Dryandra & Cryptid

 Dryandra arrived late Saturday afternoon. 

The usual Breyer boxes are blue, but they do use specialty boxes like this. (The Christmas models often come in a green box, etc.)

Dryandra is a part of Breyer's Wild Animal Series

and he has a gold label on his underside.

I am pretty sure he is a chalky, too. I got out my other Brightys to compare and he sure looks chalky in comparison.

The paint job on mine is really nice, but those stripes remind me more of a primitive equid than a numbat, the tiny anteater he represents. 

I don't have a lot of Brightys in my collection as I've never been overly fond of the mold, but I'm not unhappy to add Dryandra to my collection.  

Riding along with Dryandra was another box,

an orange Breyer Halloween box.

Inside was Cryptid, this year's Freedom Series Halloween horse.

He has metallic colors in his tail

and mane.

Like Dryandra, he has gold lettering on his underside that identifies him and the year he was produced.

He also has red eyes. They're subtle, but they're there.

The Lippizaner mold is the only Freedom series mold that I actively collect and Cryptid is #13 in the conga. I'll have him out on display until Halloween, so I have some time to rearrange the shelves so he can be with the others of the mold.

Stay 'tooned!

A Short Cloak Dilemma

I cut out two cloaks Friday and am nearly finished with one of them. And I don't like it. 

The pattern is by a leader in the 18th century living history community and is research backed. That includes examining extant garments when designing their patterns, and when they researched their short cloak pattern, they discovered (and have the photos to prove it) that many cloaks were 1) not lined, and 2) had an unfinished hem.

For 21st century sewist eyes, that is a huge shift, especially the raw hem. But it makes sense - wool doesn't ravel so there is no need to turn under the hem and stitch it - a tremendous time saver for 18th century sewists. 

But for a 21st century sewist (me), it just doesn't look right or feel right. It is absolutely period correct, but my buyers are from the 21st century. This cloak will take some educating of customers and may not sell well until the pattern has been on the market longer.

So, I bought another period correct cloak pattern and while I wait for it to arrive, I moved on to making petticoats.

I can make one in just a couple of hours. What takes the longest time to do are the knife pleats that go around the entire garment. I may shorten it a bit, too. I was aiming for 38", and I haven't done any final measurements, but I think it is longer than that. That's an easy peasy fix.

My Dryandra arrived yesterday. And as was the case with other collectors, it was shipped via Amazon shipping. The jury is still out as to whether or not that is a good thing, but I can report that between the time I received a shipping notice to the delivery time was longer than Breyer's shipping normally was.  However, the box has no damage, and I am happy about that.

I'll open Dryandra and the other "guest" that's inside later today.

Stay 'tooned!

Two for Two: the Good & the Not So Good

I made it through the sacroiliac injections yesterday. They were intense but over quickly. Even better, the nurse brought me those lovely warmed blankets while I was in the recovery room and proceeded to wrap me up herself. 

I'd been so focused on the injections that I hadn't really thought of Dryandra and if I'd won one until I was in recovery. I pulled up my email on my phone but there was no notice from Breyer. I checked again when I got home from the hospital and...

I'd been selected! I completed the order and wondered if the day could get any better.

Well, it didn't. I got hit by a scammer on my Jolis Chevaux Facebook site. I'd finished the pink bedgown and posted it

and almost immediately I got a message from someone wanting to buy it and asking me to send them my Venmo so they could pay.

She was in a terrible rush and kept pushing me to hurry (my first indication that things were off) and then her payment wouldn't go through. (My next indicator.) She asked me to call Venmo's customer service (whose number she conveniently had handy and sent me) because the problem just happened to be on my end not hers. (I didn't make that call because I was now pretty sure that this was a scam.)

Then I received an email claiming it was from Venmo. It said my account was too small to accept her money and I needed to immediately deposit $500 to fully expand my account into a business account. Then, that $500 plus the $75 she'd "paid but wouldn't go through" would be refunded to me.

Oh, heck no! 

I took screen shots of everything for documentation, blocked her, and then reported her to Facebook. I took down the photo of the bedgown and will start fresh and post it again later today.

Then we had a severe thunderstorm plow through last night. It was loud and we heard some banging outside, reminiscent of the storm we'd had in June when our patio furniture ended up overturned and scattered in the yard.

This morning I got a quick view of the damage.

My heavy tomato planter had been overturned and pushed out into the yard.

It was too dark to do a full inspection of the plants but there are a lot of ripening tomatoes on the vines;

I am hoping their branches are not broken and that they survive and continue to ripen. The planter is heavy; I'll need Craig's help to right it.

So, two good things and two not-so-good things in one day.

Today I have aquatic physical therapy, a dental appointment, and then am giving Kathy a ride home from her own physical therapy appointment. It's also West Side's Homecoming at the football game tonight and Craig is marching walking in the parade again this year.

Busy day, and, aside from maybe having a cavity, it should be a good one. Fingers crossed.

Stay 'tooned!

Wish Me Luck - on Two Counts!

Winners will be announced today for Dryandra, a numbat (banded anteater) from Australia who is part of Breyer's Wild Animal Series.I I haven't been a fan of most of the offerings in this series, but I do like Dryandra so I've entered for him. It's a limited edition of 750 so chances aren't good that I will be drawn, but my fingers are crossed and I am hoping for the best.

A numbat in the wild. (Photo from Google Images.)

Generally winners begin receiving emails late in the morning, but I won't be home.

It's time for another double injection into my sacroiliac joints. They are not something I look forward to doing, but they are over fairly quickly and provide pain relief for a while.

The doctor who does them is very good and this will be the fourth one she's given me. 

She surprised me this past week, though. I had an appointment with her Monday morning and I showed up in full horse-girl wear.

She strode into the exam room, paused, and said, "Oh, I love your shirt!"

Turns out she is a horsey gal, too! We started gabbing and talked horses for about ten minutes before getting down to discussing my back and today's injection. I walked out of there not only with directions for today's procedure but with her cell number so I could text her and make arrangements for her to join me at the barn to see the horses and Tim's horse drawn vehicle collection.

So, wish me luck on two counts today - that the procedure goes well and that I get the pain relief I am hoping for, and that when I get home and check my email, I find one from Breyer telling me that I've won Dryandra.

Stay 'tooned!