Sometimes You Need Accessories

     Today's post photos are brought to you by Danielle Feldman. In this first one, her group of kid dolls (who I had no hand in creating) are trying to get a cat out of a tree. The horse is wearing a bareback pad that I made. Look at the teamwork with these kids! One to hold the horse, two to cheer them on (or give advice?) and one to reach for that kitty!

    Here is a closer look at the kitten in the tree. Mostly Danielle sent me this one because she was pretty sure this is a helmet she got from me. It is. I order the helmets from Rockin W Ranch-Hobbies (on Facebook) and I add straps and a buckle so they are removable. Fun fact, apparently youth dolls and Yvonne type dolls wear the same size helmet. At least sometimes. 

    Thank you Danielle for sharing these NAN photos, and congratulations!

    I have been having a very nice summer. Unlike last summer, it has not rained nearly every day. It is actually summer. Which means we have had many days that are above 90 degrees (I can already hear Gail scoffing that that's nothing.) In New England a lot of those days are accompanied by a lot of humidity as well. This year has not been too horrible for the most part. Yesterday was pretty bad. Oppressive is a good word for it. The kind of weather where you just sweat all day, even when you are sitting still. And nothing ever dries. I think we have one or two more days like that and then the temperatures will drop down to mid and lower 80s. Which doesn't mean they won't also still be super humid, just that we won't have hot and humid. So we move from oppressive to sort of clammy and gross, lol. Anyway, I have been doing a pretty good job of not working continuously. I don't do enough nothing still, but I am better at it. I have made myself lots and lots of time to read, which has been fantastic. We have not gone swimming at all, but maybe before the end of the season. We'll see.

     I have a thing weighing on my mind today. I got an email asking for a link to the hairing tool I use. I bought it so long ago, on ebay, that I couldn't come up with the link if I wanted to. So I gave the key words to use to search. Which I felt was pretty helpful. But then this morning I got another email asking me to go and look on ebay and etsy and see if I can find the thing closest to what I use. There was a further inquiry asking if I ever do workshops near me. And I am feeling really weird about all of this. I have, over the years, given some tips and tutorials in my blog. Not a ton of tutorials, they take a ridiculous long time to put together and often result in more work for me. But I make dolls for a living, I don't teach doll making. I give some tips and advice sometimes, but I have wasted hours and days (probably weeks and months collectively) searching for things, trying things out to see if they work. Sometimes I will share a bit of something but I have no desire, or time, to become a full time doll teacher. Especially since it is yet another thing that takes a lot of  my time and doesn't pay me. Which I know sounds selfish but my bill collectors really don't care if I help people, they just want to be paid. So sometimes I actually need to make money.

    So here is the part where things get sticky and weird. I know very well that there are people in the hobby who will tell you every material they use and potentially exactly how they did what they did. Which is great, if that is what they choose to do. I am also very well aware that even if I was to teach people exactly how I do what I do, they would not be able to make dolls exactly like mine because everyone works in somewhat of a different way and practice really is important. But when I share something, or answer a question, and then get a follow up question asking me to do more work for someone... where does it end? I know from experience that a quick search for a thing might actually take several hours. Sometimes that is because you are searching to find something in particular, searching for something you are not sure of the name of (or if it even exists), or because you get sidetracked with things. But when I already gave the tools required (keywords) to do the search and was basically asked a second time to go and do the majority of the work for someone else and send a direct link, I get frustrated. Which makes me feel selfish. 

     So that is what is weighing on my mind today. I don't like to ignore people, I hate it when it happens to me (though it IS happening to me now. I had an inquiry about time payments on my volunteer model, I responded... and have been ignored since), I also don't have time or desire to take more of my non-existent free to find things for other people, who also may just stop responding when they get what they want.  I don't like being put in this position at all.