Mutton Busting

      I'm going to consider this a guest post! Elaine Lindelef sent me some fun photos of her mutton busting doll that I made for her. I am pretty sure she got this doll specifically for the Jennifer Show. Anyway, Elaine sent me some photo to share. Enjoy!

     Lili the mutton busting rider has had more adventures!

         To make up for it I let her play with one of my favorite ponies. Here she is having a riding lesson. 

     Here she is playing games

     And enjoying a nice day 

     Thank you Elaine for allowing me to share your photos! If anyone else would like to share doll photos, show wins or whatever else, let me know! I am also definitely open to guest bloggers. 
 

Field of Dolls Online Fall Prizes

      I have been busily collecting prizes for the Field of Dolls Online Fall show. The unicorn ducks were something I found at Party City when I got my newest yard flamingos. These will be class prizes, though I am not sure which placing yet. I know people have used rubber ducks for ring toss so that could definitely be an option of how to use them. The mystery miniatures were meant to be prizes for the Spring show, but I missed them in the prize bag. The 3D printed props were a few things I saved back as well. Since I had a door prize for every single entrant, it seemed OK to save some things. The tweezers are super pointy and should be excellent for performance showers. I don't remember where they came from but I found them when I was cleaning a pile of everything on the kitchen table. 

       These items were things I was gifted. The cup cozy was from one of my favorite LuLaRoe consultants. She knew I would love it. And I do love it, and I used it for a long time. But I have not put a can in the fridge in a very long time and usually just poor seltzer in my reusable (pink cup) from a liter bottle. The adorable pencil case is amazing but I have not used it and I don't want it to just sit. The keychain was a prize from Sweet Onion Shenanigans and was made by Wendy Ward. 

       It's a bit hard to see some of these items but we have horse head finger puppets, 3D unicorn erasers, unicorn keychains you can color and stickers. 

    Here we have unicorn plates, horse coloring books, unicorn suncatchers, and miniatures. 

      Breyer things. 

     These items are meant for the top 7 showers. I have a cool 3D printed jump, a table a chairs set, a couple of desk and chair sets and a couple of shelves. These are items made by HandcraftedbyKari on etsy. 

     I do also have some other prizes on hand already as well. Things I have shared that were donated and things that I got for class prizes when I was getting prizes for the last show. I already have a pretty great start on prizes but I am always open to more! I will even come up with some show dates soon. 

Getting it Done

     Last week I was incredibly productive. After spending weeks being super exhausted (or it at least seemed like weeks) I finally had a reasonable amount of energy. And I had a plan. I had to take a personal day on Monday for Travis's IEP meeting so I wanted to get started on an order for a couple of hoodie dolls that has been in my book for a few weeks. I actually managed to get a lot done on Monday, which is a day I usually never get anything done on dolls. 

     On Tuesday I finished up the last bits of the hoodie dolls and moved into prepping for this casual western doll with a cool flamingo shirt and another hoodie doll. I got a good amount of work done on Tuesday, though I don't remember exactly how much. 

     Wednesday I also was really productive and I believe I either finished up the flamingo lady and hoodie doll or came incredibly close. I may have finished them up. I was very efficient, full of energy (or enough to continue being productive) and finishing so many things was very motivating. 

     With the 3 hoodie dolls and the flamingo western doll finished I had 3 orders I could move to the finished section of my order book. And I still had technically 2 days to work on dolls. Since my Best Customs entry needed Breyer dolls my plan was to quickly knock those out on Thursday and then have all of Friday off from doll work so I could have a 3 day weekend. It was a good plan and it almost worked. 

     Thursday I was still fairly motivated but I was also running out of steam. I did manage to get most of the 2 Breyer dolls finished, but I just couldn't make myself totally finish. I left off with the lady needing her face repainted, and the man needed boot bottoms, a belt, pockets, and buttons. Collectively those things don't take up a whole ton of time, and I could have forced myself to finish. But I decided that it was better to listen to what my body was telling me and I stopped for the day. 

     Friday was a struggle. Since my custom horse was so close to done, and I had time to make the Breyer dolls, my plan had been to get those projects finished and take the photo for the contest on the weekend. It was a good plan. A reasonable plan. And entirely doable plan. But Friday was a struggle. It took me an hour to talk myself into getting out the paint box. I started on the hooves with the light shell color (should have been a bit lighter, but whatever) and I repainted just the eyes on the Breyer doll. She still looks like a doll, there is not really a way to make her not look like a doll, but she looks better. Then I got back into the now-dry hooves with pastels. I have forgotten just how long a model horse pedicure takes. And I could easily have taken a lot more time than the hour and a half that I took. But I made it through and now I had my lady doll finished and my custom horse finished and I was again (mostly) energized. I got some sort of nice shots of my finished horse and grabbed the doll stuff to watch NCIS with Ethan and to finish up the man doll. 

     I did it. 

     It was basically in the plan to do the hooves on Friday and since there was not all that much left on either of the dolls, that is mostly what I did. So I did pretty much stick to my plan. And I got everything finished. Just when I told myself a would. I am happy. I went through a bit of time when I was really struggling to get things done. At all. I was definitely not getting them done when I said I would. I was not taking extra months (or years) but even an extra week is not something I usually do. So I am hopeful that my work verve is back now. I still have some pretty lofty savings goals and that requires actually working and saving money. I do love making dolls and I still make more with dolls than I do working at the school (every time someone says I should take a break on dolls and go back to school I laugh and say that makes NO sense financially) but the fact that the school will pay me even if I take a day off is pretty awesome. Anyway, work verve is a good thing and I am finally getting things done!
 

I Don’t Love Breyer Dolls

     Yesterday was the big reveal of the horse I did for the Breyerfest Best Customs contest. As a reminder, I am not a customizer or a painter. I have done a bit of painting, mostly because Jennifer Buxton started NaMoPaiMo, but I have not done much. I discovered that I can do a pretty good job with Pan Pastels. Not LSQ anything, but something that is pleasing to look at and makes me happy. It's not NaMoPaiMo, but I finished my horse and I am totally a winner!

     OK, so I am not a sculptor and not really a painter. So WHY did I enter the Best Customs contest? Performance of course. I made a horse that is pretty nice and is definitely going to be perfect for performance. But Breyer had a twist to their rules. If you are using a rider, it has to be Breyer made. Poop. I don't love Breyer dolls. The Breyer male dolls are OK, but they have weird tiny hands, that are smaller than the lady's hands (and both are smaller than youth doll hands...) and their necks don't bend, and I forgot to make these bendy, the lady is shaped a bit like a Barbie doll. I don't love Breyer dolls. But I want to have the best shot I can at winning, so I made Breyer dolls. 

      Because I apparently don't have enough to do these days I also decided that this lady really needed her hair French braided. I will NOT be doing this on order dolls! This was an enormous, frustrating pain and may only have worked out because the enormous head that this doll has. And this is the old style Breyer with the "small" head. They look so much like dolls...

     So that is everything you get. I am not sharing what I am doing for my contest entry. You know I customized a horse for performance and made some dolls. And that is all you get to know! I will of course share sooner or later. 

     If I win or lose doesn't even matter to me. Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to win, it would be super thrilling. But I am not getting my hopes up. I wanted to enter because I could. I may or may not ever get to an in person Breyerfest. And even if I don't win the contest I am still a winner. I finished my horse. 
 

The Big Reveal

      He's done! Back at the end of February I started customizing a Breyer Ideal Quarter Horse. Since I have never customized I horse I had no experience and only sort of an idea of what I was doing. I have been around model horse artists for a really long time, and I do pay attention, so I knew of some tricks. But I have never done the tricks. There is also a huge difference between knowing how to do a thing and actually doing a thing. Also apparently saying "I did a thing" means I am old or something. Not that I actually said that, lol. 

     Anyway, I took about 3 months to work on this horse. He is not complex, he is not a flashy color, and he has a lot of flaws. I know where all of them are. I have seen them, can't unsee them, and I have let them go. Today we have the big reveal of Just a Theory. Because for the last month or so he has been telling me that is what his name is. I have no idea what kind of barn name I can get out of that. Maybe he just needs to be chocolate, lol. Or cocoa. He does look pretty yummy!

      I don't have a link to a particular hoof tutorial because I read/watched a couple and then ended up mixing things. I used some acrylic paint techniques, but actually used a damp brush and Pan Pastels. And layers. Lots and lots of layers. I also see that his sock/hoof is not perfect. Again, I know where all his many many flaws are. And I still love him. 

      This guy has a really beefy neck and is sort of lacking in muscle tone. Because I don't know what I am doing, lol. Maybe when/if I do the next custom I need to just completely remove the neck and make a new one. Not sure how good of a job I can do of that, I have never done that, but I could give it a try. I wish I had not missed the neck sculpting workshop at Breyer Boot Camp. I meant to sign up and missed the deadline. 

     Part of why I was sort of hustling to get this guy done (3 months for a simple custom is not hustle, I know) is that I don't want to miss the deadline for the Breyerfest Best Customs Contest. That is June 11th, unless I have completely lost my mind. June 11th is also the last day for entries into Why the Chicken Crossed the Road photo show. And June 11th is the day Breyerfest Open opens for entries. Popular day. Also, I am not a last minute kind of girl. I would MUCH rather be a bit early and wait than be late. I don't like that kind of stress. I hate being late. 

     I have to say, I really like this horse. I really like most of his shading, but I really love his face. His mane is a bit scraggly, but I think it's cute. His neck is a bit bulky, but it doesn't look like a giraffe neck. He's bay, so clearly he is nearly perfect (if you haven't figured it out, I love bay horses). I definitely let some flaws slide that I could have fixed because I wanted to just keep going. I didn't want to risk running out of time. And Just a Theory is a performance horse the tack will cover some of the flaws. And the rest... well, he's a performance horse, lol!

      So the horse is done and I also finished up some other things for my entry. I will share those tomorrow. 
 

The Whys and Hows

       Recently I posted that the day’s post almost didn’t happen. Blogging is hard, my life is really busy, and sometimes I really just can’t think of anything to talk about. Blogging is hard, especially blogging every day. Jennifer Buxton also did a blog post with a similar theme. We both got an anonymous comment on the post saying that everyone would be understanding if we blogged less. Likely. Neither Jennifer or I, or any other blogger, owes anyone a post. This is true. Jennifer said that it is easier when it is part of your daily routine. She is not wrong. I would also add that while I do enjoy that people read and enjoy the blogs, the daily blogging is actually for me. In the same way that I wear makeup for myself. Sure, I like when other people enjoy my makeup, but I wear it because it makes me happy to see my art in the mirror. I also like knowing that I put in the effort and got a post up every single day. I don’t write a post every single day, I often do several at a time and schedule them, but knowing that I have consistently posted daily for over a year makes me happy. I also know myself. If I stop, that likely will be it. I will go back to once in awhile posting. It is super easy to just stop doing a thing. Like working out. I don’t remember the last time I worked off. I took a day off. And that was it. So while blogging IS hard, consistency makes it easier. And as always, I am definitely open to guest bloggers! I have only ever had 1 guest blogger. And that is not because I don’t want it.

      So here are some ideas if you want to help me out but don’t know what to say. Did you get a new doll and you took some fun photos? Please share them! I will turn around and share them (with permission). Did you do really well in a photo show and you want to share? I will totally share that! Just want to talk about a new project? You can write about that too. I would love to post guest blogs.

     That could have been a post all on its own, and I could have saved the rest of the forthcoming babble for another post. But I think I will talk about some donations. I still have not decided on dates for the Field of Dolls Online Fall show, but I already have the class list up and I am already gathering prizes! This batch of blankets and saddle pads was donated by Kathy Wood for the Spring show. But they arrived the Monday after the live results. So I will award them at the Fall show. They are really great, and the black and pink one... love it!

    Jessica Carini donated these stablemates to the show and they arrived the other day. They are super cool and I am really pleased to be able to add them to the prize offerings. It’s the continued generosity of donors that will keep the shows going, without me losing my mind (or going broke) over them. 

      I have a small project I want to get into, that will also require setting up dolls for cool photos. The project itself is super simple and I could be done in almost no time, but I want the cool doll photos. Hopefully soon I can find some time and motivation to get into that.

Dolls and Booze

      Dolls have come a long way over the years. They are more realistic than ever, need less and less modification to be useful, and have slightly more variety than they used to. Slightly. For a while we had Yvonne type dolls in a few different skin tones, but still basically the same doll. With the introduction of the Ellie doll, from KC's Galloping Gals, we finally have a new head sculpt. It was perfect for this order of two hoodie dolls. They are basically exactly the same other than different hoodies, but the different head sculpts makes them two different people. Finally. I do like having a bit of variety. Finally. 

      I got some miniature booze in the mail the other day. These will likely be added to the list of miniature add-on items I have for live sales (or whenever). Trying to think of new items to add to the miniature catalog, and trying to find them in bulk at reasonable prices, is challenging. But it's an interesting challenge. My new arena has still not arrived. It is in this country, just not moving. I am starting to wonder what is going on with it. May have to check into it soon.

     I am making excellent progress with my doll work this week and I might take an extra day off. That could be fun. I might get the hooves finished on my custom horse or maybe get started on the Native American regalia I have planned. Or maybe I will stare at the wall and wonder what I should do. Hard to say. But I finally seem to be getting a bit of energy back and finding a bit of work verve. It's about time.