Checklist for 2016

It seems like coming on here to post my resolutions is the first step towards failure. So let's see if I can beat it by calling this list a "checklist". The things listed here are things that I would like to focus on in this year, but I'm not calling them resolutions. That way, if I don't work on them, no biggie. They might get moved to the next checklist for another time, or scrapped altogether.

**Use hobby money to fund hobby items. This is a no-brainer, but now that I've closed my eye shop over on etsy, I definitely have less discretionary funds than I did before. It is now more critical than it used to be to sell unused or no-longer-wanted doll items to pay for the things I do want. I am also able to use gift cards to buy things that I want. I don't believe I have a huge wish list for my hobby, but then again, I said that last year, and I still brought home more dolls than I intended to. While I don't have any dolls on the list this year, I still have a few dolly-related things that I feel I need:

•  27cm white obitsu--ordered & paid for with amazon.com gift card (21 January 2016). I just need Chi the Pullip Banshee to be more poseable, so she will get an obitsu. I'm dying to try the button method using the tutorial posted on Pullip Home blog http://www.pulliphome.com/obitsu-button-method/ instead of trying to sand down the neckpeg as I've done in the past. I'm excited about it. 
• A wig--ordered & paid for with amazon.com gift card (21 January 2016). It seems I have the worst luck with dolls and wigs. For once, I actually loved the stock wig that my Pullip (Banshee) came with. Unfortunately, an entire line of wig hairs is falling off the wig (it seems like the weft isn't sewn on properly), and there is some strand breakage. This morning, there was a sizeable bunch of hair near her boots, and it just doesn't look as smooth as it did when I first de-boxed her. So keeping the stock wig isn't an option. A pity too, as I loved the blonde & lavender mix of hair that was her stock wig. I'm hoping the one I ordered will work out. 
• Miniature Katana swords--I need two of these for Shin. When he's not dressed in his werewolf stock outfit, I have him dressed like a Shinsengumi troop captain. And he needs two katana for this...right now, he's defenseless. The hard part is finding miniature weapons in the right scale for Taeyang. 
• AngelToast Aesthetics face-up for Pullip--(paid for with doll sales money) Kei started off as a Pullip Fraulein head that I got in a split. I had no concrete plans for her, and she just seemed to go with the flow.  She is by far the tallest Pullip I have as she is on a Zeenie Girlz body.  Her one wish was to have a gorgeous custom-face-up by AngelToast so that she can stand next to her Taeyang boyfriend without feeling slightly unpretty.  She started on her travels this afternoon, so we shall see.
• Another wig--  I hope to get Kei the perfect wig by the time she gets back from her spa time with AngelToast; I haven't been able to find one that I like.  It's easier now that I know what I want her final look to be.
• 4 hanks of hair from dollyhair.com.  My daughter's Pullip is in need of new hair.  This is one of the Pullips with a scalp, so I was hoping to re-root it.  I just need to find out what color(s) hair my daughter would like her doll to have.  I felt like the Blythe Re-root I did in the summer of 2015 went more or less smoothly, so I'll try again with Pullip.

**Keep on exercising at least 3-4 times per week. As I get older, I've noticed that my blood pressure is ticking upwards ever so slightly.  I am not yet at the point where I am on high blood pressure meds, and if at all possible, I want to avoid going that route, so one thing I've been doing ever since late summer was to exercise.  I've been more or less consistently doing a walk-jog for 35-40 minutes 3 or 4 times per week in the mornings before I go to work.  I find that I'm more successful if I start off my day with exercise than if I put it off until later, when it will never get done.  I still don't enjoy it, but at least I've been sticking with it.  In December, I hurt my ankle, so that limited my exercise time, and it's still hurting me, so I've not been as good with the exercise.  I'm down to maybe once or twice a week now, but I hope to get back on the wagon.

I guess that's about it for now.  At least, that's all I can think of.  I'll be back on to add more if I think of anything else.

Happy 2016 to You!

I meant to post an entry in December--just as one last nod to 2015, which was a very trying year for me. Unfortunately, that never happened, and I ran out of time. Where does all the time go? The older I get, the faster time marches on. If you think about it, when you're a kid, maybe 4 years old, you have to wait a whole year until your next birthday. A whole year to a 4-year old child is 25%, or 1/4 of their lifetime. That's a long time to wait. Conversely, for myself, from one Christmas to the next, it's just 1/40th of the time I've been around, and that amount gets shorter as I inevitably age. I hope that you had a lovely holiday season and you got to celebrate it in a way that was meaningful to you. While I struggled through much of 2015, it wasn't without some moments of joy. I lost my beloved grandmother in 2015, which was a huge blow to my family, but I believe we have been all been helping each other cope. In October, we took a much-needed family vacation to Disneyland! I've not been there in years, so I had really been looking forward to it. Life is in a constant state of flux. You have to experience sadness in order to know what happiness is. It's looking for the small moments of joy, or finding your happy place, which may not necessarily be the same thing for you as it is for others. It's also focusing more on hope and solutions rather than dwelling on your challenges and stressors at the moment. For most of 2015, I was in the dolldrums. Down in the dolly dumps. On a doll downswing. In a dolly depression. Whatever it was, it wasn't fun. This was a dark time when I toyed with the idea of selling everything and getting out of it altogether. I didn't feel like commenting on photos posted in my favorite online doll forums or on flickr. I couldn't muster any enthusiasm for participating in holiday swaps like I've done for the past five years. I barely submitted any entries for photo challenges on the forums I'm a fixture on. I turned into a lurker and lost my online forum voice despite the fact that I am a moderator on Dolly Market and Dollchemy. I thought that the Blythe bug was calling me, and I brought a couple custom girls home. I even embarked on a re-rooting endeavor, and that worked for a little while, but it was short-lived. It was so unsettling, and I thought I was really and truly done with the doll hobby. So much so that I contemplated on selling everything. But I didn't. For some reason, as I stared at all those little ABS & resin faces, I couldn't do it. I'd hear little voices in my head..."If you change my outfit, I bet you'll feel better." Or..."Fix my hair. It's falling into my eyes." It sounds weird, but I'd do it, and I actually did start to feel pretty good. When November rolled around, my husband surprised me with a 12th anniversary gift. It was a very large, flat (or tall), heavy box. I opened it and it turned out to be a curio cabinet that needed assembling. I had been upset that my current dolly shelf was breaking down, and it meant so much to me that he actually took it upon himself to get me a new shelf JUST for MY dolls. The husband tolerates the dolls, but doesn't quite share my enthusiasm for them. He'll admire them for a while and listen when I talk about them. He told me that he found a really good deal for this glass curio cabinet, and the price was even better if it was purchased unassembled. I don't mind putting together simple projects like that, so I tackled it one Wednesday before work. Once I broke down the old shelving unit and cleaned up the new one, I got to move all the dolly inhabitants back in. The downside is that it's smaller than my old shelves, so it's a lot more crowded. But look--it has a door! No more picking out lint from doll wigs. And despite my doll-depression, I still managed to bring home two more lovelies who had been on my wishlist for a while. This is Shinpachi the Valko (Taeyang) and Chi the Banshee (Pullip). They are both ebay purchases, which I felt were fairly good deals. The Taeyang was a pre-owned display dolly with all of his stock. His price was the lowest I could find. He got to me nicely packed in his box, but a little dusty and his left arm was unattached. I cleaned him up and reattached his arm--he seems to be fine. The Banshee I believe to be one of those Tuesday Morning $39.99 dolls that the seller was hoping to flip for $$$. I put in a low offer for her, was given a counter offer, and then I put in one final counter of my own. The seller accepted (I didn't think she would). I'm happy to have these two finally. Earlier in 2015, I had posted my doll resolutions. I haven't gone back to look at them, but I don't think I followed them all that well. The best laid plans...don't always get followed. I have a smaller list of doll resolutions but that'll be my next post. Gives me an excuse to come back here to check in. :) Until next time...