Today sweet Bella Roche arrived to live here in the village.
This is Bella Play, she’s carrying a little pocket of wooden animals to play with.
Her little pocket is attached to her waistcoat.
She has sweet little leaves around the front of her skirt.
Bella’s little wooden cat and rabbit, she should also have a tiny frog but alas like all children she’s lost one.
Cat sitting on rabbit
Back view.
A lovely addition to my Roche doll family
Suzannah Roche decided it was finally time to get outside and get some fresh air!
It’s not quite warm enough to do away with the long sleeves but it will soon be June and then hopefully the sunny won’t be hiding behind any clouds , like today!
At least it’s dry and her drink is chilled.
Today we celebrate the coronation of His Majesty King Charles the third. The whole event was magnificent from start to finish, a thing of beauty to watch.
The rousing cheer of the King’s troops on the back lawn of Buckingham Palace brought tears to my eyes, little five year old Prince Louis belting out god save the king as his grandfather passed by wearing his robes and crown, wonderful, Princess Charlotte looking sweet dressed like her mother and Prince George holding his grandfathers robe, looking grown up and smart in his uniform.
We, the country, should be proud of all the people who took part and made the day the beautiful delight it was.
Lillian Roche shopping for Easter.
” Please Sir can I have some more? ” the famous words from Oliver Twist! or in this case Theo.
Unlike poor Oliver, Theo gets given a second Hot cross bun. ” Thank you!”
He is soon sitting at the table tucking in to his hot cross bun, with a chance of maybe a third one!
Lillian is keeping watch to make sure he doesn’t eat any more and that Mary gets at least one!
And rattling round the house! During the weekend one of my spring plans settled into my mind and on Sunday I started putting it inot action.
It involved moving furniture, which anyone in the family will tell you is not unusual, the husband always dismisses the first mention of the plan, but when it’s time to get it done is with the programme.
So first we had to move the Lloyd Loom wicker sofa back outside now that the worse of the winter weather was over, that then allowed us to move the indoor sofa from one wall to another. This had the knock on effect of having to remove the mirror that was above the indoor sofa and some pictures from both walls. The mirror was placed above the wall where the indoor sofa is now located and one of the pcitures in that area was put back.
This meant that the biggest of the glass display cabinets that was in my doll studio could be brought back into the house and put against the wall where the sofa used to be.
When the cabinet was in the studio, it had the big doll dresser on the top shelf and several other furniture items stored around and in front of it. I’m only 5ft 2, so this meant it was really too high for me. The middle shelf housed dolls and the bottom the bigger dolls. The three glass shelves that come with the cabinet were not used. However I found that the dresser would fit perfectly beyween the two fixed wooden shelves.
This meant I could put one glass shelf in and still have enough height to stand the Sasha and Gregor dolls I own above, leaving a small area for small dolls and small bears etc. I would still have the bottom area for the bigger taller dolls to stand.
It also means that I can use this area to take photos of the dolls, shown here with one of my Roche dolls, Mary sitting with a cup.
Or as shown here four of my AGFAT dolls dressed as the Bennett sister’s.
By bring this cabinet in, it meant that a small Victorian bookcase, with glass doors, that I had been keeping all the Sasha and Gregor dolls in could go inot the studio, therefore finally no longer being stood in front of one of the long windows by the french doors in the kitchen area. I had intended to put the AGFAT dolls in that cabinet but once I stood them with the dresser and left them a while I decided I wanted them to also be kept in this cabinet.
At this moment they are all standing in this area but I will move some onto the other shelves, because I still have a couple of Roche dolls that need to go on this shelf.
One of the Sasha’s needs restringing, so she’s sitting at present and there are a few that are not in place as I will be using them in a storyline soon.
the small shelf needs to be moved around , so the little Ten Ping doll is not where any sun could get to her, plus the roche boy Theo will go on shelf below along with Bruno the Pongratz boy either top shelf or bottom, opening up space for the small bears etc.
This bottom shelf is housing the Zwergnase, Sylvia Natterer, Gotz Happy Kidz and a Kathe Kruse or two, it will be a squeeze to get more dolls in, so whether some will find themselves on the adoption list, only time ans space will tell! Or some could go into the studio cupboard while plans are made.
So here is the cabinet as it stands tonight. I am really loving being able to see all the dolls whenever I pass by which is often as it’s near the fench doors and on the way to the kitchen. I still have the small bookcase to move into place between this cabinet and my desk.
I’ll share that tomorrow once it’s done.
So along with finally getting my Georgian dolls house finished, Paul’s been making a prototype dolls house for the Roche dolls based on one that could be bought along with certain dolls, when they were issued. Although there were only say five houses but ten dolls etc.
This doll is called Bella Play and at the time she was available you could also get the dolls house shown with her.
I am in the process of buying a Bella Play and decided that it would be nice to have a similar dolls house for when she arrives.
So I had a work with my local craftsman ( the husband ) and suggested that we could make one! Yes, we. It’s just like at Windsor castle in our house, you know the royal we 😉
To save some time and effort I bought the door and windows in size 1:24 unfortunately I could only get plastic windows but I did managed to get a nice wooden door.
Here is Mary Roche , 18 inch taller standing against it.
Naturally despite having a few sample tins of paint, I still had to buy another one to get the colour of brickwork. Luckily I do love F&B paints and their little sample tins are great for getting the colours needed although they have risen quite a bit in price now.
So here is Mary standing beside the finished house. We think it’s got the look of a fisherman’s cottage that you’d find down on the coast.
Mary checks out the inside , only to find a mouse has already made themselves at home!
The items shown are from the Meileg range, apart from the cake and the carpet.
So now we have to make the next few, now we have the sizing right. Plus I still have enough brick coloured paint to paint another fifty! But then again I quite fancy a different colour on the next one! It’s not like I don’t have enough paints to chose from.
I seem to be swapping dolls at present, particularly the Roche ones.
A while back I part swapped my Roche Kitty
for a Roche Esme.
This is Esme but redressed.I had an Esme earlier but sold her on to pay for a different doll.
So I part swapped on Kitty for my friend’s Esme. Then a another Roche turned up in January
A Lillian Roche in Lavender. Lillian is one of the Roche dolls I wanted for my collection but alas I was not in a position to buy but my friend who was also wanting a Lillian but preferred the later ones with the wavy hair decided that this Lillian would be good.
So no sooner had this Lillian arrived from across the pond, than a couple of weeks later up pops the Lillian she really wanted and for sale in the UK.
This Lillian with blonde hair and blue grey eyes, in a lovely peach velvet skirt and blouse with green waistcoat. So she snapped her up.
But now she had two Lillian’s so I mentioned, when she first said she’d seen the blonde, that I’d be interested in having The red haired Lavender Lillian if she didn’t want to keep the two.
So as luck would have it, she decided she did not need both and offered to part swap exchange her for the Esme we’d swapped before!
Sweet Esme then set off back to her first mum and Lavender Lillian arrived here.
So Lillian is now here with me, which is wonderful. She came along with her Lavender outfit and the peach one, because my friend had sourced one and purchased it, because these dolls come along so rarely, she didn’t think she’d get the peach Lillian anytime soon. Also the lovely green and floral outfit she’s wearing made by my friend. Braver than me, she’d also removed her wig and given it a clean, so I have Lillian, whose also had a mini spa before she’s arrived
Suzannah , who came out at the same time as Lillian in Lavender, is happy to have a companion who is the same size and a similar age.
The photos of Lillian in Peach were taken by my friend.
Having just looked back at this post I see that I’ve gone from 11 inch Kitty, to 17 inch Esme and finally 21 inch Lillian! If they’d all had the same hair and eye colour it would almost be like one doll had grown up!
I’m looking forward to using Lillian with her Roche sisters and brother over the coming year.
WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY HEALTHY 2023
WISHING YOU ALL A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR
Dolly Dreaming 