Before I show you Sally’s Ruby Red Fashion Friends dolls, I have to show you a few pictures I took today of the work done in the International House… THE BATHROOM… I think that was what it was supposed to be, but it was a far cry from being nice and clean… in fact, I’m going to start with a picture of the rug on the ceramic tile floor… IT WAS GLUED DOWN! I have no idea how many years it’s been this way…
My hubby was using a scraper and having some difficulty…
I took a 9 second video over him of the work it involved getting it up…
Still having trouble, here’s a 12 second video that tells a little more… EEK!
After he got the rug up, I began painting… and WHAT a difference it made changing from that yellowish gold to the Accessible Beige!
Still have some work to do, but it was encouraging to see the ugly duckling bathroom turning into a pretty swan! :o) I couldn’t get the first coat completely finished, because I was waiting for some bigger spackle places to dry.
Next in my day was taking the cupcakes, the presents and a big box from the Food Pantry over to Jean and Bithar’s family. The 6 kids were so excited to see all the things in the FP box and then the cupcakes were revealed! Ooooo! Then the presents… I gave her some Birthday Cake Marshmallows first, then her little Ladybug purse… She unzipped the top of the purse and found some Gummie Bears with a $5 bill attached to it. She went wild! They all did! It was fun to see how excited she was. I had each of the girls reach down in a bag and pull out a kitty… and they were thrilled that they came from Rebecca’s collection! :o)
While I was there, they gave her some more presents and it got pretty chaotic with all the unwrapping and chatter from the kids! They had a great time and I hope Bithar got them to bed at a decent hour for school in the morning. I hope the cupcakes were untouched tonight as they might have made them more high strung than normal. Oh the joys of being a young mother with 6 kids under 10! :o)
Okay, now to day TWO of Sally’s wonderful Ruby Red Fashion Friends dolls… Are you ready? :o) All the captions are from Sally! Don’t forget to click on the pictures to enlarge them…
Jennifer is in her Monique “Ally” wig and is wearing a Darla Howell. Stella is in a set by Serena of OmiDollCloset. Kayla is wearing Maggie/Kate; Frieda is in a Darla Howell set. Finally, Sara, in a “Doris” wig, is wearing a Ruby Red set. Because I can’t stand the horrible white, stiff Velcro on her sweater, she is carrying it in her bag. And no, I do NOT have the patience to remove that strip by hand. Just saying.
Sarah and Daisy are both having fun playing in sets by Darla Howell. Hanna loves her dress set by Nathalie E., (I can’t find her last name, but from France). Kayla is wearing a beautiful vintage cotton sundress with a lovely open back by Andrea Luciano.
Dawn and Lisa (from Russia.) Lisa has a gorgeous headpiece that doesn’t show. I wanted to show the gown.
First is Kiara, a custom by Jana Blazkova. Spring is in an ensemble by Martine Julie Tourangeau, in France. The third girl is a Kadinana in her original costume.
Ten Ping Siblie and Kadinana are wearing matching sets by Robin Barrows. Then we have 3 dolls in their original clothes, a Ten Ping Siblie, Lok-Lok peeping out from behind, and Hung Hung.
I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my Ruby kids. I love them all, and the women who made these beautiful clothes. Thanks for looking!
WOW! Thanks SO much Sally! What a fun group of girls you have there! I’m like you, I love them all! Every one is just as adorable as the one standing next to her! Thanks for taking time to set them all up and share them with us! I think we all are living a little vicariously through you!
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
Oh my gosh, Jeanne, GLUE a rug to the floor? How were they supposed to wash it? Maybe that was the idea, they wouldn’t have to!! Boys!Things are looking up for the bathroom, and I’m sure the girls will be thrilled with it!
Blessing must have been beside herself with all the goodies and attention!
The dolls……..Sally where ARE you putting all hof these darling dolls? I just love the set up you have with those two very pretty dolls, Dawn and Lisa! The pretty outfits, the flowers and plants, the beautiful yard!! Exceptional! I can’t comment enough on how darling everything is that you have set up in these photographs! And the time it took!!! Thank you for sending these to Jeanne and to Jeanne for showing them!
What is going on with the spacing between sentences? I am spacing but when I see my comment on the blog, it has none!
And “hof”. Is supposed to be “of”! Wish we could correct our mistakes!
Good morning, Linda,
Is it going to be another nice day in St. Louis today? I sure hope so.
Where do the dolls live? This is a 5 room, and two bath house of about 1500 square feet. Most of my dolls are in the two bedrooms and and office. A few are allowed, by me and hubby doesn’t object, in the open living room/dining room. The guest room has it the worst. Our last house/dog sitter is a guy my hubby hikes with occasionally and his eyes popped out of his head when I showed him the guest room. I happened to run into him this weekend and I told him the dolls said hi. He snorted, grinned, and rolled his eyes.
Linda, your kind compliments and remarks about the dolls, outfits, and time this took mean a lot. Thanks very much and have a beautiful St. Louis day! ☺️
Oh, my goodness, Jeanne, that Bathroom!!! It looks to me more like the rug (actually probably a bath mat or such) had a rubber backing on it that somehow got fused to the floor. Perhaps it got wet underneath, and nobody bothered to lift up the rug until it dried. That rubber backing can be awful–rubber can get sticky, or it can dry out and flake off. Nasty!
Thanks for sharing the picture of Blessing with her presents. She is a cutie for sure!
Sally, another day with wonderful pictures. I would definitely have taken the velcro off that sweater–but it Does take patience!
I especially love the vintage fabric in Kayla’s dress in that second picture. But they all look so cute!
Dawn and Lisa are both gorgeous, and their costumes are exquisite!!
Spring’s costume is my favorite in the next picture. So pretty!
Oh, man, you have TWO Ten Ping Siblies?! JEALOUS!! 😁 I didn’t even find out about that one until she was sold out. However, I do have Gigi Siblie on order, so I guess that’s okay. Of the originat RR Galleria ones, I actually preferred Gigi, which was why I ordered her and not Ten Ping.
BTW, although my hair was about the same color as Marianella’s, it was Never curly or thick or fluffy! Straight, baby-fine, and thin…Ugh! Not even enough to make a decent braid, and I SO wanted braids like another girl had!! (And I am one of only two in my entire family, cousins and all, who does not have blue eyes. Mine are teal, and my late uncle, mom’s brother, had that color, also!)
Good morning, Charlotte,
Teal eyes with pale blond hair? Sounds like a gorgeous combination whether or not the hair is straight or curly!
Thanks for taking the time to tell me what you enjoyed most about my dolls; it gives me the greatest pleasure to be able to share them with people who understand this passion. You all have been so kind and gracious.
I am so sorry you missed Ten Ping Siblie , but hope Gigi Siblie will make you and your Gigi happy. 🥰 Have a grand day doing what you love, I hope!
It is very nice to see all your dolls, Sally! I bet they make you happy just looking at them! 🙂
Good morning, Karen,
Thanks, I DO get a huge kick out of seeing these dolls every day. They put a smile on my face and lift me out of the occasional bad moods. 😁
I hope you and your family are doing well and that the pregnancy is going smoothly. We are all looking forward to the good news, Karen. 🥰
I so enjoyed the video of the pulling up of the rug. I am still chuckling. George is such a delight! You guys are such a blessing.❤️❤️
Hi Gloria,
I didn’t realize the sound picked up when he was pulling the rug up… it was crazy!
Love you, Jeanne
Good morning, Jeanne.
That rug was a mighty special treat, wasn’t it?! Good grief. Charlotte is right; if left there day in and day out damp, it will eventually glue itself down. She is also right that those bottoms dry out with age or Colorado lack of humidity and get disgustingly flaky. Bah!
Hearing about the birthday party and seeing Blessing’s joy really warmed my heart. An awesome way to start the day.
Finally, Jeanne, I really appreciate your giving me and the other sofa sisters an opportunity to show off sewing projects, doll scenes and dolls. It gives us all such pleasure to share things important to us and helps us to get to know each other a little better. You’re a real doll, Jeanne. I want to thank all you sisters for your remarks and wish you a happy August 16. 🙏❤️
Dear Sally, we love seeing your dolly children. There was much ooohing and aaahing here on the sofa.
I was thinking that for World Doll Day next June you could have a dolly parade. But then I was thinking that it would probably be a whole block long.
You might need a permit from the city and a police escort. You would probably want a marching band. And how would you select a Parade Queen, among all of your beautiful girls, to ride in the convertible car? And then, of course, there would be tee shirt sales and a food truck to consider.
Hmmm, maybe you could just have a picnic (smile).
[PS – To explain my zaniness, one of my all-time favorite TV personalities is Gracie Allen.]
Dear Dorothy in PA,
You always crack me up with your delicious imagination! 😆
This parade is a mighty fine idea. You must come out to Salida as I am sure it is a smaller town than you live in, so it will not be a major “do” to get permission from the city and police for our parade. YOU, my dear Dorothy, will be the Grand Marshall and I will be your driver. We will find a vintage Rolls to haul a very, very classy float that will feature YOU dressed up for a dolly tea party and you will be wearing a tiara, of course. You will have an elaborate table before you set with tea and lots of dollies all dressed up The rest of the float will have dollies seated, drinking their tea. Balloons. Confetti and candy to toss out to the kiddos.
The food truck will feature tea and tea treats, sweet, savory, that will be absolutely mind-blowingly scrumptious. I will ask my oldest granddaughter to design the tee shirt as fashion design and business is what she is going into.
And we will have a raffle…I will get rid of most of my AG dolls and outfits and a ton of other doll stuff and we can use the proceeds to split between us half, for buying MORE dolls and tea, and the other half with a charity.
Are you ready, Dorothy??! 🎉☕️🫖🎈🥰
Dear Sally, I’m in!
I can’t tell you how much I am laughing! This is so funny.
I would love to be the Grand Marshall. When I retired, I hosted a tea (no surprise there) and someone gave me a tiara so I already have one (laugh).
More dolls and tea parties, now that sounds good to me.
We can invite the Sofa Sisters to come along. We can get toy companies to donate dolls. The Sisters will have red wagons to pull the dolls as they follow the procession. They can distribute the dolls to children (and grown ups, of course) along the way. It is World Doll Day after all.
Jeanne will capture it all on tape and post it to her site. UFDC will link it to their site and doll folks all over the world will see our parade and want to have one of their own.
We will have started a dolly parade craze! People will want to purchase dolls just so they can be in a parade. They will chant “we like dolls, we like dolls.” And then the TV crews will show up.
Uh, hummm, maybe this is a bit much. Maybe we should go back to the picnic idea (laugh).
Sally, how do I find the site for the Darla Howell clothes? I can find her on Pinterest but not elsewhere.
Hi, Barbara.
I can’t believe all the work you have been having going on in your house and around the property. It seems, though, that you have been very pleased with results. My fingers are crossed for you for these next three days. A lot to be done in that time frame. 🍀🍀🍀
I’m glad you found Erin Green. As Debbie says, she has been around a long time and I have dealt with her on many occasions. I even have a custom she made of Scarlett that is wearing a really nice dirndl set of Erin’s. She has always provided very good products and service. If you sign up for Cottontail, you will get an email the first of the month with a 10% off coupon for one order during the month.
As for Darla, she is on Etsy, darladelight. I, too, love her things. Cute kid clothes, nicely coordinated fabrics and scale, well made, and very, very low prices.
Again, wishing you great luck, and I am so happy you enjoyed seeing some of my Ruby kids. 🥰🙏
Thanks Sally. I’ll find darladelight. I did sign up for Cottontail and am looking forward to the coupon. She does have wonderful things. And I just found a few more sites for patterns while I was looking for some for my mini Paola Reinas. My fingers are tingling to either buy or make some of these wonderful things
Ingrid, I read your comment yesterday and it was good hearing from you. No doubt you have a lot going on as I remember your previous post…the microwave saga. Oh, boy. So your carpet story made me feel bad for you and your hubby being young, in your first house, trying to renovate it while having two tots in hand. You must have been heartbroken besides angry to see that wanton lack of care. You were very wise, especially being young, to keep those lips zipped. I wish you a very good day today. 😘
Hi Sally,
Goodness no need to feel bad for me… I was just trying to make a point, things happen. We’ve had our fair share of mishaps LOL Thankfully the baseboard trim wasn’t on when the installers laid the carpet. I spackled and sanded the walls but instead of painting decided to hang wall paper halfway up the wall with a boarder at the top of that. It was the style way back when and I thought it looked so pretty.
Dear Jeanne, I cannot imagine why someone would glue down a rug in any room. I see these kinds of things on the decorating shows I watch. Last night I watched a re-run of “Help, I Wrecked My House.” It made me think of what you and your husband are doing to fix the International House.
It sounds like the birthday party went well. Presents and cake, smiles all around.
I could not get on the blog yesterday. It kept saying the site was unavailable. But what a treat I had today seeing all of Sally’s wonderful Rubies at once. Thanks, Sally for the introductions. I had no idea. And thanks for including the places where the clothing came from. I like to do that too. I love the Darla Howell clothes and need to look into those.
Thanks, Jeanne for posting Sally’s wonderful pictures.
Yesterday I was looking through my “Doll” magazine and found a site for doll clothes I’d never known of before even though it has been around for awhile. Actually there are three sites one is Cupcake Cutie Pie (this one is on Etsy so I guess it would be cupcakecutiepie). This site is for 18″ doll clothes, shoes and accessories and was the first one the woman did. Then came Darling Lil’ Bee. That’s her site for clothes, shoes, etc., for Little Darlings. Recently she started one called Cottontail Doll Designs. That site is amazing. It’s dedicated to clothing, shoes, etc., for RRFFs. Her prices are good and based on the amount of work that goes into making each outfit. They are OOAK so if you see something you like and don’t buy it right then, it might not be there later. She did dirndl outfits for Little Darlings and they were all out of stock so it looks like they go fast. Too bad. They were wonderful but evidently in great demand.
We’ve had enough rain lately that my bathroom door is not sticking anymore. We thought we were going to have to trim it. No rain the first of this week, which is good because David and Jason (Sean and family are on vacation this week at Gray Wolf Lodge near Dallas) are cutting off the garage roof to begin the connection to the new addition. Hopefully this will be done in three days because come Thursday we are supposed to be getting a stationary front that is going to bring us rain for three or four days. Supposed to be a good soaking rain and that is what we need. I love seeing the fronts coming through in August. As the weatherman said don’t expect cooling temps because it is August in Texas. But I’ll take them no matter what since as soon as it starts cooling off north of us there is hope some of it will come our way sooner than usual.
We are in the 70’s today! Feels like a miracle in August. Those sites have been around for a while. It is actually a mother and two sisters trio that sews for each of the three sites. I have bought a couple of dresses for my RRFF. They fit well and no velcro! Sometimes the prints are too large and colorful for my taste but I love the two I own.
Ewww, the glued down rug is rather gross. Glad you were able to get the bath fixed up nice and neat for the girls.
Looks like Blessing have a wonderful birthday.
And the fun continues… Sally, you certainly have been bitten hard by the Ruby Red bug. All your girls are just lovely and have such gorgeous clothes. I really like Kayla’s vintage cotton sundress. So pretty and feminine. thank you for sharing them.
Laura, you are so right about the “ewww!” That sure did look nasty.
I appreciate hearing that you enjoyed seeing some of my kids in, mostly, their summer duds. And you are also so right that I have been bitten really, really hard by the Rubies. I thank Jeanne with her post showing the arrival of her Sarah. Yup!
Have a super rest of your day, Laura. I loved reading about those big dogs yesterday and forgot to mention them. 🥰
You and George are going to be bathroom remodel experts! The International House is coming along beautifully. Blessing’s birthday party was a smashing success from what I can see. The sugar buzz means the cupcakes were good!
Sally – each picture is better than the one before! I just love seeing all of these dolls that I haven’t seen before, or heard of. The Ruby Red Galleria dolls are beautiful in their native costumes. Thanks so much for sharing all of these in one place. You inspired me to unbox and dress my RRFF!
Hey, Debbie-no-longer-in-TN!
I am so grateful to Jeanne for allowing me to share some kids because other than myself, they don’t get much appreciation around here!! 🤨 Thanks for your kind words and please, please do get those dolls out of their boxes. It was my Petunia that showed up yesterday. Never knew she had been shipped and she wasn’t on USPS radar. Voilà, she was here, and unlike you, I am crazy pleased with her. Now I suppose Iris is going to show up in like manner.
Have a super day. Sounds like good weather! 👍🥰
I am so happy that you love your Petunia! I think mine had a bad flight from France or a bad hair day. I am thinking of keeping Iris for her striking coloring and Boho outfit. Those sandals are too chic, love. 😍 I hope Iris is a winner too!
Definitely with Charlotte and Sally on the icky rug. Maybe not glue, but that rubber backing sticking to the tile. Glad it was able to be cleaned up. Will you have time to bleach that tile grout and maybe reseal? You guys have been working so hard. How soon until the girls move in?
Sally’s dolls are so thoughtfully dressed and are a delight to view. A big thank you to her because setting everyone up and making them keep still and quiet for a photo shoot is quite an accomplishment. The setting for the photos is also lovely. What a beautiful yard. 🙂
I thought that Francesca RRFF would be here as noted on the UPS website a few days ago, but no, not yet. She spent four days waiting for a pick up by UPS in China, and then the delivery time passed on by and still no dolly. This morning, she was finally picked up, and they say now she is traveling. So, maybe on a flight. Now the delivery day is pending. So, really have no idea of an arrival date. But, I had better start preparing as I’m sure other person will be in guard duty mode, keeping any doll sized boxes at bay.
Thanks so much for your comments, Joy. I sure hope OP finds something to do to occupy himself when Francesca rolls in. 🤞
Hi Jeanne …. One word about that stuck bathmat … Eeewww!
Glad George had the stomach to take care of that icky mess. You are correct the new paint certainly makes things much brighter. I thought you were all done with the church house for some reason. Hope there isn’t much more to do. You both are such a blessing and inspiration!
Looks and sounds like a good time was had at Blessing’s Bday party! Bithar deserves a gold star! What a busy momma she must be. Six kids under the age of ten makes her a wonder woman in my book. I’ve got one 5 year old grand and I’m ready for a nap when mom shows at 5:15 LOL
Thank you for sharing Sally’s lovely doll family. I so loved the picture show!
Sally Thanks for sharing your lovely girls with us. Each one amazing and prettier than the next! I appreciate the work and time you put into taking photo’s of all your sweet girls.
hugs
Ingrid