Palm Sunday Getaway

One of my family's favorite activities is going and sitting at Bear Lake. It is kind of like going to the beach. There's sand in some places, rock in others. There are clam shells and two kinds of snail shells. Blue water like the Caribbean. The weather and temperature is like the beach. There are SEAGULLS!!! No, I'm not kidding! The Californian Seagull is Utah's state bird! The only difference is that the air isn't salty, because it's a freshwater lake.

The one thing we haven't done is going to Bear Lake this early in the season. I mean, look! There's still snow on the ground! That is, in Logan Canyon, once you get high enough in altitude.

 This is The Sinks. The Sinks gets its name from how the air kind of "sink" in this valley, making the temperature drop. This is one of the best places to go sledding, snowmobiling, cross country skiing, and snow camping. 

 We saw many different animals on the way to Bear Lake and back home. We saw a moose, wild turkey, cattle (above), waterfowl....I think there were more, but I can't remember now.

 Here's Bear Lake from the hill coming out of the canyon. On a clear day, it can get extremely blue from the minerals in the lake. There is a fault line running directly through the middle of the lake and nobody has found the bottom yet. There are stories of a Bear Lake Monster that lives in the lake and uses the fault line as a passage to get to Loch Ness, Scotland, to become the Loch Ness Monster.

One of my favorite things to do at Bear Lake, is to take beach photos of my Breyer Horses. (My other favorites is kayaking and rock hunting).

 I have been needing to bring Moana to get some decent photos that really captures her coloring. Normally, we go to the North Beach in Idaho, where there's more sand and feels like a real beach. But, this time we went to the East shore because some of the areas allow dogs. So, we brought our Border Collie, Jasper. This side was more rocky and was primarily all sandstone. Which was great for several of my horses who I brought, because it really made their colors pop.

 Little miss champion, Daisy, was rather difficult to photograph due to being a Stablemate and everything else was huge. I also was starting to run out of memory on the camera, so I had to be smart with what photos I am going to keep and which to toss. I am, however, going to try a different tactic with her, since I didn't really like how these turned out (though, I might use the one above as a scene entry).

 Wapiti's show side isn't all that great because of how his mane is attached - you could see the unpainted plastic underneath the mane. So, I figured that he'd do well in scene photos like the one above...

 ...And portrait photos. The middle one I'm going to use as an updated photo for MEPSA (especially, with the championships coming up in June!)

 Always gotta get a through the ears photo. I might try this one in a scenes class.

This would be my third...or more...attempt at getting a good photo of Lionheart. He is a little stinker. He's a Glossy. He's a color that's sensitive with the background color (except this one, YAY!) He's the first one to fall face-first into the sand....

 Yeah, look at that flare! Of course, he's a stinker!

 This is one of those reality shots of what it really looks like when trying to get a realistic picture of a model horse.

 The many faces of Lionheart. Each angle tells a different story.

Ehhh...No!

Have you ever had a list of things to get done that revolved around the outdoors and the weather was like...

Yeah...that was Monday.

I had only a couple of things to do - only primering a few Stablemates and painting some Raffia green.

It rained in the morning and was cloudy until sunset. It looked like it was going to rain more, so I didn't chance doing my original plan. And of course I forgot to get a picture of the gloomy day! I didn't have that thought until the sun burned off the clouds just before it set!

Yesterday was great! It was clear skies and sunny...and I was the most productive in days!!! With the whole COVID-19 quarantine episode, I keep reading on blogs, Facebook, hearing from friends and family about all this extra time they have to get things done... My days go by so fast that I don't know what happened and therefore don't get anything done outside of the usual cleaning. So, by having some productive days really feels good.

 So, I got Monday's plan done on Tuesday!

 The Stablemates have been primered....

 ...And the Raffia painted...

 .....And some reading while guarding the Raffia from birds who might want to use it for their nests. 

I haven't read Pollyanna before, though, I have seen the old Disney movie a long time ago (that is, I think it was by Disney), but I don't remember the story. I was totally expecting it to be slow-moving, dragging along like most classics. But I am quite surprised that it is easy and pleasant to read.

After the Stablemates were dry and I had already put everything away, I noticed that the primer had missed a few places. Whenever this happens, I sometimes touch it up with a few dabs of Gesso. That is, unfortunately, my Gesso turned into a pliable mass that you could touch without getting it on your fingers. I then checked my mom's art supplies and found that she didn't have any Gesso either. Fortunately, we had a homemade recipe in a paper mache book by Jonni Good.

It takes:

1 TB Joint Compound

1 tsp White Glue

A Dab of White Acrylic Paint

Of course, if you don't want to use the measurements from the kitchen, eyeballing it always seems to work.

Projects Galore!

I am notorious for starting a new project while being in the middle of another one. I do this usually because of two reasons: One, because I'm waiting for something to dry, harden, cure, or a run to the store for more supplies. And Two, because I am currently stumped and need to work on something else for a change before going back and working on it again. That's the current state of my 2020 NaMoPaiMo Anatomy horse.

Result? I have well over 100 projects in my room, closet, under the bed, on my phone, on my computer, and in my head that are slowly heading towards finishing mode. It drives my mom nuts! She told me to make a list (I love making lists!) of all of my projects. After I finished the list - it took about a week to make - she assessed it and told me to pick...get ready....ONE Hard Project, ONE Movable Project, and ONE Filler Project! WHAT!? I AM ALLOWED THREE PROJECTS AT A TIME!!!!???? If it means narrowing my ever-distracted mind, then OK.

 So....this is my Hard Project. It's making Spring-Grass-After-Snow-Melt-Turf for creating a natural footing for Photo Showing. I am using cut up Raffia to create the grass. Mind you, the colored "Raffia" is actually either plastic or tissue paper that is made to look like Raffia.

 My Movable Project is sewing Pony Pouches for better storage for all my old toy horses. It is movable for the fact that I could use my sewing machine in both my bedroom and the dining room - and pinning, and some basting, and using the rotary cutter...

And this is my Filler Project. It is a type of upcycling tradition from Bengal, India, called Kantha (pronounced kan-ta). This project was started a class at a fair trade gift shop in town. It is mostly consisted of straight stitches, but sometimes in a specific pattern. I am making mine into a roll-up case for my crochet hooks.

Fun Fact: Kantha isn't always just a one piece per person. Most times it's generational. The grandmother starts it, the daughter works on it, and the granddaughter finishes it. Awesome heirloom project!

"Guess Who I Am? But I'm Not Who You Think I Am"

Back in September at Sugarfoot Live Model Horse Show, the judge for the customs division was completely convinced that Alistair (far right) was customized on the Breyer Merrylegs mold. I just smiled and said "No, he isn't. He's on the Breyer Traditional Shetland Pony mold." She was not convinced.

I originally was going to write about this incident after the show, but obviously forgot about it until I came across the photos I took for it. So, here it is!

 Here's his original model. This guy was pleading for a new face. He had a broken ear and his white markings were terribly yellow. I had, I think, gotten him at a thrift store while visiting my grandparents when they still lived in Scottsdale, AZ. So this picture was taken at their house.

I didn't get many pictures of his sculpting progress, but I did find this one that I hadn't started on his legs yet - therefore showing the evidence of the original model....

 To be honest, I had no idea that he resembled the Merrylegs mold at all. My little sister just happened to have a model on Merrylegs mold, so I used him for comparison pictures. It is very easy see the similarities, though, it is also very easy to forget which leg is raised on what side when trying to remember the general features of a mold. The Merrylegs mold is used as a Miniature Horse in the Traditional scale and a Shetland Pony in the Classic Scale. And by looking at both of these photos...

He is significantly smaller than Alistair.

 Lunamoon is another of my little sister's models, that is, used to be. My sister gave me Lunamoon mostly because she thought that the pony was not exciting enough and looked fat. I agree on the not-so-exciting part, as it is, she's just standing there looking pretty. She's not running with her mane and tail flowing out behind. Literally not exciting enough. On the roundish part, in a way....most ponies look that way.

 Obviously, due to size, these two are from the same scale pony.

 I didn't notice this until I received Carlotta Emma for Christmas this last year. Their movements are on the same side of the body. Why the judge didn't suspect this girl? I have no idea. My best guess is that her mold isn't very popular or common.

Size difference is still the biggest issue, again, only with Alistair being the smaller one.

Interesting Findings: Stablemates QH Stallion

One of the things I like to do is making families out of my model horses. This is something I have done even as a little kid with my multitudes of plastic animals, stuffed animals, Barbie dolls,...etc. It is very satisfying for me to have a mommy, a daddy, and a baby. It's even better when the baby has adult siblings and therefore nieces and nephews. But what's awesome is when the parents' parents and siblings and cousins are also included. 

Though, as usual, in the patterns of collection model horses - whether it's what's new with Breyer or that model you've always wanted that just appeared on Ebay for a decent price - you always end up with an imbalance of boys vs. girls. For example, I like big hair. Yes, that means a vast variety of Kathleen Moody's molds with the horse's mane and tail blowing magnificently in the breeze. Yes, it means thinking of every possible scheme on how to acquire a Jennifer Scott "Hamilton." In all these crazy hair do's, there's one problem: they're all stallions! Yeah, they're mostly all these macho stallions. And no mares to match them (in turn, the year all the awesome looking mares from the Premier Club that became available to the general public - it was like "finally there's a mare for my bachelor stallion!") Yes, these things matter to me.

But what about the models on the smaller scale? Do I have the same problem? Not this year. This year I have more mares than stallions. Not too bad. I do have a few horses here and there who could be matched up and have a crossbreed baby or wait until you get one that's the same breed. Well, I had bought some vintage Stablemates from another shower at Sugarfoot Live back in September. Three to be exact: a Morgan Mare, a Thoroughbred mare, and a Quarter Horse Stallion. The TB mare has been matched, but the Morgan and the Quarter horse has not been. As of February, I now have two modern Stablemate Quarter Horse mares needing a mate. I thought, "Oh, I have a QH stallion;" but when I paired him up with the girls, I was in for a surprise. They (the girls) were gigantic! He looked dinky next to them. I did, however, look up the height of a Quarter Horse and found that they do range from 14hh. to 16hh. So, he is probably closer to 15hh., with the girls at 16hh, when you compare them.

Though, when these molds were sculpted, sizing the new generation of molds with the previous molds hasn't stayed consistent with previous molds aside from staying within the scale measurements. So far, over the years, the horses seem to have grown larger in addition better detail. Left to right: G1 QH Stallion, G2 Appaloosa Gelding, G3 Standing Stock Horse Mare, G4 Para Dressage QH Mare, and G4 Loping QH Mare (Dungaree).

Here is a comparison of the G3 and G4 QH/Stock Horse Mares with the G3 Standing TB Gelding and the new single Walking TB Stallion. They are all roughly the same size, so, in real horse measurements, they are likely 16hh.

Other than size, the G1 QH Stallion poses another interesting fact. He is the ONLY QH Stallion in the Stablemate QH/Stock Horse line-up (excluding all mustang type molds which includes Rivet. Though, he could count as from the line of Quarter Horses that have Percheron blood...no, really! They exist!) The others in that line-up are either geldings or mares. But, no new stallions have been made so far.
Weird.