Birla

As most of you will know, in the USA there are Black Friday sales, the day after thanksgiving.
Many online stores will also offer huge discounts around this time.
This also happened at Tonner, a site-wide 40% off sale.
There were a few dolls I had my eyes on, but the one I really wanted the most, was Birla.
She's from the Deja Vu-line, and although most of them didn't really speak to me, this one did.
One of the things I like about her is that her eyes are somewhat larger than those of most other Deja-Vu's, another thing I like is that her facepaint is really very natural.



















And maybe most of all: She's a Viking!

























I managed to sell some other dolls, and before the sale ended, I caved......
She was sent to one of my lovely USA friends, who forwarded her to me.
But, of course due to Christmas post, my poor Birla got stuck at Chicago O'Hare airport from the 15th of December until after this year had started. On the 4th of January (my birthday!), she finally arrived in my country, and yesterday she got delivered!
I must admit I'm all excited about her.
I took a few quick piccies, but didn't have much time for play.
Today I just had to take her out again, and see how she and my OOAK Viking Daisy would look like together

I'm really pleased to see how a famous designer used the same type of materials as I did for clothing. (see how the material for a part of the dress is really similar to the material Tonner used for the pantsuit for Birla?)

I foresee  a lot of fun with Birla in the future, as although she came as a Viking, I think she's very versatile and will look great in modern outfits too. I can't wait to start sewing for her. (I bought quite a few patterns for her at the big Christmas patternsale at fletcherpatterncompany!)
I hope I will be able to get her another friend, before they will sell out completely, as Tonner announced just before Christmas that all fashion dolls from their company will be discontinued.

Meet Lonnie

Yesterday, I received a very precious gift from a most lovely friend.
Lonnie is a Iplehouse KID doll.
She's a resin doll and she has changeable eyes and she can wear any wig in size 6/7.
This last bit is very fortunate, as I already have a selection of wigs in this size for my Ellowyne Wilde dolls.
Lonnie is nearly 14 inch tall, so I decided to raid the wardrobe of Patience and Maudlynne, to see if I could find anything that would fit her.
Her legs are a bit longer and chunkier than those of Patience, but she can wear Maudlynne's stockings.
Her chest is a bit wider, but I could just fit her into a Patience dress, so I know if I add a little more seam allowance this pattern will work great for her.

She also fits into a nightie of Patience.

I do have a couple of boots that are a tad on the large size for Patience, but they do work for Lonnie.
So all in all I was able to take a few pictures of Lonnie.
More hopefully to follow when I have had some sewing time

the skirt is a bit too tight, so I had to pin it.

My Daisy Convention 2016 loot; goodie bag and prizetable items and more.......

With the convention coming up, I had a bit of a job, trying to figure out everything that was needed.
I was so lucky Ralph sorted everything with the hotel and the restaurants.
Still we had been writing out 4 competitions, so that meant we would need prizes for 4 competitions.
At another doll group someone mentioned it was possible to make doll sized t-shirts with iron on transfers, and of course that inspired me.
(Remember all those lovely t-shirts the Pippa ladies get each year at the convention, made by Peg?)
I had to find a t-shirt pattern for Daisy, and see if I could make t-shirts with the convention logo too.
With my first t-shirt, I ironed a bit too long (as it was only a very small transfer, you don't have to iron as long as mentioned in the manual), but it was well enough to feel confident to make more t-shirts.
So I had a bit of fun with that, and I will make more of them, also of previous conventions, in the near future.

One of the attendees bought these as a goodie bag gift.

So we're at the goodie bags, Vicky did a wonderful job on making reusable bags for us:

I made some laminated labels to personalise the bags, and have them ready for the next conventions......

Here are pictures of all the wonderful donations that were in it:

postcard, stickers and badges by Lyndsey, Daisy colouring book & pencils by Ralph, laminated picture by Michelle from NZ, and copies of selected pages from a Mary Quant catalogue by Michelle S.

2 Daiso outfits by Jillian, 3 charms and necklace on the left by Helen and selected ribbons and trims and accesories by Cendi

hat and 2 beaded coathangers by Laila, the matching outfit is the OOAK summer outfit swap I got from her, and the shoes were in a package of shoes I got off the prize table from Helen. The pink dress is donated by Janet, and the checked bag, necklace and crochet scarf are from Veronica

blue jacket and tartan pants donated by Elaine, necklace and dilly bag donated by Ingie, t-shirt donated by Jo, skirt extra donation to the convention doll team from Donna Maree, rest of the pink/green/white outfit donated by Donna Maree, shoes part of the shoes I got off the prize table from Helen.

mug donated by Helene and me, fridgemagnet donated by Christine.

For the competition winners there were also prizes:

for the first prize winners I made up a bag with the convention logo and selected fabrics, felt, trimming and beads

For the second and third prize winners, there were either smaller bags with a package of printed felt and selected ribbons or a pencilcase with logo:

As I was lucky enough to win 2 pencilcases, I was allowed to swap one of them for a prize off the prize table:

a selection of fabric and a lovely hat, made and donated by Laila

And of course there were the prizes from the quiz and the prize raffle:

these dolls and their outfits were already in my possession, but they were making a run for the shoes of the prize table (from Helen) and two of them managed to put their hands on the necklaces I got from Veronica

postcards for each attendee, Ralph gave us a belt, and Ingie came with these lovely Sinamay hats to decorate. I also got a wallet and keyring, a package of Karina accesories from Veronica and a package of Barbie shoes and purses from Ingie. The box with the little cards were my prize from the quiz (I came second this year)

I also got some pretty fabrics from the fabric swap:

My little Rebel would like to show off her prize:

A BIG Thank You to everyone who donated. Your generosity is much appreciated!

The making of the Daisy Convention doll 2016

This year we were going to Edinburgh,Scotland, so obviously we needed to implement something Scottish in our doll. But we also wanted to get back to the roots, and give her a fashion outfit, instead of a souvenir outfit, so how to bring these 2 together.
Lots of thinking and discussing, but finally we had a dress design, based on one of the later Flair outfits for Daisy, and Ingie made all those beautiful dresses:

Ralph made up stockings for our girls:

And Helen made belts to go with the dresses:

I made fleece jackets:

Vicky made chokers:

Ingie made berets:

I made the handbags:

Helen designed the artwork for the box:

And Ingie, Helene and I rerooted most of the dolls.

My husband cutted and glued the boxes, and I personalised them.

The day before the convention Ralph, Ingie, Helene and I met up in the convention room and it all came together:

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And the result, one happy bunch of convention attendees:

Daisy in Scotland Convention 2016

Last sunday, the 10th of July, we had our 5th annual Daisy doll convention, this time in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Of course I had tons of things to do, before getting there.
Thankfully Ralph organised the hotel and restaurant reservations.
Newsletters, organising who was taking what for the themed displays, getting prizes ready for the contests and making lists of goodie bag and prize table donations was my job. Oh, and of course some work on the convention doll, but I will get to that in a seperate post.
The lovely Ingie volunteered to take donations from non-attendees with her to the convention. Just a couple of days before the convention she had an accident in which she hurt her knee seriously, but she's a real though cookie, and managed to take everything with her on the boat and train.

To make it all a bit more fun for the non-attendees, I decided to also run a photo competition and an OOAK summer outfit swap on the Daisy World group on facebook.

shared first place with 7 votes for Helen

shared first place with 7 votes for Veronica

third place with 6 votes for me

fourth place with 4 votes for Inge

fifth place with 1 vote for Elaine

We had all the pictures on display at the convention:

 The OOAK summer outfit swap on Daisy World:

So, I think the non attendees really had some good fun on the day too.

Back to the convention itself, this year I even managed to make nametags for each attendee:

Our best dressed attendee was our newcomer, Veronica:

 Ralph started the day with a very interesting video in which we could see Mary Quant and her team, also working on Daisy doll designs.

We had some lovely themed displays:

Summer and Beach display

Summer and Beach display and some more coats

Daisy's coats

Daisy in tartan

 We also had an OOAK summer outfit swap at the convention

The prize table for the raffle prizes was really loaded with goodies:

 Also some special various other items on display, and some happy chatting:

 Ingie gave a repaint demonstration:

And then I gave a workshop how to make handbags with foldback clips, here's the finished result:

After lunch Ralph showed us another video with a Daisy ad which he had managed to track down, and after that he started his quiz, which he had promissed to make easier this year, but only turned out much more difficult than ever! Jo came first place this year.

Here's his quiz prize table:

I managed to grab the little box with cards, so now I can play Daisy memory.

Donna-Maree had managed to track down another tv-ad with Daisy and had sent us the link and made a quiz about it too.
Such a treat to see 3 Daisy related video's on a large screen!
Here's the link to the tv-ad she found: http://www.ngataonga.org.nz/collections/catalogue/catalogue-item?record_id=266855

Of course we also had some creative competitions.
As Edinburgh is the hometown of the Bay City Rollers, as first competition people had decided on a Bay City Roller songtitle outfit.

an overview of the Bay City Roller songtitle outfits

Veronica's entry was hilarious, and got some fun comments, including one about gunning down a fellow competitor !

Bye, Bye Baby by Veronica

Rock 'n Roller by Ingie, shared second place

Money Honey by Ralph

Rebel, Rebel by me, first place

Money Honey by Helene, shared second place

Rock 'n Roller by Laila

We also had a competition for accesories:

an overview of the accesories competition

rose necklace by Ralph, shared first place

floral hat by Laila, shared third place

scarf by Veronica, shared third place

hat and handbag by Ingie

beaded handbag by me, shared third place

Scottish Jewellery by Helene, shared first place

And we also had a Fair Isle or Arran sweater knitting contest:

an overview of the knitting contest

Fair Isle sweater by Laila, first place

Arran sweater by Veronica and her mum, second place

Arran outfit by Helene

Fair Isle sweater by me

 So many talented and creative people at our convention! Congratulations to all the prize winners!

I would like to make a special mention of an outfit Helen created for the Bay City Roller songtitle contest, but in the end she couldn't attend the convention, due to unforeseen circumstances.
The song title that she chose was 'All Of Me Loves All Of You' & the premise was that Daisy is such a big fan of the BCR's that she has dressed from head to toe as a BCR in homage to them:

Of course there was also the official presentation of this years convention doll:

We also got a wonderful goodie bag, the bag was made by Vicky and filled by each attendee, and some non attendees as well. Our Daisy community is SO generous!
All in all it was a glorious day!