When good ideas go bad.

While searching through pics to try to find a color for my mini Haggis I ran across this photo of a very pregnant sitting drafter and decided that she would make a great companion for Pop (see last post.) Well off to the studio I go to start the de-construction on my newest victim, many hours later what I'm left with is the mangled forward two thirds of a PS chips drafter, the hind quarters a total loss and a splitting head ache. It sounded like such a good idea at the time!

What I've been doing for myself

These are the two newest girls I have completed for my own collection.The first is a dramitic remake the LG SM scale "Synergey" resin. I got her in a recent trade Someone had already started the changes to make her a mule, but the pics made her look a lot better than she really was in person. So I removed all the old resculpting and her bases and started clean. She now sports a new facial profile with pooky lip, lovely refined mule ears, nice flowly mane and tail and a removable base. I then painted her a super sooty dun. I'm envisioning her as a spanish/QH X mammoth jack, her name is "PYD From the Ashes" aka Phoenix. Number 2 is a drastic PS chips drafter who is now VERY pregnant and not sure what to make of this whole situtation. New mane and tail, new neck huge baby belly and mommy bits. I painted her a sunburned black sabino who looks like she's pretty much been left to relax mostly untouched in the fields, which from the looks of her won't be much longer :P I've named her "PYD What The ?" (you just know by her expresion this is her first foal :) ) aka Pop, since this is what it looks like she's about to do :lol: I'm really loving these littler guys!

The first snow...ICK!!!!

No prelude this year, we jumped right over the flurries stage and went straight to accumulating snow with a possible total of two to three inches tonight. What does this mean for me? My studio is FREEZING! I have a space heater, but every time I use it, it blows the circuit, making life very interesting. I can't wait for spring.

I'M SOOOOOOOO BAD!!!!!!!

Eek! my wallet is weeping! I just bought a unpainted Sheri Rhodes "Bear" drafter resin, he's broken, but will be a 10 minuet repair and was super cheap. But I really have to stop spending every little bit of money I get in :)
Must SELL more horses! MUST NOT BUY more horses! Lather, rinse, repeat.

GRRRRRR Website problems

I am so completely computer stupid that I struggle to even manage this blog. So what do I decide to do? Attempt a long over due update to my website. Well as I'm playing with Print Shop making business cards and magnets, I see that there are website templates. So I figure "why not?" and set up a basic webpage layout. Nothing fancy, but it does have my new logo, a clip art image that I dinked with to fit my needs. OK, it took time, but no real problems. They didn't crop up until I tried to see weather I could load it onto my website. Ummm... when I used the publish to the web function I got some message that I didn't understand(not really surprising :P) so I then went to my site providers web builder, no go there either, theres no option to load from a outside source. So today has been very long and unproductive and I still need to do those overdue updates and figure out how to get my logo to work on my site. I guess that's a job for another day.

The custom that ate my brain

You would think a nice dark seal bay tobiano would be a pretty straight forward, and fairly simple custom, right? Maybe for anyone else in the world, but of course not me! As with all tradgies it started off so well. Prepping and priming, no problems. Masking, no more difficult than usual. Painting, beautifully. Removing the mask.........yea, that didn't go so well, like it wouldn't come off. GRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nothing I did would make it come off without killing the finish, so I just gave up and stripped it so I could start from scratch. Then to add insult to injury it started raining, and I don't mean just a little rain, I mean like days upon days of steady to torrential downpours equaling enough rain to make up for the summer deficit and make a huge dent into our fall totals. LOTS OF WATER!!! Which meant I got no work done because it was taking three days for each coat of primer to dry, and my pastels, for lack of a better word, kept curdling and just altogether being clumpy and not worth the aggravation. Anyway, finally it dried out enough for me to finish the pastel work, and this time the mask came off(different masking method) fine, so on I when to cleaning up and clearing up the white markings. And your never guess what happened next.......... MORE RAIN!!!!!!! OMG! should we start building a ark? Now I'm having problems with the washes of white drying, it's like every time I thought I was finally getting in the groove to get this model finished something else would pop up.

Long story short, he's finally finished, and I think he turned out really well for all the trials he put me through, and hopefully the next job will go MUCH smoother.

EEK!!!!

I can't beleive it! I got chosen as a guest artist for Michelle Platt's new TB resin "Emboldened"
http://www.equinartcreations.com/Emboldened.html I can't wait till I get him in my grubby little hands :) Now to think of a fitting color for him that will work as either a TB or QH.

On a roll

I've been a busy, busy bee here lately. Three horses in a little over a week completed. Whew! I've gotten photo approval on them, but as always I'm stressing that the client won't like them as much in person as they do on screen, don't know why I do this every time, as so far I haven't heard any complaints, but I do none the less. Oh well, I guess it keeps me humble and makes me continue to strive for improvement.

Went a little model crazy over the last week, bought myself both WalMart mustang sets that have the new mold foal in them, just for the foals which meant that Hailey got two new classics, to bring her collection of Breyers to a total of three. Not bad for a four and a half year old :)

Also got myself a real deal on the new JC Penny, Palomino CB, he's gorgeous, and I may leave him OF, haven't decided yet, his only flaws are a tiny bit of over spray up by his bridlepath on the left and some over masking on the right side of his mane, otherwise he is flawless. Love the new mane on him. My other model splurge, came from the same seller and is a Stone TB with a good bit of customizing done on him to turn him into a pleasure mule. I can't wait to find some time to work on him, he has such potential. And last but not least, yesterday I got at Target, the G3 pony, jumper and the hard to find pearl white TB, though unfortunately he isn't mint as he has a grey streak across his barrel on the package side, but I have plans to do a simple semi custom on him of a extreme sabiano TB that I have pics of.

Now just to keep the work coming so I can continue to feed my model obsession :)

Ebay puts Stone in their place.

The most interesting gossip of the last few days is the Peter Stone Company's auction and store being pulled from ebay due to violations. The most asked question being why? In my opinion? Karma! This is for all the crap they produce, and then expect consumers to pay full price for. What goes around, comes around. Make good high quality models, that actually make hobbyist happy without having to pester the company about fixing their sub-standard models, and good things will come to them. Make crap, that hobbyists have to return for repairs time after time, and get crap in return. Maybe they will learn from this experience, that contrary to popular belief, they are NOT the end all, be all, omnipotence that they seem to think they are. Though I won't hold my breath. This is not to say that they don't make some nice horses, but they seem to be fewer and father between. As it stands the prices they are expecting are exorbitant and out of the range of most hobbyist . This is one case where price SHOULD equate quality, but has been falling short in far to many cases. Hairs, fingerprints, scratches, gouges and blisters are unacceptable in my book and do not constitute quality when most if not all can be avoided. Hairs I can see happening on occasion, sometime no matter how hard you try they show up, I know this from experience, but come on this is becoming a common occurrence with them. And fingerprints! Give me a break, simple fix, WEAR GLOVES and gee don't touch wet paint, who would have though. People shouldn't be expected to pay full price for models with these kind of problems, yet that's just what Stone has been getting away with. Right now there are a couple of Stone's that I would love to be able to add to my collection, but since Stone no longer sees the need to produce regular runs for those hobbyists like myself who don't have unlimited wealth, they are well beyond my means, and don't even get me started on all the supposedly LE's, show specials, FCM's and EFCM's that abound. I'm sorry but I'll stick with my Breyers where I know I can get a quality model for the hard earned money I'm paying.

Long time, no blog

I guess that's a good thing, it means I've been busy. Got a commission Albronozo done, the golden buckskin one, painted my copy a yummy buttercream buckskin sabino and have finished the drastic CM commission that I've been working on, though I haven't got him photographed yet for finial customer approval. After the big ebay disappointment I had the opportunity to get a total steal of a deal on a mini Haggis in need of stripping, this not so little guy is so cool, I can't wait to have the time to get him stripped, though I'm not really in any hurry, since I don't know what color I want to paint him yet. I've contracted two more commissions for a total of six horses between them, mostly SMs, which is nice, because they don't take nearly as long as trads and make for a nice vacation from the big guys. On the down side I had found a trad Haggis in my price range and was keeping a eye on, when of course, at the last minuet his price skyrocketed through the roof, making it so I couldn't afford him. Sometimes life sucks :(

ARGHHHHHHHH

I suddenly remember why I HATE ebay. I was bidding on a lot of horses, was the high bidder right up till I refreshed at 10 seconds to finish, and somehow I was out bid! I've been babysitting this auction all day and literally watching it for the last 15 minuets. No more. I'm done. from now on I'll stick to private sale on MHSP. Down with ebay!

She's DONE!!!!

Finally my "Fabulouse Fake" is done!

While I had originally intended to keep "Fabu" in my personal collection, the more I look at her the more I realize that she would be wasted on me. Not only do I not have the display room for her, but I'm not in love with her to the point I can't live without her, so I guess she will be going to MHSP soon. Next up in my "Fake" series is "Velvet Impostor" AKA "Velour" a CM version of "Blue Velvet"

New Nashville Star

Oh My God!
A reality show finially got it right! I so love Melissa Lawson's voice and can't wait for her single to hit the local radio stations, and I have no doubt that Gabe will have a contract soon. I still can't figure out how Shawn Mayer got into the final 3 and was glad to see her go first, and couldn't belive that she had the nerve to compair herself to Miranda Lambert after butchering Gunpowder and Lead. I sat through the whole show trying to figure out who would have been a better choice in the number 3 spot, but there was no one, Melissa and Gabe where the only two who had the IT factor that I think is nessary to make it in the country music industry. This was one reality show that I am proud to say that I watched, GO Melissa!

Progress, or lack there of.

No work for the last two days. Got nothing done yesterday because I played Frankenstein a little to hard on Thursday while working on the deconstruction phase on the new commission and totally killed my hand. And nothing got done today because of severe storms, like using the emergency alert system bad. Hail, lighting, thunder, torrential rains, you know, the fun stuff. Electric was spotty for most of the day, and we realized why it had been so quiet call wise, the storms killed our phone, thank god for cable Internet, and the phone company doesn't know when they can get out to find the problem. Oh, and did I mention that they are going to charge us? HELLO? Do they think we killed the phone on purpose? So it's looking like the cell phones are going to get a workout over the next few days.

The only bright spots of the last couple days was that I finally got some decent pics of the NL mare and foal I finished the other day. I'll be posting them to MHSP soon for sale, so keep your eyes open for them. I also got another repair/update job, this is a horse I painted last summer who had a run in with a kitty and now needs some TLC and his owner want some cool mini sabino marking and the best part is she's trading me a Gyspy II resin for the work! I love all LJJ drafters, this will bring my total up to, 1 Norman I, 2 Norman II's, 1 Gyspy I, 1 Gyspy II and 2 PS ornaments. Now just to find time to get paint on the ones who need it. And last but certainly not least, I got a e-mail this morning saying I won a contest I had entered on FL to decide what color a Nitros(sp?) should be painted and I'm getting a mini resin! I can't wait.

PoisonIvy, FabulousFakes & Foals

Well my four year old niece came home from her fathers house on Sunday with....wait for it.....Poison Ivy! Yep! It's been a fun couple of days, including a trip this morning to the doctors because it just keeps spreading, her legs, from her ankles to her butt are now pretty well covered in weeping ivy breakouts. Have you ever tried to keep a four year old from scratching herself crazy? It has run me and Mom ragged! And the munchkin has NOT been in a good mood.

Got some work done on my "Fabulous Fake", her marking are getting closer to where I want them to be, need to hit them with a light coat of sealer, then some more layers of paint and hopefully that will do the trick, then onto details and the scary part, glossing. Also fixed a small problem on the PMU foal sculpt, tentatively named "Han Vol Dan",it's from Christine Feehan's Leopard books and means "Time of the Change" which I think is appropriate with what has been going on in the PMU industry. It seems that when I put him in the oven to bake I must have put my finger in the middle of his face and shifted it slightly, so that's now been fixed and he also sports a coat of presentation paint. If I can get myself motivated I would like to get to work on his mold and maybe start him casting by the end of the summer. Here's hoping.

Clipboards & Storms

Not much model stuff got done today, it was one of those days that seem to go on forever, and you have no real motivation to get anything done. It would have classified as a lazy day if not for the fact that that it started off dark and hazy, which then developed into sporadic thunderstorms and torrential downpours. So I guess I can genuinely blame the weather for not getting much work done on my "Fabulous Fake" as I'm at a point where I need to sit in front of my reference pics and tweak the pattern. Guess what? Those pics are on my computer. Thunderstorms+new computer, not such a good idea. So the computer stayed off most of the day because of the power blinking on and off.

What I did get done today was a couple of altered art clipboards. This is something that Mom had been wanting to do for awhile and we just hadn't had time, what with everything else that's been going on lately. So today we finally drug all the supplies that we had collected out and made a couple of clipboards. Nothing model related this go round, other then my green and pink one has a dream theme, but I plan to do a couple different hobby related ones.

On a different note, while setting up to work on our boards Mom found a book mark that she had bought for me and misplaced, Mom lose something, never! It a really cool metal bookmark, but what makes it even better is the quote,

"Paint your dreams in bright colors & bold strokes." Sarah Mueller

Now how apros is that with my studio name "Paint Your Dreams Customs" neat!

Progress & New music

Made some progress today on my "Fabulous Fake", a CM version of the lamented BF volunteer Indian Pony. My IP features a swooshed over forelock, flicked left ear and will have a more realistic dappled red bay coat with mapped pattern, but will remain glossy. I got her pattern masked, for all the good that's done me, as I know I'll still have to do dozens of washes of white to clean up and adjust the markings, seeing as after I started laying in the red base coat I found some better pictures of her showing her marking more clearly and realized, while close overall, it's not as close as I would like. Oh well, live and learn.
Went to Wal-Mart to get a new printer cable, seeing as Mom has misplaced(read lost) the one we bought to go with the printer, making it a large white rectangular paper weight, and not very useful to anyone. While in electronics decided to wander down the music isle and what did I find but the new Sugarland CD which I didn't even know was out yet! And this isn't the regular CD but the deluxe fan edition, 17 songs! This isn't no car listening CD, this ones going down to the studio, I can't wait to see what kind of work I can get done to this.

Blah

Not much interesting happened today. Received a very busted up box from good old UPS, luckily the horse inside was no more damaged the it was when the client sent it(it's a repair job) thank god, and finished up a SM commission that I was working on. Probably could have got some of my back log of personal customs at least worked on, if not finished today, but I had to watch my four year old niece for the better part of the day. Four year old's and studios don't mix well.
Tried contacting again, the lady I'm supposed to be trading my CM PS Noriker drafter to for her BF Alborozo. I hope she's not ignoring me, we've had this deal in the works for months, practically since I first saw the model posted, now I've contacted her three times and gotten no response. Hopefully she will get in contact with me soon, otherwise I will be forced to leave her a blazing red light on MMHR and I really don't want to have to do that, but BF was last weekend, you would have though she would have e-mailed me before hand to get all the little details nailed down. Oh well, all I can do at this point is wait and see.

Yard sales & finishing projects

Braved the heat today in the hopes of finding some good deals, yeah right! I don't know if it's the heat or what, but people were totally crazy with their prices, no way am I paying new prices for something I can go into WalMart and pay the same price or less for. And to add insult to injury, no plastic ponies, jewerly or books!
Came home knowing what a broiling lobster feels like and soaked up some much appericated AC, then made myself get up and go down to the studio to finish the commision that should have been done yesterday. Well got him finished, photographed, and images sent off to the client, and while I was on a roll got a pair of NL horses that I've been working on for almost two years finished!! Yea Me!

Hello and Welcome!

Well with everything being so slow, what with NAN, BF and the virus that has knocked MHSP out for the time being, I have finally got my butt in gear and decided to get me a blog going.
I envision this blog covering everything from what I'm doing in the studio, be it painting, sculpting or cross your fingers....casting, to my jewerly design(note to self FINISH the jewerly design course! :) ), writing, another one of my dream hobbies, drawing, and what books I'm reading. So stay tuned for all the craziness, highs and lows, turmoil and drama that goes on in my creative life.