Tonight's Tiny Project

I'm working on this tonight: my first Stablemate Arabian set.  I can't tell you when I started this one, but I can say that it's been years.  I was a bit stuck on how I wanted to do a few things with it.   Tonight I'm just getting it done and making decisions on the fly: snip here, glue there. It feels good to be making progress on an old project.  

I'm still not sure how to some of the upcoming steps, but I'll figure it out as I go.  This one may be my first finished costume/regalia/set.  Though it might be a close race between this and the pink traditional scale one.  I'd really like to be done with that one too.  

I have MANY more of these in the pipeline, in all sizes, but this and the pink set are closest to being done.  

They with both be for sale - whenever that is!  

Pictures of Old Pictures

Yesterday, I received a small padded envelope in the mail from my Aunt.  She told me she had sent me some pictures she'd found while going through Granny's things.

(Remember to give Thangs)

Two stacks of pictures:

This one is funny and also has a bit of trivia.  My mom was a river rafting guide at one point.  I'm pretty sure I'm modeling one of their shirts here:

Oh, I had forgotten about this.  My Granddad set a trap to catch wild birds.  It was a bird cage propped up on a stick, with a pull string tied to it, and a trail of birdseed going in.  We caught a few of them, looked at them, and then let them go.  He was always so interested in nature and sharing it with me.  I was really excited by the whole thing.  (I'm wearing my Granny's coat)

Wearing Granny's coat again, riding a stick horse?  I think - and wielding a stick as a sword.  Granddad actually made me a proper wooden sword at one point and I would gallop around in battle, whacking sagebrush with it.  

No idea, me in school at some point it looks like!

My mom bred and showed dogs, American Staffordshire Terriers at first and later, Maltese.  I was a Junior Handler and went to a few shows with a young Maltese named Sugar.  Here I am at one: 

Posing with Granny:

Clowning with Granny:

On the way home from the dog show, Granddad and I stopped to study some llamas along the road.  Here, I wanted to touch one.  The llama did not want to be touched.  Thankfully, we did not get spit on.  

I went camping and fishing quite a bit with Granny and Granddad and a few times with just Granddad.  Here I was displaying our catch of fish:

And clowning around with the fish.  

I noticed something in looking through all of these pictures.  I'm not sure I've ever liked having my picture taken.  Even as a kid, I seemed to have a few default looks: "oh no, a camera", maybe with a forced smile - completely goofing off for the camera - or somewhere in the middle, maybe when I didn't know the camera was there (or was really excited by something like a turtle).   

Exploring a lakeshore - "Oh no, a camera"

Fishing - "Oh no, a camera"

Dressed up for Halloween - "Oh no, a camera"

And so on, haha.

The same Halloween with Granny.  I can't remember what I was supposed to be, I think I went as some sort of 80's rock/pop star a few times.  

Skipping ahead some years, a 4 generations picture.  From the left:  Me, my Aunt Annie, Granny, and Granny Margaret (Granny's mom).

And back to kid me.  I found this turtle while walking with Granddad.  I picked him up, turned him around to look inside, and almost dropped him when he snapped at me.  I carried him back to the house to show Granny (then let him go).

The back of that picture:

A picture of Granddad and I on a camping/fishing trip:

Wait, what's that??

I had taken two Breyer horses with me!  After studying the picture in bright light (they are TINY in the photo), I recognize them and still have them both.  The light dapple grey PAS and grey appaloosa FAS.  This was a super fun discovery to make while looking at the pictures.  

Last one, Granddad and I having breakfast out of the back of his truck at a campsite:  

We often took his cab over camper, but at least once or twice we just set up camp in the bed of the truck with a camper shell over it, for shorter, local campouts. 

I miss those trips, Granddad, and Granny, more than I can say.  I'm so glad my Aunt Annie sent me these pictures.  

Model Horse Monday: Unwrapping a Second Chance

I have, historically, had no luck in any game of chance, raffle, drawing, lottery, whatever.  There have been a couple of exceptions and they have been Epic.  Winning a Live Show Benefit model in 2014 and winning a Braymere saddle and bridle (!) at The Jennifer Show in 2019.

I've entered about every single lottery that Breyer has held for several years now and I don't get picked.  No biggie (except, I do still really want a Crane and Baruti) but I still always enter.  Well, I did get picked for the All Access ticket holder's second chance BF SR sale.  I decided that, of the few molds left, I wanted to go for another surprise and see what color I might get.  Due to the store page not actually reloading when I got there early, I missed the first 5 minutes or so of the sale and the surprise models were sold out.  My second choice, in this second chance sale, was Gran Cavallo.  I was a bit crabby about the technical difficulties and there was even some stress that I might not get my second choice (the cart didn't clear and things hung a bit), but I did manage to buy one!  Along with Dahlia, a pin, and a sheet of stickers.  Everything came a few days ago... 

Everything but Gran Cavallo.

Odd...

I feel like a broken record in saying that things have been rough lately, but it's true.  Without going into details, today things went off the rails before I even had my first sip of coffee and they didn't get much better.

By mid-afternoon, I had thought I might take a nap and "escape" things for a couple of hours.  Instead, I made the decision to rally and try to salvage at least some of the day.  I would try and do at least a bit of work toward my goals.  

Right then, a package arrived.  

It was from Breyer, but I wasn't sure what it was, it was a big box and felt heavy.  

Inside, I found Gran Cavallo.

The regular version is black and white.  The variation is a dark purple/blue and white.  I couldn't tell from this view which one I had.  I chuckled to myself, thinking this was Schrodinger's Special Run: both the variation and not, until I unwrapped it.  

More layers in and I still couldn't tell!

Thinking at this point: maybe it could be purple...  Could it really be?

.... I think it is...!

It is!!

(picture is a bit out of focus, I was a bit excited)

It would seem that, once again, my random Epic luck has kicked in.  

My immediate feelings were conflicted.  I immediately felt like I really "should" sell him.  All along, I've said if I had gotten any of the BF SR variations, I would sell them.  I keep saying that I don't collect OFs and that I really only want newer molds for tack making.  Also, I may need the money, sooner or later, with big changes coming.  All of those feelings swirled around and I sat on the bed in the middle of my studio just holding this model and feeling all of the feels for several minutes.

At both of the live shows where I've won something BIG, I had started the day feeling outclassed and out of place.  I took those random, Big, wins as some sort of sign that I did belong there and that I should keep going.  I'm feeling this "win" has a similar connection.  Today, I wanted to give up, at least for a couple of hours, and take a nap.  I decided not to, I was going to fight for what I want.  Then he arrived.  This kicked me into overdrive.  I posted a few more sales ads, took more pictures, organized more things.

Then I sold one of my SM Club gambler horses.  Another sign.

I've decided that he will stay, for now anyway. 

Right now he represents hope and I can't put a price on that.

Beautiful To Let Go

The last week, in particular the last couple of days, has been really, really hard.  I haven't felt much like blogging or like I had much to say.  I'm still not sure I have much to say, but I don't want to miss another day, so here goes!


I ordered my Stablemate Club Dahlia and got the champagne color.  This was my second choice, behind the blue.  I considered the idea of seeing if I could trade this one for the blue, but I do like her.  She'll stay for now.

Though I am likely going to sell my other gambler's SMs: Finn (Mule - appaloosa) and Iris (Highland Pony - blue roan pinto) if anyone happens to be looking for them.  

A couple of days ago, I buckled down and took a BUNCH of product photos of laser stuff and resurrected the FB page for the laser business.  I also sent off a pile of pictures and a bit of a sales pitch to the admin person for that handmade consignment shop.

This is another favorite sign that I made:

Next, I need to get some pictures of the options for custom Christmas ornaments and start advertising those ('tis the season).

I've also been prototyping a new model horse-related laser project.  It's another Japanese-themed set of jump standards.  Hopefully I'll have them somewhat ready to preview soon.  I have the idea to offer jumps/jump standards as a DIY kit and also possibly pre-painted and assembled.  A few days ago, I sat down with a notebook and brainstormed PAGES of laser projects for the model horse world, as well as the next steps needed to move the ideas along.  Stables/barns, jump standards, and new saddle stands topped the list.

Stay tuned for more on that. 

Tonight, I went and saw Dune.  I went to a movie theatre, for the first time in almost two years.  I was a bit unsure about that but, given the chance, I *really* wanted to see this on the big screen.  There were only about six people there, all spaced out.  The movie was...  Epic.  I am still processing it and may be for some time.  It was incredible, in so many ways.  A takeaway for me, in addition to the story, the characters, the scenery, the effects, was the music.  I have already grabbed the soundtrack on Spotify and I will be listening to it the next time I'm in the studio. 

Which will probably be as soon as I post this.  

Plant Sale

Yesterday was the plant sale I've mentioned a few times.  I took a bunch of my baby leopard lily plants and a pile of laser stuff.  Most of that was inventory I already had on hand, but also several new plant/autumn-themed signs made up for the occasion.

It was a small sale; about five vendors.  There was a fairly steady flow of people stopping in to check things out and I had several sales.  I wouldn't say it was a huge success as far as income, but it was fun and I made a bit of profit, so that was good.

These shows mostly end up being a chance to network and that can pay off in the long run more than sales on the day.  As an example, I learned about another vendor show coming up next month and also learned about another local FB group for craft fairs and such.

Here was my plant sale setup:

Probably the most fun experience for me was when a couple came over and started looking at things.  She pointed out the white and black sign with a Velociraptor outline and a quote from Dr. Ian Malcolm: "Life, uh, finds a way." and he snatched it up off the table.  Instant sale.  I asked, "Jurassic Park fan?" they both laughed and he confirmed it.  (Me too!)  That was great.  I had made a whole series of those signs a while back, each featuring a Dr. Malcolm quote, but I had only taken the one yesterday.  It's fun when something like that happens - when someone thinks a quirky thing you made is as fun as you think it is.  

Oddly, it sort of ended up being dinosaur day, because later a woman stopped by who said her son really wants to be a paleontologist.  She bought most of the dinosaur cutouts.  I made those years ago and recently found them (dug them up?  haha).  I randomly decided to take them for something different and colorful to put out on the tables.  You just never know what might be popular!  

After the sale, I met up with a friend for coffee.  We met at the farmer's market over the summer.  She would always stop by and visit with me and we would often chat for hours.  The market has been done for the season for a couple of weeks now, but we had exchanged numbers.  Yesterday we met up for coffee and another long chat.  That was really nice.  

Today, I went and checked out a sort of consignment home décor/handmade store I randomly found out about last week.  They only offer handmade, repurposed, and/or upcycled type of stuff from local vendors.  I took a few things I'd made on the laser and thought I might ask about being a vendor there.  Ended up meeting the owner of the store and she seemed to really like my sample products.  She has someone who handles the admin side of things and said I should reach out to them.  I'm excited about the potential there, especially with the holidays coming.  I think it will be fun to get involved with a store like that.  Apparently part of the vendor agreement is to help man the store one day a month, I think that will be fun, too.  Everyone seemed nice, they were listening to music and laughing, fun.  

Gone and Done It - Again

 The title of this post has two meanings I suppose:

1) I stopped blogging again - but only for 2 days this time

2) I did this:

(and so much more)

I have just finished entering Indy in every single performance class at the Mares in Black Spooktacular 2 photo show.  Some of you may remember that I did the same thing last year, only for it to go horribly wrong (long story short: technical difficulties on my end, my pictures didn't make it in, and I was crushed).

For this picture, I had the idea of a harness hanging off of him all silly.  That was as far as the initial idea went.  Then, as I was rearranging things in my studio a few days ago, I found the Breyer Meadowbrook cart that I have and I remembered...  it's broken.  (I bought it that way)  Suddenly (further) inspiration struck, leading to the wreck you see above.  Yes, everything is a horrible mess - too long, too short, too tight, too loose - that's on purpose.  Oh, Indy...  haha

On the topic of broken things, I also have a broken doll and, well, since the show has spooky themed class names, a few of my entries feature a broken doll.  Actually, the version of the harness picture that I entered has the broken doll in it, but I figured I wouldn't just spring that on my unsuspecting readers.

The rest of the pictures I'll probably post here soon, for now I really need to get back to getting ready for the plant sale tomorrow.  

Sticker Day

Today was sticker day; the stickers from both of the monthly clubs I'm in arrived in the mail.
  

The spooky Fjord is from North West Studios and the Orlov Trotter is from DeeJayBe Studios.  The Fjord was a gambler's choice - 3 regular Fjord colors and this spooky one.  

I have a pile of stickers accumulating, from both of these clubs and also other purchases.  For now, I keep them in a drawer, but I'd like to come up with a better way to keep them or display some.

In other news: I've mentioned the plant sale, coming up this Saturday.  In the local plant swap group on FB, I happened to catch someone giving away a hibiscus tree.  I was stunned, I had no idea they'd even be happy or grow here.  Apparently, it stays out in the summer and needs to overwinter indoors.  The person I got it from was given it by a friend who moved, but then they didn't have room to bring it in for the winter I guess.  So, I spontaneously ended up with a "rescue" hibiscus.  It's blooming and is SO pretty. 

It's about 5 feet tall or so, the bloom pictured is down low, but it also has blooms and buds all over up top.  It's in the entryway, by a south facing window, where it gets sun in the evening.  My plan is to move it upstairs, to the office, where it should get a good amount of sun all winter.  There's a big south-facing window up there, too.

In other, other news: I saw the northern lights last night and WOW.  It was incredible.  I'm still struggling to form words about what the experience was actually like.  I'll ruminate on it some more and come up with something, sometime, maybe.  I took just a couple of pictures with my phone on night mode and I was thrilled that they came out.  Then I put the phone/camera down to watch the show...  and felt very, very small and insignificant.  

Model Horse Monday

For this Model Horse Monday special report, we are back at the tack desk again for the latest news and, hold on, just a minute... What's that? 

Oh.

Oh no... 

It's Indy.

*crashing sounds, screams, and shouts can be heard in the distance, before the news feed suddenly goes dark* 

Tack Magic

Today was really, really... really hard.  I can't even point to a certain reason why.  It seemed that depression and ADHD joined hands and kicked me in the teeth, again and again.  It was not good.

Tonight, though, I did manage to spend a bit of time making tack and that always helps.  I'm technically late on my loose plans to do a post a day this month, since it's after midnight, but I think it should still count. 

I have a room full of stuff.  Lots of model horses, a lifetime supply of... supplies to make things.  But, for now anyway, this is where the "magic" happens.  The tack magic, that is.

At the moment I have underway: 

- A turquoise halter/bridle combo for Uffington (to match the endurance breast collar I'd made a while back).

- A natural color classic scale western snaffle bridle.

- 4 draft horse bridles in pink, green, orange, and light blue.

- A surprise halter for someone.

- A pink Arabian costume on a PAM (side note: I'm uncertain if this would be called regalia, because.. it's pink, and probably a lot more arena style, based on the color alone, so... a costume?  I really don't know, I feel a bit weird calling something that looks like Pepto Bismol authentic regalia).

- A saddle tan western snaffle bridle for Fireheart.

- A lime green convertible gaming bridle for Ruffian and also whoever doesn't need a split crown piece.

I think that's it as far as most of who is on the tack  desk and why.  Jaskier (Troubadour) is just there because I love looking at him so much.  Same with Bolya and Sound The Bugle.  

The classic Arabian stallion is being prepped for paint and I'm also eyeballing him for some tack work.  I do have a couple of presentation sets I'd started on that mold a year or two ago.  Might dig them out if I can make some progress on the above list.

For now, I should go to bed.  I hope tomorrow is a better day.  

Rain Day

Well... I didn't go to the vendor show.  This morning started with weather advisories for heavy rain, to include possible flooding in our area.  It was to be an outdoor event, so that gave me pause.  Then, while tending to the chickens this morning, I found out that one of them appears to suddenly be blind (??).  I also found Fraggle Junior out in the rain, looking cold, wet, and miserable.  I brought them both  inside, plus Junior's roommate, Percy.  The rain started to pour and suddenly it was past time to leave for the show.  The decision was seemingly already made to stay home.

Instead of going, I, well, I guess I did pretty much nothing.  Took care of chickens (inside the house and out), napped, scrolled around on FB. 

Oh, and I also checked out some of the entries for the Field of Dolls Fall show on OMHPS.  I do wish I would have entered.  Today I thought about rallying and throwing together some last minute entries.  However, with the dark and stormy day, the lighting would have been not great for the pictures I had in mind. 

I really don't want to be like this, last minute all the time.  It's good for a laugh, and I do seem to work well under pressure - usually - but it's not really fun and I have missed out on a lot of deadlines and fun things, too. 

Sigh.

In somewhat related ramblings, I think I'm going to try to start a bullet journal/planner.  I have this weird obsession with planners - weird, since I usually forget to use them, but I keep trying, hoping they'll get me more organized.  I found a tutorial of sorts for a bullet journal, geared toward people with ADHD (which I have).  Hopefully it will (finally?) help me to get organized.  Hopefully.

Circling back around to OMHPS, I recently created an account on there and have uploaded a whopping two horses so far.  I like the site already, it seems really cool.  I'm excited by how many shows are available and I hope I can enter something this month.  Yesterday, I mentioned how I have a ton of possible props now for autumn/Halloween photos.  Maybe I'll try and work on that this coming week, along with getting ready for the plant sale next weekend (which is indoors, I'm pretty sure).

I guess I don't really have any pictures for this post in particular, so here's a picture of a little chicken family at bedtime tonight.  They have been sleeping next to their mom lately, but tonight it's cold and wet outside.  They seem to have all decided they wanted to be snuggled in under their mom again.  

Wood + Laser = Leaves

Tomorrow is a vendor show.  Most of the summer, I was vending at the farmer's market in town.  There I peddled my wares, which consisted of chicken eggs, and laser stuff.  Also some spaghetti squash from the garden, as the season wound down.  The farmer's market wrapped up two weeks ago, but I had my sights set on a couple of other events and the first one is tomorrow.

I'll be taking mostly laser things to this one, but also chicken eggs.  So many chicken eggs.  For the laser, I'm still trying to sell off some old product inventory, but I always enjoy making a few new things, too.  

This is a sign design that I came up with a month or so ago.  For my "first draft" I did a color fill.  This is where the letters and design are engraved into the wood and I fill them with color.  Today I decided to work on a version 2 and here's what I came up with.  Now the leaves and words are actually cut out from another layer and glued in place.

I'm really happy with how it came out.

It was fun cutting out all of the leaves, too.  I did a few versions of them as well, playing with different colors and different stem thicknesses (the first ones were paper thin and would not have been very strong at all)

In somewhat related news: I'm hoping to maybe try and do some autumn-themed model horse (and chicken?) pictures soon.  A few recent shopping trips have spontaneously yielded a bunch of fun props and, um, tiny costumes...

Sooooon.  (I hope)

Ponies and Plants

Another quick post here, that's most of what I've been doing this week it seems.  I'm trying to make blogging a habit (again) and so I'm going to keep cranking out posts, even if it's late at night and I can't think of much to say, ha.  Oh, I do have a TON of things I could write about and a billion pictures to share, but maybe not when I'm one foot into bed...  

Went to Tractor Supply today and spontaneously got, um, a bunch of their Stablemate blind bags:

One of them was the blue and white chase (top left).  That one is super pretty.  I'll probably keep a few of these OF and then either sell or CM the rest.  Probably CM - or at least plan to.  

Today's biggest project though was repotting and propagating my "leopard lily" plants. 

I turned three pots full of them into 50-60 individual pots and cups.  In a couple of weeks, I have a vendor spot at a plant sale.  I'll be selling these baby plants and also some laser stuff (crafty/home décor things).  I used to do this every 6months-year or so and used to joke that I was a leopard lily farmer.  They are prolific little plants and keep popping out baby bulbs.  It's been several years since my last round of "lily farming".  It was nice to get back into it.  

A fun bit of trivia: these are actually all descendants of my original leopard lily plant.  I sent some bulbs to a friend before we went to Japan.  As soon as I returned, she sent me back some bulbs.  They took a while to get started; I don't think they appreciated leaving AZ to come back to the Dakotas (they are a desert plant), but they have been going really well for a while now.  


That's about it for today, lots of plants and some plastic ponies.

Wordless Wednesday: Coming Attractions