurry photos. Here is a slideshow of the entire album:



Clicking on the picture below will take you directly to my Picasa album. There you can see all the photos from this slideshow, along with descriptive captions. Feel free to email me or add a comment if you know of corrections or additional information for any of my captions.

Sasha Festival 2011

Sasha Festival 2011 - more posts coming

Boo and I are safely home (and very tired).

It will take a few days to get my pictures organized, uploaded, and labeled. Once I do, I will post a Picasa slideshow as in past years. Until that is ready, you can look at my photo albums and relive the past two festivals: 2009 in Rochester and 2010 in San Francisco.  Clicking on the link will take you to the pictures, which you can peruse individually. If you'd like to view them as a slideshow, there is a "slideshow" button on the upper left of the album page.

Sasha Festival 2011 - post 4

Boo slept until after 7:00 this morning, while I dressed myself and the dolls then attempted to finalize our packing. Not an easy task without knowing what our brunch table favors would be, and whether we'd win any helper raffle items. Here's Boo with the girls once she was awake and dressed. We headed down to brunch shortly afterwards.

Fortunately the festival table favors were relatively small in size: gingham bags with the Sasha logo, containing socks & mini Lincoln logs, plus boxes with black shoes to go with our festival dresses from last night. As usual, there were lots of dolls at the tables, many wearing newly purchased or won attire. This blonde trio is wearing the festival dresses we received last night.

After brunch, Charla thanked people who helped with the festival, Jackie announced the Dress-A-Sasha winners, and Dawn Law spoke a bit about next years festival in the UK. Lastly, Heidi supervised the helper item raffle, with Elliot drawing the tickets and announcing the winners. Boo and I didn't win anything (though Dorisanne gave Boo an knit outfit, and Charla gave her some Sasha-sized toys for helping with the raffle). I was able to get everything from brunch into our suitcases easily, so we had a bit of free time for saying goodbyes before taking the shuttle to the airport.

We've had a long layover in Chicago where I've been composing this post around trying to keep Boo entertained. Our final leg home starts boarding in a few minutes. It will be nice to be home with my husband and son and back to our usual routine, but I'm sure I'll be suffering withdrawal from all my Sasha friends for a few weeks. I'm already looking forward to attending my next festival, hopefully in 2012.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad 

Sasha Festival 2011 - post 3

Boo slept in until about 6:45 this morning. I think she would have slept even later if I hadn't been rattling around, but we needed to get breakfast and have my sales table set up by 9:00. I brought 10 dolls from my collection to sell, plus lots of clothes, shoes, and accessories. Only one of my dolls found a new home, but I managed to sell a lot of the smaller items that make less sense to sell online. The sales room was open until 11:30, so that filled most of our morning. Here's a picture of Heidi's table; I was so busy checking out everyone else's tables that I neglected to take a picture of my own.

Boo found herself a baby, which made up for yesterday's auction disappointment. She is a 70's sexed girl, temporarily named Kitty. I also let Boo buy her several outfits, so baby Kitty's layette is well underway.

We were on our own for lunch, with free time for sightseeing built into the afternoon schedule. Boo and I toured the Old State Capitol and also visited the Lincoln home. Lots of walking in the heat with surprisingly little whining.

We had just enough time for ice cream, another trip to the hotel's pool, and some preliminary packing before the special Doll Quilt Display and dinner.

We received festival dresses and pinwheels as table favors, with a different fabric for the dresses at each table. Boo and mine are a pink print, one with a pink sash and one with a navy blue sash (this picture is from a table with a slightly different pink print).

The after dinner program was a slide presentation about the Dana Thomas House, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and is currently being renovated. I tried to stick around and chat for a while afterward, but Boo was tired and impatient and I was losing my patience too. She has been asleep for over an hour now, while I've tried to do more packing in the near-dark. Hard to believe it will all be over tomorrow after brunch.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad