Hello, West End followers! Mini-Me here. Why am I wearing this gorgeous dress, you might ask. Our Maxi-Me was planning a Halloween post but sadly after five days at home following her last hospice stay, she had a terrible exacerbation and ended up in hospital again for the next 2.5 weeks. She has very little memory of the first 10 days but once again was at risk of death and brought back from the brink by the Interstitial Lung Disease team. Whew!
Maxi-Me is very debilitated now and her bedroom at home has been transformed into a hospital room with hospital bed, adjustable height table, commode, and tall backed chair with special anti-pressure sore cushion. Mr Maxi-Me has transformed the rest of the house to be wheelchair accessible. And she’s still getting upstairs to the doll room via stair lift.
She decided to start changing us all into clothes for New Years Eve in hopes of just once having us dressed for the same event. Wish us luck!
Frida doesn’t want to miss out on doing business in her new restaurant but is planning on joining the New Years Eve ball after closing early. She and I are wearing our ball gowns.
Marigold is heading for the Castle Club.
Sindy is also heading to the club.
Kalani is club-bound as well. In fact, most of the younger West Enders prefer the club to the ball.
Rhiannon
Rosalie
Susie
The Saunders sisters are all ready for a night at the club.
Check back later as the West Enders show off their most gorgeous fashions in the lead up to 2023!
I had so hoped to be posting a new story with posts for upcoming holidays – Rosh Hashanah, Nigerian Independence Day, Halloween, and Dia de los Muertos, but once again, I’m posting on my phone from the hospice. I’m really disappointed about Nigerian Independence Day because I wanted it to be an African Diaspora Day with dolls dressed in some of the beautiful African inspired clothes I have. Not to be. I hope I can still manage Halloween but we’ll have to wait and see.
The view from my room.
As you can see, I have access to the lovely garden although it was too chilly today to get out there. I was shattered because I’ve arrived here after a gruelling week in hospital in which I had a crazed woman in the bed across from me shouting all day and night. She even rang the police one night to tell them she was being kept against her will.
But now I’m here and with me is my new Sindy doll, the Flower Magic Doll.
Marigold Collier
Eventually I’ll get her out in the garden with her watering can and post more interesting photos. I’m leaving her other accessories in the box until I get home. If you’re interested in seeing her flower shop, check out Vanda’s (Taswegian1957) post: https://dollsdollsdolls.net/2022/09/14/kid-kreations-flower-magic-sindy/
The reason I’ve been readmitted is that covid finally caught up with me, despite taking more precautions than anyone else I know. Fortunately I was given monoclonal antibody treatment due to my immunosuppression for my underlying illness and did not become terribly ill or require hospitalisation while I had it. Unfortunately, it precipitated another exacerbation of my lung disease and for the fourth time this year, off to hospital I went via ambulance after recovering and testing negative. My overall condition has taken another downhill step but I’m still alive.
The good news is that while I had covid, I was able to sit at the dining room table and work on a room box kit, creating a new Frida Dahlo’s Mexican Restaurant. Here are a few photos of the process.
The kit “before.” I was checking if the restaurant would fit. Painting with steroid induced shaking hands and covid induced fatigue. The yellow walls required 5 layers of paint. Almost finished.Ready to open! Excellent food and margaritas! Cerveza fria!
This final picture is the whole setup in the doll room. The little beach house is next door and everything is designed to try and create the illusion that the restaurant is on the beach.
West End Village, aka the doll room, is tidy and organised enough for me to start working on the Mexican Restaurant. Once that’s finished, I hope to be able to embark on Season 6 with more stories. For now, I thought I’d post a few updates.
An ongoing concern has been the poor wait staff at the café and pizzeria who never seem to get a day off and wear some of their nice outfits. So I’ve recruited two new baristas for the café and will start rotating dolls through their shifts. Adela and Kalani have new jobs at the café.
Adela has started already and Heidi can’t wait for Kalani to come and relieve her.
Tamra and Marguerite enjoy cappuccino and carrot cake.
The Panenka family relaxes around the pool. Dûsko mans the grill.
Bonnie, Claire, and Steffi relax with the babies in the pool.
Ollie and Katie relax with drinks and fresh strawberries. The perfect way to enjoy the hot days of August. The West Enders hope to return soon with a new season!
Tomorrow begins four days of celebration and of course the West Enders are ready for a party! Let’s begin with the iconic British fashion doll, Sindy.
Rhiannon is channeling a retro look for the occasion. Sindy has gone for sophisticated elegance while still sporting a Jubilee Union Jack theme. Kalani isn’t fussed about getting dressed up but she has snagged a logo tee shirt.Susie is the only West Ender who is Jubilee ready in her original outfit with its colours reminiscent of the Union Jack. Sindy and Rhiannon enjoy cream tea in celebration. Kalani and Susie show off alternative casual Jubilee styles. The lasses together. Stay tuned for more Jubilee fashions and celebrations!
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!
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!
The West Enders haven’t had an episode in a while, but I’ve been working hard behind the scenes to prepare for the next one on 20 January – the fate of Bigly! I know many of you will be interested to know what happens to him once the man on whom he is based has left office. So hang in there – I know you’ll enjoy it! I’ve also been working on a character page and that will be posted on 20 January as well. Some characters have left, others have arrived, so hopefully that will keep you straight on who’s who. For now, I’d like to introduce a few of them.
Next, we have three of the new collector Sindy dolls. Because West End Village is located in England, I was thrilled to be able to add these quintessentially British fashion dolls to the cast. They have been having fun trying on clothes since they arrived and have redressed for the cold weather. They can be found at https://sindycollectorsclub.co.uk.
As you can see, West End Village has had a white Christmas. Having grown up in Israel, snow is a special treat for Noa. She’s all bundled up and ready to go in her warm clothes from LexDesignsByDoyle on Etsy. https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/LexDesignsByDoyle
Let’s catch up with the Panenkas. Over Christmas, two new cousins arrived, Penny’s sisters Candi and Carli. They chat by the fire.
Bonnie and Ivana enjoy a cuppa with scones, clotted cream, and jam.
Steffi and Claire have taken the little ones outside.
Hang in there fans! The West Enders will return soon with plenty of drama. In the meantime, rejoice at the end of 2020 and be hopeful for a better world in 2021. That’s what Gudrun is doing.
Almost all of the clothes worn by the Panenkas and Gudrun are also from Etsy, so if you would like more information about any of them, please let me know in the comments. To be honest, I’ve had some of them for so long, I can’t always remember from which shop I bought them.
Dirks' Dolls 