Portsmouth Historic Dockyards - Part Two

Henry at Portsmouth Historic Dockyards - Part Two posted here.

Henry visits the Historic Dockyards

Henry has finally managed to post the first instalment of his day out at the Historic Dockyards at Portsmouth last week.  Photos can be seen here.

Henry has a Day out in London

Henry has posted over here about his day out in London yesterday...

Meeting up with Friends.

The first day in October saw us journeying into London for a fun meet up with some Sasha friends.

We booked into our hotel - tiny room, but nice and clean and generally quiet!

Another view of the room.  

Once we had checked in we all met in the lounge area

Two very special toddlers!  Aren't they the sweetest couple?

Peggy Sue came along to entertain the toddlers.

She certainly has their attention.

I think she must have been telling them all about all the exciting things she had planned fro them.

Not often you see toddlers this well behaved!  I wonder what she bribed them with?!

Fortunately she kept them well entertained so we were able to go out for lunch.

We ventured off to the local pub for a meal.

After a lovely lunch we 'retired' back to the 'drawing room' or rather lounge again. Lots of talk about Sasha dolls of course and the upcoming Sasha Festival to be held in Forth Worth, Texas next year. We had lots of wonderful conversation, and plenty of laughs, it was a great time indeed.

Diane coveted these two toddlers.

I think she was saying 'mine, all mine'!  

Henry enjoys some conversation with Brenda's lovely girl who came all the way over from Texas to meet everyone.

The day finished with another lovely meal at a local restaurant before Catherine, Plum and Cathy had to catch their trains home.  The rest of us stayed the night and our adventure continued the next day...as seen over on Henry's blog here.

An English Afternoon Tea

On Friday a small group of friends met at 'The Priory' in Hitchin for an English Afternoon Tea.

Liss and Olivia had come over from Switzerland.

Sandwiches, scones (with of course jam and clotted cream) and cakes were served along with copious amounts of tea and coffee

Delicious selection of cakes!

A lovely afternoon full of chatting, eating and drinking was had.

Henry got to meet a German Gotz girl, and the two spent the afternoon chatting.

I think they managed to talk as much as we did!

Left to right

Susan, Janet, Tricia, Liss, Olivia and Diane.

Thank you ladies for a very enjoyable afternoon!

Cowboys, Country Girls and Indians

Back in August we had a delightful day with Doll Mum and her lovely daughter.  

The theme of the day was  'Cowboys, Country girls and Indians'   and we had such a wonderful time.

Kaya is sitting outside her tepee contemplating the day - she has heard that there are going to be some visitors to the reservation and she is excited about seeing them.  She wonders if she should get out some of her special treasures to show.

The first to arrive is Molly and Kaya tells her about the her treasures, a bow and arrow, papoose and a special little drum, along with her new friend the Canadian Indian Boy.  Molly asks what it is like living in a tepee.

While Kaya and Molly are busy taking Peggy Sue has decided to visit the babies she has heard so much about. 

Peggy Sue chats to Florence their older sister.

Excuse me.....

Miranda is busy with Clemence who is most concerned he can't find Laura.

Baby Mabel tries to comfort Clemence, but he isn't content for long...and wanders off.

Florence is delighted to have a little bit of time without the babies Leo and Mabel while Peggy Sue looks after them.

Peggy Sue asks them if they would like a story.

Clemence hearing the word story is soon back to sit with them...He is always up for a story or two.

Meanwhile Henry is out riding his horse Stratford...

....when suddenly he is surprised by a little bear who has appeared on Stratford's head.  

Clemence whispers something in his ear...something about finding Laura...but all Henry sees is this vision of a beautiful girl riding a white horse.

Is this this vision for real?

Using his feet he gives Stratford instructions to change direction.

He sets off round the Indian camp to meet up with the girl.

Hello, I am Henry.  He introduces himself.  Are you Laura?

Why yes I am.  The girl on the white horse replies.

Meanwhile Stevie comes across a little bear on the grass.

He whispers something in her ear....

She listens intently.

Very soon he is reunited with Laura his favourite girl.

Stevie pats Stratford while Henry and Laura chat.

I think Henry was very besotted by Laura, he hasn't seen any other friends ride horses before.

But wait, what about these two cowboys here?

Reuben and Nicholas James are having a discussions on the merits of riding a pony....Nicholas James isn't convinced...

It may not be so far to fall off you know Reuben, but I still wish I could ride Stratford as I feel a bit silly riding this little pony.

If only Nicholas James had voiced his wish to Henry, I am sure Henry would have given him a ride!

Thank you DollMum and daughter for such a lovely day.

Sorry it has taken us so long to blog about it.

To read DollMum's post about our fabulous day click here.

A very big thank you to Doll Mum for the fabulous Tepee she made Henry as well.  He is absolutely delighted with it as are the other children here at Rose Cottage.  He really does believe wishes come true!

A Catch Up Post - Sewing, London, Gifts.

We've been without phone and internet access for the last few days - a bit like going cold turkey!  So I have been pretty incommunicado, especially as I don't have a mobile phone anymore either.  Fortunately all restored about an hour and half ago.

One thing you notice without either of these things is how much more productive you are!  Or at least I am!

Henry has a visitor arrived for a fortnight holiday with him.  You can read about it here.

I have been busy sewing the girls their Christmas dresses - all done now.  I will be working out who gets to wear what soon.  I wonder if you can guess which dress will be worn by which girl?

The Christmas dresses recently made, including some made last year, plus three others not shown in the photo.  The red corduroy, green corduroy and a black velvet and red silk dress.

I have made the boys Christmas waistcoats, which I finished today while waiting for the BT Engineer to come out.

Again I wonder if you can guess who will be wearing which waistcoat?

Preparing for the Monday Sasha Meet Up in London, I took photos of the overalls/dungarees I made for Gayle.

Sasha kindly modelled them for me.

Gayle saw a similar pair worn by Pinny at the Sasha Festival

(Pinny had a Holiday with Henry) in June/July of this year.

Sunday I made three waistcoats to give as gifts for the Sasha Meet Up in London on Monday.  

Francis got to model the waistcoats for me.

We had a fabulous day yesterday with Gayle, Dawn, Catherine and Rosie.  Lots of Sasha talk and fun and more talk!

The kids enjoyed catching up.  From left to right we have Gayles Gotz girl in green and her toddler, chatting to Rosie's gorgeous blonde lass in the blue culottes.  Henry is catching up with Charlotte, hearing all about her new home with Gayle as well as the adventures she has been on.  Dawn's lovely girl in her new coat and hat is listening on.

Seems like a lot of talk going on with these six just like the grown ups!

Henry is glad Charlotte likes her new home.  Charlotte is thrilled that she was able to meet up with Henry again after saying goodbye to him in July at the Sasha Festival in Cincinnati 

Lot's of serious girlie going on.

Very serious discussions going on here as well.

Four of us.  (Hopefully Gayle can forward me the photo with Rosie in as well so I can add it to this blog post).

Thank you ladies for a lovely day, it was such fun meeting up with you all and catching up with everything Sasha.

I also want to say a big thank you to a very special friend I have made who actually doesn't have a Sasha yet (although not for much longer!) who asked if she could make a pinafore for one of my girls.  As I couldn't take part in the swap due to not enough partners for me, I was absolutely delighted with this offer, and even more delighted when a little parcel arrived the other day and I found this most delightful pinafore inside.

Isn't this just the sweetest little pinafore.  Sasha is showing Henry, although I am not really sure what Henry thinks of it.  Oh he says it is pretty neat as it has squirrels and acorns on it.

Yes indeed it meets all our approval and delight, we simply love it and thank our dear friend very much for it indeed.

Lastly I want to show the fabulous little Dolly Doodles set that Kendal so very kindly sent for one of the toddler boys...Ollie was the lucky one to claim it, so poor Claudius (although fortunately he doesn't know yet) is still in his original outfit!

Well Ollie, you look very smart in your tractor hoodie and cord trousers.  Henry says to Ollie.

You look like a big boy!

Does that mean I can do big boys stuff?  Ollie asks Henry

Well....not all the time.   Henry replies.  It depends....

Thank You Aunty Kendal for this lovely little set for Ollie.  He is delighted and looks very smart as you can see.