Daisy in Denmark Convention 2015

I have been longing to do blog updates over the past few months, but all my projects were meant to stay a secret, at least until last saturday.

Saturday the 2nd of May it was the big day again; time for the 4th annual Daisy Convention. This time the location was Copenhagen, Denmark.

So from January and onwards I have been busy sorting a convention location, organising the programme, goodiebags, and of course also getting the sign ups organised and the convention dolls. To add to the fun there were some competitions, and I really wanted to have a go at them too. Also I had promissed to be this years quizmaster, so a quiz and prizes for the quiz and competitions needed to be organised as well.

Last Friday I arrived in Copenhagen, and a friend of mine (who happens to be a fellow Daisy collector as well) who lives there, was so kind to be my private driver and pick me up at the airport.

We went to the hotelroom, and started dressing and boxing the convention dolls, and sorting the goodie bags as well.

This year non-attendees were allowed to send in their entries for the competition too, which meant they should also have a chance to vote, so all entries needed to be photographed....

When all that was taken care of, it was time for supper.

picture courtesy of Lene

Saturday morning arrived, and we were busy getting everything ready for the convention. Ralph and I had been in touch with a lovely lady who has lots of Daisy things for sale, and after a while she arrived too. Big frenzy in the room, as everyone was looking at all the lovely things she had with her, and the programme started later, but I think everyone bought some things, and enjoyed going through all the for sale items.
As I was trying to upload the contest entries on a superslow netbook on a superslow network, we had to work around the programme in a somewhat different order.
I think there was a round of the prize table (which was really loaded with lots of Daisy loveliness!)

photo courtesy of Laila

Jo showed how to restring a Dashing Daisy:

pictures courtesy of Ralph

And Helene demonstrated a reroot.
Then it was already time for lunch. The lunch was really excellent, and I managed to get the last contest entries uploaded and set up a voting poll.
After the lunchbreak we went back to the programme.
We had a lovely slideshow, made by Ralph.
By then I realised we had 'skipped' the part of the programme where we would introduce  ourselves with our favourite Daisy, and/or accessory, so we hopped back to that:

Jillian showed us her lovely Daisy nails, picture courtesy of Helene

Jillians chosen one, the one that got to visit Europe, all the way from Australia, picture courtesy of Laila

We also did the OOAK outfit swap in which I got this lovely floral frock from Lene:

And here's the outfit I made for the OOAK outfit swap :

Another fun part of the programme, which was planned, was how to fix a broken neck:

pictures courtesy of Ralph

Next on our programme was the Daisy Quiz, always feared when Ralph was the quizmaster, and I'm afraid the questions didn't really get that much easier with me being quizmaster this year.
Winner this year was Ralph, his prize a 96 pcs jigsaw, and one bag with extra prizes which I had for everyone, a postcard, keyring and Daisy-sized hat (choice between pink and black).

Of course there were also the competitions, and we needed the votes for those too, really lovely entries.

A H:C Andersen fairytale, L-R: The Emperors New clothes, The Snow Queen, The Silver Shilling, The Snow Queen, the Phoenix Bird, The Marsh King's Daughter, the Daisy

Jack the Dullard

The Viking Competition

The jewellery competition

The winning entries were:
For the HC Andersen Competition:
First prizes, a draw between:

The Marsh King's Daughter, by Jillian

The Phoenix Bird, by me

The second prize, a draw between:

The Snow Queen, by Helene

The Silver Shilling, by Donna-Maree

The third prize :

The Daisy, by Ralph

For the Viking Competition:
First prize:

Viking by me

Second prize:

Viking by Ingie

 Third prize, a draw between:

Viking by Laila

Viking by Ralph

Jewellery Competition:

First prize:

by me

Second prize:

by Laila

Third prize:

by Ralph

We had another look at all our single shoes and quite a few of us managed to complete pairs, I think.

As Michelle had to leave the convention early, we had to speed up the programme a little bit, and while I got the covention dolls from my room, everyone got their goodie bag. All those bags were lovingly handmade and donated by Vicky.

picture courtesy of Ralph

Time for another big moment, the presentation of the official Convention Doll 2015:

picture courtesy of Ralph

Ralph and Jillian, admiring their convention dolls

Of course all day we had a lot of other lovely Daisy displays:
Daisy Brides:

pictures courtesy of Laila and Helene

 Daisy Sleepwear:

pictures courtesy of Laila, Helene, Lene and Ralph

picture courtesy of Helene

Laila's special display:

pictures courtesy of Helene

Lene's special display:

picture courtesy of Laila

Helene's special displays:

picture courtesy of Ralph

picture courtesy of Lene

picture courtesy of Ralph and Laila

Also a small group with some of my special dolls and outfits, and Ralph's clone doll:

picture courtesy of Laila

Optimum dress, picture courtesy of Helene

Ralph's clone doll, picture courtesy of Helene

All in all a wonderful day and lots of happy memories.
The only thing that went wrong was, when I was trying to upload my pictures of convention day on sunday morning, my photocard must have gotten hacked through the hotel network, so I lost all my own pictures. Fortunately I had already saved the competition entries on my computer, and I had a couple of pictures on my phone. And the lovely Laila, Lene, Helene and Ralph all gave me permission to use their pictures for my blog. Thanks so much everyone, you're all awesome!

Daisy in York Convention 2014

Saturday the 14th of June was a special day. The day of the 3rd Mary Quant Daisy doll Convention!

We had started planning early, but al kind of little problems came on our way, so finally to get everything ready in time was still challenging.
I travelled to York on friday, together with Vicky, who also lives in the Netherlands. At Manchester airport we waited for our friend Helene who was flying in from Denmark. With the 3 of us we took the train to York.

Ingie working on a doll

The train was a bit late, so we were just in time to catch up with our other friends for dinner. They were  already at the pub across the road, the Fox and Roman.
After dinner we went back to the hotel, where we checked out the room for the convention, and then went to the room that Helene & I shared, to get the convo doll styled, dressed up and boxed.
Vicky, Elaine and Ingie joined us to help get them all ready.

Helene, boxing the dolls

me, putting a doll on a backcard

Vicky took these pictures of us

Saturdaymorning, just after breakfast, we went to set up the convention room. Slowly but surely everyone started to drop in.
We had a display of other 9 inch dolls;

Jo brought her home, and we all brought our favourite accesories.:

Daisy's Home

patio furniture, variants

Helene's supermarket!

Show & tell, our start of the programme started already quite chatty, lots of fun and laughing, especially when I opened the convention saying I was happy to see some new faces and some old faces....LOL, blame it on me being Dutch. Of course I meant some familiar faces.....

After introducing ourselves, our favorite Daisy's and/or accessories it was time for some demo's.

Janet had a lovely informative talk about how she started crocheting dolls fashion, the right size needles and yarn for it, and she showed us some lovely vintage crochet patterns.

Elaine continued, with a very practical tutorial on how to sew trousers for Daisy, and she included a sew your own Daisy trousers kit for each attendee.

Daisy in crochet top by Janet and trousers by Elaine

Soon enough it was time for lunch.

Before we went back to our programme, I was happy to announce that next years Daisy Convention is to be held in Denmark, the first weekend of May!

Back to the programme, and first point after lunch was the OOAK outfit swap. I got a lovely outfit from Elaine, and my OOAK outfit went to Ralph.

Dress I got from Elaine with the OOAK outfit swap!

And then it was time for the most feared moment of the programme, Ralph's Daisy Quiz.

He had made up his own brilliant prize table for the Daisy Quiz, with a very cleverly made reproduction of the Beanbag furniture set, even with a box, as a first prize. Of course we all wanted that very special first prize, but when we had to correct the answers, I found out after 25 of 50 answers, Jonny had more correct answers than me, so I didn't have my hopes too high.
However, after correcting the last 25, somehow I had managed to beat him. Ralph and Jo double checked all the answers, so I was absolutely delighted to hear I came first place! What an absolute gorgeous price!

We had a round of the prize table and then of course, there were also the creative competitions, where voting needed to be done.

Day at the races outfit competition, Ralph won with the outfit in the middle

Daisy & Chocolate, I won with the outfit on Amy

As Michelle had to leave early, we decided to push the awards for the creative competitions forward in the programme, so she wouldn't be missing it.
First prize for 'Day at the Races' was won by Ralph, second prize by Ingie and third prize by Jonny.
First prize for 'Daisy & Chocolate' was won by me, second prize by Elaine and third prize by Janet.
But I would like to remark here, as I did at the convo, that all entries were wonderful, and that there's so much talent in this group, that in fact every entry could have been a winner.

And we had the single shoe swap, in which I managed to complete a pair of pink balletshoes and a pair of black sandals. Thank you so much, my swapsie  partners.

Finally it was time for the official presentation of the convention doll and the photoshoot. Again, it was lovely to see how the doll came together with everyone of the convention doll team working so hard to make it all possible.

 Thank you, Jonny, Ingie, Elaine, Vicky and Helene. Withouth all your hard work and creativity the convention doll wouldn't have been the way she is.A very special word of thanks to Mel from Retro Dolls UK, who donated the reroot hair for our convention dolls, and also a big thank you to my husband, for cutting, folding and assembling the boxes.

Only two points were left at the agenda; the goodie bags and the prize table.
Elaine was our goodie bag queen this year, which means she coordinated everything concerning the goodie bags. And she did a great job on it. Thank you, Elaine!

Helene took care of coordinating the prize table this year, so also a huge thank you to her!
And of course special thanks to everyone who donated either to goodie bags or prize table, especially if you weren't able to attend the convo.

the prize table

My fabric swap stash and Elaine's make your own Daisy doll trousers kit:

After Convo Dinner at the Fox and Roman:

A Exciting Tonner & Wilde Imagination day!

Yesterday was quite an exciting day at my home.
In April Wilde Imagination anounced the 6th Annual Poetry Contest. I'm a relative newbie to Wilde Imagination & Tonner, as I bought my first Ellowyne doll in May 2013, so I didn't even know they had poetry contests, until I got an email from them.
http://www.wildeimagination.com/ennui-poetry-contest
Although english isn't my mothertongue, I decided to take up the challenge, and have a go at it.
And I managed to send in my poem the last day of the contest, nothing better than a deadline when it comes to getting productive!
This was my entry: 
 

Every day I try to escape my ennui,

Pru keeps telling me life can be lots of fun for me,

Lizette is like her beautiful exotic birds,

While Rufus joins a club of nerds,

But one look from Amber is all I need,

To make me sigh and let my heart bleed.

A few weeks later Tonner Dolls organised a Story Contest.
http://www.tonnerdoll.com/half-pint-story-contest
Each and every entry will receive the Tonner 20th Anniversary DVD, so again I decided it would be worth a try. This time I got inspired a couple of days before the deadline and wrote a story which was based on some of my mums childhood adventures.
I sent my entry the 2nd of  May, and much to my surprise, yesterday I already received my copy of the DVD, so this was really so fast! 

The DVD is well worth watching, very interesting and inspiring!

I decided to go to bed early, as I fell on my tail bone a couple of weeks ago. So lying in bed I spent some time on facebook, and when I felt it was time to really go to sleep, my husband came upstairs, and told me there was an email that I had won a 3rd prize in the poetry contest!!!!!!
Well, of course I had to go downstairs and check my email:

Hi sweet lady!

Congrats!!  You are one of our 3rd Place WINNERS in the Ellowyne Poetry Contest...

So many amazing entries, trust me, picking the winning poems wasn't easy...with placing in the TOP 3 you will receive the lovely little Ennui Poetry Book, I'll be sending it to your address you provided below...I'll also be sure to send an email receipt to you too so you know it's been ordered, going to try to get these in and done this week! (As we are off to convention next week)

Thanks again, such fun to read and savor and we had many people "weigh in" on them, ultimately Robert made those final decisions, so sweet!

THANKS so much!

Enjoy!

Michelle

As you may be able to imagine I had a hard time going to sleep after that! It was so much excitement, a real adrenalin rush pumping through my body!

 A huge thank you to Tonner & Wilde Imagination for organising these fun contests!

 

Christmas Swaps

As I wrote earlier, I was up to my ears in Christmas swaps, this season.
I took part in an Ellowyne outfit swap.
I got the beautiful Florid & Fussy outfit from my swap partner, and I made her the red Santa outfit, a little golden dress & for a bit of fun I added the wine bottle dress.

Then there was the Dawn/Pippa Secret Santa parcel, where I send the following parcel to Yvonne:

There was also a 'Cabaret' toxic-froggy outfit included, but I forgot to take a piccie of it...

In return I got this amazing parcel from Phyllis:

I also took part in the Pippa custom doll swap & the Pippa custom outfit swap.
From Erin I got the beautiful Mary S. custom redhead doll, and from Janet that super cute red & white crochet Pippa outfit. Claire got the white haired Marie, which I rerooted , dressed in a gown that I bought from Chris. I also bought an outfit from Elaine, which she sent directly to Erin, so I don't have a piccie of it.

Last, but not least was the Daisy custom outfit swap.
I decided to try to downsize the Ellowyne Santa dress pattern to make to fit Daisy, and I received the wonderful iceblue outfit and accesories from Helene.

All in all I had a lovely time creating things for these swaps, but I think for this year, I should better start early, to have everything ready when the sign up for the swaps opens....