It's been windy and cold this weekend ever since the weather made a hard turn on Friday mid morning. The good part about that is I've gotten Lots of studio time in and have accomplished a bunch of work on these commission pieces that were beginning to pile up (not complaining- loving every minute of it!) Here's one of them that will be traveling to Canada in the new year: This guy will probably be making his way to MH$P shortly. He's about done as well: I've got at least one other one that's set to be completed prior to the end of this lovely, restful long weekend. I threw this guy in just for fun the other night and he sold almost instantly on eBay. The girls have been doing well. Nighthawk still thinks I'm torturing her as part of No Stirrups November but she's secretly enjoying herself and continues to get more fit and better at her transitions, too. I lunged them both today because they were just too filthy to ride and it was the closest thing to flying a kite that I've done in awhile. It was a great adventure until they calmed themselves down and cantered themselves out!
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I've got a great customer from the beautiful Southwest and I've just completed her third piece this evening. Presenting a BIG spotty Noriker on the Georg mold! Her previous customs are on the Wintersong mold and one on the reading Picasso horse. They were all super fun to complete and she is a dream to work with! There was a lot of painting completed this weekend because the weather outside took quite a dramatic turn right after I finished a day of leaf blowing yesterday afternoon. We had HAIL the size of my thumbnail, wind, rain, thunder and lightning. It was pretty crazy for November! Here are my dopey girls standing out in the turnout during the height of the storm. Here's the front porch mat once it was mostly over: and the driveway, too! Clearly, someone flipped the switch over to WINTER mode at about two o clock yesterday afternoon! It was craziness I tell ya!
Been working slowly but surely on a small herd of Stone ISHs over the last few weeks. They're joining a fine Canadian herd and there will be at least 3 more in the coming months. Here's who has been completed so far: Blue roan tobiano- portrait model of sorts- I matched a picture to create this guy! This guy was inspired by a photo as well but it was of a foal and really dark so I faked it a lot of the time on this one LOL! This bay leopard appy was one of the first ones completed and he's excited to have 2 brothers to travel north with very soon! All that and the girls have been enjoying lovey fall breakfasts and weather has been great for the start of No Stirrup November. I pay the developer who is building houses behind us a cookie a day for parking the big, ugly orange excavator in line with the barn so I can't see if. Totally worth it to have a view like this!
We had a low key Halloween Day. There was the usual Sunday Stuff, food shopping, hubby rode the bike, I jumped on the horse briefly, then tortured/spoiled the horses home and at the barn. Here are some highlights: Lilly was investigating the torture devices that were about to overtake her after Hank was the best Halloween model boy! Seriously, for carrots, we could've done anything to him! The girls, clearly, have years of experience being dressed up and tortured/spoiled! You can tell from the outtakes! Big Mare attempts to eat the cape off her own neck and Guin is truly a little girl's best friend even when she's wearing all the things! After our Halloween photo shoot with the backyard horses, we headed over to the botanical gardens where I was able to snap a few photos of some of the new plastic ponies. Sage Bema, a OOAK from 2008 that just arrived, was repaired and joined the herd. DAH Bunny who is also new here! We got rained on at the gardens and decided to head for home but were treated with a rainbow on our way back across the reservoir! The girl got better pictures while we were driving. This is what was left by the time I was able to pull over safely. It certainly was a Happy Halloween!
Ha! You can tell that it's raining out today because here we are with another blog post! After an almost 2 week journey from Tennessee (don't ask!) Sage Bema, the newest member of the herd, has arrived! He was a model that I partially traded paint work for and he is a OOAK from 2008. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way he suffered some damage to the gloss finish along his top line. Luckily, it turned out to be less than a 10 minute fix and it's almost invisible now- LOVE these glossy horses! Models like him are the reason I've always open to a good trade for customizing and/or paintwork! The sun in starting to peek out of the clouds but it's supposed to keep raining later on. Therefore "PrepStavaganza" will carry on throughout the afternoon! There may be a quick break at some point so I can take a ride down to our favorite local toy store and grab some body models as well as some early Christmas gifts!
It's pouring outside today (and will be ALL day!) so they dogs have decided to snuggle in together on the bed in front of the fire. Good plan guys, good plan! For me, my day will be spend prepping a whole bunch of models with the hope that I'll be able to start priming them tomorrow! There are 4 ISHs, a Theo and a Desatado. They're all commissions that *should* keep my busy for awhile!
In between the real job, the real horses and everything else, I've still been painting plenty these days. Here are some recent completions: CM Bouncer pony with a whole new mane and tail. He was originally going to be no less than 3 different colors but in the end I went with an old reliable one! He's currently on model horse sales pages. This flashy fellow is a Marchador that is now a Sugar Skull and skeleton guy! He's also been listed on the sales pages looking for a great Day of the Dead home! He was super fun to paint and I finished up his detail work today in between waiting for the equine dentist AND the farrier! His tiny details really lent themselves to being able to drop the brush and run into the backyard as soon as someone showed up! This lady was a commission piece for a great couple from Canada! She's one of several that they've commissioned and each one is more exciting than the next. Tonight, once I'm done typing, I'm going to work on her husband's pintaloosa! Finally, this is one of the only Halloween horses I've done this year. By now I've usually banged out 4-6 of them but it's been a busy season so far. I'm hoping to snag some less expensive body models to "play" with at some point this month. Fingers crossed! Some people seem to be able to get these beautiful, majestic pictures of their horses posing with newly earned ribbons, not me! Nighthawk kept trying to eat this one! It's our rosette from the Equisarte Summer Saddle Up Challenge and it is one of a few we've earned since last year. It's so much fun!
Hope everyone is having a great weekend! The newest herd member from Peter Stone's Equilocity tagged along for tonight's jaunt to the Botanical Gardens. There was another wedding going on so our photographical possibilities were somewhat limited but I still got some pictures I'm really happy with. Not to say I won't bring her along when we get to go through the perennial garden and back by the stream again. Her name here will be "Chimerical" which is basically a synonym for absurd but it's got a nice ring to it! We caught the setting sun right right as we were arriving and leaving tonight so I got to play around with some of the shots I've never done before! She's a beautiful model that I'm happy to add to my collection even if I wasn't 100% sure when I ordered her originally! I'm sure they'll never make another Bunny quite like her and she photographs very well for all her crazy colors and stuff!
We were milking every last day out of summer and took a ride up to my Happy Place AKA The Sussex County Sunflower Maze first thing this morning. Of course, there were a few tag a longs who had to come to take the heat, and the camera lens, off the kid! Confetti Cake, the ISH, and Snow Angel, the Bunny mare, just had to come along because I knew they had the wagon set up in about the same place as last year when I was able to get the pictures of Little Bird and Fledgeling that appear on the "Personal Collection" page.
We were going to take a walk to Buttermilk Falls when we left but the sun was awful hot and we were ready for lunch so we headed home, only to end up at a Dairy Queen along rt. 206. Yes, it is still summer! Hope everyone going back to school has a great week back! |
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February 2023
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