Yup! It’s time once again to pay Uncle Sam!

For those of you living outside the US, the character of Uncle Sam — shown as a cartoon image on the right hand side of the poster I’m holding in the image above — is a personification of our government, here in the United States. Perhaps you knew that, but I thought I’d explain, just in case you didn’t.

In years past, I’ve always told you, my followers and friends, exactly how much this website and my other online ChellyWood LLC endeavors have earned, what I’ve spent my earnings on, and I’ve always disclosed the charitable donations I’ve given after paying my taxes, plus who got those donations and why. Today’s blog post is continuing that “full disclosure” tradition.

If you’d like to look back at ChellyWood.com’s earnings from years past, please click here.

The year 2024 was unique for me because, in my “day job” as a school librarian, I knew this would be my last school year with my students. That’s right. I’ll be retiring at the end of this school year.

And once retired, I will be on an educator’s pension. I suppose in some US states, retired teachers live pretty well, but Idaho is actually one of the lowest-paying states in the Union. So my pension will be… modest.

We’ll leave it at that.

And in retirement, I really want to put my focus on my “fun time,” which is… You guessed it! Designing and sewing clothes for dolls!

In addition to writing, which I also enjoy very much.

So rather than penny-pinching all year, I used whatever income I got from ChellyWood.com to purchase additional sewing supplies, vintage patterns, and even a few dolls that I really wanted to sew for, during my retirement years.

If I needed some elastic, instead of buying one yard of it, I bought a spool of 100 yards at a discounted price. If I needed snaps (poppers), instead of buying a card of twelve, I bought 80 of them at a discounted price.

I guess you could say I was sort of giving myself a little push, to help me get deeper into my retirement without having to buy the essentials for the next however-many years to come. At least, that’s what I thought I was doing…

So when you look at the spreadsheets of my income over the course of 2024, I suppose it looks like I’ve been spending recklessly! The word “supplies” appears eleven times in just the first spreadsheet!

The trip that I spent $230.00 on, in quarter one, caused me some frustration and heartbreak at the time. I heard about the World Doll Day Jubilee through Doll Castle News, a magazine which I write articles for, and because the World Doll Day Jubilee was going to be in the Seattle area, which isn’t too terribly far to drive — 600 miles — from where I live in Idaho, I bought myself a ticket and decided this might be a great way to get photos to share on my blog and YouTube channel.

But as fate would have it, I got sick two days before I was to leave. Ugh! I had to cancel at the last minute!

Thankfully I could delay my hotel reservations, but I couldn’t get a refund for those $250 tickets to the World Doll Day Jubilee. So in some ways, I feel like that was the biggest financial boo-boo of the year. However, it did work out in the end because I pushed my hotel date ahead to September, when there would be a writers’ conference in Seattle. (I’ll elaborate on that event in a later blog post.)

But as you can see, ChellyWood LLC remained in the red until the fourth quarter. At that point, I tried to crunch down, only spending what I absolutely had to… until…

Until I saw some ice skates that would fit Barbie on eBay, and then I went crazy again, buying doll shoes and ice skates like a mad woman! 🤪

I really wanted some ice skates to go with the Tammy doll outfit that I had made this past winter! Plus, I had just finished writing my memoir, and I wanted to reward my hard work with doll shoes and skates.

That was probably a bad idea though…

As you can see in the image above, my total earnings from this website, my YouTube channel, royalties from my classes, and sales of goods online totaled $2574.39, but my expenses added up to $2833.90, leaving me $259.51 over budget.

Normally when I put together my end-of-year budget for tax time, I donate 10% of my income to a worthwhile charity.

I’m going to share a little secret here… Please don’t tell my husband! He’ll yell at me for being too soft-hearted.

We have a daughter who’s away at college, and once in a while she calls us to say “I’m out of groceries. Can you send me a little money?” And of course we do.

When I was in college, I didn’t have parents who did this for me. In fact, I had to raise my younger sister while I was in college, and it was a very difficult time for both of us, both financially and emotionally. So keep that in mind. ❤️ Because of that, I really am very soft-hearted.

Well, about a week or two ago, I was at the grocery store, and a young lady about my daughter’s age was at the cash register, and she couldn’t get her credit card to work. It kept getting declined. She fumbled around in her purse, trying to find an alternative credit card, to no avail. Her anxiety escalated, and she left the building.

So yeah, I paid for her groceries while she went out to her car to try to come up with some cash (or a phone to call someone for help or something–I honestly don’t know). Later, I saw her exit the grocery store with her cart full of groceries, looking relieved. She saw me walking toward my car and cried out, “Thank yoooo!”

Go ahead. Call me foolish. I didn’t earn enough in 2024 to give $200 to a charitable cause.

But actually, I did have enough in my ChellyWood LLC bank account to cover the cost of the young lady’s groceries. The money in my business account from last year covered this year’s charitable gift for somebody else’s college-age daughter, who just happened to be struggling to buy the groceries she needed.

No regrets.

Now that I’ve told that story, I feel kind of weird about adding my link to the donation button… 😳

But…

No regrets.

If you would like to make a donation to this free doll clothes pattern website, please click here. There’s also a “Donate” button in the main menu.

But I might spend your money on somebody else’s kid, who’s out of groceries! So be aware of that issue!

For anyone who would like to expand their dolls’ wardrobes, you should really check out my “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” course and my “Design Your Own Doll Pants Patterns from Scratch” classes on the Creative Spark online learning platform. Here’s my bio page on their website, where you can learn more.

For any class on Creative Spark, you don’t have to follow a schedule. Just sign up when you’re ready.

It’s a one-time fee for the course, and there’s no specific time limit to finish your course. You can just take your time and learn at the pace that suits you. So go check out my paid courses on Creative Spark, using this link.

As always, feel free to pin, like, or tweet about my free patterns and tutorials.

To read more about my free sewing patterns and tutorials, please visit the “Helpful Tips” page.

Disclaimer/Credit/Affiliate Marketing Link:

*Please note: when you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include Amazon, JoAnn Fabric, Etsy, and the eBay Partner Network. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. To learn more about how my website uses affiliate marketing, please visit the website’s Privacy Policy page.

Chelly Wood and the ChellyWood.com website are not affiliated with any of the doll or toy companies mentioned in this blog post, but Chelly enjoys designing her doll clothes to fit a variety of dolls. To learn more about the doll companies mentioned in today’s post, please visit the doll or toy company’s website.