Winter still going strong… crazy.

I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately.  I’m sure it’s the weather…  we’ve been breaking records left and right for the cold and snow, records that go back as far as they’ve been recording temperatures here in Saskatchewan – and that’s 120 years of recorded cold and snow levels.

It’s not unheard of to have a freak snowfall in April…  but we’re not talking about an odd, one-off, Spring snow.  We’re talking about a Winter that appears to be never-ending.  We still have over a foot of snow covering most of the yard (and three feet in some corners).

I have seeds awaiting planting.  And I’m dying to be spending time with my hands in the good dark earth.  I need to put on a pair of clam diggers, and get out in the sunshine.  This weather is just making me feel like curling up into a ball and never emerging from my bed.

Normally I spend my birthday outside, having a picnic or bbq.  Heck, on several occasions I’ve spent it on the beach.  Never in my now 36 years have I been kept indoors by snow.

In spite of the weather though, I had the best birthday I’ve had in a very long while.  Lily-Ann insisted that she and her Daddy go to great efforts to make the day special – and I am so grateful that she did.  I love Damon, but he’s never been one to make a fuss or do anything to make someone feel important on their day…  which means I’d gotten rather used to having crummy birthdays.  LOL  If I’d had one of those along with this crummy weather?  I’m not sure I would have gotten out of bed.  😉

My girl really did make me feel so special.  She got her Daddy up in the morning and the two of them made me breakfast in bed – something I’ve never had in my adult life.  Then we all watched a couple episodes of Friendship is Magic before heading out to build-a-bear…  where Lily-Ann and I picked out, and put together, and chose clothing for a Pinkie Pie stuffy.  Whom is now sitting beside my bed being super cute.  On our way home we all got smoothies, then vegged for a while before Supper.

My parents had bought me a gift card for Persephone Theater, and with it I bought tickets for Damon and I to see Ride the Cyclone – a musical about a group of dead teenagers.  It was very well written, and had us laughing all the way through.  Some fabulous performances as well.  It was a great way to wrap up a wonderful birthday.

So.  I’m 36.  I wish it actually looked like Spring, but I had a lovely birthday just the same.  Yep.  That sums it up pretty well.  😉

My Little Pony – Applejack

I had a hard time coming up with a guilty pleasure to photograph.  I live so wide open, and I don’t guilt myself over life’s little pleasures.  If there’s something that makes me happy, even if it’s something that other people may not really understand, I’m totally okay with that.  So I went to Damon, and he gave me this ‘you really have to ask’ look, and said “Your ponies!”  LOL

So here are a few members of my Applejack collection:

Applejack was my most loved pony when I was a little girl.  I thought she was the loveliest of all the My Little Ponies.  And while she was portrayed as a bit of a klutz on My Little Pony and Friends (the 80’s tv show), she was always “Princess Applejack” to me – she ruled over all my herd with a sweet and gentle hoof.  😉  So it’s with relish that I continue collecting Applejack, and even though she’s not my favourite of the new G4, Friendship is Magic, ponies she’ll always have a special place in my heart.

Well, we are almost through January, and I’ll admit… the last few photos may pose an additional challenge – seeing as how we leave for Disney World before dawn on Monday.  But I’ll get’r done (as Applejack would say).

Craft Crazy!

This time of year I tend to be on crafting overdrive.  Far too many projects and not nearly the time needed to comfortably complete them all.  I love it anyway though.  🙂

A My Little Pony Artist’s Trading Card for the Trading Post. The theme was “holiday specials”, which is why Frosty is stuck in the corner – clearly I didn’t feel adventurous enough to sketch him myself.

It used to just be me, crafting all by my lonesome… but now that Kid Kid is five, she’s in it right along with me.  It’s awesome to see how well she’s doing to, in so many mediums.  Embroidery, sewing, painting, drawing – and that’s just today.  We still have planting, baking, decorating, packaging, more painting, more embroidery, more drawing, and a buttload of sewing still to go.

Paint covered play clothes. Crafting is a dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it.

I wish I could share all the projects, but some of the folk who are on the receiving end of our efforts may stop by the blog, so we gotta keep it all under wraps.  I gotta say though, as artsy fartsy as we are, all this creative work is absolutely exhausting.  It is with great relief that we welcome bedtime tonight.

The girl and Sweets (the old man chi) drifting off to sleep as Daddy reads… a bedtime well deserved after a day of working hard.

The coolest advent calendar ever!

“I bet no other kids have such a cool advent calendar with such awesome stuff!”

Clearly our little second hand gifties are a big hit with the girl.  😀

Today she opened up a bag that contained a tiny little plastic counter top and register along with a couple little plastic pieces of fruit…  now her My Little Ponies can go shopping, and Apple Jack is excited to be able to offer them all wonderful baked goods and other home made items.

And here’s a video she asked me to take:  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151141999072353

Blessed Samhain – from Fairy Berry and us

Before anything else, I just wanted to wish you all a blessed Samhain.  Hold close the ones you love, and remember well those who have already passed from this world.  As the world enters the dark half of the year, gather close to share stories and memories, and soon we’ll return to the light.  Brightest blessings, may your lives be filled with warmth, caring, and many wonderful new memories to share in the future.

Now…  I want you to say hello to Fairy Berry.  The girl was just thrilled when I finally let her see the ponysona costume I’d created for her.  As I helped her into each piece, she’d run to the bathroom to see how it looked:  and with pants, sweater, two wigs, and ears, that was several trips to check out her reflection.  So she was quite happy to show it off while I snapped a few pictures before she headed to school this afternoon.  It’s totally adorable on her, and the wings worked just as I’d hoped:  they actually flap as she walks, skips, and hops along.  😀

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MLP FiM LIVE in Saskatoon

This was such an overwhelming experience in so many ways.  If you have a loved one who’s all about Friendship is Magic you have got to find a way to get to one of these live performances.  Lily-Ann was so gleefully happy it was just awesome.  And seeing her that ecstatic filled me with a ridiculously alarming amount of joy.  LOL  Like, almost tearfully so.

Gasping with excitement upon seeing her hero, Rainbow Dash, emerge from the crowd to approach the stage.

You can hear Lily-Ann calling to Rainbow Dash, and then encouraging her:

Scroll down to the comments to see the video that is supposed to be here.  WordPress is messing up in a major way lately when it comes to embedding youtube clips.  The second clip below is working fine, but this one is just coming up as a duplicate of the second.  So I’ll paste it into a comment instead.  Sorry about the headache.

Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, and Apple Jack – the three ponies who came to Saskatoon for the Prairie leg of the live tour.

Only three of the “mane six” made it out to Saskatoon for the shows, but it was still super cool.  Okay, I’ll admit, it would have been at least 20% cooler if Pinkie Pie had been here too – after all, it was a little weird having the other ponies do her songs (and changing lyrics from “Pinkie” to “filly”).  But we were still super stoked when they did the girl’s and my very favourite song from season one.  😀  And yes, if you watch the video, that voice you hear singing along through most of it is the girl.  We know all the words.  😉

All in all?  An amazing, unforgettable experience.  So worth the hour of sitting on the hard mall floor prior to it starting to ensure we were right at the front.  My body was crying, but so was my heart – and my heart was much much louder.

We snuck up to the stage after everyone left for a quick photo-op. 😉
BEST PHOTO EVER!!!

The night before school starts

The night before school starts,

and mom writes my name.

On notebooks, and pencils

helping me to lay claim.

Okay, yeah…

I’m not a poet,

that’s as far as it goes.

The rest of this blog post

is thankfully in prose.

 

My Sharpie is no longer sharp after writing “Lily-Ann” on 12 markers, 24 crayons, 24 pencil crayons, various notebooks, folders, and a scrapbook, as well as on shoes, pencil cases, glue sticks, erasers, a pencil sharpener, a bottle of white glue (with a no clog lid), and a backpack. Gotta love the night before the first day of school. Pre-k was easy all supplies are communal, but as kids enter the regular school system labeling everything quickly becomes the norm.

I remember my Mom scrawling our names on everything… And with so many of us it was no quick task. As our pencils and pencil crayons were wore down into little nubs, and all that remained was a letter or two, I’d still think of Mom writing our names every time I saw mine. It was a reassuring thing, though it didn’t register as such on a conscious level until many years later.

I hope, as Lily-Ann sits in her classroom this coming school year, that seeing her name spelled over and over again brings a sense of belonging and love. That she knows how treasured she is, not just by her Mom (who wrote her name so very many times) but by everyone who knows her. She really is such a special kid, and her joie de vie has left many with grins where previously there were none.

Girl is ready to be a “school kid” whether or not I am ready for the same. 😉

“Look Mommy, PONY tails!”
I’m so glad I had my phone out and captured this moment. 🙂 And thanks so much to another My Little Pony Trading Post member for the lovely G1 sparkle pony in her left hand (she arrived in the mail today, and the girl is currently sleeping with her).

20% Cooler? Try 80%!

While we were away at the lake, a very special piece of mail came for the kid.  While it was a piece of mail I’d been expecting, I hadn’t expected the sender to go so far to make it such a red-letter letter.  The community at the MLPTP really is outstanding, and this is just one example of how fabulous people there are to one another (and to us).

Here in Saskatchewan, we haven’t been able to get the new My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic trading cards.  One wonderful member of the Trading Post sent me what she called a “pity pack” made up from some of her doubles and triples.  And I’ll admit, kid-kid was jealous.  So when another member of the TP offered up some cards that she’d gotten that were bent?  I quickly asked if she’d consider sending them to Lily-Ann, she happily agreed.

Now, just receiving the bent cards would have been enough to absolutely thrill the girl…  but this individual went so far above and beyond, she made Lily-Ann’s week.  She sent several extra cards, a couple of cutie mark tattoos, a letter she wrote from the point of view of Princess Celestia, and she did up the envelope as if it had been hand (or hoof) delivered by Derpy herself.  I should have recorded the girl digging into everything – her squeals of delight really had to be heard to be believed.  And I was so touched that this person, who only knows us online as fellow pony folk, would go through so much trouble to do something special for my girl.  It really was an amazing thing to do.

A lovely hand-written letter direct from Princess Celestia!

 

Derpy Mail for Fairy Berry (the girl’s ponysona), direct from Princess Celestia herself!

 

 

Thank you so much!  This was such a sweet and generous thing to do.  I know Lily-Ann will never forget the day she received mail direct from Equestria.  (((hugs)))  Forget 20%, you’re more like 80% cooler than the general pony population!  Especially to one absolutely thrilled little girl.  😀

My Little Pony Toys are Magic!

Last night, while kid-kid was at her weekly sleepover at my parent’s place, Damon and I were at the store.  We excitedly discovered both FS (Fashion Style) Princess Luna and the pink FS Princess Celestia My Little Pony toys at Superstore….  and even better than just finding a toy you’ve been looking for, is finding it at a reduced price!  The MLP collector in my tried to convince Damon that we should buy two of each – one of each to keep mint in box, and one of each for the girl to play with.  LOL  That proved futile, but we did buy one of each – one for the girl and one for me.

Tonight, after supper, I presented the ponies to the girl.  She was ecstatic!  We giggled together, and compared Luna (who is mine) and Celestia (who is hers), talked about how each was similar, how each was different.  We laughed about all the ways we can play with them.  Lily-Ann shared her plans to hold a royal wedding for them, and how my FS Pinkie Pie and her FS Twilight Sparkle could attend.  How tomorrow she is going to lay out all the pony outfits (while she doesn’t have all the FS toys, she does have all their outfits – purchased from a customizer who didn’t need the clothes, only the ponies themselves) and shoes, and how each pony is going to get to have a new outfit for the big event.  How the cutie mark crusaders are going to be the flower girls, and what role each pony will play.

Being so close to bedtime, we didn’t liberate the princesses from their packages…  but we sure had fun talking about her plans for them.  I knew she would be excited about our little surprise for her, but the extent of her delight was a surprise for me.  Now we each have a pink FS pony and a purple FS pony – a fact that thrills her to no end.

I have said it before, and I’ll say it again:  There is nothing like sharing something you love with someone you love.  And I feel so very lucky to have a toy that I loved thirty years ago be that something that can unite us today.  I remember the joy and excitement I felt when enveloped by that “new pony smell” that is the off-gassing of the plastic when the package is first opened, and sharing it with the girl now, it brings back all those same memories for me – and it means the world that I can give that same unbridled (pun obviously intended) happiness to my daughter.

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Now if only Hasbro would send out a WHITE Celestia, the girl’s happiness (and mine as a collector) would be complete.  😉

Finding Princess Primrose

These days it’s pretty rare for us to find a G1 My Little Pony during one of our thrift store trips.  G3s have become a dime a dozen, and most thrift stores will have at least three or four of them.  But a G1?  The original MLP toys from the 80s, when I was a kid?  We just don’t come across them like we used to.  Which makes today’s find at least 20% cooler.  😉

We were out hunting down some dress pants for the Daddy, so I figured I’d check the toy section while he was trying things on.  There, staring at me through a plastic bag, with $1.99 written on it, was Princess Primrose.

Princess Primrose is hardly a rare find.  She’s probably the most common of all the Princess Ponies…  but she’s also the one my daughter has always liked the most.  I have her in my collection, and Lily-Ann has always admired her.

Her hair is cut, and her tinsel is a little frizzy…  but otherwise?  She’s in pretty good shape for her age.  She’s got a little symbol wear, but that’s to be expected.  She still has her blush, and only one of her eyes has even the slightest rub.  Her haircut is rather unfortunate, but the girl doesn’t love her any less because of it.

When we picked Kid-kid up from my parents (we moved her usual Friday night sleepover to Thursday this week to help make sure she’s well rested for the wedding we’re attending tomorrow) I told her we had a surprise for her in the car.  She couldn’t have been more excited ripping into that little plastic bag.  She just thrilled to find Princess Primrose and gushed over her as if I’d found some rare, invaluable, gem.  And perhaps that’s exactly what I found.

Lily-Ann, right after getting Princess Primrose out of the baggie.