Thursday, June 27, 2019

Keep Calm & Keep it Simple!


Have a picture of my Goldfish in his favorite spot of his tank. Rory has a 20 gallon tank all to himself. He’s quite content, especially as I am typically not far away. He always has a show. Rory is a good reminder to try & keep calm.

(One fish, just reflected on one glass panel. He’s unique with his two different colored eyes)

Till the next time

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Generalizations

Fair warning: this is pretty much a rant.

I find myself, more & more, despising generalizations. All men are this... All women are that... Enough already! Seriously! Not all people, genders, races, religions, etc. fall into one neat little package! It’s just not a thing.

My biggest pet peeves have been the generalizations regarding college students who are in debt & millennials.

The college students one that has been irritating me is in regards to college vs. trade schools. To sum it up, it basically says all college students are in debt, lazy, out of touch with reality, all have philosophy or art degrees & the best one-think they’re smarter than everyone. Guess what? That’s bull! I for one work my butt off to try & repay the debt I incurred while going to college. Also, while I am happy that trade schools are getting promoted more now—do you know why that is? Because a vast majority of my generation is in debt because we were basically told this by society (friends, family, teachers, etc) “Go to college, get a degree. Better jobs will be available to you!” Minor problem there: the jobs that used to be entry level to previous generations now require a degree & experience. We can’t even get into these “entry” level jobs. Also, because we try to be responsible adults, we end up at minimum wage jobs that barely pay our bills. Yet we’re portrayed as bad guys. Go figure.

Which leads us to the next generalization: millennials. My biggest pet peeve of this one (& it’s a biggie, but we’ll just go over this one point) is that all millennials are lazy. My God! This is such a big issue that the term “elder millennial” has been coined in a desperate attempt to distance one’s self from the generation. I cannot even begin to describe how frustrating it is to be at work & told that millennials are lazy. I ask of they think I’m lazy & as I am a good worker, I get the response “no”. I’m a millennial, ergo not all millennials are lazy. Quite frankly, I’ve met very few millennials who are. My peers & I went through college (many of us having one to two jobs too), we STILL work one to two jobs to try & JUST make ENDS MEET. Yet we’re the problem in society because we aren’t buying cars, houses, or diamond rings/jewelry (eyes roll). WE CAN’T AFFORD THOSE THINGS! Plain & simple. We don’t have the money to buy those things. We are worried about paying the bills. We are worried about having food on our plates & fuel to get to work in our clunkers. We are worried about trying to get those jobs we were promised so we can get out of the HELL HOLES we’re stuck in. We’re worried about our futures & whether or not we even have then.

That’s what we’re worried about. Maybe not all of us, as that’s a generalization & I know there are lazy, rude people in this world (I work in food service), but many of us. The in debt college students/graduates & millennials.

Sorry about the rant, but these things need to be said.

Till the next time.

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

May Medallion Madness: Donations & Donors

This event would not be possible without the generous donation of time and prizes. To all of those who donated an item(s) and their time, I sincerely appreciate it. I cannot convey how touched I am by people/artists responses to this event. Truly, it would not have been possible without these amazing and generous people!

First, a look at some of the prizes that were donated to MMM:






And this is just a sampling of the MANY generous donations we received! I was truly blown away by the response! Please, if you have the time, visit these artist's websites, stores, Facebook, etc. They are truly amazing people all around.

Melanie Miller: https://www.melmillerequineart.com/shop
Rebecca Turner: https://www.facebook.com/pg/horsesculpt/about/?ref=page_internal
LeeAnn Bachman: https://mistystarstudios.weebly.com/
Chris Flint: http://www.boshevo.com/
Sandy Anderson: http://novasouthstudios.weebly.com/
HoboCatCreations: http://hobocatcreations.weebly.com/
Oksana Kuks: https://www.facebook.com/oksanakuks
Maggie Jenner-Bennett: https://maggiebennett.com/
fastapp on Model Horse Blab

Huge thank you to each and every one of you! Your generosity to this new event was truly touching; thank you again!

One last big thank you to my co-host of this event: Shannon Rogers. She has not only donated various prizes, but she donated her time in tutorials and in helping me to get this event started & keeping it going. I truly would not have been able to do this about her. Please check out her site & blog here on blogger.

It cannot be said enough. Thank you one and all, from donors to participants! May Medallion Madness would not have had a first successful year without you!

Now on to getting prizes distributed!

Monday, June 24, 2019

May Medallion Madness: All the Finished Medallions!

Before we get into the post, let me apologize for going silent. I've had a change in hours/work schedule so it took me a bit to adjust to the hours. Back now! Let's have a week of posts to make up for it! We'll start by finishing up MMM (two posts-including this one-left)!

~~~

Here are the stats from MMM!

We had 21 total entrants
19% choose to do other equines/fantasy
9% choose to do ponies
72% choose to do horses
19% choose to do medallions by Rayvin Maddock
9% choose to sculpt their own medallions

Of our 14 finished medallions...
57% choose to do bay
7% choose to do buckskin
14% choose to do grey
7% choose to do roan
14% choose to do fantasy/other
14% choose to do spots
21% choose to do dapples
66% finished their medallion 

And 100% are awesome for going through this endeavor with us! Thank you to everyone! 

Now here are the beautiful medallions that were completed (sans mine as you already saw that)!


(A stunning portrait painted by Meghan Namaste on the Oakley medallion)
(A resourceful hand-made medallion by Julianne Lee)

(A gorgeous hand-sculpted medallion by Ingunn Aasland)

(Elophaba medallion by Rayvin Maddock painted to a beautiful dappled pegasus by S. Anderson)

(Jen Knoll's Snowflake Head Turned Arabian medallion painted to a lovely dapple grey by Shannon Rodgers)

(Maggie Bennet disc medallion painted to a stunning bay sabino Silverfang07-Blab username)

(A C. Lawley medallion painted to a lovely bay by Deidre Rogers)
(Stacy Tomilson's Dashing Through the Snow medallion painted to an amazing dapple grey by Barbara Conors)


(Sovereign by Jen Olp painted to a gorgeous rich bay by Alex Martinez)

(Jennifer Read Burton's Zebra medallion done to an amazing likeness by LeeAnn Bachman)

(Bell Mule medallion by Myla Pearce painted to an amazing bay by Tina DeCaussin)

(A beautiful hand sculpted medallion by Kayla Lovejoy)

(A stunning roan done on Kathi Bogucki's Oval Arabian medallion by Crystal Rowland)
You've got to admit, we have some amazing talent over on Model Horse Blab! This was a great first year for May Medallion Madness & I'm already looking forward to next year! I hope everyone else is too!

Thursday, June 6, 2019

Model Horse Appreciation: Part II

Last time we looked at some regular horse colored OFs. Let's have fun admiring the OF decorators in my collection.

(Breyer SM Club 2018 Release-Allegiance)

(Spirit: Riding Free Blind Bags Series 1 Chase Piece: Golden Spirit)

(Breyer SM Club Release-I think it was 2017-I got him in a trade-Ricochet)

(Breyer Classic Zodiac Series: Virgo-This model looks LOADS nicer in person than in pics)

(The start of the clearware craze for me. This blue Belgian)

(While not the first chase piece I've ever found in blind bags, it was certainly the first that I really wanted. Copper Florentine on the Django SM mold)

(I conga this mold and this was the year-along with this year that Breyer decided to go crazy with the releases. At least this year there is an easy to obtain RR. This was the Halloween special Bogeyman-called Ecto I by me as it's a mare)

(Last year's Breyerfest store special-Born to Run, a beautiful clearware)

(My absolute favorite of my decoators & clearwares. This gorgeous Sugarmaple that Shannon got me one year for Christmas. He is absolutely gorgeous!)

Not a lot of decorators in my collection. When they are in my collection, they are here to stay as it takes quite a bit for me to get them. Do you have any decorators? Any favorites?

Till the next time!

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

May Medallion Madness-Give It Up For the Artists!

May is over, but we're still getting things done for MMM. We've got a poll on Blab voting on everyone's favorites, and I must say, it's quite hard. Don't believe me? Look at all these beautiful medallions that Blabbers painted for the month of May!

(Pardon the poor screen shot on this one, that was my error-just look at the beautiful medallion!)

(This Blabber was particularly thrifty in using what they had on hand, including the head off a mangled Schleich to create their own medallion)

(This Blabber sculpted their own medallion on top of painting it)

(This pegasus is stunning with its blue coloring and dapples)

(This wintry Arab is gorgeous and this Blabber used a new technique to achieve those lovely dapples)

(This mini medallion is stunning! Look at all those little hairs!)

(A gorgeous bay!)

(This Blabber was particularly creative with their background and made their horse pop with that sunset!)

(A stunning dark bay with some chrome!)

(A spectacular zebra-this Blabber was the only one to choose to do one of these wild equines)

(I wasn't the only one who did a mule, and I must say this bay is beautiful!)

(This Blabber also sculpted her own medallion as well as painting it to a lovely bay)

(A gorgeous roan who was finished, just needed sealer and gloss. Love the soft shading that was achieved!)

This trial run of May Medallion Madness went super well! I'm already looking forward to next year when we open the event up to the public. We're still working on details, but look forward to May Medallion Madness for next year!

Thursday, May 30, 2019

Model Horse Appreciation: Part I

I'm a model horse hobbyist, and I greatly enjoy my hobby. It has various aspects including customizing, showing, tack making, etc. In all honesty, it's not too different from say model trains.

Today, we'll just look at some of my OF (Original Finish) models in the Traditional (1:9 scale).
(Breyer Mid-States Exclusive: Nodin)

(Breyer SR: Flabbehoppen)

(Breyer SR: Polaris)
(Breyer Buttercup)

(Breyer Hickory Hills Wall Street)

We'll leave it at a few each time. No need to overwhelm! Till the next time!