Sasha Hits the Big 4-0

Christmas Day is a wonderful day to celebrate a birthday. First of all it's the day we celebrate Jesus' birthday. Second, MamaT's closest sister was born on Christmas day, so we always had birthday cake at our house for Christmas. And while I don't know my specific manufacture date, we celebrate my birthday on Christmas day too, because that's the day I joined the family--40 years ago today! And I know, I don't look a day over 7. =) I bet a lot of Sasha's joined their families on Christmas. You'll see one more in just a moment.


I also got the priviledge of meeting Billie the Kiddette. She is a cousin to Billy Bowman, the Glacier National Park mascot who also has his own Blog. BillyinGlacierPark
Billy is a mountain goat that travels all over Glacier and sometimes other places and gets his picture taken a lot. He even has a Facebook page. I asked MamaT about getting a Facebook page, and she said I wasn't old enough. Now how do you figure that? I am 40 years old now after all. I am glad no one brought out the black balloons.
Another Sasha was born today. MamaT's granddaughter got her first Sasha today. Remember when we introduced you to "Sunny Daisy". Well, Ryin named her Sasha--after me no doubt! I am so flattered. Well, maybe she did name her after Sasha Morgenthaler. Well, here is baby Sasha, with Ryin, Billie, and Meesha, the cat.

We wish all you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a joyful New Year!
And for nostalgia's sake, I'm going to give you a link to an earlier blog post with a video clip of when MamaT first pulled me out of my can (with help from her birthday girl sister) and put me in my high chair. I miss that old high chair. I used to sit next to her at the table a lot in that thing. See My Story.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

At long last, we have gotten some decorations up here and are getting into the holiday spirit. Margot has been fascinated by the olive wood nativity scene and can't take her eyes off the little baby Jesus.

Meanwhile, Sandra found the Lionel train set we got last year and won't let anyone else have a turn with it. Doesn't her dress make you hungry for gingerbread?

Angela Karinne got a new dress for the season. It was a bonus dress we got from Nadiya. She is holding a very special stocking filled with all sorts of Christmas symbols, and wants to share with you the story that goes with them.

*********************

TEACH THE CHILDREN

Late one Christmas Eve, I sank back, tired, but content, into my easy chair. The kids were in bed, the gifts were wrapped, the milk and cookies waited by the fireplace for Santa. As I sat back admiring the tree with its decorations, I couldn't help feeling that something important was missing. It wasn't long before the tiny twinkling tree lights lulled me to sleep. I don't know how long I slept, but all of a sudden I knew that I wasn't alone. I opened my eyes, and you can imagine my surprise when I saw Santa Claus, himself, standing next to my Christmas tree.

He was dressed all in fur from his head to his foot just as the poem described him, but he was not the "jolly old elf" of Christmas legend. The man who stood before me looked sad and disappointed. And there were tears in his eyes. "Santa, what's wrong?" I asked, "Why are you crying?" "It's the children," Santa replied sadly. "But Santa, the children love you," I said. "Oh, I know they love me, and they love the gifts I bring them," Santa said, "but too many of the children today seem to have forgotten or somehow missed out on learning the true meaning of Christmas. And so I ask you to teach the children."

"Teach them what?" I asked. Santa's kind old face became soft, more gentle. His eyes began to shine with something more than tears. He spoke softly. "Teach the children the true spirit of Christmas. Teach them that the part of Christmas we can see, hear, and touch is much more than meets the eye. Teach them the symbolism behind the customs and traditions of Christmas which we now observe. Teach them what it is they truly represent."

"Teach the children red is the first color of Christmas” he said as he drew forth a glittering red Christmas tree ornament from his bag and placed it on the mantel. “Red was first use by the faithful to remind them of the blood which was shed by the Savior. Christ gave His life and shed His blood that everyone might have eternal life. When they see the color red, it should remind them of God's greatest gift.”

Santa reached into his bag and dislodged a tiny Christmas tree from its depths and set the tree on my mantle and gently hung the red ornament on it. "Teach the children about the Christmas tree. Green is the second color of Christmas. The stately evergreen, with its unchanging color, represents the hope of eternal life in Jesus. Its needles point heavenward as a reminder that mankind's thoughts should turn heavenward as well."

Santa reached into his bag again and pulled out a shiny star and placed it at the top of the small tree. "Teach the children the star was the heavenly sign of promise. God promised a Savior for the world and the star was the sign of the fulfillment of that promise. Teach the children that God always fulfills His promises, and that wise men still seek Him."

Suddenly I heard a faint tinkling sound. Santa found a silver bell in his pack and placed it on the tree. "Teach the children just as lost sheep are found by the sound of the bell, it continues to ring today for all to be guided to the fold. Teach the children that each one of us are precious to the true Shepherd, and if we follow the Savior, we will never be led astray."

As the soft sound of the bell faded into the night, Santa drew forth a candle and placed it on the mantle and lit it. The soft glow from its one tiny flame brightened the room. Santa whispered "Teach the children the glow of the candle represents how people can show their thanks for the gift of God's son that Christmas Eve long ago. Teach the children to follow in Christ's footsteps...to go about doing good. Teach them to let their light shine before people that all may see it and glorify God. This is what's symbolized when the colored lights shine on the tree like hundreds of bright shining lights, each of them representing one of God's precious children's light shining for all to see."

Santa turned the tree lights on and picked up a gift from under the tree. He pointed to the large bow and said, “Teach the children a bow is place on a present to remind us of the spirit of the brotherhood of mankind. We should remember that the bow is tied as people should be tied, all of us together, with bonds of goodwill toward each other. Even its very shape is symbolic, representing eternity and the eternal nature of Christ's love. It is a circle, without beginning and without end. Goodwill forever is the message of the bow."

Again Santa reached into his bag and this time he brought forth a tiny red and white striped cane. As he hung it on the tree he spoke softly. "Teach the children the candy cane represents the Good Shepherd's crook, which is used to reach and lift us, who like fallen lambs, have gone astray. The red again, represents Christ's blood, which if we will follow Him, will cleanse us and make us pure and white as snow as the Savior was pure. The candy cane represents the helping hand we should show to one another. It reminds us we are our brother's keeper."

Santa at last brought forth a beautiful holly wreath out of his bag. “Teach the children that the wreath symbolizes the eternal nature of love—it never ceases, stops, or ends. It is one continuous round of affection. It is made of many things in many colors and reminds us of all the things of Christmas. Please teach the children.”

I asked, "But where does that leave you Santa?" The tears gone now from his eyes, a smile broke over Santa's face. "Why bless you, my dear," he laughed, "I'm a symbol too. I represent the spirit of family fun and the joy of giving and receiving. If the children are taught these other things, there is no danger that I'll ever be forgotten." "I think I'm beginning to understand." "That's why I came," said Santa. "You're an adult. If you don't teach the children these things, then who will?"

Pumpkin Carving Party

Fall Greetings! I managed to catch the boys on candid camera on Halloween night, though it's taken me a week to get these posted. It's been hard to get them to pose in their new clothes, although Gregor is sometimes willing to pose while doing gymnastics like standing on his head, and you might get Patrick to pose while dancing, but mostly it's hard to get them to hold still when a camera is pulled out. I wanted to show all of you their new outfits. It's a lot harder to find boy clothes available than girl clothes for Sasha dolls. Gregor is wearing a nice fall outfit by Beverly (Ebayer Bammd). I like how his shirt coordinates with the pumpkin. I have to say the pants are exceptionally well made with great details. Patrick is wearing a cute, I mean handsome (he'd probably never wear it again if I called it cute), school outfit by one of our favorite seamstresses, Diane Scarbrough (dfscarbrough). He'd look great bobbing for apples in this outfit don't you think? Except he might want to take the cap off first.

Anyhow, I caught them surrounded by candy and busily at work on their pumpkins. The onlooking pets are a coyote (artist unknown) and a bighorn sheep by Navajo potter, Louise Goodman, who is much better known for her beautiful coil pots. Patrick is still designing the face for his jack-o-lantern and taking some harrassment from Gregor, because his "pumpkin" is really a squash, but the color is nice. Meanwhile, Gregor is diving right in to cut his pumpkin open with MamaT's leatherman. I experimented with posting larger pictures this time. I'm curious to see how they turn out.

Happy Fall days to you all!
For today's parting link, here is Patty's site, who had some nice autumn clothes, mostly sold now, but nice to look at, and plenty of other clothes available to purchase or enjoy viewing. Be sure to check out George and Mabel's holiday.

--http://www.sashawardrobe.com/index.htm

It's a Sunny Daisy!

EEyikes! It's Halloween and I haven't posted an entry yet this month. That's pretty spooky all in itself. I have lots of excuses. Want to hear them? 1) The dog ate my keyboard. Shh, Sunny. They don't know we don't have a dog. 2) MamaT went on vacation and left the computer off. 3) There has not been a sunny day around here (not talking about you, Sunny) in like forever for doing a photoshoot. 4). We switched computers and only just today got the new photo editing software loaded for cropping and tweaking photos. 5) Sunny thinks I should admit to you that I'm just plain lazy. I could go on, but that's probably sufficient.

Now here it is Halloween, and we haven't done a fall photo shoot. MAYBE we can get that done before the snow flies. Actually, the snow has been flying. It just hasn't stuck much yet, because the rain is still flying too. That's been the only source of cats and dogs around here.

And now, it is my priviledge to introduce you to a new friend. We finally have another platinum blonde in the house (like me). She's a baby sundress, a Trendon kid from 1979 to 1986. We don't expect her to be around too long, because she is for MamaT's granddaughter's next birthday or maybe Christmas. She found MamaT's Osborn book and said she wanted "all" the dolls, but her mostest favorite was baby sundress. We will let her granddaughter name her, so we just picked out a nickname. We all got to suggest names and voted. So our new girl's nickname is Sunny Daisy, which was Cara Linnea's suggestion. She's always thinking of flowers. It is kind of cute though, so I voted for it too.

Sunny Daisy is a little shy. I may have to draw her out a bit. I told her she is not being introduced to the entire world, only just the Sasha lovers of the world in 42 countries (and counting, but that's another story), and the site has only been hit 13,000 times or more, so no pressure. Do you want to tell the world Hi, Sunny? "Hi Sasha Lovers of the World." Would you like to tell them about yourself? "I don't know." Let's say when were you born? "1979" How do you know? "That's the date on my catalog." What else did you come with? "My box and my basket." What does your price tag say on it? "$20" Wow, Is that all you're worth? MamaT paid too much. "That's not true. We gain value with age." But you're still just a baby, you can't be worth that much more. "I'll tell MamaT you said that!" Sorry, you're just so fun to tease, that's all.

Tell me about this picture with Margot. Who made Margot's dress? "Greta made it. It's a pretty white dress like mine."

Now here you all are wearing new dresses. Where did those come from? "Diane Scarbrough made them. Sandra was jealous that Margot got a new dress, so MamaT bought her the gingerbread dress from Diane off Ebay. Then I needed dresses to take with me when I leave, so Diane did a special order and made the pink dress and light blue dress. They are so cute. They are both my dresses. I let Cara wear it for now though. It does look pretty on her." So now that we've got you warmed up, is there anything else you'd like to share? "I hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween day and eve whether it is sunny or not. I hope they get lots of candy, but don't get sick. " What's your favorite web link? "Well, first, they should be sure and look at all the blogs in the last message. MamaT says Kendal's brood is to swoon for, and Sasha Doll Style just posted a really cute Christmas story. Also Ted Menton has recently a posted a bunch of good fall and Halloween ideas. But for a new link, I think I will share Ruth's site, because I love pretty clothes and her site has so many. It's better than the old Sears Roebuck catalogs. Much better."

-- http://www.ruthsdolls.eu/

Thank you Black Doll Enthusiast!

I am so excited. I have just been named the recipient of the "One Lovely Blog Award". I am very honored to receive this distinction which was bestowed on me by Black Doll Enthusiast of the blog, Black Doll Collecting.

Now in turn, I have the priviledge of passing this honor on to some of my favorite Blogs, some being more newly discovered than others. Here are my nominations for the One Lovely Blog Award. You can see they are mostly Sasha-centric, but what else do you expect from a Sasha doll?

Sasha, Sasha, Sasha
Kendal's Sasha Brood
Sasha Doll Style
Macon Street Studio
Sasha Street
Allegro Melody
Sasha's Closet
Dolly's Designer
Posh Knits

For the new Award winners, here are the rules:
Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you have newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award. Now it's my turn to pass it along!

Congratulations!

New Duds for a New Shelf

Good day all! This is Sasha finally writing again. It seems like we keep getting new family members faster than I can keep up with giving them turns on the blog. Already, someone is in the cue waiting for their turn again, but it's my turn first. Our family has grown so much, we utterly outgrew our shelf. When Kiltie got here, we all had to suck in our breath and squeeze in to all fit together. Karinne climbed up on some blocks, so she could still see past everyone's heads, or was that so MamaT could still see her? MamaT's husband started making comments that he had underestimated our potential for growth when he built the first shelf. So all of his own accord, with no prompting or requests from MamaT, he took it upon himself to build us a new shelf for her birthday. Is that way cool or what? It was just in time too, because when Madie arrived, well, there just wasn't any room for her at all. She had to stand all by herself on the dresser, and I don't know if it's because she's a thrill-seeker or because her stringing's a tad loose, but she would stand on the dresser for days at a time, and then suddenly take a notion to dive headlong to the floor from time to time. Maybe she was just lonely and trying to get attention, because she hasn't done this from our new shelf. So here we are all posed on the new shelf with lots of room to spread out and stretch. Yippee!

You might also notice that most of us are sporting new clothes. To begin with MamaT thought she'd like to stay traditional and keep us in our original outfits. She had even gotten me a new kilt and sweater to replace the one I lost before my old skirt resurfaced. With us all out on display again, she started having second thoughts and decided it might be better to store our original outfits away, where they won't get dusty or faded, and get us outfits that are better for us to play in. So all the girls have new dresses now. Most of these were purchased from Nadiya of Scarlet Rose Designs (with exception of the jumper by Diane Scarbrough you've seen before). They were very affordable, which was a plus, since we had so many to buy, and that way the shipping was discounted too. Nadiya even threw in a bonus dress for Christmas you'll see in a few months which we thought was very sweet of her. It has been harder to find new outfits for they boys, although we finally have one on order that Gregor and Patrick will have to fight over. I suspect Gregor will get it, because I think it would clash with Patrick's hair. We got a beautiful white dress by Gretchen for Margot, so now it is easier to tell the twins apart, but of course Sandra wants a new dress too, and we're on the lookout for something just right for her too. Here are some closer views of the gang in our new duds.

For today's link, I realized I've never posted Nancy Miller's Let's Play Dolls site yet. Nancy Miller lives in Modesto, Calif. (where MamaT's Daddy grew up, and where she often visited her aunt/uncle and cousins as a child). I think Jackie Hyatt, whose blog we posted last time, is or was another Modesto-ite. MamaT tells us it is very hot there, especially in comparison to Salinas, where she and I lived as a children. Anyhow, Nancy often has Sashas and their clothes and some accessories for sale. She also sells other dolls. At the bottom of Nancy's page, you'll see a link that says “abused kids project”. Check it out. Nancy is involved in a program to provide nice dolls & clothes or bears for abused children and will gladly welcome your donations if you want to get involved and help this good cause.

http://letsplaydolls.com/cart/index.php?target=categories&category_id=173

The Unveiling of Magdelena Alexandra

Hello there! Well, here I am, the surprise doll mentioned a couple entries back. MamaT has been nagging at Sasha to give me a turn on the blog. She's as excited as a kid to see me introduced to you all. But first, I have to back up a bit and tell you how I came into MamaT's home. You could call me a birthday present. A day or two before MamaT's birthday, her husband announced to her, “Do you know there's a doll you're watching on Ebay that closes in 10 minutes and no one has bid on it yet?” Really?!!! was her response. So she went down, waited for the last minute to put her bid in, and amazingly no else bid. Granted I wasn't a perfect doll, but it's enough to give a doll an inferiority complex to only get one bid at a low price. You see I am 1960s Gotz doll, and MamaT picked me up for a mere $200!!! She's seen dolls with split sides go for more than that. The same day I sold, a red headed 60's Gotz girl went for more than $900, and MamaT insists that I have a much prettier face than that doll did. I was in Switzerland, Sasha M's homeland, but I arrived in Montana only 10 days later! And so I was named Magdelena Alexandra in honor of Sasha, whose given name was Mary Magdelena Alexandra von Sinner. Sasha was a nickname, short for Alexandra I think. Magdelena Alexandra IS a bit of a mouthful, so I have my own nickname and usually get called Madie for short, or Alex for my tomboy image when my wig is off.

I started my life either as a unisex doll that later got a bad haircut, or more likely as a Gregor doll, we think since my hair is a bit shorter around my ears. But it's a bit uneven, so may have been cut. Now, it can truthfully be said that I am not entirely missing any hair plugs. However, I do have some plugs that are rather thin or short, especially the front row along my hairline. I also had a few marks from a life of being played with, most notably, one on my nose that couldn't be hid with clothes. I'm also missing a bit of paint on my upper lip. But MamaT says she could tell I had beautiful eyes and didn't hesitate to snap me up.

Once I arrived is when the real patience was needed. I first got an overall cleaning and then began the Oxy treatment. (See Patrick's entry on stain removal.) But the thing is, those dark purple stains that Patrick had practically disappeared overnight, while the dull dark spots that I had were far more persistent. MamaT was cautious about putting heat on me, so the oxy treatment seemed to go on for weeks. We don't remember exactly how long now. Eventually, it reached a point where the dark spots were mostly still there, but they were very faint and not very noticeable, and that's when she stopped the oxy treatment. If you push it too far you'll get bleaching and light blotches on our skin.

So while I was getting the skin treatment, MamaT set about looking to find me a wardrobe. First, she ordered a wig. She searched on the SashaL site for recommendations on what size to get and chose a Monique Gold mohair wig, Faith style, size 8-9 in carrot red, emphasis on the carrot, as you can see in the pictures. It is a beautiful wig, although it doesn't seem to take a curl at all when she tried to set in rags. But I don't mind the straight look. As for the sizing, size 8-9 MIGHT work on an entirely bald English doll, but never in a million years on a doll that had any hair. Fortunately, I'm a bit more petite than the English dolls. She really didn't want to be responsible for cutting my hair off, so she put it up, and actually got this wig to fit (almost). A larger size really would be better in this situation. She was almost tempted to clip the wig in back but glad she didn't have to do that. A bit of my hairline still shows if you lift up my bangs. Sasha says I shouldn't tell you that as you would not know from the pictures otherwise. I'd be a little frightened to pull this wig off and see what kind of hat hair or wig hair I have going on underneath now.

As for clothes, MamaT wanted to find a repro style outfit that looks like something an original 60's Gotz Sasha might have worn. She found something she liked on the Dayzee's website, but alas, Randall Craig was sold out of dresses. He is, however, still selling shoes, and they sell in sets of 3. Well, we had exactly 3 unshod dolls in the house, so that worked out perfectly. We thought 3 pair of shoes for $33 with shipping was a fantastic deal.

MamaT watched Ebay for awhile hoping to find just the right dress. There was one, not exactly repro, but very nice, she watched and then couldn't be there at the close of the auction, so she missed it. In all her searches, she kept going back to Jackie Hyatt's blog, Sasha's closet, and looking at this nice brown cord dress there. I think she was kind of hoping for something turquoise or the black and white check, but the brown cord dress was very common on the Gotz dolls, so she decided to order it and was absolutely delighted with the result. Myself, I love the dress, and I'm really glad MamaT got me this one. It wasn't til after she bought the dress that she realized it was one of the dresses made by Randall Craig that she had wanted in the first place, so I am fully decked in Dayzee's fashion after all. I kind of like my new look. What do you think?

So by the time MamaT paid for shipping, wig, shoes and dress, my total cost was close to $300, which we still think was an astounding deal. MamaT says she had always thought it would be several years before she could save up enough for a 60's Gotz Sasha, so I was a dream come true for her. Literally. She once dreamed she had a doll like me, only that one was blonde. But as we say around here, redheads have more fun. We are kind of dominating the shelf here, but that's a story for the next entry.

I am going to be indulgent and give you 2 links today:
1)Randall Craig's Dayzee's web page. The dresses are sold out, but the shoes are still available.
http://www.randallcraigrtw.com/sasha.html
2)Jackie Hyatt's blog, Sasha's Closet
http://sashascloset.blogspot.com/

Sasha Memorabilia Book 3: Paperdolls and ads

That is to say this is the 3rd entry on the memorabilia book, not the 3rd memorabilia book. I have only 2 photos to share with this entry. Don't forget to click on the photos if you want to see them more closely. The first shows MamaT's Sasha paperdolls. They really are more clear than they appear in the photo.

Going clockwise from upper left: 1) A paperdoll depicting Sasha Morgenthaler as a child by Ann Barden for the 2003 paperdoll contest with Charlene d'Entremont's clothing entries; 2) Gregor & Sasha paperdolls designed by MamaT herself. She had great fantasies of making lots of clothes for them, but never got as far as finishing their underclothes, so there they are in the nude; 3) Paperdolls MamaT colored from the 2000 paperdoll contest that were printed in the Friends of Sasha newsletter. A copy of the original is just below the color dolls; 4) in the center is a Sasha & Gregor by Albert Elia from the May 1996 Doll Collector's Magazine; 5) the winning entries for the Ann Barden paperdoll (which Mama T has not blown up to full size and colored yet), found in Doll Castle News, Nov/Dec 2003 (with lots of other Sasha articles); 6) Baby Sasha paperdolls from Doll Castle News May/June 2004 (artist not named); 7) and finally a very nice set of Sasha paperdolls designed by Harriet Shoup in 1992. MamaT was able to purchase these from Cecile St. Gelais. Dorisanne Osborn has copies of the Doll Castle News issues and Friends of Sasha newsletters. No doubt there were wining paperdoll contest entries printed in the newsletter almost every year.

The second photo shows a sampling of Sasha ads MamaT has collected. There are about 9 pages of them in all, so this shows about half of them, since you can't photograph both sides of a page at the same time.

The link for today is by Anne Dean and her friend Frances. It has some very cute Sasha photo illustrated stories and some great paper dolls for Sasha.
http://www.geocities.com/mysashas/index.html

Strawberry Girl

Hi World, I am very pleased to meet you all. Sasha recently added a map to the blog which shows where some of our visitors are located and was amazed to see we have had visitors from all over the world! U.S., Canada, U.K., and even Switzerland were not so surprising, but how fun to see hits from Australia, Japan, Korea, and even Egypt and Oman. Wow! Thanks to all of you for stopping by!

As promised in the last entry, Sasha has graciously offered me an opportunity to introduce myself. Tadatada! I am Kiltie Grace, a limited edition Sasha doll produced in 1983. Do you know there are only 3,999 other dolls like me in the whole world? MamaT wanted to have one representative of the English limited edition dolls in her collection, and she is a bit partial to redheads, so she chose me. And 1983 is a special year for her since that's when she graduated from high school. She is thinking the strategy has back-fired a bit, because rather than satisfying the craving for a L.E. Doll in the house, she has now become covetous of Velvet (1981, 5000 dolls) Pintucks (1982, 4600 dolls), and Harlequin (1984, 2500 dolls). There were also Prince Gregor (1985, 3000 dolls) and Princess Sasha (1986, 350 dolls), but she doesn't have to have EVERY Sasha ever made. As it turns out, I am more of a strawberry blonde than a red-head though. Tell me, have you ever seen another Kiltie with as light of hair as I have? I'm not trying to be vain or anything, I'm just wondering.

A little about my history: MamaT is ever the bargain shopper, and I was advertised as having a smoky odor about me. Since MamaT was so satisfied with the results of her efforts to de-smokify Lona, she thought she would take the risk and picked me up at a reasonable price, though maybe not the deal of the century. Aside from the faint smoky odor, I arrived in near pristine condition. Tranportation through the mail system always makes a doll a bit fuzzy headed about her past, but to the best that we can tell, it is unlikely that I was ever displayed before. I came in my box (despite the fact that MamaT is not fond of storing boxes), and it appears that my barette was never placed in my hair before. It is also our suspicion that all of my smoke odor seeped in through my box, and I was never really exposed to nicotene in the air. We think this because when my hair was washed, every trace of smoke odor was removed from my hair. She was prepared to put me in the kitty litter/charcoal tub, but realized Lona had been all in pieces during her stay in the tub, and it wasn't large enough to hold a complete doll. Anyhow I was given a washing and put out to air one fine spring day, and that was enough to do the trick in my case. No one can detect a trace of smoke odor on me anymore.

Then it came time to give me a name. It took MamaT awhile to figure out my name. She was all bent on giving me an Irish, Scottish, or Celtic name, and even searched Celtic names on the web. I can't even remember all the names she considered, Martha and Katelynn were a couple. She even considered Tara, but she's not used to sharing her name with others much, so couldn't do it. I just looked at her patiently, knowing she'd figure it out. She came across Grace once and paused, but thought it wasn't Irish enough, so went on looking. But after all the searching, she had to come back to Grace, because it was the only name that fit me perfectly. And so I became Kiltie Grace. Being a Kiltie doll, I always get called Kiltie sometimes, but I had to have a name of my very own too.

And for today's web link, I'll send you to Eric McLeod's site. She lives in New Zealand, but must have some Scottish roots (so how could I resist?), and she must be a very fine knitter.
-- http://homepage.mac.com/pistelli/SashaNZ/Menu7.html
And lastly a few photos of me and some of my new siblings for you to enjoy...
--Kiltie Grace

SASHA FESTIVITIES

The annual Sasha Festival was held in Rochester, New York this past weekend. Gabi and Francine took photos and blogged the event. All we can say is wow, Wow, WOW! There was an incredible display of studio dolls that left us all breathless. I think MamaT went into a trance gazing at photo after photo with her jaw in her lap.

http://poshknits.wordpress.com/
http://sasha3times.blogspot.com/2009/06/sasha-festival-2009-post-1.html
http://sasha3times.blogspot.com/2009/06/sasha-festival-2009-post-2.html

The stay-at-homers like to have a little fun too as a small consolation for missing out on the festival, so they hold a raffle during the festival each year. MamaT offered up an afghan she made last winter. Karinne and Kiltie Grace (to be introduced next entry—I promise) had the honors of pulling the name out of the hat. We were excited the winner was a relatively new member of the SashaL list named Glynis who lives in the United Kingdom. She just got her first Sasha whose name is May. Lona really liked snuggling in the blanket, but she is happy May can enjoy it now. Besides it is summer now, and we won't be thinking about blankets for at least a few more months. Sooner than you think in Montana though.

















While we're on the topic of blankets, we'll post photos, not only of the raffle blanket, but also a matching blanket MamaT made for her granddaughter (who is sound asleep underneath), and another doll blanket Lona had to give up for MamaT's grandaughter's doll, Edith.

PEN PALS

Hi, Today I have the great priviledge of introducing you to some pen pals we (me and the other Sasha dolls here) have met through the Sasha L list. There are so many wonderful nice Sasha people all over the world. Our friends Thyrza (red hair) and Gina (brunette) are from the Netherlands. They are both 1960s Gotz girls, the first we've had the opportunity to post on this blog. Don't forget to click on the photo for a nice close-up look at these girls. Thyrza got her name because she has a bit of an oriental look, and Gina got her name because she came from the Italian part of Switzerland. See we didn't even know there was an Italian part of Switzerland, so we learn a lot from having pen pals. Gina's Mom says she was so gorgeous that a simple name suited her well, and we have to agree. MamaT's grandma grew up in the Netherlands before her family immigrated to Idaho in the U.S. Before that her family lived in the Rotterdam area for many, many generations. Thyrza and Gina live in The Hague. They once got a visit from Tilily, a world traveling Sasha. We will post Tilily's web page today, so you can see pictures from her visit to the Hague and many other places.

http://www.melodymock.com/AllegroMelody/tilily/index.html

Thyrza and Gina also sent us a picture of some of their other family members dressed up in cute Bavarian costumes below. They all belong to a very nice lady named Frances, who has some of the most beautiful Sasha dolls and is very talented with photographing them. Frances has worked with refugees and now makes handicrafts with immigrant children who don't speak Dutch. It sounds very much like something Sasha Morgenthaler would have enjoyed doing. There are often children from East Europe, Turkey and Africa. We hear it is a bit Babylonic at times, but good fun nonetheless. Frances gave us permission to post her photos on this blog. If any other Sasha's out there would like to be our pen pals and send us a photo, we'd be happy to introduce you on my blog too.

Big Book of Sasha Memorabilia 2: Cards

Happy Summer Everyone!
Today I'd like to introduce you to a sampling of cards in MamaT's big Sasha book. First is a set of postcards that was produced by Trendon in the 1970s. There are 20 postcards in all, half of which are shown at left. Note there's a kilt girl like me and a brunnette Gregor in pajama's just like our Gregor Vaughn. It is more common to see blonde Gregor's in pajamas, as only blondes were sold wearing pajamas as far as I know.




Our next set of cards is a set of handmade cards by Anne Votaw, along with 2 postcards of 1990's Gotz dolls, Ruth and Marianne.

Below are some of our favorite cards which depict several studio dolls and were sold at the Sasha Morgenthaler Museum in Zurich, Switzerland. MamaT has never been to Zurich, but she got these on EBay. They were sold in 2 separate lots, and she felt a bit piggish for winning both lots, but no one outbid her, so that's how it goes.

Last is a set of cards MamaT acquired in the past couple years. We think that most of the photos are taken by Shelly in UK. The cards are made and sold by The Label Lady, Michelle Brown. Here is a link to her site.

http://www.picturetrail.com/thelabellady

MONI, MONI

I'll tell you what, the nicer it gets outside, the harder it is to find time for blogging. We dolls don't get out in the winter much, so we love the spring and summer! I have two more dolls to introduce to you, but they are not “real” dolls like Sasha dolls, so they can't introduce themselves, so I will just have to do it for them. Besides they are much too small to learn to type even if they could be real.

These dolls are known as Moni dolls. They were produced by a Swiss company called Uranium in 1979. They are about 7 inches tall, just slightly bigger than the Topper “Dawn doll”. As an aside, a little known fact about MamaT is that she never owned a Barbie doll in her life, although there were a couple Barbie relatives in the house her sisters had, like Francie. Instead of Barbies, MamaT had Dawn dolls, and she and her sister and friends in the neighborhood played with these A LOT. But there is not much trace of the Dawn dolls left, except she found one blue gown at the same time she found my old skirt.

Anyhow, the Moni dolls belong to us Sashas. They are our dolls. Like Sasha's they have tan skin and a nuetral expression, but they are nowhere near the same quality, and are probably not assymetrical. I've never looked closely at that though. They were clearly a copy of the Sasha model, so the Sasha Morgenthaler family filed a complaint and the production of the dolls ceased. There were boy and girl dolls as both blondes and brunettes along with several extra outfits.

We have a brunette boy named Tony, and a blonde girl, named Mona. If I ever get a brunette girl, I think I will name her Joanie. And that just goes to show I'm just as bad as MamaT fantasizing about what doll I'll get next and what I might name her. Tony and Mona are in most of our family group photos, but since they are small, I've cropped a few photos in close up, so you can see them better.

MamaT bought our Tony and Mona from one of the nicest Sasha collectors. Her name was Monica, and she just passed away a couple of months ago. Monica was a great lover of Sasha and Lenci dolls, a talented artist, and had the amazing job of being a braillist (so her Ebay ID was braillistdog). She is very much missed by the Sasha community. Monica always said the dolls were made by Titanium, which was very cute, but off by an atomic weight of 70 (Uranium being 92 and Titanium 22). And no that's not something I ever knew, but Wikipedia is handy for things you don't know like that.

For today's link I'll include the Sasha info guide that Monica wrote for Ebay.
http://reviews.ebay.com/Lets-talk-About-Sasha-Dolls_W0QQugidZ10000000001896972

The Big Book of Sasha Memorabilia: 1. Catalogs

Hi Folks, I've been thinking on introducing you to MamaT's Sasha memorabilia book for sometime, but it is so big and so overwhelming I haven't dared begin it. Finally, it occurred to me that I should take it more like eating an elephant, and just do one chunk of it at a time. At last, it seems doable to tackle it. The memorabilia book started in a one inch binder, but it soon outgrew that, so now it has expanded to a two inch binder, and quite frankly, it has maxed that one out, and she really should upgrade again. You see here we put Angela in the photo for scale. We scanned in a Sasha poster for the cover as the poster won't fit in the binder.

Hmmm. I can't explain to you why this photo loaded sideways. The thumbnail is not sideways. It was not even taken sideways and later flipped. This goes beyond my techno-skill. I am only a doll after all. Click the photo for a closer view.

Our first memorabilia topic is the catalogues. I'll spell it the English way since that is where they were printed. We have two sets, Trendon Catalogues from the 70s & 80s and Götz catalogues from the 90s and early 2000s. First, about the Trendon catalogues. The oldest catalogue we've seen is from about 1969 and has a Sasha lying comfortably in the grass. That is probably the catalogue that would have come with me, and it is one catalog we don't have. The next catalog has the black and white photo cover, leaflet #7 from 1973. Apologies for the flash glare in the photo. We thought we got one without glare, but it turned out too blurry, and we were too lazy to do the whole set up again. This catalogue features both blonde and brunette versions of Sasha in gingham, Gregor in Denim (having a bit of a tussle), babies in nightdresses and babies in overalls (dungarees) called the playsuit. The blonde babies were boys and the brunnette babies girls and were subtly sexed until 1978. There is also Cora in white knit, Caleb in his khaki pants and a black baby girl in white cotton suit with red trim. As in all of the catalogs, there are also a variety of outfits for sale.

Below that (also in the glare) is catalogue or leaflet #12 from 1975. It includes a nice photo inside of the boys playing soccer while the girls look on. The dolls are all pictured on the cover, but since you can't see it well, I'll tell you it has all the same dolls shown on the cover of the leaflet #14 from 1976 which is directly to the right of the 1973 catalog in my photo. Below the 1976 catalog is catalogue #17 from 1979. You can see a few newcomers on the cover of this issue. This is the photo MamaT has a poster of. All the catalogues beginning with the 1979 issue have a photo of Sasha Morgenthaler on the back. We also have a sheet with hair care instructions for Sasha that came with the dolls.

In January 1980 a one page leaflet was printed showing new dolls playing on a slide. This is when the black dolls were changed to a warmer skin tone. For that matter, the fairer skinned dolls were lightened at the same time. Another leaflet printed in September 1980, pictures Sasha Morgenthaler and tells her story on the back. The catalogue #18, printed in October 1980 features the honey blonde silk dress on the cover. Baby Sandy and the brunette Marina doll are also introduced in this issue. In January 1982 a leaflet identified as supplemenmt to catalogue #18 was printed featuring the new dolls, Gregor Redhead cord, Sasha blonde sweater (with short hair) and baby bear. Catalogue #23 was printed in November 1982 and introduces Sasha brunette dancing dress and baby Rosie with honey hair (on the cover). Baby nest replaces baby nightdress here too. Also printed in 1982 was a booklet entitled Where do Sashas come from? It has a photo of the factory on the cover, and explains the manufacturing porcess--very interesting.

Catalogue #25 from 1983 features school boy Gregor and school girl Sasha on the cover. The black baby, Little Flower is replaced by baby Cara, in a pink plaid dress. This catalogue also shows some of the limited edtion dolls, 1981 Velvet, 1982 Pintucks, 1983 Kiltie and 1984 Harlequin. The last issue we have is catalogue #27 from 1985 featuring Sasha blonde tunic, redhead baby Ginger, and Sasha honey blonde party on the cover. Inside, Cora in the flower dress is replaced by Cora in a blue cord dress and 1985 Prince Gregor is added to the limited edition dolls. The small leaflet #31 was also printed in 1985. It is Sasha in motion and features photos of Sasha dolls in a whole series of different poses. And now that is likely more detail on Trendon catalogues then you ever wanted to know. We notice we are missing a lot of issue numbers, but we haven't seen many other catalogues issues besides these available on the internet. A few of these are available on Carol Zody's site or you can just watch for them on Ebay.

And now I am almost burned out on writing and tempted to leave the Götz catalogues for another entry. This part should be shorter though. I will just briefly list who is in each catalogue. There are two catalogues from 2001 which are not Sasha specific, but feature many specialized Götz dolls. By the way, we don't have any Götz catalogues from the 1960s. The recent set is available from Dorisanne Osborn. The last item pictured is a wrist tag booklet that came with Angela. The other “modern” dolls had similar booklets. The limited edition dolls also had their own booklets.
1995: Angela, Maria, Gregor
1996: Laura, Maria, Lilly, Gregor, David, Angela; babies, Patrick, Celina, Andrea
1997: Lilly, David, Barbara, Maria, Muriel, Luisa, Laura; babies Celina, Christina, Patrick, Lukas, Claudia
1998: Luisa, Sarah, Anna, Alberto, Babette (like 1997's Barbara); babies Bianca, Max, Lukas, Claudia, Christa (like 1997's Christina)
1999: Annett, Marina, Trudi, Alice, Alberto; babies Linda, Toni, Jeanine, Bianca, Max
2000: Kyra, Marina, Daniela, Michel, Sofie, Stella, Wibke; babies Julia, Felix, Viktoria, Lena, Karin, Matti, Stine; toddlers Esther, Ollie
2001a: (fair brunette on cover) Ivette, Carmen, Anika; toddlers Iona, Erik; babies Lars, Simon, Meike. Also has dolls by Sylvia Natterer, Hildegard Günzel (Kinderland), Pampolina, Beatrix Potter, and other Götz dolls.
2001b: (Indian doll on cover) Yamka, Ira, Allan, Leon; toddlers Elke, Claudius; babies Lena, Irka, Alek, Like Also features dolls by Susi Eimer, Joke Grobben, Tara Heath, Ulrike Hutt, Didy Jacobsen, Elisabeth Lindner, Carin Lossnitzer, Sissel BjØrstad Skille, Sylvia Natterer, Götz faces, Principessa, and Welcome to the World collections.

I am so sorry for rattling on so long, but I can't leave you without a link for the day. Today's is by Jesse in New Zealand, Sasha Morgenthaler's grandson, about the adventures of his Gregor doll, Angelo.
http://www.picturetrail.com/angelos_world

11 is Enough, or is it?

Okay, Sasha, I know how you are. You are going to type every word I say whether I want you to or not, so I will try not to make any mistakes. Just don't start until I tell you I'm ready, okay. What do you think I should tell them besides introducing myself? Okay, I guess I'll think of something. Okay, I think I'm ready to start now. You can start typing now.

Dear Everybody, My name is Sandra Varlene. I am the last of MamaT's Sasha's to be introduced. That does not either mean I'm the least, Sasha. Now don't type that. I was answering you. Don't talk to me if you don't want me to talk to you. Now back to where we were. My name is Sandra, which is formal for Sandy, which is the kind of Sasha baby I am. How do I explain Varlene? MamaT's Mama, our Gran-Mama is named Arlene. Her sisters sometimes called her Verla as a nickname, so Varlene is a combination of Gran-Mama's name. Even though I am a foster kid here like Tasha and Shyvonne, we all have the same Gran-Mama, so we are like cousins. And I am like a twin to Margot Monique, cuz we are both Sandy dolls. But we are not identical. At least MamaT can always tell us apart. We tried switching places on our shelf and she still wasn't fooled. Problem is, I have sort of a cowlick in my hair that I can't get rid of. NOOOOO, that doesn't mean a cow licked my head when I was a little baby. Sasha, don't be so silly. I'm not going to get off track again. Also, it seems like my hair is slightly darker than Margot's even though we're both honey blonde. That would probably be hard to see the difference in a picture I'd guess. (Pause....)

So now that MamaT has baby dolls, Gregor boys, Sasha (& Cora) girls, brunette, redhead, black, and both platinum and honey blonde dolls, English and German made dolls, and dolls from every decade, '60s, '70s, '80s, and 90s, you would really think that she would have enough dolls by now, wouldn't you? In fact, our shelf is plum full—one more doll and DearDaddy would have to build us another shelf. But I see MamaT at the computer drooling over Gotz dolls like toddlers and Yamka from the modern production, and '60s Gotz dolls even more so, and then she sighs over limited edition dolls like Kiltie or Sari Sasha. Most of these dolls are in the price range where one doll would use up her whole Sasha budget for the year, so I think she can't decide who to adopt next. I mean she could pick up one, and then maybe see a deal on the one she really ALWAYS wanted ALL her life after her budget is spent. Glad it is MamaT who has to worry about all that and not me. We all like having more brothers and sisters. It's fun that way, but poor MamaT is just going to have more and more skids she'll have to sew for or buy clothes for, because almost all of us are in need of some sturdy play clothes. (Pause again...)

But I wish I had lost my shoes like Tasha and Shyvonne. I don't love to wear them. What good are they anyhow? MamaT should relate to that. I've seen her childhood pictures, and she is almost never wearing shoes. My Mama, her big sister, says MamaT's shoes were always lost, and then they would find cobwebs growing in them. MamaT says her only concern about running around shoeless was that she might wind up in Narnia unshod one day and could regret not having shoes on in that case, because you never know what the terrain in Narnia might be like. But it wasn't quite enough motivation to make her actually wear them.

(Long pause....we're waiting, Sandra V....) Well, I think that's all I have to tell them, I mean, you. I'm still talking to everybody, not just you, Sasha. For now, I am the baby of the family. We'll certainly let you know if anyone new comes along to join us. Hope you all have a super terrific day and that spring will be here SOON. (And Sasha says Amen to that!)

--by Sandra Varlene (as dictated to Sasha)

P.S. I have a website to share too. It is Cecile's. We just got some nice paperdolls from Cecile.
http://www.ortakales.com/cecile/
P.P.S. Cecile's site seems to have trouble loading, but maybe the server is just down today, so if it doesn't work today, come back and try again another day. It usually works good.