Featuring presents from Chon and Susan

For my main present from Chon she is hopefully driving me down to the Sasha Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon in June but sent these two gifts for me to open on the day,plus the You-tube version of  'Her Early Years.'
Firstly she has had some Jubilee Bunting especially made which spell out 'Kendal's Sasha Brood' in readiness for displaying in June to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and some notelets depicting one of my Frido NP dolls visiting the Trendon Factory in Stockport (my birthday treat from my sister actually on one of my previous birthdays) to view the newly converted and opened for sale luxury apartments.



The next surprise gift was from Susan Bulger Pomeroy, a Sasha friend of mine who collects just the Sasha babies. It is this delightful little vintage-sasha dress
seen here on one of my 1969 Gotz No-navel girls teamed with JJ sandals and commercially made socks. Many, many thanks Susan for this dear and sweet little dress set.



As some of you know that for many years I wouldn't even entertain looking at never mind buying one of these No-navel dolls.....



....But this is the THIRD one now in my collection and I am loving them. They were newly revamped dolls by the Gotz company in 1969 and are much sturdier and heavier and with fuller rooted hair.



I think that she looks absolutely stunning in this very pretty and fresh looking navy and white print dress.



I'm paricularly taken with her somewhat questioning look in this photo.



Thanks again Sarah for the excellently re-sized photos.

One of my birthday presents from Steve....

Another wonderful gift, this time a delightful Betsy-May outfit from Steve (the other will be shown on a later post.)



It consists of a finely and beautifully knitted button-through cardigan with little flowers embroidered around the bottom band and she carries a little draw-stringed bag that is filled with lavender.



The doll wearing it is a 1966 Frido Blue Cord NP girl and I have chosen her because she is another doll who doesn't often make it to my blog... as it was originally Steve who made me aware of this fact.



Notice the quirky eye-brow and the no eye lashes of these 1966 girls.



The cap sleeved dress is made from a  cream Viyella fine wool material with a dainty floral pattern in blues and greens with a hint of pink. There are cream hand-knitted socks with a matching blue of the dress stripe and also black leather bar shoes but here instead I have used some JJ studio style Mary-Janes as they are the perfect blue.



There was a little petal shaped hat (one of Betsy-May's trademarks) in matching material to the dress but I couldn't put in on this girl as she has too much hair but will show it on another doll at a later date.



Love the little cap sleeves. and the dress material feels so lovely to the touch.
Most of my daughter's early childhood clothing was made from Viyella. Such a pity that it isn't manufactured these days.



Have saved my favourite close up facial look of this doll until the very last.



Tons of thanks to Sarah for her never-ending help.

My Birthday Boy.

Fritz was complaining that he was the only early Gotz boy amongst the other eight 1968-1972 Frido/Trendon lads and could I do something about it? I promised that I'd see what I could do.



The result was that sometime in the Autumn this strikingly handsome boy appeared for sale on sashadolluk and luckily I spotted him quickly enough to buy him.



The first task for me then was to find him some Dollydoodle leisure wear so that he fitted in with the other lads when he met them and here he is wearing it. My first and only one at the moment with the two layer sleeve look which I love and think suits him perfectly.



He is a 1960s Gotz slate eyed, sharp nosed boy and whom I have called Niklaus (Nik for short) after reading that Sasha Morganthaler had two sons, Fritz and Niklaus.



Since he arrived here he has been hiding from me and the other Sashas in one of the drawers under the spare bed waiting for his debut on my birthday last Saturday.



It was a lovely warm sunny day for his first visit out of doors so he 'borrowed' some of the Gregor's Summer gear for this photoshoot.



Thanks a mill. Sarah. Nobody does it better!

My Birthday Presents from Sarah W.

All my wonderful presents shown here from Sarah. Firstly the sweet little fushia and white floral smock and shorts set which I have teamed with JJ sandals and Dayzees socks.
Some delicious Cornish strawberry jam which we had for tea with my home-made scones. A box of scrumptious Cornish shortbread which was eaten with the morning coffee and finally the little bottle of Cornish fresh cream fudge liquor which I needed/devoured as a 'pick-me-up' in the early evening to refresh me to carry on with the celebrations.



I just love this delightful little wide faced 1970 Trendon waif and so often choose her to try on any new clothes.



Thinking that I need to buy some fuschia coloured ribbons when next near a Hobbycraft.



Her eyes and eyebrows have been slightly enhanced by Shelly to cover the oxidisation/greening that had just started.



My favourite pose of the day. Tons and rtons of thanks Sarah for remembering my birthday with these fantastic and such thoughtful gifts.



Couldn't resist showing this photo again of Sarah's little dress set gift against Shelly's backcloth. A perfect English country garden picture.



Hundreds of thanks travelling down to you, Sarah.

My Birthday Presents 1

A gorgeous new backcloth from Shelly depicting an English country garden with rambling roses in full bloom scrambling over a trellis and stone wall. Shelly chose this outside garden scene for me because she knows that I am now finding it almost impossible now to bend down to place the dolls on the ground when out and about since last years Arthritic flare-up.
Many, many thanks Shelly for your thoughtfulness and kindness as always.



The very first doll up to use the backcloth is my wide faced 1970 Trendon waif in a delightful little vintage-sasha dress set, a birthday gift from Sarah Williams. Thank you so very much Sarah. It's just absolutely gorgeous....as your outfits always are. More photos can be seen of this dress and doll with more presents from Sarah in a later post.



Next on the scene is a close-up photo of a 1967 Frido Gingham NP wearing a wonderfully Summery Dollydoodle outfit put together by me from Judith's basic range.



This little Trendon early 1970s tot decided to crawl onto the grassy set-up amongst the fallen blossom to have her photo taken.



She is wearing a sweet trendy little dress and long shorts by *sasha-smiles* who unfortunately seems to have left sewing for the Sasha dolls.



Another of my dolls, a 1967 Frido NP Dungaree girl who rarely gets to be photographed for the blog as she is rather a shy girl very consious of her lips, having been force fed by her young owner in her early years. This delightfully sweet and kind natured girl is wearing a OOAK Ruthsdoll's dress and JJ sandals.



Thousands of grateful thanks again to Sarah for her invaluable help and support.

Another doll who...........

(Knowing that I wouldn't have much time over the weekend to take any photos for a new post of my birthday gifts I prepared this one previously to fill in the gap.....)

Unfortunately doesn't seem to make it to the blog although she is one of my very first 1960 Gotz girls (and the only one of that group still remaining here...) so she has been with me for quite some years now.




She has selected to wear a very pretty OOAK Ruthsdoll's smocked two toned green floral print dress with a little lace trimmed collar teamed with JJ sandals and commercially made socks.



This Gotz doll has the fullest and best hair of all my Gotz girls that aren't the later No-navels. Her eyes are just slightly larger than the other slate eyed dolls and I think that overall she has a slightly older look than the usual seven year old of most of the other Sashas so on occasions she tends to play a teenager or, if needed, a mother to the babies.



This is my favourite pose of this post and she told me that she has chosen this green as it heralds the coming of Spring.



Huge EASTER thanks to Sarah for her wonderful help here yet again.

Some background details to the YouTube video

On the opening page are two photos of Chon as a six month old baby when we were living in Queensbury, Edgeware, London in 1964
Second page on right hand side at the bottom is a photo of Chon wrapped in a shawl less than an hour old June 19th 1964.
Third. Photo is of her at approximately one and a half years old 1965 sitting in a chair and crying with her favourite "Manthy" ragdoll.
4. with me outside our masionette in Edgeware at approx three months old.
5. on her first Christmas Day at six months old and then having a little milk refreshment.
6. Chon now more subdued on the chair with 'Manthy' her favourite toy ragdoll made by my mother.
7. Approximately 1-2 years outside my family home with 'Quacky' her soft toy duck.
8. Chon on her Raleigh Little Trike on her second birthday in our bungalow garden in Alsager.
9 & 10. Chon on holiday at Black Rock Sands, Porthmadoc wearing my youngest brother's cast-off yellow towelling short dungarees. We used to go up in the caravan on my parents plot of land there for the several weeks in the summer.
11. Chon having collected the blackberries from the hedges around my parents plot of land at Black Rock for our dessert.
12. Chon in the sea at Black Rock Sands.
13 x 2. Chon as the smallest bridesmaid at my eldest brother's wedding.
14. Chon at Christmas. Please note that I drew, cut out and spay painted the reindeer (and red sleigh that you can't see) in the early hours of Christmas Day as when I came to put out her presents from Father Christmas there didn't look to be many as her main presents were a watch and Parker fountain pen so had to bulk it up a little. I then put her Jemima rag doll (that she had asked for) on the sleigh and holding the reins with the presents besides her. This became a Christmas family tradition so over the next few Christmases we had to have the sleigh, Jemima and the reindeer out on show.
15. One of my only photos of Zippadeedoodah (Zip, Zippy for short and  Zipmop because she swept up and gathered all the surrounding dirt and debris in her fur coat) that I still have. I gave her to Chon on her seventh Christmas Day and she remained with us for the next thirteen years.
16 & 17. Chon out riding one of the riding school ponies ("Cessie") in Scotland
18. Chon on another holiday over looking the harbour at Porthmadoc.
19. Chon just before taking one iof her ballet exams.
20. Chon being one of the rats in her ballet school's Nutcracer Suit performances given in aid of a charity.
21. Chon tap dancing to Rain drops keep falling on my head' for the same show. (Hence the sequins on her hat to represent rain drops!)
22. Chon in her new Brownie uniform and tent. Two birthday presents.
23. Big jump here with her standing by the Ferrai that we rented whilst on holiday in Jersey.
24. Chon in the hotel grounds still in Jersey.
25. Chon at six months (and me) in 1964.
Hoping that this helps you to understand some of the Youtube photos.