Pippa in Farnborough Convention 2009

Saturday the 9th of May I attended a Pippa convention in the UK. It was my first time to visit a dolly convention and also the first time to fly alone (read: withouth hubby and kids). On friday I took the plane from Amsterdam Schiphol to Gatwick. The flight was ok, but there was some turbulence with the landing, as there was just a thunderstorm when we approached Gatwick.

I was the first one to arrive at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Farnborough and after making me at home in my room I decided to go for a little walk to the shops. There were a couple of charity shops down there, but my only dolly find was a small Shelly doll, which will be going to my youngest daughter.

After a while some of the others, Jude & Caroline arrived and we had a drink in the lounge, together with Babs, who came all the way from the USA !!!

By the end of the afternoon quite a couple of others arrived too, also my lovely roomie, Janet.

We had a lovely small get together at Chris' room, where we already started trading some dolly bits.

I did get me some lovely dresses from Jude and Janet:

And some more lovely dresses from Chris and Janet:

I bought a lovely pink Pippa shirt from my roomie.

Dinner was delicious and after dinner I decided to go back to work on an outfit for my OOAK swap dolly, on which I had already been working for ages, (I had a creative block, so just couldn't get it finished in a 'normal' time period). But my lovely OOAK swap partner Peggy (also from the USA) was attending the Pippa convo too, so I really wanted to finish my dolly for her and I managed! On saturdaymorning I was able to hand over my Gypsy Pippa to her. The outfit is a downscaled copy of Mary Quant's Daisy doll 'Gypsy' outfit.

On saturday morning I first enjoyed an early morning swim, together with my roomie Janet and with Shirley. What a great way to start the day!

The whole day was filled with exitement and it was amazing to see all the creativity of the others that attended the convention.

Toxic Froggy Jeni created some lovely Manga dolls:

I just had to have Pink Panther Priscilla!!!! (guess what's my favourite colour).

There were 2 themed displays:

My favourite custumised doll :

Naughty Pippa (and Pete):

The fashion frenzy wasn't my thing, as I just couldn't come up with any idea. I finally started working on a necklace, which sadly fell apart when I had to tie it .

Lunch was just delicious!

Then there was the prize table draw. When my name got out of the bag there were no OOAK Pippa dollies anymore, but I've got me the wonderful 'Queen of Hearts' outfit by Janet Caudle, which was donated by Cindy, of the prize table, so I felt really very happy.

I must admit my score on the 'Pippa Nerd' quiz, wasn't very impressive, but hey, I'm not really in to the original Pippa stuff, I just love many of the OOAK dolls and outfits and I already have so much original Daisy stuff, I wouldn't be able to collect everything original Pippa too, or I'd burst out of the house .

Then it was time for the official Convention Dolls! How exciting! And WOW! She really is gorgeous !!!!!

After that we had some very inspiring demo's, Karen who showed us how to create cork shoes for our little Pip's. Janet who showed how to crochet small knickers for our gals, and finally Tracy F (the uncrowned OOAK dolly queen) gave a demo on how to repaint a girlie! It was all very impressive!

there were also competitions, so we could all vote for our favourites in different categories.

Screen Goddess competition:

Pippa in the 1940's:

Much to my excitement, the second time my name was drawn I was able to get me yet another Janet Caudle outfit, 'Heavenly Angel' which was kindly donated by Mare.

My third win of the prize table was a beautiful 'Snow Beau' outfit by Kat.

Then I had a lovely pink dress by Shuzee:

a white Pippa sized bed donated by Peggy:

Meccano Mandy and Pete were at the naughty Pippa display too, so I thought I'd show them on my prize table win

a lovely pair of pink fairy wings donated by Caroline:

What a fantastic haul! And it didn't end there, as we also got our goodie bags, with loads of the most amazing stuff for Pippa.

After dinner (again delicious) we had a mini swap, in which I gained a lovely outfit from Jude:

This dolly is my first childhood Pippa-sized (clone)doll. She had lost almost all her hair and her lashes, and my danish friend Helene kindly rerooted her for me, when I still didn't know a thing about rerooting. I think she looks absolutely gorgeous now. Necklace, bracelet and knickers were a goodie bag donation by Mandy B and the stockings were another goodiebag donation by Lorraine L (ladey lacey).

Sunday it was time to go home again, but first a couple of us went to a doll fair in Kensington, I found a couple of dawnies for Peggy, a Discogirl Britt wearing a lovely Abba doll outfit,

and a Daisy who found a new home with Janet. She already had outfits for her, but still not a doll, so I just couldn't keep her (knowing I have ± 100 at home).

A complete surprise moment was when a handsome guy strolled to our table and asked for ME !!!!! It was Jonny, a fellow Daisy collector and it really was so lovely to finally meet him!!!!

Well time just flew and before I knew I was already back at Gatwick airport. The flight home was just fine, with no turbulence like on my way to the UK.