Miniature Details

         2020 has been a very odd year. There is just no way around that. We have been dealing with a quarantine, conspiracy theories, shortages, price gouging, confusion, miscommunication and a whole lot of uncertainty. People have dealt with this year in a variety of different ways. Some of them are healthy. Some people have been really innovative. Some people have stopped functioning normally for days or weeks at a time. A lot of us, myself included, are not always sure what day (or month) it is. The model horse hobby has had it's usual drama and fighting as well as a movement back to our showing roots. Before there were live shows there were photo shows. I am really happy that there has been a shift to entries that don't need a realistic background. I know I have said it before, but that is all that makes showing (new photos) possible for me right now. And it has been a lot of fun. 

     Cardshark photo edition was an incredibly fun show and Jennifer Buxton's Pandemic Performance Panorama has been a lot of fun for me as well. I went right from making miniatures to prep for my miniatures sale into making miniatures for me because I like them. That is also Jennifer's fault, which I know I have mentioned before. I am finding incredibly affordable printables on etsy and then spending a ridiculous amount of time making them. But it's fun. I bought a download of 1:6 scale double sided dollars. Then I spent a ton of time resizing it to 1:9 scale. Now I have lots and lots of fake money for my dolls to play with. 

                                

       I got most of my photos for Pandemic Performance Panorama finished last week, but then I still had to finish making things for the 2020 performance class. And not only was I making a bunch of different things, I needed to work out how to set it up. I wanted to try to showcase the madness that is 2020, all in a single photo. I ended up making this set-up. I have the front of a house with bunches of packages out front. You can see into the living room (super cheesy, on purpose) where Little Elecktra is hanging out in her easy chair, wrapped in a quilt, with a stack of books and snacks. The TV has a news story about murder hornets on it. 

The "house" and living room are made out of pieces of card stock propped up in different ways. You miss a lot of the details in the final photo. I needed to get the horse in after all. I said I would find a way to put my chair I got from Priam Costumes into a performance setup. Little Elecktra is in quarantine, wrapped in a tiny quilt my mom made for me. 

     On the floor next to the chair is a stack of horse books (a gift from Jennifer), some candy and a coffee. 

     In my final photo some of these details are sort of lost. I am hoping the concept comes through well. I have the rider coming by, wearing a mask. The sign on his saddle says "hand sanitizer $20, wipes $10, toilet paper $5 a roll) He has a bag full of money over his shoulder and a shopping cart loaded up with supplies behind him. He's being chased by a lady who has a fistful of money. It did not come together quite as well as I wanted it to, but I did not have time (or money) to make a real house front. I do think I managed to get a lot of the craziness of 2020 into the photo. 

     Pretty soon the deadline to upload photos for the show will be here. I have all of my photos uploaded. I was thinking I might do a couple more, but I am happy with what I have. This show has a class list that is very open to interpretation. I love things like this. But now I am done and just need to wait to see how my entries do. And I will go and enjoy the rest of the entries in the albums while I wait.

Customer Photos

        I really love to see my dolls in action. Out at live shows or in show photos, I always get a kick out of seeing something I made out in the world. With over 1400 dolls out there, you would think I would see them more. But that is not the case. I did get some really great photos from several great people recently though. They have said I can share their pictures. 

       This first photo has a beautiful dreamlike quality to it. Corina Roberts had to get Grace Little onto a horse right away. And she took some of her usual stunning photos of the first ride. 

Photo by Corina Roberts

     Juanita Bitter sent me this beautiful photo of her new doll. I love how this rider and horse look together! I also want that horse! He is so lovely! Everything about this photo makes me happy. 

Photo by Juanita Bitter

     Here is another of Corina's photos. It looks like Grace is not quite sure what to think of this horse. She doesn't look too scared though, that's good!

photo by Corina Roberts

      This next photo is from Kristian Beverly. This is another perfectly executed setup. It makes me miss showing so much more. It also sort of makes me want to host another photo show. It has been years since I have done that, 

Photo by Kristian Beverly

      Here is a full on shot of the last photo of Corina's. In this one it looks to me like Grace is making plans to ride this horse. No nerves there, just determination. 

Photo by Corina Roberts

     As I was working on writing this post I was also chatting with Jennifer Buxton. She asked (without even knowing what I was writing about) if I had seen this photo she posted. I had not. But I took this to add here. Jennifer's tall cowboy seems pleased to have such a big horse. Now he just needs some tack. 

Photo by Jennifer Buxton

       It is definitely not every day that I get to see my dolls in photos unless it is a photo I took. And I take some pretty terrible photos for the most part. Thank you so much to Corina, Juanita, and Kristian for allowing me to make you some dolls and to share your photos. 

Spanish Side Saddle

       A while back, Fabian ordered a Spanish side saddle rider from me. He had a commission in for a Spanish side saddle with tack maker Nastya Savkovskaya, who is one of the very talented Russian tack makers. You can see some more of her work here. 

      Nastya usually works in stablemate scale, so this traditional scale set was a bit out of her comfort zone. But she knocked it out of the park. This is an incredibly gorgeous, very detailed set!

      

         I love how the set looks, how the doll looks with the set, and how everything looks on the horse. I love when projects like this come together. I actually get a kick out of seeing dolls I made in any setup. But the extra special ones, that went to special friends, are especially nice. 

       I don't have any use for a Spanish side saddle, but I do enjoy well made miniatures and I loved looking at these photos Fabian took. If you want to see more they are on his Facebook page. And Nastya has some on hers as well. 

     Thank you Fabian, for allowing me to share your photos and this very special set. It is super gorgeous!

Bits of Sewing and New Wine

     I have been semi-avoiding work for about a week. I have done a few little things here and there, but for the most part I have shipped stuff from the miniatures sale and avoided doing any other doll work. It wasn't really planned, I just could not talk myself into anything. But the other day while I was working on miniature packages, I decided to do a bit of sewing. Finally. So I got the pieces sewn for a working cowgirl outfit. Hopefully I can get her put together and finished up soon.

     I also did some more mask sewing. These are for Alex, Travis's para. We're all going back to school soon so we will need masks. Cute masks are more fun than non-cute masks I feel.

     I also found a new kind of wine from my favorite brand. I have never seen the the Apothic Cab, so I had to try it out. It is pretty good, though I think the original Apothic red is still my favorite. The guy at the liquor store always asks me if I want a bag. And he is always amused when I tell him it fits right in the cup holder. 

      I did not do much for doll work last week, and it was nice. Ethan and I did get a bunch more work on the house and a lot of yard cleanup. I took some show photos and made some miniatures for myself. It was a pretty good week. Not high stress. I liked it. Soon I will have to go back to work and figure out this whole new weird and stressful way of doing school. That will be a new adventure. I don't think I'm ready. 

Packages Make Me Happy

     About a week ago, Jennifer Buxton published a blog post about miniature packages. Amazon and USPS packages. And they were awesome. She put a link to the etsy shop where she found them in the end of the post. Today's post is mostly Jennifer's fault. 

     As soon as I read her post I went to the shop and just had to buy the Amazon boxes, the USPS boxes and the FedEx boxes. I am currently considering going back for the UPS boxes. Anyway, I purchased the downloads and then they sat around in my computer for about a week until I had some time when I didn't want to do anything in particular. That seemed like a good time to start working on some boxes. I absolutely love the realism of these! Totally worth a $3 download. 

     The next morning I kept on making boxes. All of a sudden I had gone from sort of avoiding doing any work to wanting to work on shipping boxes obsessively. I made a nice variety of things. Ethan asked if I was going to sell them. I said so far they are for me to play with. He said I should sell them and then not ship them, for realism. When I posted on Facebook Danielle said I should make sure to really beat up the USPS ones for realism. It's funny/not funny because it's all true. 

     We did some work on cleaning up the construction leftovers/trash from the yard and put in some more insulation on the parts of the roof that needed it. And I continued to obsessively make boxes. I did finally decide it was time to sew so I got out the machine and moved my packages behind it. I couldn't help myself though, I had to take this photo through the sewing machine. My stack of packages looks so realistic and I love it! I will probably keep on making some more. They are just way too cute. 

      Besides making tiny packages, I got a really great small package in the mail. And good things come in small packages! It was my box of prizes from Cardshark. 

       Cardshark has got to be about the most fun photo show I have ever entered. Not only was it the first opportunity I have had to show (other than Breyerfest) this year, Bethany Shaw had incredibly nice prizes. Her live feed for the results was a really excellent idea. It was a bit of a live show experience in a photo show. And then today my prizes showed up. I all of a sudden want to use the 3rd through 6th places ribbons as bookmarks (until each wears out). That seems like a neat idea for a ribbon. Maybe I will put the satin ribbons with the Breyerfest ribbons and see about collecting some more (I have been returning those at shows for years) and make a pillow. I have seen some really cool ideas for projects made out of show ribbons. 

      Here is a closer look at the saddle I won for overall reserve performance champion. It's so pretty! I don't think I have ever won a saddle before. It is definitely a very cool feeling! I also love that it shipped wrapped around a baking soda cane. The bridle was tucked inside, perfect! Bethany made the prize saddles herself. Here is a link to her studio page to check out her work. 

     Yesterday was definitely a nice day. I continued making boxes and I got a cool box of fun in the mail. The weather was nice too. I love good days like that. And I didn't once feel like a slacker. 

 

Sometimes You Need to Play

       I am one of those people that definitely feels that you are never too old to play. There is no age limit for being silly or having and playing with toys. Yesterday I played with my toys. And I was very silly. I had a wonderful time! This first photo was not from yesterday, but I enjoyed it. I love my growing collection of horse blankets! I still have not put the first one I got (that Fabian picked up for me from some show or event I was not at), but soon. It is not nearly as pink as these. 

     I absolutely love the piggie blanket! And I love my super cheesy barn in the background of this photo. I was playing around with the prompts for the Pandemic Performance Panorama. This was not my official photo. But it was fun anyway. 

      I also decided to do a wear test on a new foundation. I have not much felt like doing makeup lately. But I love makeup and do find it fun. I realized on the day of the miniatures sale that all of my outdoor summer work made it so none of my foundations actually match my skin tone anymore. I had some returns to make at Ulta and the guy there color matched me (by eye!) and did a perfect job of it. He also told me I didn't actually need powder to set any foundation. WHAT? I feel like I have been lied to for years. I looked into it. Apparently it is true. 

     This one was after a few hours of wear. It's kind of hard to tell in the photos but there is a bit of a difference. One, I feel that this really is the most natural looking foundation I have ever tried in my entire life. Two, it does sink into my worry lines a bit, but it wasn't horrible (at least at the time of this photo). Three, for not having a speck of powder on this has held up amazingly well! I did use setting spray. I may have finally found a way that I am not unhappy with my foundation after 5 minutes. And while I sort of look cranky in these photos it's just because the sun was in my eyes. It's also important to note that I completely forgot to put on primer. That may help keep the foundation out of my "fine" lines (nothing fine about some of those lines, lol!) But I am super pleased with how my under eye area looks. Powder usually instantly makes me look old. So overall I am pleased so far, but definitely would like to experiment some more. 

       One of the prompts for the Pandemic Performance Panorama is Sparkly Performance. I started out with a sort of vague idea for that and then it morphed into something else. And this was necessary. 

      I now have a photo for all of the classes other than vintage performance (I don't have anything that fits in that I can think of) and the 2020 Performance class. I have plans for the 2020 class, but I need to make some more things for that. 

      I had a lot of fun playing with my toys yesterday and making things. I did do a small bit of shopping for doll items (for making dolls, not for myself or to play with) so I did a little bit of work. But not much. I gave myself permission to play. And it was nice. I spent some time outside with Travis, I got some photos and I made some miniatures that make me laugh a lot. I entered some more photos in Lemmonade Online Photo show and took a small nap. It was a really good day. 

 

I Am Bad At Free Time

       I am pretty bad at free time. It's not that I don't like doing fun things, I just often feel like there is something else I should be doing. Some chore or repair I have been neglecting, but especially doll work. Making model horse rider dolls has been my main source of income for 14 years. I am not good at "work hours". I will answer emails at night, on weekends, in the middle of a school day (when I am at school, as long as I am not actively helping a kid), basically any time I have time to write a response. And sometimes that turns into needing a lot of time to go back and forth. I do the same thing with shopping for supplies. Usually, I know just where to get the things and I can go right to the site/person and order and it is quick and done. It still takes some of my free time, but it's usually fast. Sometimes though I have to really search and that can take a lot of my time. I know this is bad, but I do it anyway. 

      I have been a lot better about things. Funny enough it was getting my second job (school job) that did it. Ethan pointed out that I only had so many hours in the day and something was going to have to give. I said well, I can't go to the gym while I'm at school, so there is that. Which freed up at least a couple of hours in a day. I also didn't have time to stare at the wall and/or nap anymore. So that was gone. I did also realize that I need to have SOME restrictions on myself. So now, I almost never work after supper. I can work right up until supper, even while I am cooking, but not after. If I am close to a live sale and trying to finish up prepping I will do some evening work, but for the past few years that has mostly been right out. It's not much, but it helps. 

     Our roof is finally closed up and I am thrilled to pieces. I don't have to be afraid when it rains. I don't have to semi-plan to work on the house for a portion of the day every day. We might come up with a bit of something that needs doing, there is a still a lot that needs to be done, but it is not the constant panic that we had. It sort of gives me more free time. Or time to make plans to do things instead of winging everything after we are done with house fixing for the day. The problem is, Massachusetts still has a ton of restrictions and I am sort of bad at being a friend sometimes. I LOVE seeing people, but I am bad at making plans. But I also love having plans. I am definitely a weird extroverted introvert. Some of the people I super want to hang out with, I can't. I can't drive out to visit with Crystal. Sure, we could have a nice socially distant visit in her backyard, but what if I need the bathroom? She lives kind of far. And it sucks. I miss her so much. 

       I have been trying to tell myself that it is OK not to be working on dolls (or miniatures) at the moment. I did a lot of work for an extended amount of time. It is OK to take a break. I want to get some photos taken for Jennifer Buxton's Pandemic Performance Panorama. It is such a cool idea! But I have not have time. Yesterday I did finally decide to make some time. I went over the class list again and made some notes on things I wanted to do. I managed to make a couple of really quick "props" (that will make sense when you see the photos, lol) and I got 2 pictures and then all of a sudden some rain came in. Because it was not supposed to rain at all. But I have 2 pictures. Which is a start. I think I might talk myself into doing some more photos for Jennifer's show. And maybe for other photo shows that have been popping up. 

     The good news is that even though I work too much, and I know it, I am also pretty good at taking every opportunity to hang out with Ethan and Travis. We get out in nature and hike or hang out near the water, or sometimes just in the yard. It's not as often as we should probably, but at least I am not saying no to time with my family. That's something I guess. 

      I do have some doll orders I need to think about getting to, but they really do not need to be done right now, so I need to try to cut myself some slack. I should take the rest of this week to work on stuff for me. Photo show pictures, reading, whatever I feel like doing. At the beginning of the week Travis and I went out and finished up his school shopping. I did some sorting of thing to give away, I shipped a lot of packages. I have definitely not been idle. I need to keep reminding myself that time for ME is OK. I go back to work at the end of next week. I should make sure to take as much time for myself now as I can.