Quick Post: Bring on the Blankets!

I'm right in the middle of a Stablemate blanket making marathon.  Today I gathered together one of each of the G1 molds for fitting and blanket building.  I'm hoping to come up with sizes to fit every Breyer mold (hoping most sizes will work for several of them!) and am starting at the beginning.

Early on, I had made several of pretty much the same size; which seemed to fit a few of the larger/longer G3/G4 molds.  I got a little more specific with the latest one - for the shorter G3 Stockhorse.  And now I have a few different sizes represented above: the very short-backed/high neck/high tail G2 ASB, the G3 Stockhorse, The G1 Morgan mare (she is actually wearing another one made for the ASB, but her own is nearly done), and the long-backed G4 Para-Dressage.

I have almost all of the Stablemate molds, except for three of the newer ones.  Hopefully I can add one of each of them to the herd at some point.

Some experiments are also planned for blanket building from measurements.  That way, if there is a call for it, I can make these for other mini molds - Stones, resins, and so on, that I don't have.

Plans so far are for a basic stable blanket style and also possibly more of a cooler, without belly straps - like the ASB and Morgan mare are wearing above.

Back to work!

Wooden Pinch

One thing I plan to add to my Etsy shop soon are some Stablemate-scale blankets.

It's been about a year since I made my first batch of these, for a prop swap in a Stablemate group.

Oddly enough, this green one was finished up last week and sent off as part of a Secret Santa package for the same group

One of the most tedious parts of making these are gluing the strips of ribbon to the tiny wire buckles I've been making.  I have some "miniature" clothes pins that I use.

They are "miniature" in that they are shorter than regular clothes pins, but they are stubby and it's hard to get the tiny ribbon and tiny buckles situated in them.

At the magical 100 yen store, I found: Wooden Pinch!

Yes.  Wooden Pinch.

They have them in all different sizes, all labeled: Wooden Pinch.

These are smaller than the "mini" ones that I had,

but most importantly, they are narrower.

It turns out the "pinch" part is the perfect size to grip (pinch) the ribbon/buckles.  Yay!

Here are the straps for three blankets, being clamped by the Wooden Pinch.

Model Horse-Related Retail Therapy

I've been feeling quite frazzled the last few weeks, thanks to the sudden boom in our laser business.

It's a good problem to have, I realize that, but "success" can be utterly exhausting.  Particularly when it hits this time of year, and all at once.  It all came to a bit of a head yesterday when I broke down crying in the car outside of the post office, after we mailed off several boxes of (late) Christmas presents.  Jeff was there for me, he told me that I'm doing really well getting things done, but I certainly don't feel like it.  I told him I feel like I've got nothing left.

Thankfully, the "rush" is winding down now and I've declared that starting tomorrow (Friday) we will be closing up shop for the holidays.  I told Jeff that I'd really like to stay "closed" until after New Years and get back at it the first week of January.  So that's the plan.  Next week I plan to do: nothing!

Well, except a lot of studio stuff hopefully.

I'm SO looking forward to that!!

Christmas is almost upon us and, thanks to some sales in my Etsy shop (whoo-hoo!), I have a bit of money in my very own "hobby fund".  So I just went on a tiny bit of a Merry-Christmas-to-me shopping spree today, between eBay and Etsy (wealth redistribution?) and bought some little things that I've had my eye on.  Mostly things in the tack supply category (as always) and one completely frivolous purchase: a 1:9 scale doll-sized tote bag...

I do not have a doll, no, not even one.

(yet)

Nor do I have anything specific and relevant to illustrate this post, so..

Below, feast your eyes on my cat - in a box.  She was helping in the Christmas box packing, all day yesterday.  Here, apparently investigating the soundness of a bunch of airbags that I planned to reuse.

A MOST Unexpected Gift

I never, ever thought I'd see something like this: Reckless, my beloved, old, beat up, favorite, first ever custom horse... wearing a halter made by Jennifer Buxton of Braymere Custom Saddlery.

It was in a surprise box of Christmas goodies from Jennifer that arrived today.  

More on the rest of the box later; I'm feeling overwhelmed and not sure what to do with myself right now.  It's hard to find the words.  However, there's no way I could wait to share this.  I love it so, so much.

Thank you, Jennifer.

Quick Post - Happy

This is what we woke up to today:

Snow = happy me.  :D

Crazy Busy

Yesterday, I thought I had a neat idea for a product we might be able to sell over here with our laser business.  So I posted a picture of one of them to the FB business page and shared with a couple of local groups.

I don't have words for what has gone on since.  I've been completely inundated by people who want them - want multiples, custom ones, and on and on.  I started trying to keep track of the requests as they came in: who, how many, when they'd be stopping by, but once I'd filled up 3 post it notes, that idea went out the window.  I decided to just make a pile of these things and wait at home for people to stop by.  

Funny random fact: when I made the post about the item, I had originally made: 4 of them.  I had to make a bunch more in a hurry!

Anyway, it's a good thing - sales are good, money is good - but I can't remember the last time I've been this exhausted. 

In other news, I also sold 4 (four!) saddle stands today!  I'm more excited about that than this other stuff, haha, but sadly I'm just too tired to celebrate much - yet.

Since I don't really have a picture for this post, I present this pretty girl, listed on the BLM Adopt a Horse website.  This evening (when things finally slowed down) I took a break by "window shopping" through a bunch of the mustangs that are up for adoption.  She is a 2-year-old filly and one of my favorites currently listed on the site.

photo from https://www.blm.gov/adoptahorse/horse.php?horse_id=9091

I miss working with mustangs, well - horses in general. 

Almost Wordless Wednesday - Winter Swans

Lately I've seen some local posts on Facebook saying that the "Russian swans are here".  We didn't see any of them last year (didn't really look), but have been sighting some large white birds in and around a nearby lake.  This past weekend, we decided to go out for a drive/hike.  We hadn't intended to look for swans but, we found some!

After taking these pictures, I did some research on them.  I believe they are Tundra Swans, more specifically: Bewick Swans, from eastern Russia.  They migrate to Mongolia, China, and Japan for the winter.  The pictures aren't the greatest, they were a ways out on the lake.  Pictures were taken at full zoom, without a tripod, on a stormy late afternoon - but I'll take them, seeing as I almost didn't take the camera that day.  I'd like to try and get better pictures of some of them this winter - actually plan an outing for it - we'll see.  

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy seeing some eastern Russian swans, currently hanging out in northern Japan!