Sunday 28 February 2010

Prayer for World Peace




We pray to the great Spiritual Power in which we live and move and have our being.
We pray that we may at all times keep our minds open to new ideas and shun dogma;
that we may grow in our understanding of the nature of all living beings and our connectedness with the natural world;
that we may become ever more filled with generosity of spirit and true compassion and love for all life;
that we may strive to heal the hurts that we have inflicted on nature and control our greed for material things, knowing that our actions are harming our natural world and the future of our children;
that we may value each and every human being for who he is, for who she is, reaching to the spirit that is within, knowing the power of each individual to change the world.

We pray for social justice, for the alleviation of the crippling poverty that condemns millions of people around the world to lives of misery - hungry, sick, and utterly without hope.
We pray for the children who are starving, who are condemned to homelessness, slave labour, prostitution, and especially for those forced to fight, to kill and torture even members of their own family.
We pray for the victims of violence and war, for those wounded in body and for those wounded in mind.
We pray for the multitudes of refugees, forced from their homes to alien places through war or through the utter destruction of their environment.

We pray for suffering animals everywhere, for an end to the pain caused by scientific experimentation, intensive farming, fur farming, shooting, trapping, training for entertainment, abusive pet owners, and all other forms of exploitation such as overloading and overworking pack animals, bull fighting, badger baiting, dog and cock fighting and so many more.

We pray for an end to cruelty, whether to humans or other animals, for an end to bullying, and torture in all its forms.
We pray that we may learn the peace that comes with forgiving and the strength we gain in loving;
that we may learn to take nothing for granted in this life;that we may learn to see and understand with our hearts;
that we may learn to rejoice in our being.

We pray for these things with humility;
We pray because of the hope that is within us, and because of a faith in the ultimate triumph of the human spirit;
We pray because of our love for Creation, and because of our trust in God.
We pray, above all, for peace throughout the world.

prayer for world peace ~ dr jane goodall

Friday 26 February 2010

Flowers for Friday


Thursday 25 February 2010

Excuse me while I scream!




I am so very tired ~ absolutely sick and bloody tired ~ of thinking about dieting, losing weight, getting slim. I just want to get on with my life and say to hell with all that. I just want to get through my days not thinking about what I should be eating while I'm chomping down on all the stuff I shouldn't be eating. I just don't want to buy any more slimming magazines and sit reading them with a mug of tea in one hand and a bar of chocolate in the other. I just don't want to feel unworthy and ugly anymore because I happen to be a fat woman. I just want to accept myself for who I am ~ a decent, loving and loveable woman. Why do I ~ and countless other women, I suspect ~ find this such a hard thing to do?

Being fat shouldn't be the sole definition of who I am. I am so much more than simply my outer shell! Isn't it time I started living my life in the here and now, time to start following the advice at the head of this blog:

Live not in what has happened ~ or fear of what may come tomorrow.
Live well...in the here and now...and treat this as your defining moment.

So I have made a decision: no more dieting, no more thinking about dieting, no more talking about dieting. It is now a concept which will no longer be occupying my thoughts or defining my life. Next year I will be 50 years old and I intend to reach that momentous milestone living in the here and now!

The Thursday Poem




I Am Not I

I am not I.
I am this one
Walking beside me whom I do not see,
Whom at times I manage to visit,
And at other times I forget.
The one who remains silent when I talk,
The one who forgives, sweet, shen I hate,
The one who takes a walk when I am indoors,
The one who will remain standing when I die.

Juan Ramon Jimenez
(24th December 1881 - 29th May 1958)

translated by Robert Bly
(23rd December 1926 - )

from the book: Poem for the Day One

Wednesday 24 February 2010

Wonderful Wednesday!


Monday 22 February 2010

Sunday 21 February 2010

Prayer for World Peace




We pray to the great Spiritual Power in which we live and move and have our being.
We pray that we may at all times keep our minds open to new ideas and shun dogma;
that we may grow in our understanding of the nature of all living beings and our connectedness with the natural world;
that we may become ever more filled with generosity of spirit and true compassion and love for all life;
that we may strive to heal the hurts that we have inflicted on nature and control our greed for material things, knowing that our actions are harming our natural world and the future of our children;
that we may value each and every human being for who he is, for who she is, reaching to the spirit that is within, knowing the power of each individual to change the world.

We pray for social justice, for the alleviation of the crippling poverty that condemns millions of people around the world to lives of misery - hungry, sick, and utterly without hope.
We pray for the children who are starving, who are condemned to homelessness, slave labour, prostitution, and especially for those forced to fight, to kill and torture even members of their own family.
We pray for the victims of violence and war, for those wounded in body and for those wounded in mind.
We pray for the multitudes of refugees, forced from their homes to alien places through war or through the utter destruction of their environment.

We pray for suffering animals everywhere, for an end to the pain caused by scientific experimentation, intensive farming, fur farming, shooting, trapping, training for entertainment, abusive pet owners, and all other forms of exploitation such as overloading and overworking pack animals, bull fighting, badger baiting, dog and cock fighting and so many more.

We pray for an end to cruelty, whether to humans or other animals, for an end to bullying, and torture in all its forms.
We pray that we may learn the peace that comes with forgiving and the strength we gain in loving;
that we may learn to take nothing for granted in this life;
that we may learn to see and understand with our hearts;
that we may learn to rejoice in our being.

We pray for these things with humility;
We pray because of the hope that is within us, and because of a faith in the ultimate triumph of the human spirit;
We pray because of our love for Creation, and because of our trust in God.
We pray, above all, for peace throughout the world.

prayer for world peace ~ dr jane goodall

Friday 19 February 2010

New glasses!



I was very overdue for an eye test but finally went to see my Optician a couple of weeks back. I knew that I would need new glasses as I've been struggling somewhat recently with the ones I've had for the last four years. I decided to go for a different style this time round and Beverly helped me choose this pair with thicker frames than I think I've ever had! I'm very pleased with them though.



And this is my second pair as I've now reached that delightful age where I really need a different prescription for close-up work such as my crafting and reading LOL The Optician asked if I had thought about vari-focals but to be honest I was rather reluctant to go down that route. My sister has found it quite difficult to get used to her's and as I get headaches easily, I decided that I'd prefer to have two different pairs instead! Add Image

Flowers for Friday


Thursday 18 February 2010

Opening the door...





I have found it really hard to actually sit down and write this post ~ not physically, but emotionally and spiritually. But it is something which I very much want to share with you, so here goes!

My spiritual path has been a very difficult one to walk for many years. I spent a good portion of my adult life totally denying the existence of God ~ an avowed atheist, in fact. There came a point of recognition, though, that there really was something more to life ~ I realised that there was indeed a Creator. This was a little difficult for me to handle, actually, this "knowing" that I and everyone/everything around me was not just some kind of freak happening, a chance-in-however-many-billions. Eventually, though, I did sort of manage to wrap my head around this new-for-me concept. But I was most definitely not ready to accept the concept of God! Instead, I tried out some pagan pathways. I really did try hard to believe in Gods and Goddesses, spells and magic but time and again I found myself struggling with these ideas. I couldn't settle on a pagan path which felt "right" to me. Oh, don't get me wrong, there are some aspects of paganism which I do feel strongly about ~ a love of the natural world, for example ~ and looking back, I think it was this which kept me trying to "be" a pagan for quite some time.

Then, in my early forties, something distressing happened to me (which I do not ever intend to reveal or discuss!) and I found myself calling out to God! I really cannot say which was the most shocking aspect of this: the fact that I had called out to God for comfort or the fact that He answered me! But I cannot deny that He did indeed answer my anguished call ~ with love, compassion and forgiveness. I felt His arms around me, holding me to Him; I felt the love pouring out from Him; I "heard" Him call me His child. I had opened the door to Him and my life was never going to be quite the same again!

I wish I could tell you that it has been plain-sailing since then but it has not! Quite the contrary, in fact. My path has been just as difficult, just as twisting, just as strewn with pot-holes of doubt, confusion, lack of faith, lack of confidence as it was previously. To be completely honest with you, if anything it has been even worse ~ at least before I opened that door to God I could still hang on to my comfortable conviction that He didn't exist, which sort of made life easier in a weird kind of way.

So, I decided that I needed to find a Church family. Well, I say I decided but deep down I knew that this was the next step on my path that God wanted me to take. I thought this would be a simple, easy-peasy exercise. How wrong I was!

Let me explain that I do not have any experience of "church"; even though I was Christened my family were not church-goers. I never went to an "ordinary" church service, despite my Mum being insistent that we were Church of England! So this finding-of-the-right-church-for-me exercise was a completely alien experience. I decided that since I had been Christened into the Church of England, I would start with an Anglican church. Which I did. I went. It did not feel "right" at all! Now, this was a bit of a surprise to me to be honest and one for which I was unprepared. I think I had just assumed that since I had been Christened into the C of E, then I would naturally find my place there. I had to do some treading-of-water for a while whilst I tried to figure out where to go next.

During this time, a friend I had met online a few years earlier had converted from the Baptist Church into the Roman Catholic Church. Perhaps I should point out that during my many years of atheism, I had very strong anti-Catholic views. But my friend was so obviously happy and at peace on this new path that I started to wonder if it might be the right path for me, too. So I started to attend our local Catholic Church. Just as I had done with paganism, I really tried hard with the Catholic Church. I tried to push my doubts aside for quite some time, but it was starting to become more and more difficult to convince myself that I was on the right path.

Then my back "went" again and once more I was pretty immobile. I became depressed ~ both because of my health issues and my spiritual woes. I kept wondering when I would be fit enough to get back to Church but as time went by, I found that I was actually rather relieved that I couldn't get there! In the end, of course, I realised that I had stuck it out with the Catholic Church for so long because of my friend and not because of my own convictions.

So although I was relieved to have discovered that the Catholic Church was not where God was asking me to go, I was distressed to find myself back in that same old scenario of treading water once more.

Now whilst I have been stagnating, my daughter has been blossoming in her faith and spiritual path. Beverly started to attend a Methodist Church in our town and she was very happy there ~ still is, in fact :-) Beverly and I had a few little conversations about my struggles and she suggested that she could ask someone from the Church if they would be able to have a chat with me. So that was how I found myself last Friday having a visit from the lovely Deacon of the Church. We talked for a long time and I felt very much at ease in her company.

Now this is where, for me at least, life starts to get exciting! The Deacon told me that on Sunday evening the Church was holding their regular Healing Hope service and she asked if I would like to come. She also told me that on 22nd February, the Minister would be starting his annual "six week exploration of following Jesus within a Christian community ~ ideal for anyone considering Baptism, Confirmation or Church membership". I could see for myself God's hand in all this!

The Deacon could tell that I was hesitant about the Church service; I had explained to her all that I have told you in this post and she picked up that I was not very confident about going to the service alone. She told me that she would be very happy to take me to the service and indeed stay with me during it. I was very touched by her kindness and it was all arranged! She didn't have any of her business cards left so although she wrote down her email address for me, I did not have a contact telephone number. As Sunday wore on, I started to get more and more nervous about that evening's service and if I had had the Deacon's phone number, I would have rung her to cancel! As it was, I had to go through with it. In the event it was, as you might already have guessed, nothing to worry about at all.

And then came the reading of John 5: 1-8. This really struck a chord with me but it was nothing compared to the reflections made on the reading! I found myself feeling more and more emotional, as if the lady doing the reading and giving her reflections was talking straight to me! I started to feel very choked up and tears started to run down my face. After the reading, there was time given over to Prayer Ministery groups and the Deacon asked if I would like to pray with one of the groups. Although I was nervous and weepy and a little shaky, I gladly accepted her suggestion. She introduced me to one of the Prayer Ministery teams, a lady and a man, and I sat with them. The lady led the prayers and asked if I would like to ask Christ into my life ~ oh, how much I wanted this! So, I repeated the words she spoke ~ how glad I am that I didn't have to try to find the words myself, as I don't think I would have been able to in the state I was in! The man, too, said a prayer of thanks.

I can't tell you the exact words that were spoken simply because I can't clearly recall them. But what I do know is that for the first time ever I truly asked God to forgive my sins and to be part of my life. I knew for certain that I wanted to give myself to Him, freely. I wish I could properly describe to you the feelings of relief I felt after I had done this ~ it was like a great rock had been lifted from my heart and there was also a physical feeling, like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Even my back felt easier! I also felt like I had come home, that this Church was where God wanted me to be.

Funnily enough, we have neighbours who also attend this Church and when I was starting out on my search for a church family, because I knew they attended church, I did actually ask them about it. So, of course, I could have found myself there much earlier but I am sure that God first wanted me to know that other paths were not the right ones for me. There is another "funny" thing about all this! I had the Deacon's email address on a card she had given me about the exploration I mentioned earlier. I had seen the address she had written down. What I did not notice until after I got home Sunday evening was that she had, in fact, also written down her telephone number! I was absolutely convinced that I did not have her phone number, which meant I could not "cry off" going to the service because I couldn't easily contact her at short notice. God's hand yet again!

Wow, this has turned out to be something of an epic post but in the end I found it much easier to write than I had thought I would. I am not naive enough to believe that my path will now be smooth and straight but for the first time, I know that I am indeed on the right path :-)

The Thursday Poem




My Love Is Like to Ice

My love is like to ice, and I to fire:
How comes it then that this her cold so great
Is not dissolved through my so hot desire,
Nut harder grows the more I her entreat?
Or how comes it that my exceeding heat
Is not allayed by her heart-frozen cold,
But that I burn much more in boiling sweat,
And feel my flames augmented manifold?
What more miraculous thing may be told,
That fire, which all things melts, should harden ice,
And ice, which is congealed with senseless cold,
Should kindly fire by wonderful device?
Such is the power of love in gentle mind,
That it can alter all the course of kind.

Edmund Spenser
(c. 1552 - 16th January 1599)

From the book: Poem for the Day One

Wednesday 17 February 2010

Another Effanbee




Isn't she lovely? This is Tara and she arrived from the Republic of Ireland yesterday, from a really nice Ebay seller called Mary ~ http://shop.ebay.co.uk/bonniebluebabiesireland/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

I really like these Effanbee dolls, although I only have two in my doll family. They are very pretty and have lovely facial colouring ~ very sweet and delicate. Tara is in nice condition although she does need a visit to my dolly spa to be freshened-up a little. I may also take the plunge into the world of dolly hairdressing by washing and styling her hair!

Tara and Hermione (my other Effanbee) are very different to each other. Hermione is very childlike whilst Tara looks more like a lady doll, both in her face and her body shape.

See ~ I actually remembered to upload a photo of Tara when she arrived!

Wonderful Wednesday!


Monday 15 February 2010

March is Veggie Month



Click on the photo above to be taken to the Animal Aid website or go directly to http://www.veggiemonth.com/ for lots of information on events, recipes, resources, etc :-)

Meat-Free Monday: The Movie

Monday Morning Blues!


Sunday 14 February 2010

Perks that come with age...



Someone had to remind me so I'm reminding you, too, of the perks of reaching 50 or being over 60 and heading toward 70!

Kidnappers are not very interested in you.

In a hostage situation you are likely to be released first.

No one expects you to run ~ anywhere.

People call at 9pm and ask "did I wake you?"

People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.

There is nothing left to learn the hard way.

Things you buy now won't wear out...

You can eat supper at 4pm.

You can live without sex...but not your glasses.

You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.

You quit trying to hold your stomach in ~ no matter who walks into the room.

You sing along with elevator music.

Your eyes won't get much worse.

Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.

Your joints are more accurate meteorologists than the national weather service.

Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them either.

Your supply of brain cells is finally down to a manageable size.

You won't remember where you saw this list.

And you notice this is all in big print for your easier-reading convenience.

If you want to share this with folk you know, you'd better do it right now ~ before you forget.

Oh, and before I forget, here's one more piece of advice:

NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, TAKE A SLEEPING PILL AND A LAXATIVE ON THE SAME NIGHT!!

Rainbow Ladies


I really find it hard to just work on one project at a time and these little rainbow ladies are a case in point. I suddenly had the urge to get my tub of needle-felting supplies out (which actually wasn't that easy as my shed is in a mess again *sigh*) and bash away. I really had fun making them ~ apart from the times when I managed to stab my poor thumb LOL I'm in a quandry now, though, as I am really torn over whether or not to give them faces (which is most definitely not one of my strong points!). Even discounting my lack of artistic talent for making/drawing half-decent faces, I have to confess that I rather like them just the way they are now with no defined facial features. I have made a couple more ladies since these two and they are "faceless" as well ~ somehow it just doesn't seem necessary to add any stitches for eyes or mouths!
I am going to send a couple of the rainbow ladies as a surprise gift to a friend and I'm seriously thinking about making more to put in my online store ~ so watch this space ;-)

Pretty daffodils



I went a bit mad and bought six bunches of these gorgeous daffodils with my online supermarket shopping this week ~ well, they were half price after all LOL I love it when Tesco have these available online. When I started to put the bunches into a vase, I realised that four of the six bunches were doubled-up! So I've now got daffodils all over the place but I'm certainly not complaining...

Garden Bear gets a makeover!

This little concrete bear was in a large plant pot that my Mum gave me last year. I brought him indoors, gave him a good wash and he's just sat around waiting for me to make him look prettier ever since. Now that I've finally got the dining table cleared of all my "stuff" ~ I have, honestly, what you can see here are the bits and pieces I need to work with!! ~ I thought I'd give the little chap a make-over :-)



So here's Garden Bear after I had given him a coat of gesso ~ he was starting to look better already! I had a hard time trying to decide whether to paint him in "bear" colours or something different! Oh decisions, decisions...



Well, I'm no artist as you can see, but I enjoyed giving GB a make-over all the same. I was so tempted to give him a coating of glitter but in the end managed to restrain myself to just glittering his eyes and nose! I have to say that the little fiddley bits, like his eyes and mouth, were, well, fiddley to paint and I've decided that perhaps I'm not really cut out for such work!



I enjoyed painting Garden Bear so I decided to I hunt out Gervaise from the depths of my once-again-in-a-mess shed! Working on him was quite a revelation ~ Gervaise isn't like the other gnomes ;-) He is decidedly "in touch with his feminine side" and just doesn't seem to get on with the other gnomes ~ it would appear that they don't understand him! I told him that he was very welcome to live with me and the dolly family and he seemed really thrilled with the suggestion :-D



And here is Gervaise in all his pastel, glittery glory! I enjoyed painting him in non-traditional gnome colours and the glitter just seemed perfect for his personality LOL He has made friends with Dorothea already :-)

Prayer for World Peace




We pray to the great Spiritual Power in which we live and move and have our being.
We pray that we may at all times keep our minds open to new ideas and shun dogma;
that we may grow in our understanding of the nature of all living beings and our connectedness with the natural world;
that we may become ever more filled with generosity of spirit and true compassion and love for all life;
that we may strive to heal the hurts that we have inflicted on nature and control our greed for material things, knowing that our actions are harming our natural world and the future of our children;
that we may value each and every human being for who he is, for who she is, reaching to the spirit that is within, knowing the power of each individual to change the world.

We pray for social justice, for the alleviation of the crippling poverty that condemns millions of people around the world to lives of misery - hungry, sick, and utterly without hope.
We pray for the children who are starving, who are condemned to homelessness, slave labour, prostitution, and especially for those forced to fight, to kill and torture even members of their own family.
We pray for the victims of violence and war, for those wounded in body and for those wounded in mind.
We pray for the multitudes of refugees, forced from their homes to alien places through war or through the utter destruction of their environment.

We pray for suffering animals everywhere, for an end to the pain caused by scientific experimentation, intensive farming, fur farming, shooting, trapping, training for entertainment, abusive pet owners, and all other forms of exploitation such as overloading and overworking pack animals, bull fighting, badger baiting, dog and cock fighting and so many more.

We pray for an end to cruelty, whether to humans or other animals, for an end to bullying, and torture in all its forms.
We pray that we may learn the peace that comes with forgiving and the strength we gain in loving;
that we may learn to take nothing for granted in this life;
that we may learn to see and understand with our hearts;
that we may learn to rejoice in our being.

We pray for these things with humility;
We pray because of the hope that is within us, and because of a faith in the ultimate triumph of the human spirit;
We pray because of our love for Creation, and because of our trust in God.
We pray, above all, for peace throughout the world.

prayer for world peace ~ dr jane goodall

Happy Valentine's Day!


Saturday 13 February 2010

My dolly family is growing!

Hello ~ my name is Sharon, I am nearly 49 years old...and I love dolls :-D If you read my Violet Cottage blog then, of course, you will already know this little fact about me LOL You will also know that I never seem to do the sensible thing and upload photos of my new family members as I get them ~ oh no, I do it the hard way and upload a "job lot" instead! So here is my latest batch of dolly photos...

I have a small collection of porcelain dolls and this is Geraldine, the latest addition ~ a 99p bargain. She needs a little TLC as she is rather dishevelled! In her ebay photo, she looked very sad, as if she might be about to burst into tears, but now that I've seen her close-up, she looks much happier.



Constance was only £1.50, which I admit helped in my decision to buy her. She is very pretty but I think I shall have to wash her clothes and possibly her hair too, at some point, as she smells a little musty ~ perhaps she has been stored in her box in someone's loft. Anyhoo, once she is smelling nice and fresh, I am sure she will fit in with the other porcelain dolls beautifully. Constance is actually the first porcelain doll which I bought for myself, all my others were given to me.



These pretty little girls are Takara dolls and they came all the way from Finland.
I think that Juniper (in the long gown) and Angelica are Jenny dolls and I hadn't come across this make before I saw them on Ebay. I really like them, especially their eyes which are so different to the Barbie and Sindy girls.



This is Heidi, who is a Burbank Toys doll. She is so cute! The dress she's wearing is obviously not meant for her as it's way too big but it's a sweet little dress all the same and I'm sure it will fit one of my other little girls.



Hester is a Gadea doll, made in Italy. She is another little cutie and like Heidi, she has the sweetest little "pot belly" LOL



Venetia is an Effe doll, made in Italy, and she is very pretty with the most gorgeous long eyelashes! Venetia is very grubby though, as are all her clothes, so she will be joining the other recent new girls in the dolly spa soon!




I fell in love with this sweet little girl as soon as I saw her, and after finding out that the postage from the US was very reasonable, I decided to buy her! Hermione is one of the most expensive of my dolls so far but I haven't been disappointed ~ she is absolutely beautiful! Her face looks like porcelain but she is actually made from a hard plastic. She is an Effanbee doll.


Little Hannah was part of a trio of dolls I had decided would need to be found new homes ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/7159233@N03/3976672513/in/set-72157621145644157/ ~ and indeed, one of my Flickr friends was very happy to take all three. I have already sent one of the three to her new home ~ in Canada, no less! ~ and was really pleased to hear that she arrived there safe and sound. However whilst I was getting the toys out of storage which I had just sold on Ebay, which is also where the three dolls-to-be-rehomed were being temporarily stored, I found myself falling in love all over again with little Miss Hannah ~ and I just couldn't let her go!


Would you believe that my Gorgeous Grace has a twin??? This is Gloria and she too has joined our family :-) There is a little more information on Gloria's back than there is on Grace's, who only has Made in Hong Kong stamped there. Gloria's back says "Evergreen", along with Made in Hong Kong and a number which looks like 9150. I will have to see if I can find out anything more about these girls


Here are Grace and Gloria posing together :-)


Mabel also has a twin!! This is Mildred :-) Her face looks rather pale in this photo, for some reason ~ it isn't like this in "real life" LOL Poor Mildred is very grubby and will be having a lovely dolly spa treatment before much longer!
Here are Mabel and Mildred together ~ I have to say that they seem much happier to have found each other than Grace and Gloria do!


Meet Molly (not to be confused with Jolly Molly, my mannequin head ;-D ) who ~ surprise, surprise ~ needs some TLC! She has Made in England by Palitoy stamped on her back/neck. Molly is in dire need of a good bath and shampoo! She has such pretty pale grey eyes.

Olivia and Verity travelled all the way from the States to come and live with my little dolly family ~ a gift from a lovely Flickr friend :-)


Lorna is a Barbie Fashionista doll ~ Artsy, I believe. I have to confess that Lorna is one of the reasons why I'm going off some of my other Barbie dolls ~ I just love the way her joints are articulated.



I actually only went over to Elaine's ( www.flickr.com/photos/kitschandcurious/4113546074/ ) Etsy shop to get some ribbon but somehow little Miss Penelope found her way into my basket, too ;-D She is lovely and fits in so well with the rest of my dolly family!"



Here is another of my 99p bargains LOL This is how the seller described her:

"Here is a vintage Kenner Doll 1970's called Katy Tea Party. She would have had a tea set and held and poured a cup of tea when new. Now she is just for display as she no longer works. Twisting wrists, waist and head. I have dressed her in a vintage pink frock, white pants, socks and pink sandles. Cute faced doll for vintage doll collectors."

Now I have to confess that this is yet another doll which I have never heard of. I was attracted to her sweet little face with that cute smile! Needless to say, Sam and Beverly absolutely HATE poor little Katy LOL

Katy will need a bit of a clean in due course as she is rather grubby. Her joints are pretty loose, too, but I'm not sure that I will be able to do anything about that. I would love to have seen her in her heyday, pouring out cups of tea...


Here is Rose, minus her fancy gown (see photo below). Her hands are so nicely shaped, they seem more defined, somehow, than my other Barbies' hands. Rose's hair is lovely, so soft, and a more unusual colour than I've seen before.
I was a bit confused by Rose, to be honest. She was being sold simply as Barbie and the photo wasn't what you would call brilliant ~ but I really liked her hair and the seller stated that she was in good condition. I didn't notice from the photo that Rose had jointed arms, so that was a pleasant surprise ~ I like being able to pose my doll's arms. I was really surprised when I looked under Rose's dress ~ as you do LOL ~ to find that her knees are jointed, too, and her feet are flat and rather nicely shaped actually. Luckily my Flickr friends were able to tell me that Rose is a California Girl Barbie doll Apparently there were basic beach girls and also a line of dressed, jointed, girls.

And here is Rose in her very pretty gown :-)


Ursula is a Jason Wu Integrity doll and I think she is absolutely gorgeous ~ I confess that I spent more on her than I've done on any of my other Barbie-size fashion dolls! I ignored her the first time round on Ebay but when she came back up again I thought I would just watch and see ~ and I was the only bidder. I am very happy with her :-)


These two pretty blondes are Melody and Blossom. I love Melody's hairstyle but it feels horrible! I may have to do something about it at some point. Blossom is a fabulous repro Barbie ~ I really love her outfit!

Here is Blossom in the coat which matches her outfit.


This trio of lovlies are Esme, Simone and Judith.

Well, I'll bet you are all "dolled out" now ~ yes, I'm talking to you Dad!! I promise to try to remember to post pictures of my new dolls as they arrive to join the family in future!