Looking Back on 2016....

So I am doing my evaluation of the year post a few weeks early than last year's 
post on my blog Looking Back on 2015  .  But so much has happened this year, and my days are so busy, I have been making my lists early, when I read the post, boy, have I come a long way baby! 

I did have many challenges in the year of 2016, many that were health related, and finance related, as well as of a personal , family related that I would rather have not had to deal with. Challenging situations, people, day to day, week to week, month to month. Very draining on the heart and mind on both my husband and I. But we got through them all and weathered the storms. 

In the midst of these issues, I downsized my fashion dolls, and other dolls and alot of my doll and prop collection severely. I do and don't regret it. 

I do indeed call 2016 a year of Expansion, and I did succeed in expanding many of my areas to experience new things. 

1. De-Clutter..
This definitely happened all around. 

This is an example of our now dining room, which used to be the den. It is decorated for our current Christmas. What used to be the dining room is now the living room, and is being decorated. A HUGE amount of de-clutter went about to bring this about. We have a alot of work to do on the house, as far as home repairs, but the work of moving the furniture into this room was massive. The dining room furniture is cherry, and belonged to my husband's parents, so you could say it's antique. We love it. 

Also on the de-clutter end I have two storage units to sort and get rid of items that were overrunning the house until I have a yard sale, or that is sold on ebay. This has helped enormously with rotating the stuff to keep and get rid of.  This is a project that will continue into 2017

2.Dolls. 

I had written that I was getting more into the Hot Toys, Ace, and Big Chief studios but I found myself often short of funds for those action figures. And I still do. To this end, I found myself during 2016 signifigantly buying less and less Mattel and less Fashion Royalty/Integrity as I had to sell more and more of my own collection. There were items or dolls I wanted but just decided to wait. And in one way, I am glad I practiced self control. 

I have discovered other dolls and customizing has really taken over with my building projects I want to achieve. I can't do all of this, along with getting back into food crafting if I am purchasing tons of dolls. So I have made lists of what dolls I definitely want to acquire, there are a few. Some are surprising, as they are not necessarily Fashion Royalty or Barbie. 

1- Petite 2010 UFDC Marie Therese Convention doll

2- Davida Mold Huret French fashion doll

3-Sideshow/BigChief Studios Teenage Harry Potter

4-Sideshow/Big Chief Studios Snape

5-Sideshow/Big Chief Studios Dumbledore

6-Sideshow/Big Chief Studios Hagrid

7-Mystic Forge Anubis

8-Mystic Forge Ramses ll

9-American Girl #55 for custom Laura Ingalls- Acquired

and I have a few more on my list. I have focused on these dolls as there are specific things I would like to do- sew, craft, or build with them in mind. Especially the 1:6 Harry Potter action figures and the Egyptian action figures. It has always been my intention to acquire those figures and do Hogwarts scenes/dioramas and an Egyptian tomb. 

I have also wanted to create more doll food, in 1:6 and 1:3 scales, and offer them more regularly in my ebay auctions and perhaps restart my Etsy store again. This year has been so full of distractions, it was impossible to do that or even have time to peacefully sculpt. So I am getting my workspace equipped again.

3.Dioramas.

I had finished the Gothic Mansion in 2016, and did a ton of things with it. I did not finish the Santa's kitchen, but am close to finishing that. My goal last year was to add to the Santa's wonderland each year, which I hope to do. 2016 was a year of mishaps but I hope 2017 will be a year of 'Moving FOrward' and making progress on the building aspect. 

I really want to also make progress on building the other dioramas and hope to pull out my sketch books, and see what I can come up. 

4. Health and Wellness

Well this is where 2016 got in the way of that plan. It threw a monkey wrench into that with a kidney stone in April and then I had to go to the hospital, for an emergency stent, later with a lithotripsy to crush the 1 inch stone, which helped to pass it. But my recovery from it took quite a while as it drained me of my strength for month. Getting out of bed and navigating was a feat within itself. I did not begin to feel like myself until the middle of June. 

During the hospital stay with x-rays, they found a lump in my breast, which I had to go have a tests, and a biopsy for, which thankfully proved benign. All of this has been draining financially and emotionally. 

The good news was I lost more weight, about 18 lbs. My doctor was thrilled. 

Toxic People.....

I really don't have that much on this topic except I can say, regretfully I have alot of those in the family. More than I can to admit. It is with sadness that those closest to us treat us the worst, while sometimes friends and strangers treat  us the best. 

So....walk away from those that treat you bad, because life is too short to put up with it. Laugh often, love more, and cry less. Just because they are family doesn't give them carte blanche to ruin your emotional health or disrespect you. 

5. Expanding...& Moving Forward

I talked alot about expanding my horizons in 2016, and boy did I!

I did try new things, and I also stepped back from doing things the old way. One thing I stepped back from doing was ordering dolls just because everyone was on the kick of ordering the doll. I only ordered what I wanted, absolutely or liked. 

So I have decided that since 2016 was a year of Expansion, 2017 will be the year of 'Moving Forward' or progress, and maybe moving forward on expanding on all of those areas that I made a list of, and seeing what I can do to get ahead. 

This year I did move forward definitely when selling on Ebay, as I made Bronze powerseller within two months of selling this year. It amazed me, but I am now not really interested in maintaining that status, just interested in doing more with my collection and other spheres of art. I would definitely like to be able to sew more too. 

All for now, and enjoy your week!

Lisa