Miniatures, Updates, and Goal

    Apparently I have been busy. I set up this post on November 1st and then... life happened. Life happened without giving anyone the updates I meant to. So here we go, updates time. 

     I started running again October 15th, after my friend super politely called me out on my bullshit. I had not been running, I had been making lots of excuses not to. And yes, I absolutely would feel better if I ran again. All of that stuff was true. So I started running again. It sucked but I didn't die. So I did it again, and again. Sometimes on the track, sometimes in my road (that sucks a lot!) and sometimes in the woods. It was still kind of hard but it was getting easier. I got myself an accountability buddy. And then I held myself accountable. But I could feel the excuses getting ready to come back in. Trying to leave the house for a run is not as easy as just going outside. I have to make sure that either I am back before Travis will be getting home, in the few minutes a day when I am here before he gets home. Or I have to make sure he has shoes on, which he takes off the second he walks in the door. I have to get him to get in the car, which is not as easy as it sounds because that is almost always the time he decides he needs the bathroom and then he has to find whatever giant action figure he is bringing with him in the car. And yeah, a half hour run really quickly turns into an hour and a half of my day. And I really do not have that kind of time to spend on... anything. Unless it is work of some kind. 

    So the excuses started creeping in and I kept running because I have an accountability buddy. But I could see this not being sustainable. So I bought a treadmill. It folds up and I can put it in my closet when I am not using it. And it's pink, which helps. It takes maybe 2 minutes to take it out, pop up the handle, and put in the two side screws. It takes me maybe 2 minutes to change into running clothes and put on sneakers. And then I can run. And it might take me the length of an episode of Doctor Who. Usually less. And now I want to run. The first run was iffy. I still struggled to keep a pace that was more than walking for very long. Then I had a decent run, followed by a really bad one. And then something happened. I have no idea what. But all of a sudden I ran a full mile without slowing to a walk. It was not a fast mile, but it was a mile of actual running. I think the difference was music. Travis was watching TV so I couldn't watch Doctor Who, so I put in my earbuds. And I started finding a play list, in my running playlist, that helped me keep pace with the running. It was fantastic! The next run I fiddled a bit more with the playlist and I ran 1.1 miles without slowing to a walk. My last run I tweaked my playlist a bit more and ran a mile and a half without slowing to a walk! So I am definitely making progress. I am also mad and motivated. I had to buy larger pants because of the weight I gained. I am mad about that and mad about how I feel (I hurt all the time). So I am going to fix it. And I am not going to make any more excuses. Soon I will hit two miles of actual running and I will be really excited about that. Then maybe I can work on a slightly faster pace. But one step at a time (lol, one step...)

     I have no idea really what I was going to talk about in this post when I set it up. I made bareback pads, I think I have 6 of them. They will be available at my Black Friday Live sale. Which is this coming Friday, November 24, 2023 at 3:00 pm EST on my studio page on Facebook. I am going to be posting photos of the items I have available, on Facebook, between now (either in a little while or tomorrow) and probably Tuesday... maybe into Wednesday. I have no idea just yet. I also have been posting to Instagram which cross posts to Facebook. So you will see things. Maybe people will get sick of seeing my posts. Feast or famine, that is how I do my posting it seems. Anyway, tomorrow (likely) I will post the 2023 version of the how a semi-live sale runs blog post. I may also cross post that to my studio page on Instagram and Facebook. Just so people see it and know that there is a place where I explain how everything works. 

     I like to have one new miniature item every time I do a live sale. I don't know if I came up with new things the last time, I barely remember my last live sale. I think it was probably last year on Black Friday. It's amazing how much happened this year and how little time I had for... everything. But I did come up with these little messenger bags. I love them so much!

     There will be some hunt seat dolls, though not this hunt seat doll. She sold before I even posted her anywhere. Someone asked if I had any. I did. It sold. That's how things go a lot of the times these days. I actually usually have some dolls in stock. And if I run out of a certain type of very common doll, like hunt seat dolls, I make more. I will have 3 at the live sale this year. 

     Ethan and Travis carved this very cool Jack O' Lantern (and Travis said his name is Jack O' Lantern) for Halloween and Ethan got this very cool photo. I was very upset to see that Halloween was immediately erased from all the stores the day after, or even before. And then everything was Christmas. The stores have been playing Christmas music since November 1st. I can barely stand to stay in Barnes and Noble for my Friday coffee dates with Travis. But I will put up with a lot of things for that guy. Including way too early Christmas music. 

    Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Christmas. I don't hate Christmas music. I don't celebrate Christmas (for anyone that is curious I celebrate Yule or the winter solstice). I do celebrate get together with my family, because they all celebrate Christmas and it's a good excuse, but that is all about the get-together for me. I do gifts for New Year's Day. Anyway, I do actually enjoy Christmas music, for maybe a week. In December. Not starting the day after Halloween.

     I will be publishing a detailed catalog of my Black Friday sales items on Wednesday (probably Wednesday) or Thursday if Wednesday gets away from me. I have the photos in the post, but we now know that sometimes I do that and then forget to write the post. So my plan is to put up a post tomorrow or Tuesday with the details of how a semi-live sale runs. And then Wednesday or Thursday morning I will publish the actual schedule (exact times and everything) of when each photo will go live on Friday. And any other details that I feel are pertinent to the sale. 

     So those are my current updates. I have been working like crazy because after this week I am going to take it easy. Maybe. I always say that and then it doesn't necessarily happen. But I am going to try. Not for a super long time, I will need to keep creating things. At some point soon I need to get photos of finished jewelry that hasn't made it up on my website yet. I am thinking I might have a Black Friday sale over there as well. But I need to put stuff up. So much to do! More posts coming soon. 

Salem Night Faire 2023

     On Friday, Travis and I had our usual coffee date and then he and I, along with our friend Brandi, headed to Salem. Traffic on the Mass Pike makes no sense and people slow down to a crawl for no apparent reason. So the two hour trip out to Salem took 3 hours. But we had a good time. The moon was one day from full, so it was very cool to see. And it was crazy warm, still 75 degrees at 8:00pm. For a comparison, it's about 8:30 pm now, just 5 days later, and it's 35 degrees. Massachusetts weather is weird. It was actually snowing a bit this morning. 

    The weather for Night faire was so gorgeous that there were more people there than last year. At 8:00, 3 hours after the faire opened, there was still a very long line to get in. But even our wait in line was fun. I do love hanging out with Brandi! And so does Travis. She's one of the people he asks to see. 

     There is plenty to see at Night Faire.

      Including the Sanderson sisters. The Salem Pioneer Village is the location where the beginning of Hocus Pocus was filmed. 

      There are a lot of different oracles and performers at the faire. 

    Including this ghoul playing guitar.

    This oracle, the one Travis named "tall spooky" is Travis's favorite. He still did not go up to him to get a fortune. Maybe next year. He did have a good time standing around watching him. 

     I got a fortune from this oracle. It was a tarot card, so I had to interpret it myself. 

We got some selfies right before we left to head home. 

   Honestly, I am amazed at how decent these photos are considering it was full dark and there were no lights where we took these. The magic of iPhone, lol. 

    I enjoyed the Salem Night Faire last year and it was especially fun this year since Brandi came with us. Hopefully she can come again next year, and hopefully Elecktra will be able to come again as well. If we could also get good weather again that would be just about perfect. 
 

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. 

On Target

      Yesterday, I went riding. Other than a few minutes on a pony once or twice, I have not actually ridden in about 14 years. When I was younger, and riding often, I always thought it was weird that my mom, who loves horses and riding, hadn't been riding in such a long time, every time we did get out together. Now I understand. Adulting is stupid. Adulting gets in the way of a lot of things we may want to do. Whether it is lack of time, lack of money, or both, a lot of times things get away from us. So I have not been riding much. Some of that is Travis is usually with me. Travis loves riding, and is a pretty good rider, but he has always had a leader, or been in an arena with at least a side-walker. I don't know that he is able to follow the instructions on a trail. Even though it's basic pull this rein to go left, that rein to go right, pull back to stop, kick to go, I don't know that he would do what is needed when it is needed. Actually, I am pretty sure he would not. And I don't know that I can get any trails to do lead-line with an adult. But yesterday, Travis and Ethan hung out and I went out with my friend Brandi and her daughter Tierney.  Tierney has wanted to ride a horse for a long time. Her birthday was last week so Brandi brought her riding for a gift. And they invited me to come along. 

     We went out to Princeton, MA to a place called Cornerstone Ranch. There is at least one place closer to us, where I used to lead trails when I was a teenager, but Brandi didn't know about that one and I like trying new things. Or old things in new places. Cornerstone Ranch is a really nice place. A bit of a drive to get out there, but that just means more time to chat. The staff at the ranch was very professional, but also friendly and fun. From start to finish it was a really good experience. They don't allow cell phones on the rides, so there are no photos before, after, or during the ride. Though at the end they do take some pictures of your group, and some individual shots as well. 

     Which is how I ended up with these not so flattering photos of me and my horse, Target. There are a lot of things they do at Cornerstone that they never did at the place I used to ride. They start by asking if anyone has ridden before. They match up horses with the riders, then everyone gets on and we do some stretches (a bit of horseback yoga), they go over the basics of steering and stopping, the importance of spacing, etc. We had a bunch of first time riders in our group, and 3 of the 7 people were kids. There was a ton of mud on the trail (I have mentioned, I think, that it rains ALL THE TIME in Massachusetts these days, haven't I?) So between first time riders, deep mud, and a lot of puddles, we just did a walking trail. But it was still fun. And I still got to use riding skills. Target was described to me as the kid with ADHD and anxiety, who's a little bit derpy. Well, that's fine with me. I was warned he is a head tosser, which doesn't phase me. I told our guide that I once had a horse take off on me when I had one foot in the stirrup, head tossing is nothing. The description of Target was spot on (or right on Target...). He was distracted by itches, by flies, by the wind, by the horse in front of him, by the guide who was sometimes walking beside us. That was a very interesting thing they did. One of the wranglers walked with us on the trail, up and down the line, helping people as needed, and chatting with Brandi and I about teaching. She is a teacher too. So we swapped teacher stories and covid/hybrid/remote learning horror stories. 

     You may have noticed Target's really cool hairstyle. Well, he is even annoyed and distracted by his own forelock. Poor guy. At one point he had an itch on his shoulder, so he scratched it and tripped a bit. What a goof. He's a rescue and apparently when he first came to the ranch he was so full of anxiety about being left behind he could not be at the end of the line of horses. We were at the end and I reassured him every time I stopped him (because he would have been happy right up Lenny's butt) that we were not going to get lost, we were still with the group. I promised him he'd be OK. He seemed to believe me. 

       I had a good time riding Target, meeting and chatting with our guide Olivia, getting to ride with Brandi and Tierney. This morning I feel basically like I always do, with only some minor aches. I am surprised. Maybe all the on-the-floor yoga I have been doing has been helping me more than I knew. We have a little bit over a month of public stables riding weather left. Maybe we can go out again. I definitely need to work on spending more time with horses. It's good for my soul. 

Perspective, Proportions, and Scale.

     Last weekend I sold a variety of tack, dolls, and other hobby items. Some of that was because I have not shown in years and I don't necessarily need a whole lot of stuff hanging around I am not using. Some of my sale was because I need a new oil tank, or perhaps a furnace conversion (so potentially new furnace), I am waiting on some quotes to see which is the better option. Either of them is going to be expensive. So I sold several things to help pay for whatever my new or repaired heating source is going to be. Some of the things I sold were this English tack set, which was made to fit Newsworthy, and this 6" Yvonne type doll that fits really nicely in this saddle. I made the doll to be an adult and on my customized Stone pony she pretty much looks like an adult on a pony. 

     For reference, this is me on "my" (my friend Marisa's) pony, Bronte. I feel like this looks like an average height woman (I am 5'6") on a pony. Because it is. Whereas I feel the 6" Yvonne on the custom Stone pony makes the pony look too big to be a pony. Or maybe she is perfect and I am overthinking it. 

     Sara Bowman took these photos of the same tack set and doll on her unpainted Pocket Change resin. Pocket Change is a small traditional scale horse and the set fits just as nicely on him as on a Newsworthy, or a Stone pony. I also feel that because of the proportions of this model are horse proportions, and not pony proportions, you could mistake this for an average traditional scale model and a regular 8" Yvonne type doll. I do also understand that there are some ponies that have horse proportions so please don't come at me to educate me. 

     Now for some reason from this side I feel like this looks more like an adult woman on a pony. A big pony, to be sure, not a children's pony, but a pony. That brings us back to perspective. Something about this angle makes me see this as a pony again. If I saw documentation that said it was a pony, I would believe it. Though if there was documentation that fit and told me this was a horse I would believe that too. 

     Here we are again with Pocket Change. Even from this side this looks to me like a regular 8" Yvonne doll on an average sized resin horse. They look really great together. I can't wait to see how this all looks when Sara gets this horse painted!

     One of the hardest things performance showers face is finding things that are properly in scale. There is no exact standard for traditional scale, or any other scale. It's true that not all live horses and ponies are the same size, but the wide variety of sizes, all in the same scale, definitely make tack fitting, and getting riders of the correct size, a bit more challenging. I love how well this worked out for Sara. Some traditional pony tack fit on her small traditional resin, and the 6" Yvonne dolls work perfectly with the tack and the size of the horse. I love when things work out this way. And I really love when everything in a setup is in scale. 

The Apprentice

     Elecktra and I had plans to hang out today and I asked if she wanted to have a studio day. I do like working on things and chatting after all. She does too, so she brought over some jewelry making stuff, I grabbed my second desk chair, and we squeezed into the studio to do some work. We fit easily, but not easily at the desk. We made it work. Elecktra strung up a new necklace she has been thinking of making and I worked on a piece with a stamped leather piece Ethan gave me a while ago. While we were working I found out that Elecktra had never bent a loop into a pin. 

     What???

     So I told her to go through all my beads and choose one, go through all the charms and choose one, and I would show her how to make a pendant. Basically I was teaching her to make the more basic pieces of the jewelry I make. The stuff I started with, and the stuff that is in multiple shops. She started in, following the instructions and listening when I told her how to fix the small mistakes. Those small mistakes that happen even if you have been making jewelry for a long time. 

     In the end she had a cute little dragon pendant with rhodonite. It was also a piece that had her grinning and saying, in awe, that she made it. 

     I have said since I started making jewelry that anyone can do what I do pretty much if they know how to bend a loop in a pin. Sure, most people don't make jewelry the way I do, and I have moved on to many more elaborate styles, but I come back to the basic charms with a gemstone bead. They are fun to make, quick and easy, and people really like them. 

      One of the friends that has my jewelry in her shop said she wants me to be part of the pop-up event she is having in October. In preparation for that I ordered a new Square reader, so now I have the dip/tap option that I didn't have before, and I ordered a variety of jewelry displays to make displaying, and therefor selling, much easier. I especially like this folding metal earring display. I need to get more earrings put on them, probably get some more made, but I really like how this worked out. I may want to get a second one as well. 

    These other displays might be hard to see on the messy desk, but I also have a display that is a deer with very large antlers that then sort of look like tree branches. I thought that was a perfect way to display pendants. But it turns out I also only have 4 pendants left! I wish the necklace displays were a bit larger, it takes a bit of finessing to get things to look nice on them, but they will work, and I have 5 of them, which is good. I have more than 5 fancy necklaces but I can decide whether or not to get any more display stands. I have time before October. I may need to see if they also come in white. I have several all black necklaces that don't show up well on the black stands.

      I had a really good time having a studio day with Elecktra and teaching her some jewelry making tricks she didn't know. Hopefully she takes what she learned and expands on what she makes. It's a lot of fun trying new things. And she was excited to learn and I was excited she finally let me teach her something!