Switching Gears

Now that the Feast is over, I have switched my sewing focus - I'm preparing for the October Great Lakes Congress show and stitching up haversacks to sell. 

The October show is always full of Halloween fun (check out the photo booth) so I am making some Halloween themed haversacks to go along with the day.

Many of the fabrics mesh two of my loves - horses and books.

Haven't yet read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving? Put it on your bucket list. It's short, and it is excellent.

And be sure to get the UNABRIDGED version so that you get the full flavor of the book. (I'm headed into teacher mode here...)

This is the book that I have - it can be found on Amazon for $6.49 and free shipping if you have Prime. (Washington Irving also wrote Rip Van Winkle. Put that on your bucket list as well and read the unabridged version of it, too.)

Anyway, back to Halloween haversacks.

There are many fabrics depicting the Headless Horseman, some spooky and macabre while others are less so. (I go for the less so fabrics.)

I love how the jack o'lanterns seem to glow on this haversack.

Unicorns aren't normally associated with Halloween, but turn that horn into a piece of candy corn

and they become part of the Halloween lore!

The black and white horns are a nice touch on this fabric.

This horse skeleton first appeared at the 2015 GLC October show and has made several appearances since. I hope it is there again this year. (That's me before I lost 75 pounds.)

I will find out in two weeks.

Great Lakes Congress: The Show! (Part Two)

After a few announcements at 8:00 AM, the show began. I had an entry in the very first class for the China/Resin division.

Windsong Sherif is my most consistent winner and my favorite china.

Tiffany Purdy was judging the OF Plastic division. She is a very knowledgable and consistent judge.

Countryside Strolling, the Honora I found in an antique shop earlier this year, won the gaited class.

You know what I think would be fun? To ask showers how many models they brought with them to show or to sell and get a count as to how many pieces are in the show hall. So much model goodness!

Liz LaRose (left) talks to Liz Cory while Lisa Esping (China/Resin judge) looks at the raffle items.

I bought something from this sales table. Can you see what caught my eye? I will send a prize to anyone who guesses it! (Put your guess in the comments.) 

Tiffany and Liz chat between classes.

I was really excited to show my BreyerFest Slainte Surprise - I'd had an idea for a breed for her and wondered what the judge would think of it.

She liked my idea well enough to pin it in 4th place! I made her a NAPI (National Appaloosa Pony).

I was really excited because that class was so big, it took up two full sized tables and a round one!

I had a trifecta with my chinas - I only brought three, and all three won their classes.

My Anything Goes entry took third.

The other entries were all about Halloween - this is Shannon Rodgers' winning entry.

And her cute felt pony took second place.

Throughout the day, Liz took photos of the classes. (She posted over 500 on the GLC Facebook page that evening!)

Sales were brisk all day long. I ended up consolidating display baskets and taking the empty ones out to the car as the show progressed. I was glad to sell so much merchandise, but now I feel a real need to get sewing and replenish all that stock that sold.

Another thing I love about the Great Lakes Congress shows is that they always end by 4:00 PM. That gives me time to drive home that same day instead of staying over for a second night.

Now I am home and doing inventory to find out what needs replacing, plus I still need to unpack my models and get them back on their shelves. When that happens, the show is well and truly over, at least for me, haha!

Don't forget - make a guess as to what I bought from that sales table. Winning guesses (yes, there can be more than one winner) will receive a prize from me!

GLC, I Miss You!

Recently a headline in the local news caught my eye and made me do a double take. (It's not the reference to Breyer's newest model, Lafayette. I see that word all the time since I live in West Lafayette.)

It was those letters GLC - those mean something totally different to me. They're the acronym for my favorite model horse club - Great Lakes Congress. 

Have I heard the term, Greater Lafayette Commerce before? Certainly. But never is it abbreviated to its initials. (Just to be sure, I went through some past logos and materials from Greater Lafayette Commerce. The reporter simply abbreviated the name.)

Seeing the letters GLC made me feel a bit sad and wistful.

The GLC shows are so much fun, win or lose, and I miss getting a chance to see my hobby friends.

Brenda Metcalf, Nancy Falzone, and Yvonne Rott at one of the December GLC shows.

Jamie Rott, me, Liz Cory.

The vaccine roll out continues.  I've had my first dose of vaccine and President Biden just opened it up to adults of all ages, so hopefully soon we will be able to get together again. 

Here is a link to the history of Great Lakes Congress. It is now in its 37th year!

BreyerFest Week - Saturday's Frustrations

Wow, where to begin? BreyerFest Saturday was another frustrating day for collectors. The live feed (which I really liked as I could listen all day to what was happening) reported that Breyer had had over 1.8 million hits on the site Friday. No wonder there had been problems!

Hopeful that the site would run more smoothly than it had on Friday, I put on my Great Lakes Congress Virtual Fest 2020 shirt (made by Dani Youdris; thanks, Dani!) and prepared to spend the day shopping and watching seminars and workshops.

In response to the issues people had had the previous day, Breyer made some changes. The Pop Up and Fling stores were now open to everyone instead of having limited trips depending on the number of tickets you held. Unfortunately, that caused a bigger problem - now everyone was trying to get into those stores and buy the products.

I was one of many who kept refreshing their computer screen hoping to see that Breyer had restocked. I was in luck - suddenly, the items showed as in stock. I quickly clicked on a Warehouse grab bag and went immediately to checkout.

As I was paying for my grab bag, suddenly my screen changed and my grab bag just disappeared out of my cart! Then I received a message that the grab bags were sold out. What?? I did not get anything for the rest of the day from either the grab bags or the stores - they always showed as out of stock. 

Breyer also also offered every ticket holder a chance to buy the three store models in gloss.

Those were accessible throughout the day in the Pop Up/Fling store. I sat on the fence about it as none are vintage molds. Just before I went to bed, though, I decided that I would pre-order a glossy W.H. Top Gun (the jumper.) These models will arrive in December.

Determined not to sit in front of the computer and wait for the stores to be restocked like I had on Friday, I decided I would watch the seminars and workshops. I first went to Jamie Rott's workshop on creating documentation for your models.

Unlike Friday when I had had no trouble watching, my screen froze a few moments into the presentation. I had to laugh, though - that photo on the right is from the first Happy Trails and Jamie is sitting on my living room couch!

I could not get Jamie's workshop to run, so I tried others. No luck - everything was freezing up, or there would be no sound. 

Things deteriorated further as the day progressed. It got to the point where all I would get was a spinning circle and be unable to even start the videos.

I tried my desktop and my laptop, but the videos would not load on either.

At this point I checked with Allison Pareis and Liz Cory to see if they were having any luck, either in the stores or with the videos. Both reported that the videos were working fine for them, but that they had not been able to buy anything in the stores. Allison checked some social media sites for me and told me that I was not the only one having an issue with the video feed and that hopefully Breyer would get it fixed soon.

She asked if I had been watching Breyer's live feed. I had not, so I decided to do that and finish the eight pony pouches I'd started yesterday.

I completed the eight I'd cut out of the accent fabric I'd used for Cambria and Titan's rodeo shirts, 

 and I cut out and started another eight using some red horseshoe fabric that I had on hand. Every so often I would click on a workshop, but I still was unable to view them.

My plans for going out to the "horse park" were dashed when I stepped outside mid afternoon to let Pepper do her business.

Rolling in from the north was a severe thunderstorm - we had not even been expecting rain, let alone anything severe. No barn for me - at least not while that storm was raging!

I was really frustrated at this point. I'd seen two of the seminars I'd wanted to see on Friday, but none of the others. I had gotten a crystal Bouncer but had not been able to get a grab bag or other models. (Aside from the Slainte Surprise and Lugh.)

My phone rang and it was my friend, Susan Bensema Young. We chatted for half an hour and when she discovered that I couldn't access the videos, she immediately offered to set up a Zoom and share her screen with me. (What a friend! Thanks, Sue!!) I accepted her offer but said that I would keep trying a bit longer. (After all, if I'm on her screen, that means she can't do what she wants to do at BreyerFest.)

I got back on my computers and then suddenly, I had an idea - try a different browser! I closed Safari and opened Chrome, then logged in to the Breyer web site. It worked! The videos were now working and running seamlessly! 

Liz and Jamie had both used a lot of photos from past Great Lakes Congress shows, so it was fun to see some of my models pop up on the screen. That's my woodgrain 5 Gaiter.

And my woodgrain Shetland Pony.

My charcoal Fighting Stallions.

 My 1:87 scale German Circus Horse.

My Boxer clock and woodgrain Quarter Horse Gelding.

I binge watched until I had checked off all but two of the workshops.

So, BreyerFest Saturday ended on a high note. I was tired but no longer feeling cranky and as though I needed to down a whole bag of M&Ms and a Vanilla Coke out of frustration.

Today is Sunday and I  am going to take a break from BeyerFest. (I try to focus on other things on Sundays.) I suspect the two workshops I missed will be available for a while on Breyer's web site and I will watch them then; if not, no biggie. Hearing the final "attendance" will be interesting and I'll check the auction results later as well.

Kudos to Breyer - they did their best to give us the BreyerFest experience, and while there were some glitches, that really wasn't surprising considering the sheer scope of the event. Fingers crossed, though, that next year we can all be together in person.