Hobby Room and Shelving Update!

April has been a long month, and we’re only a little more than halfway through. 😅 I’ve had lots of customs on the desk, but the most exciting (and time consuming) project has been moving my collection back into the hobby room after getting my new carpet.

These shelves are twelve feet long and twelve inches wide.

They hold about 330 members of my display herd. (There are a few dozen other ponies sprinkled around the room, and a herd of about 50 Schleich models that are in storage.)

I was so excited to get all of my collection back on their proper shelving! The stablemate herd grew considerably since the “evacuation”, and I did have to break out my extra acrylic riser for them.

My Cantering Warmblood conga count is up to eighteen! I also have a few bodies of her that I will (eventually) customize.

My next post will feature a few new herd members I have gotten in the last couple weeks! Only one of them is pictured in this post. . . (Hint: he’s wearing a purple halter!)

Thanks for reading! 💜

More Work in Progress Photos 🖤

I have so many work in progress commissions and customs that I thought they should probably all go together in one big blog post. I have had a full desk of commission work that has been coming and going since early January, but I have been very forgetful when it comes to posting it to my blog and my socials, lol. I am trying to do better about that though! I did just join Instagram, and I have been more active over there recently.

Ok, into the customs!

This blue roan appaloosa Django is about halfway done. He still needs a lot more roaning, and several more layers of whites to build up better opacity. His blanket edges need to be tidied and haired too, of course! Then he’ll be getting his loud appaloosa spots. ✨

This Indian Pony ought to be a familiar face! She was featured in this blog post: Spotted Dreams Studio: WIP Wednesday ~ Roans Everywhere

She’s almost done now! I’ll be doing a few more layers of color on her mane and tail, and re-touching/perfecting her eyes and hooves. After that she’ll be ready for gloss!

This gal needs quite a bit more polishing up, but she’ll be done soon! I thought I had a full body photo of her, but I can’t seem to find it. Sorry! She is a purple roan tobiano. 💜

These foals are a very fun commission for a repeat client. Both of them are really just in their early stages, so their whites are VERY streaky looking! They should be ready for their glamor shots in a couple of weeks.

Here is a fun side project I’ve been working on alongside my commissions. I’m not really sure what I’ll do with her when I’m done with her or what color she’ll end up being. I actually really like her as a solid so far! Her base coat is far from done (look at those streaks and graininess!) but she’s not a rush project. I like having at least one “slow” custom that doesn’t have a deadline.

Sneak Peek of one of the completed customs!

I have two completed customs I’m excited to show you, but they will have to wait for another day. One of them is a sales piece (who just sold, sorry!) and the other was a part of a trade.

Speaking of selling customs though, I wanted to post a quick update on commission availability. Currently I am booked up until the end of May, HOWEVER, I may consider exceptions, so feel free to reach out. I will be opening my books for June/July sometime in May, probably. Until then, keep your eyes open for some fun sales pieces that have not been shown on my pages yet!

Thank you for reading and I hope you have a beautiful weekend. 🖤

PS

My new hobby room carpet has been delayed until mid-April, so I won’t be doing many herd member spotlight posts until then. Sorry!

WIP Wednesday ~ Roans Everywhere

YES. I know it's Thursday. The auto post feature failed me lol.

I thought it might be fun to do a little Wednesday feature on some of my work in progress models! I have a lot of roans in my studio right now, and today's post will put a spotlight on two very special little mares.

This model is a really fun piece that I'm working on for KellieRae Turnmire. She commissioned me to do a mini me of a custom Traditional Indian Pony that she painted. Isn't she cute? 

Here's her reference pic:

I'm having a lot of fun working with this model, as roans are one of my favorites to paint. This little lady needs several more layers of white and some dark shading to go before she can get details!

The other wip for today's post is this pretty paint G4 Quarter Horse, who is for Michele L.!

Right now she looks more like a cloudy bay, but she's on her way to being fully roaned! She has at least 5 more layers before she's truly recognizable. She's to be a pretty purple roan tobiano, inspired by a sort of blending between these two references. 💜

I have four other commissions on the table at the moment, but I'll save them for another post! Hint: Two of them are spotted ✨

NaMoPaiMo 2026 ~ Puzzle

Well, I forgot to post a proper NaMoPaiMo post this February. Oh well, I suppose better late than never!

My namo horse this year is a Lonesome Glory. I lovingly refer to him as "Puzzle".

Puzzle was pretty beat up and had obviously been a child's play pony at one time or another, because he had several added markings in a thick, chalky white paint. Nothing a few hours of prep work and a bath or two wouldn't solve!

My plan for Puzzle was to paint him in hand brushed acrylics and pastels, using predominantly techniques that were new or at the very least, not my go-to methods. (Spoiler alert, this plan was abandoned.) I decided on a unique bay blanket appaloosa for my color. (Pattern references below.)

I started out the month strong, getting two layers in the first day. I experimented with some random color tones that I saw suggested amongst other hobbyists, and I liked what I was seeing.  There is no such thing as a pretty hand brushed base coat lol, but he was smooth to the touch, and the pigments were playing nicely with each other.

I somehow forgot to photograph almost all of the most important part of the process, where his shading and opacity was being built up.

In my defense, nothing was going to plan, and I was especially stressed because the deadline was looming menacingly on the horizon. I tried a new pastel technique, and it FAILED. Miserably. Leaving Puzzle a grainy, smudgy mess.

It took about a week to bring him back to a semi-passable state, and as much as I wanted to keep fixing him, I had to press on if I wanted to get to my appy markings. It was at this point that I abandoned all of my grand ideas of using all new techniques. 🫠

I spent a few very late nights finishing his shading and ever so slowly building up his white layers.

We finished on February 28th, just hours before the deadline.

He's not my favorite pony I've ever painted but he's done, and that's what namo is about. I had fun, even if Puzzle made me want to pull my hair out sometimes. 😂 This community is awesome. Something about hundreds of people all having art breakdowns at the same time makes it all worthwhile. ✨

Commissions

Alright, I've been saying for a few weeks now that I'm going to post commission info, but I haven't gotten around to it. Today is the day.

This link will take you to a google doc that I update frequently to display the currently available slots and a rough idea on pricing, as well as my policy and example work. I do have other examples that need added. Hoping to get to that soon.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EvdLAKFxC6QGxN6quxAVu3DMYnR2A_KqmsdeSvghWto/edit?usp=sharing

I am absolutely swamped with customs for the next few weeks, so I will only be offering a few slots in April and May. I am sorry about this, but I also have a craft fair running in May and some major dr appointments, so I don't have much of a choice.

I'm typically willing to offer a "deal" of sorts to those who read my blog (or follow my FB) and are booking more than one slot. It's not a significant discount, but I do like to extend that as a sort of thank you for your support. 💜

There are a few ways to get in touch with me for questions, quotes, and booking. The fastest way is to send me a PM on Facebook, or a DM on Discord. If you don't have those, or can't find me, you can email me at the email found in the document linked above. (I can't post my email directly, because I'm still having bot problems.) If you do email me, please comment on this post or another post so I don't miss it. My email loves to throw things in spam lol.

ALSO. I know the price range in the ad is wide, so for my blog readers, here is a better estimate.

Prices vary based on the body and the color. If it's a body I own, then you pay a fee for that body. Usually, it's like $5 on your total, but I always round down. I'm not super strict lol. If it's a popular, rare, or hard to replace body, the fee is a bit higher.  If it's a foal, then it's a whole lot cheaper than an adult. Colors and patterns are where the real variation occurs. A solid color with minimal shading, like a black model, is going to be a LOT cheaper than a leopard appy, for example.

Guesstimates:

Let's say you want a black foal on the laying foal mold, and I happen to have this mold in stock. This commission would be $20, approximately. Facial markings/socks will not affect this.

Ok, now let's say you want the same color on the same mold, but I don't have the body. You have to ship me the body. Total is now $20, because you're providing the body. Facial markings/socks will not affect this.

Now, switching it up, let's pretend you want a bay leopard appaloosa on the Indian Pony SM mold. I have the body. Your total would be around $50, because that's a complex color on a pretty popular mold. (Exact prices vary on references for appaloosas.)

If you provide the body, you're probably looking at a price closer to $43ish.

Solid liver chestnut on an average body that I have would be around $30-35 I'd say. It's all just guessing though without refs and specifics.

PRICES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

SDS Frogland Ferry

I have a post about commission openings scheduled to post tomorrow morning (if I've done it correctly.)  It's not a very "fun" read, per se, but it should offer some good info for those looking to book slots with me this spring! 💜

Equiden and AJ both said that they would be interested in seeing some of the new faces in the herd, so here we go with installment number one!

This is a (gorgeous) copy of buckskin Outlaw on the Buckshot mold. He was a vintage club run in 2024 and was limited to approximately 333 pieces.

This guy is a pretty cool member of my herd, due to what an amazing bargain he was lol. I actually wasn't searching for an Outlaw at all when I found him, but I couldn't turn him down for $40 with free shipping!!

His owner was thinning the herd and had him marked down significantly due to a wobbly front foot. A penny solves that problem pretty nicely.

⬆️This angle of him always makes me think of this meme LOL⬇️

His show name is "SDS Frogland Ferry", inspired by Over the Garden Wall™️. 

(We will not be discussing my taste in comfort shows. Nostalgia is a heck of a good medicine lol.)

I currently have him as a Chincoteague Pony, but I'm not totally satisfied with that assignment. I'm happy to hear your breed suggestions in the comments!

Busy Busy Busy

So, January happened. That was somehow the longest month ever and the shortest. Anyway, February has already started at a full gallop, so I'll try to keep up!

I'm also participating in Minis Painting Minis!

The obvious topic is NaMoPaiMo. I am doing it this year and will have a whole post devoted to it hopefully tomorrow! I'm going to try writing it out this evening and scheduling to post tomorrow morning sometime.

Now, onto some information about upcoming commission slots! I had a few slots open for mid-February through March, but they filled up before I could post them here. I wasn't expecting to be fully booked in less than 12 hours, but that's what happened! So sorry. I expect to have openings starting sometime in March, and they will be announced soon. Current price ranges will be shared as well. This time I will make sure to post here first! 💜

There are some sales pieces on the table at the moment. No idea when they'll be done, but I will try to post here first for them as well.

Breyerfest reveals were coming fast and furious last month! Such a nice line-up this year. I won't be going in person, but I will be having a pick-up person grab a Cosimo for me! Such a glorious stallion. 👀 I am probably also going to be grabbing the surprise horse and the leopard Idocus. He'll look pretty next to Chablis!

YOLO, one of my favorites. Big thank you to Equiden, who picked this guy up for me last BF!! 💜

As one might expect, I've gotten a great deal of new models since the last time I posted. In fact, my collection has almost doubled. Obviously, it would be impossible to try to do a post about everybody, but I have been considering posting a few of my favorites. Would there be any interest in that? It would just a little post with some pics and info on some of the new faces.

As I get back into blogging again, what kind of content would you like to see? What kind of posts are your favorites to read? Please comment and let me know!