Halloween Band Bash

     Yesterday was very busy. Another day that I didn't have time to mess with putting photos from the day into the post with the pics from Fall Pony Finals. I promise, the rest of the divisions are coming. Anyway, my friend, Angelique, sent me a text saying to come see her in the morning because she had a present for me. Well that's intriguing! So I went to visit and she gave me this super cute unicorn headband. She told me it was to make my outsides match my insides, awww! Angelique is braver than I am and she wore hers all day. I said I didn't think I could do it. But today is Halloween and I will do it today. Maybe that will make it normal enough for me to wear it more often. And then it will obviously be worn at horse shows!

     I had to jump right into doll work when I got home. I had goals! I got the western pleasure doll and cowboy from the other day all finished up. I knew they would be easy to get done, since they were super insanely close to done. I also finished the lime green western pleasure doll. I was not as sure I could get her done. But I have the body prepped, the face painted, the clothes sewn and then I found the already made chaps. So I just had to put her together and decorate. I got that taken care of and now have 3 more dolls for my TRXC sale. Later on today I can tag and wrap them all. But I am very pleased with my progress.

      Very shortly after supper yesterday Ethan, Travis and I headed over to LHS for the Halloween Band Bash. Travis had a super good time! He was not particularly loud but you could tell he was having a good time. He was rocking and bouncing in his seat with a huge grin on his face! He does love Halloween music. I also spotted his friend, Vicky, from track. She is not going to a Ludlow school this year so she won't be on the track team in the Spring (which is super sad) but she lives in Ludlow so it's not totally surprising we saw her. She was thrilled to see Travis and he was really happy to see her as well. What a fun night!

      So now later today I need to get the dolls tagged and packed. I need to finish up a pair of cutting chaps I am working on and maybe make a couple more. I should start tacking up more horses so I don't have to do it all last minute. I am pretty sure I am showing an insane amount of horses at TRXC (5 of them). I have Enchanted Eve all tacked up but I'd like to get more of them ready. I should also get my tiny Abby finished and make a list of all the things I need to make sure to pack and bring this weekend. Two days until TRXC.

Tuesday Updates

     I still have two more divisions of Fall Pony Finals to share pictures of, but it takes lot of extra time to put the photos from the day into the post of the show pics. Yesterday was super busy and I don't have the extra time to try to catch up with my projects. So today it's just updates on a variety of things. Tomorrow I will get back to sharing show photos too. 

     I started out in the morning adding some matte polish to my tiny Abby to see if it would cut out the tackiness in the paint. It sometimes does. It didn't work this time. The paint wasn't just tacky, it had not even cured. I have no idea why, but it was just not working out. *sigh*

     In better news, I got my October micro in from Maggie Bennett. When I saw the spoiler photos I was not sure if I was in love with her or not. And then I saw her in person and she is awesome. I am also grateful that this tiny horse was not available when I was challenged to do the micro Arabian costume. She is even smaller than the horse I dressed. 

     Back to tiny Abby and the not great news about her tacky, uncured paint. I decided I couldn't keep hoping she would cure and I stuck her in a bag with some Easy Off to strip her. Some people are completely against Easy Off, but I wear gloves when I use it and always use it outside. I have never had any issues. Today I also didn't have any results from it. 

     Since I had put quite a lot of matte polish on Abby I used acetone to take it off which I hear that can be bad for the model down the road, but I guess I will cross that bridge if I ever come to it. For now I got off her new, uncured paint and her primer. I glued on an ear I messed up, scrubbed her with dawn dish soap and when she was dry I reprimed her. 

Luckily it was before the rain started. It is supposed to rain for the next 3 days. Of course.

      I was hoping to be further than this on her but I did get to the point of drawing on markings. The original tiny Abby that I made for Ethan was done from studying live Abby. She let me move her every which way to exactly map out her markings on the model. She was a good dog. Since I don't have real Abby I used Ethan's tiny Abby to draw the markings on my tiny Abby. I will touch them up as I paint them on. This was actually how I did the original tiny Abby. I drew on the markings in Sharpie and then did both white and black by hand. And I will do it that way again. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the paint out and work on some whites. At least.

     I try not to work after supper, but yesterday I did. I actually got really far on a couple of dolls in a fairly short amount of time. The western pleasure lady needs a hat painted and the smallest amount of bling, but then she will be finished. The cowboy needs a belt, pockets and buttons. And a hat and his chaps put on. So tomorrow I can finish them up quickly. I also realized I have another western pleasure doll I was working on that I forgot about. Oops. So hopefully today I can finish up both of these and the other western pleasure doll. I got a bit behind on things. 

      So I said today was about updates. I updated you on tiny Abby on doll stuff and I have an update on the issue with Elecktra and the DMV. She called United Driving school to see about making a road test appointment through them (because that is a thing) and they said that she had to go to the Springfield office (even though there is also a Ludlow office) to register for everything. We already had a plan to get together to do some parking practice, but I said instead I would drive her over there so she could register and be all set. So we did that and she got a ton of information from the woman at the school. Including finding out that the registry might have charged her for the test they didn't let her take and might have put it in as a failed test. The woman at United said she should call just to make sure that that hadn't happened. I said that since we were already in Springfield we should just go to the registry. 
     Elecktra was nervous since the last time we were there she had such a terrible experience. I told her I would take care of it. When we got in I spoke to the gatekeeper (the guy at the door who asks why you are there and tells you where to go) and he told me to follow the orange line (literally a line or orange rugs). So we got to the counter and Elecktra was still nervous so I said I'd deal with it. I told to the super friendly woman at the counter that we needed to know if Elecktra got charged and I needed to speak to a supervisor. The woman took Elecktra's permit and checked and she had been charged. Not cool. So the road test supervisor is the only one who can remove those charges and conveniently, that was exactly who I needed to talk to. So I went to deal with the supervisor. I explained what had happened and he checked in the computer. He said that the guy had put in the notes that she was not there and then was dropping F-bombs all over the place. Which was not how any of this went down. Elecktra and I explained what happened, again, with Elecktra demonstrating how close the man was and how he waved the book in her face and so on. This went back and forth for a bit and I stayed incredibly calm the whole time and very polite. It was not the supervisor who verbally assaulted Elecktra after all. It took a bit but the supervisor finally got the whole story and realized that what happened really was horrible (at first he said he was there on Friday and didn't hear any of it). He took the charge off of Elecktra's account and said that the man (who he knew who it was immediately when I described him) was going to be reprimanded. He said no matter what there were better ways to deal with the situation. So that was good to hear. It was not immediate and it took a lot of pointing out of things to the supervisor (to get the reprimand, the charge was taken care of quickly) but in the end I fixed it. That situation never should have happened. If I had been there it likely would not have. People need to stop thinking it's OK to abuse their position and pick on young people. I'm glad this got worked out. Hopefully this sort of thing won't happen to anyone else in the future. Now Elecktra has a couple of hours of driving practice with the new school and a newly scheduled road test. Which I can go on. And I will. 
     So yesterday was weird, but not bad. I didn't get a lot of work done, but I got more work done than I thought I would considering it was laundry day and all the other things we did that were not doll work. Progress is being made. Hopefully soon I can stop freaking out. Three days until TRXC.

Fall Pony Finals Other Performance

     The Other Performance division at Fall Pony Finals was a lot of fun. There were a lot of opportunities for entries with cool, fun details. Starting with natural trail. I really loved these cool trail signs. 

And there was not one...

but two entries with raccoons (aka "trash pandas")

I had five entries for natural trail. So it was one of the larger classes of the day. 

Izaak owned by Joan Fauteux

It was a mix of English...

Tuesday Afternoon owned by Nancy Timm

SRF Picture Perfect owned by Donna Gruhn

and western entries. All of them were cool. 

Crimson and Clover owned by Joan Fauteux

Niangala Jack owned by Nancy Timm

The scene class was small, but really impressive. 

SRF Dark Side of the Moon owned by Donna Gruhn

SRF Malik owned by Donna Gruhn

     I really love the details on this doll. These days my favorite part of model horse showing is the little details. I've been having a lot of fun judging and looking at all the creative details in the entries. 

Next up was the Arabian/parade class. 

Pass the Buck owned by Terry Heath

Desert Design Owned by Terry Heath

SRF Picture Perfect owned by Donna Gruhn

There were a couple of gorgeous Arabian and parade entries. Another small but mighty class. 

SRF Malik owned by Donna Gruhn

The Other costume class was even smaller, but also incredibly impressive. 

Morzillo owned by Terry Heath

SRF Elegance on the Catwalk owned by Donna Gruhn

Chivalrous owned by Morgan Hudon

     The showmanship class was a class of one. But I loved it. Showmanship is one of my favorite classes!

SRF Picture Perfect owned by Donna Gruhn

SRF An officer and a Gentleman owned by Donna Gruhn

Wild Eyes owned by Morgan Hudon

In the end SRF Malik was the reserve champion in the other performance division.

     And SRF Picture Perfect was the champion. Both the models are owned by Donna Gruh. It was not a huge division, but it was tricky to judge at times. 

        When I got home from school yesterday I got tiny Abby in primer. Which I thought I took a picture of but apparently I did not. Then I got her in a coat of basic black. All we had hanging around was a semi-gloss so she looks goofy for now. But after I get her whites on and matte coat her she will look better. I got her in primer and then Travis and I went out to do some errands. 

     When we got back I remembered that I really need to get moving on prepping my Balicor for NaMoPaiMo. Getting the prepping done before winter seems like it would make a nice change. I got her in primer, now I need to check her over and see what needs fixing. But not today. 

     And since it so close to TRXC it was time for another random, and somewhat unnecessary project. Don't you think? I already own a halter with side pull reins and a lead rope. But they weren't pink and these are. These are also new and the other ones are a bit grubby because they are old. Anyway. I also made boots on the cowboy and western pleasure doll I have in the works. And I was pretty sure I took a photo of that too, but I don't have that one either.

     So I made decent progress yesterday and I got done the things I planned to get done. Tiny Abby got all the way to solid black, I got boots on the western doll and a made a halter. I did also finish my TRXC show plan and got it printed out. Sunday night I was pulling and sorting TRXC cards so I know that I actually have them and I'll be ready. I don't think I will have too much for tack changes during the show. Which is good, I really hate those. Four days until TRXC. 

Fall Pony Finals, English

      The next division is Fall Pony Finals was the English division. I started out the division with 3 cross country entries. So far, the largest class of the day. 

Izaak owned by Joan Fauteux

Tuesday Afternoon owned by Nancy Timm

Properly Ridiculous owned by Morgan Hudon

      Next up was the Hunter/Jumper class. There were 4 entries in this class and it was incredibly hard to judge. All of the entries had miniscule flaws. So there was really no clear order to placing the class. I had to go back and forth for awhile until I figured out my placings. That was actually a fairly common theme for the day. 

Sentinel owned by Joan Fauteux

Levi Smartchick owned by Ronnie Bartholomew

Tuesday Afternoon owned by Nancy Timm

  

SRF Denali owned by Donna Gruhn

Nancy put this guy up in the games class. He was funny and cute. 

No Bones About It owned by Nancy Timm

     For real entries I had 4 again. And as with the Hunter/Jumper class it was not clear cut which way to place them. 

SRF Picture Perfect owned by Donna Gruhn

Tuesday Afternoon owned by Nancy Timm

Levi Smartchick owned by Ronnie Bartholomew

Properly Ridiculous owned by Morgan Hudon

     Arena Trail was enormous with 5 entries. Did I mention they were, again, 5 excellent entries? 

William owned by Joan Fauteux

Tuesday Afternoon owned by Nancy Timm

SRF Denali owned by Donna Gruhn

Levi Smartchick owned by Ronnie Bartholomew

SRF Picture Perfect owned by Donna Gruhn

     Pleasure was somewhat easier to place, but not much really. 

SRF Picture Perfect owned by Donna Gruhn

William owned by Joan Fauteux

Livi Smartchick owned by Ronnie Bartholomew

SRF Denali owned by Donna Gruhn

Tuesday Afternoon owned by Nancy Timm

     The Other English class was cool as well. And there were plenty of dogs!

William owned by Joan Fauteux

Tuesday Afternoon owned by Nancy Timm

SRF Picture Perfect owned by Donna Gruhn

    In the end Nancy Timm's horse Tuesday Afternoon got champion. Joan's horse William got reserve but the photo didn't load properly and I spent WAY too much time already fixing the order. Blogger doesn't like to add them in the order I put them in. 

Tuesday Afternoon owned by Nancy Timm

      I still have 3 more divisions from Fall Pony Finals but I figured I would share pics from one division a day and some updates on my TRXC madness. Because there is definitely madness over here. I got my endurance setup just about finished now. 

I still need to make a sponge on a string but other than that I think it's done. 

     I also got started on my Abby project. The first step was to cut the long floppy ears away from the head, heat them up and move them up. Abby was not a droopy eared kind of dog.

     I also realized I needed to just remake the ears, leaving a base to support them. So I trimmed some more. 

     And I gave her some new, proper Abby ears. And some forehead wrinkles because she needed them. I Also sculpted in some cheeks where there were holes from the dremel work. But my new tiny Abby is coming along. I am going to let her ears cure for awhile and then hopefully I can get her in primer and a black basecoat. It rained all day yesterday but later today it should be clear. Not warm, but not raining. 

    I also got the last western pleasure doll finished from the batch I was working on last week. And since I sold a cowboy at Fall Pony Finals I decided I would make a couple more. I got this guy finished so one to go. I also have another western pleasure doll in the works. I finished up a pair of ladies cutting chaps and I have another partly done. After I finish the dolls I am not sure what I will work on next. Or how much time I will have. Five days until TRXC.