Saddle Seat

     Yesterday I posted a couple of random western pleasure dolls I have for sale. Random means they were not orders and they were just whatever my brain decided to make. All of my dolls are going to be random dolls for the foreseeable future. But I do have a couple more dolls to talk about that were ordered. This saddle seat doll was one of my last orders. He is wearing a vest made from a material with the same pattern, though a different color, as one of the western pleasure dolls I talked about yesterday. 

      I actually don't make a ton of saddle seat dolls. I have a lot of different reasons for that. One of them is they do sort of take more work than some other types of dolls. Another reason is that they are, in some ways, a specialty doll. They can do saddle seat. Period. Yes, it IS possible to use saddle seat tack/attire in almost any English class, just as you can do the same with side saddle. But it is not usually something that is done. So you end up with a doll that you can use for one class, that you also need special tack for. So they are not a doll I think to make all that often. And I can't make a bowler hat. Women wear bowler hats for saddle seat and I have not yet been able to make one that I actually really like. So for many reasons I don't really gravitate to making saddle seat dolls. But this guy was an order, and it was nice to make a saddle seat doll again. And it was nice to work with a Breyer guy. I think I have one more Breyer guy left that has the original small head.

     Closing my order books still seems to be the best decision I could have made for myself. At least currently. It has been so much less stressful to just make whatever I want, or even change the plan mid-doll when things get a bit messed up. Maybe I might open the books for a bit for the summer. When, theoretically, I have a bit more time in my day (lol, that's funny. Time has a way of filling itself). But I also might not. 

     Things at school have been interesting. We have made some really excellent progress with the kids. I have been working on some new skills with Travis, and that has been going well. I have a lot of different things I try to fit into my days, and I have been doing better at balancing all the things. Not perfectly, and some days are still really unbalanced, but I have been doing a lot better. And I have been kinder to myself. I do think a big part of that is not doing custom orders. And also not holding myself to the strictest of deadlines when it comes to finishing dolls, or even jewelry pieces. Though I have been slacking on jewelry for a bit and I want to get back into that this weekend. I have a bunch of new connector charms that I want to incorporate into some designs and I got a bunch more stones yesterday. Not that I needed more, I just can't help but get more, lol. So I might do some jewelry making this weekend, or even during the week, in addition to, or instead of, dolls. I am leaving my options open a bit.