Blogging is Hard

     Blogging is hard. Basically you are talking to yourself and hoping people are listening. It's actually sort of like teaching I guess. I have noticed that fewer and few people have been reading my blog lately. Maybe blogging is going out of fashion. Maybe I am just super boring, anything is possible. The most read post of recent date was the cost vs price post I did several days ago. That one had several hundred views. The post from a couple of days ago had 30. I'm not saying that I don't appreciate every one of those 30 readers, I certainly do, but it is hard to keep going when the readers keep getting fewer and fewer. I am definitely going to try to stick out the rest of the year with at least one post every day, it was a goal after all, but then maybe I will go to once or twice a week. I haven't decided yet. 

     I have even more frustrations with eBay these days. The person who won my volunteer model didn't pay, so I offered the model as a second chance. At this point I have now offered it at a second chance to several of the under-bidders. One actually sent me a message that she already won an auction for one and the others have just ignored me. The model is still unsold and I am vaguely frustrated. Then the person that won my 7 arts surprise model didn't pay, I sent a reminder invoice, nothing, and more than a week passed. So I finally canceled the transaction and sent out a second chance offer on that one. I am not holding my breath. 

     School started for Travis yesterday and that went well. Though it was so hard for me to get out of the parking lot at the end of the day that his bus got here before I did. Ethan was home (but only on Tuesdays), and I know the drivers will wait for me, but it is super frustrating. I get stuck because very entitled parents clog up the faculty parking lot (not in parking spaces, literally blocking people in) instead of going into the pickup lanes to wait like they are supposed to. It's stressful, I don't like being late. 

     I am still managing to take time off from dolls this week. So I am slowly sharing photos of dolls I finished up last week. When I run out of those I will have to think of something else for photos. Because a blog post without photos just seems wrong. Anyway, so far school is going pretty well, I mostly like the teachers I am working with and am figuring out there are more crossovers in the classes. I didn't notice on the first day that I have a few of the same kids in more than one class because there are a lot of people. But I am starting to learn what people's eyes look like (we are all still in masks) and I was reading the class rosters, which also helps. But so far so good. I am still really tired, but that is to be expected. Just 3 more days this week and then a nice long weekend. It sounds wonderful. 

 

Tuesday

     School started yesterday. For me. Travis starts today. My day was OK, but weird in some ways. One way it was weird was the classes are shorter again. And we have 7 of them, all in one day. The passing periods are also back down to 4 minutes from the 12 they were last year. I am not a fan. The 12 minutes was more than I needed to collaborate quickly with my co-teachers and get to my next class (usually). 4 minutes is long enough to go immediately to the next class but definitely not long enough to say more than bye to the teacher you were just with, definitely not long enough to go to the bathroom, and certainly not long enough to text or email any of the people I work with. I have a teacher I work with who likes to smugly say that she doesn't use her phone during class. Must be nice to get to STAY IN THE ROOM and not have to run across the school over and over. Some of us use the time they have, when they have it. I also am lucky enough to often have to try to do 2-3 things at once. So yeah, I take my phone out during class. I also am really good at multitasking and helping people, even when my attention is divided. 

     Anyway, last week I hustled to finish up my current orders so I could take some time off this week without feeling guilty about it. Anyone who has been here more than a minute knows I am bad at time off. So I really pushed to get things done. I made this pretty cool western doll and I like how she came out. 

     Vests come in and out of fashion in the real horse world and I have lost track now of whether they are in or out. But Model horses are their own world. So anyway, her vest comes off and she can work pretty well as a working cowgirl. Even though she is technically wearing pleasure chaps. I do actually really love the look with the vest. I wasn't sure if I could make the fringe work, or if I would like it, but I think it looks nice. And it really transforms the overall look.

     So after school I was pleased that it wasn't raining. Mom was over for that last hour between Ethan leaving for work and me getting home, and she and Travis got to hang out outside in the shade. After I was home Travis and I gathered up the laundry to go and take care of that. I feel like it's been a long time since I have talked about Monday afternoon laundry. I still do it every Monday, and sometimes I work at the laundromat, though since COVID I work in the car. Last week I skipped Monday laundry because it rained all day because of the hurricane, so Tuesday I was doing laundry and hairing heads in the car. I have a glamorous life. Try not to be too jealous. 

     After the laundry was done Travis and I tried one more store to find some new pants for him. He doesn't often make reasonable requests but he asked to go buy shirts and pants (clearly he wanted to finish school shopping) and he is tall and very slim, so it is hard to find pants. But Marshall's saved the day! 

     Well day one of school year 2021-2022 is done and only 179 to go. For me. Travis starts today and gets to go until his birthday on June 6th. At that point he will be 22 and will have aged out of school. But we have a long time before we need to think about that. 
 

Back to School

      We have had a busy last weekend of summer vacation! As you know, on Friday Travis and I went swimming with Alex. It was definitely a lot of fun. Friday night Elecktra sent me a selfie of her new hair color, halfway through the process. She said she wasn't good at selfies. So Travis and I leaned together and got a selfie to send back to her. Travis and I are just about selfie pros!

      Saturday morning Ethan, Elecktra, Travis and I got in the car to head up to my brother Bernard's house for a visit and some barbecue. He is a couple of hours away but other than a handful of small accidents on the highway (why can't people drive???) that slowed things down, it was an uneventful trip. It was a super chilly day for August so Bernard got a fire going almost right away. And I basically was enjoying the company of family and didn't remember to take any photos. 

     By the evening it was almost cold and the mosquitoes were pretty bad. So we went inside to extend the visit a little bit more comfortably. Bernard is a drummer and so of course has drums. This is his electronic set. I have never seen anything like it! Travis loves drumming and Bernard was happy to let him play. Clearly he had a great time!

      Yesterday Travis insisted we needed to go to Kohl's and the Holyoke Mall to get pants and shirts. He wanted to go school shopping. We went to Kohl's and that was non-stressful but the mall was horrible. WAY too many people, way too long of lines in any shoe store, and did I mention way too many people? I told Travis he was out of luck and he would just have to make due with his fairly new sneakers and tons of pants he already owns. I know it's nice to have a new outfit for at least the first day of school, but I didn't properly plan ahead and did I mention there were way too many people?

     So school is starting up again today for me, tomorrow for Travis. I have no idea what the year will bring for either of us. I am still planning on taking a bit of time off from dolls this week. We'll see if I stick with that plan or not. 

     Ko-fi also has an update to their system! Now you can choose to buy someone a coffee just once or subscribe and buy a coffee monthly. Similar to patreon. Currently I have my monthly ko-fi activated and I am debating different tiers. But I have no idea what I would offer. The lowest tier is just what it is now, me continuing to post to the blog daily, hopefully making it interesting at least most of the time, and getting a bit of a thank you for doing it. And anyone who chooses to give me support in that way would of course have my heartfelt thanks. Blogging can be really hard. Thinking of things to talk about and not being super redundant can definitely be hard. And it definitely takes time. Oh, my ko-fi is here https://ko-fi.com/fieldofdolls and if anyone has ideas for different membership tiers I would love to hear them. Maybe I can make something happen. 

 

Letters Home- Perth part 2

Continuing my series of my doll, Little Elecktra, visiting friends all over the world, she is still in Perth, Australia. Elecktra is visiting with Glenn and Jaime Rowling and all of the photos in this post are by them. 

      Hi Mom!

             What am amazing day we had the other day! Viv, GB and I went to the beach! We had so much fun playing in the sand and building things. Mostly Viv and I did the building and GB took photos. 

        This wasn't like our local beach in town next to the pond, it was the REAL beach at the ocean! I know you have been to the ocean a lot but I have not seen it all that much. It was super cool. What a fantastic view!

         We also played with the dogs. Abby used to love this game, though we never did play it with her often. She was such a puller it didn't seem good to encourage that with her. 

      We also threw the rope toy for the dogs. Chasing was always one of Abby's favorite things to do. I miss her so much!

       It seemed very important to meet some Australian animals while I am in Australia. I got to hang out with a koala and a couple of quokkas. I had that old stuffed koala of your when I was little, but the real ones are way cuter! And I had never seen a quokka before. That was a very different experience. 

We also had a birthday party for the horses. 

    The Fjords were so photogenetic! Then really wanted to be in on all the action. 

    It was a really excellent day with treats for everyone!

     I'll be headed to Canada soon to spend some time with Terri Wright. There is a rumor I might get to learn how to build furniture! More soon. 

     Love, 

         Little Elecktra

Teaching is Hard.

     Teaching is hard. I am a paraprofessional so I don't actually have to teach ALL the time, but I do teach often. I was actually a short term substitute for 6 weeks a few years back as well. I had to plan and teach 4 different classes (3 science classes and math for personal finance) and it was a juggling act. But I was already the para in those classes, I was familiar with them, with the kids, and I was not new to the school.

     My friend Alex (Travis's friend Alex) just got a job as the new lifeskills teacher at LHS. She was only allowed to move into her classroom on Thursday. School starts on Monday. She is brand new to the school and the program was mixed with transition last year. So this year it will look very different. There will be brand new students coming up from the middle school and again, Alex is brand new to the school. And things are a mess. But Alex is amazing, I am sure she will do great. 

     She did text and ask if we could come to offer "tall help" in getting the classroom organized. Since Alex is one of Travis's favorite people ever (and I also think Alex is pretty great) we went to help out. Travis was also very willing to offer a hug and some moral support. 

    Friday we didn't work at all. I am sure there was more that could have been done, there always is, but having a break is good too. So let me say it again, I didn't work on Friday. At all. Travis and I went swimming with Alex. I put this picture in because I love it. I have no idea what he was doing, but he stepped back off the diving board, sort of posed like this, and I found it really funny. 

     Travis has always loved jumping into pools, but he had way more fun bouncing on the diving board before jumping in. He did this for hours. He would jump in, get out, bounce on the board for a while and maybe request a song on the radio, then jump in again. When I told him it was time to get out he did what he used to always do at his swimming lessons, he got out, ran back to the board and jumped in again!

      My plan currently is to not work next week. Well, school starts on Monday, so my plan is to not work on dolls next week. I need some time to reacclimate to getting up gross-early and I will need to adjust to the new schedule. This year will not look like last year. Thankfully, nothing will really ever look like last year. But some down time will do me good. And I think I can do it.

 

Price vs Cost

     Yesterday I talked about how what people want for their dolls goes through phases. Another phase we have in doll making is asking why the dolls are so expensive and if we can make just the clothing. This can be very frustrating to all artists, not just to doll makers. So today I am going to talk about price vs cost. The way I am using those words it will mean the cost of materials vs the price you pay for a finished item. And let me say, there is a reason why every artist prices their items/services the way they do. 

      Eleven years ago I took this photo at a live show. The FAS was not typical for a live show class, this was a class specifically for him. Not my entry, but it is my photo. And it is a doll I made. A doll I made WAY back at the beginning of doll making. She was something like #30, or somewhere around there. She is a nice doll, her clothes fit, and she rides a horse nicely. 

     This is a very basic Western pleasure doll I made last year. Not only do I now use dolls that are more realistic, this particular doll has been further customized so we can have some show ring diversity. She is not super fancy, I didn't want her to be, but she is polished and has the benefit of 11 more years of experience (probably 15, the above doll was made way before the photo was taken). Some people likely can't see the difference, but there definitely are people that can. 

     Here is another live show entry from the same show as the western pleasure FAS from above. This was one of my therapeutic riding entries. I have been putting together therapeutic riding entries since I started showing. Some things don't change, but some things have changed a lot. These dolls I used are nice, could probably still show today (though the hunt seat doll I think I would certainly retire), but the dolls I make have gotten nicer. 

      The guy leading the pony is not a super new doll, but he is still usable. The rider is a custom built youth doll with very nicely fitted clothing. The side walkers both have more modern outfits, nicely fitted clothing and are generally more polished than the dolls I made years ago. 

    All of the dolls in this post are usable dolls, some are nicer than others, and some are definitely more polished than others. So lets talk about the costs. My costs to make the dolls has gone up significantly over the years. Prices of materials are not a static thing. Dolls have gone up, fabric has gone up, Swarovski crystals have always been insanely expensive, but those too have gone up. And while all of the costs have gone up they are still just a portion of the price of the doll. 

    Most artists and crafters have probably heard the argument that if the person buying had the materials/patterns/and so on they could make the item for so much less. Sure, that's true. But would you know how to do it? I have paint and naked models, that should mean I can paint lovely models myself and save a lot of money. Right? The reality doesn't work that way. I have paint, pastels, models, and even some practice, but I am not a great painter. Because I don't have the experience. 

     A lot of people lately have been asking if I will make just clothing items. Removable clothing is never as nicely fitted as permanent clothing and is actually a lot harder to make than permanent clothing. You need to figure out how to fit it as nicely as possible, while also making some sort of closures, that hopefully are not horribly out of scale, plus you have to do all sorts of reinforcement to combat the wear and tear of being put on and taken off. And many people still feel that if they could just get clothing it should be cheaper. The cost of the doll itself is just a small portion of the price of the finished doll. And often a very small portion. I personally will buy dolls in mass quantities to get volume discounts. Which also means I need to put a ton of money out up front. Supplying your own doll will get you a very small discount, but likely not what you are hoping for. 

    Let's go back to experience. I have over 35 years of experience sewing. I have over 15 years of experience making model horse rider dolls. When you order a doll from me you are not just buying the base doll, the fabric, the ribbon, paint and so on. You are buying a bit of my experience. I worked really hard for a very long time to gain that experience. I can confidently say that no, you can't do what I do, even if I told you exactly how to do it. That only comes with practice and time. I am sure there are some people that find that statement to be rude. Too bad. I keep that in mind every time I feel a bit of sticker shock at a price for anything in this hobby. Just because I can't personally afford it doesn't mean it is overpriced. Those gorgeous painted resins that cost thousands of dollars? You are not paying for resin and paint, you are paying for the artists experience. The tack that is so detailed that you thought it was real? Again, you are not just paying for leather, glue and dye, you are paying for the artists experience. 

     Sure, there are some items in the hobby that are overpriced. Either the artist felt they could skip the experience stage and just go from being brand new to charging more or they hoped they could. But I know from EXPERIENCE that most artists severely undercharge for their work. They want to try to make things affordable for as many people as possible. Which means we spend a lot of time working and barely scraping by. Which isn't fair. And then we hear that our work is too expensive or overpriced. And it sucks. 

     This post is a bit about my recent experiences, a bit about the recent experiences of some friends, and a bit about what I have just been seeing from the hobby in general. I thought it was time to say again that there is a difference between cost and prices. And just because you can't see yourself paying the particular asking price of a hobby item, doesn't mean it is overpriced, it just means that is out of your particular budget, for whatever reason. The way we say things does matter.


 

Cowboys

        It's funny to me how dolls sort of go through phases. Not the dolls exactly, but what people want their dolls to be. After I made the first hoodie doll (which was a custom order from Dani Boiko) I decided to make some more. I can't remember if it was because I wanted to or because people were so excited about it that they asked for them. The hoodie dolls were the most ordered last year and I made a whole bunch of them for random live sale dolls. I believe I made more hoodie dolls than any other type of doll last year. 

       Cowboys have also gone in and out of fashion as far as orders go. A generically dressed cowboy can technically go in just about all western classes. Things have gotten so competitive and specialized these days that a cowboy dressed for pleasure is unlikely to do as well in a working class as a doll properly dressed for the working classes. Though he is likely to do better than a Western pleasure lady doll. 

      Years ago I decided to make a dirty cowboy. He was all muddied and stained from plenty of hard work. They became very popular and I made a lot more of them. This year they are less popular, but I imagine that will come back around at some point. Everything seems to. 

     Hannah Bear started using the NBA dolls to make super realistic cowboys. That quickly became a really popular idea in the hobby. I have been trying to have one or two of these tall cowboys at each of my sales, but the dolls are incredibly expensive to purchase so they are never going to become my standard cowboys. I do try to keep one or two on hand, though I don't always have them (again, super crazy expensive dolls!) and this guy was a custom order. Jill has a couple of other casual/working dolls in bright blue shirts and wanted this guy to match them. I think it's cool that she is building a team of dolls that have basically the same colors. Now I kind of want that too. I keep getting ideas for things I want from things people order! Now I just need the time, lol. 

     I still believe that a cowboy doll is one of the most versatile western dolls there is. If I can ever talk myself into making removable pleasure chaps again (they just are not as nicely fitted as permanent chaps!) I could easily make a cowboy that can do everything. I might have to consider it. Maybe for the next live sale. 
 

Letters Home- Perth

     Continuing my series of my doll, Little Elecktra, visiting friends all over the world, Elecktra is with Glenn and Jaime Rowling in Australia. All of the photos in this post are by Glenn and Jaime. 

Hi Mom!

      I know it's been a minute since I've written to you. I'm visiting with Glenn and Jaime in Perth and it has been very wet for most of the season. I hear it is the same where you are. The difference is you are in Summer and Perth is in Winter! I always thought that was interesting. Their Winter is very different from our winter. It is actually a lot like our last couple of summers, just cooler. I find it interesting that typically our hottest month is July and their coldest month is July. The world is a funny place. 

     Since the weather has been so wet Viv and I have spent a lot of time by the fire. Just reading, talking and having hot chocolate. It's been really wonderful getting to know her. 

Sometimes GB joins in. She's pretty awesome too. I love her purple hair!

     We enjoyed Breyerfest in front of the fire too. It was great to have some friends to hang out with. Some day you and I should go to in-person Breyerfest. Think of all the photo ops for me!

Glenn and Jaime have some really large dogs. They left us alone mostly but sometimes were really quite curious about the fire. 

They also have some proper little dogs and cats. They hung out with us during the Olympics. 

It was great to be able to watch some of the Games. Especially with friends. Remember how you and Daddy would watch all sorts of sports during the Olympics? Two weeks of sports every couple of years and then no sports the rest of the time. Seems about right. 

      Viv, GB, And I also got out to the barn. I got to play with the chickens. 

And meet the horses. This one is Galib. 

He's quite photogenic.

Tavros was really upset that it was time to go back to the barn and strenuously objected to it. Though eventually we got him calmed and back in the barn. 

     There have been a lot more cool things we got to do but I will put those in another letter. More soon!

                  Love,

                      Little Elecktra
 

eBay Frustrations

     Recently I put my Breyerfest Ambassador/Volunteer model on eBay. It seemed the easiest and quickest way to get him sold. eBay has a very wide audience and it is likely that he would go quickly. I was not wrong. He got lots of page views, had over 50 people watching him, and sold for OK money. And then that was it. He sold and then... nothing. 

     The the next day I received a message from the buyer. They had an emergency pop up that morning and needed to go out of town and couldn't pay for the horse for a week and understood if that didn't work for me. This sounded like a case of buyers remorse and hoping it wouldn't be OK for me so I would sell the horse to someone else. Well, I tried, eBay and their contradictory rules had other plans. 

      eBay's rules state that you need to cancel an order before you can offer a second chance offer to the next highest bidder (or really, any other bidders, it doesn't even have to be the next highest). So I canceled the auction, stating that the customer requested it (because they did) and then... I had no bidders I could offer second chance offers to. I ONLY had the option to relist the horse! 

       So I spent way too much time trying to navigate eBay's contact system to get an agent to chat with  and eventually got a person. Who told me that my best bet was to relist the item so the person who's bid I just canceled HAD THE CHANCE TO BID AGAIN. What??? Why would I want that? Why would I want to not only wait several more days for the horse sell, AND risk the same person being the high bidder again? And this is NOT what their own rules say. They say to cancel the bid before you send the second chance offer. 

      Anyway, the result is my horse that was sold didn't get paid for, eBay broke their own rules and I had to relist, so now I need to wait some more. I have no idea if the people who wanted the horse previously will find the ad again, or even risk bidding on it. If/when the horse sells I don't really know if the high bidder will bother to pay. And there is nothing at all I can do about any of it other than wait.

 

Tattoos

      Today we are going to talk about tattoos. To me, tattoos are beautiful pieces of body art and a wonderful form of self expression. There are people still who feel that tattoos are disgusting, make the wearer a criminal or a tramp, and have nothing but terrible things to say about them. I am pretty sure none of those people read my blog though. Unless they come here just to judge me. 

      Yesterday I talked about Dani Boiko's new doll with the rolled up sleeves. Such a simple little change that made me extremely happy. Dani also asked when she ordered the doll, if I would be OK with her giving the doll a tattoo when she got her. Um, yeah! Right after I sent her the approval photos we got to talking about tattoos. First for her doll, then I had an idea, and then we talked tattoos a bit in general. Let me say, it can be extremely hard to take a photo of a tattoo that is on your own body! This is the oriole Ethan put on my left forearm. 

And this is the little blue bird that I put on my doll, since I thought Dani's idea was amazing!

These are the clematis flowers Ethan put on my left forearm (they are near the oriole)

And these are the similar flowers I put on my doll. 

This is the incredibly cool tattoo Ethan put on my right forearm. I said I wanted flowers and swirly stuff that looked kind of like leather tooling. And he drew this. I loved everything about it (still do). 

This is the not really at all similar tattoo I put on my doll's right forearm. 

This is the swirly butterfly Ethan designed and put on the inside of my left bicep. 

This is the somewhat similar one I put on my doll on the inside of her left forearm because if I put it on the bicep it would not be seen since she is in a T-shirt. 

      This started as a neat idea that Dani had. She just wanted to put a tattoo on her doll, which I fully support. Then when we were chatting about what she should do I remembered all of my nail art designs. And I told Dani I had a really great idea on how to tattoo the doll, put some on mine, and showed her photos. Dani said that tattoos are completely underrepresented in doll scale. And I agree. So Ellie got a bunch of tattoos. And I am pretty sure I will be tattooing more dolls in the future. 

     While there are people that still feel that getting visible tattoos makes you unemployable, I feel that tattoos are becoming pretty mainstream. I work at a school and I am not the only person there with visible tattoos. I am not the only woman there with visible tattoos. And I don't mean just cute little ankle butterflies. One kid this summer, in the high needs program, gently touched one of them. Clearly he wanted to know if they felt different. The kids seem to think they are cool, ask about them, then sort of forget they are there. My tattoos are just another part of me. A pretty cool one, if I do say so myself. 

 

When A Simple Doll Isn’t

      I have been making model horse rider dolls for over 15 years. In that time I have made a lot of dolls, 1547 as of my live sale, but now that number is a bit more, just about 1550. That is a lot of dolls. I have had a lot of practice and not much surprises me these day. This simple doll also was not a surprise, but I found her very interesting. 

     Dani wanted black and purple hair, so I started putting in purple streaks the way I always put in fun colored streaks. I do 3 rooted sections of the natural color, then a section of the fun color and so on. But with this lady, she (the doll) told me she wanted a wider purple streak in the front. And she wanted it pulled a bit to the side when her hair was pulled into the ponytail. 

     I really love how this doll's hair came out! It looks good from the front, the back, and the sides. 

     Another thing I like about this simple doll was the little change Dani asked for. First she asked for short sleeves but we eventually turned that into a button down with sleeves that look rolled up. And I absolutely love how this looks! I now want to have a doll with rolled up sleeves! Not that I need another doll, but I might just NEED another doll!

    Thank you Dani for a really fun doll who was just different enough to be extremely fun. And thank you also for the other idea related to this doll that I think we'll talk about tomorrow. 
 

Loot

    Breyerfest continues on, in some ways, as many people are still waiting on their orders from Breyer. My 2 gamblers choice models arrived the other day so I have everything I ordered from Breyer. I ended up getting 2 of Nouveau. He's really cool, the one I liked the most, but I have both of them up for sale on eBay. I might end up keeping one, but the amount I ended up spending on car repairs and maintenance this summer is making me feel a little bit guilty. I will still have all of the little painted micros I bought, my stablemate from Stephanie Blaylock, and I will have some things coming from Kylee Park's S.T.A.G sale. I really love my Breyer swag, especially the wine glass, though the fit of the Dani T-shirt I got is incredibly unflattering on me so I will never wear the shirt. If anyone is interested in a ladies XL let me know. 

      People have been letting me know that their packages from the August live sale have arrived safely. I snagged this photo from Beth Rappleyea. It is fun to see what she got in her mystery box. I really have very little idea what is in each of them. When I put them together I set out all the boxes and added one item to each box until they all had a good variety of items. I think the only thing that was the same in all of them was each had some tiny money. I do love the tiny money! And I love loot photos!

     I was planning on doing a big Breyerfest loot photo but I don't think that is going to happen this year. A lot of the stuff I got is already for sale, some has already shipped out. Some I am not sure when it will arrive. But I really do like loot photos. And I love seeing happy customers.
 

Show Prep

     One project ends and another begins. That is just the way of things. My August live sale is all wrapped up, I am just waiting for a few more invoices to be paid so I can ship the items out, but most of the things are on the way to their new homes. Many have even started to arrive. The Shop app will tell you every package that is coming TO your house and also every package that is LEAVING your house. Yesterday it kept dinging at me all day as more and more packages were delivered. It was fun. I also found out that in the mix of packages one was from Breyer. My latest stablemate club model has been shipped. I think this is the only of the offerings for the year that I am not going to keep. 

     Anyway, I have pretty much wrapped up my August live sale, I am taking things more slowly, I even took a few days off, but I do like doing things. And making things. I bought some new printables from Etsy and decided I would start working on some prizes for the Field of Dolls Online Fall show. Which opens for entries sometime in September (I can't remember the date right now). I am still working out some details but the best place to get any news about the show is on the Field of Dolls Online show page on Facebook. 

     I decided to add some halter classes to the show this time around. Not many, I am still much more into performance showing. But halter classes are very popular and I thought it would be a nice addition. I am adding 10 halter classes, by type, the same way Danielle Feldman had them in her Why the Chicken Crossed the Road photo show. They will be split OF and AR/CM. I will have mini rosettes for 1st-3rd in each class (rosettes should arrive today!) and I will have miniatures for 4th-6th place. I haven't decided which is for what but I bought lottery scratch tickets, Amazon mailers and chips. I might just have the chips for other prizes though. I am still looking into more printables to see if there is anything different I can get. 

     I am heavily leaning towards using OMHPS for the Fall show. I am not exactly sure if it would work the way I want it to, but I really enjoy the site. I am going to look into it some more, finish rounding out the show packet, and then add it to the show page on Facebook. But for now I will work on some more show prizes.