Baby Kitty and Puppy Friends

Such a cute pair of babies - a boy and a girl, a blonde and a brunette, puppy and kitty ... 

 ... and yet Boo longed for another baby, a second brunette girl to be a "twin" for Kitty.

Meet Kitty

You met Kitty when she was purchased at Boo's first festival in 2011, but she hasn't had a proper introduction post. Here is Boo's beloved baby Kitty, a sexed girl from the 70's.  She is wearing her Sashapotamus onesie, a special request to match Boo's (and Calla's).

Dress Up

I brought home lots more things from the festival that I plan to take pictures of and blog about, but we've had no sunshine and/or very busy weekends lately. So ... I am interrupting festival coverage with some quickly taken pictures of Boo's dolls. She played dress up with them today, dividing them into girl-baby pairs each with a theme. She wanted to try other outfits (which she's doing as I type), so she asked if I would take pictures of them for posterity.

First up are Rose and Kelly dressed in "old fashioned" clothing.

Then Calla and Kitty in modern attire.

And finally Poppy and Madden showing their patriotic spirit.

 

I am soooooo happy that my daughter shares my love of Sashas. And I love seeing her creativity.

Sasha Festival 2014 - post 4

I like to take pictures of all of the festival souvenirs, as it helps me keep track of what came from which year. Here is a journal, plus Boo and my auction paddles and name tags, and little Arizona lunch boxes (which were keychains, but I removed the rings). The gorgeous Sasha rainbow artwork is by Phyllis Goedeke.

At registration we also received a plastic sleeve that contained three pieces of artwork, which I've shown with the information card for next year's festival that we received on Sunday.

At the workshops on Friday morning we made a scrapbook for Sasha/Gregor and a necklace for us. Boo completed her scrapbook, which is open with the plaid pages at the front of this picture. I assembled mine (the blue book with yellow ribbon at the back of the picture), but didn't have time to put things on the pages as I was busy taking pictures of the auction items. I brought home a picture sheet and some stickers and cutouts so that I can finish it eventually. We had a choice of pictures for the necklaces as well, with a different picture on both sides. Boo's is the redhead white dress (with babies on the back), and mine is the brunette and blonde (with a brunette pink party on the back).

As you probably know from my "Live from AZ" posts, we each received three festival outfits this year -- one for Sasha, one for Gregor, and one for a baby girl. The baby dresses were all unique, each made from a vintage towel. You can see how different Boo and my dresses are, with much clearer pictures here than the one I took at the festival (why do hotels feel that dinners should have "intimate" dimmed lighting?).

Aren't these the cutest matching Mondrian inspired outfits?! The fabric was specially printed for these festival outfits on Spoonflower, with a subtle Sasha and Gregor script in the red, blue, and yellow sections. Sigmund and Scarlett are modeling, as Sigmund is currently the only "male" doll in the household.

Some closer views of the Sasha outfit, which consists of a printed dress, white panties, a printed headscarf, white floral stockings, and white go-go boots:

Some closer views of the Gregor outfit, which consists of a printed shirt, royal blue shorts, and dark brown woven sandals:

The back of the shirt and dress are both solid black, like the collar and trim on the front.

Scarlett couldn't resist showing off the head scarf.

Here are Kelly and Kitty wearing the dresses that Boo and I received at Friday's dinner.

Boos' dress has a green stripe at the hem and embroidery on the skirt.

My dress has a tone-on-tone appliqué on the skirt, which creates a shaped pattern at the hemline.

I love the fit of the bodice with the curved sleeve.

The dresses also came with panties -- flashing baby alert.

I wish I had taken pictures of the dresses other people received at the dinner, but lighting was dim and I was supposed to sit at my table and accept bids on the centerpiece outfit. Plus the first helper drawing was going on, so a lot to pay attention to. I do have a couple of other photos I can use to show a bit of the variety. First is a picture of the dress that Tina received.

photo credit: Tina Gross

And here is a picture of the 10 dresses that Monica Jarpey of Macon Street Studio sewed. This was originally posted on the Macon Street Studio Facebook page, and is included here with permission.

photo credit: Monica Jarpey of Macon Street Studio

Reader submissions to show even more variety ...

Here is the dress that Laura received:

photo credit: Laura Osterdyk

photo credit: Laura Osterdyk

If anyone else has a picture of the baby dress they received that they'd like to share, email me a copy and I'll add it to this post.

Getting Ready

Boo and I picked the dolls and clothing that we're bringing to the festival this morning; the doll's clothing that is, we still have to pack for us. It was hard for Boo not to choose ALL of her dolls - she's just bringing her babies, so I promised we can buy a treat for Calla and Rose so they won't feel left out. And speaking of babies, I gave Boo one of mine this morning (she accompanied us to the 2011 festival as an unnamed baby, but has otherwise not been on the blog). Here are her triplets Madden, Kelly, and Kitty sharing a high chair at dinner.

Boo asked me how I could choose just two dolls from my "hundreds" (okay, not hundreds, more like 60), but that was easy. I'm bringing two dolls I've purchased recently and think their previous owners will enjoy seeing some pictures of them. My blog has been rather neglected recently due to a new job and wonky thyroid, and these two girls need some face time.

There's still a lot to get done before we leave. Boo has been working on her Dress-A-Sasha entry, and I've been crafting away, trying to get table hostess gifts finished. So much to do, so little time ...

Play Dolls

I think one of the things that I love most about Sashas is that they are play dolls. While mine mostly stand on shelves, Boo's can be found in various places and situations around the house. While she treats they with care, she interacts with them rather than just admiring them. This was the scene in her bedroom about a month ago: Rose, Calla, and Madden resting on a makeshift pallet with a stuffed horse and monkey for company. Kitty was sleeping separately due to her "broken arm" - fortunately just imaginary, but wrapped in a handkerchief sling.

I helped Boo dress them in their new togs on her birthday and pose them in the same spot for another group picture. Many days she'd rather play video games, watch tv, ride her bike, or whittle sticks, but it's nice that she has sturdy dolls she can play with when she's in the mood. And such lovely, serene dolls too.

Birthday Girl

Boo's birthday was a couple of weeks ago. One of her gifts was matching tops for her and her Sashas from Jackapotamus/Sashapotamus. I was worried she might declare that nine was too old for dolls, but luckily that didn't happen. Not only did she wear her "pirate bear" shirt to school the next day (with leg bone leggings!), but she brought her babies in their onesies too.

Kitty and Madden traveled to and from school in a basket, then hung out in the kitchen later like the basket was a playpen.

The next week she and Kitty and Calla went to school wearing pink kittens. I custom-ordered the onesie specifically for Kitty, and Boo was thrilled with it.

They also traveled in the basket and hung out in it for several days afterward in Boo's bedroom.

I'm glad that nine still isn't too old to play with (and dress like) dolls.

Birthdays

Today is my Mom's birthday - Happy Birthday GramMarion!

As a birthday gift to her, I thought it would be fun to share the birthday gifts that she's been sending to me. You see, my presents have been mom-made doll clothes. She used to knit and crochet clothes for my Barbie dolls when I was young, but now is creating clothes for my Sasha dolls. I am such a lucky girl!

Three years ago she bought a set of the Golden Hands patterns on eBay and surprised me with several outfits for my birthday. Aren't they marvelous?!

Last year my Mom had been testing knitting patterns for Susanna Lewis, so I received the items that she made - a ribbed sweater and an assortment of socks (these patterns are in the new book Sasha Dolls, Clothing and Patterns). The chest of drawers in this picture was part of Kendal's table hostess gift at the recent Sasha Festival in Stratford. I haven't introduced this girl yet, but you may know her as Shelly's model Addison - now renamed Raven.

This year she created crocheted summer jackets, modeling them after a jacket that my Grandmother made for one of my Mother's dolls when she was a child. I think I have seven different colors of the jacket, plus one made up without sleeves as a little cape. Alas I ran out of photography time today, so here is a picture from Stratford. Alison is wearing the cape, while Calla, Rose, and Kitty have on three of the jackets. I'll post more pictures at some point in the future.

Thanks Mom!