Holiday Display 2011 Part 4: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Every year all the Ponies of Ponyland gather in Dream Valley to celebrate the holidays.  But there's a lot of celebration and preparation involved before the big day.  This year's Holiday Display looks at how the Ponies prepare for their holidays, continuing in Butterfly Island and Unicornia with the G3s...

In the Crystal Rainbow Castle, the early risers are meeting over breakfast to discuss what's left to be done to get ready for the holidays.  They've already started decorating, but they're talking over what gifts to buy, especially for Rarity.

 Rarity might be the leader of the Unicornia Ponies, but she's still young enough to really look forward to Christmas morning.  This morning she might be sleeping in, but the excitement of seeing the gifts under the tree will get her up bright and early on Christmas morning.

 Over on Butterfly Island the Pegasi have also started decorating.  They have an unconventional Christmas tree, as Snow'el is explaining to her little turtle friend.

 The only snowflakes that the Ponies will see on Butterfly Island are snowflake decorations.  But Starcatcher is reassuring Honolu-loo that there will be plenty of snow to play in when they go to Dream Valley for the big Holiday celebration.

 Some of the other Pegasi are having a snack while they take a break from gift making.  Peachie Pie has been diving for shells that the Pegasi will string into necklaces for gifts to the Ponies in other parts of Ponyland.

Elf

Holiday Display 2011 Part 3: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

 Every year all the Ponies of Ponyland gather in Dream Valley to celebrate the holidays.  But there's a lot of celebration and preparation involved before the big day.  This year's Holiday Display looks at how the Ponies prepare for their holidays, continuing in Ponyville with the G3s...

 At the Celebration Castle the Ponies are looking forward to a visit from some of their Dream Valley cousins who are bringing them the gift of a Christmas tree.  Rainbow Flash and Misty Blue are planning out the visit over some tea and cookies.

Some of the other Ponies are busy getting the decorations ready for the tree's arrival.  It looks like they've got their work cut out for them, especially since Royal Beauty offered to babysit today while the Mommy Ponies do their Christmas shopping.  It looks like just about everypony has taken her up on her offer.

 It looks like at least one Mommy Pony has other plans for the day, however.  Chilly Breezes is going to hit the slopes with her friend Tobbogan.

 The baby Ponies have decided to play hide-and-seek.  Or is that just an excuse to hunt for hidden presents?  They'll never tell!  Pink Sunsparkle is "it" and has just finished counting to 100.  Ready or not, here she comes!

 It seems likely that Candy Cane is going to find the first hidden baby Pony though, while she's up in the towers hanging decorations.

In downtown Ponyville, things are just as hectic.  At the Frilly Frocks Boutique Sew-n-So and Frilly Frocks are working hard to make sure everypony's orders are ready in time for the holidays.

 Velvet Bow certainly seems happy with her new hat and scarf

 And their sister-store, the Celebration Salon is just as busy!  Ponies are coming in for hair appointments as well as to look for gifts of jewelry for their friends.  Amberlocks and Dallidazey are run off their hooves.

 Down the street, the Bloomin' Blossoms shop is crowded with Ponies shopping for supplies for their baking and plants to decorate their houses.  Meadowbrook can hardly keep up with the demand.

 Meadowbrook has hired Winter Wish to offer popcorn to the Pony shoppers on the streets in order to drum up some business, but it doesn't look like she needed to worry!

 It's a good thing there are snacks on the street, though, because the Cotton Candy Cafe is closed for the day!  The bakers are all busy filling orders for the upcoming parties.  The Cafe is practically bursting with cakes, pies, and candies, and the Ponies are just getting started.

 Cotton Candy is keeping track of everything and packing up the orders while Port-o-Bella is running the finished orders around Ponyville.

Chocolate Chipper has been baking all day and Lickety Split has been decorating.  She's just finished her masterpiece.

Elf

Holiday Display 2011 Part 2: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Every year all the Ponies of Ponyland gather in Dream Valley to celebrate the holidays.  But there's a lot of celebration and preparation involved before the big day.  This year's Holiday Display looks at how the Ponies prepare for their holidays, starting in Dream Valley with the G1s...

Lemon Drop has already been busy wrapping gifts all morning.  But now she's wondering where on earth she'll hid them until the Holiday party?  They're certainly too big to go under the bed!

 Over in The Cabin Tex and Salty have sent their little ones over to the Lullabye Nursery so they can get some wrapping done too.  It certainly looks like there will be some spoiled little Ponies in Ponyland in a few weeks time!

 In the Nursery it's nap time for the littlest Ponies (at least it ought to be.)

 While Li'l Tot entertains the older babies with the fun of decorating the Nursery for the season.  It's always exciting to pull out that big box and rediscover all those shiney baubles again.

Some of the baby Ponies wanted to play outside instead, and Steamer is happy to help out and take some of them for a sleigh ride through the snow.

 4-Speed is using another sleigh for a special delivery.  Majesty has promised to send a Christmas tree to Ponyville for the Celebration Castle decoration this year.  4-Speed, North Star, and Milky Way have been chosen to make the journey and deliver the tree.  They're looking forward to visiting their cousins in Ponyville at the same time.

 But in Dream Valley there's lots to entertain the Ponies staying behind, not the least of which is the skating rink that's been cleared on the pond.  I wonder if a game of pickup hockey will break out later?

 Elf

Holiday Display 2011: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Every year all the Ponies of Ponyland gather in Dream Valley to celebrate the holidays.  But there's a lot of celebration and preparation involved before the big day.  This year's Holiday Display looks at how the Ponies prepare for their holidays, starting in Dream Valley with the G1s...

 The Flutter and Winger Ponies have already arrived in Dream Valley to celebrate the season with their cousins.  Majesty and Rosedust have just returned from a walk in the snow to find that Buzzer and the Royal Guard Unicorns have been busy decorating the Dream Castle.  The tree is already up.

Powder and Sparkler have been busy hanging the lights and garlands...

...and Gusty is putting up the finishing touches.

 Peachy and Twinkles are heading over to the Cafe to get some breakfast before they opens up the Pretty Parlour for the day.  A lot of Ponies are already shopping for gifts and new outfits.

 At the Cafe the Ponies are already busy baking treats for the Holiday parties that are coming up.  Scoops and Boysenberry Pie are baking cookies and pies and storing up some finished treats on the shelves.

 Yum Yum is rolling out the dough and cutting out the cookies.

 And Vanilla Treat is decorating like mad.

 It's organized chaos over at the Perm Shoppe too.  There hasn't even been time to decorate yet!  Buttons is rushing to take out the new Holiday merchandise.

 Some Ponies are already shopping for the newest looks of the season.

And some Ponies are already getting their hair done.  Of course Fifi will have more customers closer to the date of the big celebration, but some Ponies hair takes longer than others to do.

  Elf

The great Pony Room reorg, volume 8

 (Note: a proper con update is coming next week.)

I'm finding the Pony Room to be rather frustrating lately.  More than a year after the move and it's still nowhere near "finished."  I say "finished" because a project like this never really is finished, there's always something changing, moving, flowing.  But somewhere you get to a point where the furniture is in place, the ponies have a home, and you can actually walk from one side of the room to the other.

None of these things is yet in place in the Pony Room.

There is a problem of finding the time, money, and inclination to go to the Giant Cheap Furniture Store up the road to get the last large bookshelf (with glass doors) to house the rest of the collection.  There is the problem of the wall shelves that absorbed humidity and won't go flush on the wall until they dry out.  There is just the problem of finding the time to get down there and tidy, organize, and sort everything.

While most of the major work is now done, it's the little jobs, such as organizing saved backcards and sorting sales/trades items, that are still waiting their turn.  Normally, I'm right onto these types of jobs, but when you've got an entire room filled to overflowing with these little jobs it gets hard to know where to start.  But Roomy's and my annual holiday party is coming up soon, so things need to be cleared up!  With the annual party comes my annual Pony Holiday display, and the room's got to be cleaned up before setup can begin.

We'll see how it goes...


Elf

Naru2U Con next weekend!

A reminder that I'll be giving two panels at N2U con next weekend!

The Customizing panel is on Saturday from 12 - 1pm.  Here I'll be discussing some of the materials and techniques I use in customizing.  The panel will be geared mainly toward Pony customization, but a lot of the tips and tricks translate well to customizing other toy lines too.

The History of MLP: From Firefly to Friendship Is Magic panel is on Sunday from 1 - 2 pm.  The MLP brand is almost 30 years old, so this will be a brief trip through Pony history, from the first Ponies ever made back in the 80's to Twilight Sparkle and everything in between.  I'll have examples of every MLP generation with me, as well as the original inspiration ponies behind the FIM ponies.

Through it all I will have fellow MLP collector, the lovely and talented Stormrave, helping me out!

There's also a FIM-specific panel that will be given by the Ottawa Bronies (headed by the also lovely and talented DJMidli) on Saturday from 3-4:30pm, with a meet up following at 5pm in a local restaurant.  I'm looking forward to meeting the local Bronies there!

Here's a sneak peek at some of the Ponies who might be with me at the con next weekend:

G3 Custom Carousel Elfpony

G2 Princess Silver Swirl

G4 Custom Cthulhu

G1 Firefly and Medley

Hope to see you there!

Elf

Silverwing, the Winged Unicorn

 Silverwing has been an on again, off again project for many months now.  She's also another rare custom that I plan to keep for myself.

The bait was a G3 Crystal Lace.  She doesn't have a symbol per se, but the blue swirls and pink stars on her body were painted with Reaper Masters Series acrylic paint, as were her eyes, horn, and wings.  Her hair is Dollyhair After Midnight and Moonlight, dyed blue. 

 Her horn and wings were sculpted with Apoxie clay and anchored onto her body.  She has many tiny star jewels in pink, blue, and silver throughout her wings and blue micro beads at the base of her horn.

Enjoy!

Elf