Switching Gears for Summer

My adrenaline officially crashed at 4 pm today as I walked through the door following the close of school for my 21st year.

While I still have 2 days to wrap up the year, I can officially switch gears to my summer plan, both mentally and physically.

As you recall from my previous post about summer, my original plans fell apart when I lost my summer position due to contractual verbiage.

I’ve done my best to make lemonade out of lemons. Or, well, maybe I’m making a combination of lemon cookies, lemon cake, and lemonade. I have pieced together an assortment of paid projects that I hope will get me through the summer. Here is a rundown of my summer plans, including both the paid projects and a few unpaid for fun:

I am devoting the next 2 weeks to making hats similar to the hats I hope will be on season 1 of Little House on the Prairie, including 2 special requests. I am hoping to make 6 to 10 hats for people to choose from.
July 9th is the premiere of Little House on the Prairie on Netflix. I will be joining Laura Ingalls Gunn for her Watch Party that evening (8pm Eastern, 7pm Central) along with Sara from Ensembles of the Past.
I plan to spend July focused on a special project I can not share yet. I will say it is one I am very excited about because it allows me to share another one of my research passions with a wide audience.
Also, in July, I finally get to attend a training focused on research out of Cornell. I am hoping it pulls from or is at least parallel to my FDC training from the late 90s. That program was an intensive 3 months of indepth instruction that I feel is the foundation of how I work with people. (This is a paid training that will work out to about $500)
In August, I want to hold a doll tea sale. I have this fun idea of selling an assortment of doll scale tea sets, teacups, and tea miscellany. Much of this will be from my personal collection. Some may be what I find at estate sales between now and then. I really hope it is well received.
The second weekend of August, I am scheduled to demonstrate (volunteer) at a new Heritage Crafts Fair. I am very excited to see this type of event in this region. I’ve wanted one for a long time. (I am a bit concerned about having enough money for the gas even though it is only an hour away.)
In the middle of August, I will be back at school doing an abbreviated version of my past summer assignment. This will give me just under $2,000 of the $6,000 plus Etsy shop sales I originally budgeted.