The first goal I set on my sewing and craft planner in January of 2025 was “Finish Romeo and Juliet, Act V! Work on this project for 30 minutes per week.”
But did I achieve my goal? That’s what today’s blog post is all about.
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Some of you may use my sewing planner, which is available for sale in my Etsy store. I use my own planner to set goals each January, and the list above shows the goals I achieved and didn’t achieve in 2024.
Some of the things I marked with a yellow X (meaning I didn’t achieve them) got transferred onto my 2025 sewing planner.
Here’s a look at what I tried to achieve in 2025:
This year I want to try a new approach by involving you, my faithful readers, followers, and commenters in the goals I set for 2026. I want to start today with Romeo and Juliet with Dolls, Act V.
If you don’t know what I’m referring to, scroll down a little bit or click on the links I’ve provided here. When my kids were 12 and 14, the three of us crated a stop-motion video of Romeo and Juliet with Dolls. It’s pretty amazing, if I do say so myself.
And to be perfectly honest, it was Romeo and Juliet with Dolls that launched this website.
However Act V shows Romeo and Juliet committing suicide. That’s a big no-no on YouTube. You can’t even use the word “suicide” in your videos without getting flagged.
So far, I haven’t quite finished Romeo and Juliet with Dolls because Act V has been in limbo for about 7 years. I’m scared that if I post it on YouTube, my whole channel will be demonetized, and I count on the money from my YouTube ads to help pay for all the storage I’m using for this website’s free patterns.
My goal for 2025 was to work on the project for 30 minutes each week. That didn’t happen. Whenever I’d think about going back to work on it, I’d realize that uploading Act V — just that one, single video — could drop my whole channel into non-ranking, demonetized status. I’d lose viewers, lose money, and lose my good standing with YouTube.
So progress on Act V has stagnated. The stop-motion is done and all the photos have been taken… but I can’t seem to put it all together as a final cut. It’s just too frustrating to think about.
As a means to fulfill my goal of finishing Romeo and Juliet with Dolls, Act V, I emailed the Suicide Prevention Resource Center online. They gave me a PowerPoint that’s used by schools and businesses, and I designed it to be inserted into my video with the following warning:
However, the folks at the Suicide Prevention Resource Center online could not guarantee that this would prevent me from having my YouTube channel demonetized.
So I’m considering one of two solutions to this conundrum:
- I can upload just Act V to Patreon, where people can pay a fee to watch it OR
- I can upload just Act V to Teachers Pay Teachers, where people can pay to view it.
I can’t think of a better solution than those two options. I would rather offer it for free, on my YouTube channel. Education should be free, in my humble opinion, and Shakespeare should be easy for teachers and home schoolers to view without the video creator being punished for depicting suicide — which is simply part of the classic play by William Shakespeare.
So unfortunately, I have not achieved this goal, but I may be able to pivot and finish the project on a different platform, rather than using my YouTube channel.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Please consider leaving a comment. If I uploaded it to either Patreon or Teachers Pay Teachers, would any of you be willing to pay to view it? And if so, what should I charge? Which platform would be easiest for you to participate in?
Can any of you think of a different platform where I can legally and legitimately make Romeo and Juliet with Dolls Act V free for everyone to view?
I’ll leave you with one of the images from Act V. This comes from Act V, Scene I, when Balthasar brings news to Romeo of Juliet’s death. This is what AI thinks Mantua looked like during the Renaissance, I guess (because I asked AI to create the setting, and then I plopped my photos of Romeo and — it’s actually Benvolio — into the AI generated background):
Romeo’s line here is, “Is it e’en so? Then I defy you, stars!”
Most of Act V is a lot like Acts I through IV, where I used solid, real-world dioramas that my daughters and I created. But playing around with AI gave me some incentive to start working on Act V yesterday, for the first time in a LONG time.
I guess I’m pleased with the way the photo turned out. But again, I’d love to hear your opinion. Please take the time to leave a comment, okay?
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*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, 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.