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!

PBK Doll Kitchen

The kids are home for a snow day today (basically just slush), so I'm playing instead of working. I'd had my eye on some cute doll kitchen pieces at Pottery Barn Kids, which I ordered when they went on sale recently. They arrived in yesterday's mail, so I unpacked the box today and let Giselle try them out.

In my opinion they're too small (and too pink) to be real kitchen appliances, but they're perfect for a little girl's play kitchen.

Bedroom Furniture

Boo received bedroom furniture for Calla and Rose at Christmas, specifically an armoire and bunk bed (that can be separated into single beds). They were handcrafted and hand painted by the folks at Buchmanns Toymaker Shop.


The armoire is now stuffed full of clothes, with shoes and socks in the drawer.


The bunk bed is more suitable than the baby doll bed they used to share, and fits them well. Here Calla wears her Nellie Rose pajamas and Dollydetroit slippers, while Rose has on a Euro Girl nightgown and slippers.


I wonder if they argued over who got to sleep on the top bunk.

Baby Clothes

Like many baby girls, Cleo has quite a wardrobe. Unlike a real baby though, she won't outgrow her clothes. It would take me weeks to find enough free time to photograph her in everything, so I'm going to start with just a few of my favorites.

This shiny red satin outfit is by Käthe Kruse, and fits perfectly. I think it's a nice change from all of Cleo's pastel-colored clothes, which make photography hard since they look washed out when I have enough light to see her features clearly. I found this wicker chair for her on eBay, and she usually sits in it when she's not having her picture taken (and sometimes when she is).


I bought this pink and white dress and lace-trimmed bonnet (and the unseen shoes and diaper she's wearing) at The Sasha Wardrobe, along with several other baby items. The dress was part of the 2009 Summer Collection. Cleo has four teddy bears, but I'm keeping my eyes open for other suitably-sized baby toys.


I couldn't resist these frilly baby pants from The Doll Works. My daughter Boo had several similar pairs when she was young. The doll quilt Cleo is sitting on is from my childhood.


This white smocked dress and matching bonnet is also from The Doll Works. It is so sweet, that I'm tempted to buy the pink version too. I bought these shoes there as well, though I had a hard time keeping them on her feet as you can see. Too bad they don't make those snap-on shoelace covers (you know, the ones with the bells on top) small enough for dolls.


This three piece layette is from eBay seller misspatau, who sells "Knits by Trish". The sock monkey is Boo's (a baby for the two full-sized sock monkeys my Mom made for the kids), but she let Cleo borrow it for a photo session.


UPDATE: I meant to include another photo when I created this post. Here's Cleo wearing a cute pink babygro from Ruths Dolls. My daughter wore very similar outfits when she was a baby (only much larger of course). Very sweet!


That's definitely all for now, but I'm sure I'll be taking pictures of more baby clothes sometime in the future.

Collapsible Chairs

Most of my dolls are displayed in a case, but the five 80's girls (seven if you count Boo's two) just stand/sit/lie around the house. I've been thinking it would be fun to buy some props and create little scenes with them. I found these nifty chairs on eBay recently. They're similar to the chairs my family uses when camping or watching soccer, and they're just the right size for Sashas. Since there are two chairs and Boo has two dolls, I think Calla and Rose may claim these as their special seats. Now all they need is a campfire and some marshmallows to roast. Or perhaps someone else will sit in the chairs and watch Calla and Rose play soccer.