Interesting Things

       Basically, I have been working for the last 10 days straight. Some days, like today, were actually longer than others. But different than the usual day, so it only sort of seemed like a long day. This morning I made this dog bed, got my unpainted GSD, and posted this photo on Instagram and Facebook. People are very interested in the dog. I still don't remember where I got him, though I am sure someone knows where they come from. 

     Last week I didn't do any doll work because I was making jewelry, setting up displays (and timing how long it took me) and getting ready for a festival where I would be selling my jewelry. 

     I have, again, been having a lot of fun wrapping stones. I also have been having a really good time finding interesting stones to wrap. Which has lead me to pay regular retail prices for stones more often than I like. But I have found some really cool things. 

     I am also doing reasonably well at not just wrapping everything in silver, which is my preferred color of wire to use. But the bright copper looks really nice with this pink jasper. 

     And the antique copped looks really nice with this flamestone. I made a variety of other jewelry as well, put velvet on some displays, and generally focused on jewelry. It was a nice break from the doll work. 

     Then this past weekend I was selling my jewelry, both Saturday and Sunday. I also brought all of my jewelry making stuff with me, in case someone wanted a particular charm with a particular gemstone. I made someone a dragon pendant while she watched, I made a choker for another lady, who also happens to work in Chicopee (where I live) and was excited to find out I am a paraprofessional. She wants me to come work at her school. It sounds like an interesting challenge, but I couldn't afford the extreme pay cut. I wonder how schools think they will get decent paras when they pay so little. My district is one of the lower paid in the area, and this private school pays even less! Yes, I am a para because I like helping people, but I do also like to eat, so I guess I will stay where I am, with the team that I really love working with. 

     I had some people asking me if I had a particular stone, sometimes I had them in my stash, and sometimes I didn't. I ended up wrapping 4 stones for people on Sunday, 1 was from my stash, and 3 were purchased from the main shop where the festival was held. I also wrapped several stones just to keep busy. By the end of the day I had wrapped at least 7 stones, but maybe 8, and my hands were tired. They were still a bit sore on Monday. I decided not to work after school on Monday. Which was nice. That followed into Tuesday. But still, I have worked for the last 10 days straight and I am tired. 2 more days to go and then it's the weekend. I am not working this weekend. 

     I bought this really cool painting from another artist at the festival. She does a variety of different types of paintings, but this was a poured painting, with textures! So not only do the colors coordinate perfectly with the rest of my bedroom, but this painting is really fun to look at. 

     At the end of my longer-than-average studio day today (I was getting a new furnace installed so I stayed home and worked in the studio) I managed to make 10 dog beds, 6 bareback pads that still need girths, and most of a huntseat doll that did not make it into this photo because she was not dressed enough at the time I took this. I worked a VERY long day. 

     Tomorrow I am aiming to finish the hunt seat doll and the bareback pads. We'll see if I can manage it or not. I had some people at the festival on Sunday asking how I could make the jewelry so quickly, or wrap the stones so fast. I said if you do anything enough, you get really fast. I can wrap a stone in about 20-30 minutes at this point. Even while I am talking. And I can make dolls and accessories extremely quickly, especially when I am focused. Some good had to come of 17 years of doll making practice!

     The dog beds, bareback pads, and the saddle bags I have not talked about in a while will be available at my Black Friday live sale that I am planning to have. That's about a month from now. So likely I will be making some more miniature items, I have a lot of miniatures coming for mystery boxes, I have some dolls already in my stash and plan on making more, it should be a good time. I guess now I also have to hunt up some prizes and figure out some trivia! Time to be determined for the sale. More information soon(ish). 

It's Been a Minute

     It's been a bit since I have posted. I have been extremely tired lately, and I don't know if that is from not getting great sleep, which I am not, if it's from the very challenging days we often have in school, which we have, or if it's the seasons changing. I just know I am tired. I have been working on dolls, and I post them usually on my studio page on Facebook. I think also on MH$P, but I may have forgotten to do that a few times. These little barnrat kids are the latest dolls I finished. They are both still available. 

     This week was all working on jewelry and things related to jewelry. I have a festival this weekend, in Simsbury, CT, where I will be selling. It's at The Bell and Raven if you are interested in stopping by. It's frustrating that it is supposed to rain all weekend. So the entire festival will be inside. But getting stuff from the car, into the space, is not going to be a dry affair. I'll just have to be quick I guess. 

     This hunt seat lady is also available. She has an ad with a lot more photos on MH$P. 

     I have some pretty excellent friends. Recently, one of them super politely called me out for not running. It was done in such a way that I couldn't possibly get defensive about it. He asked if I had been running lately and I said no, I haven't. He asked why not and I said because I get home from school and have to work in my studio because I need to make money since everything is expensive. He said that sounds like excuses. I said they are excuses. He reminded me that I probably would feel better if I started running again, I loved it so much after all. Well crap, how can you argue with that? So last Sunday I started running again. It was hard, since it really has been since about April since I did any running. But I managed 2 incredibly slow miles, and posted about it on Instagram. Another friend messaged to see if I wanted an accountability buddy. I almost said no, because if you have an accountability buddy you actually have to do the thing you say you are going to do, because they will be checking in. So I said yes, since clearly it is way too easy to make excuses not to run. 

    Tuesday I ended up doing 1/3 of a mile SPRINT through the school after a student. I only know how far it was because I measured the distance the next day. I was impressed I went that fast, for that long, I usually can't go that fast for that long of a distance. Or even slow for that much of a distance all at once (right now, I will get there) but when you need to chase a kid, sometimes what you can normally do, or not do, goes right out the window. It felt like a reminder from the universe that I really need to get back into training. 

    Other than being really tired and not getting amazing sleep, things have been pretty good. School is going well, and even with the variety of challenges we have, my team works really well together. If we have an issue, everyone just knows what to do, without the teacher having to say what we should do or where we should be. She took note of that last week when there seemed like there would be an issue. It's nice to be part of a team that works so seamlessly together. And it's nice to have the acknowledgment that we are doing great things. 

    So no doll work happened this week since I was prepping for the festival, but this week, or next week, I am going to be back to focusing on dolls. It's really not that far until Black Friday and I am planning on holding another live sale. I do have a bunch of dolls and saddlebags, but I would like to have more dolls, and more of a variety of miniature items to offer. So what would everyone like to see for miniature items? I am not totally sure what I want to make and I am open to suggestions.