Counting Bodies Like Sheep...

In addition to the painting aspect, one of the things I wanted to achieve this month with NaMoPaiMo was sorting out my rather extensive collection of bodies.

I'm not exactly the most organised of people - though I do try! - and despite getting a big box with a lid to store them in, the lid had gone walkabout and the corner I'd stored it in had turned into...this.

The red box has some of my leather in it and the one behind, my felt.

Shockingly that wasn't even all my bodies - ones I was actively (or occasionally) still working on lived on top of a set of drawers, the windowsill and my poor Playstation 4 because it was the closest horizontal surface. (and it's nice and warm when it's on, so it speeds up drying time!)

I don't mind a bit of clutter here and there but this was getting ridiculous. I didn't even know what I had any more, so I finally bit the body shaped bullet and hauled everything out of that corner.

 (The flatpacked wooden stable will be sold eventually, though I have someone already interested so don't bother asking!)

Not including the WIPs, all piled up in the box it didn't look like I had that many. I'd had a cull of my bodies sometime last year, and I've got a big cardboard box in the loft full of the rejects - either cheap and nasty horse-shaped-objects that need a lot of work to look semi decent, or ones I know I'm never in a million years going to get through. I'll probably do a sales post with them at some point as they're just taking up space.

Once I took everything out however...

I had just a few more than I was expecting.

A post shared by Christine Sutcliffe (@lynkhart) on Feb 16, 2017 at 9:04am PST

I found a completely unopened bag of unpainted stablemates, in addition to a lot of loose ones too - I think I ended up with about 50 of those alone!

Some were WIPs I've had on hold for years, like this naked flockie-turned-zombie horse.

The rest were a glorious mixture of Schleichs, Magpies and other random brands thrown in.

Mini Haggis came out of the box with a friend. XD

 

The final tally, including a tupperware box of mini whinnies, came to 232, though I know I have a few more lurking elsewhere!

I'll probably take a few to Copperfox's Stirling show in a couple of months time, but the rest are very much not for sale. I went out to Homebase after I'd had a sort though, and bought two more boxes to store the smaller ones in and I think this looks a bit more organised now!

The current WIPs still live on the top, but there's far less space now so I hopefully won't be tempted to add to the pile!

I'm not sure if I'll finish any other horses this month but I've still got the best part of a week so you never know! :P

'The Studio' Past and Present

Seeing as I took photos of it when it was tidy the other day (it's a miracle! :o) I thought I might as well show you lot. :D

As we don't have a spare room with any space for displaying ponies or working on customs and the like (where I'm typing from just now is our spare room which houses the PC and shelf upon shelf of family history research c/o my parents.) I've had to make do with my bedroom which is fine in principle but when you're as chronically untidy and disorganised as I am things get messy pretty quickly. These days I'm able to keep on top of the debris reasonably well but in the past it was horrendous. Luckily for me, I took photos along the way so you can see that I've improved a bit! XD

This is a photo of one of my class diaries from Primary 6, describing my room - as you can see, I wasn't exactly known for my organisation even then, aged 9!

Gotta love my teacher's comment too. XD

I don't have any photos of it at it's worst but here's some taken whilst I was giving it it's most exhaustive blitz ever.

I particularly like the little circle of debris surrounding the bit of floor I'd been sitting on whilst trying to sort stuff out.

I used to make tack on that tiny little space in front of the roombox - yes, even when it looked like this!

How could I cope with it in that state?

Practice. XD

I had drawers full of half finished tack and props alike and this is what I ended up with when I tipped it all out. O_O

Ok, I'm rather ashamed by all that but fear not, it's much better now! See!




Everything's neatly labelled and look, FLOOR! O_O

Granted, the desk can still look cluttered and messy when I'm shooting a photostory or whatever...





...but now it can look nice and shiny afterwards too!


 

As you can see my Schleich/Papo/Safari/MBH live on the top left shelf on a base my mum painted for me when I was a lot younger. It's just MDF but it's so nice I can't bear to let it go.


The Julips have the other two shelves and both stables on the desk and below but even then I'm pushing for space. I'm hoping my dad can put another shelf up above them so I can fit more in - with forty-odd Julips to house I need all the space I can get!

I've tweaked the layout a bit since this was taken - see above and below

The little set of shelves on the left were a fantastic bargain at WH Smiths recently. I was in the process of reorganising my room and spotted them priced at £14.99. Ever the cheapskate I initially passed them over but finally decided that - for the greater good - they'd come in handy and took them to the till...where the woman priced them at £4.99! I don't know if it was a mispriced item or whether they had them on sale but I wasn't going to argue! XD



While I don't have much in the drawers yet other than jumprings, tack hardware and bits and bobs that are too small and foutery to keep anywhere else, they're sure to be useful. The orange box on top of them has all my finished fimo food and materials along with some miniature leaves and moss I thought looked nice inside some fancy jars.
I have a pincushion and threads next to it, a couple of containers of sculpting tools, all my glues and sculpting things on the left (plus a pot with knitting needles and HP themed wands - just in case :P) and, rather randomly some hairspray which I only ever use to seal pastel customs when I've run out of actual sealer, lol. The little hats are from Innocent Smoothies when they do their annual 'Big Knit' thing for charity - people send in handknitted hats and they sell them with their smoothies with some of the money going straight to Age UK. :D I don't often buy them as they're pretty pricey but they're worth it for the hats. :P






Here we have a rather varied selection of things from a photo of my long dead cat Tilly to those of the ever-missed Cruzhorse. :( All but one of the medallions are sculpted by myself - the unpainted one at the bottom is 'Todd' by Clare Stokes of Meadowview Artistry. For a first sculpture he's incredible and I can't wait to paint him once he's told me what colour he wants to be! lol
I also have a printout of EA Equestrian so I can plan photostory setups properly. Sad I know but in my head the place is as real to me as anywhere else so I like to be accurate!

Further along on the other side of my room is the big set of drawers with all my ribbon, mohair and building materials. As you can just make out, my roomboxes are on the right and mini models and Trads below.



 

I have so much in the bottom ones it's unreal...

Last but not least, the fabric stash! (and Giovanni the PS3 - my pride and joy!)



This chest of drawers used to be home to most of my clothes but you know, model stuff comes first so now everything I own is stuffed into a tiny little wardrobe. XD The top drawer is full of backgrounds and bases while the other two are nearly overflowing with fabric.







So there you go, proof that I can in fact be organised!

(just don't remind me of that when my room looks like a bombsite - I'll not be pleased. XP)