Here we go a Wassailing

Frosted window panes, candles gleaming inside painted candy canes on the tree.  Santa's on his way, he's filled his sleigh with things, things for you and for me.

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?  In the lane snow is glistening.  A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight, walking in a winter wonderland.

Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring-ting-tingling too.  Oh it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you.

There'll be parties for hosting, marshmallows for toasting, and caroling out in the snow.

And every mother's child is gonna spy, to see if reindeer really know how to fly.

Here we are as in olden days, happy golden days of yore.  Faithful friends who are dear to us gather near to us once more.

An old fashioned fire place, give me an old fashioned fire place. My heart remembers smoldering embers, warming your glow.

Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow will find it hard to sleep tonight.

Funny, but comes December, and I remember all the Christmases I've known.

And thought it\s been said many times, many ways, Merry Christmas to you.

Elf

Have Yourself a Berry Little Christmas

Is there anything better than spending the holidays with family and friends?

Well, maybe a sleigh ride!

And then heading inside to warm up with treats!

Enjoying the smells of baking in the kitchen!

Catching up with your friends!

And, of course, seeing their faces when they open that perfect present!

Have a Berry Little Christmas!

Elf

'Tis the Season

In spite of the mess in the Cave, the holiday display post IS coming.  But in the meantime...

This year I completed my G3 Holiday Ponies collection by adding Poinsettia to the shelf.  Yes, there are a few holiday ponies missing, but for my purposes this collection is now complete.

I also added two HQG1C Xmas babies to my shelves this year.  I'm generally a sucker for any holiday-themed ponies, so I picked these two up this summer.

Of course, the geek-themed holiday celebrations aren't confined to the Cave.  We have an entire tree dedicated to geeky ornaments (with about 1000 Pinkie Pies).  The poor tree's going to give out under the weight of all that wonderful geekiness soon.

Elf

Cave Angst

Normally around this time of year I do a quick clean up in the Geek Cave in preparation for the Holidays (and the holiday display).

Ah.  Yes.  So that's not really happened this year.

So...We've had a busy autumn, and a head cold, and I have not been spending the time in the Cave that I would like to be.  And it's a a point where it's a bit intimidating to go in there and try and do something.  Much more fun to be doing some art, or holiday baking, or decorating.  After the Holidays, I'll get in there and make some progress (largely getting piles of stuff that need to come out, out).

And with the end of G4 toys in sight (hello G4.5...ugh), I'll tackle some of that pile of G4s still waiting to be opened, styled, and put on display.

Elf

Geek Cave update

Not a lot has been going on in the Cave of late because I've been busy with some non-toy projects lately.  But we have met one long term goal.

Moar shelves!

The plush have been crowded onto the built in shelves in the closet for quite awhile now, but we've finally got two shelves up over the door to house a lot of the smaller plush.  This means the larger plush left in the closet have more room to breathe, and I can actually see them all.

I've also done a little shelf re-arranging lately to make room for convention acquisitions from the summer.  Getting the ponies arranged with the rest of the herd is always fun.  I struggle a bit with getting the other things I've picked up, such as colouring books, stickers, and pins, arranged, however.  I always seem to have piles of these things that are neither organized nor displayed properly.  The Geek Cave is never finished.

Elf

Alternative Alternate Birthflower Ponies

I've been working on this set on and off over the last year, and finally finished them this summer.  I quite like painting realistic flower symbols on ponies, so I thought this would be a fun project.

I looked at lists of birth flowers, because I thought it would be fun to also bring in a few different flowers from those Hasbro chose to use on the original Birthflower ponies.

These are all McD G3 Happy Meal ponies.  I went through my piles of these and picked out the ones with the nicest hair.  Their original symbols were removed and their new symbols and eyes painted on.  So without further ado, say hello to:

January - Carnation

February - Violet

March - Daffodil

April - Sweet Pea

May - Lily of the Valley

June - Rose

July - Water Lily

August - Poppy

September - Morning Glory

October - Cosmos

November - Chrysanthemum

December - Poinsettia

Elf

Space Maple

At this year's Canadian Extravaganza, I contributed two new Maple customs ponies to the Maple Army.  This blog, I'm introducing Space Maple.

Space Maple started out as a Core 7 Pinkie Pie, fully repainted.  It's been quite a while since I've made a space themed custom, but this one was specially requested.  Unlike my previous space themed ponies, I did not paint a specific nebula on her, rather I just freehanded her paint job.

Space Maple has one blue maple leaf-shaped nebula on her flank, and a space shuttle on her shoulder.  Naturally, the shuttle bay doors are open so you can see the Canadarm at work.

Her hair is Dollyhair Black Magick, with a streak of custom-dyed gradient hair (left over from previous custom Moonrise's mane).

I had wanted to add more maple leaves to her, either in extra nebulae or constellations, but when I tried I found it started to look a bit goofy.  That is why her Maple identity is a bit more subtle.  I do think she's quite pretty, however.

Elf

Paint Splatter Maple

At this year's Canadian Extravaganza, I contributed two new Maple customs ponies to the Maple Army.  This blog, I'm introducing Paint Splatter Maple.

This Maple started off as a Cotton Candy.  I painted her maple leaves with white glue, using a similar technique as was used on Rainbow Daydream (see previous post) - in fact, Maple was my tester pony for Rainbow Daydream.

I then painted the mulitcolour splatters all over Maple, highlighting the glue maple leaves, but also with plenty of splatters elsewhere (she's a true artist).  The glue was removed to show the leaf outlines and she was sealed.

Her hair is a combination of Dollyhair Water Nixie, Peaches and Cream, Electric Banana, Passionfruit, Bobby Blue, Sour Apple Martini, Sour Grapes, Bubblegum, and Pussycat, with braids in both mane and tail.

She's a cute, fun, simple custom and I quite like how she turned out.

Elf

Rainbow Daydream

Rainbow Daydream was my MLP Fair original custom contest entry for 2019, and also one of my favourite customs to date.  I tried a new technique with her, which was great fun, and which I'll definitely be using again.  I don't usually include a lot of progress pictures when I blog about my customs, but in this case I think it's worth doing.

Rainbow Daydream started life as a G3 Styling Rarity.  I started out by painting her face, neck, back, and down her legs white. Over this I painted the pastel rainbow colours that would become her symbols and sealing this paint job.  Then came the fun part: drawing on her symbols with white glue.

Yes, white glue.  Over the course of six sittings I painted glue symbols over all her pastel painted areas.  It took six sittings because a pony is not flat, and wet glue runs.

Once the glue symbols were finally done, I painted the rest of the pony a combination of dark blues and purples.  I had hoped that this darker gradient would be an interesting contrast to the pastel gradients, but a lot of the darker detail was lost behind the pastels.

Finally, I started carefully picking off the white glue to reveal her symbols.  This step alone took about three hours.  Eventually, all her symbols were revealed (and only two minor touch-ups needed!) and the whole paint job sealed.

Her hair was added as the last step, and I decided to do a yarn rehair on her.  This is the first time I've done a yarn rehair on a pony, but somehow it seemed like the correct choice for her look.  I combed out the yarn to give her a fluffier appearance (but not a perfume puff appearance).

I couldn't be happier with how she turned out, and with her second place finish at the Fair.  She received many compliments at the Fair and afterward as well.

Elf