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.

Sasha Festival 2013

Keep checking back over the next week or so, as this is a work in progress.

Sasha Festival 2012 - post 10

I'm working on culling, editing, and uploading my Sasha Festival pictures to an album on Picasa. It is going to take me longer than usual this year, since I took almost 1000(!) pictures. There are pictures of Sasha dolls and Sasha doll enthusiasts, group meals and programs, Dress-A-Sasha contest entries, Children's Fund Auction items, and raffle dolls. Please excuse any sub-par photos: lighting wasn't always ideal, space was tight, and I often felt rushed. Hopefully I was still able to capture the spirit of the festival. 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 2012

Sasha Festival 2012 - post 4

I had tea, toast, and pastries again this morning, but Boo started her day with a full English breakfast.


The "programme" listed on the schedule for the morning turned out to be two more wonderful presentations. First, Marie Morgan talked about Studio Dolls, assisted by her daughter who ran the slide show. She shared lots of great information about Sasha Morgenthaler's background, as well as the face styles and clothing.


The draped table behind her concealed a special surprise, a display of several gorgeous Studio Dolls, including this pair.


After a brief break, Brenda Walton talked about the production dolls, and shared a group of slides taken at the factory (you can see the Studio Doll display behind her in this photo). This was another fascinating presentation.


Here is one of those slides, which shows a doll being strung.


She had a display of dolls to share as well, several gorgeous production dolls whose faces had been painted by Sasha herself. Here is a lovely early redhead.


Raffle/helper tickets were available after the program, so Boo and I tackled the challenge of deciding which canisters to drop tickets into. There are three amazing raffle dolls this year, including a baby that Boo covets. Then it was time for our group luncheon, where we received another part of the festival outfit - shorts and a Union Jack singlet.


Desert was this lovely cake, made up to look like the picture on the cover of the festival booklet.


The Children's Fund Auction was held after lunch. Pat kept things moving right along as auctioneer. Boo helped out as one of the young people who helped parade the item currently up for bid. The auction raised a total of £6580; a big round of applause to everyone involved!


I made up for not winning anything last year - between Boo and I we won seven items! This includes her second baby, who she is currently calling "Puppy" (to go with Kitty, the baby I bought her at last year's festival).


Boo and I grabbed a quick bite during the dinner break, and relaxed in our hotel room. Hard to believe that there was still more excitement (and spending) to come. She and I shopped till we dropped at the sales tables - shoes, dresses, sweaters, props... Good thing I brought a spare suitcase on this trip!


I'm all tuckered out, and ready to join Boo in dreamland. Hmmm, I wonder what she'll be dreaming of tonight?

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 - post 2

Today was a busy day! Boo woke up around her usual time, 6:42, which was unfortunately 5:42 here in Springfield. Fortunately being up early was beneficial; after enjoying breakfast here at the hotel, we helped Sheila set up the items for the Children's Fund Auction. It want relatively quickly, and I was able to take pictures before there were lots of people around. Here's a picture of the item I donated, smocked sister dresses made by Kath Barnett from Australia.

We then spent a couple of hours in workshops: patchwork pillows (fortunately the top was already pieced), and fishing poles. Boo and I still need to finish our pillows, hand sewing the edge where we stuffed and adding a button to the middle. I might have finished mine, but I got distracted by a display of Studio dolls and clothes that was set up in the same room. There will be more pictures eventually, but here is a sneak peek: the center of the display.

Next up was lunch, where everyone received a straw hat and denim overalls as table favors. Then Anne, Ann, and Susanna spoke a bit about their new book (and three! more planned books) and it was available for purchase. Finally! I've only had a chance to skim mine so far, but the pictures alone are worth the price.

We had some free time in the afternoon, so Boo and I voted in the Dress-A-Sasha contest, bought tickets for the helper raffle, and went swimming in the pool. We had a quick pizza dinner with Tina before the Children's Fund Auction, which raised $8470 for Oxfam and Save the Children (actually double that thanks to matching programs). Boo was a bit upset that I didn't win her this baby with layette, but the person I was bidding against outlasted me.

I'm sure there are people socializing in the hotel, but Boo and I are back in the room. Once again it's three hours past her usual bedtime, and she is just dozing off in front of the TV. Time for a quick shower then I'm off to bed too, since setup for the sales tables starts at 7:00 tomorrow morning.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sasha Festival 2009 - post 2

I uploaded my 400+ Festival pictures to an album on Picasa. The album contains pictures from the entire festival: Children's Charity Auction and Raffles, Helper Drawings, and the amazing Studio Doll Exhibit, as well as group meals and gatherings. There are lots of pictures of Sasha dolls and Sasha doll enthusiasts. Here is a slideshow of the entire album:



Clicking on the picture below will take you to my Picasa album. There you can see all the photos from this slideshow, along with descriptive captions (special thanks to Meg for helping me with names for some of the 'Meet and Greet' photos):

Sasha Festival 2009