Odin

    It's time for another installment of Anne-is-not-getting-much-done. That statement is both true and not true. This past week I had an extra day, since we did not have school on Monday, but I don't remember getting any doll work done. I did the laundry earlier, which left me with a much more relaxed feeling instead of that semi-frantic super rushed feeling. I really hate that super rushed feeling. So I got the laundry and the errands done earlier in the day, and because Travis was still at Sunshine Village, I went and spent some time shopping. Which turns into looking at clothes and wondering why they are all so ugly. I am a weird person. I love a wide variety of clothing, but I mostly end up wearing jeans and T-shirts. They are comfortable, I don't have to think deeply about what to wear, they are comfortable. Pockets are a big plus. And with the kids I am working with, fancy outfits, or footwear that isn't sneakers, is kind of right out anyway. So is most jewelry. 

     I had heard, from a woman I work with, that there was a particular store locally that I thought was gone. I remember going there often when my kids were small. Some of that was it was in walking distance. Some of that was because the clothes were incredibly inexpensive. They always had a lot of things I did not like, but I could usually find some things that were interesting. When I got there I discovered that the store looked almost identical to the way it used to. Meaning, there was a wide array of 90's "fashion". Since that is currently the decade we are bringing back (in part). When I saw this outfit I snapped a photo for my friend from high school (and forgot to send it to her). This dress and shirt combo is exactly the sort of thing that was available back in the mid-90's. Kind of cute, I guess, though I have no interest in this sort of thing now. Too short, too tight, and no pockets. That is also a really terrible photo, and I was wondering what was up with my phone camera. It took me almost a week to figure that out. Oh, the rest of the store was either super ugly stuff or super short stuff. I get that half shirts are back in style, but they are pretty much the only style of shirt you can buy (outside of the men's department) these days. And they are against every school dress code so that leaves very few options.

    I did actually get some doll work finished this week. Some of it was just bits and pieces of a bunch of hunt seat dolls I have in the works, which I got zero photos of, but I also finished Odin. And took some terrible pictures of him. Really, what is going on with my camera? This guy was a custom order and was very interesting to make. I had the important details given to me (old man with a grey beard, an eye patch, and a grey cloak) and was told to make the rest of his clothing sort of medieval. 

    Can do. 

   Really though, I went Viking with his clothing, since that would be entirely appropriate. I really like how he came out, the customer liked how he came out, and I managed to get something done. These are all good things. 

    I still have relatively little time to do much of anything. While I was working on Odin I had some issues. I was working on him on Tuesday, but everything was going wrong. His tunic wouldn't fit, no matter what I did to it. I broke the hand off the doll, so I had to get another body and start over. Really, sometimes the dolls seem very flimsy. I can be frustrating. I think the second body I grabbed had one of the screws (which you have to open, to get the torso open, to put the head on) was stripped. So it took 3 bodies and a totally remade outfit to get this doll finished. Oh yeah, I lost the pants I originally made and had to make new ones. So many things went wrong. But I kept going (on Wednesday) and worked late on Wednesday, sort of to catch up and sort of because it really should not be too taxing to work 40 hours a week. I used to work about 60 hours a week, blog every single day, and still somehow managed to take care of my family. 

     Anyway, I finished this cool doll and I have a good start on 4 hunt seat dolls, which I can hopefully get done this week. I figured out what is wrong with my phone camera, it has nothing at all to do with the camera itself. The little screen protector for the camera was cracked, parts of it were peeling off, and the rest of it was sort of cloudy. Which is why all of my photos looked sort of cloudy. So I took that off last night and now I have nice photos again. I still only seem to have time to read blogs or write a post about once a week, but I am managing it. I am starting to think about getting the October packages together for the miniatures club, and sort of working on things for my Black Friday sale, which is just about for sure happening. Things are happening! Along with some really interesting car work that I will likely talk about soon.