Pre-Halloween Surprises

Happy Birthday, Lily! It's been chilly, pretty one weather-wise: only in the 40's, but the occasional peeks of sun really make the vibrant fall leaves pop. Because her birthday fell on a Saturday, we've had time both last night and today for some of wild hunting. No wilds nearly as awesome as Cloudburst have materialized, but there have still been some cool ones!

Last weekend was a different story. On Saturday, we found another awkward, speedy sandstone wild, "Noir." 

So much leg, so little back and neck!

He's fast, but we've lassoed faster. What more makes him stand out is that he has unusually good stamina for his size. There's also that... unique... conformation. We immediately renamed him "Sharky," because he is the right color and has super distinct withers, almost like a fin.

One saddled, his angular withers aren't as noticeable. XD

Later that same day, we found our third ever ambling wild!

She's bigger than the last ambler, the palomino pony who was barely tall enough to ride, but she's still quite petite: about the same size as my rainforest pony Ossagon. Her coat color is not as exciting as our first ambler, Bethany's golden champagne dun Taffeta, but she's still pretty cute. 

She also has the third highest genetic stat total of any wild we've lassoed, which is very impressive!

Maybe it's because of the low tail carriage, but she doesn't strike me as a pony that would act nearly as showy as many wonderland wilds, despite her rare ambling ability. We've decided to stick with the fabric theme for her name and are calling her Satin.

Skittish but not ornery, thank goodness! Here she is gaiting up a storm!

We're definitely keeping Satin, obviously. We're not sure yet about Sharky. Either way, Lily's probably more likely to pick one of our speedy Septembers as her newest equine, unless we end up finding a horse she likes even more later this month.

In real-life news, Mom treated us again big time for Halloween this year. We're all really into Harry Potter, so this was like... Christmas come early, ha ha. My sisters, cousins, and I all got sweaters, scarves, and ties representing the Hogwarts house of our choice.

Ravenclaw was the most popular house: we think Bethany, our cousin Autumn, and I would all likely have been sorted into it. (I was on the fence between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, so my sisters decided for me.) Felicity and our cousin Zoe figured they'd be in Gryffindor. Lily and our cousin Haylee figured they'd be in Hufflepuff. That leaves our cousin Amber (Zoe's twin) all by herself in Slytherin... but she'd be a decent one, ha ha.

The part my sisters and I got even more excited about: we also received wizarding-world-appropriate pets! 

Felicity was the first to get one: Mom already owned Silver the Beanie Baby cat. Since Felicity's real-life pet is Silver the husky, who is also silver and white with blue eyes (but female), we thought he was perfect. <3 

I also preferred a cat to an owl. (A cat is more of a constant companion than an owl, since an owl spends a lot of time traveling or in the owlery.) Scat was very cute and available cheaply on eBay, so she became mine.

Lily wanted an owl, naturally, as it is the most practical pet. She, Zoe, and Haylee all received Beanie Baby owls from the Legend of the Guardians collection. I've never read the books or seen the movies, but the owls seemed perfect for our purposes. Lily's is a female barn owl named Eglantine. 

Bethany wanted an owl as well because she finds them extremely cute. She ended up with the scruffiest looking owl of the bunch, a great grey. He did not come with a name, so she's still in the process of choosing one, which should come as no surprise. He, along with Autumn's great horned owl and Amber's barn owl, are Audubon birds similar to Mom's - just an older style, and none of them make sound anymore. 

Fortunately, my sisters and I all have dark pants and shoes we can pair with our sweaters, so we're good to go for Halloween. Our cousins are not so lucky, which led to some interesting pairings in that photo. =) We think it would be awesome someday to all have the Hogwarts uniforms as well... but at $55/outfit, not sure that's going to happen. 

If, hypothetically, it did, our cousins are partial to the skirt version. This does make sense, since in the movies and all AG's promo photos, the female students wear skirts. My sisters and I are leaning more towards the pants version (warmer and better for riding broomsticks and large mythical creatures.) I'd hope by 2022, pants would be a socially-acceptable option for female Hogwarts students! 

As far as wands go, our aunt went all out and bought some cool plastic ones online for our cousins. We're thinking we'd be just as happy with appropriately-sized sticks from the backyard, so that's probably what we'll do. ;^)

ArtPrize 2022

Wow, October already! It's starting out non-spookily: sunny and mild, and most deciduous trees are still hanging onto mostly green leaves. It will be a far different story by the time we get to Halloween, let me tell you!

2 of the 3 weekends of ArtPrize 2022 have been works of art in their own right. Last weekend... not so much. It was chilly, gloomy, and occasionally wet, but it didn't stop Mom and grandma from heading out to appreciate some human-made art!

After listening to Mom talk about her favorites and going through her photos, we each decided on our own 5 favorites! Since I'm writing this beast, we're going to go in reverse alphabetical order, so I can save my top 5 for last. =)

Lily's Picks

Awe of the Eve

an awesome painting indeed, embedded with gemstones, crystals, and glass for texture and sparkle

Beyond the Fence

a collection of meticulously-detailed pencil drawings of farm animals

Lily's favorite was this one of some chilling calves.

Creation, Destruction, Reflection

this is just one example from a series of clay pots that were deliberately broken and had impressively realistic dioramas of real-life historic sites crafted inside

From Sea to Shining Sea

a series of 4 paintings on brushed metal depicting familiar Michigan scenes

The artist is a veteran, hence the title. They were installed in a pool in a park, and light reflecting off the water made these even cooler.

Sleeping Bear Dunes

The Mackinac Bridge

Pictured Rocks Lakeshore 

lily pond

This last one is a photo from ArtPrize's website, because when Mom was there, the sun was glaring in such a way that a photo wouldn't work well. ;)

PAPER IN BLOOM

Tons of hand-cut paper flowers lit with a color-changing light. It was originally created to be a centerpiece for the artist's wedding. To give you an idea of scale, this was roughly as tall as a person. 

Mom waited until it was blue to take her photo, naturally. 

Julie's Picks

Borealis

bronze sculpture covered in crystals

A clear favorite for obvious reasons!

Hummingbird

willow branch sculpture

Some of the sticks were painted to give it some subtle color.

Lost. Hope for silence. The way home.

oil painting 

I can't look at this one without getting a little teary, but it's gorgeous.

Please Don't Touch the Wildlife

Sharpie on bedsheets

Julie's favorite was this African elephant, but also on display were a gorilla, leopard, rhino, lion, and a whale tail. The artist's motivation for these was to raise awareness of endangered species.

Riverside Reflections

These were all hanging in a horizontal line, which made it tough to get a good photo, so we pulled this image from the ArtPrize website.

The story: the photographer forced herself out for a walk one gloomy post-winter/pre-spring day in Riverside Park - it's a long, skinny park in Grand Rapids that runs along the Grand River. About 3 minutes in, "the sun suddenly broke through the clouds, creating the most spectacular reflections! ... Sometimes on our darkest days, small miracles appear in nature, even in the heart of the city."

Felicity's Picks

Dune Bears

Felicity's favorite of several new Hondas that got a unique look for ArtPrize

How fun would it be if it was commonplace for cars to be elaborately decorated instead of just being solid colors? If I ruled the world...

Lost

Who hasn't felt like this guy sometimes?

Stoney Dreams

This was Felicity's favorite in the H20 - 360 series of water sculptures made from recycled foam and plastic. 

The Last Bison

metal and spray paint

I can see why Felicity picked this one - what a cool design! 

Being Alone

These are some of Felicity's favorites from a series of 18 black and white photos illustrating the beauty and peacefulness in being alone. 

These were framed and artfully arranged on a wall, but there was lots of glare when Mom was there in person, so the above is from the ArtPrize website again. 

My Picks!

Ascension

oil on canvas

According to the artist, this is a Friesian stallion romping through deep Michigan snow. =)

I love how she captured the detail in the facial structure, hair, and snow spray.

BLOOM

hand-cut colored paper

So many tiny pieces went into this masterpiece! 

Apologies for the extensive glare, but this was too lovely not to include.

Twigg the Forest Dragon

Tree turned into dragon? How cool is this?!

The mushrooms and fungus... XD

This was a crowd pleaser, to be sure.

Heron from the Windblown series

glass mosaic

I didn't get excited about the more abstract mosaics in this series, but this heron... Wow! 

Sisters

welded steel nails

These life-size bears seem so happy! I hope that wherever they end up after ArtPrize, they stay together.

Here's another view of them from when Mom stopped by at night. =)

I think ArtPrize and the fanastic weather have Lily in an extra good mood, because she has agreed to let us keep all 3 of speedy steeds we lassoed in September!

In celebration, we gave Mango some mane!

Looking way better, Mango!

He's going to stay "Mango," since we can't think of him as anything else now... and since the humans had mangoes at lunch on the day we made our decision. =)

We're still trying to pick new names for "Fort Hamilton" (the grulla mare) and "You Might Wonder" (the appy stallion), though. We need more interesting names than Shadow and Popcorn, but that's all we've come up with so far. Hmm...