Friday, December 24, 2010

Accidental Vacation

Sorry about the unannounced vaycay - all the year-end paperwork I had planned for next week got bumped to this week, because of heavy additions to my work schedule. I also made the mistake of picking an "easy" project to make for Mom’s Christmas present this year:


French-beaded Marigolds.

My original intent was to make a Christmas Tree, but I thought the Marigolds would be less time-consuming. Ha! You’d think I’d know myself by now.

(And no, I’m not taking orders. I'm still in the "gifts to family and friends" stage. Quilts, I'm willing to discuss.)

Looks like I’m going to get stuck with my Grab Bag leftovers for a least a couple of months - have you seen the race to the bottom the prices took on MH$P? I don’t necessarily think its reflective of a lack of demand for any of these models in particular, it’s more a matter of lots of people being desperate to unload, no matter the cost. I guess I can wait - I’ve got room in the sales boxes, and if all else fails, I can always move them out at BreyerFest. It’ll be a non-NAN year, and I’ve found that you get a higher percentage of offline, low-information or lower intensity hobbyists who wouldn’t have had the knowledge, means or opportunity to take advantage of the deal in the first place.

If anyone wants to make a modest offer on anything in the meantime, though, be my guest.

I don’t know what to make of the random awesome goodies some people got in their Grab Bags. Was it an intentional thing to get us stoked for the next round of Grab Bags, or another one of those "blame it on the intern" type of mistakes? The former seems more likely than the latter, since I don’t doubt we’ll have at least one more Grab Bag dump before BreyerFest next year. There are just too many things floating in the warehouse that didn’t make an appearance in this round. (Why no Pink Poodles?)

I’m all talked out of this Grab Bag topic. Let’s move on to something else.

It’s nice to see that the "one gloss set per case" on the new Giselle and Gilen has been confirmed as a year-long thing. I'd love to have a set, but I was in no mood for more mall crawling, especially this time of year.

I do wonder how long it’ll take the rest of the hobby to find this news - or if they'll even "discover" it at all? I’ve been doing a lot of lurking lately, and I’m a little appalled at both the quality of news being distributed, and the unevenness of the distribution.

You know what this hobby needs? A good, all-purpose, nondenominational news hub. Not a list of links, terms and general information, but honest to goodness news. When things are getting released, contest/entry deadlines, live show and club events by region, artist announcements/open houses, etc. and so on. I do plan on expanding my Internet "presence" next year, so maybe I’ll pencil "…and establish an online model horse news network" on the bottom of the to-do list.

More tomorrow, after I finish unwrapping and assembling the presents. (Including a comfy new office chair! Yay!)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do always enjoy getting told "NUH UH YOU'RE WRONG PRICES WILL BE AWESOME" every time I mention on blab that I'm not going to buy a grab bag because the duplicates will flood the market and severely depress prices. Y'know, because I'm only right every time. Basic supply and demand, people.

ANDREA said...

I am the Sparkle Magic Princess of Cheapness, but the prices dropped too hard and too fast this time around for me to even bother.

I hate to sell NIB/possible LSQ horses for body prices, because I'm an OF girl, and I'd prefer to sell it to someone who wants it OF. Even if it does take a few extra months to make it so.

The lack of variety in the Grab Bags this year didn't help either. Kinda hard to sell or swap when everyone wants to sell or swap the same horses.

Anonymous said...

When was it announced that the mare and foal set [glossy Valentine and Heartbreaker] would be available all year? [1 per 12]

Unknown said...

hey! Id love to see some of your quilts! can you post photos some time? ( as you can see im a bit behind in blog reading hence the late post on here. I used to make quilts myself and I wish I had room and time to make a few .. Id love to have one for my bed.. the last one I made I did on the fly all by hand about 6 years ago.. it was small for my brand new granddaughter and it was lol .. ah hell it was awful I used 3 different kinds of material.. some of that really super soft slightly fuzzy stuff that has little bumps all over it ..like indents reversed? its made for baby stuff.. then I used a really pretty soft yellow kind of velour? it wasn't quite but kind of.. and another soft type material. the bugger was that yellow stuff. it was so slippery on the back side that Id cut it and when I was done it was crooked! how the heck did that happen? weird.. then even pinning it in squares somehow they all evened up not quote square.. so the whole thing was wider on one end than the other but hat the hell.. it was for a baby and she wouldnt care.. it was soft and warn and that was the point and grandma made it for her by hand! no sewing machine! ( I do have one though!) lol.. I think I have a photo of the quilt someplace..I should find it.. lol.. anyways.. I have made a few nice quilts in my day and my grandma taught me.. my first one was when I was first pregnant with my son and first child.. in the late 70's .. I used all kinds of old material she had some of which had good memories for me..like one was a dress my mom wore alot when I was little that I always liked one was form a great gramdma dress material ( I lived with her during the last half my pregnancy) and so I did a queen size quilt in all 3x3 inch squares for my first quilt.. and it turned out really nice.. one side was a soft flannel ( I love them with flannel on one side.. I had it until it literally fell apart form use.. about 20 years later! lol I loved that quilt! anyways.. I have made a few since then even for my dogs! and she made some really nice ones for my kids when they were babies and their kids too! and they still have them.. as heirlooms.. grandma is now 90! although since about 2 years ago she cant quilt anymore.. she wants to but she has no energy for it.. her heart is weak ..but she taught me so much besides quilting.. like cooking, gardening and her and mom got me paintings as a kid.. so it runs in the family.. anyways.. Id love to see your quilts.. I may want you to make me one some day.. ever make an art quilt? I have seen some of the most beautiful ones..I thought were paintings! Id love to do that sometimes.. lol yea right.. keep up the good work and happy new year to you! love the blog!
Rebecca Turner
www.solticeartstudio.blogspot.com