Later This Year…

       I don't know how I can go for weeks without even considering writing a post to all of a sudden I have things to say every few days. Maybe my recent posts are just not that interesting and I should cut back again, I have no idea. I do know that I updated my doll book this weekend for the first time since January. I have been a bit of a slacker. So with the last dolls I made, the hoodie dolls I finished this past week, I have made 1,754 dolls since I started making dolls way back in November of 2006. I have been making dolls for a long time. I have changed the way I do things, gotten A LOT of practice, tried new things, worked through the ugly stage so many times and later this year I will reach another milestone. 1800 dolls. I definitely don't have time to do that before Breyerfest, since that would be 6 or 7 dolls every week until then, but I can make 46 more dolls this year. And I am sure that I will. It's only May after all. Though May seems to be going somewhere in a hurry. Somehow it's already May 19th!

     This weekend was pretty good. Yesterday I was possessed by the cleaning bug (after I did a very real workout) and I cleaned my whole house, which already didn't look like it needed cleaning, but I did it anyway. I also did 4 loads of laundry, which I think is a record. I normally do maybe 2 at the most in a day. But like I said, I was possessed so I just kept going. Which also means I don't have any other laundry to do for at least a week. Which is excellent. I finished a book, started another, and hung out with Brandi. It was a really excellent Saturday. I also had just enough very even soreness in my back to tell me I have designed a workout that hits every one of the muscles. Perfect, that was what I was aiming for. I have a vague full body soreness that tells me I am doing all the right things but it is vague enough that I know I am not doing too much. I really want to get back into weight lifting. But that is even slower to get into than running. But I actually love lifting weights so I will keep, carefully, working at it. 

  

     Today was a nice day as well. I updated my doll book, read some more and then I went to visit with a friend I have not seen in a while. It was a really good day. Tomorrow I have to go back to work, but we only have 19 days of school left this year. I am not sure what dolls I will be making this week, but I will figure it out. Maybe I will make some more hoodie dolls. Maybe I will start in on some western pleasure dolls. Maybe I will start on dolls to show in the Art of the Horse show in July. That could be fun!

Friday Musings (and Dolls)

      So this random rhetorical question is for anyone that normally sells things. Have you ever wondered what happened to a thing you were pretty sure you had, but couldn't find. Did you assume, after a while, that you had sold it and forgotten to mark it down? Did you ever then randomly drop something from a shelf and have to go searching your surfaces and all of a sudden you found the thing you thought you sold? That happened to me today. So let me back up a bit. 

      When I saw the class list for the Stone Art of the Horse show, I was pretty sure I had to enter. There is an entire division for dolls, which has NEVER happened at any show that I have been aware of. I was already excited and starting to plan when Erin tagged me and said I should come. I knew that entries for the show went on sale today, so I checked when I saw a post about Equilocity, but all that was there was the entry for Country Fair. OK, I would check later... but then Erin sent me a PM (I should tell her just how much I appreciated that!) to say that entries were open and filling fast. So, during PE, between counting kids (we count kids any time we are outside, or just in PE in general) I entered the Art of the Horse show. I have not been to a live show since 2019. And now I am going to show dolls, lol. But I do own some horses, and some of them are even nice. And they are small, small is good. I am not that into halter showing, but if I am already going to be at the show, I might as well show some horses. I think I have about 15 minis and micros that are worth bringing to a show. So that is what I will do. I don't know that I have ever been excited about a halter show, performance is my thing, but I am kind of excited to show some horses. And seeing as I don't have the high intensity of showing performance I will have time to visit with people. And I love that. 

     You might be wondering how entering a horse show has anything at all to do with finding a thing you thought you sold. Well, while I was looking at the micro/minis shelf to see just how many tiny horses I had that were nice enough to show in halter I dropped one. Because of course I did. I need to now look it over and make sure it's still nice enough to show. But I have had good luck with micros. They don't seem to break as easily as any other horses. At least the pewter ones don't. Anyway, I was looking for the base for my circus pony and I looked behind the TV in the studio... and found a doll I thought I sold! So now I kind of feel like an idiot and I am thoroughly confused. I have absolutely no idea how the doll, with her hat (but not on her head) got behind the TV at all. I am the only one that goes in that room at all. It is a mystery. But now I have another doll. 

     This week I was incredibly productive. I made a driving doll, a saddleseat doll, and two hoodie dolls. And I found a casual western doll. The 2 hoodie dolls are for sale and so is the newly-found casual western doll. Each of them is $220 plus shipping. The western lady comes with her hat she is holding. I can make a removable helmet for the hoodie doll that is wearing breeches for an extra charge. Email me at fieldofdolls@gmail.com if you are interested. PMing me on Facebook works too. 

    So now I have a dilemma. I mostly only name performance horses, because I don't usually name horses that aren't going to be shown. I now potentially need to come up with 15 horses names that I don't hate. I may have to do some posts about those horses and ask for help. 

Options

      Sometimes I am incredibly efficient. And sometimes I am a huge slacker and I don't really get much done. Though I have found that having a dedicated studio space has made me a lot more productive. I love that. Yesterday, I decided I needed to make a fancy hat. Anyone who has been reading my blog for a while knows that fancy hats are the entire reason I make driving dolls. I started with the idea of the hat. It was going to be black straw with red roses woven into it around the brim. But I can't find my red roses that I am almost positive I have. So I dug around and I found these pink ones. And the hat stayed a natural straw color. And then the whole idea of the outfit changed as well. The dress was going to be black, probably black glitter, and the coat was going to be red. A really good red, not an orange red, but a nice red with the blueish undertones. I love that kind of red. But I couldn't find the roses, so this is the doll that I made. And I really like how she came out. Her jacket is incredibly well fitted and her hat is a lot of fun. I love making fancy hats!

      I found out that Erin Corbett is doing an entire division for DOLLS at Equilocity. Well crap. It is the Saturday during Breyerfest, but it is also in the hotel I will be staying at. There is nothing that says I HAVE to go to the horse park for all 3 days of Breyerfest. I could go on Friday and I could stay at the hotel and do Stone stuff on Saturday, then go back to the horse park on Sunday. I mean, a whole division just for dolls is very very tempting. So I am really leaning that way. I have dolls but if I am going to show dolls, specifically with the doll being judged (I have NEVER heard of that before!) then I am going to need to make some new dolls. I was counting weeks and there are only 8 weeks left until Breyerfest. How did that happen? 

     So I was heading out to see Crystal today and listening to Mares in Black since I have been really behind for a while. Somehow the discussion was about the things that will be at the Marriott Griffin Gate, which is where all the Stone stuff is happening. Which is why I switched to that hotel. I figured it would be a great idea to just be where some model horse stuff was happening. Well, I have never been to Kentucky, though I have been talking to people about things I should expect from Breyerfest, the hotels, etc. Everyone has some different snippets. I know there are a lot of hotels right on the same street at the CHIN, but I had no idea that Griffin Gate is across the parking lot from the CHIN! I heard that and I got all kinds of excited! Heather and Jackie said I could sell dolls out of their room at the CHIN, which Jackie brought some down for me one year, and there is room shopping and other major Breyer happenings at the CHIN. My concern was how to get there. I heard that parking there is pretty much not happening. So when I heard that Griffin Gate is across the parking lot I was excited. And please don't anyone tell me that it is a lot further than it looks. I looked at it on Google Maps and I can tell how far it is (because I know how big gas stations are and I am pretty good at spatial relationships) and yes, the parking lots are big, there is that random other parking lot, the gas station, the side street... but that is not that big of a deal. And not having to figure out how to park is exciting. We can just walk over. Or bum a ride if someone else is heading that way. I mentioned before that I get nervous about not knowing where I am supposed to go/be or how things work. So the more I can figure out ahead of time, the more comfortable the whole trip will be. So I am quite excited. And I know there are a bunch of artists planning on being at Griffin Gate doing artist things. Maybe I can do some selling there. I have no idea. I am still piecing things together. But it is exciting to makes bits of plans. I can't believe there are only 8 weeks left!

Dolls, Dolls, and Bits of Life

         I have had a lot going on recently. I never seem to have time to do all the things I need and want to do. Or maybe it's when I do have a bit of time I am so overwhelmed thinking about what I could do (or should do) that I sometimes do nothing at all. Spring is a weird time of year. It's not winter, but sometimes it does still get pretty cold. It's not Summer, but sometimes it's hot or humid, maybe both. It rains a lot or will just be cloudy for days at a time for no particular reason. We have had some nice weather, more than usual actually, but we have had a lot of flip floppy weather as well. That makes it hard to just keep on functioning sometimes. But I am going to keep on going. That's what I do. 

Driving doll (sold), cross country doll, dressage doll, showmanship doll. $230 each

     Today is Mother's Day and I don't think I have ever gotten so many texts wishing me a happy Mother's Day before. It's kind of cool. I am going to go and see my Mom a bit later and Elecktra asked me to go and pick her up. So I will do that. It should be nice, even though the weather isn't very nice. It's just a chilly, gloomy kind of day. Makes me want to take a nap. And maybe I will. 

Casual English riders. All have removable helmets. $220 each

     I have reached the point in the school year where I just need it to be done. My job is not easy, even though I really love it. I will miss my team over the summer, though we are likely to get together to hang out, and I will miss the kids. Some of the kids are moving up to the high school so very likely I won't even get to see them again. That is the sad part of not going with them to the different grades. But it is better this way. They need to learn to work with lots of different people, not just a few. Some of our kids we will have again next year. And the year after. I am looking forward to seeing how much they grow over the next couple of years. This is only my second year in the middle school and last year all our kids moved up to the high school. Now, for the first time, I will get to spend a few years with them. It's exciting! But I still need a break. I need some time to have a bit less that I have to do every day. That will be wonderful. 

Hunt seat dolls. $230 each

      I started working out again and I started collecting injuries too. Not because I am doing things incorrectly, because my body is fighting me. I got a shoulder injury from sleeping. It's been about 5 months, or more, and it is still not healed. It's improving, but very slowly. I always have ankle issues in my right ankle but now I am dealing with plantar fasciitis in my left foot. My knees are pretty angry with me a lot of the time so doing most anything is a challenge. But I am stubborn, so I will keep going. I have been rowing every other day (roughly) and I have been adding in some weight lifting when I have time and can manage. Yesterday I got to do some deadlifts and that made me incredibly happy. I seem to really love the exercises that a lot of people hate. Today I have the vague soreness that tells me I worked the muscles enough, but not too much. And I feel strong. At least stronger. And weight lifting makes me feel held together. Which I guess could also be seen as feeling strong, but whatever. I like it. 

      I have been managing to get into the studio a reasonable amount. I think I have that whole work/life balance thing down pretty well now. For years I was working probably about 60 hours a week, not including packing and shipping, or any time to find materials and supplies. Now I work a few hours a day, 4 days a week, in the studio. And if something else comes up I will do that and I have no guilt about it. I don't need to work constantly and it is perfectly OK to leave a doll unfinished, even if I am really close, and come back to it another time. I feel like walking away from a project has actually made me more productive. It's really nice. 

red shirt cowboy $240, tall cowboy $280, green shirt cowboy $240

     I have been working on getting ready for Breyerfest and I am both excited and a bit nervous. I have never been to a Breyerfest and have been wanting to go for years. Now I get to go and I keep on finding out that more people I was hoping to see or meet won't be there this year. That sucks, maybe next year. I am excited to experience a Breyerfest for myself but I have had so little interest in collecting I am wondering if I will get caught up in the buying atmosphere and then have regrets. I am definitely nervous about a lot of things. I haven't been on a plane since I was 15 years old (that was a long time ago, BTW). My Dad walked me right to the gate, I just had to get on the plane, and then I got off the plane and my sister met me at the other gate. Now I have to be responsible for me, Travis, and all our stuff. I have to be the one that finds and follows all of the rules. I have to plan things out so Travis isn't ever alone (because if someone asks him something he will not respond) and I can't leave anything unattended anywhere. And then when we get to Kentucky (after being in 2 other airports because of the layover) I have to find out where to get the car, and then find the hotel. I actually quietly freak out about not knowing where I am supposed to go or what I am supposed to do. And then there is Breyerfest itself, I have no experience with that at all. I have talked to people a bit about what to expect with parking at (lol not happening) the CHIN so I can go and experience room sales. But until I do it, I am going to be nervous about it. I can't help it. 

Casual western dolls with removable hats $220 each. Black top sold. 

     I do also have a bit of a fear that Travis and I will end up drifting on our own. I really want to go to Breyerfest for the people. But what if we somehow don't find any of the people I want to see? Or what if I find people and they are into their own thing and we are just sort of annoying third (5th, 13th, whatever) wheels? These are actual things that my brain has thrown at me. I think maybe the biggest fear is making the trip and just being alone. I am alone enough in Massachusetts, I don't want to go to Kentucky and be alone. Alone in a crowd kind of sucks. That was our last show experience in 2019. It just sort of happened that we ended up isolated. And we did interact with some people sometimes... but there was a lot of isolation as well. 

Western Pleasure dolls $240 each. Purple doll and blue without roses are sold. Black and silver on hold.

     We will be in Kentucky for an entire week, and I am sure we can find some fun things to do. I want to tour at least one distillery, and if anyone has any recommendations I would love to hear them. I do enjoy a good glass of bourbon but there are SO MANY options, I have no idea what to choose. And I am apparently easily overwhelmed. We switched hotels, so we will be at the Marriot Griffin Gate. I figure that way we are in the right place for everything Stone as well. I'm definitely excited about all of that!

      It's kind of hard to think about heat and humidity when it's been so chilly again this week. We did have some really excellent days, but it's Spring, and we don't have consistently excellent days. But I know I have to think about heat and humidity. I have to think about how I will force Travis to drink plenty of water. He doesn't always want to. I have to remember that dehydration is totally a thing, even if you drink plenty of water. So hydration tablets or Gatorade is a good idea. I have to think about Summer clothes, and do we have enough Summer clothes to not have to do laundry for a week? Or will we need to do laundry while we are there? These are also random things I am thinking about while it's about 50 degrees. But there are laundry facilities at the hotel, so that is a good option. So many random thoughts. Welcome to my weird brain. 

    Another semi-obsessive thought I have had lately is I really want to try oil painting. I have done plenty of oil painting, on canvas. Now I really want to put oil paint on a horse. I think I want to get into venti scale resins but either I haven't seen anything I really want, or they are priced too high for me to personally consider them. So I am reminding myself I am going to Breyerfest. There are likely to be resins for sale. All sorts of resins and all sizes. So I should just save my pennies and shop around in July. And I should try for self control and not get swept up in the buying stuff atmosphere, which I know will be there. 

     Speaking of buying things, I have a whole lot of dolls for sale. I have more photos of a lot of them, but can get more photos of any of them. If you are interested in anything please send me an email at fieldofdolls@gmail.com

Sales Day!

     I have been cleaning and sorting things quite a lot again lately. And I realized, again, that I have not shown in quite a long time. So it is time once again to let some things go. I have this really pretty pink and brown western set made by Evelyn Munday. It is not new, though I have never shown it since I have owned it. And now it's time to let it go. I have a whole bunch more photos if people want to see them. $400 plus shipping. 

Sold

    This one I hemmed and hawed about several times. It's one of my Braymere Custom Saddlery sets made by Jennifer Buxton. Jennifer isn't currently making tack so this is a rare opportunity to own one of her pieces. $400 plus shipping. 

Sold

     There was a time when I filled up my tack room and ran out of saddle racks so I had to buy more saddle racks. And then some more. And I also like pink, so I bought pink saddle racks. Now, I have a lot less tack (since I wasn't using it) and I have too many saddle racks. And I went through my props and pulled together this group of (mostly) pink props. $50ppd in the US. This is a bargain price and I am not currently willing to separate the lot. 

      This cowboy isn't used, he's new, done on an NBA figure, and he's ready to work! His chaps are removable so he is great for a variety of classes and scenes. $280 plus shipping. 

    This western pleasure lady is also ready to come work for you. Her black and silver outfit would look great with any color horse. $240 plus shipping. 

     If you would like more photos, or would like to purchase, please send me an email to fieldofdolls@gmail.com. Soon I will hopefully have something interesting to talk about. 

Five Below

     I had kind of a crappy day. I didn't want to work today, but I seem to have spent a large portion of the day doing things that felt like work. Or at the very least were not very enjoyable. I got on a chat with Amazon because my Blink doorbell, which I got because I cannot see out my front door, has a very long delay before the live video comes on. I feel 16-20 second is just too long, especially since the other cameras will go to live in about 5 seconds. So basically, I was trying to see if I thing I have had for a month was something they would let me return. It turns out they would. I also ended up having to move the camera, several times, that is now aimed at seeing who is at the door. I need to be able to see them, not see a dark figure and wonder who it is. 

     I also spent quite a lot of time doing other not-fun things that needed to be done. When Travis got home it was time for our coffee date, but I also had to do some Amazon returns, in two different locations. I made the mistake of going to the UPS store that was close to Barnes and Noble. It is also on a street that always has a ton of slow-moving traffic, the parking lot was difficult to get in and out of, and then I had to go to a different place for the other return. So frustrating. 

     After coffee we went over to Five Below because they have been taunting me with ads for cool miniature things. I was going to go the other day (I did go to a different Five Below the other day) but I figured since we were going to be very close to this particular Five Below (which had the things I wanted in stock) I would wait. You would think that buying a bunch of really cool miniatures, that should work at least reasonably well in 1:9 scale, would be fun and exciting. Well it is and it isn't. I do love tiny things, but I didn't actually need to get a single one of these things. But it happened and I figured I would let people know where to get the cute tiny things.

    There are cool little themed sets which are just food things and food accessories. 

    These sets are also all food things, but have cool things that might be intriguing or useful to performance showers. I haven't taken anything out of the packages yet, but I do think these would all work reasonably well in 1:9 scale. 

     I also got a variety of mini candy displays. Because I happen to love tiny candy. If I actually ever open these things I will get a photo with a doll. 

    I also got this cool refrigerator, which is off for scale, at least a bit, and some of the food definitely is, but it's cool and I like it. I do love tiny things. 

      I have another food set from around Christmas time. It is all holiday themed stuff that I didn't pull out when I took these photos. I also have never opened that package. Maybe I am waiting to see if I actually find a use for all these teeny tiny things. Maybe I am having regrets and feel that people might want them if they are unopened. I don't really have a plan. When I saw these I wanted them because they are tiny and cute. I got them because of that. But now that I have them, I have no idea what I am going to do with them. Maybe I will just look at them and see if they make me smile. 

The Bedouin

     I'm on vacation this week and you would think that would mean I have more time to blog. It does not. I have more time in the day technically, but I am still finding it challenging to find the time for all the things I need to be doing. But the other day I got these lovely photos from Evan Le and I had to make some time to write in the blog. 

     A couple/few weeks ago, Evan contacted me saying that he had seen a tall cowboy I made at a recent show. The height of the doll was perfect for his Azham resin, who is quite a large resin and makes all the other dolls look tiny in comparison. Evan asked if I would make him a rider to go with his setup. I said my books are technically closed but send me some reference pics of what you want and I will think about it. Evan sent me a variety of photos and basically said I could do what I wanted as long as it was along the lines of the photos. It caught my interest, I do like doing different things every once in a while, so I agreed to the project. 

    We did message back and forth a bit as I was looking for the doll. The tall cowboys, and this Bedouin, are made on NBA dolls, which are incredibly expensive and can be hard to find. But this guy was perfect for the project. I did have issues with it. I broke several things while I was working with the doll, but I have years of repair experience and I actually swapped bodies so I could keep on going with the project. And he came together. Evan was so easy to work with and then he sent me these amazing photos and has allowed me to share them here. 

     I don't often like taking on custom orders at this point. They can be very stressful in many different ways. I always feel like having an order in my book means I need to get it done now. In general, I do not procrastinate. I like to get things done and out of the way, so having orders that I am not doing feels like slacking to me. Which is stressful. But this project was actually fairly relaxing. So I will say again for the record, my order books are closed but if there is something you want you can ask me. It might strike me as something I want to make. The worst thing I will say to you if you ask is no. 

      So I am in the second half of my week off for April vacation. I have done a reasonable amount of visiting, both here and at other people's homes, I have done some larger cleaning and sorting projects, I "built" a gym, and I have done a reasonable amount of doll work. Reasonable especially considering all of the other things I have been doing. I have done some reading, but the book I am in right now is not all that interesting to me. I refuse to just give up because it's not a terrible book (and I slogged my way through a pretty terrible book just a couple of months ago) but it isn't drawing me in like some books. I have gotten back into working out and I figured out that the recommended amount of rowing is 5-15 minutes and I can likely fit that into my mornings, even when I go back to school. Though we only have 39 days left of this school year. And I am ready to be done. I am ready to keep going with my fitness goals. Even though my entire body is sore, it is kind of always sore. Now it is sore in the ways that make me feel stronger and more held together. Which is good since I have the Desforge's challenge in a week and a half and I am absolutely not ready for it. I may need to walk a lot more than run. I may need to actually skip some of the challenges because of one injury or another. But I will go and do my best. And then I will keep at it. I need to remind myself that working out actually makes me feel good. Even while it is making me sore.