NaReViMo wrap-up

Yesterday was the last day of Sarah Minkiewicz's National Retro Vintage Month.

I knew August was going to be an extremely busy month.

I signed up to paint anyway.

It took me a long time to get started.

But once I did, things progressed pretty smoothly.

Slowly, but smoothly.

In the end, however, there just wasn't enough time to get this over the finish line.

That's okay. I'm really pleased with the work I did do, especially this mane!

Thanks for the fun event, Sarah.

I didn't finish, but I definitely feel like a winner!

Loitering with intent

In addition to riding my horse, one of the things I want to do during this period of unemployment is sell some model horses. To that end, Alexey and I drove up to Northglenn yesterday to attend Fabian's trunk swap meet.

These informal events have been a semi-regular part of our local hobby scene.

The format is simple. We meet at a big, empty parking lot, open our trunks and display our wares.

Pickups are perfect for this.

Cute truck dog picture for tax.

My trunk was filled with horse food and unnecessary, bargain basement, real horse tack purchases - don't judge me! - so Alexey and I stacked our horses on the car itself.

The overflow was stacked on the totes on the ground. It's all good!

Even though I was definitely not shopping, I spent some time checking out everyone's sales pieces.

This cat has seen things.

If I was going to buy something, that Anne Field doll would have been it!

The weather was nice, and I would have been happy to stand in that parking lot and talk to my friends all night.

Unfortunately, the parking lot police took notice of our little meet up.

Perhaps they heard we were selling boxes of bodies?

In any event, we were told to disperse.

Unlawful loiterers.

Since we weren't quite ready to go home, a few of us ended up at a nearby restaurant for a post-event meal. 

Alexey, Jennifer, Karin and Regan

I didn't sell a single thing, but this was still a really fun day. I can't wait to loiter with my friends again!

Riding my horse

All summer long, people have been asking me what I was going to do after Dover.

My answer for the first month was, "Collect some (f)unemployment and get my horse broke!"

Partly, I was being funny, but also, I really thought I needed a big block of time to push Sage - and myself - to the next level.

Happily, that turned out not to be the case.

In June, I started riding Sage in the roundpen little turnout.

In July, we ventured into the outdoor arena.

August has brought more and and more varied rides.

At this point, I would say Sage is broke.

Green-broke, for sure, but that still qualifies.

Yesterday, was the last day of Dover.

Today, I went riding.

Eventually, there will be another job, but for right now, this is what I'm doing. I am riding my horse.

End of the end

Today was the last day.

We got there early. 

So did the end buyers.

There were about four hundred individual items left in the store when we opened.

All of it was gone within twenty minutes.

After that, we locked the doors and started on the second part of our day.

We cleaned the store...

and completed some administrative tasks.

Goodbye, yellow clearance signs. We won't miss you.

While we worked, Puppy romped.

Go, girl, go!

When we were done, Brad took some photos of the cleaned and emptied store for his bosses.

I took some for my records.

Then we took out one last load of trash...

and posed for one more picture.

And just like that, it was done. We left our keys on the counter,

turned off the lights...

and went home.