The Western Pleasure Project

     People that know me, or have been reading my blog for a while, know that I work a lot. I mean, a lot a lot. I make myself deadlines for things often. I have had many well-meaning people tell me that the deadlines really are arbitrary, and I should cut myself some slack. But when you are self-employed, you need to make the deadlines, or things don't necessarily happen. Ever. Which then makes the deadlines not arbitrary. It doesn't mean that my deadlines shouldn't be a bit more flexible. It is OK to not hit the top goal every single time. Some of them are quite ambitious. And some of them are not. 

     I have changed a lot of how I work in the past year. I no longer expect maximum results all the time. I no longer expect to work all day at school and then come home and work all afternoon, and evening, on dolls. I have much more realistic expectations. I don't need to work ALL the time. I don't need to blog every day. It doesn't make me a failure, it makes me take better care of me. 

     The end of the last school year was super rough. I probably should not have agreed to teach, at least not as a long term substitute. It took full-time teacher dedication, but did not pay like a full-time teacher. The only reason that matters is it left me too tired to make dolls. I was mentally and physically exhausted. And could not often function when I got home. Even with cutting myself some slack, I felt like I was failing at almost everything. I was doing a really great job teaching, but was not able to put any energy into my business. A business I have worked on building for 16 years. It was mentally rough. But now, all of a sudden, not only is there a light at the end of the tunnel, but I reached the end of the tunnel. All of a sudden I have energy to work on dolls. I have time and space in my brain to work on dolls. And it has been pretty excellent!

     When I made the casual western ladies on the Lena doll body, I was also working on this western pleasure doll. She is semi-casual as well, because not every doll needs to be super loaded up with decorative bling. I do love bling, but I know that sometimes a less fancy doll is what people are looking for. 

    Not to worry though, I have plenty of blingy dolls in the works. I have been working on batches of dolls again, which is sometimes an easier way to work. This week I was working on a whole bunch of western pleasure dolls. Blingy western pleasure dolls. It can be a challenge to work on a variety of similar dolls all at once while also not making them all the same. I think I have managed well though. I guess we will see when they are all finished up and fully revealed!

    Here is a bit of a closer look at the semi-casual western pleasure Lena. Her turquoise shirt is not a solid color, but slightly patterned. I think she would be a fun doll for a large variety of setups. This is the type of doll that I might use to be a super versatile doll. She can do western pleasure or trail, since not every western pleasure entrant is super fancy. She can also do things like working classes, even without specialty chaps. I may also be wrong on that, lol. But I know when I started showing 1000 years ago, a doll like this (though it was usually a cowboy doll) was great for all the western classes. At local level shows anyway. But maybe we have moved into specialized for absolutely everything at this point. Even at the local level. I haven't been paying enough attention. 

    To wrap up, I think I am finally recovered, mostly, from teaching. It really did take a lot out of me, and left me really exhausted for a really long time. Now I am waking up in a great mood, wanting to do things. I go to sleep thinking about what types of dolls I want to make. I have always done a lot of doll designing in my sleep. I am still planning on having another live sale, though likely it will be around the end of August instead of the middle of August, and I am working on having a good variety of available items. More information to come soon!