Pippa in Milton Keynes Convention 18 may 2013

Last weekend I was with another lovely group of doll collectors, it was time for the yearly Pippa Convention!
This year it was held at Milton Keynes. One of my lovely fellow Daisy collectors, Jo, was my private taxi driver on friday and sunday.
Time to meet a lot of old friends and also getting to know a few I didn't know yet.
I arrived early in the afternoon on friday, and after a lot of sightseeing through Milton Keynes we found the hotel and met up with some fellow Pippa collectors.
Julieanne, Suey, Janet and I went for a stroll and photoshoot at Campbell Park.
My Marie was in hiding most of the time, she was wearing her jungle outfit.
 

After our walk, we met up with a couple of others at 'the Slug and Lettuce' where I first had some hot chocolate (yes, it was quite cold outside, so really could use it), and after that we had a yummmie dinner.

Jo's jump

Saturday started with an early morning swim with Janet and Suey. 
Breakfast and after that a brief meet-up with Elaine and Lorraine in their room, as Elaine and I had a couple of trades to finish.
Finally it was time to go to the Convention Room!

My name badge

Goodie Bags stood all at the back of the room, ready for the end of the day. And amazing as it sounds, this year there were even 3 big tables loaded with lovely goodies for the prize raffle draw!

the doll I sent to Tracy, to pretty her up for the prize-table

Some of my lovely fellow collectors also had tables at the other end of the room, where they had there for sale goodies.
I tried to be good, but the first corner that was tempting me was Lisa and Dianna's, where I bought these lovely pj's and a pair of sunglasses!
Right next to it, was Tracy's box with super duper items! So very tempting, I really couldn't resist the beautiful, handpainted pink silk fairy dress. I thought that would be all the shopping that day for me, until I had a look around at Nicky's dolls, and found this beautiful Marie, who had had a facial and hairdo by Tracy. She was wearing the cute little brown dress, but I could just see her wearing that pink fairy dress, so I just had to have her.

My shopping..........(Meccano Britt is only modelling, she's one of my bargain dollies)

When Julieanne had officially opened the convention, it was time for us to introduce ourselves with our best bargain Pippa.

fashion frenzy

After that, Karen explained the new Fashion Frenzy to us.

When the time for Fashion Frenzy was over, it was already time for the lunchbreak, the chicken wings were to die for.

And then there was the Prize table draw, I managed to grab this beautiful girl off the prize table in the first round. 

A quick 2nd and 3rd round followed, before Janet introduced us to code breaking.
 

code breaking

 Just when we had finished the code breaking, it was already time for the official and this year very special presentation of the Convention Doll.

Of course there were also the Fashion and OOAK doll competitions, and the themed display was 'Something Red'. So we had some time to cast our votes, and dive into the box of fabric exchange stuff.

 







 
 

But the prize tables were still loaded with goodies, so we had quite a few more rounds of prize table draws.

Some of my prize table wins

more of my prizetable wins

When all the votes were in and counted, it was time for the Awards.
Corinne won the Fashion Frenzy, Shirley the TLC outfit make over and the reroot with a twist competition and Karen the Super Hero competition. Suey was the winner when it came down to Victoria's Secrets.
Last, but certainly not least, we got our goodie bags! It's always amazing how much loveliness fits into one bag..........

My pale haired princess insisted on getting the gala outfit and the tiara,

 

pink haired Marie convinced me to go looking for the hat and scarf set, her poodle, a pair of shoes and her hatbox. She's so over the moon that she can finally be that very special pink lady she wanted to be for years

The day was not completely over, as we had dinner somewhere around 8 pm, and naturally I had to join in with the after dinner swap. Look at that lovely  dress set I got from Shirley:

Of course my pale haired princess wanted to show this outfit. (another of my bargain dollies)

Janet gave me this lovely crochet dress for Daisy: