What have I been doing lately? Reading--I've just finished a couple of YA (Young Adult) titles. There's Noggin by John Corey Whaley, which was about a teen with a terminal illness who gets a second chance at life by having his head sawed off and transplanted onto a donor body. It sounds like an outrageous premise, but it was really enjoyable. I sympathised with the main character Travis because he wakes up healthy on his new body five years after he consented to this last-ditch path to survival and finds that everything is different and his friends are no longer 16-years old like he is. The other book I finished is Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige, in which your average teen outcast Amy Gumm is swept away in her mobile home during a tornado and wakes up in Oz, except that Dorothy has become corrupt with power and Oz is threatened. As a librarian, I find it helpful to read titles from a variety of different genres. No matter how many titles I cross off my list as I read them, it seems that I'm always adding more.
I've also been playing Animal Crossing New Leaf on my 3DS. This game is seriously addicting and it's been over a year since I've been playing it. I've been working hard on making my town thrive. I've seen animal villagers come and go. I try to play at least a little every day since the few times I misplaced my game card, when I did eventually play again, I found that my favorite villagers had moved away. It might seem a bit strange that the loss of these fictional pixelated characters would affect me, but it did. In my town, I'm currently working on completing my bug and ocean life encyclopedia. I have only two more bugs to catch--a mole cricket and a dung beetle. I have about 6 more things to dive for and 6 fish to catch with my fishing rod. Eventually I want to get Katrina the fortune teller to open up shop on my town's Main Street. I've had the opportunity to play online with Vadafade whom I know from Dollchemy. She's visited my town and I traveled to hers...and one of her former town residents has relocated to my town. I hope to play again with more dolly friends in the future.
I should add that I'm consciously going to try to improve my health and take better care of myself. I find exercise really boring, but I know it's a necessity because my job is more sedentary than active. I take the stairs whenever possible and during my lunch break when I run errands, I walk more than take my car. I have a couple of fitness DVDs that I will genuinely give a chance to. I use the treadmill but that is seriously torture to me. I've tried watching movies while I walk/jog on the treadmill, but I find myself wanting to just sit on the sofa and finish the movie without the pesky exercise getting in the way. I used to use the wii board with my Nintendo wii, but I think something is wrong with it. I know that weight loss is more dependent on diet than exercise, so I will try to be better about what I eat. Portion control, not eating as much processed foods, etc. I know what I have to do, the hard part is doing it! And not making excuses, but my underactive/non-existent thyroid is a huge factor in all this. Also contributing to my difficulty in weight loss, I believe is my IUD.
In my doll hobby, I always say I want to downsize or at least not get any more. I would like to free up unnecessary stuff, and for the most part, I have been slowly listing wigs and clothes up for sale. I need to do more of that...but it's just kind of hard to sell things these days. I've noticed things sit around for months with no bites from interested parties. And no matter how much I swear I won't get any more dolls, two dolls recently made their way here.
These are the two that have snuck their way in. On the left is Dice (Daisuke). He is the Taeyang Chosokabe Motochika who actually started off here in Hawaii with me when I pre-ordered him from PullipStyle in 2011. About a month after I got him, I needed some quick funds, so I let him go to a buyer in Chile. I always regretted having to sell him. But then in June 2014, I saw him up for sale from Chile--of course I had to get him back; I paid the same price I sold him for. I consider him a doll version of a homing pigeon. (He and Arashi--who I also sold and bought back).
The pullip on the right is a custom Nahh-ato who first belonged to Miss Edith and then Vanie. I had always wanted a Nahh...but failed to get one when she was in stock, and then she was sold out everywhere or on sale for a price I was not willing to pay. I only really wanted a Nahh so I could have someone customize her, so when this pretty little thing with her Myufish face-up became available, I jumped on it. I'm glad I did, and I have no regrets.The truth is it is unrealistic to go "cold turkey", but I just have no words. I made a list of things I would allow myself to buy earlier this year, and it seems I forgot about that. I guess I fell off the wagon a bit there; and I'm only human. *grins sheepishly*
Here is my revised list of purchases for 2014:
- Mister Super Clear or Volks ZM spray (to finish off my Blythe & Yeolume customs)
- Tiny brushes (to finish off my custom dollies)
- Volks shine pearl (more customizing supplies)
- A secondhand Blythe to send away for custom face-up (I would like a pretty custom doll from Bee's Dreamland)
- A Makie doll
Let's hope I have the will power to stick to my newly revised list as we close out the rest of the year.
You know, I think we think we should do a lot more than we can and we don't take time to look at what all we do accomplish. So we don't totally stick to our resolutions, at least we did more than if we hadn't made any resolutions.
ReplyDeleteIs Dice fairly tan? Your new dolls look good! Nothing wrong with getting something nice now and again as a reward. If all you bought were two that isn't a lot.
It is hard to sell things. Especially Pullip stuff because the market is so limited and the majority of collectors are young and don't have much money. Also Pullip is way more popular in Europe and Japan than in North America. Also dolls like bjds also have more young lower income collectors now who don't have a lot of extra money to spend. It's tough. I have only sold a couple of doll dresses and not one of the people have left feedback except you. I don't understand that at all but at least a few have sold. Just doesn't make me want to make more.
All I can say is keep at it. I've been putting stuff on eBay when they have free listings and then on Storenvy (nothing has sold there but they don't charge fees, yet). I have a lot of doll stuff to sell. The plan is to do what I can in November in hopes a few things will sell for Christmas or right after. Perhaps revamping your sales in Oct. and Nov. might get some sales? I know it's tough.
I hope your family is doing well and it's good you are walking more. I need to get back to that now that maybe our 90+ weather is done with. I hope.
Yes, the two newest dolls at least have a bit of color to them! Dice is a nice fleshtone color. He's not really pale like a lot of the dolls are, which is a welcome change. Eventually, I plan to get him a different wig--I don't really care much for the white fur one he's wearing.
DeleteI do have a tendency to focus more on the areas where I'm not doing so well all the while ignoring what I should be happy to have accomplished. I should try to look at that more.