Oh, What do you do in the summer time...

when you're a young boy named Gregor?

First you take a moment to smell the flowers.

Then check out the wind chimes.
Love the dragonflies! After all they're bugs.

Take a ride in a canoe.

And throw rocks in the lake, lots of rocks, but they don't skip so well...

Now to add to my rock collection!

And admire my collection on this old stump.

Digging into a rotting log...

and exploring a hole with a stick.

I'm king of the mountain!

Giddy-up, horse-tree!

There's lots of trees to climb...

MamaT said this looked too dangerous, but I don't think so.
Lots of footholds in that thick bark.

Who do you suppose lives in here?

or here?

And what about in here?

Peek-a-boo!Did you know this moss is called "scared cat's tail moss"?
Ha ha. I think that's cool.

Now relax and watch the clouds float by.
That one looks like a dragon, I think.

Hope you're having an absolutely terrific summer!
What do you do in the summertime?

Crafternoon

The month has nearly passed without us making an entry here. The weather has been gloomy, and we Sasha dolls really don't like going out in the rain much. MamaT's been busy working both inside and outside and has left me free reign on the computer. One thing I've noticed about Sashaphiles is that a whole lot of them are extremely talented and creative, especially with sewing or knitting clothes for Sasha's and sometimes repainting our faces, or otherwise providing accessories for us. MamaT has made a couple of elementary attempts at sewing for us, and we hope she'll do more, and while she wouldn't call crafting her strong point, she has made a few things over the past couple of years. Today I've been going through the digital photos, and I'm going to show a few of them off to you without telling her.

First up is a necklace MamaT made last year. It's not anything she planned on, but she was in a hobby store with her husband, and while he was talking trains in the train department, MamaT fell for the stone beads and had time to find all the other ingredients for the necklace. She loves it, and later found a perfect pair of earrings to go with it.

Next we have a quilt square. In a weak moment, MamaT agreed to make a quilt square that in some way would represent Glacier National Park for a benefit fund raiser. She got the idea to create an image of Lake McDonald with the mountains and trees (larch and conifers) reflected in the lake. She was really happy to find fabrics at the store that worked just right with what she had imagined. She had never done applique before in her life, and so it was much harder and took hours and hours longer than she had bargained for. In the end though, she was so proud of herself she could hardly stand it.
Next we have a set of curtains started a couple of years ago. MamaT fell in love with the fabric, and just had to have it for her bedroom windows. When she got home, she discovered she didn't have enough fabric. She went back and bought the last of the bolt, but it still wasn't enough and she couldn't figure out a good plan B. So everything got stuffed in a drawer for a couple years. Until a few months ago when a friend came to MamaT's rescue and helped her figure out how to salvage the project and even helped a lot with the sewing. Now she needs to make a matching set for the second window....

In the next photo you'll see a bunch of spatulas that MamaT made as Christmas gifts in December. The uppers are in poplar, and the lower set in cherry. While the poplar was pretty and easy as butter to cut, they probably won't last as long. MamaT uses these spatulas all the time. She has one in every species they've tried out including, oak, cherry, apple, birch, myrtle and poplar. The cutting boards in the backdrop were made by her dear husband.

Several years ago, MamaT got a small window screen that she found was a perfect system for hanging earrings. After a while she found that her earrings were aggravating her metal allergy more and more and finally attributed part of the problem to the metal screen which was not helping matters. So she made this "hypo-allergenic" earring rack and replaced all her earring hooks with sterling silver or gold, and that has helped alleviate the allergy problem tremendously.

When MamaT moved into the house she now lives in, she painted the sunflowers on her mailbox. Last year the box was a target of random vandalism and was smashed with a framing hammer. One other box nearby (a standard plastic box) and several on a road about a mile away were also hit. Go figure.

So when she replaced the mailbox, this time she wanted a dragonfly on it, and since the stencil wasn't very big, she added flowers and butterflies, all representing species that can be found on the property.

Hope you've enjoyed these. Have a great day!

Where in the World are all the Sasha Lovers?

Happy April! One of the fun little features we found for this blog is a map that shows where in the world this blog has had recent visits from. You can click on a map for more detail on where our visitors are from. I've been amazed by all the places we've found hits from on the map, and we've kept a running list. I thought it would be fun to make a post about this when we hit 50 countries. By the time we reached 40 different countries, the accumulation of new countries really slowed down for awhile. But we had a new little flurry last week and reached countries 48, 49, 50 and 51 all on the same day (or at least the same week--we don't check every day). Today's entry is illustrated by a few recent random shots just for fun, including the Moni dolls who posed as Adam & Eve for a recent Sunday School class. We think they're so adorable, we're leaving them in these outfits for awhile.

I've tried to list the top ten countries in order of popularity or frequency of hits, but it's hard to tell, because I can't get percentages for the whole world at once or for all past hits--it only gives it for the most recent hits regionally, so places 6-10 and especially 10 are kind of guess. After that they will be listed in the order that I encountered them on the map.
1) United States
2) United Kingdom
3) Germany
4) Canada
5) Australia
6) Switzerland
7) France
8) New Zealand
9) Ireland
10) Russia
11) Netherlands
12) Belgium
13) Sweden
14) Czech Republic
15) Spain
16) Latvia
17) Norway
18) Portugal
19) Turkey
20) Greece
21) Bulgaria
22) Romania
23) Poland
24) United Arab Emirates
25) Iran
26) Saudi Arabia
27) Egypt
28) Oman
29) Finland
30) Denmark
31) Austria
32) Japan
33) South Korea
34) South Africa
35) Argentina
36) Chile
37) Israel
38) Italy
39) Brazil
40) Hungary
41) Vietnam
42) Taiwan
43) India
44) Ukraine
45) Nigeria
46) Phillipines
47) Slovakia
48) Slovenia
49) Malaysia
50) Guam
51) Mexico

And in closing, today's link of the day is Anita Adkins' page, called Sasha World. -- http://community-2.webtv.net/gadka/sashaworld/

Crissy & Velvet Correspondence

For those of you who are bloggers, have you ever come across something and thought, “I've just got to blog this!” This is one of those cases. For background, I should explain that while I was the only Sasha in the house growing up, I was by no means an “only doll” or a “lonely doll”. MamaT and her closest sister, AuntieN had an array of dolls that were well loved and played with. Besides me, MamaT had a Velvet doll (no not the 1981 Sasha Velvet), but an Ideal Velvet with blonde hair that could grow and retract, and was ecstatic to receive the talking Kenner Gabbigale from Santa one year, whose stay in our home was short-lived, because her voicebox didn't work, and she had to be returned and was never replaced, much to MamaT's disappointment. AuntN had Velvet's redheaded friend, Crissy, and her favorite doll, Susan. There was an also an assortment of dolls that their older sisters had left behind, such as Shirley, Samona, Poppy, and undoubtedly others. While Poppy seems like an unusual name, there was an empty field behind their house that grew California poppies in the springtime. At least, I think it was spring. In Salinas, it was hard to tell one season from another. They and their friends also spent hours and hours playing with the Topper “Dawn” doll family. There were one or two leftover strays from the Barbie family in the box, but they didn't see nearly as much use as the Dawn dolls.

So back to today's story, we recently unearthed a note between Crissy and Velvet. Crissy's note is encoded by being written backwards, so you have to hold it up to a mirror to read, so I will transcribe it, so you don't have to get a mirror out.

It reads: “Dear Velvet, how are you doing? I am lonesome for you. I am mad at Sosha now, because she said my hair is too long! I am best freind's with Susan again. I'll be glad when me and Sosha are freinds again tho. Who are [you] best freinds with now? Simona still? I hope so. You guys were always such good freinds. Love always, Crissy”

I tried to retain the original spelling, which the computer is reluctant to do. It keeps trying to correct friends. How do you like that I am only mentioned because Crissy was mad at me? I don't recall saying her hair was too long. I was probably jealous. Not only did she have longer hair, but I have always been a little envious of red hair. At least she said she hoped we'd be friends again, and I think we did make up again, so I will forgive her for spelling my name wrong, and Samona's too. And now for Velvet's response, which is on the back of the same sheet.

“Dear Crissy, Your handwriting is neat. I stil like Sumona. I like Shirly to, too, two. I fergot wich won. Poppy is being a brat! She's crying and sayeing nobody like's her any mor all the time. Mis Mousy is acting big! She say's the biger the beter. Really the biger the worse. The other stufet animals arownd here ar o.k. tho. Love, Velvet. Picture, Shirly, Poppy, Victoria Sumona, Velvet (me), Mis Mousy, I'm the Best.”

In some ways, Velvet's encoding is trickier than Crissy's, because the letter starts out backwards and needing a mirror to read, but as it goes along fewer and fewer of the letters are written backwards, so you can harldly read the thing either forwards or backwards. I love it where she got all the “two's” covered, but than she got the wrong “one”. I read this to the other dolls last night, and Shyvonne laughed so hard, she fell off the shelf, making a little “thunk” just as MamaT was drifting off to sleep. She saw Shyvonne had taken a dive and just left her to sleep on the floor for the whole night if you can believe that. When she reads this blog entry, she'll find out the explanation why Shyvonne fell off the shelf. To be honest, I always thought Velvet was my best friend growing up, so I have to admit I'm a little offended that she does not even mention me, or include me in her adorable drawings. But I think I should get over it, since after all these years, I'm the only one of the dolls that was kept long enough to become “real”.

Miss Mousy, who also got a bit of a bad rap in Velvet's note, is also still with us, so I've included a photo of her with Sandra, who is tugging on Miss Mousy's necklace as babies will, and a purple cow from the same era, whose original name no one can recall anymore. So as you can see, Miss Mousy IS big. Don't tell Sandra, but the irresistable new romper made by Diane Scarbrough she is sporting is just on loan until we give it baby Sasha who is in need of more clothes.

Just for fun, I've added one more photo of a few more old toys I used to know that somehow survived the years, including a cheerful old woman with oversized hands holding Sweet April, along with Raggedy Ann and Andy, Kanga and Roo, and one remaining Dawn doll dress, #217 Party Puffery to be precise. Most of these, we'd be willing to offer to collectors, but they are not in exceptional shape, so they will probably stay here.

And last, before I sign off, today's link is Karen Watson's page, who has a couple dolls and some clothes patterns for sale.
-- http://www.bestdollclothes.com/index.html

Sasha Memorabilia Book 4: Articles

Hello! Many apologies for not posting for so long. MamaT was out of town for two weeks this month, and we couldn't hitch a ride to the computer while she was gone. It's been awhile since I've included an entry about the Big Book of Sasha Memorabilia. I think this will be the last one, as we've already covered paperdolls and ads, cards, and catalogs. While all of these are just a sampling of what's in the book, they give you an idea of some of the fun things to collect about Sasha besides the dolls and clothes. One thing the book does not contain much of is patterns. MamaT claims she's not much of a seamstress and doesn't know the first thing to do with knitting needles. She's made a couple of feeble attempts at sewing and fantasizes becoming more proficient at it.

Now that I've told you what today's entry is not, maybe I should say what it is. The big book contains about 30 different magazine articles ranging from 1964 to 2008. MamaT had about a half a dozen or so more that she had the nerve to part with when she sold some duplicates. There's no way to include all of the articles here, so we've photographed samples from 10 of the color articles with the best pictures. That's not to say some of the black and white articles aren't excellent. They're just not as photogenic to include here. I do recommend clicking on these photos for a close-up view.



Rather than list out MamaT's personal library here, I'll just list those photographed here and give you the following links:
Susanna Lewis' Sasha Bibliography. The red dot articles are worth searching for. MamaT has all of the U.S. produced red dot articles, plus some others.
A few additional articles encountered by MamaT. This entry also includes information on books and newsletters, so it's a bit long-winded.
Neither list is exhaustive.


And now for the short "top ten" list.

--Menten, Ted. Great Names in Dollmaking: Sasha. Dolls, Summer l983, p. 36-39.
--Remise, Jac and France Broutin. The Sasha Morgenthaler Museum in Zürich, Switzerland. Doll Reader, Jun/Jul 1987, p. 126-130.
--Guinard, Mavis. Swiss Museum Preserves Sasha’s Magic. Dolls, Sep/Oct 1988, p. 44-47.
--Votaw, Anne with Barden, Ann and Knüsli, Laura. Sashas, The First Generation. Dolls, Dec/Jan 1991, cover, p. 64-72.
--Knüsli, Laura. Sasha Morgenthaler: Pioneer Doll Artist, 1893 to 1975. Doll Reader, Feb 1993, p. 111-116.
--Votaw, Anne and Knüsli, Laura. Sasha: An Entertainment and Commercial Star. Doll Reader, Aug 1996, p. 74-78.

--Votaw, Anne. Sasha Morgenthaler Creates Sasha. Doll News, Summer 1999, p. 44-47.
--Newman, Penny. Sasha Dolls, a Story of Harmony, Simplicity and Love of Humanity. Contemporary Doll Collector April/May 2004, p. 30-35.
--Osborn, Dorisanne. Sasha Morgenthaler's Boys and Girls. Doll Reader, Feb. 2005, p. 24-29.
--Ndouop-Klajian, Ruth. Playing with Asymmetry. Doll Reader, December/January 2008, p. 62-64.

The Bear, the Doll, and the Wardrobe

Hi, this is Lona here. Sasha says she's tired tonight, so my little friend, Pepsi Koala, and I get to introduce you to our Christmas present this year. MamaT found this nice green box at Joanne's Fabrics and left in on the table. While Pepsi and I were out exploring when the big people were away (and Cora followed us with the camera), we found the box and thought we might have a little peek inside.
Pepsi crawled up to the top of the box and pulled the zipper down, we opened it up wondering what sort of world might be inside, and what to our surprise, we discovered.....

SASHA CLOTHES!!! Pepsi was immediately attracted to the bear dress, but I'm partial to Cora's flower dress myself.
How do you suppose they put this thing together? The day MamaT brought it home, her DH immediately set to work making a little frame to hold the extension rods, because the box isn't really hard-sided. He used cherry wood, since pine is prone to leaking resins. We wanted to know how they made the extension rods too, so we pulled one down. We discovered they used two pieces of brass tubing, one just 1/32” larger than the other and a little spring the same size as the smaller tube, so it fits inside the larger tube, but not the small one. They chose a softer (as opposed to a stiffer) spring. They got these at the hardware store.

They made some temporary hangers out of copper wire they had laying around, which they eventually want to dip in plastic, the kind you dip your tool handles in, but that's not done yet. They just wrapped wire around a semi-triangular wooden block (with rounded corners), and wrapped the hook around the brass tubing, and trimmed it with wire cutters. Here's a link to another method for making hangers.
http://www.tinyzippers.com/hangers.html

Uh oh, I hear big people coming in at the door, and the clothes are all in a pile. Pepsi, we are so busted... Cora, where'd you go? Hey, we'll talk to you all again later. Lona & Pepsi Koala, signing off.

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!