... for the 2014 Sasha Festival in Phoenix, AZ.
Click here for the registration form.
Additional information can be found on the Sasha Festival website -- sashafestival.com
25 Feb 2014 UPDATE: If you're planning to attend this year's festival, I highly recommend that you periodically check out the Festival website. Marti is writing a monthly update with lots of information and details for festival attendees.
16 December 2013
25 August 2013
Sasha Festival 2013 - post 7
Hard to believe that I came back from the festival over a month ago and still hadn't finished taking pictures of everything. Note the past tense "hadn't" as opposed to "haven't"; I unpacked the final suitcase and hastily took pictures yesterday. And I do mean hastily, with Esme as my lone model making quick changes and little time spent on composition.
First up are a couple of dresses that Boo bought for herself in the sales room:
A New Zealand fabric dress made by Lorraine Tyler.
A Shirley Temple dress (plus tights) made by Wilma Robards. I wasn't sure if the ribbon was intended as a sash or a headband, but I tied it in her hair since that's what Boo does when she is Shirley Temple for Halloween (which she has been for the past three years - she'll outgrow her polka dot dress eventually, unlike Sasha).
Next, my sales room purchases:
Two baby dresses, a blanket and booties, and a smocked bishop dress, all from Millie Dingham.
I still had a bit of time after I'd taken pictures of everything, so Esme modeled the bishop dress.
A sundress made from vintage linens by Marti Murphy and a pair of Macon Street Studio sandals made by Monica Jarpey (along with a second pair of MSS sandals).
Here is a close up of the sandals. I'd seen the purple and silver blinged pair online and desperately wanted them - lucky me! Monica had a bunch of cute styles, many of which can now be ordered through her blog.
An outfit made by Ann Chandler, hand-sewn from vintage fabrics. Esme is showing off the undergarments first, as they're too nice to remain hidden.
And then the full outfit, including wool felt shoes. My favorite part is the pinafore, which was made from a tea towel with applique and embroidery.
A knit baby romper made by Pat Pellerito, bought as a gift for Boo's new baby Kelly.
My final purchase in the salesroom was a nifty saddle-style Sasha doll stand made by Lauri Bolland's husband Eric. (Esme is wearing the same undergarments and shoes, but has changed into the dress I received in the swap.)
Though it would be visible with pants, the stand is pretty-much concealed by a dress. I think I should have bought more than one ... perhaps one for each of my dolls someday.
Here is a picture of the dress where you can see the detail better. It's tagged "Jinny Lee Collections", made from a vintage handkerchief by Virginia Myers.
Boo's kid-swap swag (they had a separate swap for the kids this year).
An assortment of gifts and helper items:
I won the dress in the helper raffles; the pink-haired doll, pail, and green panties were helper items that were given to Boo by generous folk who saw her disappointment at not winning anything. The other items were gifts as well. One of the purple leis was given to me by Meg, but everything else is Boo's. She was given the shoes at Sunday brunch as a gift for Calla and Rose who had to stay home - isn't that sweet. People like to give gifts at the festival, especially to the children.
I'm not certain who any of these came from, but all were given to Boo at Sunday brunch while I was wandering around taking pictures. I hope she remembered to say thank you! And yes, there are three taggie blankets, one for each of her babies.
This studio-style dress and pantaloons set is tagged by Heidi Wheeler, and I'm pretty sure it was Boo's gift for helping out with the auction and helper raffles.
First up are a couple of dresses that Boo bought for herself in the sales room:
A New Zealand fabric dress made by Lorraine Tyler.
A Shirley Temple dress (plus tights) made by Wilma Robards. I wasn't sure if the ribbon was intended as a sash or a headband, but I tied it in her hair since that's what Boo does when she is Shirley Temple for Halloween (which she has been for the past three years - she'll outgrow her polka dot dress eventually, unlike Sasha).
Next, my sales room purchases:
Two baby dresses, a blanket and booties, and a smocked bishop dress, all from Millie Dingham.
I still had a bit of time after I'd taken pictures of everything, so Esme modeled the bishop dress.
A sundress made from vintage linens by Marti Murphy and a pair of Macon Street Studio sandals made by Monica Jarpey (along with a second pair of MSS sandals).
Here is a close up of the sandals. I'd seen the purple and silver blinged pair online and desperately wanted them - lucky me! Monica had a bunch of cute styles, many of which can now be ordered through her blog.
An outfit made by Ann Chandler, hand-sewn from vintage fabrics. Esme is showing off the undergarments first, as they're too nice to remain hidden.
And then the full outfit, including wool felt shoes. My favorite part is the pinafore, which was made from a tea towel with applique and embroidery.
A knit baby romper made by Pat Pellerito, bought as a gift for Boo's new baby Kelly.
My final purchase in the salesroom was a nifty saddle-style Sasha doll stand made by Lauri Bolland's husband Eric. (Esme is wearing the same undergarments and shoes, but has changed into the dress I received in the swap.)
Though it would be visible with pants, the stand is pretty-much concealed by a dress. I think I should have bought more than one ... perhaps one for each of my dolls someday.
Here is a picture of the dress where you can see the detail better. It's tagged "Jinny Lee Collections", made from a vintage handkerchief by Virginia Myers.
Boo's kid-swap swag (they had a separate swap for the kids this year).
An assortment of gifts and helper items:
I won the dress in the helper raffles; the pink-haired doll, pail, and green panties were helper items that were given to Boo by generous folk who saw her disappointment at not winning anything. The other items were gifts as well. One of the purple leis was given to me by Meg, but everything else is Boo's. She was given the shoes at Sunday brunch as a gift for Calla and Rose who had to stay home - isn't that sweet. People like to give gifts at the festival, especially to the children.
I'm not certain who any of these came from, but all were given to Boo at Sunday brunch while I was wandering around taking pictures. I hope she remembered to say thank you! And yes, there are three taggie blankets, one for each of her babies.
This studio-style dress and pantaloons set is tagged by Heidi Wheeler, and I'm pretty sure it was Boo's gift for helping out with the auction and helper raffles.
24 August 2013
Return to MY Childhood
I was a table hostess for the Friday luncheon at this year's Sasha Festival. In 2010 I co-hosted with Tina, and we created something in line with the "Return to Switzerland" theme. This time I did a spin on the "Return to Childhood" theme, creating a gift that returned to MY childhood in the late 60's and early 70's.
This was a family project. My mother crocheted ponchos for me, miniaturizing an old pattern and modifying it to fit easily over Sasha's head. My husband made 1:3 scale copies (just covers, no pages) of three favorite books I'd saved from childhood. I found tiny tan teddy bears similar to my own bear Fletcher, discovered miniature Magic 8 balls at a party store, and created daisy headbands -- I remember tying together stems of dandelions to make hair pieces as a child. And Boo served as the model for a big-little photo that I used on cards explaining the story behind the gift. Everything went into a little plastic milk crate, as if it had been stored away in an attic for several decades.
One piece of the gift isn't pictured here because it wasn't finished yet, black cord necklaces with peace sign charms. I did not have a suitable crimping tool for the style I'd planned to make, so my husband offered to bring his home from work for me to use. This didn't happen until the last minute, at which point I was scrambling and decided to postpone them until next year. Simon stepped up and assembled the necklaces for me while I packed on Wednesday evening, making me (and the people who sat at my table) very happy.
This was a family project. My mother crocheted ponchos for me, miniaturizing an old pattern and modifying it to fit easily over Sasha's head. My husband made 1:3 scale copies (just covers, no pages) of three favorite books I'd saved from childhood. I found tiny tan teddy bears similar to my own bear Fletcher, discovered miniature Magic 8 balls at a party store, and created daisy headbands -- I remember tying together stems of dandelions to make hair pieces as a child. And Boo served as the model for a big-little photo that I used on cards explaining the story behind the gift. Everything went into a little plastic milk crate, as if it had been stored away in an attic for several decades.
One piece of the gift isn't pictured here because it wasn't finished yet, black cord necklaces with peace sign charms. I did not have a suitable crimping tool for the style I'd planned to make, so my husband offered to bring his home from work for me to use. This didn't happen until the last minute, at which point I was scrambling and decided to postpone them until next year. Simon stepped up and assembled the necklaces for me while I packed on Wednesday evening, making me (and the people who sat at my table) very happy.
21 July 2013
Sasha Festival 2013 - post 6
I had a bit of time to start photographing the mountain of new things that came back from the festival with us. Yes mountain, as they fill most of one suitcase (luckily we had plenty of space on the return trip after giving table hostess gifts and selling four dolls at the sales table). I'm going to start with a post about the official festival souvenirs. We received two three-piece outfits this year each with socks and shoes, plus another special gift.
From Friday's luncheon: a studio style dress with half-slip and pantaloons, plain socks, and black shoes. Kathy Weisner oversaw the design and creation of the dresses; Jean Jensen made the shoes, with special thanks to Frankie Rice who helped make it possible.
At least some of the dresses were made from repurchased garments - I was delighted to discover a nicely placed logo on the inside bodice of Boo's dress. How posh!
From Saturday's dinner: a smocked dress with slip and panties, ruffled socks, and black patent shoes. Millie Dingham designed and created the dresses; Lisa Hartley made the shoes.
There were several different dress colors, and many different smocking patterns (perhaps all unique, as I don't believe I saw the same smocking pattern on any dress). Boo and I each received a pale purple dress, but with completely different smocking.
Even more amazing was that the BACK of the dress was smocked too. What a lot of work!
Also on every table at Friday's dinner were little Sasha-sized tote bags. A sticker on the back says "2013 Sasha Festival - Hugs from Annette, Linda and Brooklynn".
From Sunday's dinner: a special gift for the people instead of the dolls, silver charm bracelets with a 2013 Sasha Festival charm. Heidi also gave an additional charm to each of the people she thanked for helping with the festival. I plan to look for suitable charms to commemorate the other four festivals I've attended, then add a new one for each festival in the future.
In addition to the mealtime gifts, there were several other official souvenir gifts that every attendee received. At registration we picked up our name tags, festival journals, and auction information. We each chose a little teddy bear too, which the dolls are holding in the pictures with the studio style dresses.
We also got nifty shoulder bags with a pocket designed for carrying a Sasha doll (you likely noticed these in some of my festival pictures). They were designed and made by Nancy Clem. I believe they were two-of-a-kind, since I spotted two (but only two) of many of the patterns.
Our final souvenirs came from the workshops. Neither Boo nor I were able to complete our felt animals as I was busy taking pictures and couldn't manage to even get the needle threaded for her. I've laid one set out so you can get the gist - something for us to work on when we're feeling crafty.
I didn't complete my worry doll either, but Boo made hers while I was roaming around the room. Cute! As you can see they're pretty tiny, roughly 2-1/2 inches tall.
Boo made necklaces and bracelets for all three of her babies, and I sat still long enough to bead a couple of necklaces too. Hard to read with the black beads between the letters, so I will likely redo them (sigh, I'm such a crafting failure).
From Friday's luncheon: a studio style dress with half-slip and pantaloons, plain socks, and black shoes. Kathy Weisner oversaw the design and creation of the dresses; Jean Jensen made the shoes, with special thanks to Frankie Rice who helped make it possible.
At least some of the dresses were made from repurchased garments - I was delighted to discover a nicely placed logo on the inside bodice of Boo's dress. How posh!
From Saturday's dinner: a smocked dress with slip and panties, ruffled socks, and black patent shoes. Millie Dingham designed and created the dresses; Lisa Hartley made the shoes.
There were several different dress colors, and many different smocking patterns (perhaps all unique, as I don't believe I saw the same smocking pattern on any dress). Boo and I each received a pale purple dress, but with completely different smocking.
Even more amazing was that the BACK of the dress was smocked too. What a lot of work!
Also on every table at Friday's dinner were little Sasha-sized tote bags. A sticker on the back says "2013 Sasha Festival - Hugs from Annette, Linda and Brooklynn".
From Sunday's dinner: a special gift for the people instead of the dolls, silver charm bracelets with a 2013 Sasha Festival charm. Heidi also gave an additional charm to each of the people she thanked for helping with the festival. I plan to look for suitable charms to commemorate the other four festivals I've attended, then add a new one for each festival in the future.
In addition to the mealtime gifts, there were several other official souvenir gifts that every attendee received. At registration we picked up our name tags, festival journals, and auction information. We each chose a little teddy bear too, which the dolls are holding in the pictures with the studio style dresses.
We also got nifty shoulder bags with a pocket designed for carrying a Sasha doll (you likely noticed these in some of my festival pictures). They were designed and made by Nancy Clem. I believe they were two-of-a-kind, since I spotted two (but only two) of many of the patterns.
Our final souvenirs came from the workshops. Neither Boo nor I were able to complete our felt animals as I was busy taking pictures and couldn't manage to even get the needle threaded for her. I've laid one set out so you can get the gist - something for us to work on when we're feeling crafty.
I didn't complete my worry doll either, but Boo made hers while I was roaming around the room. Cute! As you can see they're pretty tiny, roughly 2-1/2 inches tall.
Boo made necklaces and bracelets for all three of her babies, and I sat still long enough to bead a couple of necklaces too. Hard to read with the black beads between the letters, so I will likely redo them (sigh, I'm such a crafting failure).
20 July 2013
Sasha Festival 2013 - post 5
I have finished culling, cropping, and uploading my Sasha Festival pictures to an album on Picasa. I took over 1200 pictures this year, but deleted almost 40% of them because they were duplicate, too blurry, or unflattering. Those that remain are not perfect, but they all serve to document festival memories: Sasha dolls and Sasha doll enthusiasts, group meals and programs, Children's Fund Auction items, Dress-A-Sasha contest entries, and raffle dolls. I'm almost done ordering and captioning them to present the festival in an easy-to-follow format. Hopefully I was successful in my effort to capture the spirit of the festival so that it can be lived (or relived) virtually. 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.
Keep checking back over the next week or so, as this is a work in progress.
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 2013 |
Keep checking back over the next week or so, as this is a work in progress.
14 July 2013
Sasha Festival 2013 - post 4
Time flies so quickly when you're having fun. Boo's babies posed for one last picture in the chair before we headed to brunch. Kitty is wearing the new bolero, since both Madden and Kelly already had turns.
Lots of people dressed their dolls in the smocked dress we received last night, so they were asked to line them up on a table in the front of the room. It made a nice display with the similar dresses and different dolls.
We did not receive another Sasha outfit at this meal; instead we received a gift for ourselves, silver charm bracelets with a special 2013 Sasha Festival charm (a tradition-in-the-making for those of us who attend multiple festivals). After we ate, Jackie and Marti announced the details of next year's festival which will be held in Phoenix. You know you want to be there, so start saving your pennies and plan for a vacation in late June.
Here is a picture of the back of the card we received, which gives all the necessary details. They also told us that the Dress-A-Sasha theme will be "Sasha in the 21st Century (2000-2099)", and that bringing a Sasha baby was recommended for one of the meal themes.
All of the children helped with the helper item raffle, with Elliot drawing the numbers. Boo and I were not very lucky with the helper items, and (very sadly) completely unlucky with the raffle dolls.
Baby Sunny was won by Tina.
The blonde with trunk was won by Cleo.
And Charlotte from the UK was won by Gayle, who was understandably rendered speechless. Wow!
I have a busy week ahead, but more festival-related posts will be coming when time allows.
Lots of people dressed their dolls in the smocked dress we received last night, so they were asked to line them up on a table in the front of the room. It made a nice display with the similar dresses and different dolls.
We did not receive another Sasha outfit at this meal; instead we received a gift for ourselves, silver charm bracelets with a special 2013 Sasha Festival charm (a tradition-in-the-making for those of us who attend multiple festivals). After we ate, Jackie and Marti announced the details of next year's festival which will be held in Phoenix. You know you want to be there, so start saving your pennies and plan for a vacation in late June.
Here is a picture of the back of the card we received, which gives all the necessary details. They also told us that the Dress-A-Sasha theme will be "Sasha in the 21st Century (2000-2099)", and that bringing a Sasha baby was recommended for one of the meal themes.
All of the children helped with the helper item raffle, with Elliot drawing the numbers. Boo and I were not very lucky with the helper items, and (very sadly) completely unlucky with the raffle dolls.
Baby Sunny was won by Tina.
The blonde with trunk was won by Cleo.
And Charlotte from the UK was won by Gayle, who was understandably rendered speechless. Wow!
I have a busy week ahead, but more festival-related posts will be coming when time allows.
Sasha Festival 2013 - post 3
Here is a picture of the studio-style outfit we received at yesterday's luncheon - my outfit anyway, since different fabrics were used for each. And yes, the Jean Jensen black shoes were included.
We could have sleep in this morning except I signed up for a sales table again this year. After breakfast Boo helped me get everything set up, and also helped staff the table.
We were able to do some quick shopping (and picture taking) before the crowd arrived. Not that we did all of our shopping early, as we kept on browsing and buying pretty much the whole time. Boo found some gifts to bring home for Calla and Rose, and a little pink romper for "prize doll" Kelly; I bought several dresses and two pairs of adorable summer sandals.
I do believe one lucky girl has a new doll. :-)
We grabbed lunch at the hotel restaurant since Boo had a Dress-A-Sasha entry to set up. Nothing extravagant, but she had fun doing it and was thrilled to win a prize.
This was my favorite entry in the "adult made by entrant category", and the winner as well.
Once we had voted for our favorites we finally had some free time. Boo went for a swim while I relaxed by the pool and caught up with the news online.
Dinner's theme was "Happy Birthday, Sasha M,", so I'd made party hats. I brought enough for everyone at the table ... and the other little girls ... and a few big girls who admired them as well. Boo kept asking why I was making so many, but it's fun to have little things to give to people even when you're not the table hostess. If you ever want to make hats for your dolls, here's where I found the template and instructions: Make it Do.
We received a second full outfit at dinner, this time a smocked dress, slip, and panties made by Millie Dingham (she made all 100ish of them herself in a variety of colors and smocking patterns), and shoes made by Ruth Hartley. I took a quick picture of my dress; Boo and I both wound up with purple, though they are not identical.
After dinner and birthday cake for Sasha's 120th, Anne Votow gave a fantastic slideshow presentation about Sasha Morgenthaler that focused on the studio dolls. I think this was my favorite slide.
She also had a display of studio dolls, some in original outfits and some redressed for a white dress theme. Stunning! I feel so fortunate to have been able to see so many studio dolls in person at recent festivals.
The babies had fun in their party dresses and hats, made glittery by Boo especially for them, but they were getting tired by the time the festivities ended. I think we all are at this point, since so much gets squeezed into such a short time - not just activities, but socializing too.
I've packed a bit, but still have a lot to do in the morning before brunch and checkout. Time for me to get some sleep .... ZZZzzzzz
We could have sleep in this morning except I signed up for a sales table again this year. After breakfast Boo helped me get everything set up, and also helped staff the table.
We were able to do some quick shopping (and picture taking) before the crowd arrived. Not that we did all of our shopping early, as we kept on browsing and buying pretty much the whole time. Boo found some gifts to bring home for Calla and Rose, and a little pink romper for "prize doll" Kelly; I bought several dresses and two pairs of adorable summer sandals.
I do believe one lucky girl has a new doll. :-)
We grabbed lunch at the hotel restaurant since Boo had a Dress-A-Sasha entry to set up. Nothing extravagant, but she had fun doing it and was thrilled to win a prize.
This was my favorite entry in the "adult made by entrant category", and the winner as well.
Once we had voted for our favorites we finally had some free time. Boo went for a swim while I relaxed by the pool and caught up with the news online.
Dinner's theme was "Happy Birthday, Sasha M,", so I'd made party hats. I brought enough for everyone at the table ... and the other little girls ... and a few big girls who admired them as well. Boo kept asking why I was making so many, but it's fun to have little things to give to people even when you're not the table hostess. If you ever want to make hats for your dolls, here's where I found the template and instructions: Make it Do.
We received a second full outfit at dinner, this time a smocked dress, slip, and panties made by Millie Dingham (she made all 100ish of them herself in a variety of colors and smocking patterns), and shoes made by Ruth Hartley. I took a quick picture of my dress; Boo and I both wound up with purple, though they are not identical.
After dinner and birthday cake for Sasha's 120th, Anne Votow gave a fantastic slideshow presentation about Sasha Morgenthaler that focused on the studio dolls. I think this was my favorite slide.
She also had a display of studio dolls, some in original outfits and some redressed for a white dress theme. Stunning! I feel so fortunate to have been able to see so many studio dolls in person at recent festivals.
The babies had fun in their party dresses and hats, made glittery by Boo especially for them, but they were getting tired by the time the festivities ended. I think we all are at this point, since so much gets squeezed into such a short time - not just activities, but socializing too.
I've packed a bit, but still have a lot to do in the morning before brunch and checkout. Time for me to get some sleep .... ZZZzzzzz
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