Trade Haul

Yesterday was a very, very good mail day, to say the least.

A friend of mine is getting out of the hobby to focus on real horses and was really just trying to get rid of her collection... So I helped her out and basically got my pick of her showstring. In exchange for these horses plus a few more still on the way, I will be painting some stablemates to look like the real horses she works and rides with.

I, of course, wanted to show you all of them! Personally, I enjoy reading and looking at people's new additions... Hopefully you enjoy!

Instead of normal halter style pictures, I decided to have some fun with it and take some that were more dynamic.

First is Zenyatta. I was told she was a body so planned on repainting her. She's really not to bad though. :)

Next came Jesse and the long mane Connemara. She also sent two Classic riders as a bonus. The long mane is probably my favorite out of all of them. The trader has very good taste in shading and dapples. :)

Another one of my favorites would be Valegro. The sculpture looks more like an artist resin or custom.

He just has a *really* nice face.

Another is Sam! He's one that I liked, but not enough to buy him. After holding one and really looking at him, I really like him.

Joker, an older Celebration model, is also really nice. The only other I have on the mold is Smart And Shiney, and I like the black and white pinto on the mold much better.

Maverick, a TSC special run, and Harley D Zip, an RR, also arrived. Maverick is still growing on me... not sure if I like him yet. Harley is really nice. This one has an almost metallic coat and great shading. Not to mention the mold is fantastic for performance!

Nearing the end! I was able to get an SBH Phoenix, who I also really like in person. I have Argyle on the mold, too. They are both awesome.

Next is the sorrel AQHA. This one is probably my least favorite, but I still like her! The mold is just eh.

Last but not least, I chose three of my favorite classic mold, the Frolicking Foal! I conga this mold and finally got some more. :)

And that's it! Now I need to go get painting so I can actually officially own these guys! 

1:9 Scale Barn/Mellisa and Doug Folding Barn Review

One of my favorite Christmas presents this year was my barn. This year I got four medium gifts and two small things instead of several different gifts. If you are interested, the things were a new drawing tablet, an Echo Dot, the barn, and a new saddle. :)

The barn I received was the Mellisa and Doug two stall folding barn. It runs about $60 - and holy cow, is it worth the price.

I was a bit afraid it would be too small... But on the label, it even said it was scaled to 1:9 horses!

As said in the name, the barn can fold. You can keep it folded together and it stays pretty small. However, you can't access the small loft when it is in this configuration.

The stall on the left is pretty small. There is enough room for the horse to fit straight in, but they can't turn. The only door accessible when folded are the dutch doors.

The other stall is a different story. It's a good size - more than enough room for a large horse to fully turn around.

I wasn't totally satisfied keeping it folded up so decided to go with the other configuration, which is a corner shape!

This gives a large area for photography and gives access to all the doors. The small stall has a hinged door on the side to give more access. It makes me think it might have been intended to be a tack room...?

You can also see the loft in the photo. It's very small. Very. I just have a few random things and some blankets to fill up the space. It's not very practical, a rider can't even fit up there.

Of course after I set it up I had to decorate! :P First I laid down some grass scrapbook paper to give the footing a bit more realism.

Then I made a simple sign in Picmonkey. I really recommend Picmonkey for basic edits. I use it instead of photoshop if it's a small thing!

I also made a corkboard. It's a printout with some paperboard on the back with some volume, then separate printout for flyers!

I was watching barn tours on Youtube and found that a lot of barns had giant rule lists... So I had to make mine to opposite! Just don't be an idiot! :P

There's a liability sign, a horse sale thing, and a show flyer as well.

In the large stall I hung up a feed bucket with some 'baling twine' ;)

On each stall I used a pictureframe hanger as a halter rack as well as made a nameplate. 

In the next couple days, I'll post some barn photography. Hope everyone had a great Christmas or holiday! 

1:18 Scale Barn

First off... I apologize for being absent for such a time. I've been super busy with school and personal stuff and have been just focusing on me and my mental health.

I've also been swamped with Etsy orders! I've made over 20 feed bag sets... Thank you guys so much!

I'm back, though! I have some super exciting stuff coming up I can't wait to share with you guys!

Onto the post! About a year ago my dad and I made this Schleich scale barn. I haven't done much with it recently so I decided to reset it up (practice for a traditional scale barn? ;).

I set it up and had tons of fun taking photos. Enjoy!

First, an overview. My barn currently resides on a shelf. It has four stalls and a large tack room. Because the shelf was big enough, I decided to add a little paddock.

The paddock is made out of some spare Balsa wood. I also added a sign.

Inside the barn, there are two signs. Each horse has nameplates and a halter/lead set. It was a pain finding ribbon tiny enough to be in scale!

I made this Jollyball out of salt dough when I was about 10. It still looks OK!

Here's an overview of the tack room! I have some spare water buckets, some feed bags, and tack. Most of it was made by my friend Becky of Flying B Saddlery.

Also a lil doggo. :3

Another paddock shot...

And a picture of Rocko with his nameplate, halter, and grooming kit.

Thank you for reading. Please stay tuned for more! :)

Peter Stone Collection

About 90% of my collection consists of OF Breyer models. 

The majority of them are special runs, retired, or harder to find model, but still OF.

I do have a couple resins... 

And a good collection of customs.

But I will most likely always be mainly an OF Breyer collector.

Anyway, I've spoken about my customs, my resins, and of course about my Breyers, but I don't think I've said much about my Peter Stone Collection.

This is partially because I have beef against them... But they do make some nice models.

The first Stone I got was Pandora. I bought her my first Breyerfest at the kids auction. I believe I paid about $50 for her.

I was excited to get her, and she was handed to me wrapped up so I just put her in my bag and went home.

This model is not good quality.

She has crap all over her chest and shoulder. as well as dark spots in her roaning.

Those are fixable, though. My biggest issue was her hooves aren't completely painted. What the heck?

This really turned my off towards Stones. The fact that they would sell basically factory seconds to CHILDREN who are probably getting their first model from them is not OK. They imprinted me to this day to not expect great quality, and I know other collectors feel the same.

Looking back I don't regret buying her, though. Every collection needs a Stone Arab and I'm happy to have one. She's a nice shelf sitter, but I wanted to show her.

Moving ahead two years, Maddy gifted me Toasted Coconut, a Stone Ponys website special run! :)

This started my wealing addiction. At Breyerfest this year I picked up two DAHs for $35 each(!).

First is a little cremello QH filly. I really like her, but she has flaws in her finish. >.<

Probably my favorite Stone would have to be this guy. He's been customized to a colt, turned head, and has a redone forelock. He's a very shaded black (which won't show up -_-). He almost always places at shows for me!

I also have a FQH. I showed him in performance for a while but he didn't 'click' for that. He's great in halter and has a nice color.

My most recent buy is this dude.

I drank the kool-aid and ordered a DAH on Thursday during the big sale. Models were around 40% off, so I got him for less than $100 bucks! He'll be a grulla with a blue and a brown eye, a wide blaze, and some socks.

The future of my Stone collection will really depend on how my DAH turns out. If he's terrible, no more... But if he turns out nice... Well, we'll see!

Thankful

I'm extremely thankful for the obvious things; family, shelter, etc... But I wanted to mention some things that I don't say often enough.

First of all, I'm thankful for my hobby family. This includes every person who reads this blog, follows my Instagram, likes my facebook page... You all make my life so much better. Thank you.

I'm also thankful for my best hobby friends, who are also my best friends ever. I don't know where I'd be without them. 

Also, those who hold and judge live shows. You, my friends, are awesome. I know I couldn't hold a show. It makes the hobby so much more fun, especially when they are done well! <3

Of course I love real horses. Even though I don't own them, they own a bit of my heart. Even when they throw you off and you almost break a leg. 

Also to all the trainers and instructors out there! :D Thank you for fixing my crap equitation and putting up with me.

There are so many more things I can say, but I could never list them all.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone! <3 And don't die tomorrow morning! :)

Things Model Horse People Say

I had way to much fun making this post. Thanks to everyone from Blab for helping me come up with these! :D I also included some unseen show photos to break up the space a bit. Enjoy!

"Can't talk now, I'm soaking a horse in oven cleaner" -Ghost_Wolf_Ranch

"Don't forget to strip the body before dismembering it." -JuliaCodeMan

"Anything that includes the CHIN" -Mary

"FSOT for ARs: CM RRH MOW NAN'd" -Dizzyriss

"Go ahead and chop his head off. It'll make you feel better. ---- said to me when I was reluctant to customize an SM." -Brenda

"I'll be bringing my body bag." -SylvanTrails

"All that work and I still had to cut off that foal's leg because it was longer than the other one..."  -EvieJean

"That's the most unrealistic horse color I've seen yet!" with this being said while driving past a *real* horse -Aidan's Toy Trove

"Looks like a Stone horse," while looking at a picture of a real but very unusual pinto/appy/roan horse. -DooWiki

Heard on Haynet once - from Sue Stewart - "Oh, that's my Heart of Darkness!" AIR, the mailman she said that to was v. disturbed -Tinngg

"I've got to call my dealer and see if he has any of the new stuff in yet." That one made one of my non-hobby friends raise their eyebrows hahaha, that and anything that has to do with "bodies." "Body box" in particular lol -pennylanestables

"Hey showers! I'm knocking down horses that have dust on them!" -Mary

"I've got bodies stashed everywhere" -Tinngg

"I lost a box of 8 humans"!! -Sparkle Susan

"Now where am I going to put you??" -Drenarrow

Fish scale or chainlink "crapples." Which...makes me think of roadapples. XD -LupineLeighs

"This post about our Kuchis." -Night Elf

If you don't stop falling over I'm going to chop someone's leg off! -Whysome

"Can I have that wrapped and bagged?" The CHIN is one of the few places where you might get looked at with anything from panic to a dirty look for wanting your purchases bagged! It's also one of the few places where someone yelling "free bubble wrap!" is likely to get swarmed and trampled! -Truson