Corner not Included

 So, as I was busy daydreaming about that barn I still haven't started yet, I thought of another great addition to any stall: a corner feeder! 

Of course I had to test it out, yup it fits in a corner!

This will be available on my Etsy which reopens January 10th! Of course, the horse and corner are not include!

Sleigh Ride

 

Dashing Through the Snow,

In a Bright Orange open Sleigh,

Don't actually have a harness,

That's a project for IMTM, Hey!

My sleigh is a bit too big for the dolls. I plan on revising this. And using a color other than orange, that's just what I had to use up for prototypes. After much messing around, I have got it so the shaft portion bolts onto the sleigh so it can be removed to store/ transport! Once I get a nice realistic model I'll add it to the etsy, hopefully when I reopen in January.

I didn't sign up for the barn raising. Last year this time I was rushing to get the last of my orders out. This year I was more prepared so I probably had enough down time... I started today but it will probably take a while to get everything done. At least I got supplies and sketched where my two stalls and tack room will go.

Originally I considered getting a nice deluxe breyer barn to make into it but the loft wasn't big enough for my plans of putting in a small doll apartment. My dream would be to live above my beautiful horses. My mom actually has this except the house part is in front then the barn just comes off the back with a viewing room of the barn on the second floor. 

Restock Notice!

 Tonight so basically tomorrow, the shop is getting restocked as I've finally caught up on orders. Since there were some issues with the coupon, I've started an equivalent sale. I'm working on some Christmas themed items but no promises, I've got a lot of sticks in the fire. Gosh this is truly the busiest time of the year and I am so thankful that folks like my work. That's it, that's my update.

Black Friday

 

I'm starting my Black Friday sale early, just use the promo code "Blackfriday". Hopefully this helps folks who want to start their holiday shopping early! As always orders over $35 ship for free (within USA) and I'm also adding a fun gift from me! 

Happy Halloween

 

Happy Halloween! I hope everyone has a spooky good time and all of the good horses get treats (not tricks). 

It's super weird to be thinking about Halloween when most of my Christmas shopping is done and I'm working on making the rest of my gifts... Plus shop-wise I've been super busy pre-printing things in as many colors and scales as possible to handle everyone's Xmas orders. There's still some Christmas themed prop sets listed but I'm working on making a bunch more.

Done moving, still unpacking

 So we finally moved two weeks ago but it wasn't until this weekend that I finally had the office set up enough to reopen the etsy shop. There are still a few boxes but overall we've reached the finish line. 

The highlight of the move has to be stove snake. We were just starting to move boxes in and noticed a snake... on top of our stove. Anthony tried to grab him but the snake wriggled away and went into the stovetop. We tore our entire new stove apart looking for the snake. Nothing. Two days later moving some boxes and he was just chilling on the counter. He was safely relocated to the front yard. 

Otherwise, I finished making a bunch of sets in lots of fun colors and those have finally made it to the etsy. (In case anyone is doing some birthday or early Christmas shopping for a model horse person 😉).

But also on the topic of christmas! Everyone get your online shopping done early this year! USPS is saying it will be as bad if not worse than last year's busy shipping season!

I've also got some new items in the shop.

Mounting blocks

And 1:9 scale coolers!

I had a lot of fun making these!

Tinkercad: A beginner CAD tutorial

 So Fusion 360 has moved to require a subscription. Which I'm fine with, but for folks wanting to get into CAD designing without shelling out for that, I've got another solution, https://www.tinkercad.com/ . It's free and requires no downloads! This is a tutorial for designing a feed pan, much like the last tutorial just because they are a quick and easy way to start.

I started out my CAD designing here and a lot of complex designs were made with this program (jumps, saddle stands, etc.)

Here you have a set of basic shapes to make your design out of. For this tutorial we're going to start with the cone.

To start just place a cone on the build surface, then when you click on it you can change the dimensions.

For a traditional sized pan well start with a base of 26 mm by 26 mm.

Then we'll adjust the height to 10 mm. The red square is how you adjust the height and the arrow on top is how you would raise and lower the shape. The two headed arrows are for rotating. 

To make it a bucket shape look in the top right menu. Where it says top radius set it to 14. That will widen the top of the cone and leave you with a feed pan like shape.

Next in the top left corner you have symbols (copy, paste, duplicate, delete). Copy the shape we've just made.

Grab the arrow at the top and pull one shape up 3 mm to get an offset.

Next in the right menu choose hole for the upper shape.

Drag your mouse over both shapes. In the top right corner chose the group symbol. That will cause the hole to cut out the interior of the shape. 

Tada you have a feed pan!

Tinkercad is a bit odd for a CAD program but it is also very intuitive which makes it a really good starting place.