Stormy Days

The school year is almost over, and it can't come soon enough. This has been a rough week in my little community, a shooting right by one of our grade schools(thank god not involving students) another in a nearby town, and a student's parent missing assuming drowned in high water.....whew. Time to take a moment and be grateful for all the amazing friends I have been blessed with. "Khompounded Interest" (that interest on the friendship tax I owe) can finally go home tomorrow!
I like to joke about friendship tax, but I really do believe its a tax we should all try to pay a little more of......

So many people have been devastated by the terrible storms this weekend in the midwest, knock on wood, but so far all we have lost is the one of our little lean-tos. Thankfully our apple tree caught the roof before it could do too much more damage

Just when things look gloomy, a wonderful surprise shows up. These beautiful personalized blankets for my girls showed up from my wonderful Canadian friends, handmade with squares that go along with each girls favorite things. I am so lucky to have such incredible people in my life THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

The pink moose princess I was hoping to keep for myself, but Payton got a hold of her...I might get her back when she goes to college eh?

Paint makes all the difference, Khompounded Interest (love those Khemo bloodlines) is all shod up and can't wait to show this weekend! Hope her new owner is happy with her, she should be a great little performance horse!

Cool Discovery

Every once in a while my husband does something right....(okay, quite often he does when mycology is involved).Yesterday he found some Morel mushrooms in the woods behind our pasture and man were they delicious! So there is your proof Shannon, drugs no but schrooms yes!

Remember all those pink halters? Well now its my turn to pay friendship tax. I forgot to put this winning photo of the lunging set being used in a lesson horse set up.

Can you imagine how cute this one will be all tacked up?

But there are still a few bridles I need for Breyerfest...sniff sniff wink wink ya know what I mean?

I have had a few people ask if I was worried about showing off customs before Breyerfest....and the answer is yes and no. I have had it happen the past few years where customs I did and featured had look alikes show up in the ring. Honestly, I care more about sharing ideas than worrying about "copies" showing up.

I think we all benefit from the free flow of information. This guy was created with a flash body, weather girl head, mane, and tail. Now a great little part bred arabian gelding. I am thinking dapple grey tobiano.

Stay tuned to the blog for purchase details!

Talking Heads

No one is happier that I am now spending tons of hours in the studio than Pixel. I keep the door shut when I am not in there so she can't sit on her throne. Is the pink bobble jem collar too much?

So on to the breyerfest remakes. This first head swap isn't going to be at breyerfest this year, but better show up next year.....any guesses who this rockin english performance arab will belong to?

This next one will be a breyerfest sales horse. I love showing my youth dolls, and wanted a cute little part bred gelding youth horse that could do it all. Here is a classic extended canter pose you see in the show ring version of arabian costume...

And here is the model version! Poor flash lost his head, and it would have been way too easy to put the palomino head back on the palomino body...no worries, that arab body won't go to waste either. Can you say braided up sport pony????
This is a great example of how you can get a drastic looking remake without a lot of work. The heads are removed then two soft armature wires are inserted into apoxy stuffed in the head. Once that dries, you can stick the head into the neck or the foil filled body of choice. Don't waste tails, switching tails is another great way to get a whole new look without having to sculpt the tail from scratch.

With all the chaos of the house remodel and model chaos itself, I totally forgot about getting this medallion painted. A thousand apologies for this Heather! Here is the real kitty Jade

And her almost finished portrait. Before you know it, Meows and Minis will be back this fall! I love to donate to shows with such wonderful causes behind them, and to make up for my tardiness on this, her portrait will come with a pretty stand to display it on. Thanks again Heather for your wonderful donation to the show!

Countdown!

It is now officially two months before I leave for Breyerfest, and I want the show string I put together this year to be extra special. In addition, I plan post some more "how to" posts and progress remaking posts for all of you that like to follow along. I have been so busy this spring with the house that I haven't been posted as much as I would like. Its gotten so bad that Shannon threated to have her arm eaten off by a shark if I didn't get more stuff done.

Shannon and I spotted these metal sculptures along the road when we drove to Portland together in 2009. She almost rolled the car pulling over to get some pictures. What can I say...she has issues....high latitude radiation exposure I would suspect.....
This morning I worked a little on some projects that need to go out in the next few weeks, and found these two guys I started last year, think I should finish these guys up eh?

These are now at the bottow of the breyer remake basket.....Help I've lost my head and I can't get up!!!!!

But again, I want to stress that Shannon is the one with issues!

Big Thank You!

I went to the Stones Country Fair yesterday, and can honestly say it was a total slack fest as far as showing. I was way more concerned with buying all kinds of new stuff for the house! For all of you that were there I did manage to get that mirror home and it looks great!
I had to leave the show early to get ready for my first "Open House". My hubby worked like a maniac and the landscaping is really starting to take shape. The family just left, and I wanted to post the few pictures I managed to take yesterday. The performance division was full with two tough harness classes. This amazing competitive driving harness was made for me by the super talented Christina Brown of the UK. This isn't even the horse it was made for but its so adjustable and user friendly it worked great. The coolest thing, there is another harness to hook up in pairs with it!

Leonardo Lena won the only two classes he entered all day, this one included. I would have liked to stay for the whole performance division and wish I had gotten pictures of my halter champions.

Now its time to concentrate on Breyerfest! I am putting together a NEW showstring for the show and there will be some truly unique pieces. Next week, remaking a true english heavy hunter from the Breyer CB. Stay tuned for some tutorials on customizing and painting the next two months!

Show Report

The best thing about the show yesterday was coming home....I have been wanted to post a picture of the house redo, but that wonderful teal blue foundation color was still there. But yesterday (thanks to a bunch of post a note reminders) my wonderful hubby got to work on that. This is what the front of the house looked like last November



And this is now!!!!!! Still have all the landscaping and the porch ceiling to finish, but I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. Best of all, with the new porch and gutters, no more wet basement despite all the rain we have had!

The best thing at the show by far wasn't mine at all. This is the most beautiful cart I have ever seen. Stupid me didn't write down the name of the woman that made this and drove all the way from Nebraska to show it, but those of you going to NAN are in for a real treat! Its modeled after one of the painted carts of Sicily, and honestly, the detail on this is spectacular! Please someone post her name, I feel rotten I didn't think to write it down.

As for the new canter arab "Khemorabah" took the performance ring by storm. Here she is in her Buxton endurance tack (with the awesome pink leopard saddle bags) and her overall performance awards. She NANd in all three divisions.....

Here she is as the patient youth horse.....

And I had to show Glory Ali Lujia in showmanship. She won Overall CM champ too, I am so glad no one decided to buy her and her foal (Encore Ali won his foal class too)

Khemorabah cleaned up in western too. Once this mold is moved around, she is a great size that fits normal traditional sized tack fits perfectly. She looks like the typical arab height of under 15 hands. Granted, there are more and more 15+ arabs these days, but they are not the majority.
Shannon Granger made this western set. I was planning on showing her in a light oil set, but I don't have one...cough cough

I did get the flash working, but I still need a new camera, and to learn how to use it. I am sure Jen cries when she sees these over flashed shots! On the plus side, if you want to buy a horse and like it in my pictures, you will love it in person!!!!