Vintage Boxes & The Treasures Within

I recently won a lot of vintage riders, accessories, and pets, which all came in their original boxes, which is a rather unusual occurrence as most people would just throw the packaging away. I've been wanting a vintage sidesaddle rider for a while and the other riders were particularly nice as well... and I've never been known to pass up a chance at any pet.

I couldn't find any dates on the boxes beyond the month - October, November, and one blurred - but the stamps are pre-decimalization stamps which were discontinued in 1971 and I've found examples of these particular stamps listed with the date of 1967, though I'm not sure how many years they were available. So, I'm guessing the dates of these models are some time between 1967 and 1971.

The Adventures of Southern Gothic Zirondelle - Summer Holiday

The next time Zirondelle left the house was for our 2016 summer holiday in August. We usually go down the east coast and up the west coast, but this year we went down the west coast first, in order to catch a vintage vehicle show in Leyland.

Best Western Premier, Leyland

Julip Live Online Photo Show 2018

Each year Miss Laura hosts an online photo show in the J-Club forum for those of us who can't attend the live show. There are five divisions - Scenes & Performance, Molds, Colours, Stable Pets, and Fun - with placings up to third for each division. I did surprisingly well this year with a second in Scenes & Performance, first in Colour, and first in Pets!

My ribbons arrived on Thursday with my left-over spares purchases. We're very proud of our critters and pub.

Julip Live Spares by Proxy

I've wanted to attend Julip Live since I started collecting Julips, but have yet to manage to make the trek down south. I thought this might be my year until my cousin set the date for her wedding; it was too close to show time and the trip to Texas was too expensive to allow another holiday. Maybe I'll make it down next year.

In 2016 Miss Stacey agreed to be my Spares Frenzy proxy and a few days after the show a parcel arrived with the pinto Connemara, Pandemonium By Proxy, and a few friends.

Pet Shaming

I'm not sure when the pet shaming fad started, but my Facebook feed was teeming with these posts in early 2018, and when Stacey announced the pets-only scene class for Lake District, I knew what I had to do. Out of the dozens of posts I saved, I managed to narrow it down to ten per animal group, then thin it down still further to no more than five each for the final group.

Some of the props were from my prop box - hand-made items or Playmobil bits - but others, like the roadkill were specially made for this setup. All the pet shames are real, though some have been edited slightly for length. Each "post" is in an Facebook post frame.

J-Club Pen Pal Exchange 2018

This year on the J-Club Forum, a Pen Pal Exchange was arranged. Each participant received a Pen Pal from the organizer through private message - the pairings could be kept secret or not - with the person's answers to a questionnaire we had all filled out and their address. The idea was to have the people from our model stables write to each other. We were to send a full-sized letter with a 1/12th scale copy, and any other little bits and pieces we thought of.

My Pen Pal parcel arrived this past Saturday, but we were so ragged out from the Kirrie show, that I didn't have the energy to open it, much less take pictures, until the next day. The Kirrie show is our town's agricultural fair and each year we take a mess of stationary engines and tractors....oh and the threshing mill, can't forget my favourite toy. This is my husband's hobby, so the grunt work falls on him, but it's still a long day out in the wind and, this year, sun - it's often rain. The best part for me is driving our tractors to their home barn several miles away through the countryside. There's nothing like driving an old tractor with a top speed of 12mph - the wind in your hair, the bugs in your teeth. Seriously, it's bliss.

Aaaaaanyway... the Pen Pal exchange. This is Pearl Vagner's box, so I'll let her show off the contents.

Lake District Live 2018 - The Spares

If you've ever seen a school of large goldfish being fed in a small pond, you will have some mental picture of the energy of a Spares Frenzy. As soon as Miss Laura announced she was putting out the spares, we swarmed from all over the hall. "By chance" I was right next to her as she was putting out the models and snatched my first, a dark flaxen chestnut Cob Stallion, before he barely had time to hit the table. I then saw spots in the box, so naturally I followed her as she moved on as I've been wanting a Laura-era appaloosa for ages.

At one point I had in each hand a grey blanket appaloosa on the Dressage Horse and a chestnut appaloosa Shetland, in what we call semi-leopard in the hobby. I ultimately decided on the Shetland as the Dressage Horse isn't one of my top favourites. He passed through a couple of hands before ultimately ending up with EG.

Having made my choice, I left the others to the equine feeding frenzy and made my way to where Mr. R was quietly laying out the animal spares. There I was able to leisurely pick and choose my favourites.