Yes, I AM Alive!

A lot of things have been happening lately, so I'll just number stuff in order of when I think of them.
1. The soccer game from 2 weeks ago we tied 0-0, and this last one we didn't play because the field was like a big pool. It is better that way, since I believe I pulled my muscle (that was last Thursday) and I cannot run too fast without feeling it, and I also cannot kick without feeling it. One of my friends told me that it would take 2-3 weeks  to heal. I hope there are subs next game.
2. I HAVE FOUND MY POWER ANIMAL! Basically, I am reading Northern Lights (more popularly known as "The Golden Compass") and it has daemons, which are basically shape- shifting animals that are your soul (I wish I had one). So today my teacher comes up to us and says that we are going to discover what our daemon would be. My vision was a little odd. Basically, this giant duck came up to me. He was skippping, half flying and half walking. He said "I want to be your daemon" to me, and then stared at me with big black beady eyes for like a whole minute. This sage also came up to me and showed me a beautifully colored blue stone and a plant that looked like a baby bean stock. It was fun. Oh yeah, and I knew my duck was a boy because he had a boy duck's coloring :) Here is a photo:

Look at those intelligent eyes! I actually don't think he would be a bad daemon to have, I'll have to see if I can come up with a good name.

3. I submitted my cross- country photo that I did for that major competition... I hope I do well. Just in case you don't remember, here it is:

I don't know if the judge will notice that the grass is a bit too high, and if she does, I hope she doesn't take it as a really major factor. But I am up to some REALLY serious collectors in the category 17 and under, so yeah. There's no guarantees of anything.
4. Remember my custom horse that failed? Well, I've decided that I will not be painting him a darker dapple grey. He will be a decorator, which means that he will be an unrealistic color. I will not be revealing it, though :) Hopefully I will get him done soon so that you won't be left in the dark for long.
5. I have completely re- made my bed!

The only difference is that all my stuffed animals (who have been stuffed in a box on top of my book shelf) have come out! The last time I had my bed like this was like a year ago. I love all my stuffed animals. And yes, some of them are wearing hand- made blankets and two of them are ugly dolls made by myself. I have no original ugly dolls.
6. Look who I found along with all my stuffed animals!

This is Kona, the Bella Sara horse. I had an old zebra that was about to get thrown away and turned it into this. I repainted all his stripes, gave him a new longer mane, a tail, and even two horns! Shortly after his making one of his horns was ripped of by Monkey, so that's why one is missing. I had forgotten about this guy altogether until I found him. Here is a picture of the original kona:

Look alike? Yeah, before I was pretty obsessed with him, and I do still like him, but I don't know where to put him. Right now he is lying where Miranda was, but I think he'll move somewhere else sometime.
7. Look who has a stand now!

Yes, Mom came back from America and brought the stand back! Then we had to go through the whole process of taking the little stick that was stuck in her foot out, and that was no easy task. We tried just pulling it out with several materials, and then we resorted to putting her leg into boiled water. THAT was when she could pull it out. I'm SUPER happy! She is now living in her stall again since she's finished her photo shoot, as stated before. I hope I actually earn something there, even if it is only a little bit of advice from the judge! The results are supposed to be in on September 2nd, I believe.
8. That is basically all I can think of right now... I might think of something else and post it tomorrow!
9. To the random picture!

It is named "Clones" and of course is by the same person. I still have a few more comics left! I really like this one, I wonder what the ponies and horses will do after this encounter?

Stuff from this Last Week

Not much has been going on lately... it's school, you know? We've already started on our design unit and have been analyzing (or should I say "analysing", I got "analyse" wrong on my spelling test because I spelled it "analyze", the American way) some products such as this sink and toilet put together (don't ask), Australian bills, a clothes hanger (for drying), and a bike helmet. I think I'm okay at that stuff. I still think this is going to be a hard topic, though. I have absolutely no idea what I would design or re- design. So that's about that.

Yesterday we also got our sixth grade graduation shirts and sweaters (or jumpers, should I say?). There is a little bit of a story behind that. Every year our teacher lets some kids who want to submit T- shirt designs (hey, I already designed something this year!) for the T- shirts. Then the whole sixth grade votes for the design it likes most and that ends up on the T- shirt. This was my entry (to the left):
Uhu. You're seeing that right. That is a dead horse jumping over a fence. I'll tell you how it went: I was just hanging around the library, looking for something to draw, when Guinea Pigs says "You can draw a dead horse jumping over a fence!"
So I did and I showed it to her and she liked it. Maybe a week or two later this T- shirt competition comes up and I'm thinking of what to draw when, all of a sudden, I think: "The dead horse jumping over the fence!" So I add the words and give it to my teacher. She gives me a funny look but takes it anyways. After a few weeks or something it is time to show the designs. All the other ones are shown before mine. Honestly, I wasn't really expecting it to be popular, first because it had a dead horse on the front, second because they were also liking the other designs, but look what happened: my teacher holds up the drawing, tells what's on it, and everybody starts yelling "YEAH!!!". It was awesome, except in the end our teacher didn't let us use it. I still think that's a funny story to tell. Yesterday I got the drawing back and everybody was eyeing it and saying "That should have been on our T- shirt." I was also going around making jokes with everyone with how the parents would be like if we did have that design on the shirts.
I don't really mind that my design didn't make it: I just drew it to please my friend, and then submitted it on a whim. It was a big uproar, though. And please don't think I'm weird... because I just said that I did that drawing for fun. I have a different humor, you know?
That was all I really had to say. On to the random picture:

I love this one. I don't get the Beddy Bye Eyes thing, but anyways... still FUNNY! Just when you thought the shelves were safe...

School Just Started!

Yes! School has started again! This morning I just was talking with my friends when I suddenly remembered that we had passed the middle of the school year and started bouncing up and down. Yup. Only 2 more terms  to go (seriously, time flies)! I have discovered some things today:
1. Almost every single one of my friends have had a dream with me in it. One saw me getting jumped on by dogs. Another was saved by me from jumping into a volcano. Another saw me just standing there screaming when the whole class was trying to assassinate her. Yup. I am flattered.
2. I am actually really good at sports that I thought I wasn't! First we had a game of killer ball and I killed like three boys. Two of them are really good at that game. Two of them I also did in a row, with the same ball. I also am good at netball. My team scored a good 7 goals, 3 or 4 of them mine (according to my friend Dapples).
3. This integrated unit is SUPER hard! I actually already knew that, but still. I didn't tell you.
4. Tomorrow I am going with the rest of the class to see the movie "I am Eleven". This movie must be like one I saw about babies, with 11 year old kids from around the world (11 of them).
5. Oh yeah- my team tied 0-0. We would have won 1-0, except the ref called it an off side shot. I personally don't think it was, but anyways.
6. I also made this cute bag (still not quite finished, needs velcro):

I made it originally for carrying some horse of mine, but it isn't quite the right size. So I'm giving it to Dad. I need to finish it off sometime.

Okay, after all that stuff, the random picture of the day:

This was the first of all these comics that I saw. I thought it was super funny and investigated the rest. The My Little Ponies are saying: "...and can you believe those stuck up shelf hogs? Who cares about realistic and hand painted? Tiny and precious on the other hoof..."
If I had My Little Ponies or something like that I would make some of these, but since I don't I guess I'll just have to not do it.

Post Title

Not much to say at all. Went to the park, nearly froze to death. I would also recommend watching (BBC's) "Human Planet" series. Very cool. It involves very primitive peoples and is amazing. Highly recommended. Tomorrow is my soccer game, so I'll tell you how that went.
Finally, to the random picture of the day:

Hihi. It's by the same person. This is like my second favorite of them all. Several more to come!

The Post of the Day

Today there has been a new post! You must be getting sick of those emails. Today nothing much has happened. My sister is going to soccer practice, though. Yup. We also went to the mall because Dad randomly told us we could get a toy and look what I brought back:

This is Maya, or Daughter of Atlas. I know it is an odd show name, but anyways... it kind of suits her! She's and Andalusian filly, and Andalusians are like all- powerful. She is so cute and flawless except for a few dots here and there! Her color is either a light bay or buckskin. I put her as a light bay in my logs because I don't think Andalusians can be buckskin. She also has a large star (you can't see much of it in the picture). I also noticed that she had the detail of gloss in her nostrils- delightful!  I might make a few photos of her (just for fun, I don't care if the grass is too tall). I guess another blanket is on its way as well...
That is all there is to say today. Onto my favorite part: THE RANDOM PICTURE!

This comic is made by a person who made a whole series of comics of Breyer vs My Little Pony. This is my favorite of them all! Get it? In the description this person said:
Breyer = Medicine Hat nursing foal
My Little Pony = Tootise (er...almost)
I love that "(er... almost)". There will be more of these comics (the ones that I actually get, not the ones that make no sense to me) in the upcoming days! Hope you like them!

Today's Events

Today I had another clay lesson. This was my last day. In total I believe I made 3 pots, 1 unicorn horn, and a weird abstract art tile. All of them have been painted (glazed) and will be fired sometime soon. The tile is my favorite of them all, even though it's weird (it really is, when I get it back I will show you). Today all I really did was paint there. It was nice.
I had to babysit on Tuesday and am doing so again today. That is why I am writing so late. Babysitting my sisters isn't so hard since they go to bed at like 8:00. Usually dad leaves about 2-3 hours earlier, so all I really have to do is feed them dinner, let then watch a movie, and then put them to bed. It might sound like a big responsibility for an 11 year old, but it's actually quite easy. The only hard part is that every once in a while Dad gets here really late (like today). That's okay. It'll be harder next week, though, when I actually have school (yes, sadly vacation is ending).
What else do I have to say? Not much, I guess. Sadly today I do not have a random picture- that's because this computer won't save it so that I can upload it. Oh well... tomorrow. I can't wait to show you them all!
Sorry for no pictures... this isn't my usual computer, so it doesn't have my pictures and stuff.

There's not Much to Say...

Mom left yesterday. She will get back in two weeks. On the way to Korea, though, guess what happened? Somehow her flight was (delayed?)! She had to wait a few extra hours to be able to board her next plane. Hopefully delays like that won't happen again (it happened when she was coming back from her last trip to America, the flight was cancelled and she had to get a new one. She came back a day late).
Nothing much has happened around here. Today I had a pottery class (and will have another one tomorrow, I think). I didn't do much there because I couldn't think of anything I wanted to do. I did like three failed pots and a flat unicorn horn. That didn't  make me very happy. Luckily, though, near the end I just did a random collage thing. I at least like THAT.
I also went to Dapple's (a friend's) house and met up with Guinea Pigs there as well. We played games, went to the park, and even filmed a MOVIE there. Dapples and I filmed a movie last time I was there as well. The first was about hexbugs taking over the world (my role was a rich person with crooked sunglasses) and the second was called "The Plague". It was based on the movie "Season of the Witch". Basically a witch (which happened to be me, believe it or not) said that she wanted to kill everyone in the world and also died herself. It is about 5- 10 seconds long. I rather like it.
I DO end up saying a lot, don't I? I somehow manage to get off topic and talk about other things as well.
Talking about off- topic, look at this:

I'm making this extra- large for you so that you can appreciate the amazing detail. I wish I could paint like that and maybe one day I will...

There is also much more amazing detail than you can see on that big picture... look at that eye! It has eye whites, the pupil, as well as the colored part of the eye (I forget what it's called)! If I ever get that good at painting I will be so proud of myself! The only flaw with this coloring is that Arabs can't be buckskin... and even then maybe you could pull it off with a light bay (although maybe not, you'd probably have to show it as a cross).

More Stuff of Life

Mom is going away tomorrow... NOOOOOO!!!!!! Oh well. It's just a pain, though. I miss... MOM... Yup.

Here is a little something I did yesterday afternoon...

Remember this guy? They kind of look alike, right? Mine doesn't have a breed assigned to it, though. It's just like one of my drawings: random and with no breed intended. I'm fine with that. I don't care. It's cool! It is also very small. I did that on purpose, I didn't want to mess up and have a really big loss of clay (it's kind of hard and expensive to get here, I got a really good deal on the clay I have now). I realize there are also some obvious (proportional?) problems with this (well, really only one, the front part of the face is to big), but I think it's pretty good :)
The Disney on Ice was really cool... the topic was celebrations. First they had your birthday, then Halloween, and then Christmas. In between Halloween and Christmas there was also this little session where they travelled to Japan and China and some other places. At least there weren't any high pitched singing mermaids (it's true Guinea Pigs, there weren't). And last, a random picture:

Just for fun. Yup.

The Beach of DEATH!!!!

Yesterday we went to a beach. Obviously not to swim, since it's the winter here (I'm not joking)! I call it the beach of death because we found three dead animals: a penguin, an eel, and a possum. Yup. Apparently the water is very acidic, so more fish die. But it was a cool beach. I took this picture there (look to the side):
I call it Mary's Travels. The horse isn't mine, though. There was this giant hill there so I just thought that this would be a cool picture to take. So yeah.
Today there was a soccer game- we won 3-0! First half I was a weird mid-field/ defender position, and second I was goalie. That went okay. There would have been four goals, except that the fourth was off- side, so oh well.
Mom and I also went outside after the soccer game to do some photography. The photography was of a model horse with model horse tack on approaching a model horse- sized jump. Yup! You guessed it: we took some pictures for the photo show! These might just be test pictures, since the grass might be noticeably too tall (even if I DID cut it with scissors).

So here is the picture that I think is the best. Sad thing is, the grass IS too long. That is going to pose a problem. Anybody know how to edit a photo so it looks like the grass is shorter? I wish (but seriously- if you do, tell me). Mom and I are going to have to buy some fake grass or something. Oh well. The deadline IS the 1st of August. But still. As I said before, Mom is leaving Tuesday, and I want to have this done as soon as I can (I didn't say that last part). So that's it for that. If you really know how to edit the image so that the grass looks shorter, please tell me- I'm going to see if I can do something myself!
Also, remember that custom I showed you a few days ago that I wasn't very happy with? I think what I'm going to do with him is paint him a darker grey, like this:

I haven't started yet, and don't know when I will. I guess when I start feeling like doing it again. That might take a while.
Tonight we are going to this show called Disney on Ice. Hopefully that will be good. Monkey was saying that she wanted to skate and Mom was saying that we were only watching. She got all mad.
That's all I have to say! Random picture:

I want to make on of these sculptures sometime!

The Stuff of Life

Finally! A new post title. This IS stuff of life. Today it is mostly horsie stuff, though. I'll start with the non- horse stuff, though. It is the weekend now, and Mom is taking a day off on Monday. Then on Tuesday she goes bye- bye again. This time it's for TWO weeks, though. First she will go to Korea, then California, then stay in Denver. Then she'll come home. One week was worse enough. Not TWO!
Onto the horsie stuff! First:

I forgot to show you my wardrobe :) I finally remembered. So here it is. One of the posters I like is at the way bottom right- hand corner. The shirt on the guy says "Oi Poms, keep your hands off our girl!" I love it. Just in case you don't get it, "pom" refers to an english person. It comes from immigration.

I think you know what this project is- the blankets! I have them all colored and all they need to be done is some velcro. I know that some of them are blank, and that's on purpose. I had an incident with a blanket and Miranda that I do not wish to repeat (the sharpie soaked into the plastic and made it blue, I had to use a magic eraser to get it off). They are all very cute and I like the colors I chose.

I wonder what you're thinking when you see this photo. Definitely not what it is. My dear Miranda is entering a model horse SHOW! By the actual Breyer company, too. I repainted her eyes to make them look more realistic (before they were just black), researched all the pieces of tack (saddle, reins, bridle, bit, wraps, bell boots, and splint boots), and I also researched (in the way beginning) if arabians could do cross country. Of course my baby girl could. I'm trying to make this as realistic as I can. Did you notice that the reins are floating in mid- air? They're meant to look like someone's holding them.

And this? This is a cross- country jump. Made by me :) I really hope the picture turns out well and the judge will understand that this is my first show. I am also going to ask for some feedback. I am really happy right now! I just need to correct a few little things on the jump and find a good place to take a picture. I think I will also be taking scissors with me so that I can cut the grass really short in the picture. Scale will always be a pain (since these horses are so much smaller than we are!).

Yes... I HAVE Been Lazy

Yup. A random picture of a random bird (yes, I got a BIRDY pen!!). Sorry for not writing at all. I'll just write the recent events as they come up in my head.
1. A few days ago we were returning some library stuff when we passed a lady feeding POSSUMS! They were wild, but we got to pet them and everything! First a kangaroo, and now a possum... I wonder what's next?
2.Today we watched Ice Age 4: Continental Drift. Funny movie. I love Sid's grandma :)
3. Look at my masterpiece (next picture)!

Fully painted, she is (Yoda...)! I am very proud of my girl. Her name is Gabrielle, or "Strength from the Skies". Often model horse collectors give their horses show names (not that I can bring my girl to a show, she isn't good enough). But I am so PROUD of her! I love her! She is so beautiful! More pictures:

 Her head (oh my, what beautiful eyes she has! I tried to put in as much detail as I could)!

Guess where that signature came from! MMM, for M2A's Magical Mounts! All custom artists always sign their horses. I am so happy with her! She couldn't have turned out better.
Onto next project:

I am not very happy with him. That is why I am giving him a second chance and calling him unfinished. If any of you have read my dapples post, you guys should know that his dapples are not right... AT ALL. I kind of screwed up and painted them too dark. I will be merciful and try to give him better dapples. I also will shade him (I got kind of frustrated after his dapples, so I stopped working on him). Hopefully you will be seeing a different picture of him soon.
One more project:

I am being a good owner and keeping all my horsies warm! Their blankets aren't done yet, but oh well. They will be soon. Oh, and by the way, before anybody thinks that I'm totally crazy, all of those horses aren't mine. Some of them are my sisters' :) I went along and just started a blanket without asking them, so hopefully they'll be pleased. Oh, and the rider guy in the background is from breyer. When I was little I got him in a playset and left him to fate in the barbie box (dun, dun, DUN). A few weeks ago I discovered him again and found his jacket too. But sadly, not his pants. I'll have to make him some soon, the poor guy.
If you're wondering about the arabian costume, I am not working on it. But that doesn't mean that I won't some other time. With me and my projects, you'll never know when I'll finish them- I've been working on a single story for some 4 years now (re- writing it, over and over)!
For future projects I have just gotten some fabric so that I can make little carrying pouches for some of my horses. Not all of them, just because I fit that much into my hand- luggage. Only some. I am also (already?) planning to make some for Cat's birthday (which is in November, FYI), for her own interests. Yes, I do kind of like planning presents and stuff early (I started thinking about my birthday in September last month!).
So yup. I did write a Horses post yesterday so read that if you're interested (under this post or in the Horses section)!
Also still accepting entries for the emailing list (which I have gotten no requests for- what does this tell me?). I'll have to send an email about that tonight (I like writing on this thing!).

Model Horse Terms

The horses part of my blog isn't JUST for real horses- why not throw in model horses as well? Today I'll just list all the model horse terms I know so far.

LSQ- Live show quality. There is such a thing as showing model horses to get rosettes and so on.

PSQ- Photo show quality. Basically like live showing, except with pictures of the horse.

NSQ- Not show quality, meaning it has marks that are very noticeable. I think it basically means shelf quality.

SQ- Shelf quality, meaning that it isn't live show quality, but that it still looks nice on a shelf. Most model horses come this way.

BQ- I kind of made this one up: Body quality, basically meaning that the horse has huge seam splits, a terrible paint job, and it would just look nicer if you just re-did the whole thing. Body quality horses are the horses that people usually use to customize.

And since I cannot put up a post without a picture, here is one:

I think this is like the biggest model horse show in like the world. As you can tell, it is called the North American Model Horse Shows Association. You have to pay a lot of money to show there, so you have to be an experienced shower, but it is often worth it because you get special ribbons and stuff. The horses that place first in these shows get a giant ribbon and a wooden plate thingie with a beautiful horse carving on it. Well, not a carving. But anyways. I would have put a picture up, but I can't find one that I can save. Sorry.