The day after Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We were quiet here as our family lives all over the country and they all spent time with their kids. John and I went out to the casino early in the AM and both of us won. It was quiet out there too with just some of the seniors who are local with no family near or snowbirds here for the winter. Then came home and had a normal day. Laundry, made a nice ham dinner, played on the computer and worked a little on dolls.

We had so much rain last week and cloudy weather for 10 days and then the sun was finally out for a couple of days and now again this morning, here we are with clouds again and a possibility of rain today and again on Thursday. This is not normally the time of the year when we get rain in the desert. Weird weather this year all over the world.

Now it is really time for me to go work on some dolls. I have several naked babies waiting for new clothes. Sometimes it is hard to decide how I want them to look and seeing I haven't been posting on this blog for a while, no one has seen many of the newer dolls that I have done. I will try to get some on soon.

The last month has kind of been a blur as I have started to sell on Ebay and have done pretty good there but it really becomes almost a full time job to keep up with it. I post new/old dolls on there almost every day with them going to auction for just 3 days. It takes a lot of work to keep up with it but it has been profitable so will continue into January to see if the people are still buying. Of course, with being on there, I also find dolls that I want so I am buying too. Should probably do that but there is always another doll that I don't have or one that needs to be replaced.

Have a good week with the New Year coming up.

Bears looking for homes

I went and picked up the items I had at the Art Fair this morning and now I have bears to sell. These poor little guys need new homes and would make great Christmas gifts for the young and old alike. They all have soft faux fur, are 14 inches tall, 5 way jointed and have child safe locking plastic black eyes and noses. I have put them all at a great low price.

This will be the last of the bears that I design and make. I will not be making any others than for special order. I am having too much fun now, learning about old dolls, finding them, cleaning them up and redressing them.

Now it is time to get some Christmas decorations up. The tree is started and a few things out. Will not go overboard this year like I have done in the past. Just can't get into it this year.

Craft show season over.

The craft show season is over for me. I know there are others who have a couple more shows but after 8 shows and dismal sales this year, do I want to do it again next year. Right now I would say no but I know when it comes around again, I will be out there, selling what ever new doll I come up with and of course, I have my newest adventure with all the vintage and refurbished dolls.

My biggest seller this year has been my Emma doll. This is different because it has four different faces and everyone seems to want one. I sold the last one today and have orders for more, so I guess I will be making some of these in the next few weeks. The bears, for me, are not going to be any longer. I will only do these if someone orders a special one. I still have a few of these left on the website and so far this fall, they haven't sold either.

Now it is time to start working on my vintage dolls, which I find more exciting. I have learned so much about old dolls and it is wonderful to take a tired old naked doll and turn it into a like new doll. Right now it is just cleaning them up and making new clothes but I can see that I may get into rerooting hair and doll repair. That is all in the future and not sure at this point if that is what I want to do.

I will try the antique and collectible show this coming year and see how that goes. Don't know yet if this is where I want to show my dolls. All the doll shows are quite a distances away and we really are not into traveling much. Just may have to try one to see what they are all about. May have to start making extra doll clothes too as I have had some requests for these. These I know will go over well at doll shows because so many people have dolls that need clothes and they don't sew. I have made clothes in the past and they have always sold well.

Only time will tell what direction my business will go this coming year.

I think I had better start to put up some Christmas decorations. We don't even have the tree up yet. I did get the Christmas cards written out but not mailed yet. Tomorrow may be the day to get out to the shed and find some of the stuff and then move the living room around enough to get the tree set up.

That is tomorrow....then maybe it could be the next day.