When you haven't blogged for a while, it's best just to plunge back in

So I'm going to start with Maria, who is a Sasha doll.

Lulu and Maria

A year ago I found a Sasha doll at work. I didn't know who she was but I knew she was Somebody.

A White Dress Sasha

I brought in Auntie Berman, who immediately recognized her but couldn't remember her name. We called Biggie Sis and she informed us it was Sasha. So we got her. She was wearing her original white dress (that caused her to be called a White Dress Sasha). I realized after a couple of days that she was rather odd. I think it was her tan, which didn't really go with her red hair. Biggie Sis belongs to a Sasha group and she suggested we sell the doll. After much finagling (the burden of which fell mainly to Auntie Berman), we sold her for $160! Not bad for a $2.00 investment.

I never gave Sashas another thought until a few weeks ago when we were at Salvation Army Warehouse. We hadn't found much of anything and I wandered over to the big bin of stuffed animals they keep in back (but no more bears, I told myself). I almost didn't look in the back of the bin, because there were golf bags and clubs piled around it but since Auntie Berman wasn't ready, I shoved my way back and dug around and saw a brown arm sticking up. To my amazement, it was a Sasha doll! She was rather floppy, desperately needing restringing. She was naked except for her ID tag on her left wrist (it's supposed to be on her right but it's tied on and I don't want to try to change it). It says Sasha on one side and Made In England Serie on the other.

Posing in front of the snapdragons

Our next stop was my Savers store, where we bought a small bag of doll clothes and put the pink flowered dress in the first picture on her. I really liked her a lot better than the first Sasha doll, I think because her skin tone was a better match for her hair. Lizzie told me she thinks they have an alien look about them, and I totally agree! Although I had visions of dollar signs when I first found her, by the time we got home I had bonded with her and knew I couldn't give her up.

I decided she is Mexican, because many of my coworkers are and I named her Maria because one of my favorite coworkers is Maria and also I had just finished re-reading Three Without Fear by Robert DuSoe, which is a great children's book, if you can find it, which you probably can't because it's out of print.

I found more clothes for her as well as some Battat shoes that fit.

Eskimo dress

I also restrung her, although that was kind of scary. Someone had tried to repair her using a giant rubber band. Fortunately I had good doll-stringing elastic. It was a success and look at her now!

Maria Ballerina

Then I had to make her a new dress.

New dress

Last week I found a Mrs. Santa type doll (what was left of her) with a styrofoam head at Goodwill Bargain Bin. She was wearing a nice red dress so I relieved her of it and gave it to Maria.

A perfect Christmas dress

That's all for now. I will be back with more exciting finds, like the Tonner fashion doll I just found!