Sorry this is late, got super caught up in work and school after Breyerfest ended, but Breyerfest has now come and gone, I don't have the blues as much as I have in years past. This year felt slightly underwhelming, and I think that is for various reasons ranging from Breyer changing the way they do things and that being a yearly thing so far and also I didn't spend as much time and money at the Horse Park as I usually do and my days mostly being packed with workshops, family time, and doing other horse related things but non-model related things. Meant to post this sooner after Breyerfest, like right after, but after Breyerfest I got right back to the grind of going to work and doing my course work so I was on top of that.
The first day was mostly filled with workshops in which in between one of them my mom and I quick went to get out flower crowns so we could have them the rest of the day and the rest of the weekend. Also since we headed to our workshops right away as our first one was one of the first ones of the day, and since I was VIP I too advantage of going on to the online Breyerfest store early access to get the online exclusive models and a few other things I feared would sell out quick both online and in person. Cell reception and internet access was pretty decent this yer surprisingly. Any way, the first workshop I and my parents had was the Sleipnir Runestone one and that one was alright, not as much measuring with rulers, protractors, and compasses like I thought. Mostly freelance following a guide, only thing with a ruler was measuring out a box to help keep the image in versus just using the boundary of the paper itself, but that was ok I guess. Mines a little extravagant as I did too many interlocking squiggles and smooshed it in the box I drew despite making it fairly large (it was erased later anyways)m oh well I managed to get it colored in with gold sharpie and outlined in black sharpie and is now framed and on my wall. Second workshop was painting on canvas which was pretty good, it was Dala horses of course and got it mostly finished, ended up buying sharpies to finish the design so I don't have to wait for paint to dry as that's why I didn't fully finish it in the class. Then I can find a place for it on my wall as I reorganized a few things and got rid f my old big white calendar from my undergrad days as I didn't use it anymore and want my smaller guitar one up instead. The last workshop for the day was Pinots & Pintos which I made mine look like an emo pinto pony and it's now on my wall next to my Franz horse painting from Breyerfest Prost 2022. Fairly successful day for workshops if I do say so myself.
Saturday since we had time before the next workshop my mom and I quick ran through the Breyerfest store and got our celebration horses and special runs while my dad was the pack mule again to hold bags so we didn't have to put the in the bag check. We had a wagon for the VIP box, wasn't as heavy to carry as I thought but still wouldn't carry it the full way back to our Yukon as we parked way in the back despite it not being that packed but we always park by the trees to help keep her cool. First and only workshop of the day was the mosaic workshop which my dad decided to skip as it was the only time it stopped raining and he could quick change the oil and rotate tires on my car, so it was just me and my mom which was fine. The mosaic outline was a Dala horse which I figured not only given the theme, but also the promo pic for the workshop has a Dala horse which this pic has been used in the past to promote the workshop and mine it very colorful this time to fit the theme and Dala horses having many colors to decorate it. Somewhat did a pattern but was hard given certain shapes were certain colors I tried to incorporate. It's now on my wall with my other mosaic horse, believe that was also from Breyerfest Prost 2022. I also had my Glow workshop late in the evening at the clarion, that one wasn't as cool as I thought. You had to pay for teh mini alcohol bar which I swear I didn't see anywhere but also there wasn't much explaining as what was to go on aside form the must be present to win the raffle if drawn. As soon as we got in and sat down pretty much immediately everyone started coloring the models that were on the table which ranged between two kinds, the Nikolas/German Riding Pony or Malik the class Arabian. I ended up doing the Malik. They were all painted white and there were neon specific sharpies and everything was black light hence the Glow title. The people I sat next to were nice as we sat and worke don our models listening to the music, there were also games that we could part take in but most everyone was focused on teh models again not really explained what we could do and what was going on, there was only one person doing on of the smaller games you could do independently but I think that was someone friend they bought a seat for to tag along and they seemed special needs and my guess is the other person was a caretaker of sorts but thats fine at least someone got to utilize the games intead of absolutely no one touching any of that. I at my burger I ordered as it was lat eand my folks spent a little too much time at their plot of land before driving me back for the workshop, the burger was decent go ti to go from the restaurant at the Clarion. Don't know if I'd do that workshop again, I wanted to do it as I was intrigued and couldn't get into it last time as it filled up fast, oh well, did a tiny bit of Clarion shopping afterwards and got the last model form the blind bag snowflake stalemates I needed then I went home as I was a bit tired from being underwhelmed at the workshop.
Sunday we didn't g to the horse park at all as we decided to take our time with breakfast as we had a late morning early afternoon tour at Lane's End, which we did the shuttle tour. Saw a mare I used to work with, don't miss her as I didn't like working with her as she's not a horse I like (she almost killed me and another horse 2 winters ago), she's still the boss mare but good to see she's doing well there. Her foal this year is at least very sweet. Then it was back on the road to Louisville to go to Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby Museum for our tour and to explore the museum. Wanted to go as I've only been to the track once and since I raised this year's Kentucky Derby winner, Golden Tempo (Bart Simpson), I wanted to see his exhibit and see the other exhibits and artifacts as well plus the Golden Tempo merch at the gift shop I needed for my collection and for memories.That was pretty much the rest of our day, also original plan was Spaghetti Factory or Cafe at museum but the cafe closed earlier than thought and then when we got to the Spaghetti Factory there was like a 3 hour wait sadly so we started heading back the way we came and decided to eat a pizza place right next door that was decent enough, had cool celeb and movie posters and memorabilia and fittingly learned next year's Breyerfest theme is Italia!! Next year have to go back to Louisville for other museums and especially the Spaghetti Factory, there used to be one back home in the Twin Cities but sadly closed a year after the pandemic ended so we can't go anymore and this is the only one we know we can go to and be close-ish too. Can't wait for next Breyerfest as I'm even more excited for that theme, hope to go to Italy one day!
That's all I have for this post, see y'all in the next one! Ciao (like aloha, ciao is both hello and goodbye)!!
(all pics belong to me)
