The Big E

     On Sunday I went to The Big E. For anyone not familiar with what that is, it's the eastern states exposition and "big" is a good description of it. Technically it is an agricultural fair, but it is so much more than that. You can buy just about anything there. I was on a mission to find a hip purse. I was positive I could find it. 

     I happened to be in West Springfield on Saturday, the town The Big E is in, and the traffic was horrendous! I almost talked myself out of going at all. But instead I told Elecktra we should head there early, while the traffic was most likely lighter. So a bit before 9:00, Travis and I went and picked up Elecktra, Peter and Peter's cousin, Ian. And then we started waiting in line. We waited in a bit of traffic (and got a picture of a train for Ethan).

We waited in line to park. 

We waited in line to get in. 

Elecktra, Travis and Ian waited in line on the giant slide. 

     But the giant slide is totally worth it!

Early in the day the crowds were super light, which was awesome. 

     Later in the day the crowds were much heavier. It reminded me of trying to get between classes at school. 

     We saw some fine harness driving in the colosseum.

Elecktra took a nap in the colosseum. 

Travis and I took a selfie, with Elecktra sleeping in the back. 

     We saw a horse being walked around. 

There was a jack o' lantern forest

Travis had a smoothie (amazingly they had no sugar!)

   Travis got a purple alien and a stuffed Tigger. 

I found my hip purse. 

I bought a sparkly bracelet and got one for Elecktra as well. 

     I could have bought a hot tub, but I didn't. Really, you can buy just about anything at The Big E. 

I also walked over 20,000 steps! 

     We spent about 6 or 7 hours at The Big E. It got up to about 85 degrees and there were tons of people there. We saw parts of the fair, but we could easily have spent double the time there and probably still not have seen everything. I had not been to The Big E in over 20 years. It was really fun getting to go again. I should thank Lisa for the push. If I hadn't won those tickets at her bridle shower I probably wouldn't have thought to go. It was worth all the waiting. 

       I still have 5 dolls to go to hit 1300. Make sure if you are commenting it is on the blog posts and not on the Facebook posts (those posts don't count). Also, please sign your name if you post anonymously. Or if clicking on your blog name doesn't bring me to a page with a name, please sign your name. I can't give a prize to you if I don't know who you are!

More doll spotting at TJS

       As the days go on and people get home, and get some rest, from The Jennifer Show, I am seeing more and more show photos appearing on Facebook. It is wonderful.  It seems like every day for over a week now I have had an opportunity several times a day, for more doll spotting. Some of these photos are repeats of entries I have already posted, but it seems every time I find a photo of an entry it is from a different angle than those from another photographer. It really is reminding me that I need to start photographing my show entries from a variety of angles.
      This first photo was part of the Performance Challenge. Everyone who entered had to use the same model(s). They were not told ahead of time what model it would be. That added to the challenge. The twist to the challenge, other than the need to show an unknown horse in performance, was they needed to show the foal in at least one class as well. I think this is a really gorgeous harness entry.

Photo by Elaine Lindelef

     This trail entry is another incredibly clever use of the foal. I made the green western casual doll that is leading the foal.

photo by Elaine Lindelef

        This was one of my favorite western doll designs. I also am really fond of dolls in black and gray. Or black and white. 

photo by Elaine Lindelef

     This pony express rider was, I think, my 1000th doll. It was also the first time I did a sex change on an Yvonne doll to turn her into a slim man. If you need a slim guy, Yvonne will often work well.

photo by Elaine Lindelef

       I made this doll a few years back when I was doing a lot with piecing together designs with printed on silk sheets. She has a peacock on the back of her coat.

photo by Christie Richardson

       Laura Skillern Sailor owns this doll. I got the shirt fabric with a batch of other fabrics from a customer years ago. It's really cool to get fabric that you have never seen locally.

photo by Elaine Lindelef

            This is Christine Jordan's Hazel. Christina Brown made the tack.

photo by Christine Jordan

       I had a traditional scale Hazel years ago and sold her. And I have been semi-searching for one ever since.

photo by Christine Jordan

Photo by Christine Jordan

      Laura Skillern Sailor and her new English doll. Laura wanted a doll that could really put her head up for over fences. So I gave her a bendy neck. I may start to do all huntseat dolls with a bendy neck. I sent two to The Jennifer Show and they didn't sell. When I get the dolls back from Fabian I will perhaps list them for sale. Or wait for TRXC. I don't know yet.

Photo by Jennifer Buxton

I have put this entry in several times. I just really love it! If I ever hold a show again I think I want to have a Bad Performance class. 

photo by Christie Richardson

    I don't know what is going on in this one, but it is potentially Erin Corbett's entry because she owns (or at least owned) the doll in the red shirt. But I guess she could have loaned it out. I would love to see the documentation from so many of these entries!

photo by Christie Richardson

     Some of the bad performance entries certainly don't need any documentation. Jackie Rossi's horse is refusing the fence and her rider is heading for a tumble. And I love it from every angle!

photo by Christie Richardson

      This little rider is owned by Christie Richardson. That is a gorgeous diorama. I think this is endurance riding.

photo by Christie Richardson

     This entry of Christie's is definitely cross country. I think this is the same diorama from the above photo, just with some added details. I love the little splash in the water!

photo by Christie Richardson

         I am not sure what this entry is, but I know that I made the casual English doll in the tie dye breeches. Whatever this is, I think it's cute.

photo by Christie Richardson

     This was Laura Skillern Sailor's scurry gone awry, which was an entry in the Bad Performance class. This was a recreation of her real-life first attempt at the event. 

photo by Christie Richardson

Complete with reference photo!

      Bad performance is a class that is basically ready made for doll use. Just sticking the doll on the ground in this entry made it perfect. 

Photo by Christie Richardson

     I really would love to see the documentation on this entry! I know there is a traditional ride and a micro rider. As well as a traditional judge and a micro judge. So cool!

photo by Christie Richardson

This poor horse was spooked by a snake on the other side of the ground pole!

Photo by Christie Richardson

    But the rider is capable of keeping her seat and taking a fence with ease. 

photo by Christie Richardson

     I made these cowboys a bunch of years ago. It's a good thing there are two of them, that horse looks really hard to handle!

photo by Christie Richardson

     I really love the bad performance photos and the amazing photos of the entries from the performance challenge. The level of creativity at The Jennifer Show was, as far as I know, unmatched by any other show ever. I am hopeful that there will be a TJS 3 and that I will be able to attend in person. 

Horseball and Roses

      My friend Angelique has been telling me for weeks now that she wants to buy me a present. It's to help me deal with a teacher that is nice but sort of difficult to work with. I keep telling her I don't need a present. She keeps asking me what I want. I keep telling her she does not need to get me a present. 

      I usually spend 3rd period in her empty classroom (because it's quiet and the chair of awesomeness is in there) and I passed her in the hall on the way there the other day and she said there was a present on the desk for me. I went in and saw this.

     That was a super sweet surprise! At the end of the day she told me that they didn't have to be my present. I said she didn't have to buy me a present. The flowers are really nice though, and they smell wonderful! When I got home I put them in the crystal vase my parents' got me in France years ago and I have almost never used. 

      This was on Tuesday, which is of course laundry day. I was working on bits and pieces of a horseball rider at the laundromat. Boots are not too hard, especially when the feet are already carved. I also haired a head and I think did another piece of something, though I can't remember what. 

     I could have finished her up but I got an email from Rebel ice cream that Stop and Shop stores were now going to be carrying the brand. And I instantly went to the website and checked to see which stores have it and the one that is 3.5 miles from me was at the top of the list! To be safe I called and the guy on the phone said they don't carry it. But I sent him to see if they have the Enlightened Keto ice cream (which their website says they have, but don't) and when he finally got back on the phone he said they did actually have Rebel! I was so excited I almost dropped everything right then to go and buy ice cream. But I restrained myself and waited until after supper. And I was rewarded with 3 flavors I had never had access to. It was awesome. 

     Wednesday, after I finished the doll for Sara Bowman, she asked if I could include an extra set of hands in black. Well, sure I can. I am out of the curved black hands so I needed to bend some of the flat hands for that. And to do that I needed to break out another of my specialty tools. 

This time around it is my hairdryer. 

      And a couple of clothes pins. I bend the fingers into the clothes pins and make sure they are not twisted off to the side and that the pinky hasn't popped open (which happens a lot). Then I take off the diffuser, turn it on high and heat them up for probably about 30-45 seconds. After that I either run them under cold water or just let them sit in the clothes pins until they cool down. After that you have hands with fingers mostly closed to hold reins, but also separated fingers. Which is fantastic for English riders.

     So I think the contest I mentioned yesterday will be very basic. I will do a $100 gift certificate to whoever wins. The end of the contest is when I get to 1300 finished dolls. So it could be a couple of weeks or a month... hard to tell. To enter you just need to comment on the blog posts, new or old. Comments on the Facebook posts with the blog links won't count. The $100 can be used towards a doll of the winner's choice or other things I make, such as cross country kits, chaps, horse boots, saddle pads or miniature food. Happy reading!

Doll Spotting In Elaine’s TJS Photos

       Elaine Lindelef took tons of photos at The Jennifer Show. She also said I could steal use any of them that I wanted for the blog. So I figured I would do some more doll spotting to see what I could find that I made and then look up when I made them. This should be fun! At least it might be more interesting than just looking at the same show photos again. I'm pretty sure at least a couple of these are repeats from other posts. 

This was doll #563 made in June 2013

Doll # 1260 made in July 2019

Ready for a super throwback? This is Jackie Rossi's doll. I made him in July of 2008. He was doll #52!

Doll #905 made in October of 2015

Doll #897 made in September of 2015 for Erin Corbett. I made the basic doll in black and Etin did the decorating. 

The cowboy doll is #875 made in July 2015. The cowgirl is #725 made in June 2014. They belong to Laura Skillern Sailor

The cowboy in plaid is #1164 made in August of 2018 and the Stan Lee cowboy on the horse is #942 made in November 2015 

Here is Erin Corbett setting up what I think is a rescue race entry. The tall on the tire swing is a doll (dressed to look like Stacy Westfall) which was made in June of 2009 for the cover of the July/August 2009 JAH

The other side of Erin's very cool entry. I didn't make the rider. 

Laura's cowgirl again

English dolls are hard to figure out. I know I made her but exactly when is a bit of mystery. 

Link was made for Jackie Rossi in March of 2019

Doll #1092 July 2017

Dressage dolls are tricky too. They don't have a lot to distinguish one from another  most of the time. 

The bendy cowboy is doll #1164 and was made August 2018

This doll is so new she doesn't have a number yet. She was made for the group of sales dolls for The Jennifer Show in August 2019

This is doll #972 made in March of 2016. I believe this doll belongs to Jackie Rossi

Jackie's Link doll again

The side saddle doll is #1263 and was made July 2019

This is Laura Skillern's new hunt seat doll. She is too new to have a number and was finished in September of 2019

This guy was made back in June of 2014 for Laura Skillern Sailor

This guy was made in August of 2016. Unless he has changed hands he belongs to Niki Hertzog. 

A really cool shot of Link

Doll #1077 made in May 2017 for Lauren Wood for the Breyer Custom Contest. This was my first vaulting doll. 

Jackie had a theme day. I love that her shirt matches Link's!

I know I made this side saddle lady for Fabian Rodriguez but I can't find her in my book! So what number she is is a mystery. She she is definitely done on the original Yvonne body. The cross cuntry kit was made after Breyerfest 2019. 

This little girl was made in January of 2016 and is owned by Christie Richardson

I finished this doll for Teresa Buzzell at the end of July 2019

This is such a cool and super clever entry that we should look at it from another angle. 

    I am probably going to do at least one more doll spotting at The Jennifer Show post, because I got permission to use a variety of other photos that I am also stealing taking from Facebook. After that I don't know that I will have anything left to say, since I sadly wasn't there. But we'll see. 

     I'm a little behind on getting doll photos printed and into my book of finished dolls. The last doll in the book is #1274 and I have... 20 more dolls to get into the book! I am so insanely close to 1300 finished dolls. Seems like a good time to do a drawing. I am not sure what I want it to be just yet but I think I will start the contest now. Every comment on the blog (old or new posts) will be one entry into the drawing. It has to be a comment on the blog, not on a Facebook post with the blog link. Oooh... maybe I will do a couple of prizes. Like grand prize and a runner up somewhat smaller prize. I'll have to think on it a bit more. Comments with prize suggestions are also welcome, lol!