Year in Review 2019

     I have heard a lot of people say that 2019 was a rough year for them. Actually, I have probably heard thing every year. I was looking through photos (and fighting with my printer while trying to update the finished dolls book) and I was looking at photos from throughout the year. Here are some highlights of my 2019

     In February I participated in NaMoPaiMo and painted Hugh. I am ridiculously proud of him. 

     This was the year I made Link for Jackie Rossi. He debuted at Candyland Live and has had lots of adventures since then. 

     I made a doll in full armor this year. Now no doll idea scares me. I'll figure it out. 

There were other unusual dolls this year as well.

This was the year Crystal and I made more effort to get together

and made sure to take a photo or two each time. 

It makes me happy how many photos of the two of us I have now. These are just a small sample. 

This was the year that Travis got to tour a fire station, thanks to my friend Brenda Bednar. 

I got to watch Travis rock the state championships for Unified track.

And I got to see him rock a graduation gown.

We went to Comic Con in Brooklyn

Where I got to meet Roberto Williams, who I had been working with on a doll project. 

     I did another elaborate group photo of dolls, including a blog post showing how I make these happen. 

I made a ridiculous amount of tiny candy. 

     Thanks to some really excellent friends, I got to sell dolls in new places. Jackie Rossi brought dolls to Breyerfest for me. 

Fabian modeled some dolls at Breyerfest.

Then for The Jennifer Show, Fabian sold dolls for me. I really have some amazing friends!

I had another big sale at TRXC, though this time I did my own selling. 

     And Elecktra and I went to the first, but hopefully not last, model horse swap meet in the area. It was definitely a cool experience. 

     I went to a show on Long Island, which I have meant to do for years but didn't think I could handle the 3 and a half hour drive. I handled it, and that was what gave me to confidence to go to other places that are a bit further than I am used to. 

     I did show at a handful of other shows throughout the year. And I sometimes even remembered to get award photos. 

I tried to make sure to bring my A game to shows. 

         And I did pretty well accomplishing that goal. It was not a perfect year for showing, but it was good. 

      I decided since the longer drives didn't bother me too much that I could take longer road trips to see Friends. So I went to hang out with Maire. 

     And another time I went to hang out with Jackie. I hope next year will also have some roadtrips to visit more friends!

      In 2019 I got not 1...

not 2...

     But 3 photos with Ethan. He hates having his picture taken so this is likely the most I have gotten in one year since our wedding. 

     I got this excellent photo of a group of OG showers at a really cool show in October. 

Larry Nichols, me, Marisa Spence, Ann Giles and Michelle Grieder

I got a new sister-in-law. I am thrilled by this!

I got to be a unicorn with Angelique. We wore these all day at school. 

     I had my first ever live sale on Black Friday on Facebook. It was a bit terrifying going in, but it was fun once I got started.

It was also very thirsty work. 

    Originally when I thought about doing this post the plan was to give a rundown of what dolls I made this year with some doll photos. So let's get into that. I made:

2 side saddle dolls

3 cross country dolls

4 dressage dolls

4 showmanship dolls

5 saddleseat dolls

6 driving dolls

8 youth dolls

9 casual English dolls

11 casual western dolls

12 cowboys

13 hunt seat dolls

18 "other" dolls

26 western pleasure dolls

for a total of 121 dolls in 2019

I figured it would be interesteresting (at least to me) to see a monthly breakdown. So here we go:

January 8

February 10

March 8

April 9

May 5

June 18

July 13

August 14

September 9

October 17

November 2

December 6

     You can really tell when I was getting ready for big sales! I have had an interesting year and it was actually full of some new things for me and definitely a lot of fun. Not everything was perfect but I had a really good year. I hope that 2020 will be another amazing year. Happy New Year!

Family Time

      Crystal has been my sister for a long time. I can't even think how many years. She's always there for me, even when it is tough for her. Saturday we got together to exchange gifts. She had a terrible migraine but came out anyway. Crystal, I love you so much!  And I am proud of us for being much better with our photos lately! Since we decided to take at least one picture together every time we saw each other, I think we have remembered most of the time. Now we have so many more photo :)

      We didn't hang out for a super long time, we did a gift exchange in the car and we went and did some errands and shopping. And as usual, it was a lot of fun! I am really glad we have been not only remembering to take photos more often, but also remembering to make time to see each other more often. 

      Yesterday was the family Christmas party over at my parents' house. There were a lot of people there! Not all of the family was even there. But most of us are not little kids anymore and the house is not huge. It gets really warm (super hot) in there during parties. Are you ready for a whole lot of photos of people that look a lot like me? Let's start off with my Travis picture. I'm sure he and I have more photos together than anyone else. 

     This is my Dad holding Mickey. I think he was consoling him after Edmin left Mickey on the floor. I mentioned to Dad that we really need to start up our monthly lunches again. Which is tricky since I work during the day. He said Saturday breakfasts would work. I agree. 

     Here's Edmin and Lisa, with Jack, Dad, and my brother Bernard in the background. 

      Me and Mini Me (Elecktra)

     Me and Lisa (my new sister-in-law). One of the few people in the house yesterday that doesn't look like me. 

     My niece Maddie and I. How did she get to be 15? 

     My brother John and I. I don't think he ever takes normal photos. He's always making a funny face of some kind. I don't know how he wasn't melting in that flannel.

     Elecktra and Edmin. Lisa was telling me to hurry up and get the cute picture and I was trying to change the settings on the phone. Edmin had already escaped but Elecktra scooped him back up. 

      My nephew Jack opening a gift. Dad is trying to find a space in the room and Bernard is opening a gift almost standing in the kitchen. 

      Maddie installed herself in this chair when they first showed up. She knows that seats are at a premium during parties. This chair is at the edge of the kitchen and living room, so she can be with everyone during gift opening. And she could probably have her sister, Gabby, pass her food if she was hungry. 

     And this is Gabby. She's my oldest niece. I spent a lot of time taking care of her when she was little. I have tons of baby pictures of her, but not nearly enough of her grown up. We need to work on that. 

      Here's Edmin opening some gifts. He was absolutely thrilled with the books I got him. 

     Me and my nephew Jack. Apparently I am magical for making him smile and John (his dad) wanted to know how I did it. I said I whispered to Jack "take a picture with me, I just gave you money." and apparently he thought it was funny (which, I meant it to be funny). He told me he is saving up all his GameStop gift cards to buy collectibles. That is awesome!

Elecktra and her boyfriend Peter. Demonstrating the lack of seating at the party. 

       Maddie, John and Mom. 

     When we got home I taught Travis about scratch tickets, because he got some as part of a gift. When he opened the card it struck me that he really is old enough for scratch tickets. How did all these kids get to be so grown? So Travis scratched his tickets (very enthusiastically) and he won $3. 

      2019 is quickly coming to a close. It kind of snuck up on me. I think I will do a doll year in review. It would be fun to figure out how many dolls of each type I have made. I should update my doll photo book and start counting.