Lake District Live 2016!

I had great plans to make many dioramas and setups for this show, but in all honesty...I forgot about it until literally the week before!

Luckily I had enough bits and pieces from previous setups and photostories to bring so I was able to do more scene classes than I'd originally thought!

Anyway, every good show report starts at the beginning, so here we go!

Last weekend my good friend Heather picked me up and we drove down to the Lake District for another brilliant day of playing with Julips showing, courtesy of Stacey and her mum Nicky.

In true Scottish fashion, it was dry while we packed my ponies and dioramas into the back of the jeep, but literally moments after putting our seatbelts on the heavens opened, and this was the weather for the majority of the journey.

This is literally the bottom of my road, ahaha

Whilst the rain eased off after a while, its presence was still felt, with moody skies and ominously dark clouds which loomed above us at all times.

We finally made it to Carnforth, where we'd be staying at the lovely George Washington pub once again - though this time with considerably less crates of Julips to carry past the confused regulars at the bar!

With plenty of time to kill we went for a wander through the village, ending up at the top of a field with a cracking view over the surrounding landscape - though I'll admit it would have been rather more attractive without the incoming rain!

We raced the rain back to the pub, had a really nice meal then settled down early so we'd wake up with plenty of time to get us to the show.

I often find it hard to sleep my first night away from home, I always have, and this time round was no exception as I probably only got a couple of hours sleep and woke up at around 4am. My brain refused to be tired and well, that was that! We left for the show with plenty of time to grab some breakfast and lunch from a local Greggs, and arrived at the hall ages before anyone else! 

(which, for anyone who knows me, is a pretty big deal as I'm rarely on time for anything, let alone EARLY! XD)

We set up our tables and I was already halfway through setting up my scene entries when the rest of the attendees turned up. I didn't take many ponies with me this year, and even then there were a few who didn't enter anything so my table felt rather empty compared to some people's!

 

Karliah decided to give me a scare when I unwrapped her but luckily, having bendy limbs means that these kind of 'injuries' are less serious than they first appear!

LEGS DON'T BEND THAT WAY OMG

Heather's table is proof that julip bunnies, like the real thing, breed at a frightening rate. :P

It was testament to how well we all know each other that some of us barely even said hello until half the classes had started, as we just sort of casually acknowledged our presence rather than making a big deal out of the fact some of us hadn't seen each other since the previous year!

As usual there was a lot of eye-candy to ogle on other people's tables...

 

The running joke with Heather's animal display was how similar it looked to the official Julip spares one, and so she obviously wouldn't mind a few going missing... :P

The first class was for Arab moulds...

...then donkeys and mules in one ring and 'altered' moulds in the other...

I've lost track of which class was what, so I'll just post them in a vaguely chronological order, lol.

Gorgeous dropped head Mustang

A dropped head hunter is on my 'to order' list!

I LOVE this one, I definitely need something in this mould at some point!

I really like this mould, but especially haired and with extra feathering. I wish the sculptor had done an adult version as well as I really like their style.

I'm not a big fan of the Dartmoor mould in its current form as it has become very skinny with massive feet, but added feathering really balances it out.

I really liked this one!

This was the mould championship I think.

Next was the colour division. This is always one of my favourites as its so interesting to see the difference in shades and painting styles over the years, as well as trends where someone ordered a particular colour and inspired lots of twins!

We all voted in the now traditional 1-6 format, with coloured tokens from first to sixth placed in order of preference, but this year the judges had a fancy newfangled way of organising it all. I didn't look too closely as I'm allergic to spreadsheets but it appeared to make things a lot easier to judge!

Colour champs!

I love this CJP - I'd love a welshie in that colour!

Normally by this time we'd have already mobbed poor Laura's table and grabbed at the spares, but due to unforeseen delays, she and Richard were late and only arrived halfway through lunch! We were so thrilled to see them there though, it had been a very long journey up for them and we would have all understood completely if they'd decided to call it a day and go home rather than take longer to reach us!

After all the hellos, there was the not so subtle meandering over to the table, purses in hand as the spares were unloaded. I made a rather undignified noise when I saw a chestnut welshie and made grabby hands at it til Heather, who had picked it up, let me see it, not knowing that she'd actually deliberately taken it to show me as she knew I was hoping for a welshie! Oops!

Unfortunately she might have to go back to Julip HQ for some TLC after getting some nasty paint rubs on the way home, but never mind - these things happen, and I'd rather have a relatively easy to fix paint issue than broken limbs or something more drastic!

I also snaffled a really lovely pit pony who I think spent a grand total of three seconds on the table before I grabbed him, and a handful of pets as well which I don't feel too guilty about as most of the money came from selling some of my Trads at the Copperfox show a few months back, so its practically free spending money. :P

Next was the 'Fun' division.

I loved the 'best dressed' class as it gave me plenty of excuses to show off my slight obsession with kitting out all my ponies in matching outfits. XD

Rowan has a full plum coloured ensemble...

...while Harper looks flashy in his Newmarket sheet and matching headcollar.

Animals!

Three of these are mine and one is brand new! :P

The pairs class is always fun, as you find a horse in someone else's herd which matches your own, which is just the best excuse for having a nosy at other people's collections! Sadly this year it wasn't for me, as there was an entry limit per person and everyone else had already filled their quota before me and all the ones that would have matched mine had been left at home! XD

Happy Families!

Can you believe Tam will be TEN next year? I feel like I've had him forever! O_O

You can really see the difference time and use makes to the moulds - the donkey on the left is older, and more rough, but as the mould wears out over time, it loses detail so newer ones are far smoother and sleeker. I'd really like another donkey now!

The conga class is another good one - I brought most of my Family Horses (though I realise now I forgot Chego D:)

Stacey's Dartmoor Army grows ever stronger with each passing year!

I didn't have any of my other congas with me so I stuck these guys in as my second entry - hey, they've all got spots, that counts right? ;)

The scene classes are my ultimate favourite though, and I particularly love them at this show as Stacey and Nicky have waaaaaay too much fun with theirs, and they're always crammed full of detail!

The first class was 'Four Seasons – Create a scene from Summer, Winter, Autumn or Spring!'

I had grand plans for mine, but ran out of time and had to cobble something together pretty quickly. I wanted to bring my feed shed with me anyway, so I improvised with a few bits and pieces I had knocking around and brought some fake snow along too. I hadn't had time to set any of it up at home so it was a case of throwing stuff together and hoping for the best! I tweaked the shed a little before I left though, adding in a tap, hosepipe and rusty grate, along with some grass tufts here and there. (whilst watching a BBC documentary on american prisons if I remember correctly, lol)

I borrowed the wheelbarrow from Heather as although I know I have a Julip one somewhere, I haven't seen it in years! I'll need to make one I think, I've got plenty of styrene left over from college and I've probably got a suitable wheel knocking around somewhere too!

Some of my newbies joined in as well...

Very chilly bunnies!

Alfie the walking cat will be formally introduced along with his chums in a future post

'om nom nom'

I designed the feedbags myself, using my own artwork and will post the templates up here eventually, but I accidentally saved the photoshop file really tiny so I'll need to make them again. :(

The other entries were brilliant.

I've just realised, is that a D&D dice? XD

I love the battery pack for the electric fencing!

I really like the use of the carpet tile for 'frosty' grass, genius!

Surfing Pit Pony! XD

This guy's mane was the best thing ever, I love it. XD

But this was the one I really wanted to steal - just look at that mane!

I love the trail of carrots in this one.

I got to say hello to a familiar face too - I gave this AQH-to-friesian feather feet a few months back for his previous owner! He's now a very well travelled pony!

 

I have a weakness for stable scenes so this one was one of my favourites!

Seeing a 'first' next to my entry was a very happy surprise - I was *this* close to not bringing anything at all, so to win that class was a bit of a miracle!

I had great fun putting my gymkhana teams together for the Pony Club Games class and I was super pleased with my placing! :D

I've just had a great idea for a future show - what about turning a table into a big group scene, like a gymkhana or something so we can all just add our own individual entries to it? Get a big green blanket or something for grass, and a selection of fencing and buckets/blocks etc people could use. Even if it wasn't judged it'd be a really fun way to display some of our horses for the day!

Next was Sporting Horses – any competing horse: including cross country, endurance, polo etc.

I only put one entry in for this and tbh I can't even remember how it did, I didn't put much thought into it, I just grabbed the horse with the nicest tack and rider and chucked him in front of a jump, lol.

Everyone else had much nicer entries anyway!

The last class was On the move – horses going to or from places, being transport or acting as transport. and was very open to interpretation!

This one was amazing, so much detail and the photo backdrop just makes it!

(and I need that grulla stock horse at the back. ;))

I loved all the details in this, but I think my favourite is the cat in the window. XD

I brought my custom horsebox (which is in desperate need of a repaint) as I thought it'd be funny to do an entry of a horse who is very definitely not 'on the move' and would far rather stay exactly where he was!

Woot! :D

The Supreme Championship loomed and we all had a good giggle at how 'controversial' the lineup was, formed of more than a couple of Dartmoors. ;)

This was especially hilarious when Stacey rather sheepishly announced after totting up the results that she 'appear(s) to have won' with one of her many Dartmoors. XD It's judged by popular vote so there was obviously no foul play or anything but it was really funny.

Fake controversy aside, I had a massive smile on my face when I saw my little scene had nabbed the overall Reserve!

The rosettes this year were spectacular and the Reserve Champion one is HUGE!

For once I'd been rugging up my horses between classes, so there wasn't the usual rush at the end to get them all packed away, and nobody had to help me which has to have been a first! The hall was being used after us so we had to be out by a certain time, but we were all pretty organised and cleared up with plenty of time to spare.

As tradition demands, afterwards we all went to the local pub down the road for a meal. On the way there though we made a rather amusing discovery...

At the bottom of the road they usually tie a brightly coloured 'Julip show here' sign to the stripy roadsign pointing towards the hall, for the event so we don't miss the turnoff, only halfway through the day we noticed it had vanished and could only assume someone had nicked it (unlikely)or the wind had been stronger than anticipated and it had blown away (more likely). The latter proved correct as en route to the pub we spotted it in the marsh a good 200m away from where it was supposed to be!

It's that little bright green blob in the middle!

We had a lovely meal at the Ship Inn, and it was so good to catch up with everyone! The topics of conversation varied as usual, but at our table at least there was mention of a sheep pelvis, taxidermy, weetabix for lunch and a banana in the back of a car, so you know, pretty normal for us. XD

A big massive thank you as usual to Stacey and family for putting on such a brilliant show and especially to Laura and Richard who by all accounts had a pretty fraught journey there and back!

Bring on next year! :D :D

I'll post about my newbies in the next post!