Sasha Festival 2021 - post 9

We had another group dinner last night and received another souvenir festival outfit: overalls with “PEACE LOVE BOOKS” on the pocket, a t-shirt, and colorful Marti sandals. I also saw overalls with a dark blue background, and there may have been other colors as well. Coincidentally my overalls coordinate with yesterday’s turquoise clothes.

My table hostess gift from Florence is the cute yellow summer outfit (I believe she said made by Anita in Australia) - check out the pocket/collar color; I am on a roll here. I was also gifted one of my dear friend Ann’s table hostess gifts. She sat at my table Friday night, and like me she didn’t have a full table Saturday night and thus had extra gifts to give away. She made the sweet bookbag which included the Hand Shadows book.

I have so many things to stash in my suitcase before heading to our final group meal - breakfast.

Sasha Festival 2021 - post 6

The Children’s Fund Auction was the highlight of last night, but we also had a group dinner beforehand. I was one of the table hostesses. We were told there would be nine people per table so I brought nine gifts - eight for the others at my table and one to swap with another hostess.

Inside these party bags was a t-shirt purchased from A Passion For Sasha, a rainbow Care Bear, a Little Golden book, and a Sasha-sized Skittles box made by my husband (with rice inside so they rattle like the real thing). Probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but related to the Sasha Reads a Rainbow festival theme.

It turned out there were only eight people per table so we had two gifts we could swap, and my table only had five people; I gave the three extra to some of the girls Boo usually hangs out with. I did my original swap with Janell and received a cute outfit of jeans and a turquoise shirt - I saw this outfit with a dark green shirt later, so apparently the shirts were in different colors. My second swap was with Sheila who made a rainbow striped dress, panties, bow, and psychedelic fringed sandals. The stripes have the same turquoise color as the other swap’s shirt so I wound up with coordinating his-and-hers outfits. Sweet!

As if the fantastic hostess gifts weren’t enough, we also received a festival outfit at Friday’s dinner. Of course it was rainbow-themed: a shirt and top made from white or black color-speckled fabric with suede trim in a variety of colors, plus panties and socks. So cute! I originally opened an outfit with a black background but wound up with one with a white background and turquoise suede (three coordinating outfits!).

We have another group dinner tonight and who knows what other treasures I’ll wind up with.

Sasha Festival 2021 - post 5

The Children’s Fund Auction was last night after dinner. It raised over $9000 for Save the Children, and I believe there is a 10X match which would mean $90,000+! There were 83 items, which is a lot of  items to picture individually. I may do another auction post when I return, but for now here are pictures of all the tables of items along with what I won.

I was excited to win three of these auction items. My first win was a unicorn dress and JJ shoes made and donated by Ann Chandler. This was the item I really wanted; I’m a unicorn and rainbows kind of girl and I love Ann’s hand sewn Sasha clothing.

My second win was a gingham dress, sweater, socks and shoes donated by Dawn Law. Sadly she could not be at the festival due to UK flight restrictions so she is going to mail the item. The picture looks red, but it was described as fuchsia so maybe bad printer. I will see when it arrives. Knowing Dawn, I’m sure it is lovely.

My third win was a sweater and socks knit by Sara Hart, a pair of boots by Allison Seaman, and a dress donated by Kathy Weisner. This was originally flat lay on the table where it caught my eye, but I knew I had to bid once it was modeled on a doll. 

Sasha Festival 2021 - post 4

I promised, and here is is - the second raffle at this year’s festival. It is “The Mary Frances Sewing Book” themed and was donated by the Central New York Sashaholics. I believe all the clothing was made from patterns in the book - so cute!

Sasha Festival 2021 - post 2

Thursday was Registration and Meet & Great, and I didn’t take any pictures at either. I did collect donations for the raffle baby, get my registration information, eat enough nibbles to call it dinner, and catch up with some old friends and meet a couple of new people. All in all a successful start to the festival.

Around 9:00 I started assembling the raffle baby doll display. I had a general vision, but laying out the clothes and pinning then to the foam board took multiple tries. Arranging the shelf and toys was the fun part! I hope people like this as much as I do and buy lots of raffle tickets to earn funds for future festivals.

Here’s the description by the ticket box. A big thank you to everyone who donated items to provide lots of toys and clothes for this little guy.

The full display: lots of cute colorful clothing for both cold and warm weather, five pairs of shoes, diapers, a cozy place for a nap, a floor quilt in front of the toy shelf, and lots of toys and books.

Nap space with a nest, flannel blanket, stuffed bunny, bottle, and dummy. He may not need much coaxing to crawl over to rest once he’s done playing.

The toy shelf, made by my husband with his laser cutter, with six plastic bins filled with lots of toys and books. Baby is stringing some beads to practice his dexterity. Alphabet blocks, Fisher Price bus, phone, stacker, cars, Rainbow Care Bear, books about colors, a pull toy, a stacking wooden rainbow… Do you see any toys you or your children had as babies?

Right now he’s in a fran-made romper, but some lucky person is going to get to dress him over and over in this great wardrobe. Here are close ups of some of the clothing items made and donated by my generous Sasha friends:

This was a lot of work but also a lot of fun to dream up and coordinate implementation. It’s nice to see a vision come together into reality, though I couldn’t have done it alone. Thank you again everyone!

A Very Gregor Christmas

All of Boo's dolls were dressed in red and green on Christmas Eve, awaiting the arrival of Santa. Little did they (or she) know what was in store on Christmas morning.

Boo asked if she could decorate a little tree for the dolls, and I agreed (this saved me having to do it myself once she was asleep, because I had a surprise planned). Here is how the tree looked when she went to bed, with a stocking for each of her dolls. The gifts under the tree are empty boxes just for show, but she put a few old items in the stockings: coins, a hat, a toy car... I intentionally rushed her so that she didn't have much time to set out gifts because that was part of my surprise.

Here is how the tree looked when I went to bed, with the addition of two Gregors, two more stockings, and lots of doll-sized wrapped packages.

Boo glanced at the little tree when she woke up, but didn't seem very excited. In fact, she was a bit miffed that I'd removed what she put in the stockings. She thought that the Gregors were mine and that I had created a scene for my blog with empty packages. Boy was she surprised to discover that the boys were hers and the wrapped packages all contained gifts for her dolls! I had labeled the packages with their names, so before she unwrapped her own gifts from under the big tree, Boo helped the dolls unwrap their gifts from under the little tree.

Unwrapping some new clothes for the boys from etsy shop A Passion for Sasha:

Kitty and Kelly helping to unwrap their gifts (with a view of both our trees in the background):

The babies in their new sleepers from etsy shop Nomacustom:

The boys redressed, getting acquainted with the girls:

And yes, the discovery that the boys can also become short-haired girls when desired.  :-)

When she told me she wanted a Gregor "some day", Boo came up with a list of prospective names: Daniel, Ethan, and Trevor. Of course she decided that none of those worked once she had dolls in hand, so names have not yet been determined. The current front runners are James for the brunette and Caleb for the blonde.

She has been playing dolls with a friend from the neighborhood the past few days, and having fun with the added dimension that males add. They can be brothers, boyfriends, husbands, fathers, kings, and even male house servants (apparently the girl dolls love having the boy dolls wait on them).

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.

Winter Weather

Brrrrr its cold here. Fortunately not any snow though, so no snowmen ... except on these sweaters.

Aren't they the cutest! I bought several holiday/winter sweaters from Carol Marsh, who sells on ebay as user bjbcuddles (her storefront is called carolanns sewing room). Maybe I'll find time to post pictures of more of them before Christmas, but don't hold your breath. Fortunately dolls don't change size and thus I will be able to use (and photograph) these sweaters for years to come.

This is the first picture posted of Emma and Esme together. Can you see why I think they're a great pair?!

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.