Lots to Do!

First, an update on Sultanna this morning.

No foal yet, and her udder hasn't changed much. She foaled Two Socks on Easter morning; maybe she is waiting for Mother's Day??  (Honestly, that would be pretty cool!)

I'm all unpacked from Midwest Mini Mayhem and just have to heft those tubs up onto the high shelves in the closet. I am still in physical therapy for my shoulder so I may ask Craig to do that for me. It's always nice to wrap up a really good show and settle back into normal, still smiling as you do.

The show may be over, but I spent yesterday working on more haversacks for Midwest Mini Mayhem. They were short three more champs and reserve pouches, and luckily I had fabric left from making the others.

Those are done, and I will pack them up and send them out to their winners this afternoon.

I'm also thinking ahead to next year. I had some of this fabric in stock from another project and cut and stitched some Stablemate haversacks to see how they looked.

Oh, I liked them a lot. Wouldn't they be nice for next year's show champs and reserves? 

I went ahead and made three of each up and I'll show them to Kerri, Shannon, and Kerry (MMM show holders.) If they don't want them, I will sell them in Horsiemama's Mercantile.

An order of new fabric for haversacks arrived recently, and before I'd even opened the package, I'd received an email from the company apologizing and saying that an error had been made, defective fabric had been sent, and that they would replace it for free right away.

They weren't kidding! 

Legs were cut off of some of these horses.

And these poor horses were cut in half!

I'd ordered a Stablemate scale print and got the 1:6 (Marx Thunderbolt) scale.

Not sure what to make of this defective piece and why there is so much white fabric rather than printed fabric.

The replacement order is scheduled to arrive on Monday; in the meantime, I am working at making new haversacks - between Indy Blooms and Midwest Mini Mayhem, I have very few left in stock. 

My next show is Marilou Mol's in August, so I have some time, but The Feast of the Hunters' Moon is also approaching and I have to get back to my 18th century sewing, too.

Lisa, Leslie, and me in our 18th century riding habits at The Feast.

Lots to do, but it's a good lots to do.

The May Give Away is coming - stay 'tooned!

Midwest Mini Mayhem Happens: Part Two

Continuing on from yesterday, here are some more photos from the show.

While I will always donate items for raffles, I don't buy tickets for personal reasons. If there ever was a raffle item to tempt me, this mini circus pony (in Appaloosa, my favorite breed!) was it!

Made and donated by Lindy Pinkham, I fell in love with it! Knowing my fondness for circus ponies, Shannon Rodgers told me that if her name was drawn for it, I could have it. Sadly, that didn't happen, but what a nice thing for her to do. 

In a typical model horse show, it is not unusual for three 8 foot tables to be completely full of Traditional models.

Imagine those models as mini size and those three tables still full - that's a lot of models to judge!

Classes were split at times but even then the competition was top notch. Having said that, my little show string represented Windsong Stables well.

Remember how fellow blogger Equiden (Betz Everitt) surprised me by making a custom Abby on my favorite Stablemate mold, the miniaturized Indian Pony?

That was a very large custom Appaloosa class and she NANed!

 Mighty Mouse and his even smaller counterpart

Atomic Mouse were there, too. Both minis got attention, but Atomic Mouse especially got a lot of double takes as people walked by.

I don't bring Rembrandt out too often any more (those fragile legs!) but I did for this show. A very early piece in the run, he has gorgeous shading, especially when compared with later pieces. 

Wakeyo also qualified for NAN - his first time on the show table.

The Animal classes were held at lunch and they were extremely popular, so much so that there were many requests to expand the class list for new year.

My mini Pepper in her Seeing Eye Dog harness won the Sporting Group Dog class.

I thought Fat Cat, a piece I gave Mountain Mama Jessica when she was a child, might place in the Cat class, but it was Misty, my mini mini HR Persian kitten who did that! (Aren't those tiny ribbons awesome?)

Shannon attempting to judge all those cute kitties.

The Other Pets classes was one class, but the variety of entries in it were good ideas for future classes. 

I'd hoped to be on the road by 4:00 as I had a four hour drive ahead of me and storms were coming in but I didn't leave until almost 5:00. And I did run into bad storms, one of which was more than a little scary, but I made it home safe and sound.

Well done, Kerri, Shannon, and Kerry! Count me in for this show next year.

Midwest Mini Mayhem Happens: Part One

Kerri Johnson, Shannon Rodgers, and Kerry Walsh really know how to put on a show. Midwest Mini Mayhem was well organized, ran smoothly throughout the day, and was so much fun. The venue was the cafeteria of the school where Kerri teaches and it was well lit and roomy enough for three large show rings, entrants' tables, a large set up of raffle items, socializing, and more.

I learned at the Indy Blooms Swap Meet that one 8 foot table would be covered with all my Mercantile merchandise, leaving no room for anything else so I asked if I might be able to have a second table.

No problem! When I arrived, a table had been added as an end cap to mine and I had room for everything!

It was situated so that I got a lot of foot traffic and I sold a lot of things, including all of my Stablemate haversacks. I'm made a lot for the show, far more than I normally would have on hand, but I never dreamed I would sell out of them!

Each judge had a rolling chair to sit on while they judged - what a great idea and one that would save their backs as they bent over trying to see those tiny entries.

Liz and I squeezed in the time to take a selfie together as the show started and things got hectic.

And I also got one with a very dear, long time friend who I had not seen in years - Julie Propes!

In the 1990s there was a group of hobbyists in Champaign/Urbana (University of Illinois) and that's where Julie and I met. Also there during that time? Hobbyists Chris Wallbruch, Kathy Bateman, Karen Beeson, and Kay Biberstein.

We saw each other frequently at shows or at Karen's home (she was a Breyer dealer and used to invite us over when she got a new shipment in.) Those were some fun days!

Julie judging a Customs class at Central Illinois All Halter Live around 1992 or so.

Karen Beeson judging at the same show. These ladies have been my friends for over thirty years!

Needless to say, it was good to see Julie again. Karen and Chris were also at Midwest Mini Mayhem; Chris even loaned me a couple of acrylic risers for my models since I had left mine at home.

The rosettes for section champs and grand champions.

I'd been asked to make blue and red haversacks for the division champions and reserves. Those mini rosettes were for the mini animal classes that would be held during lunch and judged by Shannon.

I also made that blue show drape for the photo booth, but Shannon added an incredible assortment of things that could be used to photograph models.

See what I mean? Everything for the photo booth took up an 8 foot table, and the booth was in constant use.

It's always fun to see things that I made in use - those three pony pads on the pink tablecloth were made by me. See those foam pads? That person can cover an entire table with pony pads from me but she forgot them all at home! We laughed about that but that foam worked just fine. (I also traded some haversacks with her for a really cool vintage Breyer in box - stay 'tooned!)

One of the tiniest horses I have ever seen was on Shannon Rodgers' table.

Here it is with some other minis to give you an idea of just how small it was.

Something else I'd made - Shannon's show tablecloth. She has asked me to make another matching one, and I took a photo so I could remember how I'd placed that horseshoe.

I will share more about this show tomorrow but I have another early morning appointment today and need to scoot. And before I forget, I will be announcing the May give away later this week, too.

 Stay 'tooned!

A Rainy Day is a Play Day

You know that old song, "Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day"? I think it was written right here in Indiana.

We are having a lot of rain at the moment.

My yard is soggy and even has standing puddles in it. Pepper and Tammo have both looked at me as though I were crazy a time or two when I took them outside. Can't say I blame them.

Rainy days, though, can be a bit like a snow day - you deviate from your usual routine and do some other things, things you may have been putting off a bit.

I did just that yesterday and played with my ponies.

I've entered Kerri German Johnson's new show, Midwest Model Mayhem.

I've never entered an all-mini show, so I have more prep work to do than usual.

Scales included are Venti, Stablemate, Micro, and even HO and N railroad pieces.

HO scale Mighty Mouse is definitely going

as are his N scale counterparts which are so tiny, they rarely come out of the box they arrived in. If they were loose on a shelf, I think they would get lost. (Keeping track of that little box is hard, too.)

The show has a Just for Fun division for other animals.

I am considering bringing my very fragile Mortens Studio cat (bottom shelf on the left)

but definitely coming is my guide dog model, aptly named "Pepper."

If this were a collectibility show, there are a lot of pieces I would bring from my China collection. But it's halter, not collectibility, and I won't risk bringing pieces that are highly collectible but not as correct when it comes to conformation.

I am probably going to bring those tiny white ducks, the white kitty, and the basset hound. The pink and blue Freeman McFarlin pony is coming, too, for unrealistic colors/fantasy.

My tiny models are scattered across three rooms in the house and on two different floors. Rather than constantly running up and down the stairs, I took photos of everything that might qualify for the show and uploaded them to my computer.

I sift through those photos as I look through the class list, writing in the models I plan to bring next to the classes.

At this point, I've got about thirty models and that presents another problem. Since I rarely show minis, I do not have enough pony pouches to bring all of them. And, I need to figure out what size of tub or box I will need to transport them. I don't worry too much about the plastic ones, but I do need to protect the chinas with their fragile legs, ears, and tails.

Those are solvable problems and I have a month to figure that out (and sew more pouches if need be.)

After having been so focused on Kalamazoo and sewing Lisa's robe a l'Anglaise, it was fun to switch gears and enjoy my collection. More rain is forecast for today and I just might take another day off and start packing ponies.

The April give away will be posted soon - and it goes along with another Spring saying, "April showers bring May flowers." 

Stay 'tooned!