Off My Game

Many writers struggle to find topics to write about. My problem is usually the opposite - my desktop computer's monitor is covered in file folders and photos, most labeled by topic and full of photos that I might include in a blog post.

And I do use those ideas I have tucked away. Case in point - the glass blowing blog entries were written and then scheduled to post while I was away from my computer having this most recent surgery. 

But I do have my moments when I struggle - some of the files have topics that will take multiple days to write about (the largest of those will be a 27 day project - almost a month!!) and sometimes (like now) I am looking for a simple, short topic that can be written and posted quickly.

I scroll through my recent texts and look for photos family and friends have sent me.

A barred owl at Cone Marsh State Wildlife Area in Conesville, Iowa from Hawkeye Sarah yesterday.

Pony Pal Cambria having fabulous luck of the draw while playing Cover Your Assets with her family.

I check social media where a lot of my former students keep in touch with me.

My former student Jeremy L. (bottom right, wearing glasses and holding frame) who conducts wind orchestras, recently receiving an award for his work. 

I look at any photos I've taken recently.

Nash last Friday at his self-imposed guard dog post keeping the fam safe

while Pepper stretches and relaxes, knowing that Nash has got us covered,

and Tammo sneaks into my closet

and steals some of the toys I'd bought and put aside for him to have another time. (Boy howdy, was I in the right place at the right time. Tammo was so engrossed with his "find" that he never noticed me standing there quietly just outside the door!)

For the first time post op, I took Pepper down to the park to play frisbee but I didn't have the energy to take any photos once we'd gotten there. (Too bad, it was sunny and beautiful!)

And when I got home, I found a surprise on the park bench by the front door.

A vase of Lego daisies!

I haven't felt up to hauling out the tub and putting the Valentine things away yet, so I put my Lego flowers on the table with some of them.

So, as you can see, I really don't have much to write about today (that 27 day project notwithstanding)

Hopefully tomorrow I will be back on my game. 

Stay 'tooned!

Breyer, Barns, & Books

Lots of bits and pieces to share today!

Breyer

First, Breyer made an announcement yesterday acknowledging the issues their shipping department is having. Here's that announcement from Breyer's Facebook page.

It's a good beginning and I think it was wise that Breyer do so, but my experience has been that the problem is bigger and has more facets than what they are addressing in this email. (Remember my Christmas Blanket Debacle post?) Yes, shipping is a problem, but so have been other things, too,  in CCG.

Another concern I have is the Customer Service department. No doubt they are buried in emails and phone calls; I get that. But it isn't much of a confidence builder when the automated response to your email comes back tagged as SPAM!

You start wondering if your email really was received and read. (I mentioned in the post about the blanket debacle that I emailed Breyer about having received a blanket that I had not ordered or paid for and asking how to return it. Crickets. That blanket is still here.)

Regardless, kudos to Breyer for updating collectors on the situation - they've taken some heat and gotten some snark for their efforts, but I think it is a step in the right direction and hope that that continues. It never, ever hurts to communicate and keep people in the loop. Thanks, Breyer.

Two more guest horses were announced via the BreyerFest blog, both of them  returning guests. 

HD Darkness (he's 27 years old!) will be in attendance and Breyer will have a limited number of models of him for sale on site. (I really like this mold.)

Buckeye will be back, too, although no models will be available of him.

Barns

I love barns in all their variety. (I'm talking the old wooden ones, not the metal pole barns.) This little info sheet about various barn types crossed my social media feed yesterday so I took a screen shot of it. I do not have the original source; it was just shared by a woman in a group.

Farmyard Palace Barn? Hmmm, quite the description! Around here our barns are related most closely to the Western Prairie Barn, the Dutch Gambrel Roof Barn, and the Pioneer Barn with a few Round Barns added to the mix.

Tim has the beautiful new barn with its indoor arena, stalls, lounge, office, and tack room, but I have always chosen the old barn as the place I most like to be when I am out there. 

Abby, Sultanna, and Diablo thundering out of the old barn to come get some peppermints.

There is just something about the wood creaking as the wind gusts against it, the hay mow overhead with its fragrance drifting down, and the gentle snorts, stomps, and chuffs as the horses take shelter from the heat and the cold.

Books

Pony Pal Mila and her mama invited me to read a book with them. "There's a horse in it named 'Butter', Grammy!" (Guess why. Just try. LOL)

The photo I sent Mila and Vanessa to let them know that I'd gotten the book and could begin reading.

The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley is a really good book and one that I would've included in my classroom library were I still teaching. 

In an interesting coincidence, Emily texted Teacher Daughter Lisa and me a day later and asked if we had any book recommendations for Pony Pals Julie, Kate, and Susan. Easy peasy - at the end of their two years with me (I taught a multiage class of 4th and 5th graders) the outgoing students always created a list for the incoming 4th graders of their recommendations of Children's Classics to read.

I opened my teaching files and pulled out one of them and emailed it to her. (This list does have a book I removed from the suggestions due to the author's use of the F-word.)

There is nothing like hearing a child giggle aloud at their desk as they read and you know that they have just seen through Tom Sawyer's ruse to get his friends to paint that fence for him! (Oh, the fond memories of reading books with kids!)

So, if you are interested in a variety of good literature that both adults and children will enjoy, there you go!

Bye! (Hah! Couldn't resist adding in that fourth letter B!)

Lynn's (Brief) History of Sewing Professionally

I've been sewing since I was a teenager in high school. I love, love, love to sew.

I've made my own clothes, baby clothes, quilts, quiet books, my kids' clothes, prom dresses, bridesmaid dresses, and much, much more. 

Susan's quiet book octopus (that is also a nod to her parents' affinity for the University of Illinois. See all that orange and blue?)

But I never intended to open one, let alone two, sewing businesses. 

The pandemic actually spurred the formation of Horsiemama's Haversacks and Mercantile. Due to the quarantine, I could not hold my show Happy Trails here in my home as usual. I turned it into a photo show that year instead, and decided to make pony pouches for all the entrants as gifts.

It was fun, I got to use all kinds of horsey fabrics, and people began asking me if I'd make more pouches for them. A business was born. 

(Any guesses as to how many haversacks I've made since formally opening the Mercantile in August, 2020? Scroll down for the answer.)

Jolis Chevaux, my 18th century sewing business, was more of a deliberate accident. (Now there's an oxymoron.) Lisa and I had begun participating in living history events, and I saw an opportunity to return to a business that I'd shared with my sister Leslie and our mother back in the 1990s - Chien Noir Trading Company.

Look between me and my sister and you will see the Chien Noir sign hanging on her tent. Our mom passed away in 2016, but Leslie and Rick still run the company.

I started sewing 18th century clothing back in the 1990s with them but after a couple of years, I had to leave Chien Noir. My kids were all still at home and very busy with school and church activities, I was working on a degree at the University of Illinois, and it was just too much to sew commercially on top of all that.

But, when Lisa really became involved with living history five years ago, I realized that I now had time again to sew historical clothing. But instead of rejoining Chien Noir, I formed my own company.

It has been So. Much. Fun. It's very different from making pony pouches and can be highly challenging, but there is a wonderful sense of accomplishment when I complete each garment.

I have a solid group of loyal customers that seek me out at events.

"Keith the blacksmith." Lisa and I have dubbed him that - we know he's a blacksmith but we are not sure of his first name except that it begins with the letter K. (Kevin? Ken? Not Kyle; we'd have remembered that one! LOL)

Mackenzie and a friend. (Both wearing my shirts!)

This lady was my very first customer as Jolis Chevaux. She was just starting out, hesitant, and trying to learn what kinds of clothing were appropriate for the time period. Now she's a confident reenactor, volunteering and helping others, and knows her stuff.

(Any wonder why I look forward so much to KZoo and Feast?)

I've really turned a corner with my healing - I'm no longer exhausted and moving slowly. And while I am still ouchy, I don't need help getting in and out of chairs and the bed, picking things up off the floor, and more. 

Which means I am also back in the sewing room. Woot!

The first thing I pulled out of the prep cart were the two wool pockets I'd cut out pre-op.

Pockets are easy peasy and a good place to start when you are still recovering.

I got both done in one sitting and was able to move on to another project the next day.

Chemises! (That's the French word; the English called them "shifts.") Making a shift is surprisingly similar to making a trade shirt, and I was able to complete most of one yesterday.

They can have gathered sleeves and cuffs or pleated ones, and I always pleat them. There is an elegance to pleats that I like and honestly, I think they look much nicer than a gathered sleeve.

Leslie and I are trying a little experiment together. Her business focus is importing and selling block print fabrics, not sewing, but she does occasionally sew.

And with all those block prints in Chien Noir's inventory, she has begun doing some sewing herself.

To help boost their visibility, I offered to make a folder on the Jolis Chevaux site and let her showcase them there. We are not combining our businesses, but we are collaborating.

Hmmm, does my bed gown look familiar? LOL

Today Nashie and Mama are coming over (mind the lamps, boys!!) and with Mama's arthritis flare-up, we will be keeping her downstairs. Craig and I will take turns sitting with her and doing other things (I have some hand sewing I will bring downstairs) and I will still get some things done in preparation for KZoo.

So, just how many haversacks have I made since I opened Horsiemama's Haversacks & Mercantile in August of 2020?

1,184. That's a lot of cutting, pinning, turning, and stitching! 

Mystery Package

With me waiting for Prague to ship (still no reply to emails or my phone call), I have been checking my USPS account daily and watching hoping for his tracking to show up.

To my surprise, on Monday I discovered that a package from Pennsylvania was on the way to our home. I had nothing else on order from anywhere and a quick check with Craig was the same - he wasn't expecting any packages, either. Who had sent one of us something? 

Yesterday tracking indicated it would be delivered that day and the package, despite hailing from Pennsylvania, actually was from Breyer.

I figured it had to be my Vintage Club membership welcome letter and card, but Breyer had always sent those in a regular envelope, not a sturdy cardboard mailer with tracking attached. But that indeed was what was inside.

My membership card - I joined the year the club began and have all of these cards in a binder.

An included bonus was a replica of the 1963 dealer's catalog.

It had been shrunk down to a 7" x 5 1/2" booklet.

Pretty cool although the small size made some of the text difficult to read.

As for the surprising method of getting these materials to me, my guess is that Breyer is working to ensure that club members actually received them - the tracking would help with that (both Breyer and club members.) "Where's my JAH?" and "I never got my JAH" are fairly common complaints when that is mailed; I'm guessing that that may have also happened with past club memberships.

Regardless of the why in the switch of mailing method, I was happy to get my club items and spent some enjoyable time reading through everything yesterday afternoon.

I did get into the sewing room as I'd hoped and got those pockets completed. I'll share about those and some other sewing news in an upcoming blog post.

Stay 'tooned!

Catching Up with Life

Second Post of the Day

I have been unable to do my usual daily routine for almost a week now. And, I have not been as able to stay in touch via social media during that time, either. Today is a day of starting to catch up with life and possibly even doing a few more parts of my usual routine.

First, Breyer News

Breyer has announced a few guest horses for BreyerFest, some of whom have been Breyer models in the past. Hobbyists are cautioned that there will not be a model available for any of these horses. (All pictures are screenshots taken from the BreyerFest blog.)

Danash's Northern Tempest

Paddyngton's Mark of Distinction

Rain, a Pryor Mountain Mustang and daughter of Cloud

Biloxi, a Pryor Mountain Mustang and barn mate of Rain

In other Breyer news, their shipping department, CCG, continues to struggle and be the subject of many, many frustrated posts all across social media platforms. I share in that frustration.

I have made three orders since the first of the year - the Stablemate Brilliance set, Vintage Club Inferno, and Prague, the first release in the 2025 Exotic Destinations Series. I've had to send emails about each delayed order and I even called Breyer once only to get an answering machine. I left a message that was never returned, and the emails have only gotten an acknowledgment of having been received coupled with the remark that Breyer "would respond to your case as soon as possible."

Those Brilliance Stablemates have arrived as has Inferno, but there is no sign of Prague. There is still no shipping notice and the order is still marked "Unfulfilled" in my account.

Let's hope Breyer and CCG get this straightened out. It truly is a mess of gigantic proportions.

One last piece of Breyer news. 

Maddox is still available. I don't remember when he was first offered, but it was before my surgery last Thursday, so he's been up for a week at least. I almost went ahead and ordered him this morning but 1) I was leery about having another shipping problem to resolve, and 2) if I were to order him, I would no longer be able to check his sales progress.

Moving on to the Sewing Room!

With Kalamazoo only a little over three weeks away, time is short for preparing clothing to sell.  Not only did I write blog posts ahead of my surgery, I also cut out garments I'd like to have on hand to sell at the event.

I buy many of my fabrics in bulk so I had to first do some measuring and cutting off the bolt before I could begin pinning patterns to the fabric and cutting them out.

Usually fabric is either 42 - 44" or 56 - 60" wide but my white cotton is double folded on the bolt. It is 108" wide and with that double fold, I simply cannot use it unless I cut smaller pieces off the bolt and then open the second fold so that I only have a single folded piece of fabric to use. It takes time, but the fabric is cheaper bought that way. 

Normally I don't mind the extra time to cut things out, but last week I was feeling the pressure of the time lost to surgery as well as having to make those extra cuts in the cotton.

Still, I got three chemises cut out, marked and ready to sew as soon as I feel up to bending over the sewing machine. I also cut out a couple of pockets from some red wool and stacked those on top of the chemises in my prep cart.

Will I get to those projects today? I hope so. I love to sew and I sew almost every day. I am under a lifting restriction but I don't think my iron will be a problem. (I use my iron a lot - the key to really nice end products is ironing before, while, and after you complete the piece.)

Wish me luck - getting into the sewing room would be a huge step towards normalcy for me!

Baby Steps

First Post of the Day

I'm six days post-op today and I am healing. There is no incisional pain at all but there is still a sharp pain where the mesh is now implanted. I'm no longer on prescription pain meds, but I still need OTC ones.

There is a lot of swelling in my abdomen, so much so that I am wearing clothing that hangs from the shoulders like the muumuu I am wearing in this photo with the dogs.

Tuesday is not our normal day to have Nash and Molly, but we are in an arctic chill and Molly's arthritis has flared up - she's doing a lot of limping. We were concerned about the doggy door at their house - it goes out onto a patio and then there are several steps down into the yard. What if Molly couldn't get back up those steps and into the house? Or slipped on the ice and snow and couldn't get up?

Far safer to bring the two doggos here than risk Molly being caught outdoors when the temps are single digits. Besides, they are good company and a good post-op distraction.

Another nice distraction yesterday were these flowers sent by my siblings. Not only are they pretty, but they are very fresh and their scent is divine! (And so spring-like! Spring can't come soon enough for me.)

There was one last distraction yesterday - Curt called and asked to drop by with Lukie and Ian. They had basketball practice at a gym near our home and came over when they'd finished.

The dogs were over the moon to have Curt, Ian, and Lukie join us, and they all played hard together. I did get them to stop for a minute and come snap a photo with me. (Tammo was still trying to play, LOL.)

Some of my post-op team.

Recovery  is going slower than usual, but it is happening. I can get upstairs again, I did a couple of loads of laundry, and last night I slept in bed rather than the recliner. 

Baby steps towards normalcy, but I'll take it!