Sometimes You Need It Now

     Sometime last week, I got a message from a friend asking if I would have any show jumper/hunter dolls in Kentucky by chance. I said that I would not be in Kentucky, but there was still time for me to make a doll and ship it. There was a bit of back and forth to work out the details and the very next day I had this doll finished. 

     Being able to get an order and make the doll by the end of a full day is not a new thing for me. I have done it before, and even had the doll to the customer in 72 hours from the time of ordering. These are things I can do. I can also wait a bit and ship the doll in a couple of days so it arrives around the same time you will arrive (yes, it is in fact slightly scary to send a doll somewhere other than a person's home or office!). Having just tracked the doll, I see that she has made it to Kentucky and should be delivered tomorrow, as planned/expected. This is good news. 

      Since I finished the doll on Tuesday, which I knew was ahead of the ship-date I had time to slack off a little bit. I asked if I needed to make spurs (I pretty much never make spurs if people don't ask for them), the answer was yes and I said that I would make them the next day. 

     So Wednesday when I started work, the first thing I did was make the spurs. They are not complex, don't take that long to make, but are not a thing I automatically make. But they are done, the doll is on her way and should arrive tomorrow. 

     Now let's talk about the other aspects of this post. I made this doll on Tuesday, which is a day I also went to work at the school. It was orientation, so I was only in from 9:00-11:00, which left me plenty of time to get home and work on the dolls. Wednesday was my first full day at school, which meant I was out at 12:15, home by 12:30 and ready to get into work by 1:00. Going to work at school, coming home and getting to work on dolls is nothing new to me. I really do work very long days, kind of often. Though these days I have been trying to work on dolls only Tuesday-Thursday. Three really long days is so much better for me than 5 (or 6) really long days. Still. there are days when I wish I could have just one job, with normal hours, that would be enough. But I don't live that kind of life, so I work a lot and try to remind myself not to work all the time. 

     OK, and what about the other, other aspect of this post? I will not be in Kentucky. Which is nothing at all new for me. Breyerfest is coming and model horse hobbyists are already heading out for it. Some are getting to Kentucky early for NAN (the national show) and some are getting there early just to have some extra time in Kentucky. Or making stops along the way. But I'll be in Massachusetts, just like I am every July. There have been years that that has really bothered me. I got some super serious FOMO and would spend a ton of time on Facebook looking at everyone's photos and wishing I was there with them. This year I don't have that. At least not currently. There is nothing in particular I want from Breyer, so the models themselves are not a draw. There is nothing in particular I want for other hobby pieces either, so those are not necessarily a draw. Though I have seen a couple of painted micros that are amazing, that I really love, that are only available for people shopping in person at Breyerfest. There are often quite a lot of beautiful pieces of art, tack, and so on, that can only be had at Breyerfest, whether or not it is at the artisan's gallery or during room sales. And I always miss out on those things. Which is OK since I still don't really have the desire to buy anything or show. I am still in kind of a weird place. 

      But within the last couple of days I have had the tiniest of shifts. I was listening to the Mares in Black show about the upcoming FAMulous show and Lynn was telling about her start in the hobby with photo showing. And I got to thinking about photo showing. Which is weird because while I have done lots of photo showing over the years, I really don't love photo showing. I figured out how to be really good at live showing. I have not yet quite figured out what is missing from my photo show photos. Sometimes I do well, and sometimes I really don't. Though after picking apart some of my show photos, not individually but AGAINST each other, I think I have learned some things. So the weird shift is that I sort of want to take some performance photos. Sort of. Not that I have any way to do that currently. All of my props and dolls are in a storage locker at the moment. Sure, I could go and pick them up, but then I would have to also go through tacking up horses, setting up entries, fiddling with the entries over and over until they are "perfect"... and then there is the uploading of photos to see if they are in fact great (or even just good) photos. That sounds like a lot of work. That does not currently sound fun. So I have gotten as far as thinking about maybe doing some performance pictures sometime in the near (or distant) future. And Breyerfest is next weekend. Maybe I will become inspired then.