Today the snow is fiercely falling and at times the wind blows it sideways to cover absolutely everything in white. Another day that I am unable to travel to work so I am taking a break just now to introduce a very sweet young lady, Tilly.

Tilly’s known history begins with a lovely Sasha collector, Emma Louise Antoine Flood who resides in the UK. Emma was so fortunate to win her at the Hall’s Auction House in 2013. These first photos were taken by Emma at a train station where she traveled to Shrewsbury in the UK. As she unwrapped this beautiful girl, I am certain she was filled with joy to have won a beautiful blonde NP.

Doesn’t she look lovely in her pink bubble wrap blanket! I love her blue eyes! Emma named her “Leonie” and because her original dress was very faded and had a few holes, she replaced it with another early, brown corduroy dress. I have carefully removed the replacement dress and it is safely stored for later. There is a side story about this early dress that I will tell at the end of the post.

These next photos were taken by Emma at the Trendon factory. She visited the factory with Jocelyn and Jocelyn’s beautiful redhead, an early 1966 NP girl, Gabi. I just love these bright, happy photos taken at the factory and I consider the building to be iconic in the Sasha World. I hope to visit one day and it is special to see these girls outside of their birth place.

The next two photos of Leonie show her wearing a Sashapotamus outfit gifted by Cassie to Emma. I think she has a bit of a shy look in these photos.

Later, Emma took these beautiful photos of her picking berries and wearing a wonderful white studio outfit made by Lorraine. I think these photos taken outside with such pretty foliage are just so lovely.

Emma kindly offered her Leonie to me for sale in early December. She sent photos but I already knew Leonie from Facebook and that I would love to adopt her! I was thrilled and concerned that her travel at that time of year and just knew it would be weeks and weeks for her to arrive because of the holiday packages. Boy, was I wrong! Leonie arrived in a record 4 days!!! Four days from the UK to my house in rural West Virginia, USA. Unbelievable!

These photos Emma sent to me. Tilly is wearing a near mint early corduroy dress.

It was upon her arrival to Sasha Shangri-La that Leonie immediately became “Tilly”. I could not believe the box was in my hands to quickly and she was wonderfully wrapped too. I think I was in a bit of shock at the time and so happy to have Tilly at home, safe.

I photographed Tilly in this lovely creation by Millie Dingham and shoes by Ruth’s dolls. Tilly loves the babies so there are a couple of images of her cuddling and holding the baby.

Here we see the girls lined up in the cabinet. Tilly fits in perfectly and is a most friendly and a kind girl. She is particularly close to Kendal and Ellen.

Finally, I saw a most beautiful star dress on Lorraine’s blog and I missed buying it but she was kind enough to make me one. I dressed Tilly in the star dress because she is indeed a star.

Tilly is wearing lime green shoes by Jean Jensen.

This photo captures Joy, Tilly, Ellen and Hope all wearing pretty dresses made by Lorraine. All the shoes are made by Ruth’s dolls except Tilly’s that are made by JJ.

Lastly, I want to explain the story behind Tilly’s near mint, early brown corduroy dress. As you can see in the earlier photos, Tilly’s original dress was well worn and faded. Emma had another dress on hand and dressed Tilly in it for her journey across the pond. Just yesterday, I was “talking” with Emma about writing this post and she mentioned that the dress Tilly was wearing came from a very nice lady that had previously owned her Lily and she sold her to Emma. (Lily is a stunning early redheaded 1966 NP). When Emma bought Lily, the lady gave Emma a brown corduroy dress and farm pants. Emma prefers the farm pants and so the dress was extra.

Soon after, a friend of Emma’s visited this very same lady and bought a blonde NP with hair cut very short like a boy. This doll is now my Hope!!! I wrote about Hope in an earlier post about her re-rooting experience. The interesting fact is that we think Tilly’s new dress was Hope’s original brown corduroy dress! I was so happy to know this information because it is good to keep original outfits for the Sashas when one can do so. It also helps us to “see” how they were dressed when they left the factory. So Hope now has her original dress back and I will photograph her in it very soon! Tilly will have her original dress back too thanks to Emma!

As I look at the early girls, I know now that Sylvia, Kendal, Hope, and Tilly were all brown corduroy girls. Carney was a brown corduroy farmpant girl and I do not know about Ellen, Joy, or Chloe but maybe some day, I will learn more about their history if someone happens to recognize them and will share their stories. What a delight it is to collect Sashas, learn about their journeys, and have such fun dressing them in wonderful, new creations! Thank you for visiting us at Sasha Shangri-La and Tilly and I both wish you a very wonderful week 🙂