I totally forgot to post this last year, when I actually finally completed it, and told myself around January that I would definitely post it this December! So, without further ado - the G4 Custom Christmas Train!

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And here's more closeups of the individual cars with what their "before" would have looked like, AKA the stock, unpainted trains:

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And I'll put some WIP pics behind a cut, in case you're curious to see some of the painting detail shots!


I originally bought this train on clearance at Toys R Us, which should tell you how long ago I originally planned to customize this! In 2016, I referenced on my blog that I had been trying to work on this train every December 'for three years', which would make my start date around 2013, which makes this train a decade old! But while the train got shelved and put aside for many (many... many...) years, I continued tracking down various little Christmas decor bits, and I even took a photo of the MASSIVE amount of Christmas doodads and gee-gaws I had been collecting for it in the decade intervening!

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The train, like many toys, has a lot of sculpted details in the plastic that don't really show up because they're not painted! So I tried to highlight as many of the fun little sculpt details as I could (and hide the screw holes), while still changing it enough to feel Christmas-y. For example, I changed the ice cream cone train car into a car with wooden lattice and a snowy mountaintop, complete with glitter and snowmen! I had originally planned to use faux-frosting, but I feared it might just look too chunky and thick, and even more like ice cream. Using glitter made it look more gritty, like ice!

I didn't want to do a full repaint with a full white basecoat, since I worried it might turn out chunky, and also because I also wanted to highlight the original sculpting and color scheme. So that meant I had to get a bit creative with how I would turn each train car into more 'festive' colors! It's still very bright and colorful, but I figure that's more like how MLP would do the holidays anyway! I love to see how much the sculpting work of the original pops with just a little bit of paint to highlight it!

Phew! That's a lot of typing, but it was a lot of work!! I originally got the drive to finish it in time for a 'custom winter collab' last year, and I can proudly say that mine was the only train included, LOL! Thanks for reading!

I'm a little late bragging about this, but hi all!! I was super excited to win first place in BlackCurtains' Springtime Photo Contest!! I was offered a bunch of really awesome prizes from the very generous Tailrustedtealeaf, and I picked one of her awesome rehairs! This one is Sunrise Song, and Tailrustedtealeaf even included some cool collectible holographic cards as a bonus!!

Thank you both so much for the super fun contest and the awesome prizes, I was over the moon to win!! Sunrise Song is already enjoying my yard!

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Here she is at last ... Marie Antoineigh, in her full glory!

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WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD! Only read further if you’re prepared for artist babble!!

Marie Antoineigh was created for the 2021 TheDollPlanet rerooting contest, and won first place in her category! She also was featured on the front page of their Etsy! Her hair is their NP Fluffy in pink and white!

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Marie Antoineigh (obviously based on Marie Antoinette, with a punny name suggested by a friend!) started life as a very sad, stained Pony Bride, with her hair shaved down to the skin, a rusted and lobbed tail, a chopped-off neck plug and Sharpie stains everywhere, notably around her eyes. I didn’t get a true “before” photo, simply because with my impulsivity, sometimes the only choices are ‘start now or start never’, so I try to minimize how many roadblocks are ahead of me.

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I took a photo of her after her rehair, but before the styling, so you could see how thick and poofy her hair was, and try to illustrate a little step-by-step of how her hairstyle came together. I knew some of the basics of how a Rococo hairstyle should look, but because I didn’t know if the hair would curl in time, I didn’t want to rely too heavily on curls, so I incorporated more braids than would probably be period accurate. I actually used a Gibson girl technique for the body of the hair, creating a ponytail that would cover up a square of Styrofoam (stabilized in the head with a straight pin), with another ponytail on top to enhance the volume. I love reading Instagram hair tutorials, so I attempted some ‘teased braids’ to frame the front of her bouffant. I left some hair loose at the end, so I could French braid it into the bouffant, and added a lock of the solid pink to twist into a bow, which I also learned on an IG tutorial. I figure she’s not Marie Antoinette exactly, she’s Marie Antoineigh, and so a pony version of a royal could have more liberties with her style. Her hairstyles often featured pearls, so I strung pearl beads onto thin jewelry wire, which gave me more control where I draped them. I also kept a hank of hair loose in the front to curl it on top of her crown, which is a ring, secured in place with two thin strands of hair tied at the back of her bouffant. Her tail is done in two braids, one large four-strand and one mini three-strand!

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(Painting is “Portrait of Marie-Antoinette de Habsbourg-Lorraine (1755-93))

I originally planned to have a more stereotypical crown next to a slice of cake, but I realized that I should use a reference for a French crown. Unfortunately, the paintings I found of Marie Antoinette online didn’t feature any crowns, but I did find a beautiful jeweled headpiece in the painting above, with the typical feathers and pearls to accompany. She is also often painted with roses, so I added a frosting rose to her cake. And because she’s a royal, she gets the extra luxe treatment; a symbol on both sides! I also gave her a heart-shaped beauty mark to cover a particularly obvious purple dot on the side of her nose.

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Marie kept her original eyepaint, as you can see in the top comparison photo; I used white speckling paint to cover the stains around her eyes, which reduced them to more of a lavender eyeshadow, and then painted a lacy pattern over it. Her original symbols were removed, and repainted with the cake-headpiece symbol.

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I think that just about covers all of it! But I took a million photos, so just for kicks, I’ll include those below the cut! Thanks for reading!

Surprise, I finished another custom! She might be my fastest one yet - she went from concept to completion in under a month!

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Isomalt (a kind of baking sugar) is a chocolatier pony, and her family is known for making all of the chocolate rabbits in Ponyland!

Here she is with her cousin, Kelby!

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Isomalt came together very quickly, and she was inspired by some comments I got about how my brown-dyed ponies looked a lot like chocolate! Somehow I hadn't made that connection, but I kept thinking, chocolate and Easter go well together! And I had just bought this fun hair from The Doll Planet, and I was looking for an opportunity to try it out. It takes knots very well (thank goodness, it cut down rehairing time!) so I was able to rehair her very quickly. (This color is 's-cirl bright pink SHO31' by TheDollPlanet!) So I gave her some cute fluffy hair, styled it into some space buns, and made her a cute bunny ear headband!

I was suggested to give her a white chocolate rabbit for a symbol, but I wanted gold foil; so I gave her one of each! Her eyes are styled after an adorable Easter basket I found at Target, which had a very endearing expression!

Thanks for reading, and happy spring! 

Hey guys, question is in the header! I’m selling some ponies on eBay, and although I put “US only” for my shipping options, I’ve had a couple people asking for estimates to Canada and Australia. Problem is, when I looked at shipping estimates on eBay, they gave me ridiculous numbers like $10-15, when US shipping is already like $5-9! (Which eBay thought should originally be $2-3 until I fixed it with the USPS shipping calculator, naturally!!)

Is there a certain option I should click to make this easy on myself, Global Priority or something? Or am I stuck manually inputting numbers for all my auctions?

Question is in the title, really! Has anyone successfully bought a full case (one of each pony) of blind bag ponies from Target's online store? I'd love to hunt them down in person but ... well, for obvious reasons, I can't go to Target every few days to hunt for a fresh box! 

I would hope that if I put in 'quantity 24', they'd just send a full case of 24! But I don't know if that's how their warehouse works... so, has anyone successfully done it? Or more importantly, unsuccessfully done it? Did you order 24 bags and receive 5 Pinkie Pies? Spill the beans, pony people!

I'm asking just what the topic states! Are there any cool places to hunt for ponies in Ireland, or collectors around there? I'd love to go pony-hunting in another country! Thank you!!

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Meet Heartwood, the rose gold Valentine’s Day pony!

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Heartwood is found at the center of a tree, and is the hardest part of the wood. But our Heartwood is quite soft, and exudes a quiet, peaceful sort of affection. His name is Heartwood because his symbol is a stylized cherry blossom tree, done in a watercolor-y style!

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Heartwood is a custom My Little Pony created from a HQG1C sparkle base, and dyed in RIT Dyemore Synthetics in Sandstone and Super Pink, and has six (!!!) different colors in his hair, including three pinks! The colors are all from Dollyhair.com, and they are Sakura, Pink Sugar, Pixie Dust (all pinks), Peaches and Cream, Sunlight and Love Potion.

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Heartwood features several highlights in gold thanks to dye resist, but because they didn't show up quite as dramatically as I hoped, I outlined a couple of the spots in rose gold paint - you can see it especially on his face blaze, and the hearts on the backs of his ears!

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Here's some more gratuitous hair shots, just because I love his hair so much!
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Happy Valentine’s Day!