Shiny Objects!

    I love shiny objects. Swarovski crystals are one of my favorite things and are added to almost every western doll, at least as bits of accent, and also to most hunt seat dolls. I love crystals as suncatchers and things that sparkle in general. I really love shiny objects. Breyer Crystal is something I collect that I am actually aiming to have each piece. I often regret not buying all of the smaller pieces when they were originally released as regular runs. I do have unbridled, which is Silver, just tiny. 

Photo From Identify Your Breyer

      And I have Dynamic (tiny Andalusian Stallion)

Photo from Identify Your Breyer

And I have Majestic (tiny Gypsy Vanner)

Photo From Identify Your Breyer

     I did not get Charisma (Zippo Pine Bar), Freedom (Newsworthy) or Passion (Huckleberry Bey). At the time these were available I didn't particularly love/want Charisma or Freedom and I think maybe Passion was sold out. But now I am on the hunt for these so I can have a complete set. 

     I also don't have Esprit, who was from the World Equestrian Games. That is one I would definitely like to add to my collection. 

      Breyer started offering crystal horses as store specials at Breyerfest in 2013 (I believe) with Belle Meade, who I also don't own and need for my collection.

Photo From Identify Your Breyer

     Every year after that I have gotten the crystal horse. Either from a couple of good friends picking them up for me or from buying on the secondary market if I didn't have anyone I knew who was able to get one for me. 

I love these shiny horses!

Currently they are not displayed but that doesn't mean I love them less. 

     I used to just buy the Breyer crystal horses that I absolutely loved. Which, in general, I think is a really good way to collect. 

Home Straight . Photo from Identify Your Breyer.

     But now that I have most of the crystal horses produced by Breyer, I kind of want to have all of them. Though it is an ongoing hunt. I am not willing to pay an astronomical markup on an item I just want to have a complete collection. I don't NEED them that badly. 

Defiant. Photo from Identify Your Breyer

      Eventually I am hoping to find Passion, Charisma and Freedom for good prices. I also want to find Belle Meade and Esprit. For now though I will have my semi-complete collection of Breyer Crystal horses and will wait somewhat impatiently to see what the Breyerfest 2020 crystal horse is going to be. This will be the first year I can buy my own! 

Odds and Ends

     Usually I have my posts written ahead of time, at least the night before, and scheduled to post at 2:30 am. That didn't happen this time. I took some photos yesterday, set up the post, but didn't actually write it. Oops. I could promise you an interesting post for having to wait a bit longer (if you are one of the few people that sees my blog before I post the link to Facebook) but that would be a lie. This is likely to be a rambly post about the random things I managed to do yesterday.

     I started off working on pinnies again. I finally have printer ink so I got some more numbers printed out. I had forgotten just how long a process making pinnies is. I did a bunch but I still have a bunch to go.

     I needed to cut out some doll clothes but I decided first I really needed a sorting day. I go through phases where I will just stuff supplies into the different drawers until I can't easily close the drawers anymore and I am not quite sure what I have. It was definitely time for some sorting. A week or so ago I went on a youth doll buying spree on ebay, because I thought I was low on them. It turns out that I have LOTS of youth dolls. Some were in a bag together (I try to keep like dolls together in gallon zipper bags so I know how many of each type I have) and many others were just randomly shoved in the drawer. So it turns out I have a gallon zipper bag fairly full of youth dolls. I think I need to stop buying them for a bit. 

     I got some pieces cut out for several doll outfits and these 4 sets of saddlebags. I didn't sew anything, or put any bags together, but I got these parts done. There are days when all you can get done is some pieces of projects. 

     In my sorting of the doll drawer I decided to pull out the outfits I found, get some photos and list them for sale. I usually throw out Breyer doll clothes. I have no use for them and after awhile they take up a lot of space. So I put together outfits and listed them for $1-$3, pretty much to cover the packaging and paypal fees, with maybe a few pennies left over. But the photos, listing and communication back and forth with people took a bunch of time. 
     I didn't get tons done yesterday, but I did get a bunch worked on. Ethan and I have some pretty important home repairs to get to this week so I am not even sure if I will have much time to talk about dolls. I guess we will find out together. 

Miniatures, Cleaning and a Birthday, Oh My!

        I think I have mentioned that I have been ordering things for my miniatures sale in August. I do plan on making a bunch of things, but I know how much I, and most hobby people, like miniatures, so I figured buying some stuff wholesale and reselling could be fun. I might be wrong but I imagine that people being able to get a variety of miniatures in one place, without having to pay all of the separate shipping charges (they sure add up!) And without having to wait for months to get all the things, might just be enticing. Seriously. I ordered some of the stuff at the beginning of April. Not here yet. But I will have everything ready for the sale. I am still not entirely sure exactly what I will have available, but there will be a good variety of things. 

      The miniatures sale will be at some point in August, though I have not set a date for that just yet. I am working on my NOT going to Breyerfest sale and my prep is going well. The other day I finished this upper level dressage lady. Her photo got posted on my Instagram and Studio page on Facebook. People seem to really be into the purple accents on this.

     I also finished a cross country rider for an order and she is headed off for home. 

     Saturday morning there was a reveal video for a new Jeffree Star cosmetics collection. Not as big as some previous collections, but pretty fantastic. I grabbed a screenshot of the palette and I am in love! Jeffree called it a gothic neutrals palette, and I think that is a fairly accurate description. Some people are already dragging it saying it's not dark enough or there are way too many light colors for it to be considered a goth palette. I guarantee I can do a wide variety of goth looks with this collection. And neutral everyday looks, wedding type looks. This one is going to be fun to play with. 

     Crystal's birthday was on Thursday and I got a chance to drive out and see her on Saturday. I hung a birthday gift on her door and we had a socially distant visit. I said we needed to take a selfie, it's been a long time since we got one! And I managed to make it work. Sooner or later we will get back to real visits with proper hugs and proper selfies!

      After my horse show in my room last weekend I left the tack room a complete mess. So I finally got it cleaned up and organized again and I am very happy with it. This little tack room is an art piece in itself and has been a wonderful way to display my tack. I have added to and changed things over the years and sooner or later I am sure something will get changed again. Come to think of it, I may have more things coming from etsy that go in the tack room. Though either I forgot to put in the order or it's taking awhile. Hard to say with the way the postal service is running these days. I grew up in the time of "4-6 weeks for delivery" so I really should be OK with this. But Amazon Prime spoiled the crap out of me. Two day shipping was like magic. But that magic is gone. Nothing comes in 2 days anymore. Maybe some day. Maybe not. 

      Ethan, Travis and I went out and did a bunch of yard work on Saturday. I super hate yard work but it was not too bad with all of us helping out. Things look a bit better out there and the bonus I need to remind myself of is the free workout. I have been feeling a bit heavy these days. Some is weight but I think most of it is lack of physical activity. I need to move around more. I just don't want to, lol. But the weather has been getting nicer so maybe some more outdoor things will happen soon. Maybe Travis and I can start training for running events. We'll see. 
 

The Little Rider Doll Making Challenge

     Recently Beth Peart Weekes contacted me on Facebook and asked if I wanted to help out with The Little Rider Doll Making Challenge. It is similar to NaMoPaiMo and the tack making challenge (I know there are other challenges as well) and a doll making challenge sounds fun! I asked Beth what I would need to do and mostly she needed a moderator and a cheerleader. I'm pretty good at cheerleading. And I have a little bit of experience with making dolls, lol. 
     I told Beth that I can definitely help people by posting photos of the "ugly stage" of doll making. Every type of art goes through an ugly stage. That stage where you are far enough along that you can sort of see what you want the end result to be, but you are still so far from the end that it looks SO BAD and you kind of want to stop. I have made so many dolls at this point that I don't much notice the ugly stage unless I think about it. But there are actually several of them. One of the first stages of a doll is dremel work. I need to make sure that I take off bits and pieces of the dolls that will help the clothing fit better. 

     In the case of a Breyer youth doll, the ugly stage is very extreme! I hate Breyer youth dolls and I have hated that they really are too big to be children. Sure, they can be older children, but what about those cute little pony kids? So I take the dolls apart, and then take off a bit more... and eventually I will put the doll back together, though there will not be a lot of the Breyer left. Crap, I forgot to take the boobs off this doll. Oh well, next round. 

     I have not yet decided if I want to join the doll making challenge myself. I can definitely finish a doll in less than a month. But I have years and years of practice. Maybe I will join and make my parade doll I was talking about. I don't know what else I need/want/have to have. I'll have to think on it. I have a little bit of time to decide. The challenge starts June 1st!

Cross Country Kits Are Coming!

      For my Not going to Breyerfest room 511 sale, I am working on not only dolls but lots and lots of cross country vests. I do have other things planned as well, but so far I have dolls and vests in the works. I have 22 of them planned and in the works. I have been making good progress. The other day I finally got the velcro in all of them. I had to set up a new color wheel. 

     And then I thought I'd try them out in a line. I think all the colors look really fantastic all lined up! I thought I had a photo of some of my work on the pinnies, but I seem to have not actually taken that photo. I got all of the pinny pieces cut out and have some of the numbers printed and applied. I also ran out of printer ink, so I need to wait for more to arrive to print more numbers. But the vests are well underway!

      I also decided I needed to make Travis a mask of his own. Massachusetts is mandatory for masks after all, so he should have one even if we just go out walking around town. He needs to have one in case we run into other people. When I asked him recently if he would wear a mask, he said no. So I figured I would make him something he would like and see if that worked. I wanted Batman or Spiderman, but there was none. I got this cool Toy Story fabric, which is another Favorite of Travis's, and I made him the mask. I brought it to him, while I was holding one of mine, and asked him what it was. He told me "mask" and I asked if he wanted it. He said yes right away! I thought I would have to model mine and talk him into trying it, but I was wrong. I helped him put it on and he seems plenty happy with it. He went to show Dad and didn't seem to mind it at all. I told him he couldn't just hang out with it (it would likely get lost in his room) but he put it on and didn't seem to mind it at all. I call that a win. 

     Every time I start to think that maybe everyone has masks I find that more people have a need. I should just keep on sewing. I made a bunch more when I made the Toy Story one, and I have more in the works. I picked up some more fabrics so I have other options as well. While I don't love wearing masks, I don't at all mind doing my part, and I DO love that we can wear some cool patterns! I have a new horse mask (new print!) and some coffee cup fabric (needs washing). I definitely do love the variety. 

Altynai

      Yesterday was Crystal's birthday. I didn't get to see her, which sucks. But this weekend I will go out to her house and we can have a socially distant visit and I can bring her a gift. Sooner or later we'll be able to go out and celebrate. Even though it was Crystal's birthday, I got a gift in the mail. 

      Last fall I saw photos of Altynai, the first 2020 premiere model from Breyer. I was instantly in love with the horse and I figured he would be a really fun performance horse. I was thinking I might need to join the premiere club, even though I am not an OF collector. Then I saw my friend, Taylor, was not planning on keeping her copy, so we worked out a deal and I bought him. And he is gorgeous. 

He has really excellent color and really excellent shading. 

And while I am not an OF collector, I am a prepper, and I can see mold flaws. This guy is amazing. 

     It really seems sort of unfair. I am NOT an OF collector, and I am not a halter shower, and as far as I can tell, I got a perfect model, or as nearly close as you can get to perfect. 

     I would have to check him over again in greater detail but really, he is amazing. 

      So what do I need to check OF people? What do I need to minutely look at?

     He has no rubs, scratches, weird dings or paint goobers. 

      He may have the slightest hint of some visible seams on his face, but I am not totally sure, I might be looking at his face funny. He really is quite lovely. And it's not fair. 

     Not only is it not fair that I have, what may be a perfect halter horse (and I am not an OF collector), but he is also too tall for the shelf I have space for him on. Which means I can't fit him in my collection. Which means it doesn't matter how gorgeous he is, I can't keep him. I need to sell him. I am not looking to make a pile of money on him, just not lose money on him. I figured blog readers could have first dibs. Was anyone hoping to pick up an Altynai?

Versatile Dolls

      Sometimes I luck out and I can take a day or two days worth of photos and write several blog posts. I love that. I love the feeling of not having to come up with something to talk about when I am feeling incredibly boring and mundane. Definitely something this pandemic has taught me is I am sort of a stay-at-home antisocial kind of person, my life has not changed all that much. There are definitely people I miss seeing, and I do like to go out and be social sometimes, but for the most part I stay home. I work on dolls, work on purging my house (it has been an ongoing process for a couple of years now), help Travis with whatever he needs, work, read and so on. Not a lot has changed. Instead of getting up at 4:45 I get up when I wake up (maybe 8:00, sometimes earlier) and instead of going to work I email students and teachers to try to see who needs help and I teach Travis. I'm pretty flexible with things. I can go from being the teacher, to being the para if Travis is in a video class with one of his teachers and needs support. Versatility can be a good thing. It can definitely be a good thing with dolls. 
     I have completed a variety of versatile dolls over the past week and for one reason or another, they have not gotten shared. I almost forgot to photograph these two! While I was doing the photo show in my room last weekend I remembered that I had not taken a photo of these dolls. The casual English lady is not as versatile as some dolls, but she can be used for a variety of things. And she has unicorns on her shirt, so that makes her cool. In contrast, the cowboy next to her is one of the most versatile dolls that there is. When I started showing in performance my western doll was a cowboy in pleasure chaps. He could basically show in everything western (not roping) and that made him a really excellent doll for showing on a budget. I could have made all the dolls I wanted of course, but way back then the cost of a doll body was a bit of a stretch. So I wanted my dolls to do as much as possible. 

     This casual western lady is not quite as versatile as the cowboy, but she can be used for a lot of different things. She is not dressed properly for traditional western pleasure, but with some added chaps she can do ranch pleasure. She's great for games and cattle classes, casual riding, or as an extra prop doll. Casually dressed riders are excellent dolls to own. With just a bit of creativity you can find tons of uses for them. 

     This last lady is a super traditional huntseat doll. I just now realized she is much more traditional than I meant her to be. She is wearing a white shirt but I meant to put her in a red shirt. This shirt was for a dressage doll I am working on. Oops. I guess I will just have to make another huntseat doll at some point. Soon. I already had plans for at least one more, but I guess now it will be sooner than I planned. Anyway, a very traditionally dressed hunt seat rider like this can do just about any English event you can come up with. Definitely a very versatile rider. 

     I have a good amount of other dolls planned before by Room 511 sale. In case that doesn't make sense, that is my "room number" in the Facebook group, NOT going to Breyerfest, Clarion. 511 is also my region X number. So my NOT Breyerfest sale can be my room 511 sale. I am planning to have a wide variety of dolls and doll accessories. I think I'll get back to work on the color wheel of vests...