Bewitching Hour - The very first Scottish Live Show!

Yup, you read that correctly, we finally had a show up here!

Fellow Glasgow-based collector Eleanor organised it, and did extraordinarily well, especially considering it was her first show!

There's a fair number of hobbyists in Scotland, though many are spread out and about all over the place, so it isn't so easy to round everybody up for a get-together, but we had a few folk here today and it went really well. A couple had to pull out at the last minute with one thing or another, which was a real shame, but hopefully the next time we'll get them all here.

(Apologies in advance for the crappy photos - I was rushing around and a lot of them have ended up really blurry. :( More can be seen --here-- )

My table actually looked reasonably tidy for a change...but I can assure you it ended up in its usual state of disarray eventually.

Eagle-eyed regulars will easily spot my two new Julip newbies who haven't been introduced officially yet!

As it was a first go, emphasis was placed on having fun and not taking judging too seriously. It was more a case of choosing your favourite model in a class over its conformation or breed appropriateness, and despite a few hiccups at the beginning while we got to grips with the points based judging system, we were able to plough through admirably, with plenty of time left for a leisurely lunch and ample packing up at the end. (the latter of which I needed as I take forever to pack everything up)

It was so nice to be able to put faces to names and just have a good chat about all things model horse. We had some minor hilarity at one point when an elderly man wandered in and asked us if we knew where the Badminton was being held...apparently it was in our hall? Poor guy, I don't think he really knew what he'd walked into!

 

There were some seriously gorgeous models there, and more than a few I'd have been quite happy to *accidentally* take home with me.

A Juliane Garstka piece is one of my holy grails so to get to actually hold one was magical.

Om nom nom

*makes grabby hands*

Love this one so much!

Talk about differences in scale!

One of the few times your mini certificate is bigger than what won it.

It was so nice to be able to see models 'in the flesh', that I had until then only seen on the internet - Totilas for instance! I absolutely love the sculpture, but can't justify buying one as I have no more Trad space, but ooooh it's tempting as he really is stunning in person. I need a Wintersong but have literally no space for one right now. :(

 

I brought a lot of customs with me, as that's what the majority of my collection - if you ignore the Julips - is made up of, but everyone else seemed to be OF people so there were a few classes where I got the default 1-2-3 placings by being the sole competitor!

I still haven't made up my mind about selling that Bouncer etchie. On the one hand, I need the money and space but on the other...I really, really like him.. Argh. I hate making decisions!

Eventually Heather gave me some competition. XD

Poor old Spud was also the only entrant in the Western class. XD

Forever alone!

 Maisie continued her winning streak from last week which I was quite pleased with. She's easily my most successful Julip when it comes to showing - I don't think she's ever not placed!

Unfortunately when I was packing everything up, I managed to lose all my SM riders, so I had to show them without, which is technically against the rules as per British showing, but nobody seemed to mind, and they did well regardless!

I made this base (sans jump) to sell but I've got very attached to it...and this is why I have so much crap in my house, I can't part with anything, I'm terrible!

The handler here came from an Indiana Jones set and is a bit too tall for Schleichs but I think he'd be fine for Collectas.

My lovely CF Welsh Cob 'EA Fantastic Mr Copperfox' was rather popular and did rather well for himself too!

We're thinking of doing another meet-up at some point, but more of a hobby day rather than a show, where we can all just chill out with ponies and cake and maybe some custom painting or whatever.

Obviously I'd love to have it become a really big show like the ones down south, but while there's still so few of us it'd be nice to get a wee community going first and then work our way up from there.

I'd love to host something in my area, as there's what could potentially be an ideal location practically five minutes from my house (right opposite the train station, next to Tesco, by a bus stop and with a travel lodge down the road if anyone was coming from further afield!) but I'm super terrible at organising, so I'd need to do rather a lot of forward planning if it were to be a viable option!

I've never had such a busy hobby fortnight - the Julip Live last week and now this, exactly a week apart!I'm going to need tomorrow to recover I think, haha!

So yeah, roll on the next! :D :D :D