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 🙂

Today was another cold, wet day and, for some of us living here at Sasha Shangri-La, cabin fever was the main course. My boy Finn is a true outdoors boy and he loves to play, fish, hunt, swim, hike, canoe ride, skate, bike, base ball, and just about any activity that takes place outside. Finn is very frisky today and the photos will show him having fun indoors.

Finn is wearing his new boxers and socks by Sharon. He scampered all around the house today in his boxers–what fun!

Finn loves his puppy, Fetch and he takes Fetch just about every where he goes.

Here we see Finn trying to convince Mommy that we should go outside and play. He wears his warm duffle coat but nothing underneath except his boxers. Mommy held firm and told him “Not today Finn”.

Finn then finds his monkey friends and asks them to play.

The monkeys just love Finn, especially the babies!

Then Finn hides from Mommy and I look for him but see only monkeys…

Then I hear several giggles that give Finn away—where is Finn? There he is, hiding with the monkeys 🙂

Finally, Finn is dressed warmly and he is a good boy!

I had a fun day with Finn here at Sasha Shangri-La though we were just monkeying around most of the time. It is nice to have days where that is perfectly okay to do! Have a wonderful week to everyone that reads this post!

Hugs from Finn and me to you 🙂

I am looking out my window today as the snow continues to fall and cover nearly everything in white. How lovely it is and, by delaying my work day, it is providing me time to pause to remember how I came to adopt the beautiful Kendal, a 1967 blonde NP. This lovely doll was listed for sale by Nancy Miller on her website ” Let’s Play Dolls”. Nancy wrote an excellent description and provided many photos of this girl. The next two photos are Nancy’s photos and I asked her permission to post them here for this sole purpose. She kindly gave permission and you can see how lovely this Sasha is and her condition was nearly mint. When I saw the photos and decided to try to adopt her, I contacted Nancy. I made the leap and bought her and can still recall her arrival and my heart racing with excitement. She was my first blonde NP girl with eye lashes!!! As described in an ealier post, Carney was the first blonde NP girl in my collection and she was made in 1966. Carney has beautiful big eyes with no lashes. This sweet girl looks very different from Carney and I carefully removed her from her expert packaging. I could only stare at her for many days. She was perfection to me and I was a bit intimidated at first to touch her hair or clothing.

During my early “stare only” period, I was waiting for this NP to whisper her name to me and she did and it was certain to be “Kendal”. I have loved the name Kendal and heard it first from our very own, well known Sasha collector and Sasha blog writer, Kendal Hackney. I wrote Kendal to ask if she thought that was a good name for her and she did!!! So, this beautiful NP was named Kendal. After naming her, I found it much easier to handle her and began to redress her. I carefully stored her original brown corduroy outfit for later.

I dressed her in Ruth’s doll baby blue corduroy outfit first which looks so nice with her blue eyes and coloring. These photos were taken last year when the lilac was blooming.

A close up of Kendal and I think we were both a bit shy at first.

This pretty dress and pinny were made by Nikita and her shoes and socks are by Ruth’s dolls. I particularly like the length of this dress.

I was very fortunate to attend the 2012 Sasha Festival in Cincinnati, Ohio. I took Finn and Kendal with me and here they are in the hotel room, the hotel lobby, and the last photo is Kendal wearing a favorite smocked dress made by Karen Warnaka. Kendal also modeled clothing on Lorraine’s sales table. It was a beautiful white studio dress that Lorraine created. I was not able to locate that photo of Kendal.

Kendal is happy to wear this special smocked dress made by Joan Wilson. I love the tiny beads in the smocking and have loved Raggedy Ann dolls since I was a toddler. In fact, Raggedy Ann was my first doll.

The last photos of Kendal were recently taken of her new, soft corduroy dress made by Nadia. Her socks and shoes are by Ruth’s dolls. Kendal is particularly lovely in short dresses. I think that may be true because she is very petite (not quite 16 inches tall) and the shorter length is more becoming. I love her sweet expression and pretty face. Kendal is a jewel in our Sasha family at Sasha Shangri-La. I hope to show more photos of her dressed in play wear soon. I would like to introduce a few more Sashas too.

Thanks to everyone for visiting and hugs from me and Kendal to you.

Faith and Ellen are dressed in their Ruth’s dolls outfits and send Happy Valentine’s wishes to you today!

Carney and Faith wearing pretty pink outfits received in Sasha Valentine’s swaps several years ago. Jean Jensen shoes make for happy feet.

Have a great day!

Please meet the unflappable Miss Hope and share a part of her history. The first time I saw Hope was on facebook. Her owner lives in the UK and posted photos of her new Sasha find.  She said the original owner wanted a boy Sasha to play with and so…. snip, snip, snip….the long, blonde hair was removed and a new boy’s haircut emerged on this beautiful, early girl from 1966. I am certain the change must have been most dramatic. Hope was previously  named “Bobbie” during her brief facebook stay. Soon after, the owner offered to sell “Bobbie” to me and the journey across the pond delivered this delightful early Sasha to me. I named her “Hope” before her arrival and knew most definitely she would no longer be a boy or a “Bobbie” because I had “hope” for my new girl.

Hope was waiting on me when I returned from the Sasha Festival last July. I purchased a Monique blonde wig from Heidi Wheeler at the Festival. The wig tag is photographed if anyone is interested in the details of the wig. It says honey blonde but I think it is more of a platinum color.  Also, the wig fibers are baby fine and not the usual texture you find on our Sashas.

I immediately put the wig on Hope and took photos. These photos shows Hope in her new blonde wig. I was so excited about her possibilities!

Hope has her bear in this photo that kept her company while traveling to the US. I dressed her in this Ruth’s dolls outfit which is a favorite of mine.

Hope looks very different in this auburn wig with a bob cut. This wig was in my mother’s wig collection. At that time, last summer, I did not have an early girl with red hair and this wig gave me pause to question whether Hope should remain a blonde.  I also liked the length of the cut.

Dressed for play, Hope loves the water fountain and getting wet too!

Showing Hope without a wig and in a pretty pink corduroy outfit by Ruth’s dolls as she plays by the pumpkin patch in early August. It reminds me of the lovely summer days that seem far away today with the bitter cold outside. I wanted so much to make right choices for Hope to include a spa treatment and, now I began to consider a possible re-rooting.  You can see I added a pink headband to enhance her feminine charm.

In addition to the wigs, I brushed her hair and tried various clips, bows, hats, and hair bands to help me fully appreciate her short hair cut.  Here are a few photos of these attempts.

My, doesn’t Hope look sweet in her big pink bow? She is wearing a bright and cheery dungarees outfit made by Wilma Robards. I met Wilma at the Sasha Festival and she is a dear lady with a terrific sales table.

This full length photo allows us to see the super cool Birkenstocks made by Marti Murphy. I met the very nice Marti at the Festival and admired her handiwork with shoes and tea dresses.

Here, Hope is sporting a yellow hat made by Erica. Her dress was made by Millie Dingham and it has lovely smocking on the front and back of dress. I met  Millie at the Festival and  she is a very kind lady. I was able to buy this dress plus two outfits for the boys.

After spending time with Hope and playing with her hair, I eventually decided to have her re-rooted. I contacted Pat Pellerito and we shared emails and Pat agreed to help Hope. Pat sent hair samples and over time and several discussions, I decided that my Hope should remain a blonde. I boxed Hope up to go to the spa and, once again, she traveled by plane but stayed in the US this time. It was harder than I thought it would be to let go of Hope.   😦

Knowing the hearts of Sasha collectors, Pat kept me close to Hope. Hope sent regular letters to her Mom. Here is her first photo showing how relaxed she was in her spa robe.

Another photo provided by Pat of Hope during her treatment.

The final photo Pat sent was this beautiful image of Hope, nice and clean, re-strung, and a head full of long, gorgeous hair. I could see that Hope was very happy and confident with her new look. Perhaps she remembered her long hair from years ago. Pat placed a photo of Hope’s sister, Chloe, in the background to help Hope not feel homesick ;). I absolutely love Hope’s hair!!!

Hope was home with me in time for the Fall holidays and Christmas. I have taken more photos of her with her long hair and will share a few here.

Hope snuggled next to Chloe

Hope wearing a Vintage Sasha outfit and posing on Daddy’s Jeep!

Close up photo

Hope wearing dark green corduroy dress by Ruth’s dolls at Christmas.

This photo of Hope is most recent in a new corduroy teddy bear outfit by Lorraine–I love it!

This final photo is a close up of Hope who is a very happy girl and loves her Sasha family. I “hope” you enjoyed following her recent journeys.   Hope sends hugs to everyone and special greetings to wish you all a wonderful day. xx