« March 2004 | Main | May 2004 »
April 30, 2004
Britains
I found some old, metal Britains on eBay the other day. They wanted to come and live in my Binbak stable.
They should be arriving shortly. They will be accompanied by another metal horse, a blacksmith, and his anvil. They will look great in the small riding stable that's on my great-grandmother's buffet in the library. Right now, some Breyer stablemates are living there. I don't think they'll mind sharing with the Britains horses!
I have a few Britains already, but they are of the more modern, plastic variety. I used to get different ones whenever I went to visit my cousins in Meaford. I remember getting a whole set of farm horses, and some Indians riding on horses. I have also found a few plastic Britains at Breyerfest (one I bought for about a quarter) and Brian bought an American Civil War mounted soldier for me in Cornwall last year.
Posted by Jessica at 03:06 PM | Comments (2)
April 29, 2004
We Don't Want Fries With That!
Our main question is, "Who is going to be buying any of the stuff that U.S. manufacturers are outsourcing production on?"
In recent news, the UAW has announced its agreement of a "two-tiered" wage plan, which would allow GM to top out the wages of new hires at $14/hour, receive minimal health care benefits for themselves and their families, and no pension plan.
Current GM workers receive as much as $24/hour, their health care benefits are paid by the company, and they receive a pension and full retirement benefits after 30 years.
Every day, I read in the papers about local manufacturing firms that are closing plants due to outsourcing to cheaper-wage third world countries.
Great! These companies are exporting jobs by the thousands, yet expect us to purchase the items they manufacture in China when they import them. With what money are we expected to pay for these items? If all of the "new" jobs that are created in my community to replace the old manufacturing jobs are service industry jobs at McDonalds and Wal-Mart, then the wages earned by workers won't even pay minimal rent in my county, much less a house purchase or raising a family.
If GM workers start earning $9-14/hour, just the same wages as at Wal-Mart, who is going to purchase the automobiles they produce?
NO, we don't want fries with that. We want jobs!
Posted by Jessica at 11:20 AM | Comments (1)
April 26, 2004
Garage Sales!
I had almost forgotten how much fun garage sales were until my friend, Danielle, showed up with a Jeep full of baby stuff!
She found all sorts of toys and a "bouncer" that look brand new and they all came from garage sales!
The bouncer chair is adorable, and is an undersea theme, with an attachable toy bar that has a Seahorse rattle. If you install the batteries, the chair will vibrate to soothe the baby. (This is a great item if you just need to set the baby down for a few minutes while you're washing dishes or doing laundry, and still need to keep an eye on him!)
There was also a whole bag of giant Lego blocks (huge enough so there is no chance of the baby swallowing them) and a cute barnyard set with a horse and some other animals. The baby can open the barn doors and cause the animals to move and make animal noises.
There is also a set of plastic, stackable rings and a U of M outfit for when he gets a bit older. (Brian is a U of M graduate!)
But wait, there's even a fluffy stuffed dog (soon to be freshly washed!)
We are going to have to work hard not to spoil the baby with all of this fun stuff to play with!
Thanks, Danielle!!!
Posted by Jessica at 02:31 PM | Comments (1)
Brian's Prize!
We finally picked up Brian's prize from the 40k tournament after work on Friday!
To his great joy, he not only received a certificate showing that he won the Sportsmanship Award, but he received $30 worth of store credit, as well! He spent his store credit on a new box of Ork Boyz.
He is adding all sorts of touches to his armies. Right now, he is creating some Squiggoth models, he is using dinosaurs and elephants and putting together the platforms for their backs from spare parts that he has lying around. Games Workshop doesn't actually make a Squiggoth model, so each has to be created individually by the Wargamer, unless he has a ton of cash that he can use to purchase an expensive version made by another company.
Frankly, it seems much more fun to create your own!
Posted by Jessica at 02:18 PM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2004
Celebratory dinner
In honor of Brian's Sportsmanship Award at the recent 40k tournament, we went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse.
Brian has put a great deal of work into creating his 40k army, the Holy Warriors of Sophia. He promises that he will take a photo of the completed army so that I can post it here.
I told him that if he won the sportsmanship award at the 40k tournament, I would buy him a steak dinner. He won! He also won one out of the three games he played during the tournament, and his painting quality was judged by his competitors to be above average.
Our friends Ryan and Danielle joined us at the steak house, and we had a marvelous time, and ate way too much food.
Brian had to leave the tournament before the awards were announced, so he is picking up his prize tonight. We don't know what it is, yet, but we are looking forward to finding out!
I won a Bilbo and an invisible Bilbo (a metal base with footprints in it, very cute) at a Games Workshop sponsored Lord of the Rings painting contest with my very first painted miniature, Elrond. This was awhile back, but I really like my prizes. I'm sure Brian's prizes will be very nice, too!
Posted by Jessica at 01:31 PM | Comments (1)
April 19, 2004
Virtual Vanner
This is a virtual "Gypsy Vanner" horse that I "purchased" in the online game, Horseland.
At 20 game years of age, I won't be able to "show" this guy much longer, but I did enter both him and one of my virtual Arabians, "Shazzam" in a few of the Horseland shows.
So far, Shazzam placed 15th in his first class, a novice dressage class. This gave him 15 points, plus one point just for entering the show.
I am thinking up a better name for the Gypsy horse, maybe "Fergus." (He has a decidedly non-Irish name at this time that was given him by his previous "owner.")
There are a few Gypsy horses right here in Michigan, I'd like to visit them some day. The registry is very new, and the breed is really more of a "type with a hype" as far as I can tell, but they sure are adorable. I've heard they have great temperaments, too!
With Horseland, I can own lots and lots of different horses of varying breeds!
Posted by Jessica at 06:54 PM | Comments (2)
April 15, 2004
Virtual Horsedom!
Now that real live equines are beyond the scope of my pocketbook, and model horses are becoming increasingly expensive, I can still enjoy playing horsie with a virtual horse owners website.
A friend from the Julip group mentioned that there was a website with virtual horseownership called horseland.com. I felt adventurous and checked it out. It is free to join, and the game is played with virtual money instead of real money (fortunately!)
Each player is given 10,000 dollars per week to set up their horse stable. I joined up and decided to give it a try.
I went shopping for my first virtual horse, and found a grey Arab gelding that had been "shown" in dressage. He had several "show points" already, and was only $1,000. (Hey, I had $10,000 to start out with, and that would be replenished every week! Yippee!)
I also bought my virtual horse a saddle, bridle, and other useful items at the "horse store." (You can also buy horses there!)
My virtual horse, named Magic, was overdue for veterinary care and a hoof trim and shoeing. I had those things taken care of right away.
But oh, no! His virtual boarding stable hadn't fed him in 42 days! According to the rules of the game, Magic would die if not fed in four months. (Incredible that he'd last that long!!)
I had to search for a new virtual boarding stable that would promise to feed him! A stable owner has to log in at least once a week to feed their boarders.
As soon as Magic's new boarding facility feeds him, I can start to enter him in shows.
Magic is currently 15 years old. One of the strange quirks of the game is that the horses all "age" one year per week. They must be retired at age 20, so Magic is good for only 5 more weeks before I have to replace him!
There are virtual clubs that you can join, and virtual registries to register your horses in.
Thanks to Sadie for introducing me to this interesting game!
Posted by Jessica at 04:40 PM | Comments (1)
April 13, 2004
Random Thoughts on model horses
I don't have any nice photos for today. Just random thoughts.
One of the threads in the Haynet group today involved the Breyers with the "alligator eyes." I laughed when I read these posts, because I knew exactly what these Breyer fans were talking about.
Christian Hess used to be Breyer's chief sculptor, and produced the vast majority of the Breyer sculptures until the 1980's, when other artists began to also produce the sculptures. He produced some very fine work, and some of my favorite of the older molds (Five Gaiter, cantering Welsh pony.)
However, his style changed somewhat over the years. Some of his molds produced in the late 70's/early 80's left a bit to be desired in my mind. Even as a kid, I had taken conformation classes through 4-H and knew what a horse was supposed to look like (and, from personal experience with horses, how they moved.)
Some of Chris Hess' sculptures began to just look wrong to me. The first ones I really began to notice this about were the Trakehner and Morganglanz molds. These molds are very similar, in fact, it looks to me as if the Morganglanz is just a standing Trakehner model that has had the legs moved (but the musculature of the shoulders left in the standing position.) That alone is enough for me to take an instant dislike to Morganglanz, however, it's his head that really bothers me. Not only is the Trakehner/Morganglanz head too large for the body, the eyes are so far up on the skull that it does almost resemble alligator or frog eyes.
Some of the other molds that have the frog eyes are the original traditional Black Beauty (the mold that's counter-cantering), the original traditional Black Stallion, and the classics from the Black Beauty giftset, the USET giftset, the Black Stallion giftset, the Andalusian giftset, Ruffian, and all of the Little Bits.
Of course, Mr. Hess was also responsible for the wonderful Lady Phase mold, which is one of my very favorites (and does not suffer from frog eye syndrome!)
I should also point out that I am actually very fond of frogs, and do not mean any disrespect to their species. I like frog eyes on frogs just fine!
I was delighted to receive my spring Julip catalogue in the mail this past weekend. One of the things I like about Julip is that they make sure that their accessories are affordable. Even kids with just "pocket money" can outfit their stables. Some items cost as little as one US dollar. Some are more expensive, but even at $12 apiece I think their accessories are much more affordable than Breyer accessories.
One has to just about break the bank in order to afford official Breyer accessories. Saddles cost about $35, headcollars about $20. Rugs (what we in the US would call a "stable blanket") are the cheapest at $6-12 each. A grooming kit costs about $26.
The Julip horses themselves are more expensive than Breyers, but at least once you have one of them, you can afford to outfit it!
I don't quite understand the reason for Breyer accessories being so costly, especially since they are made in China, where manufacturing costs are so low. In fact, even the Breyer horses themselves are now made in China. I haven't seen any corresponding drop in prices since they ceased US manufacturing, though! At least, not since they moved the stablemate molds to China, and the price per stablemate dropped from $6 back to $2.50.
Well, those are all of the random thoughts for now.
Posted by Jessica at 02:14 PM | Comments (0)
April 09, 2004
Collector's Classes
This is me in 1991 at the GLMHA live show, where I won the Hartland Collector's Class.
The 9" pearl white Arabian and the blue ribbon were my prizes that year. The previous year, I had won the same class, and received the 9" metallic blue saddlebred (shown hiding behind the white Arabian.)
I never did very well in the Breyer Collector's Class, and was never brave enough to bring any of my chinas out to a live show. Breyers were extremely popular and well-known, and many showers entered the collector's classes-and usually they had lots of better quality Breyers than I did!
I knew I had to specialize in something different in order to have a chance at winning a class. Besides, I like something a bit different than the ordinary! I picked Hartlands because they were much cheaper than Breyers at the time (collectors were willing to practically give them away, as they weren't very popular), the original Hartlands from the 1950's and 1960's were painted very well (some in very stunning colours), and the new Hartland Collectables by Paola Groeber were being released. I found that Paola's Hartlands were superior in quality and finish to Breyer models of the time, and I really enjoyed collecting them.
Shortly after this photo was taken, Paola stopped producing the Hartland Collectables and the moulds, then owned by Stevens Manufacturing, were being produced with inferior quality paint jobs and sometimes in inferior quality plastic. I stopped collecting anything except the original 50's and 60's Hartlands.
Recently, the Hartland moulds were purchased by another company, and are now being produced as "Hartland Collectibles" (no relation to Paola's old company from the late 80's.)
For some reason, I'm not as keen on the new Hartlands, even though they are doing a much better job with quality and finish than Stevens did. I ordered one of the new models, and wasn't extremely pleased with it, so I haven't ordered any more.
Besides, I have discovered that the wonderful world of Julips can actually be experienced here in the United States, and they are exactly the sort of model horse that I like to collect! Loads of personality and character, and lots of fun accessories to play with!
Posted by Jessica at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)
April 07, 2004
Not on Target!
At least, not on Customer Service issues...
Well, I thought I was ahead of the game on this one. According to the stores we contacted, baby cribs were mostly a special order item, and needed to be ordered six to twelve weeks in advance. I did all of the research and looked at cribs at Babies R Us, specialty baby stores, and online. Most cribs that we were shown cost between $500-1000! Those were the special order ones. A few chain stores had some cheap, imported Asian cribs, but I didn't want one quite that flimsy and low-quality.
The one that was recommended highly to me was a Child Craft crib, which was at least partially made in the United States. It was reasonably priced, and received high marks in the "Baby Bargains" book for quality, value and safety.
The specialty stores didn't carry that one, as it had too small a price tag to allow them a decent markup. I found it online at Target. It listed with a typical two-week delivery period, so I ordered it on March 8th. I was told it would be delivered by March 31.
On March 30, I received an email from Target saying that the crib shipment had been delayed, and that I could now expect the crib to be delivered on April 6.
On April 6, I received an email from Target stating that the crib order had been cancelled by Target because the item was now unavailable from their supplier.
This was extremely annoying to me, as Brian and I have a very busy weekend schedule with baby care classes and other obligations, and we are both working. I didn't want to place yet another online order only to have it fall through right before the baby arrived. This left us little time to do any more crib shopping, and if we had to order a crib, we needed to do it right away.
Fortunately, everything worked out in the end. I had stayed home from work that day, so I was able to drive out to the baby furnishings store a half an hour away and purchase a crib that was a floor sample. It was more expensive than the original crib I'd ordered, but it was right there and didn't need to be special ordered.
The saleswoman told me that the crib was great quality, and that the salespeople had liked all of the furniture from this company, but that they were no longer planning on carrying the line because of poor customer service. Apparently, people were waiting over 16 weeks for crib deliveries! This new crib is made by a company called Status. Baby Bargains ranks it very highly in their 2003 edition, but perhaps they haven't heard about the shipping delays.
So, if you are in the market for a crib, be aware! Order it well in advance of your due date to avoid hassles.
Posted by Jessica at 02:20 PM | Comments (0)
April 01, 2004
My Arabian Filly
This is a photo of myself (age 26, I think) and K. W. Toiaanna, a two-year-old Arabian filly I owned for several years.
I fell in love with the filly shortly after I had purchased Chizzam, but I was very loyal to my gelding and would not part with him. Anna was one of three fillies at the farm that year. One of the fillies was a very expensive, straight Russian Arab and one was an American-bred Arab that had a lot of good quality show horses in her pedigree.
And one was Anna! Anna was the one I liked the best. She was bred to stay small (she matured at 14.3hh), and she had the sort of useful conformation that I like. (Her legs aren't really crooked, she's just standing funny in the photograph.)
Anna's bloodlines were not remarkable. She was 1/4 Spanish, just like Chizzam, but a different sire line. The rest of her was old American bloodlines.
Her owners gave her to me, as she didn't fit their breeding goals and wasn't worth very much as an untrained filly.
She had a perfect head with attractive, kind brown eyes, and the thickest mane and tail I've ever seen on an Arab. She was very smart, and easy to train and work with.
As she got older, she developed difficulties during her periods of heat, and as the years went by she started "freaking out" during these times. It was not safe to ride or work with her during those times (as I found to my chagrin.)
Fortunately, at all other times, she was a safe and pleasant mare to be around, and actually easier to train than Chizzam (who was also very smart.) I had both horses for several years, then I finally gave Anna to a friend of mine, who also thought she was the cutest mare she'd ever seen. She knew about the terrible heats Anna went through, and had actually seen me attempt to ride Anna when she was coming into season. (Needless to say, I ended up suddenly on the ground, having been kicked in the gut on the way down. Ouch!)
She still felt that Anna was the perfect horse for her, so I finally gave in and gave Anna to her. That worked out great for both of us, as I had enough time to devote to Chizzam and he and Anna could still be pasture mates as they had been for years.
My friend Sue did work with Anna and ride her occasionally, but she mostly just enjoyed grooming her and feeding her treats! Sue was the owner of the stable where I boarded them, so she mothered everyone's horses!
The vets always said Anna was completely healthy, but I can't help wondering if she had an ovarian cyst that caused her extreme personality change during heat!
Posted by Jessica at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)