The Reasons Why I Did Not Post From Thursday Till Now...

....and those reasons would be in the form of two very small white things. Before I get into that, I will be back in the am with a 'normal' Worst of post, I promise. 

However, this is just too darn entertaining NOT to share. :D

Thursday & Friday I worked close/open back to back shifts. Didn't get home till nearly 11pm Thursday, had to be back at 8:45am Friday. This normally wouldn't be an issue except I have this wonderful thing called Insomnia. Many, many of you are on intimate relations with that bedfellow, and he's not very fun. So, by the time I was off the clock Friday afternoon, with having to go to the grocery store and a few other after work things - I was about ready to fall asleep standing up Friday night. In all honesty, trying to get a blog post out Friday was just too much to think about. 

Now, I am also starting to get involved in the model horse hobby (Breyers), and I purchased from a industry classified ad website a lot of Breyer horse bodies that were in various stages of being cut apart and put back together again. It was cheap, and just what I wanted to practice on. The box arrived Tuesday and I was just itching to get my hands dirty with them. 

Between working on that (see more below), a very unexpected surprise at 2 am Saturday/Sunday morning, and my two kids spending nearly the entire weekend playing on my computer (yea, I never get weekend computer time anymore.) - I leave you to the blog post I wrote up for my other blog, faraetaildreamsart.blogspot.com. 

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I've been invaded by small white things - some fluffy and some smooth. 

That obviously would be the fluffy white thing. This is KohKoh. I think thats her name anyways. The kids change their mind every other second, but thats what they keep going back too. (Better than Muffins or Cupcake!)

Yes, the time on the picture is correct. See, a couple of days ago the boyfriend tells me to come outside to go see something. I'm up watching tv due to insomnia, and figured why the heck not. Cooler outside than inside anyways.

He grabs a small can of wet cat food, and sets it outside in our open carport. After a short wait, this is what comes scampering out from under his Dodge Truck.

We live in an area chock full with half feral and otherwise 'tame' cats that roam the neighborhood - kittens are fairly commonplace.

What is NOT commonplace is for one of those feral kittens to walk right up to a human as careless as you please and start asking for attention! Which, coincidently, is just about what this one did. 

We watch it demolish half of the small pop-top can and the Boyfriend wonders out loud if we can pick it up. I look at him, smirk, walk over to it, and scoop it right up, thank you very much. (I come from a LONG line of female cat-whisperers!). It doesn't fight, just settles right in, starts rubbing its tiny nose on my chin and neck, and starts purring as loudly as it can. 

Eya. 

I need another cat like I need another hole in the head. However, one little affectionate nose rub and that was it. Thats all it took. I was done in - hook, line, and sinker. 

The Princess on the Purple Pillow is here to stay, Methinks. KohKoh, meet the world. World, meet KohKoh.

Well, maybe after she wakes up.

For those interested in total gut wrenching cuteness, here is a link to a nearly 10 minute video of her playing on our living room floor. The kids in the background are both mine and the boyfriends. (The girl's legs you see with the blue flowered shorts is my daughter, and you'll hear both my son, myself, and my boyfriend's son talking in the video.)

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The OTHER small white thing is my very first Customized Traditional Breyer!

The box of bodies I bought off of the MH$B arrived a few days ago, and I dove right in. 

This is the Amber stock horse foal mold. Traditional sized.

I got her in the lot nearly original, just missing her head. She had some notes written on her from Grace (the lady I purchased her from in the lot), but was pretty much the way you see her here. 

This was my very first venture into Customizing Breyers. I had NO idea what I was doing, but with some helpful guides, and lots of reading online, I think I managed to do Ok.

I removed her tail, and cut some more slits in her neck. After I cut the slits, I took a (KIDS DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME) long handled lighter, and pretty much set her neck on fire. I *know* you are supposed to heat them with a heat gun or other forms of non-flame heat, but it was all I had at the time, since I have to do this outside. Thats her head there by my fingers.

While the neck was hot, I moved it a little bit more off to the side, so she'd be looking almost all the way behind her. While I was at it, I needed to reposition that right ear, so off it went.

{Edit that is not on the other blog: the idea was to have a small butterfly or bird 'land' on the hip on that side, and the foal is turning around to look at it. I discarded the idea though because I'm not entirely sure yet if its allowed in live model horse shows.}

I'll interrupt here and mention that when its recommended to wear eye protection when Dremeling - do it. Those tiny little chips of plastic that fly off are not only hot, but they sure HURT when they hit your eyeball! (And yes, I now have my very own pair of safety goggles.)

So this is what the neck looked like after some Amazing Sculpt from Unbridled, Inc. (Its in the background for the unintentional product placement lol.)

Next we have a tail, and the hint of a crease down her back.
I should also mention that I cut off the original mane too.

That head was a devil to put back on. Nothing I did would keep it in place - finally I took a piece of foil and folded it so it would fit snugly into both the hollow head and neck areas, and super glued it that way. The problem was it kept slipping no matter how long I held the head in place with whatever bonding agent. Lesson learned there! Once the quick set glue cured, I was able to go back in and fill with the Amazing Sculpt. Added a tail and a mane, and reattached the ear/filled in the hole where the ear was. I turned the ear just slightly more backward.

And she becomes a he! I also added some detail to the bottom of the hooves, but don't laugh - it was my first time sculpting frogs, and while they are passable, I wouldn't consider them perfect by any means. :) I also fixed ear tips, re-sculpted the muzzle, and touched up a few tiny other spots.

And the finished colt! Lots and lots and lots of sanding later - literally 4 hours worth Sunday afternoon with 2 redbox movies. Every cranny, bump, possible pockmark, everything I could see and some I couldn't. Several (lost count at 10) thin coats of primer to cover all those leftover brown spots also. I followed Danielle Feldman's Art of Prepping DVD as closely as I could, scrubbing with Comet and sanding carefully in-between coats of primer. 

I sanded about another hour after these were taken, so the few areas where it looks to be a bit rough, aren't so much anymore. I also see now that the front leg is slightly bent more forward at the knee than would be ideal, but that would take more work to strip, fix, and re-prime and I'm not so sure I want to go that route.

I am debating on whether to try my hand at painting or try to sell as is. If I paint him, I see him as a splash black and white paint pattern - but for the first time out, I'm not so sure about the complexities of that. I haven't yet tackled painting yet - though I really want to learn how. There are other bodies in the box that need work too, that might be better 'guinea pigs' to try painting on. 

Anyone out there involved in the hobby? I'd be curious to know what you think!