The Chiltern Bears decided that it was time they were allowed to sit at the table for a tea party ! It’s all very well going on a picnic but once the colder weather starts who wants to be sitting on the damp cold ground !
Two even changed places and demanded the Christmas Tea Pot be used because they said who knew when they’d be offer tea and cake again!
After all just because they are upstairs bears doesn’t mean they don’t like to come downstairs sometimes !
A good few years back I bought this round table and chair set. They are a small doll sized version of ones I used to sit on when I first started school back in 1960. So as soon as I saw them I just had to get them.
Up till now they have sat around waiting for a suitable place for them to be used , I feel they would be perfect for some old teddies and dolls to sit and enjoy.
But today , Wednesday , I got them out to use with some of my other dolls for a small tea party post.
So here we have some of my bigger , 20-21 inch Lynne and Michael Roche dolls, enjoy some cakes and a gossip.
These are the larger of the new to me china plates along with the smaller oval plate, I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised that the bigger plates etc have not looked out of place with the dolls.
Claudine
Hannah
Suzannah.
Now to find some teddies to invite for tea !
At the weekend it was the doll event I run each year. It’s a great place to find some great props for the dolls along with clothing and shoes etc.
This year for me was a bumper year for the props.
This 1930’s dolls/child’s dinner set of china was a wonderful find. I just love everything miniature, not dolls house size but child/ doll size. I do also like dolls house’s but that’s a different thing. The set consists of six side/dessert plates, the six dinner plates stacked at the back, two oval serving plates , a gravy boat and dish plus a tureen.
It has the most beautiful floral pattern greens with pink, blue and yellow.
The little tureen is just wonderful complete with it’s lid.
I also found and bought from the same seller
Made of metal and heavy, it reminds me of the ones used in my youth and also of the one I had as a child along with the woden ironing board. I will need Paul to make the ironing board but for now I am just loving this iron.
It’s about two and a half inches long, complete with cable and rubber bung fitment .
I also bought some small cutlery.
There was also handmade doll food available to buy I only had time to buy this Gingerbread house but ordered some more once I returned home.
I am holding a doll event at the weekend and started to search for some items I wanted to sell, of course while doing so I came across doll props that had been tucked away or needed a little work.
One of the previous themes for my doll event was the fairground and Paul made wm a beautiful carousel, which alas I could not keep complete, due to how big it was for storing. But I did keep the carousel horses intending to get Paul to make some bases for them.
After coming across them tucked away in the old doll studio, I gave them to Paul and he’s fitted some bases to them. One I will keep , another my sister Michelle’s been patiently waiting for and the other two I will hopefully sell this weekend.
Naturally i had to have a little doll play with them to see which dolls they suited. So Robyn , a Lynne and Michael Roche doll climbed on one while her sister Sophy could not decide just which horse to ride!
Robyn wished Sophy would get a move on!
Robyn does love to ride a nice wooden horse !
Once they’d finished and gone inside another couple of the dolls appeared to check the carousel horses out !
This time it was Izzy , a Kaye Wiggs BJD doll and her friend Jane a Dollstown BJD.
Izzy loves the dappled grey horse
Jane likes the Black but also
Try’s out the brown horse .
Seeing the horses set out like this on the round outdoor table, they do still have the look of a carousel ! But I cannot keep all four horses, so just the dapple grey will be staying while the other three will hopefully find new homes.
One of the things I love about being a collector of dolls , is it allows me to also follow another passion of mine which is miniature furniture.
Not the dolls house furniture but the furniture in various sizes that will fit several of my different sized dolls.
Recently I needed a photo of a doll sat at a table, with other dolls queuing up, so used my kitchen table.
This is one of the ones I took at the time. After I had put all the dolls away I left the small doll sized table sitting in the middle of the kitchen table because I had an idea for a photo.
Finally today I got round to gathering up some more chairs and getting them done.
The dolls table and chairs are a good match for our kitchen table and chairs .
The little table was a lucky find on Ebay as were some of the chairs.
I will have to keep a look out for a longer table or maybe ask Paul to make me one , I probably have enough chairs to cope with both !
This is Sophy, she is by Lynne and Michael Roche and stands at 18 inch. She was designed after they saw a toddler
while out , who had curly blonde hair and holding a teddy. Most are 23 inches but a small amount of 18in were also made.
She comes in her winter all in one, with cat eared hat and nice warm gloves, along with lovely suede fur filled boots.
This Sophy has long red hair .
Her nice warm winter boots.
Because she is a toddler her wooden body is round and chunky.
view of the back
I think her hair looks nice in plaits.
She’s found some clothes to wear for now but still needs some shoes for her dinky but
wide toddler feet.
Robyn Winter that is !
Like all collectors, I like to have a range of a collection , so the Lynne and Michael Roches dolls span around forty plus years.
Also they come in various sizes, having started with just a few sizes in the early days to adding some more middle sizes
over the last few years.
Which meant I needed to look at some of the more recent dolls made and issued. I was lucky enough to find Robyn Winter , who stands at 14 inches and was the new size released for sale in 2014 along with her sister Daisy who stands at 12 inches.
She is called Robyn winter because she is wearing the Winter clothing, there is also a Robyn Summer. Only 20 pieces of each doll were made.
She wears under her coat a knitted wool skirt with a pretty liberty print blouse.
She has pretty long wavy blonde hair.
Here is a back view.
and wears her patterned knickers.
Because I will be taking photos and handling her , I have redressed her and will put her original clothes away with her tag etc , safely.
Here she is wearing a smocked dress ,belonging to one of my other doll ranges, the Sasha, along with shoes meant for a baby or toddler doll.
At present she is relaxing in her new home with a book.
She is a lovely addition to my Roche family
I am so happy to have her here .
Finding shoes for dolls can be a nightmare, so I have been rearranging my doll studio , while looking for something I put away safely and of course cannot find !
However I did find some shoes and boots that I had bought for my larger Zwergnase dolls, so decided to try some on my bigger Roche dolls, especially as Claudine’s left shoe was on the loose side and would fall off if I did not pay attention.
So here is Claudine wearing a boot and a shoe in the size 50cm for the zwergnase junior dolls,
I bought these from Trisha at KRbearsanddolls, the link is on her front page, left hand side, right at the bottom
Zwergnase junior shoes. The 55 cm shoes are way too big , so 50 cm only.
You will need to complete loosen the laces on the boots to allow the foot to get inside and be aware of any internal edges that could catch the foot and stop it fitting., they are slightly harder to get on but as you can see , they do look good once on the doll.
Claudine now wearing just the T bar shoes.
I’m really pleased with how this has worked out! I love that these shoes can be now worn by more than one style of doll although we all know what happens, one doll is always wearing just the colour pair you need for anothers outfit!
The shoe maker is Wagner, who Trisha worked with by measuring all the different dolls feet to get the shoes made, even sending them dolls to get the fit.
I have ordered some of the sandals in this size and will report back once they arrive.
And ices
I’m looking for something in my doll studio and after several hours of moving things and searching, I stopped to allow the Roche girls to see the Roche gilrs having tea in the tea rooms.
There is plenty of cakes to chose from.
Claudine, Hannah and Mary were sharing a table while Suzannah was sharing with Emily but they were all speaking between the tables anyway.
We may have to extend the tea room to get more customers in!
Mary says it’s lucky little Hannah did not come or they would have had to add another table !
And Freddy says Suzannah, he’d need a table all of his own with the amount he orders ! Where is Freddy ?
It appears Freddy’s got himself a summer job selling Ice creams! He’d best find some customers before they start to melt !
Emily my Lynne and Micahel Roche girl , had stringing problems in that they broke , so she needed restringing. I finally got round to it the other week.
Today , while I had my Sasha dolls clothes box out, she decided she needed to have a rummage and find herself another dress to wear !
First up she tried this beautifully smocked dress by the extremely talented Karen W.
Next she decided to go a little more boho 70’s with this longer floral dress by Francis T.
She then decided that she would like a smocked dress and went back to look at those, trying on another Karen W dress featuring Alice in Wonderland and the mad hatter, very appropriate for a tea party.
She then found a dress by Kathy B which was in a lovely linen.
Finally she found another Karen W smocked dress that she really liked. She’s decided that with her grey eyes and blonde hair, the greens and blues seem to suit her best.
Well of course she’s wearing pink shoes ! So now we have to find some others that fit and suit her new dress !
