Bridle Tree Barn Raising Challenge 2022

 

So on 2021 I tried doing a stablemate barn for my models. I had high hopes, but it did not work out for me. See here. 

My barn is still in pieces and I am going to try to take the month of December to get it together - Literally!

It is different to work on buildings and not model horses. I find buildings harder to work on and I have a block for some reason to work on it. 

I put the barn aside and started on an "arena" idea I had for it. And I got none of it completed. 

I was sick December 28-31 with who knows what and I just never even looked at this. Maybe next year I will get it done - challenge or not! 

Bury your poverty, dig up your wealth 2022-2023

It's New Year's Eve 2023!! It's time to Bury your Poverty and Dig up your wealth! 

I "stole" this concept from a fellow model horse collector, Chris Wallbruch, and I tried it in 2013 and it was an OK year overall.

I tried it again in 2014 and while it was a rough year - this DID work for me. 

I did this in 2015 and while the end of the year was not what I expected - it was a very good year overall - I still had income after I had been let go from a job and I was very glad to not be homeless. 

2016 was just a bitch and while I had no great windfall I have always had the funds to pay what needed to be paid. 

2017 I managed to get a little more than I needed, but again no windfall. 

2018 I have had a very good year - no windfall- but all the bills paid and I actually have $10 in my savings account (This is saying something considering I have had a $0 balance for a while). 

2019 brought a lot of change in aspects of my life and while again no windfall, I have managed to pay my bills (a little late sometimes) but again I have money in savings and a money market now! 

2020 was a suck year with the Coronavirus, the East Troublesome Fire Thompson zone, Cameron Peak Fire and so much more - but I was given a gift of money to get a new rental home, pay my bills - all on time, help with my evacuation and pay for the things that I wanted and needed and overtime at work. I have to say that I have been helped this year more than any other and I am so very grateful. 

2021 has been the most generous and not so generous year to me. I struggled still from the Coronavirus issues like the rest of the world. I busted my butt at a job that did not appreciate me, I traveled, paid my bills and in October, lost my step-dad. I then proceeded to get a job that actually makes me feel appreciated and pays me well. It feels unbelievable, but I am SO grateful! This year, my cup hath runneth over. It may not be a windfall, but it is a wage and environment that is positive and good for me and that's better than the largest lottery win. 

2022 was a life changing year. I left that job in April that I thought was so great, took the whole month of May to find something, cashed out some retirement accounts and things, before starting a new position that ended up not being great in the sense of money but was awesome in the sense of friendships and the wealth of knowledge that I gained. I bought a 4 wheel drive truck in February and kept my other truck as well. I was able to travel and to do somethings that I wanted too. I got another job in October and I am liking it and the benefits. It was a still a struggle of a year, but I am grateful for everything and feeling good about digging up my wealth in 2023. 

It is time to bury your poverty!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this tradition, what you do is bury a dollar (or any amount above a dollar that you want) in the soil on New Year's Eve.

This can be in a houseplant if the ground is frozen or inaccessible, but I like to go outside, dig a hole, and drop my dollar in. (I put it in a plastic bag). As you bury said dollar, say out loud, "I am burying my poverty!" TIP - if you do this outside, make sure you place some sort of marker where you bury your buck so that you can find it again!

On New Year's Day, dig UP the dollar, and as you do so, say out loud, "I am unburying my wealth!"

You can't spend the money - you can either keep it or give it away to charity. Giving it away is the best so you are less likely to spend it. For me, each year I have given the $1 to a local Estes Park charity. This year I hope to be able to bury more than $1 and give the local EP Charity more $$ when I dig it up.  

This tradition is supposed to give you an unexpected windfall of money during the year.

I have had money come to me over the years I have done this and I have always had money that helped me out of tough times so I am NOT complaining.

It is a tradition I plan on keeping every year and I thank Chris for pointing me to it!! Go bury that poverty and dig up your wealth! 

Dig up your wealth!

Overwhelming not Failing at Art

I was frustrated this year (2022) because I couldn't seem to complete the monthly challenges I was trying to do and I kept thinking I was failing. Then I realized - I wasn't failing, I have given myself 30 days to do really tough and overwhelming projects that I have never tried before. 

Instead of going to my easy go-to paint jobs that I always do for monthly challenges, I was choosing really hard projects for myself, but I wasn't accomplishing them due to the fact I left my 7-4 M-F job in April and took on a retail job that had me working 50+ hours a week, plus my volunteering. 

I was unable to complete my April Earth Day design, my April Tack month, May Celebrating Moms, June Celebrating Dads, July Summertime, August Cats and Dogs. I was so angry with myself. Then I realized something, I was trying to do major projects around working and volunteering so much. 

I finally completed my May Celebrating Moms on September 1, 2022. They were the Kitty Cantrell Mini Pegasus Mare and foal - I followed Stephanie Blaylock's painting techniques and did them. They were the most detailed work I have ever done I think and I am pleased with them. So I didn't fail - I just got delayed. 

I then completed my April Earth Day Challenge Piece. It was a Buffalo head that I did some rescultping on and painted to look like it was coming from the water and earth. I had started this piece in April and I couldn't figure out how I wanted to show the earth and then finally in September, when I had a moment, it came to me and I managed to finish it in a day and a half! 

I then managed to complete my August Challenge of Cats & Dogs with my Cheshire Cat - this resin cat reminded me of the Cheshire Cat. I had him finished but not his prop, so I didn't think it was complete until that was done. Here he is  - completed on September 24 with his mushroom. 

My September Theme for Autumnal Equinox was completed on October 12 as I was still struggling with being behind and I had to order special items for it, then again the job I was working made it difficult to have time to do things. 

My June Theme was Celebrating Dads and I totally overwhelmed myself with sculpting and doing both Takeshi and Toshi! Completed November 11, 2022. 

My July - Summertime challenge - I never came up with anything that I wanted to do. I had ideas and I never even pulled out a model to move forward with it. And it's alright that I missed one. 

I am glad for the journey and the learning and now I am working on things each month. I completed my October challenge in the month of October and my November Challenge in November! So I am getting there! I found that I just didn't want to slap something together, I wanted to do better work too. And with my December challenge now complete - I just know that I have been overwhelming myself and I have to pick and plan a little better. I have to set time aside to do art work and to enjoy the process, but I can do it. 

Model Horse and Action Figure Monthly Art Challenge - December 2022

I decided to just do winter because there are so many holidays and I didn't really want to offend anyone. And winter in the Rockies is beautiful. though not always snowy in town.  I love the mountains with snow on them. It's beautiful to see, just not to drive in 😆.

Now to decide on the project. 

I started with the new Loping Stablemate Morgan and added some 3-D printed wings that I got online and don't recall from where or whom. 

The wings were horribly hard to put on compared to the now defunct Abbey Inc Studio resin wings. I had to glue/backing soda them, THEN wrap blue tape for over a week around the horse to get them to secure. 

After I took the blue tape off, I sculpted onto the wings and added a new mane and forelack and extra to the tail. 

Then he sat for a few days. Finally, I thought of what I love about winter in Colorado. I love the Alpenglow on the mountains - the glittery pinkish color. That's when I decided to use my color shifting paints and create something fun that fit the Alpenglow of winter in my mind.

Estes Valley Library - Laser Cutting Training Class

 

December 23, 2022, I did the Estes Valley Library - Laser Cutting Training Class.

For me, this was a refresher really. I had taken the Making Laser Engraved Wax Seals class, and this used the laser cutter. 

It was great to get the refresher and then we were making christmas Ornaments out of colored acrylic. 

The class followed the same rules as the Wax Seal class, requiring us to use Adobe Illustrator (the bane of my existence really) - I love all Adobe products EXCEPT Illustrator. 

Making our layout and sending it to the laser printer. The laser printer at the library can laser a lot of different media items and I plan on using it in 2023 A LOT! 

We were each given a packet of samples of the types of items the laser cutter can use. 

My ornament ended up being the "Bloody Ponoe" that Debra Omel created for my American Heartland Live Show Series from 2007-2011. It is a copy righted design that 4 people are allowed to use (Debra, of course, Carra McClelland, Morgan Haberman and myself).

It came out quite lovely. I was going to try my logo, but I didn't bring a large enough image with me. 

I can't wait to try more with the laser cutter! 

Estes Valley Library - Robots and Tech: Solder for a Light Up Tree

 

December 17, 2022 brought the Estes Valley Library - Robots and Tech: Solder for a Light Up Tree class. I was very excited for this after my ornament - because I wanted to redeem myself for having 1 light that didn't blink on my soldering ornament. 

Sometimes bad luck likes to search me out and it comes in 3's. First I was 7 minutes late due to a tourist jam - tourists literally standing in the middle of the road not moving for anyone and no idea why as there was no wildlife in the area. Second, this was a teen and adult class and someone saw fit to bring their five year old and that child seemed to be babysat by myself or the instructor, not by the parent. Third. the child was carrying around the demo trees and since the instructor was busy having to babysit and trying to help people, I wasn't able to see the demo and my tree got put together wrong so only part of it lit up. I was just going to get another kit and try it some other day, but the instructor took my tree and gave me one of the demos that was working, because she felt badly that I didn't get the instruction that the other people did.

The library does great with their classes and we had everything that we needed to start our tree - they had even put the main pieces on the tree that are the circuit creators. We had to solder each and every bulb (once on the front, twice on the back) then put the tree together (this is where i didn't get to see a demo and put postive/negative next to each other and it was supposed to be positive on one side and negative on the other so that when you soldered it to the base that made it light up all the way around. 

After soldering to the base you had to screw on the battery housing and connect the battery wires to the base. Then put in batteries and light the tree up. 

This required so much soldering and it was a good lesson in making sure your points were soldered well and connected well. I was pleased with my solder points and other than the error of not understanding the way the tree was being put together - this was a fun and exciting class and I would do something like it again.  

YMCA Ceramic Class

 December 8, 2022 brought Ceramics night at the YMCA! This was fun because we were able to choose an item that added up to $20. I chose 3 ornaments since it was Christmas time. 

The paints are ceramic specific and require several layers to come out correctly. 

Doing the back of the ornaments. 

Working on the fronts

The tub of glaze for the ceramics. 

The Kiln. 

And Finally, the completed and glazed and fired ornaments. 

Estes Valley Library - 3D Printer Training Class

 

December 16, 2022 brought the Estes Valley Library - 3D Printer Training Class. I was very excited for this because of the current trend in the Model Horse hobby for 3D printed horses. 

We were given a work book of how to use it and Barbara Jo (the instructor) went through it. Then we got on a website and of course I picked a HORSE 😆

And then we got to print - We had a time limit so it had to be something small that would print in about 15 Minutes. 

So my Horse ended up between H0 and Micro scale! 

And there is my purple horse - he is missing ears because they got stuck to the supports. I thought he was pretty cool though! I can't wait to do more!