Small Business Saturday

     Yesterday, I held another semi-live sale for Field of Dolls Studio. Then, Travis and I went out for coffee and hung out at Barnes and Noble for a bit. The manager of Starbucks is a friend of ours and she was very into my makeup. Since I never wear full makeup these days, she has never seen me with more than eyeliner and mascara. But I told her, I have to put on makeup to do a live sale, or I look kind of sick on camera. And if I am going to do makeup I am going to do ALL the makeup. Because it's fun and I enjoy it. It's also good to know I can still do a good job even though I almost never do it these days. 

     Anyway, we got our books and came home and we ate some Thanksgiving leftovers. Then I got to work again. Because I can't help myself. Anyone who sent me their email address and the country they live in, as requested, has already received their invoice. I have a handful that haven't sent the info yet, but hopefully sometime today. I would like to get all the invoicing wrapped up and work on packing stuff. It would be excellent if I could be finished with everything (mostly) by Monday!

     OK, so it's small business Saturday and seeing as Field of Dolls Studio is just me, I qualify as a small business. Not everything sold during the semi-live yesterday so I put together this post with what I still have. Including the micros, minis, and premier horse that I am selling from my own collection. Same as the Black Friday sale shipping is flat rate. US shipping is $10, Canada is $15, and everywhere else is $20. That will ship absolutely everything you claim. 

     If you are interested in any of the items in this post please send me an email to fieldofdolls@gmail.com. And tell me if you want your invoice to a different email address than the one you sent me the email from, AND I need to know the country you live in. Even if you are 1000% sure I already know it. It's so much faster for me to have the information in front of me. I will try to keep this post updated as things are claimed. Thanks for looking and thanks for supporting my small business!

Alpheratz and Matar- 80
Castenea (no card)- 20
All other unpainted micros- 25 each
Jewel- 40
Sixjay-100

Ellington-30
Novya-35
Gold Filigree- 40
SM Club Tobias- 20
G2 Appy SM- 7
SM Club Shelburne- 20
SM club Phineas- 20

Premier Club Constantia- 150

Mini Ranch Mare- 375
Pixel-125
Moxie-200
Mini Barnaby-325
Mini Mira-275
Mini Brio-250

Apples or Carrots, 5 each, I have a bunch of each. 

Casual English doll in pink breeches-220

Removable helmet with harness-15

Red, purple, and green girths are sold- Bareback pads- 40 each

6" western youth doll-230. I can be talked into making her removable chaps (SOLD)

Cat beds-12 each (SOLD)

Blue stripes (SOLD) Dog beds- 12 each

Cowboys- 220 each

brown chaps are sold

Black with horses (SOLD) Backpacks- 25 each

3E available

12, 13, 14 and 16 are sold

All are SOLD

MC2 and LC3 are sold

Mystery boxes (I have a bunch left)- 25 each

Semi-live sale catalog 2023

     As promised, here is the catalog, with the sales schedule, for the 2023 Black Friday Live sale. I may very well have things posted from my personal collection, but as of right this second (I wrote this on Monday) I haven't gotten any of that together. The photos will post, on my studio page on Facebook, at the times I have listed in this post. I will "love" your comment if you are the first to comment your claim. For an exhausting amount of detail on how a semi-live sale works, please see this post 

apples or carrots. Set of 4, $5 each (I have several of each)

Casual English dolls $230 each

Removable helmets with harness $15 each

Bareback pads $40 each

Western Pleasure dolls $240 each

Youth dolls $230 each

Cat bed and toy $12 each

Dog bed and two toys, $12 each set

casual cowboy dolls $220 each

Men’s cutting chaps $40 each

Backpacks $25 each

English dolls, $230 each

Messenger bags $25 each

Casual western ladies $220 each

Ladies cutting chaps $40 each

Saddlebag sets $75 each

Mystery boxes $25 each

The schedule:

3:00- I go live

3:05- apples and carrots

3:10- English casual dolls

3:15- removable helmets

3:20- bareback pads

3:25- western pleasure dolls

3:35- youth dolls

3:40- cat beds

3:45- dog beds

3:50- cowboys

3:55- men's chaps

4:05- backpacks

4:10- English dolls

4:15- messenger bags

4:20- casual western dolls

4:25- ladies chaps

4:30-saddlebags

4:40- mystery boxes

 

Semi-Live sale rundown 2023

  I have done this post before, three at least, since this is not my first semi-live sale. Here is the link to the original post. I thought it might be slightly confusing since it was specific to the last sale. So I copied and pasted it into a new post and will edit it to make it relevant to the upcoming sale. If something doesn't make sense please let me know. Hopefully I will have time to answer. 

     My plan is to have a sales catalog published, here in the blog, this Wednesday. Maybe Thursday if time gets away from me. The blog catalog and other advertising photos (if I get around to those) will be posted in groups, like the photo below. They will not have group letters on them, I am not doing that this time, you can tell that bareback pads are a group, backpacks another, and so on. Though they will also have prices on them since that was a request. When I publish the schedule there will also be prices, in case anyone wants to plan out their budget. 

     The order I have them posted in the catalog will be the order the photos will go up on my studio page on sale day. I will have claim codes on the photos so when the photo pops up all you have to do is comment UNDER THE PHOTO the claim code. If you are the first to claim that particular item it goes to you. No matter what your internet speed, 3:00 (or the comparable time in your time zone) is 3:00 for everyone. The photos show up at the same time for everyone. Since you will have already seen the groups and how they are laid out you will know exactly where to look in each photo so you can see the claim code (which is not easily guessable, for fairness) and then just type that into the comments.

     At 3:00 next Friday, November 24th, I am going to go live on my studio page on Facebook. I will not be showing you any of the items I have for sale. At 3:05(probably) the photo of the first group of items will be posted on my studio page. You are more than welcome to watch me dance around in my room and pack bags. I am sorry to say I am much more chill during a semi-live sale. I still try to keep it fun. I still sing the alphabet and I will drink seltzer. You cannot claim items by commenting on my live video. No claims count if you say them to me. Literally the only reason to watch me do the live is to have some interaction. As of this moment (this was written on Sunday) I am not doing trivia. But I want to, so if I can come up with questions I will have trivia. Or maybe I will just randomly find reasons to give out some prizes. But to be clear, you do not actually have to WATCH me at the semi- live sale to claim things. 

      So let me now explain in greater detail how you claim an item. Let's say you are looking at the micro pouches in group B and you absolutely LOVE the pouch with the pink unicorns. You know that is one you want to try for and the schedule tells you group B will be posted at 3:10. So at 3:10 you are refreshing your device like a crazy person and I am hanging out in my room talking to myself and calmly drinking my seltzer. You hit refresh over and over and then the group B photo is up! You see that the pouch you want is 55 so under the photo of group B (the photo with the claim codes) you comment 55. Really, it is that easy. And if you were the first person to comment 55, you will be the one that gets the pouch. Which I will say out loud on the live portion of the sale where I am chilling and casually packing bags and not running around like a crazy person. I will also "love" your comment so you know you are in fact the first person and the winner of the item. Easy, right?

      My plan is to probably have groups post about every 3-5 minutes.  All the groups are somewhat small so I have enough time to write on bags and sort items before the next batch comes up. I will also schedule in 5 minute breaks where no photos are going up, which will give me some time to catch up if I have gotten behind. The basic rule is the first person to claim (It may or may not be the same order on everyone's device so I am still going by what shows first on my screen) will get the item. In the first 5 minutes the group is listed you may only claim one item from the group. So let's say group A goes live at 3:05. You can only claim one of the bareback pads. When group B goes live at 3:10 (so, 5 minutes later) if there is anything unclaimed from group A you can make a second claim from that group. Doing it this way makes it more fair for everyone. 

     So that is the basic idea. Claims only count if they are comments on the photo, the one with the claim codes, on my Facebook studio page, and if they are the first one. You may only claim one item per group for the first 5 minutes the group is listed. After the first 5 minutes anything unclaimed is fair game, even if you already claimed an item from that group. There are times during the semi-live sale where I get a little backed up (usually because I am talking...) and I may not get to a claim photo to "love" comments for several minutes. I will get to it, and announcing, as quickly as I can. 

     It really is pretty simple. All of the available items will be posted, with prices, on the blog, prior to the day of the sale. I will get a schedule out too so you know exactly when you need to check my studio page for what you want. You are more than welcome to watch the live portion, which is me hanging out in my room, singing the alphabet, and drinking seltzer. You don't actually have to watch, though I likely will have great makeup. All the claiming will be done on my studio page. If you only want to watch me dance around, you can. 

     So another burning question might be, how can we be in two places at once? How can we watch the studio page for the photos and also watch the live stuff? HOW??? Well, the easiest way is to have 2 devices, which is what I will have. I do the filming with my phone on a tripod and I put my laptop on a box and watch the page that way. Two devices is super easy. OR you can split your screen. I don't think you can do that on a phone or a tablet. But I know for a fact you can do it on a computer. And I am not going to teach you that. I taught enough people how to split their screen. You are on your own to Google that one. 

     Please let me know if you have any questions on how the semi-live sale works. 

Miniatures, Updates, and Goal

    Apparently I have been busy. I set up this post on November 1st and then... life happened. Life happened without giving anyone the updates I meant to. So here we go, updates time. 

     I started running again October 15th, after my friend super politely called me out on my bullshit. I had not been running, I had been making lots of excuses not to. And yes, I absolutely would feel better if I ran again. All of that stuff was true. So I started running again. It sucked but I didn't die. So I did it again, and again. Sometimes on the track, sometimes in my road (that sucks a lot!) and sometimes in the woods. It was still kind of hard but it was getting easier. I got myself an accountability buddy. And then I held myself accountable. But I could feel the excuses getting ready to come back in. Trying to leave the house for a run is not as easy as just going outside. I have to make sure that either I am back before Travis will be getting home, in the few minutes a day when I am here before he gets home. Or I have to make sure he has shoes on, which he takes off the second he walks in the door. I have to get him to get in the car, which is not as easy as it sounds because that is almost always the time he decides he needs the bathroom and then he has to find whatever giant action figure he is bringing with him in the car. And yeah, a half hour run really quickly turns into an hour and a half of my day. And I really do not have that kind of time to spend on... anything. Unless it is work of some kind. 

    So the excuses started creeping in and I kept running because I have an accountability buddy. But I could see this not being sustainable. So I bought a treadmill. It folds up and I can put it in my closet when I am not using it. And it's pink, which helps. It takes maybe 2 minutes to take it out, pop up the handle, and put in the two side screws. It takes me maybe 2 minutes to change into running clothes and put on sneakers. And then I can run. And it might take me the length of an episode of Doctor Who. Usually less. And now I want to run. The first run was iffy. I still struggled to keep a pace that was more than walking for very long. Then I had a decent run, followed by a really bad one. And then something happened. I have no idea what. But all of a sudden I ran a full mile without slowing to a walk. It was not a fast mile, but it was a mile of actual running. I think the difference was music. Travis was watching TV so I couldn't watch Doctor Who, so I put in my earbuds. And I started finding a play list, in my running playlist, that helped me keep pace with the running. It was fantastic! The next run I fiddled a bit more with the playlist and I ran 1.1 miles without slowing to a walk. My last run I tweaked my playlist a bit more and ran a mile and a half without slowing to a walk! So I am definitely making progress. I am also mad and motivated. I had to buy larger pants because of the weight I gained. I am mad about that and mad about how I feel (I hurt all the time). So I am going to fix it. And I am not going to make any more excuses. Soon I will hit two miles of actual running and I will be really excited about that. Then maybe I can work on a slightly faster pace. But one step at a time (lol, one step...)

     I have no idea really what I was going to talk about in this post when I set it up. I made bareback pads, I think I have 6 of them. They will be available at my Black Friday Live sale. Which is this coming Friday, November 24, 2023 at 3:00 pm EST on my studio page on Facebook. I am going to be posting photos of the items I have available, on Facebook, between now (either in a little while or tomorrow) and probably Tuesday... maybe into Wednesday. I have no idea just yet. I also have been posting to Instagram which cross posts to Facebook. So you will see things. Maybe people will get sick of seeing my posts. Feast or famine, that is how I do my posting it seems. Anyway, tomorrow (likely) I will post the 2023 version of the how a semi-live sale runs blog post. I may also cross post that to my studio page on Instagram and Facebook. Just so people see it and know that there is a place where I explain how everything works. 

     I like to have one new miniature item every time I do a live sale. I don't know if I came up with new things the last time, I barely remember my last live sale. I think it was probably last year on Black Friday. It's amazing how much happened this year and how little time I had for... everything. But I did come up with these little messenger bags. I love them so much!

     There will be some hunt seat dolls, though not this hunt seat doll. She sold before I even posted her anywhere. Someone asked if I had any. I did. It sold. That's how things go a lot of the times these days. I actually usually have some dolls in stock. And if I run out of a certain type of very common doll, like hunt seat dolls, I make more. I will have 3 at the live sale this year. 

     Ethan and Travis carved this very cool Jack O' Lantern (and Travis said his name is Jack O' Lantern) for Halloween and Ethan got this very cool photo. I was very upset to see that Halloween was immediately erased from all the stores the day after, or even before. And then everything was Christmas. The stores have been playing Christmas music since November 1st. I can barely stand to stay in Barnes and Noble for my Friday coffee dates with Travis. But I will put up with a lot of things for that guy. Including way too early Christmas music. 

    Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Christmas. I don't hate Christmas music. I don't celebrate Christmas (for anyone that is curious I celebrate Yule or the winter solstice). I do celebrate get together with my family, because they all celebrate Christmas and it's a good excuse, but that is all about the get-together for me. I do gifts for New Year's Day. Anyway, I do actually enjoy Christmas music, for maybe a week. In December. Not starting the day after Halloween.

     I will be publishing a detailed catalog of my Black Friday sales items on Wednesday (probably Wednesday) or Thursday if Wednesday gets away from me. I have the photos in the post, but we now know that sometimes I do that and then forget to write the post. So my plan is to put up a post tomorrow or Tuesday with the details of how a semi-live sale runs. And then Wednesday or Thursday morning I will publish the actual schedule (exact times and everything) of when each photo will go live on Friday. And any other details that I feel are pertinent to the sale. 

     So those are my current updates. I have been working like crazy because after this week I am going to take it easy. Maybe. I always say that and then it doesn't necessarily happen. But I am going to try. Not for a super long time, I will need to keep creating things. At some point soon I need to get photos of finished jewelry that hasn't made it up on my website yet. I am thinking I might have a Black Friday sale over there as well. But I need to put stuff up. So much to do! More posts coming soon. 

Salem Night Faire 2023

     On Friday, Travis and I had our usual coffee date and then he and I, along with our friend Brandi, headed to Salem. Traffic on the Mass Pike makes no sense and people slow down to a crawl for no apparent reason. So the two hour trip out to Salem took 3 hours. But we had a good time. The moon was one day from full, so it was very cool to see. And it was crazy warm, still 75 degrees at 8:00pm. For a comparison, it's about 8:30 pm now, just 5 days later, and it's 35 degrees. Massachusetts weather is weird. It was actually snowing a bit this morning. 

    The weather for Night faire was so gorgeous that there were more people there than last year. At 8:00, 3 hours after the faire opened, there was still a very long line to get in. But even our wait in line was fun. I do love hanging out with Brandi! And so does Travis. She's one of the people he asks to see. 

     There is plenty to see at Night Faire.

      Including the Sanderson sisters. The Salem Pioneer Village is the location where the beginning of Hocus Pocus was filmed. 

      There are a lot of different oracles and performers at the faire. 

    Including this ghoul playing guitar.

    This oracle, the one Travis named "tall spooky" is Travis's favorite. He still did not go up to him to get a fortune. Maybe next year. He did have a good time standing around watching him. 

     I got a fortune from this oracle. It was a tarot card, so I had to interpret it myself. 

We got some selfies right before we left to head home. 

   Honestly, I am amazed at how decent these photos are considering it was full dark and there were no lights where we took these. The magic of iPhone, lol. 

    I enjoyed the Salem Night Faire last year and it was especially fun this year since Brandi came with us. Hopefully she can come again next year, and hopefully Elecktra will be able to come again as well. If we could also get good weather again that would be just about perfect. 
 

Interesting Things

       Basically, I have been working for the last 10 days straight. Some days, like today, were actually longer than others. But different than the usual day, so it only sort of seemed like a long day. This morning I made this dog bed, got my unpainted GSD, and posted this photo on Instagram and Facebook. People are very interested in the dog. I still don't remember where I got him, though I am sure someone knows where they come from. 

     Last week I didn't do any doll work because I was making jewelry, setting up displays (and timing how long it took me) and getting ready for a festival where I would be selling my jewelry. 

     I have, again, been having a lot of fun wrapping stones. I also have been having a really good time finding interesting stones to wrap. Which has lead me to pay regular retail prices for stones more often than I like. But I have found some really cool things. 

     I am also doing reasonably well at not just wrapping everything in silver, which is my preferred color of wire to use. But the bright copper looks really nice with this pink jasper. 

     And the antique copped looks really nice with this flamestone. I made a variety of other jewelry as well, put velvet on some displays, and generally focused on jewelry. It was a nice break from the doll work. 

     Then this past weekend I was selling my jewelry, both Saturday and Sunday. I also brought all of my jewelry making stuff with me, in case someone wanted a particular charm with a particular gemstone. I made someone a dragon pendant while she watched, I made a choker for another lady, who also happens to work in Chicopee (where I live) and was excited to find out I am a paraprofessional. She wants me to come work at her school. It sounds like an interesting challenge, but I couldn't afford the extreme pay cut. I wonder how schools think they will get decent paras when they pay so little. My district is one of the lower paid in the area, and this private school pays even less! Yes, I am a para because I like helping people, but I do also like to eat, so I guess I will stay where I am, with the team that I really love working with. 

     I had some people asking me if I had a particular stone, sometimes I had them in my stash, and sometimes I didn't. I ended up wrapping 4 stones for people on Sunday, 1 was from my stash, and 3 were purchased from the main shop where the festival was held. I also wrapped several stones just to keep busy. By the end of the day I had wrapped at least 7 stones, but maybe 8, and my hands were tired. They were still a bit sore on Monday. I decided not to work after school on Monday. Which was nice. That followed into Tuesday. But still, I have worked for the last 10 days straight and I am tired. 2 more days to go and then it's the weekend. I am not working this weekend. 

     I bought this really cool painting from another artist at the festival. She does a variety of different types of paintings, but this was a poured painting, with textures! So not only do the colors coordinate perfectly with the rest of my bedroom, but this painting is really fun to look at. 

     At the end of my longer-than-average studio day today (I was getting a new furnace installed so I stayed home and worked in the studio) I managed to make 10 dog beds, 6 bareback pads that still need girths, and most of a huntseat doll that did not make it into this photo because she was not dressed enough at the time I took this. I worked a VERY long day. 

     Tomorrow I am aiming to finish the hunt seat doll and the bareback pads. We'll see if I can manage it or not. I had some people at the festival on Sunday asking how I could make the jewelry so quickly, or wrap the stones so fast. I said if you do anything enough, you get really fast. I can wrap a stone in about 20-30 minutes at this point. Even while I am talking. And I can make dolls and accessories extremely quickly, especially when I am focused. Some good had to come of 17 years of doll making practice!

     The dog beds, bareback pads, and the saddle bags I have not talked about in a while will be available at my Black Friday live sale that I am planning to have. That's about a month from now. So likely I will be making some more miniature items, I have a lot of miniatures coming for mystery boxes, I have some dolls already in my stash and plan on making more, it should be a good time. I guess now I also have to hunt up some prizes and figure out some trivia! Time to be determined for the sale. More information soon(ish). 

It's Been a Minute

     It's been a bit since I have posted. I have been extremely tired lately, and I don't know if that is from not getting great sleep, which I am not, if it's from the very challenging days we often have in school, which we have, or if it's the seasons changing. I just know I am tired. I have been working on dolls, and I post them usually on my studio page on Facebook. I think also on MH$P, but I may have forgotten to do that a few times. These little barnrat kids are the latest dolls I finished. They are both still available. 

     This week was all working on jewelry and things related to jewelry. I have a festival this weekend, in Simsbury, CT, where I will be selling. It's at The Bell and Raven if you are interested in stopping by. It's frustrating that it is supposed to rain all weekend. So the entire festival will be inside. But getting stuff from the car, into the space, is not going to be a dry affair. I'll just have to be quick I guess. 

     This hunt seat lady is also available. She has an ad with a lot more photos on MH$P. 

     I have some pretty excellent friends. Recently, one of them super politely called me out for not running. It was done in such a way that I couldn't possibly get defensive about it. He asked if I had been running lately and I said no, I haven't. He asked why not and I said because I get home from school and have to work in my studio because I need to make money since everything is expensive. He said that sounds like excuses. I said they are excuses. He reminded me that I probably would feel better if I started running again, I loved it so much after all. Well crap, how can you argue with that? So last Sunday I started running again. It was hard, since it really has been since about April since I did any running. But I managed 2 incredibly slow miles, and posted about it on Instagram. Another friend messaged to see if I wanted an accountability buddy. I almost said no, because if you have an accountability buddy you actually have to do the thing you say you are going to do, because they will be checking in. So I said yes, since clearly it is way too easy to make excuses not to run. 

    Tuesday I ended up doing 1/3 of a mile SPRINT through the school after a student. I only know how far it was because I measured the distance the next day. I was impressed I went that fast, for that long, I usually can't go that fast for that long of a distance. Or even slow for that much of a distance all at once (right now, I will get there) but when you need to chase a kid, sometimes what you can normally do, or not do, goes right out the window. It felt like a reminder from the universe that I really need to get back into training. 

    Other than being really tired and not getting amazing sleep, things have been pretty good. School is going well, and even with the variety of challenges we have, my team works really well together. If we have an issue, everyone just knows what to do, without the teacher having to say what we should do or where we should be. She took note of that last week when there seemed like there would be an issue. It's nice to be part of a team that works so seamlessly together. And it's nice to have the acknowledgment that we are doing great things. 

    So no doll work happened this week since I was prepping for the festival, but this week, or next week, I am going to be back to focusing on dolls. It's really not that far until Black Friday and I am planning on holding another live sale. I do have a bunch of dolls and saddlebags, but I would like to have more dolls, and more of a variety of miniature items to offer. So what would everyone like to see for miniature items? I am not totally sure what I want to make and I am open to suggestions.