Silver Star Classic - Photos of the Fun & the Entries

Lauren and Andrea Maultby did such a nice job on last Saturday's show.

 There was a room off the show hall that was absolutely stuffed with raffle items!

 The assortment was so large, I lost count of how many there were

 but I think it was over forty. 

There was also a silent auction (the table on the right)

And fun games to play, all with the chance of a prize.

Plus, everyone got a door prize! (I got the horseshoe tea towel on the bottom right.)

Here are photos from some of the classes:

 As you can see, the competition was stiff!

Tomorrow's post will be the last one about the show.

Silver Star Classic - Friends

One of the best things about going to a model horse show is the people who are there, some of whom travel great distances to be with their model horse friends. Silver Star Classic had entrants from Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, and even Mississippi.

Out of the twenty-four entrants, I only knew seven people.

 My dear friends Allison Pareis (Indiana) and Rhonda Mosley (Ohio) were there and kept us all laughing with their wonderful senses of humor!

Allison had her famous Action Stan doll (who looks just like Stan, her husband, even down to the shirt!)

Knowing that my stable is named Windsong Stables, Rhonda gave me a bottle of the vintage perfume (her favorite). What a nice gesture!

Jan Jordan (front) from Ohio was there along with her sister, Cindy (left) and Jo Kulwicki (center) came down from Michigan. Rhonda and Allison are trying to get Jan to hold a live show and the ideas and jokes were flying all day. Jan is adamant that there will be no show, but I would not underestimate Rhonda and Allison's power of persuasion!

And Julia Paige was there - all the way from Mississippi! She was a judge as well as an entrant.

Julia is a teacher in Gifted Education like me, and while there are a lot of teachers in the hobby, we are the only hobbyists in Gifted Ed that we know of. Teaching can be a very isolating profession, even more so when you are in a specific niche of it as the two of us are, so it was fun to get together and chat about the profession. We ate lunch together and had a good gab.

Even though I only knew a few of the people present, I made some new friends, too, and hope to see them at other live shows or get togethers in the area.  The show holders, Lauren and Andrea Maultsby were super nice, too, and I sure hope I run into them again as well.

Tomorrow's post will feature random pictures from the show.

Silver Star Classic - a Quick Look

Yesterday's Silver Star Classic live show in Carmel, Indiana was fun and a big success. We had entrants from as far away as Mississippi and I think they found the show worth their drive. I sure did, and I only had to drive an hour.

The awards were beautiful and the flats were ribbons as well. (I prefer real ribbons over paper myself. To me, that is a "must" expense for a show. I've held four live shows and I know that they can be expensive. But, Hodges sells bags of ribbons with 50 of each color very inexpensively, and for even less money when there is a sale going on!)

I'd brought a very small show string so it did not take me long to unpack and set up. I'd also offered to bring several copies of Nancy Kelly's new book, Exploring the Model Horse Hobby, and sold them all in the first hour and a half of the show.

 Silver Star Classic was held in the Carmel Lions Club building and it was an excellent location.

We were not crowded, the restrooms were clean and easily accessible, there was a kitchen, and then a huge second room where the silent auction, door prizes, raffle items, and games were located.

And there were tons of raffle items! This is only one small part of them.

I finished settling in about a half hour before the show began which gave me a chance to watch the other pretty ponies being unpacked and readied for showing and greet and chat with some dear friends who I only get to see at shows.

More on the show will be posted tomorrow.

Packed and Ready!

Whew! I just finished preparing and packing tubs for tomorrow's show. The documentation is done and printed, the list of entries has been tweaked, and every piece is snug in a pony pouch and ready to be loaded into the car.

 Packing show ponies is a bit of a Jenga-esque task.

 Flatter models or smaller scales get tucked in around the edges or carefully placed on top, avoiding eartips and other things that could still be damaged despite the padding of the pony pouches.

Sometimes I also place bubble wrap over certain pieces to prevent damage or breakage.

 The unused packing materials, stored in the show tubs when I am not at a show, are on my craft table, waiting to be repacked into the tubs Monday.

I'm traveling light to this show - often I have four or five tubs plus my cardboard show supplies box! 

I'll carry these things downstairs later this afternoon and tuck them into the back seat of my car. My plan is to leave at 5:00 tomorrow morning, and since our garage stays warm when the weather is cool like today, I do not worry about putting my models in the car the night before.

There are still things to do, like gassing up the car, checking the air in my left front tire which seems a little low, and packing lunch for tomorrow, but I am in good shape.

Silver Star Classic, here I come!

Show Prep!

I am very behind in my show prep for this Saturday's Silver Star Classic show down in Carmel. I have had a busy week (no time to blog, either!) and time is growing short. I set aside today to get started and see what I needed to do in the way of preparing documentation and other things.

The first thing I needed to do was to clear the craft table of the sewing materials and quiet book items that I have been working on for my grandson, Lukie. I left the sewing mat out as it is a softer surface than the table and if a model tips over, it has a better chance for no damage than if I had set the models on the tabletop itself.

Out of the closet came a couple of tubs, pony pouches, and show supplies, and then I began grabbing horses. (I'd made a list of my entries a few weeks ago - glad I did so that I am not quite as time crunched as I might've been!)

I'm only taking a small herd to show. I am mostly a vintage collector, and vintage molds generally do not compete well with the new mold Breyers. And, there is no vintage or collectibility section for this show outside of two collectors classes. But, I am going more for the fun of gathering with hobbyists than I am for ribbons.

Now that I have everyone out that is going, I still need to clean them. But first, I want to check and make sure I have documentation for every model that needs it.

It's rainy today in Indiana (a warm, spring rain - finally!) and show prep is a good way to spend the time indoors.

Can't wait until Saturday!