Random Things

      The other day (that's relative. Sometime in the past week, maybe) I got my DAH Stone Bunny. I don't remember ordering Bunny in gloss, but she looks really good that way. So all of a sudden, I own 3 Stone horses. The mule is also a DAH and the Remington I got at the Stone store at Equilocity. I am really pleased with my small collection of Stone horses. I may buy more in the future but currently I should probably just not buy anything at all. I have been trying to get my car to pass inspection and it does, other than the e-brake broke during the inspection. Today I brought it in to be fixed and they said that I need a piece welded into the floor of the car because it's rotted (I believe that. The drains for my sunroof were clogged for a bit and the car kept flooding). So not only do I need to have a piece welded onto the car, they don't do that work at that particular shop. So I stopped by another place on the way home. They do do that kind of work but I will need to drop the car off and wait for them to have a chance to look at it, give me a quote, etc. I looked at all the sidewalks between the shop and my house and saw miles of ice. But luckily, a friend of mine can get me in the morning and bring me home. I just really hope the shop gets my car in fast and that it is a quick and inexpensive fix. I could use a financial break. Lately stuff just keeps popping up. I just want to catch my breath. 

     I was supposed to have a cooking party on Sunday, but everyone had to cancel. And the weather was absolute garbage anyway. So I made arroz con gandules for Travis and I, and sent a picture to the friends that were supposed to be part of the cooking party. This recipe made SO MUCH. And so many leftovers. I need to make this again with pernil. That sounds like an awesome idea. 

     I had a customer send me a doll recently to fix. It was actually one of the type S men dolls, but they have the same hip design as the Yvonne-type dolls. I have never had a hip pop out on the man dolls, but they do come out on the Yvonne-type dolls. And way more often than anyone should have to deal with. I can fix them, even on a dressed doll, because I know what the joint looks like, and I have done it before. But I thought this might help someone. If you have an Yvonne (or Type S guy) have a leg pop off, make sure the fabric is out of the way, so not pinching or anything, and then put the hole in the hip over the ball joint in the pelvis, push until it snaps into place (push hard, it should go on) and then move it in a bunch of different directions to make sure it is actually on. Depending on the leg this might be a short term fix, but it's not difficult once you get the feel of how to do it, and you can do it over and over. I have a couple of my dolls I had to pop the leg back on before almost every performance class they went in. These are factory flaws that are not really able to be fixed permanently. Some of these dolls also seem to develop the issue over time. 

     I have been struggling with burnout, lack of motivation (and time), as well as seasonal issues. It took me two weeks to finish a saddle seat doll. That is not a typical time frame for me at all. But I did finally get her done. Instead of immediately leaving the studio I decided to work on another project. I am going to make a casual doll, hopefully this week, and I wanted to make a coat to go with her. I made one coat for Little Elecktra years ago when she was traveling around the world, but I finally managed to make another that works. Hopefully in the next few days I will have a finished doll to go with this. 

     That's about all I have at the moment. It is day 17 of NaMoPaiMo, I don't have my horse prepped and I don't own the paint I want to use. I have a feeling it's just not going to happen for me this year. But maybe I can actually get the horse prepped at some point soon. Or for next year. We'll see what happens. 
 

January Got Away From Me

       I tried to start this post on Sunday night. But Sunday got away from me. I tried to start it Monday and Tuesday as well. But those days got away from me too. And so did the month of January, which is why the January offerings for the miniatures club didn't ship until Monday afternoon. I am incredibly sorry for the delay. Everyone will be getting a surprise in their packages. 

     Part of the month getting away from me was this doll I have been working on. This is my friend, Roshay, who has been a guest instructor at some of my dance lessons. We were having a conversation a month or so ago and I said I make dolls. Besides being a dance instructor, Roshay is an artist. He is a recording artist as well as making short videos which are incredibly creative (they involve a magic notebook that brings to life anything drawn in it. The very silly storyline is basically that he ends up living with a living stick figure). He was actually trying to find a doll that kind of looks like him about a year ago, but had no luck. So I said I had a business proposition for him. I offered to make a doll that looks kind of like him in exchange for more dance lessons. He was into the idea so I made a Tiny Roshay. Now there will be another famous doll I made out in the world. That amuses me. 

      I have missed being part of an art class at school. In between helping the kids with their art I usually work on a piece of my own. This project is birch trees. These were supposed to be rough drafts to plan out a water color painting that is the actual final project. I think that drawing birch trees might just be my new favorite thing. I actually worked on my sketch for a couple of days. This was just day one. 

     The kids have been choosing to do puzzles in the afternoons a couple of times this week. They also decided that we should do puzzles with them. So the other day I worked on this fun dog puzzle. I might bring some of my puzzles in that I got when I was doing the puzzle project back when I was teaching (I would find a link but I am feeling too lazy for that at the moment). 

     This was the second day of progress on my birch tree sketch. I'm enjoying it. Today I finished the last tree and I started working on the first steps of the painting. I really enjoy the art therapy time of the day. 

      Tomorrow we have a snow day because we are expecting several inches of snow and ice. I turned off my 5:30 alarm and I plan to sleep until I wake up. As long as it's after 5:30. I am hoping to get a chunk of doll work finished and maybe read more than I usually get to. Maybe I'll have some more things to share soon. 

1/20

     Sometimes thinking of what to write about keeps me from writing at all. Sometimes trying to think of a title for the post almost keeps me from writing a post. Today is January 20, 2025. It is my mother's birthday. I called her and wished her a happy birthday in 3 languages. Then we had a very lengthy conversation about languages, learning, teaching, dance, and all sorts of other things. I told Mom my struggles and frustrations with learning Spanish. I have been working on it for more than a year and I feel I should be a lot further along. But almost every time I try to actually speak with someone in Spanish I can't remember what I need to know to communicate, I don't know half the words they are using, or I can't think of proper sentence structure. All of that makes speaking very terrifying. Which is why I should do it more. At this point, I can read a lot in Spanish and understand most of what I am reading. As long as it's fairly basic Spanish. Sometimes I can catch a lot of what is being said, if it's not too fast or doesn't have too many words that I don't know. I know I am a lot better than I was, but it is still frustrating. I have been working very hard on learning Spanish and it seems like I haven't actually made a ton of progress. 

     Dancing however is another story. I don't dance as often as I work on Spanish, I have been dancing for only about 8 months, but I know a lot more about dance than I do Spanish. I can dance with someone, and it works for both of us. I can't even hold a basic conversation in Spanish. My next goal is to learn to lead salsa, at the very least. I have led bachata a few times, but I still want to learn more advanced things as a follower. I am not as interested in dancing salsa, and am more than happy to stay at the beginner level. But if I can learn to lead beginner salsa I can help teach it. Which will give us more dancers overall. And I want everyone to dance!

    The above photo is related to nothing. It is just a cool picture of a tree on my street. We have these insane streetlights that are almost as bright as the sun and when it is foggy, this tree looks super cool in front of the terrible street light. We had a lot of fog on Saturday night. Then it snowed Sunday night. The first snow of any significance this winter. I am hoping a lot of it will melt before I actually have to clean off my car so I can go to work tomorrow. 

    As long time blog readers know, I love makeup. It is an art that I have enjoyed for years. I don't use much makeup these days because I really don't have time, and because as I get older it is hard to find products that don't end up making me look even older. Last year I discovered IL Makiage and have enjoyed that a lot. This year I took their color match quiz again, got different results than last year, and am now testing out lighter colors and a cream (which is actually a gel) that is supposed to do amazing things to hydrate your skin. And hydrated skin will not look as wrinkly. My issue these days with foundation and concealer is it often falls into my creases, which will accentuate them and make me look older. So I am testing out a couple of products and figured out if I was going to bother with makeup I might as well take a picture so I could update my Facebook photo. For anyone that is curious, this is actually a full face of makeup, just not at all dramatic. Though I can do that too. 

     New Year's Eve I woke up with a fever and ended up skipping the dance party I was looking forward to. I spent several days on my couch because I had a fever for 3 days and then, when I was thinking I could go back to work, my fever came back. So I went to urgent care and found out I had the flu. And then Travis got sick. So I stayed home for another week so both of us could get better and so we could keep our germs to ourselves. I am very grateful for Instacart so we didn't have to go into stores while we were sick. 

     With the holiday break from school and all the days I took off to get better, and get Travis better, I was off of work for 23 days. Going back was hard. But I managed it. A week ago I tried getting back to dance and did a bit and then left, but this past Friday I was finally back to normal. Being sick is hard. And a lot of people are getting the flu. One of the kids in my class was out and another may be getting sick. We found out, when I brought Travis to urgent care, that a lot of people are getting the flu now. At least for Travis and I it wasn't horrible. I had a low fever for several days, a cough, a headache because of the cough, and weakness and body aches for a few days. The cough is still lingering a bit, but at some point it will turn back into just my regular allergy cough so I won't really know when I am 100% better. 

     I have managed to get a small amount of doll work done lately. I have the above doll finished and available for sale, another hunt seat doll I don't have photos of, I finished a couple of dolls for orders (my books are still closed but I have been saying yes to a lot of orders lately), and I am currently working on a special project for a friend of mine. 

    Being sick forced me to stop doing so much and I did a lot of resting, reading, and taking it easy. I haven't slowed down in years so it has been nice. Today, when I was on the phone with my mom, I spent a lot of time doing cleaning projects that have been somewhat neglected for a bit. It felt good to clean, even though I really do not enjoy cleaning. I do enjoy a clean house so sometimes the cleaning has to get done (my house is actually always clean. Just sometimes it's really clean). I am feeling mostly back to normal now, I enjoyed the down-time, Travis and I have had more movie nights, on top of our Friday coffee dates, and I feel fairly balanced lately. January is going by more quickly than it usually does, which means it is closer to Spring. Now if I could just think of things to talk about more often, that would be awesome. 

Year End Updates

    There was a box of stickers in the teacher's lunchroom at school. I found several I liked, but I didn't actually want to stickers, so I took photos and posted them on Facebook. This one is by far my favorite of the ones I grabbed. I even like the colors.

     Let's see, there have been a lot of things going on lately. I am on vacation from school, which means that I should have more time in the day. Doesn't it? It's not true though, I do not seem to have any extra time. In fact, I have gotten less work done since I have been off than when I am at school. There is definitely some truth to "busy people get things done". But I am also really tired. I am not dealing super well with my seasonal depression this week and have spent a lot of good quality time with my couch. But I have read an entire book (and it was not a picture book) and watched a variety of movies I have not seen before. I don't celebrate Christmas but I do actually like Christmas movies. So here is a list of the new ones I watched:

Carry-On, which is on Netflix and was called the new Die Hard by some reviewer.

That Christmas, also on Netflix. We watched it in school with the kids and I showed it to Travis and he liked it too. 

8 Bit Christmas, I can't remember where I watched that one.

Spirited. I also don't remember where that was, but if you like musicals, watch it. 

Red One, it's free on Prime and may be my new favorite Christmas movie! I really like the way the storyline tackled some of the trickier aspects of the Santa Claus legends (how DOES he get to every house in the world in one night???)

    Travis also met Santa and Mrs. Claus. These are a couple of my neighbors and they wanted to put together a park-wide party. We went just to say hello. Not a lot of people were there, but it was cool anyway. 

     I was hanging out with my dog friend the other day, while spending quality time with the couch, and he was being a cat. He likes to climb up on the back of the couch to hang out and sleep. Before he was "attacking me" like he is in this photo he was judging me. Maybe because I was not up on the back of the couch. 

    My replacement pink zebra arrived from Paint Pony Studio. I still wish I knew where USPS had throw the first one. It really is a mystery to me how packages just disappear. And the postal service really doesn't even care if you get your mail or not. 

    We had a board meeting tonight and one of the members brought these notebooks for everyone on the board. It was timely because I needed to make a bunch of notes of things I needed to send to one of the lawyers and I didn't want to put them in the minutes I was typing. Plus I like the message. I believe we can buy the park, so we will (and the other people that are fighting for this believe it too). I also believe I will go to Breyerfest again next year. 

     Since Breyer let the cat out of the bag I can finally talk about this. At the next Breyerfest I will be teaching a clinic all 3 days of Breyerfest. It's a performance judging clinic (someone else will have to teach a halter judging clinic) and I think it will be a lot of fun. Before I started judging I felt I would never be able to be a judge. Then I went to a judging clinic, "judged" and all of a sudden the idea of judging wasn't terrifying anymore. I am hoping this clinic will do the same for others. And it assures that I will be in Kentucky next July! And in the horse park.

     So those are my updates. And knowing how little time I seem to have for anything, even though I am not at school, I can say this will likely be the last post I do before the new year. Unless I get my act together and do a year end doll in review. I don't know if I can handle that though, so Happy New Year!

Tired

Photo by Gretchen Haskett

     The winter is upon us, even if it's not actually winter yet. I am exhausted and barely functioning a lot of the time. Things are hard. The other day is was cold, I think the high temp reached a whopping 31 degrees. Today it was almost 60. Friday is going to be 20 I think. I wonder why we are always sick or exhausted? I don't really, I know why. 

     I have been having an issue with a student that really has me stumped. I can't really go into details about it because of privacy laws but it was really messing with my brain. I know that undesirable behaviors have a root cause; all behaviors have a root cause. And sometimes getting rid of the undesirable behavior is as simple as replacing it with an appropriate behavior. And for anyone who is getting ready to get up in arms about me saying "undesirable behavior" I do not mean stimming. I don't care if people stim. EVERYONE stims at some point or another (ever tapped a pen? Jiggled your leg? Twirled your hair? That's stimming). By undesirable I mean a behavior that gets in the way of someone's learning (or existing in the world) or is overly disruptive to others. Anyway, there is a very undesirable behavior which has permeated the entire day of this student. It is not in any one particular classroom/location or at any particular time of day. It is all day, and everywhere. Which means it does not have a simple root cause. Which makes it harder to figure out. But I may have cracked it. Or at least a way to work on it. 

       I was randomly doom scrolling on Facebook and happened to watch a short video from a woman who said 3 year olds literally do not understand the words "no" or "not" when you use them in a sentence. And I was like, what? But she demonstrated. She showed her young child an apple and a lime and said which one is not an apple. And the child pointed to the apple. The child knows what both the items are, but she does not understand the concept of a negative sentence yet. Now I do not work with 3 year olds but, from experience, I know that many of the kids I work with do not understand a negative sentence. So this child may not understand what I mean when I say "We don't ____________" They may be only hearing the "we" and the end of the sentence. It was a lightbulb moment. I still have to try this out, but I think I may be able to curb the behaviors that are negatively impacting this student and their learning. It's going to really take some thinking about, but I think this might be the key. 

     In other news, I have been working on a batch of hunt seat dolls for a bit now. I started last week and we are now almost to Wednesday and I still have not started dressing a single doll. I do finally have so many pieces prepped and ready that I may be able to finish a doll in about an hour. Which would be nice. So I am working, even though it is a super struggle, and everything is slow. Because I am tired. 

      We have 3 more days until the holiday break and I am very excited. I am excited to not have to get up at 5:30. I am excited to maybe get to stay up a bit later. I am excited by how many dance events I plan to go to over vacation. All of that excitement is also tinged by exhaustion. I really am very tired these days. Basically all the time. I need to dance more. That is about the only time I'm not tired. But it's almost Friday, which is dance night and the first night of vacation! I can't wait!

     The lovely photo above was sent to me by Gretchen Haskett after my Black Friday sale. And I have been too lazy to share it until now. Enjoy!

Black Friday Schedule

     Here is the schedule for my Black Friday sale, tomorrow, November 29, 2024. The items will post, on my Facebook studio page, at the times listed. If you want more details about the sale they are in this post. The pertinent information for each item, and how to claim, will be listed on each photo as it posts. You do not need to be at the live portion of the sale to claim. That's just to hang out with me :)

There is some special pricing for the sale! Most of the dolls are just $200, a handful are $210 and the tall cowboy is just $220! Most micros are only $25! All prices will be listed on the claim photos. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

2024 Breyerfest surprise decorator 2:05

2024 Breyerfest surprise silver bay 2:05

2022 Breyer Premier club Constantia 2:05

2024 Breyer wild animals series Mangoky 2:05

2022 stablemates club Phineas 2:05

2024 Breyerfest stablemate Lilac sky 2:10

2018 mystery horse gold filigree chase 2:10

2017 Breyerfest store special Navya 2:15

Curio Ranch mare 2:15

Pixel resin 2:15

Moxie resin 2:15

Mini Barnaby 2:15

Mini Mira 2:15

Mini Brio 2:15

Micro Sixjay 2:20

Micro Tennytoo with wings 2:20

2021 Maggies subscriber exclusive Alpheratz and Matar micros 2:20

Weatherwax micro 2:20

Rhino micro 2:20

Rhedyn micro 2:20

Escape foot Callie 2:25

Poppyseed micro 2:25

Chaos mode micro 2:25

Armstrong micro 2:25

Soldadito de Plomo micro 2:25

Castenia (no card) 2:25

Clearware medallion 2:30

Rose jump 2:30

set of pink props 2:30

blue plaid dog bed 2:30

black and white dog bed 2:30

red plaid dog bed 2:30

cross country kits 2:40

cutting chaps 2:40

backpacks 2:45

helmets 2:50

doll blankets 2:50

judge's kits 2:55

pink horse blanket 3:00

pink fly sheet and mask 3:00

apples 3:00

carrots 3:00

mystery boxes 3:00

deluxe pony sized set from Boo Saddlery 3:05

small traditional tack, broken bridle strap 3:05

Studio Maire pads 3:05

casual western black shirt 3:10

teal western pleasure 3:11

tall cowboy 3:12

hoodie doll 3:13

purple western pleasure doll 3:14

red western pleasure doll 3:15

pink western pleasure doll 3:16

small casual english purple 3:17

casual english pink breeches 3:18

navy coat hunt seat 3:19

navy coat hunt seat Lenna body 3:20

black coat hunt seat 3:21

rose western pleasure doll 3:22

small dirty cowboy 3:23

casual western red shirt 3:24

driving doll in blue 3:25

 

Thankful

     Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and it's the time of year when people think more about what they are thankful for. I am thankful for quite a lot of things. Life is a challenge a lot of the time, and things are rarely easy for me, but this year especially I feel I have a lot to be thankful for. I have always been thankful for my family, my model horse family, and my work family, but this year I get to add to that my dance family. I have a lot of really amazing people in my life.
     I am grateful I am managing to balance all of the things I need to do to make sure Travis has what he needs. Sometimes doing all the paperwork to make sure he can stay in his program, keep his insurance, etc., feels like another almost full time job. I don't imagine that will ever be easy, but it has gotten to a point where it is a lot easier. 

     I am grateful for travel. That wasn't something I was able to do for years but this year I made two trips. Travis and I went out to Kentucky for horsefest and at the beginning of this month we went out to Colorado for Candyland Live. All of the traveling I have done so far has been for model horse things, but it gives me a time and a place to go to, which is a good start. Now I want to go more places. And maybe not just places that have to do with model horses. I know I want to go to New Orleans. Maybe that one will come soon. And I am still open to going to more places to judge horse shows. I have not had interest in showing in several years now, but I have been enjoying judging again. 

      Dance has been the most amazing thing to come into my life in a very long time. I have met some truly wonderful people. Plus I found a way to get in a good workout without feeling like I am forcing myself to work out. And I never make the excuse that I don't have time to dance. There is always time for dance. And while there has occasionally been a bit of drama during a dance I have never had a bad time dancing. 

      Last Saturday I was at a friendsgiving dance party. I properly met my friend's daughter, who I have met before, but this time we played Uno, were on the same team, so now we are real friends. Before she left she asked what my favorite color is, I told her pink, and she pulled a piece of pink construction paper out of her backpack. Now this little girl is an artist and every time I have seen her she is doing some kind of art. I love that. So she gave me a piece of her paper and I promised her I would make something beautiful with it. Which is where the rose in the photo comes in. I could keep it but I think I will give it to my friend to give to his daughter when he gets home. I promised to make something beautiful, and you should always keep your promises. Especially to children. I hope she likes it.