Youth Doll

        Last week I asked for ideas on what type of dolls I should make. I got a lot of great suggestions, though some of them are not things I can make unless they were ordered. A specialty doll usually takes quite a bit more time than a typical rider doll. And unless someone specifically wanted that type of doll it may potentially just sit for a very long time without anyone purchasing it. I wish I didn't have to consider money when I make things, but I don't have that luxury. One of the suggestions was for more youth dolls. Well, I can manage that!

     Teresa Buzzell routinely sends me photos of interesting riding outfits she finds, in case I want to use them for doll inspiration. She also sent me a photo of a really amazing hat that I may have to make... because I love cool hats! Which is funny because I really am not a hat maker. But we all know I make driving dolls so I can make cool hats. Anyway, Teresa sends me inspirational photos often. And I appreciate it. I was scrolling through them again to see what I should make next. And I have a really cool idea that I want to get into. Now to see if I can find the fabric for it. This rainbow youth doll is nothing like the photo Teresa sent. Other than it being a little blond girl with black chaps and rainbows in her shirt. The actual shirt was totally different! My brain told me that this is what it looked like. So this is what my doll looks like, lol. She is currently for sale, $230 plus shipping. 

       I have been thinking a lot about dolls and my doll business lately. And my hobby slump. It's a super weird place I am in. I am also in the place where my paychecks from school are about to get sadly small again. I didn't make a ton extra as a sub, but it was noticeable. Now I have to go back to HAVING to make the doll things to make enough to try to just get by. Costs of everything have gone up quite a lot. My school paychecks have never been enough to cover things. I have been in a very tricky place with not making enough at school to pay for living expenses, but also not having any energy to make dolls to supplement. I am hoping that now I will be back to having a normal amount of energy so I can make dolls after school instead of just staring at the wall or watching TV without functioning. Teaching was hard. It took ALL of my energy. 

      In other weird places in my brain, I am still planning on having another live sale (mid-August) but I also kind of don't want to do it. They are a TON of work to set up. And then of course I have to commit to not only several hours of work (setting up, on camera, etc.) on sale day, but also several days of concentrated effort to invoice, pack, ship, all the things. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work making enough things, in enough of a variety, that people can maybe get the things they want. And maybe also make the shipping charges worth it. Because we all know that shipping costs are insane these days too. Anyway, my brain has kind of been telling me not to make more miniatures, since what I can charge for them kind of makes it not worth my time. My brain has kind of been telling me to just list what I have and not bother with a live sale. But my smart-brain says I should at least finish the batch of miniatures that I started. My smart-brain says that a live sale IS a lot of work, but it is fun and usually profitable (if I can get the inventory made to be able to make it profitable). So yeah, my brain is a very weird place. And you don't get to have clearer insights to my thought processes than I do, lol. It really is very confusing in my head at the moment.

     Let's see if I can clear things up some. I make dolls. I have been making dolls since 2006. I don't foresee stopping making dolls any time soon. I am also a little bit tired of/from making dolls. Costs of everything have gone up by insane amounts, but I have not raised my prices enough to keep up with that. And I am a little bit afraid to. I don't want to price everyone out of my dolls, that doesn't make sense. But I also don't want to price myself right out of business. I started making the miniatures so people who maybe couldn't afford a whole doll could still afford something cool and handmade. Maybe for model horse set-ups. Maybe for 1:9 scale dollhouse setups. Some of that is good business. Some of that is giving my brain something else to do that is not just making more dolls. 

    Did that help clear things up? No? I'm not surprised, it doesn't always make sense to me. What I know is I make dolls. I am not planning on stopping. I can't really afford to stop because I don't make a livable income as a para, I don't have time/money/energy/desire to get my teaching credentials to make more money at the school. I don't know what else I could possibly do that would make more money. Am I saying I am "stuck" making dolls? Not really. I could stop and just be super poor, lol. I took kind of a break for several months while I was teaching. Because I didn't have the energy to make dolls. The last couple of weeks I have gotten back into it and been kind of productive. And it was nice. I have been having a good time again. Not always, no job that I know of is always fun, but it has been better. I am still kind of in a hobby weird-zone where I don't want new stuff and am not really excited about any of the things I see. At least not excited enough to buy anything. But I still love my horses. I still enjoy the dolls. And maybe eventually I will want to show again. Today is not that day. 
 

Grace and Skye Come to Visit

     We had some special visitors at Field of Dolls Studio this week! Grace and Skye came all the way from California! Grace works really hard and needed some new clothing. Skye came to get her hair done. It was an exciting trip and they were glad to have arrived. 

     Skye was ready to get out and look around. Things are a lot different in Massachusetts!

      The girls had some really luxurious traveling accommodations, but Skye was struggling to get out so Grace gave her a hand. You know how it is when you have been sitting in one place for too long. 

     I didn't have time to get into the work for them right away, so they settled in to hang out for a bit. 

      It wasn't long before it was their turn! Grace's hat was broken so she got a new one. A nicely resized hat. I learned some tricks since these two were last in the studio. 

They checked out the cut out pieces for Grace's new outfit. This was going to be so great!

They were really interested in the process so I let them watch while I sewed. They were only sometimes in the way :)

      Check out the triple stitching on the shoulder seams! This should be a lot harder to rip.

Grace tried on her new outfit...

got her hair done in a new style...

and got another hat. Options are good!

Skye was getting her hair done when Grace was ready for the big reveal. What a great new outfit! I can't decide which hat or hairstyle is best (she has two hats and two hairstyles). 

Grace helped Skye finish up with her hair...

       and they were just about ready to head back home. 

Grace and Skye had a nice visit with me in the studio but are ready to head back Corina. They have some nice extras traveling with them too!

     It was great having you come and visit Grace and Skye! Say hello to Corina for me!
 

Things are Happening

     I'm still in a hobby slump these days. I don't want to buy new things, nothing has really called out to me, I don't want to play with horses, but this arrived in the mail the other day:

     When I agreed to do the workshop (asked to do a workshop) I was still all in with Breyer and all things hobby. When it came time to actually make my video I had entered my slump and was super busy at school. I had no room in my head for pretty much anything. It was a super struggle to make the video, and then do the editing. But eventually I managed it. Now I just need to wait for Breyerfest time and see if that gives me any my interest in hobby things. 

    

       The good news is this week I am finding I have more energy to do things. I am still really tired, but I am getting more done than I was. For sure. I have been working on getting photos and listing some things for sale. I have done some larger cleaning and organizing projects. And I have gotten back into making dolls. The things I am most excited about are being able to sleep later, which translates to also getting to stay up a bit later. And I can read books. Not just one or two pages at a time, but 50 or 60 pages. I don't always have the attention span for that, but when I do, it's awesome. 

      I am kind of looking forward to the summer program, though it will be another adjustment. It's just 3 hours a day, 4 days a week, for 4 weeks. And it will be different and I get to learn some new things. I do love learning new things. I think I will also keep on working on dolls. 

 

Little Yvonne

      There are times when I am really efficient getting things done. Then there are times when it takes me over a week to put tack on a horse so I can get some photos. I have now had 2 full days off since school ended and somehow I still could not find the time to get tack on a horse. Maybe I just didn't want to put tack on a horse, I don't know. Last night I finally put Astrid on the table so I would have a clear HINT that I needed to do something today. It finally worked. 

    This is the new little Yvonne doll, all dressed up for western. I am sure the first question everyone will ask is what size my tack is. No, it is not traditional scale, or classic scale. It was specifically made to fit a stone pony. At least that was how it was listed when I bought it. It it does fit my Stone pony perfectly. It also happens to fit Astrid quite well. I wish I could remember who made it. I bought it on Model Horse Place... and that is everything I remember about it. 

     Anyway, little Yvonne seems to be the perfect size for Astrid, as I mentioned when I made my English version. This is not a youth doll, just a small adult. I do have some plans to turn a little Yvonne into a youth doll, maybe this coming week. Maybe not, we'll have to see how that all plays out. 

     Astrid needs a different bridle I think. This one is not a perfect fit, though it's not bad. But if you are going to do a thing, you might as well do it right. Which means if I ever decide I want to show Astrid in performance, which I think she would be pretty excellent for, I need to make her her own bridle. I'll add that to the list of things I need to work on, lol. 

     This little Yvonne doll is for sale, $230 plus shipping. As mentioned, she is a great size for Astrid, the Stone pony (I know, you all are still waiting for photos of little Yvonne on the Stone pony, maybe that will happen next week). Hopefully soon I can also share some more new dolls. And maybe miniatures. Let's all be surprised about that together. 

Dolls

       I imagine there are times when people wonder if I even make dolls anymore. There are times even I wonder that. The last many months I have not been super productive with doll making. I currently have no idea how many dolls I have even made in 2022. ~~~ OK, I went into my phone and counted. I have made 25 dolls in 2022 so far. Seeing as my yearly average has been 100-150 dolls per year for many years, I am way behind. It really doesn't bother me at all. The 2 dolls above were the last dolls that I made for an order. They were finished weeks ago, I just have not gotten around to posting them. I have one other doll finished but I have not gotten around to getting tack on a horse (this doll NEEDS a tacked horse photo) to get the photos. Maybe today. Maybe tomorrow. Who knows. There is one inescapable fact, my doll making has been super slow this year. 

      I know that some of the problem was that I was teaching. Every teacher knows that being a first year teacher is a super busy year. You don't already have lessons that you can reuse from previous years. Making lessons takes up a lot of time. Teaching takes up a lot of mental energy. My particular students took a lot of emotional energy. I can't help but feel bad for the kids who have horrible trauma in their lives. I can't help but get a bit irritated/frustrated/mad at an entire class that can't seem to understand and follow the basic rules of high school (which are also the basic rules of middle school, elementary school, society...). this year was hard, mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausting. I didn't have a lot of room in my head for doll making. 

    

     I am also in a very weird place in the hobby. I have no interest at the moment. I have heard comments that suggest if I am not into model horses some people don't want to be my friend. Which really sucks since I would think that friends are friends even if some common interests change. I have friends I made at school that while we can and do talk about school stuff, I am positive they would still be my friends if I didn't work at LHS, or if I got out of education all together. The hobby is also often an angry place these days. There is the usual hobby drama, but there are so many things that go way beyond that. I'm tired. Tired of the side taking, the fighting, the anger. And before someone reads too much into this paragraph, no, I'm not suggesting I am "leaving the hobby". I am suggesting that I am sick and tired of the bullshit and the black and white thinking of some people. I am sick and tired of anger and entitlement. And these comments are not just about the model horse hobby. 

    Anyway, I do still make dolls, occasionally. I made a couple of them recently, made another that I may even publicly share soon if I can get around to putting tack on a horse and taking some photos. I have a drawer FULL of nekkid dolls and doll parts, just waiting to be put to use. Seriously, that is a drawer full of money, I can't just let it sit there. I am not even entirely sure how many dolls I have at the moment. But I have a large variety, most of them I have at least 5 of (and more like 20 of others), I need to dress them. I have not stopped making dolls. I just don't have any ideas. Maybe I should just make a hunt seat doll. Those don't actually take much thinking about. Part of the problem is I don't know what to make. And part of it is I am sort of taking this week off, a bit, because I am tired. 

    Maybe I will take the weekend to think about what type of dolls to make. Maybe someone will take pitty on me and send me some ideas. Maybe I should just go and check my message from Teresa, since she sends me plenty of ideas, and most of them are doable. ~~~ OK, that was a brilliant idea. I now have at least a few, very reasonable, very doable ideas that I need to get after. I might even be inspired enough to get started a bit today. But maybe not. I still need to put tack on a horse.

     I am still vaguely planning to have my next live sale somewhere around August 13th. I have not committed to that yet, don't have all of the miniatures made for that sort of fun, and currently am not 100% sure I even want to do it. I do enjoy live sales, partially because I really enjoy the interaction with people who are watching. At this moment I am not ready. Or motivated. I am ready for this tired to lift any time now. 

Done

     I don't know what other teachers do when they need to remember to point something out to classes, but I write notes on things, and highlight them. I have written notes on notes, about things I need to add, things I need to make sure I explain in more detail, sometimes things I need to point out that are important that the kids pay special attention to, and these notes on the biology final. Maybe other teachers just know what they are doing. Lol, but I doubt they always do, I know too many teachers. Teachers have a special gift of being able to figure it out, and figure out how to teach the kids, even if they are not totally sure in their subject. I have heard from way too many teachers that have been given a subject that is not their specialty, or that they have never taught at all, that have had to figure it out. I am not officially a teacher, but I taught a bunch of kids this year, in 4 different subjects, and I think some of the kids actually learned something. 

     I taught during one of the most screwed up years we have had in a while. So many people were hoping for, or expecting, normal. We were all back in person again, that's normal. We could do work on paper again, or from books (which are also paper...), that is normal. Kids could talk to each other, eat in the cafeteria, all these things are normal. This year was not normal. At all. Some of the kids had not been in a real school setting since the 6th grade. And now they were expected to be high school kids. Some of the kids had not had a normal school year since their freshman year. But they were expected to finish this year, graduate, be adults. Then there were the kids who were stuck in the middle. Every one of them had a messed up school year, because the last several years were messed up. And all across the country there was the cry of, think of what they have been through! They have most definitely been through a lot. But so have the the adults. We were also trying to navigate this weird year where we were hoping for more normal and didn't get it. It was rough. It was a struggle to get kids to engage, and some of them really didn't try at all. But sometimes we could get through to them. Get a bit of effort. Get them to open up about why they are upset, which could sometimes get them to a better frame of mind for getting some work done. 

     I came in to my classes the second week of second term. I inherited a mess. I inherited some of the toughest to deal with students in the school and classes that had not been managed well. It was a circus. It took a good solid week of repeating daily that we needed to have respect. For everyone. For me, for each other, for themselves. Then I could sort of cut it down to once in a while, sometimes though it was once a week. We talked about respect a lot. Sometimes it worked, but sometimes it didn't. I did what I could with the classes. I did what I could with the individual students. I definitely made some progress in getting through to some of them. I am sure I taught them at least a few things. Whether or not they remember any of it next year is not something I can predict. 

     Next year I will go back to being a para. I will still help the kids learn, that has never stopped, but I will no longer have anything to do with lessons or planning. I will have very little to do with classroom management most likely. The teacher sets the tone for that, and some teachers don't really set things up so paras can help with that. There are amazing teachers that bring the paras right into things, set the tone that we are also their teachers, or at least another adult in the room who can help and has authority. Then there are teachers who pretend we are not there, or not important. Or worse, that we are grown students or their secretaries. Being a teacher is hard in a lot of ways, there is no denying that. Being a para is also really difficult, for some of the same reasons that being a teacher is difficult, but also in different ways. 

     Yesterday I finished cleaning out my classroom and I rehomed all of the things I have gathered that I no longer need. I kept a few things, some of my puzzles, but most things went to other teachers. It was weird, but I will not be teaching next year. I have no desire to go get the credentials I need to do that (besides that the time it would take is likely long). But I am a really great para. I am a really great teacher too. It was weird to be in the spotlight, teaching is a performance art after all, it might be really weird (and challenging) going back to being in a supporting role. But my superpower is that I am good with people. I am also super adaptable. I can do this. 

Some Assembly Required

     One of the neat things about my job is getting big boxes of dolls and doll parts in the mail. One of the hardest parts of my job is getting big boxes of dolls and doll parts in the mail. The dolls I got this time around were the new Lilith doll from White Elephant toys. I also got a whole bunch of hands, feet, heads and boobs. Yup, my job is super weird. The first thing I did was to take all of the separate parts out of the individual bags. And I died a little inside. It is always rough opening up a doll order and knowing how much plastic I am adding to the environment. It's even rougher after showing the kids multiple videos about what all of that plastic is doing to the environment, especially to the oceans. I have not found a solution to the problem yet. I guess the slightly good news is the dolls come in less plastic than they used to. It's still a lot. 

    Anyway, on a better note, I know that many people have run into issues with the Yvonne-type dolls having shoulders pop out of the socket. This batch of dolls has some of the most insanely tight arm joints! I actually really struggled to get the arms in on several of the dolls. But I managed it, eventually. 

     So now I have a nice stack of ready-to-use dolls, a bunch of feet in high heeled shoes, and the "monster hands" that I actually don't have a use for that I know of. And I have a ton of Lilith dresses, just in case anyone needs one. Now I just need to get into making some dolls. I have SO MANY dolls! I still have most of my big order of Lena dolls. I think I have used one of those. I have some weirdly colored dolls I got from Classic TV Toys that are not good for anything without paint. I still have tan Yvonnes, pale white Yvonnes, black Yvonnes, oliveish skinned Yvonnes, some of the little Yvonnes. I have dolls. I have actually made some dolls recently. Not many, but I have done some. And I will talk about them sooner or later.

        I have been feeling less than awesome about myself lately. I gained quite a bit of weight this school year and I am kind of mad about it. So today, since I was kind of tired, but the weather was good, I decided that we needed to go for a short hike. I have been wanting to get out into the woods and since whining about my weight (even just in my own head) is not going to do anything to help, I figured I would get motivated and get out in the woods. 

       I have never seen that much standing water in the woods, ever. There were spots on the trail that had to have been a foot deep and 30 feet long! There were so many mosquitos and gnats, and they really kind of ruined the woods. We did so much swatting and shaking our arms I made jokes that we needed to put our arms into the workout. Which was at least kind of funny. The amount of bugs was not funny though. So now I am in a struggly place with hiking. I want to go out in the woods. I want to be able to take my time and enjoy nature. But the bugs are so intense it makes me want to not go in the woods. It's very frustrating. 

       One more day of the weekend and then only 3 more days of school. Monday is the only day I have kids taking any finals, and then I am done. Tuesday I might have a kid or two show up for DLT, but then I don't have another class so I am done with students all together after that. I should have time to finish putting together the chemistry binder, so whoever teaches chemistry next year can have an easier time of it. I already started rehoming some of my classroom stuff. A lot of the puzzles and games have been gifted and I kept a few of the puzzles for me. Maybe once in a while I will need to pull out a puzzle and get it done. That could be fun. I am sure I probably have at least a few more things that I will need to rehome. I am going to have to take down all of the coloring sheets. That will be weird. Every time anyone finishing a coloring sheet I hung them up around the room. We have a good collection at this point. I should take some photos before I take them all down. Almost done. 

 

Updates

      It turns out that Elecktra and I had not managed to get a photo together since we went to Bright Nights in December. And that photo was crap, lol. So last Saturday, we had a small party for Travis's birthday and Elecktra and I finally remembered to get a pic together. Crystal came too, we also got a photo together, but we have definitely taken better photos together so I will leave that one out. Elecktra and I did not actually plan to wear matching outfits, it just sort of happened. 

      So school is nearly done for the year. I think I am also finally done creating reviews and finals, making answer keys, and in general just getting ready for the end. I am figuring out where to rehome a lot of the things I got for the classroom. I don't need all of the things after all. Especially something like 15 or so 100 piece puzzles. So I will share them with different teacher friends, keep a few of my favorites, and if need be, I can recycle them. But I would rather rehome them if I can. Probably most of the games I got as well. I don't have use for most of them. Either because I have a duplicate or we just are not necessarily interested in them. But teachers like free stuff. And free stuff that can be used to entertain kids if they are done with their work early is stuff that many teachers are definitely into. 

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      I started this post several days ago and then I got busy. Today was the last full day of school and the first final. So even though the other day I was done making finals and answer keys, this morning I decided to revise the 7th period final. I felt they needed a few things changed up, so I did that while my 1st period class finished watching Wall-E. Seeing as it's environmental science class, it fit perfectly. 

      One of my students brought me these flowers from her garden. It was really sweet and made my morning! They brightened up the room all day (not that my classroom is dull, but pink flowers make things even better). The day went pretty well, the first final went well, and the last full day of the school year is finished. And I am thrilled. 

     Tomorrow we have the period 1 and period 2 finals. They are double blocks, so the kids will have plenty of time to get the work done. One or two of them will be grumpy, I am sure, when I tell them that they need to put their phones away for it. But work doesn't get done when they are playing on their phones. Or they google things instead of using their notes. It's all very frustrating. The classes I have tomorrow are super small, the kids are usually really nice, so it should be a very peaceful end to the week. Plus it's only a half day. I will have 3 hours to grade the finals, and I don't think I will need much of it. The answer keys are made, and as I mentioned, the classes are really small. So tomorrow may be the day I start sorting and deciding what things I am keeping and what things I am letting go of. It's gonna be weird. 

    A lot of  my students seem to refuse to believe that I won't be their teacher next year. Every time they ask, and I say no, they ask if I am leaving. I tell them no, but I am not actually a teacher (I have reminded them several times this year that I am in fact just subbing). I remind them that I am a para, and will likely still see them all over the place. And they keep asking me. I don't know if they like me or like the fact that I let them use notes on the tests. I am a little afraid I will be bored being a para again next year. There is not constantly something to do like there is with teaching. At least not in high school. And going back to maybe not knowing the material does not sound fun (it's so much easier to learn it when you have to pre-learn it to teach it, then teach it and so on!).

School is almost done and it will be a couple of weeks before the summer program starts, but that is only a few hours a day. I will have more time to work on dolls, which I really should get back to more often. I'll have more time to read, more time to do nothing. I am not actually sure I am even capable of doing nothing. But I could give it a try. Doing nothing out in nature sounds nice. I should have time for that sort of thing. 

     

    I have a guest post coming up, though I am not yet sure when I will post it. I have not even opened the email, just looked at the preview. I am still in that lack of time phase of things. But things are getting better. And boring. I had to watch kids take a test today. I didn't actually have anything to do when I was not actively checking in to see if they needed any guidance. I don't know if I can go back to that. Boredom is awful. And expensive. If I have too much boring time I will shop. I can't afford to be bored, lol. 

Tiny Things

      I keep on thinking about canceling my subscription to Maggie's Monthly Micros. I may paint a micro once or twice a year, but definitely not once a month. And while I like many of them, my collection has been small for years, on purpose. I need to cut things down just to the pieces I really love. Honestly, I also would usually rather just search for one that someone else has painted that I love. I'm still in a bit of a funk with collecting, and nothing is really screaming to me to be bought/painted/played with. Escape Foot Callie came last month, she's cool, but I don't need her. I even forgot to list her for sale. How's that for lack of motivation?

      May's micro is Cisco, who is Fabian's Fjord, and that alone is a really cool thing. I also really like this model. Cisco will stay with me, at least for a while, maybe I will even paint him, or get him painted, who knows. He's super cute. But I still have so many that I need to sell. They don't take up much room, but they are not doing me any good sitting in baggies next to the computer. 

     School is still weird. I have kids that really think because it is near the end of the school year that we just can stop working all together. They don't seem to get the concept that they are in high school, and you just can't stop working because it's Friday, the day/week before a vacation, the day/week after a vacation, the day/week before a big test, the day/week after a big test. These are all actual arguments they have tried to make at one point or another this year. Or "I'm tired" the real world is going to smack these kids in the face and they won't know what happened. I'd like to say it was just the freshman that say things like this, but it wasn't. I can't make them want to learn. I can't make them want to put in effort. I can't make them see that working hard can actually be beneficial to them. If it's not on their phones, they don't care. I really hate the phones in the classroom and I wish we would ban them like Chicopee did. Some people have argued that that means the teachers should lead by example and also not be on their phones. The vast majority of teachers I know do not use their phones during class. Most teachers don't swear near the kids, but many kids swear every other word. Most teachers work really hard, while most of the kids don't care and rush through their work to get back to their phones. Leading by example only works if the people you are leading care AT ALL and want to try to emulate you in some way. It's been a super frustrating loop of "put your phone away" usually followed by "I'm listening", which is then immediately followed by "what are we doing?" because they were not listening. I'm really tired and really happy that the year is over soon. Almost there. 

Not What I Expected

     Yesterday, at school, we had some sewer issues, most of the bathrooms in the school couldn't be used, and we got sent home early. I had already gotten a good amount of work done (finally finished making my finals and reviews!) so that sounded pretty good. I got home just after 12:30, was not horribly exhausted, and it wasn't yet raining. Seemed like a good time to go outside and get a couple of dolls dremeled for an order I need to get finished. I really hate dremeling, so when I don't have a whole lot of it to do I grab the light-weight battery operated rotary tool. It is not as good as a dremel, you have to take material off much more slowly, but it means I don't have to pull out the whole toolbox, go to the outdoor plug... this is the slower, but lazier way of doing things. 

      After the dremeling I grabbed the material I needed to make the dolls in the order I am working on. I considered watching The Martian, because I had to buy it today (more on that in a second) but I decided that would potentially screw up the viewing at school. So I didn't watch it. Anyway, the story on that...

      Several weeks ago I planned movies for environmental science and chemistry. I wanted to watch Radioactive in chemistry, but there was a pretty lengthy nude scene (fully nude) that would not work for school. So I started searching for another chemistry movie. Since Cory, one of the other paras I work with, had seen the Martian (she thinks in school) and said it was definitely school appropriate, and the website that tells you all the swears, sex, drugs, and everything else said it was OK, I decided we would watch it without having seen it. I was working on making finals during it, so I didn't pay as close attention as I would have liked (but honestly, I usually work during movies so...) but I did catch that there was a TON of chemistry in it! For environmental science we are watching Deepwater Horizon. Weeks ago, when I decided on these, I could get them for free with streaming services I already have OR with Hulu or Disney+, which I was offered for $10 a month. I signed up, we watched Hidden Figures last week (the chemistry kids have totally earned a couple of end-of-year movies) and then today NEITHER of the other movies was available on any of my streaming services. It turned out the cheapest way to get them was to buy them. So $13 later and I own 2 more movies on Amazon Prime and we can watch cool stuff. I have already seen Deepwater Horizon a couple of times, on purpose, so that wasn't too hard for me. And The Martian was $4.99 and so far seems totally worth the money. Maybe NOW I will stop spending money on my classes. There are only 10 more days of school...

      OK, so the dremeling got done and I got the material out and got the things cut out that needed sewing. After I finished that I still had a little bit of time before Travis was due home from Sunshine Village so I pulled out the sewing machine, put on an episode of Mares in Black, and got to sewing. I nearly finished before Travis got home. Things were going along pretty well. 

     When Travis got home he sounded quite tired when he said he wanted coffee and a granola bar. So I got him his coffee, reminded him he knows where the granola bars were, and I got back to sewing. After that I got right into dressing the dolls. And I kept at it. 

      Last week, or maybe the week before, I started dressing one of the Little Yvonne dolls in a western pleasure outfit. I already had a pink top from the youth parade doll I was going to make when I had the pink and black pony set. I took in the sleeves a bit more on it. made some pants, and already had the chaps I prepped last week. Neither of these dolls is finished, but you can more easily see the size difference between the regular Yvonne and the little Yvonne. I am hoping that later today I can finish up the doll on the left (she just needs a face and hat) and the cross country doll that goes with her. She is started, but still needs a bunch more stuff done to her. The little Yvonne western doll may need to wait for another day. I will see how things go. 

      Before I left school for the day yesterday I sorted out the things I have printed and ready to copy. I have 3 review sheets for math, which are all similar to the final exam. I also have the biology final done and ready to copy, as well as a review sheet. The environmental science final is partially from the book, and partially copied already. I got the chemistry final finished and copied yesterday as well. Now I need to copy some things, make a bunch of answer keys, and I think I will be done. Maybe. It seems like every time I think I am close to done, more things pop up. If I am not done with all the class prep in the next couple of days... well, I think I will be. Almost done.