Poorly Patience

Garden Patience and I had a lot of adventures. I intended to blog all about it, but somehow didn't get to it.
When I went on summerholidays in Denmark, Patience came with me, and I intend to write more about that when time permits.
With Halloween there was the first Tonnercon in the UK, and of course Garden Patience came with me too. We got to meet Robert Tonner and she got signed by him.
And then the 4th of December came, not a special date, but a silicon wigcap for Patience had arrived, and I decided to start using it for her.
I never used a silicon wigcap on a doll before, and whilst I was putting it on, I heard a snap, and all of the sudden my poor girl got decapitated.......

I was devastated, and immediately emailed Michelle at Wilde Imagination. She forwarded my email to Dr. Noreen from the Tonner doll hospital, and first she thought I should probably send the head and the uppertorso to her, to get her restored back to health.
I also posted about my poorly girl on one of the facebook groups, and the lovely Peggy Foggio from Westportdolls, offered to give me some instructions on how to get out the neckbutton, and to phone Dr. Noreen for me, as to sort  a different way of repairing her, to save on shipping. (Yes, I live in the Netherlands, so sending something outside Europe will cost over 18 euro, which is uninsured, so in case it would get lost with all the Christmas post, I was considdering sending the damaged torso signed for, which would cost 25,60 euro).
With help of all these lovely ladies, I got out the neckbutton, and dr Noreen posted the uppertorso to me.

Poor Ginger spend Christmas in bed, and couldn't wear the new Christmas outfit I had been sewing for her.

Late in the afternoon today, the post came, and there was the new torso!
Dollyplay and repairtime!
I'll just add the pictures here, as a picture says more than 1000 words....

for anyone who's curious what Patience looks like on the inside

underarms are swapped and uppertorso back on the rest of her body

the magical tool for dolly surgery

Done!

Of course I have to remind everyone doing this on your own is completely at your own risk!

Here she is, restored back to former glory, and wearing her new outfit:

One happy dolly, and I am simply over the moon!

Pippa's Tea's & Tiara's convention doll, prize table wins, goodie bag and more.....

Where to start with showing all the loveliness that came home with me from this years Pippa convention?
What I forgot to mention in my earlier post, was the lovely name tag, which Mandy B had created for each attendee:

And the little teapots are a pair of earrings, so I foresee lots of future use for it. The little Tiara hairclip came in very handy too, as I forgot to bring a Tiara with me, and of course I needed to ad some bling when we were going to have the official photo taken.

My first prize table win was a beautiful doll, by Peggy:

When the second round came, I couldn't believe me luck, (I was quite late in the second round). Ever since I saw the pictures of the Dawn in Las Vegas convention, I had a vague feeling of regret that I hadn't been able to attend, as I would have loved to have an Elvis doll. But here was my chance, no one seemed to even look at him, so just had to grab him:

There's a little button on the side which you can press, to hear the first few lines of 'Viva las Vegas'!
So a big thank you to all the lovely Dawnettes for donating this one to this years prize table. xxx

After a little break, another round came, and here's what I found beneath a pile of stuff:

I'm already inspired for another reroot, but will have to finish a couple of other ones first...

The next round came, and I found this overly cute teaset, complete with a little book, donated by Aida:

More rounds of prizetable raffles followed, quite overwhelming:

sinamay hats and dollstands donated by Jo, bags donated by Louise.

and still more goodies:

Peg's Poodle, bows and boa in one pretty bag from Corinne, and the Miss Millie outfits donated by Louise.

Between all those prize table raffles we received our convention doll, and just see for yourself how fabulous she is:

Fantabulous Convo Doll!

We could choose to send in a Penny red or reroot Pippa in red,since I only have 1 Penny red, I decided to reroot a Pippa, make up and styling by Tracy F

yummie cakes by the talented Sandie, and gloves (and petticoat) by Helen, handbags by me

shoesies all decorated by Mandy B

 

I decided to buy a box from Karen, to make sure my dolly would survive the journey home

Suey made a beautiful convention mini:

Of course Penny had to model it:

the little comb charm was in the goodie bag as part of a gift from Mandy B

and yes, I have been a bit naughty and bought a pair of pretty heels for Pippa

And then there was the goodie bag, beautiful and reusable:

made by Chris

So many lovely things; pink hat donated by Alex, floral bag donated by Leandra, floral outfit modelled by Rosemarie donated by Chris, necklace donated by Claire, blue hat donated by Peggy, blue and yellow floral outfit and yellow handbag donated by Lisa, outfit modelled by Marie donated by Louise.

Pippa's baking day apron, mittens and cookie tray donated by Karen S, tiara donated by Melanie and Aida, box with cupcakes donated by Sandie, Selfridge bag and cup donated by Corinne, fur outfit & black bag donated by Lesley, pink handbag donated by me, black dollstand donated by Sue & Ann.

T-shirt donated by Peg, basket and plastic box donated by Mandy B, carded outfit donated by Lisa P, skateboard donated by Jo

Shoebox with Pippa logo donated by Karen J, fridge magnet photoframe donated by Janet, fridge magnet donated by Julieanne, little bowset donated by Barb

Pippa's Afternoon Tea Recipe book with lots of recipes and Pippa illustrations donated by Vickie, coaster donated by Dianna, Mugs donated by Jude, Caroline, Suey, Mandy W and me.

Not in the goodie bags, but part of my loot: J's tips for taking Pippa pics and lots of patterns by Dianna, and I think also some by Lisa.

The Pippa Convention 2015: Tea's and Tiara's

So, yesterday, the 23rd of May, was this years Pippa convention.
As I mentioned in my earlier blogpost, I arrived at Heathrow on friday afternoon, around 4.15.
I had been trying to figure out the best way to get to Theobalds Park from there, and with a little help from my friends, I had decided to take the Piccadily line up to Finsbury Park, changed over there to the Victorialine for one stop to Seven Sisters, and I had the train from there to Theobalds Grove. I just missed the connection up there, so had to wait for almost half an hour, but that wasn't really a big deal, compared to the time I always have to spend waiting at the airport.
At Theobalds Grove I was trying to stop a cab, but it took quite a while before I got one. Meanwhile Sue and her mum showed up, so we ended up sharing the taxi. Just a short drive from the station to the hotel, so we arrived there around 7.30 pm.
I had a nice room at the second floor, so just dropped off my stuff there, managed to log in to the hotel wifi, and went back down, as I was quite hungry by that time.

I ordered some food, and spend the evening catching up with my Pippa friends, lots of laughing, and after a while also a bit of crying when we were talking about something painful in my personal life. I love my friends for being those lovely understanding ladies who are just there, either for a laugh or a cry or both. xxx

At last it was really time to go to bed.
As usual, I woke up early on convention day, and as I still had lots of time, I decided to have a nice relaxing bath. I had a quite enjoyable breakfast and finally went back to my room, checked all my stuff to take with me to the convo, and also had to check out, as I had only booked for 1 night.
While we were waiting in the lounge until it was time we were allowed into the convention room, I had a nice chat  with some more of my Pippa friends, and I started knotting plugs for a reroot.
Finally we were alllowed in, lots of excitement!

The convention dolls, already in a corner of the room

I had been making up a couple of oufits for sale, earlier this year, so I even got some space at the sales table this year.

The prize table was just loaded with goodies

And there was a special dolls prize table this year as well

Of course there were the themed displays

Redheads

And so to bed

And the competitions:

Garden Party

Mad Hatters Tea Party

 
2 of my lovely friends:

table with competition prizes:

When everyone was settled, Karen started the programme:

It was a very special day, especially for Lil' Pip, as it was her birthday, and Louise made her a very yummie b'day cake:

After the singing, we started on a mini make competition, we were all going to decorate a sinamay hat, lots of ribbons , small buttons, roses, and a box loaded with fabrics were all there, so all that was needed was some inspiration.

Here's the picture of my finished result:

And all the other ones:

Of course we had a little lunch break too:

After lunch some more excitement when we got to choose our prize table doll, I managed to get me a beautiful doll by Peggy:

Lots of fun with Suey's Pippa Bingo (yummie jellybeans to use for our bingo cards!), and after that another special moment, the official presentation of the convention doll:

Once again an amazing doll!

Still more fun to be had, Julieanne had a very interesting talk about doll photography,  And Dianna, showed us how to sew for Pippa and gave us lots of patterns as well:

So many more rounds of prize table draws, and the goodie bags, and also the awards for the winners of the competition, everything was really fantastic!
Well done for the team on organizing such a great event! I think we all had a blast!
All too soon I had to leave, as I had to catch my train, special thanks to Mandy B, for driving me up to the airport, and to Mandy W, for massaging me when my shoulder was playing up again.....
I had an extra security check at the airport (was it all the dollies in my suitcase and my handbag?), but I was one of the first passengers for boarding, so all went excellent. When the plane was almost ready to take off, they found out an extra suitcase had been boarded, so they had to unload and find out which one didn't belong on our flight. Of course that meant a bit of delay, so I finally arrived at Schiphol airport around 11.30 instead of 11 pm. My husband was waiting there for me, and we took the train home. Thanks so much to mum and dad who stayed at our home with the kids, so my husband could pick me up.
Of course we had to chat a bit, and I had to show some of my stuff to them when I got home, so I rolled into bed around 2.30!