One More Daily Post

    I figured I would keep up with the daily posting for at least one more post. I had this photo waiting, but hadn't done anything with it, and then it was time to talk about the Black Friday sale. These dolls are already gone, but being hunt seat dolls I am not totally sure if they were commissions (one at least) or if both were in the sale. One hunt seat doll looks a lot like another hunt seat doll. They seem to be one of the most often ordered or purchased dolls lately. So likely, I will start working on another batch of hunt seat dolls. I may post them for people to buy ahead of time if they choose. They may also hang out and wait for the next live sale, which I am thinking I definitely want to have. This week I need to make a casual English doll. Maybe I will make a couple of them, those also still seem to be fairly popular. And I kind of like making them. 

    Last week I didn't do much for doll work, I was taking things a little bit easy after spending so much time last weekend--my off time-- to work on scheduling the sales photos, and scheduling the advertising pictures. Once I figured out how to schedule the advertising photos, both for Facebook and Instagram, both in my business stuff on Facebook, everything became even easier than it already had been. I scheduled stuff and then took some time off. Other than making some girths for bareback pads and harnesses for helmets, I did very little related to dolls last week. It was really excellent. 

    Wednesday I went out, by myself, for a few hours. I had a half a day of school but Travis had a full day at Sunshine Village. So I had a few hours to go and do things on my own. I have no issue taking Travis places with me, but it's nice to do things all by myself once in a while. In the evening, I worked on desserts for Thanksgiving, discovered I did not have enough coconut flour to make the pie I was working on, so went to the grocery store. On the night before Thanksgiving. I have never been so happy to have mobile checkout as that night. 

    Thanksgiving was wonderful, I think I talked about it yesterday or the day before, but I really can't remember at the moment and don't want to go and look. But it was an excellent day, good food, fun conversation, a bonfire at the end. I'm looking forward to next Thanksgiving. 

    Friday of course was spent doing last minute things to get ready for the semi-live sale, running the sale, coffee date with Travis, and then working on invoicing. It was a super busy day. Saturday morning, for many hours, I was packing stuff and adding shipping labels to packages. Ethan brought 12 packages to the post office for me on Saturday morning before they closed. It was great. So it's very likely some people might get their Black Friday stuff today or tomorrow. How fun would that be? I have a whole bunch more packages ready to head out today, and a handful that have not been paid for just yet, but there is still time. Though of course, the longer you wait to pay, the slower I will be to ship. I do a huge push to get as much done as possible immediately after the sale. But if you happen to pay me late Monday afternoon... I have already been to the post office and likely it could be a day or two, or more, until I go again. 

    Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed having so many posts in a row for this past week. I will not be going back to daily posts, I just don't have that kind of time, or that much stuff to talk about, but I will aim for a post or two a week. I only have about 3 and a half (almost 4, but I'll call it half) weeks until winter break! Which is a nice long one. And I am almost sure I can make time to do some extra doll work or blogging (maybe both) during that time. 
 

Complete Conga for One Second

    For the past couple of years, I have been all in with Breyer. I bought models from Breyerfest, grabbed limited collector's club runs when I could snag them, joined the premier club and the stablemate club, and even was working on completing a conga of Django models. It was fun and it was going well. I said that as long as keeping the conga complete was a fairly easily obtainable thing, I would do it. So when Breyer showed the model for the deluxe collector's club was this Django (that I am sure has a name, but I don't know what it is), I of course had to join the deluxe collector's club. 

     This guy arrived a week or two ago. I can't say which because time has all flowed together so I never quite know what day it is. Right now I am fairly sure it's Sunday morning. And I know that November is almost over and how did that even happen? Anyway, this guy arrived, he's lovely, and I have a complete conga. 

     There are still not tons and tons of them, so it isn't the biggest conga. Big enough that I can only see the chests, so I miss a lot of details on these amazing models. It really is an excellent mold. And even though I am not really all in with Breyer these days, and I am not an OF collector. I was pretty pleased to have my complete conga. 

     I believe it was a day or two after my deluxe collector's club bonus model arrived that I saw in the newsletter that I was about to not have a complete conga. Again. This guy is one of the Merry and Bright blind bag offerings.

Photo from Breyerhorse.com

     So that's it. I am not willing to chase down a model that I only really want because it would complete the conga (again). I was also not really willing to pay $25 each (limit 2) for the chance to get one of them. I did not want to take the gamble and then work to trade with someone to try to get the one I wanted, since I am likely to not get the Django. I have paid more than $25 for a couple of these models, but there are things that you are willing to do when you are all in that you are not willing to do when you are not. And I am not these days. I am not an OF collector. 

      I mentioned on the live portion of my semi-live sale that I was likely going to have another sale in March. This one would be a lot of things from my personal collection. I assured everyone that I am not leaving the hobby, because I am not. But I have a lot of things that I am not using or just no longer interested in. One of the things I am not interested in is owning an almost complete conga of Django. So I am going to be selling most of them. Someone already asked about a couple, and they are gone. So the conga is even less complete than it was just a few days ago. If you know you need one of them feel free to reach out and ask about it. I potentially still have it, and it might be one I am probably selling. 

     

     So the next semi-live sale will clearly be a different sort of thing. I am thinking around my birthday, which is the end of March, and I will have stablemates, mini resins, micros (both painted and unpainted), possibly traditional scale resins, there is the possibility of traditional scale OF models, likely tack, maybe some dolls (some that I used and some I will make before then), there could be props, probably medallions, and probably some 1:9 scale dollhouse miniatures. I have WAY too much stuff and I need to have less. I need to have things that I use, not just that sit in the storage locker. 

  

     Thanks Breyer for the interesting fun of collecting a complete conga of Django models. It was fun while it lasted. And for anyone that thinks I am doing this because I am depressed or angry about the loss of the conga, go back and read several year's worth of blog posts. I am not an OF collector and it is actually pretty weird for me to have worked at getting a complete conga in the first place. I also routinely purge my collection to get down to almost bare bones. Though this time I am thinking more bare bones than before. I have some specialty tack that might be headed out. We'll see. 

The Sale Continues, Small Business Saturday Items

     The semi-live sale was very successful yesterday. I felt scattered and behind pretty much the entire time I was live, but that happens when you are selling miniatures. They really don't work super well in a live, or even semi-live, sale format. I did an inventory this morning and I do have some items left that were not claimed. Some of the photos have the claim code (mine) on them. You don't need that, it won't help here. I just don't want to change the photos now that I started. I will put the price, and how many sets I have, below each photo. Feel free to comment on this post or comment on the Facebook post where I will put the link to this post, to claim. All the miniatures that show several of the same item, or a drink and snacks, come as a set. So the prices are for the set, not an individual piece. Happy shopping!

Pastries, set of 6, $3. I have 7

Crullers, set of 6, $3. I have 4

ice coffee drinks set of 6, $5. I have 3

Coffee and cookies set, $3 each. I have 12

iced tea and treats set, $4. I have one set

Diet cokes, set of 6, $5. I have 4

Coke Zero, set of 6, $5. I have 4

Handmade wraps, cookies, orange and Starbucks drink, $10 for the set. I have one.

6 small loaves of bread. $4 each set. I have 2

Set of 6 pieces of chicken, $4 each set. I have 3

Doll blankets, $5 each. I have 5 green ones left. 

Judge's kits, $5 each. I have 1

removable helmets that fit the Yvonne-type dolls. One green, $15 . 

SOLD One palm tree backpack, $28

SOLD Horse lunch bag, with lunch, I forgot to post it for the sale. $38

Western pleasure doll with turquoise shirt. Casual enough you could potentially get away with her in working classes too, at smaller shows (I said potentially). $230. 

   If you see something, or several somethings, you want, please let me know. I will try to keep the post updated as things sell. Thanks so much for supporting my business!

 

Semi-live Sale Day!

    Today is the day! It's semi-live sale day! All of the available items have been posted in previous posts. The schedule of when each items goes up for sale was posted on Wednesday. The festivities start at 3:00 pm ET, on my Facebook studio page. As a reminder, you do not have to watch the live portion to claim items. You MUST claim the items in the comments under the claim photos (the ones with the claim codes) because no claims made in the live broadcast will count. After the sale, if you have claimed any items, please message me on my STUDO page (not my personal page, and not through email) and let me know your email and the country you live in. Even if you are positive I already have this information. I need those two pieces of information for invoicing. All invoicing will be done through paypal. You do not need to have paypal to pay your invoice through paypal. Please make sure you pay the invoice, don't send me payment separately, this messes up how I do things for the sales and actually makes a lot more work for me. Please make sure your address is correct as I am not going in and changing addresses, this also makes a lot of extra work for me. Please do not find a work-around to send me friends and family payment. This is illegal and will be returned as I have no desire to be audited. There will be flat rate shipping by country, which has been heavily advertised on both Instagram and Facebook, please do not ask me for a lower shipping rate. The shipping rates for each country are posted on every single claim photo description. Please do not claim if you don't intend to pay. If something comes up, please don't wait until the last second (as in a week later) to let me know about it. I may not have any time to see questions on this post (since live sale days are usually really busy) so I hope you already asked them ahead of time! I cannot easily look at private messages on Facebook while I am doing a live broadcast, though if you have an urgent inquiry, please feel free to message me and I will try to get to it. Most important, have fun! Come "visit" me on the live if you have the time and inclination!

Dolls for the Black Friday Live Sale

     I did not end up having bunches of time to work on dolls for my Black Friday live sale, so I don't have tons and tons of dolls. But I do have a nice variety. I have 4 western pleasure dolls, the lady in red has black hair, the first doll in silver has red hair, the grey/silver doll has black hair, and the blue doll has brown hair. 

$230 each

The first navy coat hunt seat doll has brown hair, the black coat doll next to her has brown hair as well, the black coat doll next to her has blond hair, and the doll on the far right has black hair. 

$230 each

     

This hunt seat youth doll is done on the little Yvonne body, with a kid head, and brown hair. I have reinforced the body so she doesn't fall apart as easily (all dolls can fall apart if roughly handled). The rainbow western pleasure doll is also done in the little Yvonne body with a kid head, and she had blond hair. Her body has also been modified and reinforced. 

$230 each

    The casual western doll in pink is done on the Lena body and has black hair in a braid. The western pleasure doll next to her is also done on the Lena body with black hair. Her hat is permanent. 

Left to right: $210, $230, $210, $210

     

While I don't have a lot of options, I do have a small variety of English and western options. My doll prices are going to have to go up a small amount in January, so get the lower prices while you can. The Black Friday Live sale will be held tomorrow, November 25th at 3:00 pm ET on my studio page on Facebook.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Black Friday Schedule

As promised, here is the live sale schedule. All of the item photos are in previous posts, or the post that is coming tomorrow. Let me know if you have any questions. The semi-live sale will be on Friday, November 25th and is starting at 3:00pm ET on my Facebook studio page. 

3:00- live sale starts, I go live on my studio page

3:05- lemonade sets

3:08- pastry sets

3:11- cruller sets

3:14- sets of 3 bottles of alcohol

3:17- sets of 2 bottles of alcohol

3:20- pizza

3:21- sandwich lunches with oranges

3:24- sandwich lunches with apples

3:27- wrap lunch with orange

3:30- wrap lunch with apple

3:33- animal cookies

3:36- ice cream sandwich and coffee

3:39- apples

3:42- hot coffee

3:45- frozen drinks

3:48- coffee and cookies

3:51- iced tea

3:54- iced tea, cookie, and pastry

3:57- diet coke

4:00- coke

4:03- coke zero

4:06- bubble tea

4:09- sets of 12 pastries

4:12- sets of 6 small loaves of bread

4:15- sets of 12 carrots

4:18- sets of 6 pieces of chicken

4:25- doll blankets

4:30- cat sets

4:35- dog sets

4:40- lunch bag sets

4:45- judges kits

4:50- saddlebags

4:55- backpacks

5:00- bareback pads

5:05- Western pleasure dolls

5:10- hunt seat dolls

5:15- casual dolls (and one western pleasure doll)

5:20- Youth dolls

5:25- mystery envelopes

5:30- Mystery boxes

     My recommendation is to print out the list, go back into the posts (or wait for the post that is coming tomorrow), decide what you want, or might want, and highlight or underline the items. That way you have a pretty good idea of when you need to check the studio page (and refresh like a crazy person) for the claim photos to pop up. 

     So the end of the schedule shows mystery envelopes AND mystery boxes. What??? Remember how on Sunday I said I was having a miniatures blowout? Well, that continues into mystery packages. The mystery boxes have 3 items each, that were potentially going to be miniatures club items, but I changed my mind. The same items are not in each of the boxes (I changed my mind on a variety of items). They also have several other smaller miniatures. The retail value of these boxes would be somewhere between $30- $60, depending on the box. I don't think any of the boxes are identical. Most of the items are are new to my sales/mystery boxes and have not been used in previous mystery packages. The smaller items are likely items you have seen before. 

$25 each

    

  I had the really fun idea to also have mystery envelopes. These contain things that I have offered for sale in the past, potentially nothing you have not seen before, BUT, each of these envelopes contains 16 miniatures! Now we all (should) know how expensive miniatures are, so these mystery packages are a super bargain for the money! Most of the items are food items, but not all of them. Each package contains at least 2 non-food miniatures. And not everything is a super small miniature. There is a bit of crossover from the mystery boxes to the mystery envelopes (though some items are only in the boxes, and some are only in the envelopes). That's all you get for hints!

$15 each

    

 Dolls are posting tomorrow. Are you getting excited yet?

The Sets and Things for the Live Sale

     I have been working hard to get ready for the Field of Dolls Studio Black Friday Live sale. Which will be held this Friday, November 25th, at 3:00 pm ET on my studio page on Facebook. I know people often like to pre-shop a sale, so here are all of the miniature sets that I have ready for the sale. These may be the last sets I ever make. They really are a lot of work, and not really worth the time and effort. I may still make some randomly here or there, or pieces of sets perhaps, but these very well might be the last I ever do. More items will be posted tomorrow!

$38 each set

$38 each set

$5 each

$28 each

$5 each

$38 each set

$70 each set

$40 each

Single cat bed $8, cross country kit $38, bareback pad $40 (is in the photo above), Green helmet $15, $blue helmet $15. I am hoping to also have a few black helmets.

Semi-live sale how-to details.

  I have done this post before, twice at least, since this is not my first semi-live sale. Here is the link to the original post. I thought it might be slightly confusing since it was specific to the last sale. So I copied and pasted it into a new post and will edit it to make it relevant to the upcoming sale. If something doesn't make sense please let me know. Hopefully I will have time to answer. 

     My plan is to have a sales catalog published, here in the blog, this Wednesday. The blog catalog and other advertising photos (if I get around to those) will be posted in groups, like the photo below. They will not have group letters on them, I am not doing that this time, you can tell that bareback pads are a group, cat sets another, and so on. Though they will also have prices on them since that was a request. I will get right on that!

     The order I have them posted in the catalog will be the order the photos will go up on my studio page on sale day. I will have claim codes on the photos so when the photo pops up all you have to do is comment UNDER THE PHOTO the claim code. If you are the first to claim that particular item it goes to you. No matter what your internet speed, 3:00 (or the comparable time in your time zone) is 3:00 for everyone. The photos show up at the same time for everyone. Since you will have already seen the groups and how they are laid out you will know exactly where to look in each photo so you can see the claim code (which is not easily guessable, for fairness) and then just type that into the comments. 

     At 3:00 next Friday, November 25th, I am going to go live on my studio page on Facebook. I will not be showing you any of the items I have for sale. At 3:05(probably) group A (which is not the group A from this post, these photos are all from my test sale, but will actually be a group of similar items in different colorways) will be posted on my studio page. You are more than welcome to watch me dance around in my room and pack bags. I am sorry to say I am much more chill during a semi-live sale. I still try to keep it fun. I still sing the alphabet and I will drink seltzer. You cannot claim items by commenting on my live video. No claims count if you say them to me. Literally the only reason to watch me do the live is to have some interaction. As of this moment (this was written on Saturday) I am not doing trivia. I don't have space in my brain to think of questions and I don't think I have any prizes. You never know if I might come up with some surprises. Including putting trivia back into the live. But to be clear, you do not actually have to WATCH me at the semi- live sale to claim things. 

      So let me now explain in greater detail how you claim an item. Let's say you are looking at the micro pouches in group B and you absolutely LOVE the pouch with the pink unicorns. You know that is one you want to try for and the schedule tells you group B will be posted at 3:10. So at 3:10 you are refreshing your device like a crazy person and I am hanging out in my room talking to myself and calmly drinking my seltzer. You hit refresh over and over and then the group B photo is up! You see that the pouch you want is 55 so under the photo of group B (the photo with the claim codes) you comment 55. Really, it is that easy. And if you were the first person to comment 55, you will be the one that gets the pouch. Which I will say out loud on the live portion of the sale where I am chilling and casually packing bags and not running around like a crazy person. I will also "love" your comment so you know you are in fact the first person and the winner of the item. Easy, right?

      My plan is to probably have groups post about every 5 minutes. Though the blowout of miniatures will likely be every 2-3 minutes (the claim code for all the miniatures is "mine") All the groups are somewhat small so I have enough time to write on bags and sort items before the next batch comes up. I will also schedule in 5 minute breaks where no photos are going up, which will give me some time to catch up if I have gotten behind. The basic rule is the first person to claim (It may or may not be the same order on everyone's device so I am still going by what shows first on my screen) will get the item. In the first 5 minutes the group is listed you may only claim one item from the group. So let's say group A goes live at 3:05. You can only claim one of the bareback pads. When group B goes live at 3:10 (so, 5 minutes later) if there is anything unclaimed from group A you can make a second claim from that group. Doing it this way makes it more fair for everyone. 

     So that is the basic idea. Claims only count if they are comments on the photo, the one with the claim codes, on my Facebook studio page, and if they are the first one. You may only claim one item per group for the first 5 minutes the group is listed. After the first 5 minutes anything unclaimed is fair game, even if you already claimed an item from that group. There are times during the semi-live sale where I get a little backed up (usually because I am talking...) and I may not get to a claim photo to "love" comments for several minutes. I will get to it, and announcing, as quickly as I can. 

     It really is pretty simple. All of the available items will be posted, with prices, on the blog, prior to the day of the sale. I will get a schedule out too so you know exactly when you need to check my studio page for what you want. You are more than welcome to watch the live portion, which is me hanging out in my room, singing the alphabet, and drinking seltzer. You don't actually have to watch, though I likely will have great makeup. All the claiming will be done on my studio page. If you only want to watch me dance around, you can. 

     So another burning question might be, how can we be in two places at once? How can we watch the studio page for the photos and also watch the live stuff? HOW??? Well, the easiest way is to have 2 devices, which is what I will have. I do the filming with my phone on a tripod and I put my laptop on a box and watch the page that way. Two devices is super easy. OR you can split your screen. I don't think you can do that on a phone or a tablet. But I know for a fact you can do it on a computer. And I am not going to teach you that. I taught enough people how to split their screen. You are on your own to Google that one. 

     Please let me know if you have any questions on how the semi-live sale works. 

Miniatures Blowout!

     Remember back in August of 2020 when I had a miniatures live sale? You don't? Well it happened. I wanted to see if it would work, if people liked it. So I can say, it didn't really work. I had multiples of each of the items, I showed them one at a time, and people would claim them one at a time, until I ran out of them, and it was a messy nightmare. But I wanted to try it, so I did. I love miniatures and I enjoyed offering them. I found new ways to put them into the live sale format that was a bit easier to deal with, including having them as add-ons that you could add-on to your other purchases when you sent your email and the country you live in (which is and always will be a requirement for invoicing. Please don't make me chase you). I have enjoyed carrying miniatures, but I am tiring of storing them. They don't take up a ton of room, but they are not doing me any good hanging around in the closet. And it takes a lot of work to inventory and post them at every single live sale. So I am having a blowout sale and will no longer be carrying miniatures.  So this post is full of the lots available, I have more than one of almost all of them, and I am going to include the prices for each lot. These will all go up on Friday, a few minutes apart, and you will just need the claim code "mine" to claim. When I run out, that's it. So here we go, enjoy the miniatures!

lemonade and a variety of pastries (always 5 but exact pastries will vary) $6 a set. 

I don't remember what these pastries are even called. 6 for $3

I think these are crullers. 6 for $3

3 bottles of alcohol, $6 for the set

2 bottles of alcohol, $5 for the set. 

8 slices, which make a whole pizza (this is the only one) $6

Full sandwich lunch option. Sandwiches, cookies and orange are handmade, $10 a set

A different sandwich and fruit option for lunch. Apples are not handmade, the sandwich and cookies are. $9 a set

2 handmade wraps, 2 handmade cookies, a handmade orange, and a Starbucks drink $10 a set

Almost the same wrap lunch. Drink is now red, apple is not handmade $9 a set

Animal crackers, $3 a set

handmade ice cream sandwich and Starbucks Frappuccino, $3 a set

6 apples for $4

6 Starbucks hot coffees for $5

6 Starbucks frozen drinks for $5 

Starbucks frozen drink and 2 ice cream cookie sandwiches, $3

4 lemon iced teas $5

Iced tea, ice cream sandwich and puff pastry, $4 (the iced tea cost me more than other drinks)

6 diet cokes for $5

6 cokes for $5

6 coke zeros for $5

4 Starbucks bubble teas (all 4 colors) $5

a dozen puff pastries $5

6 loaves of bread $4

a dozen carrots $4

6 pieces of chicken $4