Lake District Julip Live 2019

While my dolls have definitely taken over as my main hobby, I still absolutely love going to Julip shows as they're always great fun and its one of the few times a year I get to hang out with groups of likeminded rubber pony people.

This year, Magda was off at a very inconveniently timed family wedding, so it was just Heather and I making the journey south to the Lake District. We'd booked the same guesthouse we stayed at last year in the seaside town of Morecambe, as it was really nice and very convenient in all respects. For a change we made it down without issue, not getting lost once, and managed to book in early so we had time to wander about Morecambe. Unfortunately our room was right at the very top so lugging multiple boxes of ponies upstairs wasn't exactly fun!

It was a glorious day, cool yet sunny - a far cry from the boiling hot experience of last year!

We took photographs of ponies...

...each other...

..and even went for a paddle!

The beachcombing was a little poor but the sand was warm underfoot

 and the breeze refreshing, so we really couldn't complain. 

Well, I could, as my sciatica kicked in while we were walking so I had to keep taking regular breaks to sit down so my back and right leg stopped feeling like they were being stabbed repeatedly. 🙄

Windswept and vaguely interesting

We soon discovered that Morecambe had a huge array of interesting antique/curio/junk shops which of course we had to investigate!

I reeeeeeeally wanted to give this lovely bespectacled badger a home but he was £100 and waaaay too big to fit anywhere in my house. :(

This charity shop had a frankly terrifying number of dolls, almost all of which were creepy baby ones, but I managed to score a 'Barbie in India' doll there for £3.50 which is more than I usually like to pay for second hand dolls, but she had a really lovely face and the outfit was in beautiful condition.

In the same shop I spotted this little Leonardo donkey for £2, though sadly once I got home I accidentally dropped her and broke a leg off. Sorry donkey! :(

By now we were majorly hungry, so decided to go back to the pub where we'd eaten the previous year as it was really nice...only neither of us could remember which of the many pubs and restaurants on the promenade it was! All we knew was that it had big windows upstairs and really fancy tiles downstairs, which wasn't particularly helpful. Eventually we asked the proprietor of one of the antique places, who after looking at a photo we'd taken last year immediately sent us on our way to The Royal Hotel, where a delightfully delicious (and cheap!) meal was soon consumed. We spent the remainder of the evening in our room, me doing some sewing, Heather putting together some tiny printables...once she remembered that she'd accidentally left the box containing all the tiny pieces of ready to be glued and folded paper on top of the car when we were unpacking, and had to make an emergency dash downstairs to see if it was still there, which by some miracle it was! 😂

Despite the super comfy bed at the Trevelyan, I didn't sleep at all that night. This always seems to happen when I'm travelling, and it's really annoying, as it wasn't as if I wasn't tired!

Heather is an early riser unlike myself, so it actually worked out for the best this time round as we were both up and on the road super early without needing to rush. After picking up some breakfast and lunch for later, we set off towards Storth, where, en route, we passed a field with a car boot sale in full swing. We had plenty of time to burn, so Heather turned the car around and we went in for a good rummage.

It was one of those boot sales with a bit of everything, from the usual piles of DVDs and secondhand clothing, to toys, plants, light bulbs, collectables and pretty much anything you could think of. We both did pretty well out of it but I wish we could have spent even longer there as who knows what else we could have found!

I nabbed all this for £4 from one stall - the guy absolutely would not budge on his prices for anyone, even when you did some pretty generous haggling, but I don't think I got ripped off. Everything was dirty and piled up in cardboard boxes so it wasn't exactly being presented in a particularly nice way.

The little chest is just plastic but it'll paint up nicely, as will the little desk fan which can actually tilt! The stepladder at the back is an earring rack I believe, but with some treads and a coat of paint it'll work really well I think. One of the little lamps has space for a battery so it may or may not light up - either way it's a really neat little accessory.

All too soon we tore ourselves away from the bargains, and finally made it to the show hall where we said hello to the first folk to arrive and got ourselves set up.

Laura had brought along the resin copy of the soon to be released Heavy Horse mould and it was great to finally see him in person!

He's fantastically chunky and I can't wait to order one!

As per usual, the spares table was mobbed, and there weren't many left afterwards!

A new dog mould was out as well as a variety of pecking chickens!

I couldn't exactly leave empty handed so let me introduce you all to the absolutely gorgeous Corrie!

I also nabbed this adorable little moggy, a cockerel, pecking chicken and yet another bunny, because they're far too addictive for their own good!

A little later than intended because everyone got distracted by spares and other ponies and conversations about just about everything, the show finally began...

First up was the Mould division...

'New Horses'

'New Ponies'

'Old Horses'

'Old Ponies'

'Foals'

'Donkeys and Mules'

Mould Championship -

This hunter was top of my 'To Steal' list this year

Next up was the Colour section.

Not stuffing this one in my bag on the way home was a constant regret. 😋

That vintage roan though! 😍😍😍😍

Colour Championship:

Lunchtime split up the event with a sales table while we all ate and chatted about all things Julip.

My back was now absolute agony, only settling down when I sat down, so I ended up not taking quite as many photos throughout the day as I'd initially intended.

I'd brought some leftover rugs to sell but returned with all of them unclaimed so I'll probably put them up for sale on the forum or something soon as they're just taking up space right now, lol.

After lunch it was time for the Fun classes. (although pretty much all Julip classes are fun by default!)

The animal classes came first, followed by Ridden Horse and Pony.

Pets Championship:

Next we had 'Best Dressed'

The Pairs class is always a favourite; finding your model's twin amongst someone else's collection and pairing them up.

I paired up my newbie with one of Caitlin's!

A new class for this year was 'Employee of the Month', for all our long suffering 1/12th scale stablehands to get a little appreciation.

(Heather picked up the ridiculously adorable Alpaca from the Royal Highland Show, which I will hopefully be posting about after I'm done with this post - we went a couple of weeks ago and I hadn't got round to blogging about it until now!)

'Fab Five' - a conga class

We all had to hunch down to properly judge the 'Prettiest Eyes' class; something my back absolutely did not appreciate at all!

Fun Championship:

The Scene classes are always my favourite, especially as Julip collectors sense of humour never fails to disappoint.

...and yes, that IS a cat santa in a sleigh being pulled along by guinea pigs

I cobbled my entry for the Pets scene together pretty much overnight but I'm pretty pleased.

The class themes are always nice and vague so can be interpreted in many different ways. This year, one of the most popular was 'Myths and Legends'

Heather had way too much fun with her Kelpie themed entry...

By far my favourite entry however was Laura's, for the 'Myths and Legends' class.

'The 'myth' that Julip Originals were handmade was found to be greatly exaggerated!'

The 'Julip-O-Matic mk 4' was a work of genius!

This was one of my favourite details - boxes of Julips ready to ship out - with all our names on!

Overall Championship:

Unsurprisingly Laura's scene entry won the supreme championship!

This gorgeous little pony I'd been admiring all day clinched the reserve!

Between classes when my back actually felt tolerable, I wandered round and ogled everyone else's collections. It's one of the best parts of live showing tbh.

So many vintages! 😍

Heather had brought a selection of the latest Magpie Models to sell and they proved very popular!

All too soon it was over, and once we were all packed up, we made our separate ways to the Crooklands, where we have our now traditional post-show meal. We sat and talked for hours, discussing everything from pouring latex, wedding outfits and misheard lyrics, eating fantastic food with equally brilliant company until they literally kicked us out as they were about to close!

As ever the Lake District Show was an absolute blast, and I'd urge anyone with Julips to pop up to join in next year as it's great fun and really chilled out! A massive thank you to the entire Wright family for putting on such a brilliant event and to Laura for providing us with such tempting ponies as ever! 

Here's to next year! 💓