The West Enders in July: the Grand Finale

Hello, dear friends and followers! It’s Mini-Me here again. We’re all at home now and I thought you might like to know what we’ve all been up to since we’ve been back. I’m back at work, nothing too exciting here.

Ilana’s had her hair done but hasn’t chosen a new wardrobe just yet.

Elena is glad to be home with the rest of the Panenka family. Candi tells her all about buying the café and asks Elena if she would like to work there as Candi is really short of help.

On Saturday night, Carmelita persuades Lauralyn to go to the pub, the King George III. The pub is busy and it’s nice to be back in West End Village.

Lauralyn gets chatted up by Diondre almost as soon as she arrives.

The pub is full of single men, as usual, and Barry seizes the opportunity to try his charms on Carmelita.

Across town at the posh bar at the West End Manor Resort, Lenora and Vera drink tropical drinks and chat with some of their new neighbours.

Anna May is reunited with her sisters, Ebony, Lela, and Naomi. They seem pretty intent on something – or someone.

Tobias Alford walks in the door. You may recall that he and Dalpinder went to GlastDollBury22 with Naomi and Ebony. They haven’t heard from him since.

Undeterred, Ebony introduces him to Lela and Anna May.

Lela and Anna May say hello then retreat while Ebony drags a reluctant Naomi over to chat with Tobias.

Anna May: “Well, he’s a tall, dark, and handsome hottie. I wonder how serious he is about our little sisters.”

Lela: “Ebony said they slept in separate tents and that it was friendly but not romantic.”

In the meantime, have you noticed what’s going on here in the corner? James and Mel are looking mighty cozy together. What’s that all about?

Ebony chats blithely away to Tobias, who looks like he wants to escape, while Naomi’s attention is focussed elsewhere. Who is she looking at?

It’s Raheem. He seems to have noticed her as well.

That’s it for the West Enders for now. Maxi-Me has been working day by day to get West End Village up and running but it’s coming along slowly. She hopes that her health will remain stable enough now to start posting Season Six! Clearly there are some stories to be told. We aren’t certain of the format yet. It’s easier and less time consuming to leave out the speech bubbles so the format you see tonight may be what we adopt. As always, the photos will be the focus rather than the text.

Please feel free to comment below!

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The West Enders in July, Part 7

On our final day in hospice, the girls have decided to model their own clothes against a black background.

Lenora goes first.

Lauralyn is next.

Elena is happy to have her clothes and accessories returned and can’t wait to join the rest of the Panenka family.

Carmelita looks lovely, as always.

Although it’s a warm day, Vera decides to wear her complete outfit.

Mini-Me and Ilana watch from the other side of the room. “She looks like she’s channeling her inner Morticia Addams,” Ilana whispers.

Did Vera hear that?

Anna May is next up.

She and Vera decide to pose together to emphasise the black and white outfits.

Next Ilana struts her stuff.

Last but not least is Mini-Me. She can’t wait to get home tomorrow even though she’s enjoyed the hospice stay and Maxi-Me is feeling so much better.

The West Enders in July, Part 6

The hospice crew are all happy to hear that they’re going home on Monday. They’ve enjoyed the garden and on Friday, Maxi-Me was moved to a fabulous room to get her away from the smokers. Here at the hospice, patients are allowed to smoke outside their rooms so that end of life care is still about enjoying life. Unfortunately, secondhand smoke causes Maxi-Me to become quite ill very rapidly. So we all moved further away.

A view of the room.

There are lots of places to do photo shoots in the room so today we chose a white backdrop. Some of us are still wearing someone else’s clothes.

A new West Ender named Vera arrived wearing a long black gown that was completely unsuitable for July, so she swapped for something else.

Vera had a black romper under her gown and Elena tried that on.

There was a prop for the girls to play with too.

Of course, Lenora had to show off.

She’s back in her original outfit.

Lauralyn’s outfit is part of her identity and culture so she never swapped with anyone.

After a few days wearing heels, Mini-Me’s feet hurt so much that she’s decided to return Ilana’s dress and wear her own with her flat shoes.

Oh, that’s better!

Ilana has taken her hair down and looks very glamorous in her dress.

Carmelita looks very stylish in Elena’s outfit.

Anna May is so much taller than the other girls, she hasn’t even tried to swap.

In the end, everyone changes into their original outfits, ready for tomorrow’s final photo shoot.

The West Enders in July

Good morning! Mini-Me here. Maxi-Me is undergoing palliative symptom control at Marie Curie Newcastle Hospice so some of us have accompanied her to keep her company.

We’ve been exploring the garden. Our room opens onto a beautiful garden with loads of birds and Maxi-Me likes to go out in her power chair to explore.

The garden is lovely and we have been taking turns exploring.

Lauralyn and Carmelita are here too.

Lauralyn has had a chance to enjoy the garden too but we can only go out one at a time because it’s so windy.

It was supposed to be Carmelita’s turn yesterday but Maxi-Me couldn’t find any clean clothes, only pyjamas. Then Mr Maxi- Me turned up with three boxes – three new dolls! They definitely weren’t dressed for a garden unless it’s a garden party! This is Anna May Majak.

This is Lenora MacDonald. We’ve met Lenora before but she has a new look.

Finally, this is Ilana Bernstein, Nicole’s niece. She is an aspiring opera singer as well.

The weather is supposed to warm up later this week and be less windy so hopefully the rest of the ladies will get out in the garden soon!

I shall leave you on my bed of roses! More soon.

The West Enders in May, Part 3: #pynkmondays

I have an Instagram account that I don’t visit very often. Lately, however, I have been participating in a fun weekly event called #pynkmondays, which is simply sharing photos of dolls with a pink theme. Here’s some pictures I took this week. I didn’t post all of them to Instagram but thought I’d share them here.

Here’s Rosalie whose pink hair makes her a perfect model.

Another pink inspired outfit!

Niko has subtle pink highlights in her hair.

Lela and Ebony epitomise pink from their lipstick to their clothes.

Lela is a Mizi doll.

Ebony has a fashionista head on a Malaville doll’s body.

Cocktails for two.

Cheers!

Happy Monday from the West Enders!

West Enders Update

Dear Friends and Followers,

The West Enders have been very quiet since June, and for this I apologise. I have had an endless series of challenges due to my illness and the various drugs I take – immunosuppressants, anticonvulsants, and many more. My illness, chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis, a form of pulmonary fibrosis, continues to progress and I realise that I cannot continue to post the West Enders in quite the same way. I no longer have enough energy to put up and take down sets and backgrounds, so I have been working on creating some permanent spaces in which the story can take place. This is an ongoing process. I also decided to downgrade my collection and am giving my granddaughter several boxes of dolls, clothes, furniture and accessories to sell on eBay. Of course, getting rid of dolls doesn’t seem to stop me from buying more! So when the West Enders return, I will post a new page of characters to help you see who is new and who remains. In the meantime, I thought I would update you on some of the West Enders’ activities.

And yes, there will be a final episode to Season Five in which we will find out the fate of Bigly! (Knock on wood – never tempt fate!)

First of all, today is Día de los Muertos, Day of the Dead, All Saints Day, Samhain, one of the turning points of the year in the Celtic calendar. So how did the West Enders celebrate?

Many familiar characters went out to the annual Halloween Party. Here are Lara and Lottie:

Here are Midge and Rachel – yes, Rachel, who used to be a baby! I have decided to “grow” some of the babies up.

Other children who have “grown up” are Emma’s daughters Lola (now on the right) and Vivianne (now on the left). But in the following image, we can see the former Kalani Holmes is now almost an adult.

Claire and Honey haven’t changed.

There’s a new Dr Bonnie Panenka:

Esmée is going to experience some traumatic changes but for now, she seems happy enough.

A new “teen Ruruko” has joined the West Enders.

Celebrating Día de los Muertos, Frida Dahlo and her nephew join Sindy Petersen.

I’ve been working on new permanent spaces, and Frida will soon have a new dedicated space for her restaurant. In the meantime, Tommy and Salynda have welcomed Salynda’s sister Lucy to their home.

I also created a student common room for the Bernstein College of Music and Art. (That’s a student lounge in American English.)

Some of the students have been checking out the new Italian restaurant.

As you may have noticed, collecting OOAK dolls is one of my passions and I have added some really lovely dolls to the West Enders. First up is the new version of Georgiana Daley, a OOAK from ImDolls on Etsy.

She’s already met another of the new dolls, although he’s not OOAK. I think they make a cute couple, but I’m not sure it’s going to last. He’s called Raheem Rashford, after two of our popular England footballers (soccer players to Americans).

Next is this gorgeous rerooted OOAK Wonder Woman from OneSixthShop on Etsy, now known as Carrie Danes because she reminds me of Claire Danes’ character in “Homeland.”

Blessing Olatunji has a new look, from soniavivajapan on Etsy:

These two young ladies, a new version of Marguerite Charpentier and a new character, Millie Brewer, are from Amelieshappyplace on Etsy.

Another newcomer is this BMR1959 repaint from UzhikiSisters on Etsy.

The doll artist whose work I have collected most is Constantinos Kalaitzis, creator of TheFoxyDolls on Etsy. I had to add this rerooted Barbie Extra doll to my collection:

I also fell in love with this repainted Extra doll from DaydreamArtDolls on Etsy. She’s so cute! Who could resist? Here she is redressed.

I do like the Extra fashions; I bought one of the dolls just for her outfit (she was on sale because her box was damaged). I think her outfit looks fabulous on my OOAK doll from SalemCityDolls on Etsy:

Another new passion of mine is Mizi dolls. I now have four of them, three of them purchased very recently. Here is the stunning Les Mille et une Nuits Mizi doll:

Here she is in “street clothes” with her gorgeous sister from the 2021 Convention collection:

Another fun convention doll, “Spice Girl” Lily, who I have renamed Lela Majak:

There’s more to come – slowly, I realise, but please don’t give up on the West Enders yet! My final photo is the new doll to represent Celeste Santos – so gorgeous in this outfit from elenpriv on Etsy!