Live Sale Day!

 Today is live sale day! 2:30 pm EST on my Facebook studio page. I will go live and offer a variety of dolls, doll and horse accessories, and miniatures. There will be trivia, prizes, and BINGO! None of the items in the photo below are available. The photo was taken at Breyerfest 2019 by Fabian Rodriguez when Jackie Rossi brought dolls to sell from her and Heather Malone's room. They were put in a drawer for safekeeping. I found it hilarious!

Photo from Breyerfest 2019 by Fabian Rodriguez

I have had a lot of questions about my live sales and how they work. Today (Friday 11/27/20) I will go live on my Facebook studio page at 2:30 pm EST. If you do not know what time that is in your time zone, ask Google "what time is it in Massachusetts" and you can figure out what time it is where you are. There might be a simple math problem involved. I will show all of the items I have available, most of which were previewed in my catalog post on Wednesday. So on to the rules!

The item numbers will be shown or announced during the sale. Item numbers and the claim word "mine" or sold must be used to claim an item. 

Please don't claim if you don't intend to purchase. 

After the sale please PM me, on my studio page (not my personal page or email), your address and the country you live in. Even if you are positive I have this info, please do it anyway. The post sale is a ridiculous amount of work and trying to find everyone's info takes a lot of time. 

All items must be paid for by next Saturday, December 5th. Short time payments are available for purchases over $100.

Payment is by paypal only, unless you have been preapproved for another form of payment. I will be sending out paypal invoices to everyone after the sale. Even if you have been preapproved for another form of payment you will receive an invoice. You do not have to have a paypal account to pay a paypal invoice. 

Whichever person's claim I see on my screen first will be the person who gets the item. Your own comment will always appear first on your device. The order everyone sees is potentially different than what I see. There is a slight delay in the video feed, it is longer for some people. I have no control over this, it has to do with your connection speed. 

Feel free to make comments in general or chat with each other, that's part of the fun! This time around I am not doing individual share prizes, though there will be prizes for sharing the live video. After the live sale is over I will put the names of the people that shared into a random name choosing program and I will award a few larger share prizes that way. The share must be public or Facebook won't tell me your name. This only counts while the sale is live. 

I know that shipping is occasionally an issue for some people. I am offering a flat fee shipping schedule as follows:

US shipping: $10

Canada: $15

Everywhere else: $20

The flat fee shipping is to make things easier on everyone. I will likely end up paying a lot out of pocket. Please don't ask me to give you a cheaper shipping rate. If you don't want to pay the flat fee, please don't claim anything. 

As always I will have trivia throughout the sale. Some of the answers have been in my blogs. Some will be more of a guess. We will also be playing BINGO! Katy Niles put together a BINGO board, which is in a blog post, since apparently I am somewhat predictable in my goofiness. If you have printed the board, or written up your own, keep track and if you get a full row, call out BINGO! Then take a picture and add it to the comments. There will be prizes for BINGO. I hope everyone has a great time!

For anyone curious, I have made 1442 dolls to date. 

Thankful

     The other day I got a card in the mail from my friend Sue. Not only was is a beautiful card, it was a wonderful handwritten letter. There are not enough hand written letters these days. There hardly ever seems to be enough time for them. Which is all the more reason we should make time for them. I am sure there are a few people I should send a hand written letter to these days. I am thankful for handwritten letters. 

    Today is (American) Thanksgiving. I went to a Mares in Black Zoom party last Friday and one of the things we were talking about was the dates of American vs. Canadian Thanksgiving. It was funny. The whole party was fun. As much as I hate that we can't be with our friends at the moment we still have ways to see each other. I have gotten closer with many far away friend during this pandemic. I have no idea if I will get a chance to meet a lot of these people in person. But now I can party with them. I am thankful for Zoom. 

    I was very fortunate back in March when so many places shut down. Including the schools. A lot of people were thrown out of work and had a very rough time of things. Some are still trying to recover. I was not furloughed. If we shut down again I will not be furloughed. As much as the technology has been making me feel icky lately, it makes it possible for us to keep (trying to) educate the kids. I am thankful for my job (and finding ways to relieve the eye strain/dizziness it has been causing me)

    My Birthday Live sale was 2 weeks into the shutdown. It had been planned for months so I had to put it on. And a lot of people came. It was overwhelming. I was amazed at the outcome. And even though I have horrible stage fright and feel sick right before I go live (every time), they do end up being a good time. I am thankful that people attend and shop my live sales. And I am thankful I have a lot of practice "performing" for people who may or may not be paying attention.

    Quarantine was tough at the beginning. So many unknowns and conflicting information. It was weird being home with Ethan and Travis ALL THE TIME. We're often all here at the same time. It's not often that we are all here and can't leave. The can't leave was the hardest to get used to. But then we did. And we got closer. We would go out hiking together, or just hang out. Ethan and Travis got closer and Travis started helping Ethan with the outside plants and learning about bonsai with him. We also got so much speech from Travis. It was really an amazing thing. I am not thankful for quarantine, but I am thankful I have a couple of amazing, awesome guys that made being stuck together ALL THE TIME pretty fun. I wish Elecktra was here too. But I did get to see her on video chat a bunch. 

   The model horse hobby has also been really great for me this year, in so many ways. Some of my best friends I have met through the hobby. I chat with them on Facebook, on the phone, on Zoom, through email, and texts. I have visited several people, in several states. And I WILL do that again. I don't know when, but it will happen. I love that I have a group of people who are into playing with plastic horses just like I am. We all have our own take on how we do the hobby, but that makes it even more fun. Each of us is unique and brings our own brand of collecting to the table. I am thankful for the model horse hobby and the variety of people in it who I am blessed to call my friends. 

    I have amazing friends who I have met through work as well. Some are casual friends who I only ever seen in passing or if I have a class with them. Many started as work friends and became real friends. The kind that you see outside of work and do things with unrelated to school. I am thankful for my work friends. 

     Eventually I am sure things will go back to normal. I know a lot of people think some of the things we have now will always be in place, but I don't think so. People forget. I have no idea how long it will take but I do think we'll get back to how things were. Maybe just a bit cleaner. And I am OK with that. Whenever that happens I am going right out to Crystal's house and giving her the biggest hug. I'm gonna cry, I know it. But that's OK. I am thankful for Crystal.

    I am also grateful for the new fun of having my Little Elecktra doll travel around to visit different friends. It has given me a lot of inspiration to write, which I was starting to lack. It is fun seeing all of the different pictures that Lynn and Jennifer have taken. I can't wait to see what everyone else does. I am thankful for a very silly hobby thing that just sort of happened. 

    I could go on and on, but I think I'll stop here. Because Sue is right, there are so many beautiful reasons to be happy. 
 

Black Friday Sale Catalog

      Putting together this catalog was fairly exhausting and super time consuming. Every time I thought I was done I found that I had missed an item. I have no photos of the horse boots and ultimately decided to let that go. So here is a rough catalog of the items I will have for sale, this Friday 11/27/20 at 2:30 pm EST live on my studio page on Facebook. First I'll share the things I don't have photo of. I made a bunch of horse boots  but didn't get a single photo. I have:

Open front jump boots  ($15 a pair): pink, orange, blue, green, red, turquoise

Splint boots ($15 a pair): orange, turquoise, pink, blue, green, red

Skid boots ($20 a pair): turquoise, pink, orange, red, blue, green

Fetlock boots ($15 a pair): pink, pale pink, orange, green, red, blue turquoise

I also have some chaps with no photos. They are all solid colored. I have:

Ladies cutting chaps ($30): black, tan, sand, brown

Large mens chaps ($30): black, tan

mens chaps ($30): tan

I may also have some show numbers if I can get my act together and cut them out. No promises. These are $1 each set of 4. I have judges kits for $5 each. I have handcuffs for $5 each

Next up I have a bunch of incredibly bad photos of the dolls I have available. I have this working cowboy for $180

This casual English rider in pink has a bendy neck and a very cool helmet (that I can't break!) $200

Casual western lady with a marbled pale blue/green shirt. $190

Lime green western pleasure $200

Royal blue western pleasure $200

Black western pleasure $200

Sky blue western pleasure $200

Red casual western $190

black casual western $190

royal blue casual western $190

red western pleasure $200

blue hoodie doll $200

Fancy driving doll (her hat is amazing!) $200

red casual English (bendy neck) $200, black hoodie doll $200, lime casual English (bendy neck) $200, red shirt hunt seat doll (bendy neck) $200

purple hoodie doll $200, grey casual English doll (bendy neck) $200, red hoodie doll $200

pink shirt hunt seat (bendy neck) $200, purple shirt hunt seat (bendy neck) $200, pale marbled blue/green shirt hunt seat (bendy neck) $200

saddle pads $15 each

Cross country kits are $35 each

Coffee mugs in a variety of colors (you choose) $3 each

to-go mugs in a variety of colors (you choose) $3 each

Vodka and Jack Daniels are $5 each. The Redbull (which is not an American version) is $3. Coke Zero or Diet Coke are $3 each

Rubber chickens $2 each, cell phones $5 each, flamingos are $5 a pair. Candy (assorted, 7 pieces) $5, black folding chairs $5 each

Saddle bags are $38 each. I have red, pink, marbled blue/green, royal blue, teal, purple, black and aqua. 

I will also most likely have sets of saddlebag stuff for $15 each. I was not finished with them when I wrote/posted this. 

I have a variety of different dog sets. They are all fairly well color coordinated. They come with a large dog bed, a food dish, a bag of dog food roughly 3/4 full of "dog food (shown in the bowls), a rope toy, a rawhide bone, a rubber toy and a ball. One set has no ball but 2 rubber toys. Each set is $30

I think that is everything that I will have available at the sale. Other than THESE...

     Which you do not get to know anything else about until Friday during the sale! There needs to be some surprises. As usual I will offer a share prize or two, which will be drawn after the sale. The shares need to be public or Facebook will not tell me you shared. The chance to win a share prize is only available for people who share during the live sale (I do the drawing within minutes of finishing). As always I will also have trivia with prize and new for this sale is BINGO! 

Oh, another little tidbit you might want to know is I had 45 entries for the Field of Dolls Online Show!

 

Letters Home- Colorado

    Little Elecktra is now in Colorado continuing her visit to hobby friends and experiencing new things. All the photos in this post are by Jennifer Buxton and used with permission. 

 

Hi Mom!

     I made it to Colorado and I am already having a great time! Right away Jennifer introduced me to some horses. This one is so lovely. Much more my size than some of the ones I saw when I visited Lynn in Indiana. 

      The next thing I did was meet Ruby. I gave her the gifts that Lynn sent. Isn't she so thoughtful? I love this hobby. 

     Next Ruby gave me a riding lesson on Love N Stuff. It was SO AMAZING to get to ride this famous mare! She was champion of the consistency performance division at the Mares in Black Spooktacular photo show! And she is just as calm as she looked in every one of those photos. 

       I also got to help with some desensitization work with Hawkward. Remember when we did this with Scooby when he came to the therapeutic riding barn? I think Hawkward had it easy, we had to be sort of obnoxious with Scooby to make sure he was safe as a therapy horse. 

       It was a really fun and exciting first day! After all of those things I got to relax in a comfy chair with a good book and a dog (and flamingo) at my side. Is there anything better?

     Jennifer mentioned something about having some work she needed my help with. I can't wait to see what is coming next! I'll write more soon!

     Love,

       Elecktra

    Thank you Jennifer for the wonderful photos! I'm having so much fun with Elecktra's travels! More to come!

 

Almost Done

      I am almost done with all of the making of things for my Black Friday sale. But not quite. I finished up these 3 huntseat ladies the other day. I think I have 4 total for the sale. I MIGHT squeeze in a cowboy or two, but that really depends on how today goes. I just might not have time. Over the weekend I spent some time working on saddlebags, which I was also working on last week, and I put down some ideas for trivia questions. I don't even know what I have for prize for trivia. I'll have to look. but I ALWAYS have things, I am sure I can come up with something. 

     Saturday morning started out with changing the password on the SmugMug site for the show so Marisa, Liesl, and I could start judging. It was a huge pain and I managed to lock myself out of my account! Or at least that was what I thought it said. When I emailed the SmugMug Hero team they got back to me and said they did see a few failed login attempts but that it did not show my IP address as being locked out. OK. So I tried again, deleted everything from the saved password stuff, reentered the new, correct password. and got in. I figured I would just start. Maybe judge OF harness and then take a break. Ha ha ha, that doesn't sound like me AT ALL! What I actually ended up doing was sitting staring at the computer for way too long while I judged all of the OF Other Performance division. Photo show judging is actually super ideal if you are confronted with something you have never seen before or that seems questionable. What does that mean? It means I researched the crap out of all sorts of performance entries. It means I stared at photos and went back and forth to the documentation, seeing if I could picture it. It means I watched videos, read rules, and so on.

      I am a fast judge. Some people might think that means I don't do a good or careful job of judging. But personally I think it means I just get hyper focused. I narrow things down and then pick the entries apart to see if I missed something. And sometimes, when I thought I was almost finished, I would see a hanging strap, a dropped rein that was almost hidden, or a chain that was definitely longer than it should have been. And that would change everything. 

    So with those cryptic remarks, I will stop staring at a computer screen and maybe go and read a book or something. But let me just say, the competition so far is FIERCE. And I can't wait to see more of it!
 

Awesome Progress

     Since April, I have been on the hunt for Batman fabric. Travis really likes Batman and I wanted to try to make him a Batman mask. But there has been nothing for months. I found lots of different pieces of Batman fabric on Etsy, eBay and even got a text from my friend Krista who has found some about a week ago at a Walmart. I said I would check my Walmart. They didn't have any. Poop. 

    Then the other day, I got a text from Elecktra's friend Sam, who works at Joann's. Sam has been keeping an eye out for Batman fabric for me and let me know that they FINALLY had some in stock.

     And both the patterns were cool, so I got 1/4 yard of each. That is way more than enough to make Travis a mask. And I am pretty sure he will like both of them. So the fabric is in the basket, waiting for laundry day to get washed, and then I can talk myself into making some more masks. The idea is not appealing. 

     I have been working away on dolls for most of the afternoon when I get home from school. But soon I can ease up a little bit. Not work every single day (including weekends). Soon I'll be able to cut back to just a few days a week working on dolls. For now though the wild push to keep going. We are so close to my Black Friday sale at this point. Must. Keep. Going. 

     Thanksgiving is this week and we are going completely non-traditional this year. I said, why don't we just make a whole bunch of new things we have been wanting to try. So that is what we will do. There might be a turkey, or maybe a ham or something. Maybe not. I think there are going to be tacos, with shells made out of cheese. Not new, but it's delicious. Some kind of buffalo chicken pull-apart bread. I think I am going to make cinnamon rolls. I am not sure what else there might be, but it all sounds delicious. 
 

Beautiful

     A while back Simone Methke took a bunch of gorgeous photos of one of her horses and a doll I made. She tagged me in the post and I asked if I could share some on my blog. She promptly sent me all of the photos. I thought I would just share a couple of my favorites. 

photo by Simone Methke

       These look so realistic and they just make me happy. I do love a good model horse photo. The more realistic the better. Or the sillier. But these are definitely in the category of beautifully realistic. 

Photo by Simone Methke

     In the realm of other beautiful model horse related things, I ordered a foldable arena from Emerald Studio out of Russia. I got some progress shots and I am very impressed. The side wall can be moved to either side and fits into the base for storage. The back wall folds down and the whole thing is hinged and closed with latches. This is definitely a step in the direction of nice indoor photos. Next I will potentially have to invest in some nice studio lights as well. We'll see. My arena is 36"x24" and with the side wall I should be able to fit all sorts of performance scenes in it. I am really excited!

Photo by Emerald Studio

     The Field of Dolls Online Show is officially in the judging phase now. Live results will be December 5th on my Facebook studio page. More updates to come!