Small Fortunes

I think everything is okay, so far? I’ll save the panicking for Friday afternoon, I think. 

The only thing I’m slightly worried about right now is the breed documentation. I don’t have a lot of it to do, but I tend to go overboard when researching that stuff because I don’t feel comfortable writing about a topic unless I know way more than I need to know about it. 

(This gets me in trouble because I end up sounding like I know more than I actually do, sometimes. Mostly at work, but also life in general. But I digress...)

It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to bring much – if anything – to sell, mostly because of time restraints. None of that stuff is tagged or priced anyway, and I want to prioritize tagging and packing the showstring. (Everyone is tagged: I just need to dust, touch up, pack and load.)

This is also a reason why BreyerFest Live has rarely been an option for me. Aside from the space issues, one or the other has to take priority, and sales almost always do. I have a standing reservation at the hotel, aka The Model Horse Mall, so I might as well take advantage of it! 

And while nothing is guaranteed at the Live Show, I can always make at least a little bit of money at the hotel. Coming home with less than I started is always a perk, too! This is a really big concern and source of stress right now, hence the hesitation.

Anyway, I made a quick supply run to Dollar Tree earlier in the week (tags, snacks, glue sticks, painkillers), and I found some new horses! Most of them are about what you would expect from dollar store horses, but there’s one  that’s… not bad at all, especially for something that is only a hair larger than Mini Whinnies scale!

A couple small tweaks and I would not be embarrassed at all to show him. I’m tempted to do it, except for whole “no time to finish the projects at hand” part. Heck, I barely had time to shower today...

I have said this before, but if Dollar Tree or any of the other discount chain stores somehow manage to cobble together a small assortment of decent-looking horses for cheap, they could make a small fortune from the model horse community, alone. 

My Dirty Ponies

While everyone else was plotzing about the Space Bears or Star Wars spin-offs yesterday I was having a grand old time with a big box lot of dirty ponies:

Here’s a close up to give you an idea of what I’m dealing with:

I know I am not alone here, but cleaning dirty plastic ponies is my happy place. Buying a lot like this is not about adding to or upgrading in the collection, or even about making any money off the deal, though when all is said and done I will probably make a small profit. 

I just really enjoy taking something dirty and unattractive and making it presentable and/or pretty again. In some ways it’s much like a customizer’s impulse to make something beautiful out of what they presume is less so. 

The only difference here is that instead of rejecting the original color, shape or design, I’m restoring it.

Some are already done, some are still in process, and some (like the deeply yellowed Shire, and the Proud Arabian Stallion who I’ve nicknamed “The Trainwreck”) are definitely long-term projects. 

The only one I think I might be keeping (so far) is the Clydesdale Foal, who turned out to be a Pearly underneath all that muck. The Clydesdale Foal is one of the less common vintage Pearlies, and she has rather pretty shading too, so that’s cool.

The Shire might also stay, depending on how well the de-yellowing goes. While she has some condition issues above and beyond the yellowing, her shading and dappling are so superior to my already existing Dapple Shire that it’s definitely giving me something think about.

The Old Timer has “cornflake” dappling (sparse, giant dapples), which is also a thing. On the other hand, I definitely don’t need another Dapple Gray Old Timer variation. 

The Diamond P Knockoffs are fun, but I have enough already and they will all be moving on eventually. The big standing one that seems to be an original design might stick around a little longer than the rest since I find him intriguing overall, even if his face is disturbingly serpentine. 

Zahra

When I found out about the return of the In-Between Mare, my first reaction was “I can’t believe they’re actually doing this.” 

My second reaction was “Keeping this secret is going to be next-level hard.”

My third reaction, when they finally decided what colors she’d come in as the Gambler’s Choice model, was “I guess that means I’ll be getting the Matte Dappled Palomino one, then.”

Yep:

And that’s fine. I haven’t even attempted to acquire other Vintage Club Gambler’s Choice pieces beyond the one my subscription gives me, so I certainly wasn’t going to start that nonsense now with a mold so rare that most hobbyists haven’t even seen a vintage example in person. 

Having an actual piece in hand that I can now examine at length and at my leisure, you know what she reminds me of? A Hong Kong Breyer Knockoff! 

But I don’t mean that in a negative way: my Zahra is just as well-constructed and painted as any other of my Vintage Club pieces. It’s in her awkward similarities to both the Old Mold/Proud Arabian Mare and the Family Arabian Mare, without be an exact copy of either. 

In other words, like many Knockoffs, she feels both a little familiar and also a little off. Her legs also seem a bit “knobby” in the same way a lot of Hong Kong Knockoffs are, but I think I my mind might be accentuating the knobbiness because of the other Knockoff vibes she gives off. 

As mentioned on their blog, this is the real deal, not a digital rescan: the mold was built up and around the original metal insert from 1959/1960. This also means that unlike the Traditional Alborozo, it’s now a permanent addition to Breyer’s stable of molds, which means we will be seeing her again. 

When, and in what context, I do not know. I’d like to think that they would use her sparingly to preserve her mystique, possibly only for Special Run items. 

I would forego attempts to camouflage her anatomical issues with more “normal” horse colors, though, and lean into her oddness. Personally, I’d go with either Decorator paint jobs (Christmas or otherwise) or improbable but theoretically possible realistic color combinations, like Dunalino Pintaloosa or Reverse Dappled Flaxen Liver Chestnut Roan Splash Pinto.

What’s nice about this approach is that it would roll very neatly into next year’s BreyerFest theme of “Horse of Another Color”, however they choose to execute it. (A topic I promise to get to, eventually.) 

And in case you were wondering, I’d take that Chalky Buckskin Stud Spider Appaloosa Test Piece one in a heartbeat:

The Western Horse’s Cousin

Another quiet and mostly offline weekend here, working on quilts; I finished one, and prepped a couple of others. I wasn’t so optimistic about it pre-BreyerFest, but now I think I just might make my goal of completing 20 quilts this year!

Also worth noting: the passing of fantasy writer Barry Hughart. Due to a dispute with his publisher, his output was limited to only three novels, but it is well worth the effort to seek them out. There is nothing specifically horsey about them, but I know a large chunk of hobbyists are SF/Fantasy aficionados and might appreciate the recommendation.

My only find worth mentioning this week was a Western Horse knockoff. I was momentarily excited when I entered the Salvation Army a couple days ago and saw his legs sticking out of one of the toy bins; with my other craft projects moving along at a decent pace, perhaps now is the time to stash away a body box quality Western Horse for that Christmas-themed custom that’s been on my to-do list forever?

Alas no, not yet.

That’s fine; I still had some fun cleaning him up. He was one of those models who obviously spent a lot of time in storage under less-than-ideal conditions. He wasn’t sticky, but he was definitely not pleasant to the touch. (He might not look all that great now, but you should have seen what I started with!)

And he still has his original reins and saddle after all these years, so I suppose that counts for something. That doesn’t even happen with actual Breyer Western Horses as much as we’d like.

Lots of hobbyists collect knockoffs, but other than the notorious “Diamond P” ones, I don’t actively seek them out. When I do find them, keeping them is a matter of deciding whether they are (a) historically significant in some way, or (b) are so hysterically incompetent that they make me smile. 

(You know the ones!)

Although I do consider this particular knockoff historically significant, I already have him – and one just like him, in black – so he’ll be heading to the sales list shortly.

The early history of the Western Horse and his cousins is convoluted and interesting, and I like having them around to remind me that there’s still so much to sort out about early model horse history.

Blue Box

The selection was still good when I visited “my” Tuesday Morning this afternoon – several Picassos (Bay Pinto Desatado), Foiled Agains, Pony Pouches, Don’t Look Twices (Roxy) and even a Jubilation Mule – but if there were any of the scarcer AQHA Horses present, they were long gone.

I had found some Stablemates on clearance at Meijer a couple of days prior, and a Hartland Morgan Family at a Salvation Army earlier today, so I didn’t need to buy anything to sate a “horse fix”, though that could change tomorrow, I suppose….

(That Chestnut AQHA Horse I found was an especially nice one…)

Since I’ve been on a bit of a knockoff kick, here’s another recent acquisition in that department – a NIB Blue Box Blue Ribbon Stables Thoroughbred!

I got so excited when I noticed him from a distance in my local Salvation Army – a NIB Breyer, here? – but a few more steps in the door and I saw what he really was.

But I bought him anyway, because I’ve been wanting to add a NIB Blue Box piece to my knockoff selection, and the price was right.

It would have been even better if it had been their Draft Horse – an appealing and mostly “correct” sculpt that customizes well – but the cantering Thoroughbred on its unique resting base is a very adequate substitute.

The Blue Box horses are little different from your standard knockoffs, in that it’s not the molds themselves that are being “knockoffed”, but the Breyer “brand” itself! The color scheme, the style of the box, even Blue Box logo are all very Breyer-like, as are the horses themselves…

All without actually being direct knockoffs, which I find kind of fascinating. It’s not difficult to see how that thrifty aunt or coworker who knows you like horses would pick them up for you whilst garage sailing.

(Which I always accepted with a smile, because free horses are always welcome at this house, no matter the make or model!)

Horse Crazy Knockoffs

A couple weeks ago at work were had a bit of unexpected down time, so for some strange reason we ended up amusing ourselves by looking up pictures of obscure dollar-store knock-off toys.

This inspired me to go to our local independent non-chain dollar store on the way home that day. I was not disappointed:

The new Horse Crazy knockoffs are here!

I actually really like these; they’re a little more reminiscent of opaque colored plastic BreyerFest Special Run Stablemates keychains like our little green and white swirly friend from the 2003 Mod Squad set:

http://www.identifyyourbreyer.com/images/711103.jpg

Since I have been unable to acquire many of the actual colored plastic keychains – the Mod Squad set has always hovered just outside of my price range, and I have not been fortunate enough to either win or be gifted one of those sweet swirly Test pieces – I will happily make do with these goofy little knockoffs.

I’m a little surprised that Reeves hasn’t considered reinstituting the opaque plastic for the Horse Crazy program; it seems like a technique that would be ideally suited for it. I’m guessing it’s mostly a technical issue: recycling flawed models as regrind would be problematic, to say the least.

Making some of them “swirly” might work, but it’s hard to get consistent and attractive looking swirls, which leads to more flawed models, and murkier and murkier multicolored plastic…

I wouldn’t have a problem with that – and the potential for future Basecoat Chalky Stablemates releases – but some hobbyists might, especially since Basecoats usually involve a slight loss of detail due to the nature of the paint involved. That slight loss of detail is not that noticeable on Classics and Traditionals, but on Stablemates, it could be an issue.

FAS Weathervane

The flea market was much better this week; super-busy, and filled with fun horsey things, though most of what I brought home were bodies. Not that I need them, but you never know when inspiration strikes, right?

(Like it did this past weekend, when I thought it was a good idea to go through some now-not-abandoned sewing projects.)

This little tidbit, however, was found earlier in the week at my one-stop costuming shop, shoe store, and craft supply outlet: aka the local Salvation Army store. I found a copy of the 1972/1973 Sturbridge Yankee Workshop Handbook and Catalog in the craft section, and look what I found within:

(Click to enlarge.)

Well, hello there Mr. Family Arabian Stallion! Hmm, I always assumed the term “Early American” meant 1650s or 1750s, not the 1950s, unless you’re specifically talking Model Horse History.

Here is the most interesting part of the description in the photo above; the “one man’s” name is not mentioned, by the way:

This one is a beauty, low in price only because the one man who makes it has concentrated almost entirely on making this one Arabian Horse vane.

Or maybe because he knew he was treading on thin ice re: copyright infringement, and didn’t want to push his luck? I'd also disagree with the “low in price” part: I could have gotten at least six Traditional horses back then for the price of the cheapest finish option (Dupont gilt) on this weathervane!

The Sturbridge Yankee Workshop is still around, and still making the kind of home furnishings that your grandmother loves: sturdy, comfortable, and headed straight to the Salvation Army donation truck when she downsizes from a house to that furnished condo in a retirement community.

I wouldn’t mind owning that weathervane, but as far as I can tell, it’s been discontinued and replaced with a more suitably antique-looking ones.

Pencil Sharpener Knockoffs

Here’s another horse on a different kind of base:

Mint in Box, even! Here’s a picture of the back to show you why this is Breyer-related:

The horse itself - a knockoff the Hartland Tinymite Morgan, in this case - is about half the size of a standard Stablemate.

I vaguely remember these sharpeners when they were new, ca. 1976; they were a part of the glut of antique-looking dime store merchandise manufactured to capitalize on the Bicentennial. There was a huge range of sharpeners, usually in the shape of something old or antiquated like a treadle sewing machine, gramophone, steamboat, or coffee grinder.

These sharpeners are still pretty plentiful both online and offline, though finding a boxed item is unusual. This was a little bit before people started obsessing over keeping their collectibles Mint in Box. Some of these might have actually been used as - gasp! - actual pencil sharpeners!

This one was definitely kept as a "collectible", as it was one of several pieces in a nice-sized collection at the flea market. This is the only one I bought because it was the only horse-shaped one the dealer had. Some of the nonhorse ones were kind of cute, but saw no reason to get into pencil sharpener collecting beyond the model horse knockoffs.

I’m assuming that the manufacturer decided to appropriate these molds to represent an antique horse figurine of some sort: a bookend, a pull toy, or a doorstop. The molds that were copied were far from antiques, though: the G1 Morgan Stallion and Thoroughbred Mare were just released in plastic the year before.

Hartland Tinymites were discontinued a few years earlier, but I suspect the manufacturer might have copied him from the Hong Kong knockoffs that could have still been available at the time. These sharpeners were made in Hong Kong, too, so they might have even had an example already in hand.  

Of course, the only other sharpener I had in my knockoff collection was also the Tinymite Morgan. It’s an excellent upgrade, at least!

If Reeves is looking into another way of repurposing Stablemates into a quasi-useful object, pencil sharpeners might be a fun alternative to another keychain.

Wind Dancer Knockoff

These Dollar Tree Breyer knockoffs aren’t new - they’ve been around long enough that gently worn examples are turning up in the "dollar a bag" toy bins at my local thrift stores:

If you’re having a hard time placing the face, it’s a knockoff of the Breyer Wind Dancer Sirocco, but with hard plastic wings and white nylon hair:

https://www.breyerhorses.com/sirocco

Some hobbyists have been buying them for the not-bad set of wings they come with; they’re not accurate anatomically, but for a dollar? They have potential. 

I haven’t added any real Wind Dancer items to my collection yet, other than one of the adorable little plushes they were selling super cheap at BreyerFest a few years ago. I do plan on doing so in the future: the sculpts are really nice for something specifically targeted to the younger and/or more fancifully-inclined set. With a little customizing, they'd make very passable "real" equines.

One big plus is that there are a mere seven molds, each having just a handful of releases since their introduction in 2005-2006, some of them Reissues. The only Special Runs that come to mind were the ones made for Walmart in 2005. If I wanted to assemble a complete Wind Dancer collection, it wouldn’t be too hard or too expensive.

A few pieces are harder to get - the Glow-in-the-Dark "Firefly" Foals sell for retail or better, and the still-current purple "Kona" seems to be perpetually sold out in whatever store I happen to be in.

The Scented mare and foal sets sold in 2007-2008 don’t seem to be very common, either, but I can understand the buying public’s hesitation there: intentionally scented toys don’t age well. I’m a little leery of them, too: I prefer the original "New Horse Smell"!

What the Wind Dancer line lacks in releases it makes up in related merchandise: books, accessories, activity kits, and the plushes mentioned above. There’s a lot of it, and I’m a little embarrassed to say that I haven’t kept up to date on all that.

Wind Dancers may be recent history now, but they won't stay that way forever.

Not Making a Fuss

I should be panicking now, but I am simply too tired from work these past two days to work up a fuss. I’m so not working up a fuss that I’m considering whipping out a small quilt project I’ve been messing with on and off for the past couple of months and finishing that in the meantime.

Quilting as my BreyerFest prep burns: how very Nero-like of me. (Yes, I know it’s a myth. Just go with it.)

Anyway, here’s that neat Breyer knockoff I was talking about. I bought it during the town-wide garage sale a few weeks back; he’s been in my car ever because of his annoying habit of blending in with the throw blanket I keep on the back seat of my vehicle:

He appears to be cast aluminum, and not in any way related to the cast iron ASC knockoffs, or (gack!) Hubley, the go-to name that all flea marketeers use whenever they find something made out of cast metal. (You know, just like any injection molded plastic horse = Rare Breyer!)

There were/are a number of companies that have done cast metal Breyer knockoffs over the years, aside from ASC. Like the situation that exists with the numerous Breyer lamp manufacturers, I doubt we’ll ever know much about most of them. And if we do, it’ll only be by accident.

I got so excited when I saw him from my car window that day; I momentarily thought - yes, a Black Family Arabian Stallion! (He is actually FAS-sized, hence my assumption.) I already have one, but I’ve never found one "in the wild". As I think I brought up before, the Black Family Arabians were a nationally distributed Special Run promotion, and produced in sufficient enough quantities that finding one at a yard sale or flea market is not as remote a possibility as it seems.

Wasn’t the case with me, this time. He was still pretty reasonably priced, so I bought him anyway. It’s true that being trapped in my car for the past month is not necessarily a step up from his previous station in life, but I’m working on it. I haven’t decided whether or not he’s coming with me to Fest or not, though.

In other modelly news…

I did well enough on my Hartland sales this week that the cost of my gas - and most of my hotel bill - will be covered. Thank you Armada Flea Market! (No worries, I'll still have a bunch of stuff from that box available in Kentucky, if you thought you saw something worth your while.)

My Denim and Diamonds Vintage Club Shetlands arrived today, but I doubt I’ll be opening the box before the trip. I just don’t have the mental space to deal with them at the moment.

I didn’t get picked for the latest Web Special Dionysus. I actually liked him enough to enter twice, rather than once - I found the Primitive Bay color very appealing, in almost a retro "Breyer Bay" way. But nope, no dice again.

A photo of the latest Premier Club release came out today - a Chestnut Arabian Stallion by Eberl, presumably the "husband" of Weather Girl. I’ve only just skimmed the usual sources and it looks like more stuff I don’t want to deal with, either, some of it residual frustration over Carrick, I assume.

As always, I will reserve judgement on him until I see a better photo, or see him in person, which will most likely be the case for some of us next week.

And yup, did a facepalm when I saw the photo of the Red Roan Pinto Othello Auction piece circulating shortly after my last post. I think he’s really quite pretty, but yeah, I’m so not hoping he’s the volunteer piece this year. (On the other hand: Bay, Black and Chestnut Roan = matched set!)

I happen to think it’s something we haven’t seen yet. (Among those candidates: Rejoice, Adios, Andalusian, Cigar, the Peruvian Paso…)

Notorious

This cold is now starting to really tick me off. Normally I’d just sleep it off as much as I could, but I’ve got too much to do between now and BreyerFest to "waste" time on things like napping.

One thing that’s probably already a goner: the saleslist. It was going to be a stretch to get it done and out to those of you who requested it, but now it doesn’t look like it’ll even happen. Sorry about that. If it’s any consolation, it also looks like I might have to keep some stuff home anyway, since it doesn’t look like I could possibly squeeze everything I want to sell in the vehicle.

And also, those of you who have expressed an interest in the chinas, please note that I prefer to sell them in person. I’ve had the rottenest luck with shipping anything beyond some of the smaller, more compact miniatures, and considering the quality of the stuff I’ve been finding lately (including that black pinto Lefton foal - I had no idea he was so popular!) I’d really rather not risk it.

As far as the preparations go, they’re going. As long as I don’t contract any other major illnesses, I should be able to get done what I need to get done. The Sampler’s almost finished; all I have to do there is a major rewrite on one of the articles (about the Modernistic Buck and Doe!), proofreading and tweaking. The Happy Ending Contest entry will be started by the end of the week, but I’ll put off assembling the costume for the Costume Contest until the week before. (Oh yes, I’m doing it! Nope, no telling!)

My sleep was restless, and full of strange dreams, so I pretty much walked around the flea market in a daze on Sunday. I only picked up two pieces: a Lomonosov Penguin (note: probably not for sale) and this notorious knockoff of the Western Horse:


It’s notorious, because there are still people out there who believe - and will continue to believe - that this sorry thing is a Breyer. It’s not even really a Breyer knockoff: the details of the molded on tack more closely resemble the original Clock Horse - the (now-assumed-to-be) Hartland piece.

Back when we had less history, and less reference material to go by, this particular brand of knockoff was collected rather avidly as very early Breyers. I remember wanting a "Brown and Gold" one rather badly, and not being able to secure one at an affordable price. ($20-25 back in 1980 - you could get an Alabaster Indian Pony for only a few dollars more, then!)

I was glad that I missed out when, a few years later, I actually saw one in person. Blobby hooves, crude seams, an ill-fitting saddle - and made of styrene? I wasn’t quite the "Diva" then, but I knew that Breyer had nothing to do with that sorry thing.

Some people still thought so, in spite of all that, and even now some people still do. Bad (zombie?) data has a particularly long half-life in the hobby, unfortunately. Just when you think it’s gone for good, it bounces back to life.

I did still want one, but now primarily for research purposes. They crop up from time to time on eBay and on MH$P, but I wasn’t willing to buy one "in the market." For some silly reason I had it in my head that if I bought one, others might buy one, then some folks might get the idea that there might be something more to it, and then those rumors of its alleged Breyerness would get going again, and I didn’t want that.

(It’s a consequence of a living a life smaller than you had hoped: indulging in fleeting delusions of power and influence.)

Actually, it was more me being cheap: I didn’t want to spend more on the postage than what it was really worth, which is considerably less than what they were going for back in 1980. Even if it’s a famous knockoff, it’s still a knockoff, and not a very well constructed one, at that.

A Third Company?

According to my work schedule, it looks like I might be taking another trip to happy fun researchland in another week or so. I won’t have the same amount of time to plow the stacks, but I’ll be able to make a little bit more progress, at least. Every little bit helps.

One thing I found rather distracting in my previous research excursion was the non-Breyer horse stuff. It wasn’t just the Hartland material, it was all of the other model horsey things I was running across, like this ad for Lido:


Lido wasn’t exclusively a model horse manufacturer; model horses were just something they added to their toy line in the 1950s. Most of the secondary manufacturers from the 1950s and 1960s were like that: Westerns were "hot," and it made good business sense to add a few horse and/or cowboy pieces to their toy lines.

What made Lido a little bit different from the others is that the other companies were, by and large, copying Breyer and Hartland. Lido was one of the few who was forging ahead with original molds and concepts.

Most of these secondary lines of horses died out by the end of the 1960s, and so did Hartland, before it was revived a short time later (and later, and later again.) Breyer almost gave up the ghost itself around that time too, but fortunately for us they did not.

Other known manufacturers from that time period included Pressman, Ohio Plastics, and Kroll. They turn up from time to time, usually as unidentified knockoffs. Like this odd, but not bad Pressman version of the Stretched Morgan, in Alabaster:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=160481717242&Category=35999&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26its%3DI%26otn%3D2

That one’s managed to fool me more than once, at the flea market! He has probably played a part in those "Alabaster Stretched Morgan" rumors that crop up from time to time. The actual existence of a few true Alabaster Stretched Morgans does, too:


(Marney’s album, again.)

Among my favorites are the "textured tack" horses by an otherwise unidentified maker, an example of which is seen here on, of all things, a knockoff of the original Breyer Western Horse Clock!


They’re referred to as "textured tack" models because the Western Horse and Pony copies that they made have an odd, wire mesh texture to their tack. They’re otherwise remarkably good reproductions. They even "feel" right: they’re either made of some type of Cellulose Acetate, or a similarly sturdy plastic.

Oddly enough, the clock case and the base seem to be made of a different type of plastic; it feels like ABS (Styrene) to me. (BTW, the plumber’s chain reins are original, but the saddle probably isn’t.)

The fact that the entire Breyer Clock was knocked off - not just the horse, but all the "trimmings" - fascinates me. Was the original Breyer Clock itself so popular that it inspired its own knockoff? Who was this third company that made these horses - and what happened to them? Why did they decide to go with Cellulose Acetate, when many of the other secondary manufacturers didn’t? Did they have bigger plans?

What a different landscape we could be living in, if only we had a third serious contender in the model horse market back then!

What is it with the Shoes?

That last post about Sea Star really took the wind out of me. Here I thought I’d just toss off something short and sweet about an often-overlooked mold, and it just about turned into my magnum opus. The darn thing had footnotes, at one point! Sometime the depth of my knowledge about Breyer minutiae scares me a little.

So after that, I decided to take a day or two off from pondering the mysteries of the Breyer Universe and just noodle around the house. I finished up some minor projects, did a little crafting, and tidied up the office a bit. I did a little retail therapy, too. Most of the pickings were rather modest, with one exception. Behold:


Disco Fairy Shoes!

A pair of rhinestone encrusted clear vinyl slingbacks with plexiglass heels, size 11 - straight off the clearance table of our neighborhood Salvation Army! I’m not normally that big of a shoe maven, but my recent experience has told me that when the Shoe Gods offer up the gift of garish footwear, it’s wise to accept it. I just wasn’t expecting to get started on my Costume Contest entry for next year this early ...

My favorite find this week, though, was a hardcover copy of the book Doodlebug, by Irene Brady. Because it had this interior illustration:


I decided to keep this book for this illustration, alone. More proof of the depths of my depravity, I guess. (Even worse: I think the Western Pony in the illustration isn’t actually a Western Pony, but the Kroll knockoff of the Western Pony. I need to pick up one of those knockoffs to confirm my suspicion, however. I’ve been wanting one anyway, but this sort of underlines and puts and exclamation point to my desire. Just one exclamation point, though.)

This book, like most horse books I find, was originally slated to be tossed into my resale pile. My bookshelves are also near maximum capacity, and I have to be extremely picky about what gets to stay. Like the actual horses, though, I feel obligated to "rescue" them from wherever I happen to find them.

And like the horses (and the pony in this particular book) I sometimes discover that one of my rescues is also a treasure in disguise. At least I can kinda-sorta justify this one as "research material."