A New Hobby Sales Site - BuySellHorth

Second Post of the Day

Spread the news, there is a new hobby sales site, and it looks to be fabulous. And it is most definitely needed.

For decades we all used Carrie Sapp's MH$P for buying, trading, and selling.

Then it went down in a hack in 2024 and came back as Model Horse Connection.

But that site was never quite the same, and it went down frequently.

Model Horse Place was created and I joined it but I could never quite get the hang of using it. And, it did not get the tremendous amounts of traffic that MH$P had received.

Honey Gibbons took over Model Horse Place a while ago,

but my experience has continued to be frustrating. 

Enter Shauna McDaniels and her husband Adam who have created BuySellHorth. It looks very promising.

One of the things that caught a lot of collectors' eyes was that a goal was to protect users from Generative AI. Shauna's husband works in the tech industry and has the capability to make that happen as he and Shauna designed BuySellHorth. 

I've got an account already but I won't be doing any selling or buying until after the holidays. (Although that could change if something I've been looking for pops up.)

Congratulations and many thanks to Shauna and Adam. I hope that BuySellHorth will be successful and a place that many of us, including myself, visit often. Best wishes for success!

Stay 'tooned and don't forget the give away. Entries close at 11:59 PM Eastern tonight.

Collections within My Collection: Josef Originals

First Post of the Day

My very first model horses were chinas, made in Japan chinas. I was six when I got my first one, and was so enchanted that they began accumulating. 

And needless to say, they broke. I played with them. All the time. But my dad would step in and make repairs and I'd soon be cantering them across the wood floors again.

I had Leftons, Shaffords, Clovers, Norcrests, Ucagos, Norleans, and more. 

But I did not have any Josef Originals. I didn't even discover them until I was an adult and my much loved/repaired early china pieces were all carefully wrapped in tissue paper and long put away.

An early California pottery started by Muriel Joseph and Tom George in 1946, the pottery produced horses and other figurines in the United States until the 1960s and then in Korea, Japan, and Taiwan in the 1970s and early 1980s when the pottery was sold to George Good in 1982. (The spelling "Josef" came from a misspelling of Muriel's last name.)

I have three Josef Original pieces, all foals.

In my post about Breyer's cake and candy horses, I mentioned that there are some Hagen Renaker pieces that remind me of candy bars. 

This bay color does the same!

The JOs that I have seen have oversized eyes

and that helps me identify sticker-less ones that I find.

This candy bar colored bay foal has colored slip, a characteristic of many JOs according to articles I have read about them.

All three of my JOs came from a dealer at a Great Lakes Congress show.

They are not sought out by many collectors so generally they can be found for a reasonable price.

But buyer beware - as I did research for this blog post, a lot of the photos of supposed Josef Original pieces were not Josef Originals. They were other Japan brands and they were mislabeled.

An intact label helps, but we all know that labels can (and do) get switched.

If you'd like to see more of them, a Josef Original Gallery can be found here at Jane Chapman's Eagle Ridge Collectibles site. 

I'm not actively seeking any Josef Originals or other Japan chinas, but were I to stumble across more of them, I'd certainly stop and take a look.

Stay 'tooned!

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Last day to enter the give away! Commenting ends tonight at 11:59 PM Eastern. I'll spin to win Tuesday or Wednesday.

French Marble Cake

 Second Post of the Day

Continuing the "Sweets" theme for the day...

My sister, Jenny, was lamenting at this year's Feast that no booths sold French Marble Cake anymore. A favorite of hers,  she has been hoping for years that one of the food booths would have it, but from what I can tell, it's not been seen (or eaten) at the Feast since the 1980s. (Really.)

Well, you know big sisters. They love their little sisters and like to make them happy. So I went through the two Feast cookbooks that were published in the 1980s and guess what I found?

The recipe! I looked over the ingredients (had to look up a scant cup of butter; that just means to remove 2 T from a cup of butter. Easy peasy) and then the directions. Not too difficult. I decided to make one and, if I was successful, make it for this Thanksgiving so that Jenny could at last have her French Marble Cake

It looked good when it came out of the oven;

even better, it was delicious! I sent the recipe to Jenny and Leslie along with my pictures, now firmly committed to making it for Thanksgiving. (I did dust the cake with powdered sugar.)

Well, plans can change. On Friday, Jenny sent Leslie and me this text:

Guess who is now bringing a French Marble Cake to Thanksgiving? 

If you are looking for a new recipe to try, one that has roots in the 18th century and is really good, try making the French Marble Cake. The recipe calls for a bundt or angel food cake pan, but Jenny and I both used 13 x 9 pans and it turned out fine.

If you do, I'd love to hear what you thought of it!

Stay 'tooned!

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Tired of dust on your ponies? Comment to enter the November give away and you could win a blanket that I made for my BreyerFest workshop!

Collections within My Collection: Breyer's Sweets

First Post of the Day

Me? Like candy and sweets? Surely you jest. 

I have been known to eat a maple cake or two (or three),

And I do have an 18th century sugar cone on my shelf.

But after having lost so much weight, I find Breyer's cake, candy, ice cream, and gum horses much "safer" to have in my home. Some are deliberately meant to be an emulation of sweets; others just make me think of food. (A trait I share with Pepper who is very much a food motivated Labrador retriever.)

Here is a look at what I have in my collection.

Ice Cream and Sherbet Horses

Mint Chip

One source calls him a Dessert Decorator while another lists him as part of the Sweet Treats series. He was produced 2025 - 2026. (With that green, I use him as a Halloween decoration, too.)

Neapolitan 

A nod to neapolitan ice cream, you can see the chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry flavors plus she has pearly icing topped with sprinkles. She was produced 2023 - 2024.

Merry Dance

The 2025 Holiday Surprise horse, Merry Dance was not intended to be anything but a holiday decorator. But I see strawberry sherbet

and lime sherbet in these two. 

Gum Horses

When I was growing up, most kids constantly chewed gum. Why? No clue, but we did.

Fruit Stripe gum was very popular. (Although I preferred Doublemint.)

So when Christmas Candy, the Zebra in four colors (plus a Coal) was released in 2019, I saw them as Fruit Stripe gum Breyer style. 

The same with Short & Sweet, the 2025 Holiday Blind Bags. Gum ponies!

BreyerFest 2024's Better than Revenge is another Gum Pony to me.

Candy & Cake

And then there are the candy and cake horses and ponies.

Kohl was never intended to be anything except a Christmas Pony in the 2022 Holiday Collection. But that blanket sure makes me think of candy canes!

Black Forest  is beautiful.

The deep rich colors on him are stand outs. He was made to look like a Black Forest cake, and Breyer succeeded. He is from BreyerFest 2022.

Cupcake 

Produced 2019 - 2012, no doubt that Cupcake was emulating food. Glitter and sprinkles, my first through when I saw her was, "Who would buy that??"

Well... me. I actually bought two, one for a Pony Pal and one for me.

Red Velvet was the next cake horse. Released 2021 - 2022, I bought two of her, too. By now I was totally enamored of the cake horse line.

Sadly and as far as I know, that was the end of their cake horses line (my name for it, not Breyer's) although I have wondered if Neapolitan was included in it. Makes sense that it would.

I did a quick walk through of my collection, looking to see if I had any other horses that reminded me of sweet things to eat. I do have some Hagen Renakers that remind me of candy bars in their coloring (think of a Three Musketeers Bar.) I'll see if I can't find pictures of those - anymore, I really don't want to handle my chinas too much so I won't be bringing them out of their cabinets to photograph them.

Stay 'tooned!

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Want to win a dust blanket from my BreyerFest 2026 workshop? 

Comment to enter! Entries close tomorrow night at 11:59 PM Eastern.

Melt, Pour, & Repeat

Second Post of the Day

The blackened beeswax ornament making continues apace. There are ornaments in various stages around the house - in the kitchen, the dining room, the laundry room, and the garage.

I've never made so many at one time that I needed the dining room to hold them, but I am on a roll and hoping to get all the ornaments needed for Christmas and Kalamazoo made now rather than later.

That has required a two page spreadsheet (I have 72 molds) and a count of everything I have left from the Feast.

I found the 7 fleur de lis (bottom left) and the baby bear (top right) as I unpacked from the Feast - they'd never gotten put out in my tent. Including those, the total left in stock was 33 ornaments.

I've made a count of them and added them to a fresh spreadsheet, and then added the amount of ornaments from each mold that I want to make.

That included the Christmas ornaments I needed to complete before Thanksgiving for my grands, their parents, and other family members.

When those ornaments were finished, I logged them into the spreadsheet, washed the molds, and set them on racks to dry before putting them away.

The family gift ornaments are all completed, wrapped, and ready to be packed up and mailed. 

Unfortunately for me, the weather here finally got cold - it is below freezing this morning. I spray a sealer on the ornaments when they are finished and that step is always done on a covered table in the garage. If the garage gets below 55, then I cannot do the final step.

The garage is well insulated and even on the coldest days of winter, our garage never gets below freezing. But, when the garage door is opened as happens several times a day, it will drop below 55 degrees, the lowest temperature recommended for the sealer that I use. 

As I prepared to head to the hardware store to get an outdoor thermometer to monitor the garage's temp, Craig offered to go do that so I could keep working. (Thanks, Craig!) 

Thus far the garage temp hasn't dipped below 60 degrees so I have been able to continue to work.

I do that step in batches as the ornaments are finished one side at a time. These are nearly done and ready to come back in the house and be logged and put away,

and these are waiting to go out to the garage for the final step.

Thus far I have made 149 new ornaments, 29 of which are set aside for the family and leaving 120 for Kalamazoo.

Midweek I ran out of beeswax and had to order another 5 lb bag. It arrived last night, so today I will be back in the kitchen pouring more ornaments.

There are 37 molds that I have not yet used for this pouring, but I have them on my spreadsheet and know how many of each that I need to make.

It's going to be a busy day.

Stay 'tooned! 

Comment to enter the give away on any and all blog posts published Friday, November 6 through Monday, November 9. Commenting ends at 11:59 PM Eastern Monday night.

The winner has a choice of blankets as their prize.

Collections within My Collection: The Lenox Horses

First Post of the Day

Lenox created and produced The International Collection of Horses from 1988 to 1990. Made of porcelain and on a marble-looking plinth that fit into a wooden stand, only four pieces were produced. (Lenox's carousel line was much more productive and apparently sold better.)

My favorite, and the first Lenox added to my collection, was Airs Above the Ground, a white Lippixzaner executing the levade.

 

Mine is missing the wooden stand but I don't mind. I think it is a beautiful piece. (And far less wonky looking than two other pieces produced by Lenox for the collection.)

The Lenox pieces all have information under their bases and the Lenox trademark stamp. (I did not pay what that price tag is asking.) 

My second Lenox piece was The Arabian Knight. Black is my favorite horse color (for dogs, too; I'm looking at you, Pepper) but I was disappointed in this piece.

The curved near foreleg and fetlock on the near hind leg put me off. And, the length from knee to pastern differs between the two forelegs. The off foreleg's length is way too long.

The first piece released in the set, it is dated 1988 and has its wooden base.

My third Lenox piece originally belonged to friend and collector Steff Bodamer and I found it when I was at one of Nancy Falzone's gatherings for Hagen Renaker collectors.  

I named it Pagosa Spurs after the fictional town where my carpet herd resided. I really like it because, Appaloosas!

This was the last piece released in the collection and it came with a brochure of information. (My guess is that all four pieces originally came with a similar brochure.) Released in 1990, mine has its base, too. 

There is one Lenox release that is not in my collection nor am I actively seeking it.

Called Champion of the Wind, it depicts a Thoroughbred and was released in 1989. The hind legs look odd to me and I have never had any interest in obtaining this piece to complete my collection of the Lenox horses.

Coming soon? Candy and cake horses.

Don't forget the give away! Comment to enter on any blog post from yesterday (11/6) through Monday, 11/ 9, 11:59 PM Eastern.

Stay 'tooned!