Thanksgiving - Little Horses and Little Tree

and a little pumpkin...

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I've often admired the holiday-themed model horse pictures that others share and have always wanted to do my own.  This morning I randomly grabbed a couple of "props" - a small decorative pumpkin left over from Halloween time, and my favorite Bonsai tree, currently wearing its pretty fall foliage.

Next, I had to decide on some horses.  Who should I use?  I ended up grabbing several of my SM customs, favorites and/or ones who are currently doing well in MEPSA showing.  I'm particularly thankful for that, so I figured it was appropriate.

Without further ado, I present my first "official" holiday photo:

It's not the greatest; I still (always) need to work on my photography skills and I'd like to start gathering/making a bunch of scale props so I can do more fun photo setups in the future, but..  it's a start, I suppose.


Because each horse was specifically chosen, I thought I'd do a quick introduction of them.  Several of them already appeared in a post about some of my old custom horses, but in the interest of making this Thanksgiving-related, I wanted to mention their more recent photo show success.

From left to right:

Hawke Nevarre - Friesian stallion, my very first drastic custom Stablemate.  He was an unbeaten live show horse in the few years after his creation. Fun fact: he was haired during lunch break at his first show, rushed to the judging table in the nick of time... and won the class.  So it began.  He's not really competitive anymore, but is still qualified for the MEPSA Championship in Liberty class.  For a while now I've had the idea to make a Hawke 2.0...

Days In Avalon - Thoroughbred mare, an early repaint, she is currently NAN-qualified from my last couple of live shows and she is qualified for the next MEPSA Championship in the Thoroughbred class too.

(front) Wild Honey - Rocky Mountain Horse mare, another early repaint, fixed up since then.  She had her own post about her MEPSA wins.

(back) Not Today - American Saddlebred mare, slightly more recent, but still approaching 10 years old now.  She has qualified or the Championship in the Black color class at every MEPSA Mini Specialty so far.  I guess she's my best black horse; I've painted a lot of them over the years, because I love the color on real horses.

Backflip - Shetland Pony stallion... What can I say about him..?  He has never been one of my favorites, I wasn't happy with how he turned out, even back then (he's about 15 years old) and..  I don't know.  I had tried to sell him, no one wanted him.  He's been the "ugly duckling" of my herd for quite some time.  Then I entered him in my last live show before our move, just because, and..  he won the custom pony class.  When I expressed my surprise (shock) at the blue ribbon and NAN card, the judge exclaimed that he was a "great Shetland Pony stallion!"...  This year, he's qualified for the Championship at every MEPSA Mini Specialty he's been to, in either Pony Type Stallion or British Ponies...  What do I know?

Maskav - Akhal Teke stallion, another old classic favorite of mine.  He was made around the same time as Hawke Nevarre, but much less work.  I think he'd held his own in live showing back in the day, not so much these days.  However, he's qualified for MEPSA in Other Pure Light Breed and placed 4th of 40 in Simple CM Workmanship and that made me really happy.

Nightbird - Andalusian stallion, he was painted around the same time as Not Today, about 10 years ago.  He doesn't have near the show success of the others, but he did get one MEPSA qualification in the Black color class.  He's in this group, because... well...  I think he's pretty.

 The other star of the picture is my beloved little variegated Chinese Elm.

She (I have a friend who refers to plants, trees in particular, with a gender and just now I thought: why not) was my very first Bonsai.  She's changed quite a bit in the time we've been together, from a scraggly, overgrown, bushy little thing, to an "acacia" look, losing all her leaves mid-summer (surviving my mistakes), growing them back with lots of variegation, to the current rounded 'do.  Last year, I regretted not taking the time to take a picture of the fall colors - and actually I think they may be past their prime here.  I was watching closely for the change this year and even asked my class instructor if everything was okay.  The trees outside had long since changed and started dropping leaves, but my little Elm was still green (and white).  He assured me that everything was fine.  Overnight, it seemed, all the leaves turned yellow, prompting me again to be concerned, but she seems to be okay and is just marching along with the changing seasons.  I'm thankful that she is a survivor!

To wrap things up, and get back on track...

I'm thankful I can have a little herd of horses that I love, even kooky little Backflip, and that are doing well in my return to photo showing.  I'm also very thankful that my little Elm tree has, thus far, survived my bumbling attempts to have, and care for, Bonsai trees.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Update: Bonsai, Max, Live Show, oh my!

Once again I've stopped blogging.  I've been...  "quietly busy" with several odd things.  I plan to get back into blogging, starting with this post: an update of sorts.  I'm really hoping to get back to daily posts, I do have a lot I could talk about, but... depression has been kicking my butt lately and whenever that happens, it seems the blog is the first thing to be neglected.  I'll try to do better.

Yesterday morning, I laid out some horses...  more on them in just a bit, after the other updates.

I've been keeping busy with Bonsai.  Here's a quick picture I took in the middle of a "change pot" operation during class recently.

Bonsai tools and trimmings

I'd like to do a dedicated post about my Bonsai trees, I've got SO many more than the last time I talked about them.  (back when I had 2 or 3...  now there are probably close to 20)

The big news is that our dog Max is no longer "bionic".  He had one last surgery, to remove all of the rods and pins, a week ago.  He's been doing well and can even get up and around the house all by himself.  He still can't do our full flight of stairs, but that's about it.  He may never be able to do them again, we'll see.  Most exciting is him being able to go outside, go to the bathroom, and get back into the house - all under his own power!  My aching back appreciates that development most of all, after about a month of carrying his back end outside for him a few times a day.

Max likes to "make his bed".  He does not like having his picture taken.

My garden here is nowhere near the size of the garden we had in South Dakota, this is the extent of it so far:

Along with a bunch of potted plants:

And most of the Bonsai collection (a few favorites are in the Studio window):

More big news, which I promise will be talked about more is...  I'm considering a live show entry!  By proxy...  Which live show?  It's a surprise...  ha.  Where all this stands is: Currently I have confirmation from a wonderful friend that they will show for me and now I am wondering if I have the guts to actually enter...  :(  Stay tuned.

In the meantime, here's my initial excited cut of possible horses to send.  All customs, one resin, mostly minis...  four classics.  All of the customs are done by me, except "Ashley", the grey Arab mare in the top left.

If you have a sharp eye, you might notice that half of them are unfinished (or even unstarted).  As usual, I'm hoping a deadline will push me into customizing mode.  I'm not sure yet which of these I should enter/try to finish to enter - or if I even have any business entering anything (!) so we'll see...

Right now I'm thinking I'd like to focus on finishing the classic foals and the resin (trotting pony on a base, in the center-ish of the picture).  I have a couple of other resins I could try to finish, but that one is already prepped, so she won out.

On a side note, until I laid out this little herd I didn't realize how many black/black and white customs I have done.  It is one of my favorite colors/color combinations, so I guess it's no surprise.  I do have a TON of fresh new paint after making an order a while back,  Now I just need the guts to sit down and get to painting.  *gulp*

Bonsai Update

It's been a bit since I've posted anything about my little bonsai trees.  I was on a waiting list for a bonsai class offered here and in the meantime have been trying to "wing it" myself with books and a few little trees I'd found at a local home improvement type store.

I was finally able to join the class back at the end of October.  When I signed up, I was told that the instructor would give a couple of plants to start with.  My first class, he gave me eight tiny bonsai and a pretty ceramic pot!

During the first class, I learned about using wire wraps to train a tree to grow the way you want it.

My very first wired tree, wired and styled mostly by the instructor

I also learned a bit about pruning, styling, and why moss is bad.  (but I love moss!)

In my second class, I did my first transplant, moving a baby tree from a temporary plastic cup into the ceramic pot I'd been given during the first class.

I learned about the care of a newly transplanted Bonsai, they should be in "ICU" and very carefully cared for for a couple of weeks afterwards.

At the second class, I also bought two more (tiny) pots from the instructor.

In the third class, I did some plucking of fall foliage, and another transplant: of the azalea that I'd pruned and wired in the first class.  It now lives in the tiny blue pot that I'd bought in the previous class.

I was also given my own shaped bamboo stick - an important tool that can't be bought, only made - and during class I did the finishing work on it (sanding and smoothing/shining).

Also, one of the other students brought in a box of ceramic bonsai pots and was selling them for only $2 each.  I bought several of them.

I learned that the brown pots are un-glazed and that they aren't unfinished, as I had thought.  I was told that it is believed any evergreen (pine, juniper, etc.) should go into an un-glazed pot.  I don't have any evergreens in my tiny forest yet, but I do want to have some, so I bought the brown pots too.

Unfortunately the next class is this Saturday, the same day as the winter vendor show I've been (madly) preparing for this week.  I ordered two bags of soil and also asked the student who had the pots last time to bring me a few more of them.  Hopefully I'll be able to slip away from the vendor show to pick up my soil and pots.  I've been wanting the special soils for a little while now.  Since I now have plenty of pots and a bit of know-how, I should hopefully be able to do my own pot changes and get the rest of the little ones into better homes.

As for the trees that were my real starters, they are doing okay.  My favorite, the Chinese Elm, is in winter mode, having dropped all of its leaves - just like the full size trees outside.  I wish I'd gotten pictures of it in fall foliage, they were bright yellow and very pretty.  Alas, time got away from me, so I don't have a pretty autumn picture, just the winter phase:

My other one, still unknown type, still has its leaves.  I'm not sure if it's an evergreen or just slow to shed.  I'm thinking it might be a type of evergreen.  I will most likely take it to class at some point and see if they know what it is.

I'm enjoying my miniature forest and looking forward to doing more with them.