Tail End of 2020

        I know that a lot of people likely write their blogs and then post them immediately after. I have done that in the past, but for most of 2020 I liked to have several posts scheduled ahead of time, with a post ready to go live at 5:30 a.m. every day (though I have to schedule them for 2:30 since I think blogger is on pacific time). I had a blogging goal in 2019, it was to post more often. More often turned into nearly every day, and by the end of the year I had published 296 posts. For 2020 my goal was to post every day. I accomplished that with a total of 375 posts. Some days got two posts. I don't have a specific blogging goal for 2021. I will continue to try to post every day though. I have had several people say they read the blog every morning. Routines can be important, I don't want to mess with anyone's morning routine. I'll try not to be too boring. 

      I have just discovered that blogger seems to be off on when I published things. It says that The Doll Army was posted on December 31, 2020. Which, it was actually posted January 1st 2021. That is frustrating. And it is going to mess with my total count for the year. Anyway, as I said in Field of Dolls Year in Review, I did have some more dolls in the works that I was hoping to finish by the end of the year. I managed to pull it off. This western pleasure doll was a custom order. I really like how the top turned out and might need to do another random overlay design again. They are fun and every single one of them turns out differently. 

      I also finished this custom order for a western pleasure doll. I have done this design a couple of times, but always on a different color. I think it is very classy. It is also super sparkly in person, which makes me happy. Since it is all freehand none of them are identical either. 

     This hoodie doll was a custom order. I am getting pretty good at the fully haired heads while keeping the hair in scale. I like that. Anyone who has known me for a bit knows that scale is a big deal to me. 

       I also finished up this last random sales doll for 2020. She has 3 different colors of hair and brings my hoodie doll total for 2020 up to 19. Which matches the number of western pleasure dolls. Western pleasure is usually the most popular type of doll, and often I make noticeably more of those than any other kind. But 2020 was not a typical year at all. I think this year I will work on many more casual dolls of all kinds. More hoodie dolls, more casual western and casual English dolls. I might start to do most casual dolls automatically fully haired with removable hats and helmets. Many people have been having fun just playing with their dolls and the option to have a doll without a hat or helmet is likely something most people would be into. It takes longer to do the hair that way, but not too much longer. 

      I looked back at old posts and in 2013 I made 176 dolls (holy cow!) 2014 I made 145 dolls. 2015 I made 135 dolls. I didn't do a post for 2016 apparently (I could check my book... but I don't want to) 2017 I finished 57 dolls. 2018 I made 93 dolls. 2019 I made 121 dolls. 2020 brought 141 dolls. Clearly in 2013 I was not working at the school yet. 

      There are definitely times of year, and years in general, where I am more prolific with my doll making. When I am getting ready for my live sales I will work a lot more, to try to have as much of a variety as I possibly can. Though some years I clearly just am more focused than others. Still, I have been making dolls for a lot of years and I don't foresee stopping any time soon. Even when I am sometimes a little lazy about it.