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
