Interest Round-up

 To ease myself back into writing and to also go into what I've been up to while I've been AWOL, let's do a little interest round up.

First: Jewelry

If you saw my last NaMo post, you'll remember that I showed a photo of my desk in utter disarray with some beaded earrings that I had finished sitting there (I didn't fully make them, they were already half done by my friend Cheyenne) and I mentioned that making jewelry was what I had been doing instead of painting. Well, that didn't change! I'm kind of leveling up my jewelry-making game so I ordered some new, better supplies, some beads, etc, and spent a lot of time remaking my old favorite earrings to be far more secure than some flimsy wire "closed" with a crimp tube (omg, yikes). In the midst of doing this, I was able to brainstorm a way to make fare more secure and reliable choker-style beaded necklaces using much stronger silver wire, lobster clasps, jump rings, and of course, beads. This was an experiment in wire wrapping which I find very enjoyable and satisfying, if hard to perfect, and I really, really love the outcome. Here's the necklaces I've made so far:

Second: Pokemon

It all started when I discovered some unopened packs from way back in the Sword & Shield days in my drawer, long before Logan Paul made the Pokemon TCG market explode. I opened them with Cheyenne (who had begun a collection of her own) and it was just downhill from there. Pokemon card collecting has actually always been a super big fixation of mine, and I have hundreds from my childhood, but I forced myself to stop buying them a few years back because it was becoming a real obsession. But what's being in your mid to late 20s without rediscovering some old childhood obsessions, right?

Right now is honestly the WORST time to be into collecting Pokemon cards. Scalpers are running rampant, stores are getting cleaned out as soon as new items drop, and it all around just sucks. Thankfully if you're looking for individual cards you can get them for really good deals unless its very rare/sought after, but if you like ripping packs and whatnot...good luck. Hope you have time, energy and lots of money.

Thankfully I don't care too much about a lot of the cards most people are freaking out over--my favorite Pokemon are Flaaffy and Porygon and not only do they not have a ton of cards released, but they're not very popular either, so I think I'll be able to master set them both in time. Of course, I have other favorite Pokemon as well, and I'll collect them too, but I'm just really not picky about what cards I get! I wanna give a shoutout to my friends to have kindly traded with me and/or just straight up given me cards, the card shop in the mall for having insane deals, and my kid self for being a serious collector. I've gotten some goodies across 3 decades!

Third: Dolls

Yes, dolls. If you are scared of dolls or hate them, be warned, or look away now! Especially baby dolls.

Along with painting model horses, I am also a doll customizer! I won't go too into detail with my other dolls at the moment, but I will mention what I'm working on right now: two fantasy Reborn dolls. A friend of mine is liquidating some of his dolls and I've been wanting to own some Reborns for a while now for therapeutic purposes, and thankfully he had a kitten and an alien that he very kindly sent to me for free (and they are authentic!).

Right now I'm working on the alien, and here is the WIP of his little head:

I'm thinking his name will either be Ash or Gleebert. Heavily leaning towards Gleebert at the moment.

Anyways, I think that's all for now. See ya!

Oops, it's May

 Well, hey guys, it's been a HOT minute.

Really, I have no excuse. I just kinda fell off from the model horse hobby for a bit because of finances (oof), but with BF and the TSC releases coming up, I'm feeling a little more motivated again. That being said though, I believe I mentioned this in my introduction post, but would you guys be interested in seeing my musings and posts about other things? Like just yapping, posting my other arts and crafts and hobbies, etc etc? Because I really do miss writing on this blog but I'm just not being called by the spirit of the horse 24/7 these days, sad as that is. I wanna write...it just may not always be about horses!

I do plan on finishing my little BreyerFest series though, since there have been some interesting developments since then.

Welcome back, me (maybe)!