The last thing I expected to see was this wonderful brunette Gregor available on ebay. He was so wonderfully dressed and available with a buy it now—–so—–well——-I bought him now or should I say immediately! I had just purchased Lewis a few days earlier so, call me crazy, but I did not hesitate a second to purchase another fine brunette lad. As soon as I removed him from the box, my heart connected with his sweet face and I thought, “He is just the greatest boy” and so I named him Max. Please meet Max 🙂

A closer look at Max. His outfit fits perfectly.

Max came wearing these well made leather boots by Jean Jensen. He is strung well too and poses nicely. His previous owner took excellent care of him 🙂

This photo was taken by the ebay seller. Max is very playful and athletic too 🙂

I was very interested in knowing who made this nice boy’s outfit and fortunately, there is a maker’s tag, “Helena Doll Fashions”. I am not familiar with Helena and I hope to find more of her creations.

Max’s vest is made of the same material as his socks. He is holding his hat so we can see his nice mop of non-falling hair. I checked Max’s stringing and it dates him to a 1972-1973 manufacture.

A couple of close-up photos.

Max’s eyes have some very nice hand detailing. I think he is very handsome.

Max again looking smart and he fits in perfectly here with the boys and girls at Sasha Shangri-La. Max and I hope you have a wonderful week 🙂

Well most of the boys here at Sasha Shangri-La posed for a photo with their pups. We had a good time getting together and moving around a bit though still indoors. Surely Spring will show herself soon!

These three boys are all wearing waist coats made by Ted Menten. I love how handsome they look.

This brunette boy is named Bob and he has his original striped stringing in his arms and in his legs which indicates he is a 1969 boy. His hair is fragile and breaks off. As a result, his hair style gives him a bit of a rough and tumble look. I think his eyes are just wonderful.  They look very soulful to me.

Here is a full length shot of the handsome boy.

The blonde boy is a PJ boy I bought from Kelly. He is very petite and is from 1970. His name is Joey and he is a very sweet and kind boy. He has a lot of scrapes and dings on his body from a previous life. He is very happy here now among his brothers.  They all look out for one another.

Next is my beloved Quinn, a 1968 shorts boy. I was so lucky to find Quinn on Shelly’s site. He was dressed in a white t shirt and jog pants when he was adopted. I have since located the original shorts boy shirt, shorts, belt and age appropriate underwear for Quinn. I found gray non-original socks but have yet to find his dark leather laced shoes with heels.

This photo shows the shoeless Quinn. I will keep up the search for Quinn’s shoes and if anyone has a spare pair, please let me know 🙂

A full length photo of Quinn wearing Ted’s waist coat. His jeans are made by Pinestreet Studio.

This handsome boy is Hans. I bought him from Jackie Kraemer at the Sasha Festival last year. Hans is another of those “happy mistakes” with his brunette hair and nice blue eyes. I just think he is so pretty but he does not like to be called pretty ;). He is a denim boy from 1974 and was a factory experiment that was not continued. He came in his original outfit which is stored away for him.

Hans wearing a nice striped t-shirt by Mary Anne Getchell, shorts by Heidi Wheeler, and boots by Lisa in the UK.

A line up of the boys that want to go outside and play.

A final line up of more boys wishing that you have a fantastic week!!! 🙂

Sharon of the Sharon in Spain blog was awarded the versatile blogger award by Nymphaea of The Doll Barn blog. The rules are: choose 15 bloggers to pass this award on to, and tell the award giving blogger 7 things about yourself. Since I was one of the fifteen chosen, here are my “7 things”.

1) My Mom loved dolls and had quite a collection that is now mine after she passed. Her favorite doll was Shirley Temple and I have very fond memories of watching Shirley Temple movies with my Mom from childhood through adulthood 🙂

2) My first doll was a Raggedy Ann doll. I love cloth dolls to this day though Sasha dolls are my favorite 🙂

3) I had a wonderful childhood especially since my beloved Granny lived with us after my Grandpa passed away. I was only 7 when he passed but I remember him well. My Granny was my best friend until she passed in 1988. I miss her so much!

4) My earliest very clear memory was at 18 months old. It is a happy memory 🙂

5) I worked as a police officer my last 2 years of undergraduate study. I worked mostly straight midnight shifts and went to classes in the day.

6) I attended Harvard University in Cambridge for my elective graduate study in environmental studies in freshwater and marine biology.

7) I am so blessed to have married a wonderful person 29 years ago this September and he is my best friend. We have 2 sons and we also are blessed to have raised his son and daughter. There were times when raising 4 children and working full time were most challenging for us both. Looking back now I would not change a thing about those special years together. We have one beautiful granddaughter that I wish lived closer to us 🙂

Well, there are 7 things about me and written “off the cuff” so to speak so they are in no particular order other than chronological. I have no blogs to pass on to at this time since my choices are already chosen by Sharon and Dee.  I will give more thought to including additional blogs later.  This was fun! We are still experiencing snow squalls here in West Virginia both yesterday and today 🙂

Little Kim is enchanted by the snow storm. Hugs from Kim to you! Have a great day!! xxxx

This has been a most unusual week with heavy snow storms and freezing temperatures early in the week and today, Friday, when I drove home from work it was 63 degrees!

I love coming home to enjoy the weekend. I took a few photos of Chloe wearing a pretty dress and sweater and both are from Shelly’s site. Her wonderful leather shoes are by Monica.

Chloe is a 1966 brunette early NP with large, dark blue eyes. I was so fortunate to adopt Chloe from a Sasha Mart member some years ago.

Chloe agreed to show the matching pants of this well made dress. The dress has a tag that says “Handmade” and a drawing of a watering can. If anyone knows who made the dress, please let me know. I love the colors and fabric too. Chloe and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend 🙂

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 🙂