Healthy Pony It's the home stretch

[Kitkumi]

I'm finally feeling fully back to my old self. Summer colds are the worst, lol (though I'm sure I would be saying the same thing if it were winter!). I started my challenge 2 last Thursday, so I still have a few days to go, but so far so good! I actually ended up focusing on exercise rather than my jewelry like I had first planned. Sometimes it is really hard to get motivated to get up and move, so my challenge 2 has ended up being exercising for at least thirty minutes with a partner every day. This has worked out really well so far, since my fiance is my exercise buddy and has been working out on his own anyway. It has really helped to keep me encouraged and motivated.

@Crowning_Glory13 - I'm sorry to hear that you are feeling so down. The job hunt/being without a job really is one of the worst feelings, but I know you'll find something. Try to ignore the rejection letters and the lack of interviews; I know that a lot of places post job listings because they are typically required to do so, but they already have someone they want to hire so they ignore everyone who applies! I've run in to it a lot actually where I live, and it is truly a crappy system. I hope that your interview goes well today Make sure to let us know! And also, a ramon noodle salad sounds really good! How did you go about making it because it sounds like something I would like to try sometimes.

@Kiwi- I agree with the lull; it's that time of year! lol. I took a peek at your etsy store and I love the layout (that banner is so cool!). The Hogwarts Train you posted earlier is fantastic; how the heck do you come up with patterns like that? O.o (My granny used to work with the plastic canvas and yarn as well, and I never could figure out how she made even a simple tissue box, lol). Your idea to do smaller items to help fill up the shop is a good one too. With my etsy, I typically tend to get the most traffic when I do bulk uploads.

@banditpony - Welcome to the sick club; here is your free box of tissues and cold medicine lol. *pony hugs* Nah, but in all seriousness, I hope you feel better soon. Just got over being sick myself, so I know how that can slow you down. I don't know if they would do it, but if you can get to the shop one last time why not ask them for the bread recipe? If you talk to them about how much you like it and how long your family has been going there, they might share it with you since they will be closing. Worst they can say is no, after all!

[Kiwi]

Thanks Kit! I took a peak at your shop, I really like your pieces. Nice simple designs that really show off the stones' natural beauty, and just adds a little something extra. I like the little design on the stones too.

The train was quite a few hours (days) of analyzing many photos of the real one, but overall it came together well in the end - the designs fit nicely with the size of the pieces. I started with the tissue box part and worked out from there (because the boxes are a set size, so it had to fit that to being). I like stitching, and I love making it into something 3D, it's like crafty lego.

[banditpony]

@banditpony - Welcome to the sick club; here is your free box of tissues and cold medicine lol. *pony hugs* Nah, but in all seriousness, I hope you feel better soon. Just got over being sick myself, so I know how that can slow you down. I don't know if they would do it, but if you can get to the shop one last time why not ask them for the bread recipe? If you talk to them about how much you like it and how long your family has been going there, they might share it with you since they will be closing. Worst they can say is no, after all!

I'm finally starting to feel better today~ I just have to gain my energy back now.

:') If i wasn't so shy, I'd ask...  There was a family member who opened up another store... but their bread is totally different. I think they didn't even want to share with family members. I think the other thing is the fact that I don't think I could make bread if I tried. I'm not the best baker.

[Crowning_Glory13]

I have so fallen off the healthy pony band wagon....sigh here we try again. So I am simplifying it. I have 4 things to do. 1. Work on knitting. 2. Work out. 3. Clean something/un box 4. No extras. This starts for me Friday. Start clean, start fresh.

I am now lurking and spying on my healthy pony peeps. I am starting to add votes up...so I am trying to get the best surprised pack ready to go.

I will be posting the next round in September if you are interested. It will be different. I spice things up a bit.

Had an interview this week. I actually got 2! The first was good. If I had no other interview I would have taken it. Very low pay and no benefits. But I got a second interview with another job that would give me free chiropractic adjustments....I am in need of those. I do not ask for a lot. I just want a pay that I can pay for benefits and still pay my bills or something that has some benefits. I am jobless...but it's my only fault and that is easier to handle.

Still need to figure out how to keep me positive. Anyone have some ideas I am all eyes:) each post is a vote.

Also start thinking who gets your vote for the poster pony of healthy pony.

[Kiwi]

Got my fingers crossed for you CG on the interviews. Benefits are definitely a necessity, and sadly hard to find with a lot of employment nowadays. It's good you were honest with them of what you were looking for.

For staying positive, I've come across a couple ideas along the way:
-journal - each day write down something good from the day, even something small like having a favourite treat
-happy things notes - usually something you start at the start of the year, but get a jar or box or something, and write down positive things that happen during the year. Then at the end of the year you read through them all. I'm doing one for the first time this year - my first one was being able to see the fireworks downtown on New Year's Eve from my front windows. I've even put small things in like weird coincidences or funny jokes.

[Tak]

This is pretty awesome. I've been following, but now wish I had signed up. You are all doing great! Keep it up.

[retrogradenova]

So last Friday i said i would post an update. I was super excited about my progress and to share some pictures. That didn't happen. Shortly after i posted one of my cats started acting funny, and the next day it was worse. We rushed him to the vet and he was later diagnosed with diabetes. Its been a difficult week for me. I nearly had my challenge completed, but i couldn't focus. My cat came home from the vet on Wednesday but he started getting worse almost immediately. Shortly I'm going to bring him back to the vet. Hopefully she will help him. My husband made a gofundme page since the bill is over 2k. I'm trying to be positive, since it feels like begging people for help.

In the meantime I've been trying to continue my work. You guys are all doing so great, I'm hoping i can join you guys in completing my challenge. 

Without further ado, here's my art:

Spoiler

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These gents are my next set of airbrush victims. The little g4 and i had a disagreement over his sculpting so I'm having to redo him. The picture frame is something new I'm trying.

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These ladies are getting prepped for airbrushing. The big yellow ones in the back are a pair of customs for my husband and myself.

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These playskool customs are on deck for some new eyes, Minty is there as a reference.

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These are some painting I'm hoping to get done. You can also see the thumbnails I was drawing for various ideas. The green board minty is sitting on will hopefully be the board I paint the seapony themed painting on. Something I'm really proud of is that i followed proper drawing steps in terms of developing the compositions. When i was in art school i would alway skip the rough draft stage between the thumbnails and tge final piece.

[banditpony]

I have so fallen off the healthy pony band wagon....sigh here we try again. So I am simplifying it. I have 4 things to do. 1. Work on knitting. 2. Work out. 3. Clean something/un box 4. No extras. This starts for me Friday. Start clean, start fresh.

Simple is good!

I think I need to just survive the stress of the upcoming week. At work, our HQ is officially moving. :< Reality hasn't sunk in for me yet... But my commute will be over an hour long now! Starting Monday. Now I get to walk up 5 flights of stairs to get to my cube. Yay and boo at the same time.

I've been thinking about tweaking my goals to give myself more of a challenge. But even if I don't, I see progress and that makes me happy.

[Kitkumi]

I managed to complete my seven day challenge for challenge two, and I'm going to fall over now lol. Exercising daily with a partner is great for motivation, but my fiance ran my butt in to the ground earlier today. I feel good about it, because I wouldn't normally jog on my own outside (I prefer a treadmill for that), but I am tired. Going forward, it looks like we're going to keep trying to exercise together in the evenings. Im hoping that it will also help me stay constant with exercising this way (I figure seven days is a good start!)

@Kiwi -Thank you I hope that the more I make, the more I can figure out how to do. I've seen some absolutely beautiful yet simple pieces at the gem shows I go to shop at. Also, crafty legos is an amazing way to describe it, and you probably have more colors to work with than lego has to offer you. Do you use red-heart yarn by chance?

@banditpony - Glad to hear that you are feeling better! Hopefully your energy is coming back quickly. And as for the bread, yeah, you're probably right that if the other family member opened a store and doesn't seem to have the recipe, they probably wouldn't share. Upside, maybe since the one store is going out, the family member who opened a store will start baking the bread now (maybe before it was so they didn't completely compete with the original store). As for your HQ moving, try to think of your commute as a positive thing. When I was in college I had about an hour commute one way, and I absolutely loved it because it was a total of two hours of undisturbed me-time almost every day. My mom has been commuting to her job, about an hour each way, for almost forty years and she feels the same way. It can give you a bit of time to detox and process the day. So hopefully your commute doesn't end up being too bad of a thing.

@Crowning_Glory13 - I wouldn't say that you fell off the bandwagon *hugs* After all, you are still posting, and if you are still posting that means you are still going, right? I'm really glad to hear that you got that second interview too, and that you know what you are after in a job. Any kind of benefits is a huge bonus over a place that offers absolutely nothing. As for ideas to stay positive: sticky notes! Write down positive thoughts, encouraging words, positive traits about yourself and stick them everywhere where you are going to see them. Bonus points if you give them to someone else and have them put them places so that you are surprised. Basically it helps because if you start to feel down, you can look up and see that positive message sitting there. Also, you could try making origami paper stars. I've never done it myself, but I've seen others do so; basically, every time you do a thing, you make a star; get out of bed? Mark that down, it's a star. Shower? Star. Eat breakfast? Star. Do something big like clean an entire room? That is at least worth five stars, maybe more. Then you find a jar, a small one at first, and store them in there. Then as you make more, you have to get bigger and bigger jars to hold them, and you can look at that jar and -see- just how much you do in a day, even if it is the simple things of everyday life.

@retrogradenova -*so many kitty hugs* Having a feline  get diagnosed with diabetes can be very hard emotionally. Our first family cat was ultimately diagnosed with it in his later years, so I can fully understand what you have probably been going through and you have my sympathy. I know its hard, but stay positive; vet medicine has come so far over the years, and don't feel like you are begging for money because it isn't. It's just trying to raise money for a family member who needs help, and that isn't begging. As for your art, it looks awesome! I really want to see everything when you get them done (how did you sculpt those fetlocks!? I have tried and failed to get some to look that smooth o.o ) The playskool ones also look adorable. I don't think I've seen any customized before, and the picture frame is amazing. I thought that was official merchandise at first.

[Kiwi]

Haha, yeah I can make my legos any colour or shape. I do use Red Heart, but I've also been using Loop&Threads' lines lately, particularly their Impeccable line. I've also used Astra, Bernat, random donation yarn. LOL Whatever works and has the colours I want/need, and sales play a factor too. I'm always planning around Michael's sales and coupons.

[Crowning_Glory13]

It's almost September...and I am so proud of you all. All of you have been working very hard and doing so many positive things and being there for each other.....I just get warm fuzzyes all over:)

I will be doing a second 3 month round starting in September. I will give you a heads up when I post. Anyone can join in.

Retrogradenova. I had a diabetic kitty. I had sygrum (not sure if I spelled that right) when he look down just dipped my finger and let him lick. It was recommended by the vet. I had him for 5 more years. He was 13 and left us at 18. Dementia took him in the end. So hugs and prayers for you. I sold ponies for those 5 years and I would not have done it differently. It takes some time to balance the diabetic kitty. It will get better.

Bandit pony. Now you get some work out with stairs!!! Sorry for all the change, but it can be a great thing. Great job on being positive.

Kitumi great work with the challenge. Kept it up.

Kiwi. Jo-Ann fabrics has some great coupons. I recommend signing up for their snail mailer. Most of the time you can use the mailer and the online coupon and get better deals. They always a have a 40% online. The mailer will get you 20% total purchase....its how I get yarn for my projects:)

I am working on a huge knit blanket project and to get it started it was going to cost me $90.00  in yarn. With online coupons, and mailer I only spent $40.

Keep trucking everyone

[Kiwi]

Thanks for the suggestion, sadly we don't have Joann Fabrics up here in Canada. But sometimes Michael's sends out 50% coupons, which is awesome. I got a similar deal on yarn once between sales and an addition coupon on top of the sales. Such a huge bag of yarn, I was in heaven.

[retrogradenova]

Things I've been meaning to say but got distracted:
@Kitkumi - Your jewelry is awesome. So nicely done! It's driving me crazy, honestly, and makes me want to make my own. I was a Silversmith for 6 years, but I don't have any of the bigger equipment to work with anymore. Also thank you for all the kind words about my art. I know KCherry has done one playskool pony before in a Halloween theme, it was so cute it's why I had to give it a shot. Also to answer your question, it was a lot of time, each piece of feathering was applied individually and blended the best i could into the pony's leg. Then once it was all dried, I sanded it starting with a 180 grit, then 230, at 400 I switched to a wet sandpaper, then 600, then 800, and 1000. The wet sanding really helps smooth and blend the apoxie sculpt into the pony. You just have to be careful not to over sand the actual feather parts or they start to look a little flat.

@Kiwi - I love your coasters, they are very cute, and I can't wait to see what else you make.

@ Crown_Glory - It sucks about the job thing, but I'm sure since you're already getting interviews you'll find a new one fast. Staying positive is really hard, I don't really have any good tips for it. Though I do find playing lots of 90's music and singing along usually improves my mood. Does that count? Right now my method of being positive is denial, lol! Also one of my favorite ways of cooking raman is to just through frozen veggies (like those frozen stir fry mixes that are peppers and onions) into it when I go to cook it. I'll also sometimes throw in some precooked chicken or steak that's cut up into small stripes or pieces.

@Banditpony - A long commute can be fun. I used to have to leave for class an hour early just so I could find a parking spot, the drive itself was only 30 minutes, but i usually sang my entire way there, and got myself pumped for class each day.

Update:
I wanna thank everyone for their support. When I got Porthos to the vet shortly after my last post, things weren't looking good. His kidneys failed. Though his glucose levels were strangely fine. There wasn't anything the vet could do. So we had to say goodbye to him. It wasn't a good day, while I was trying to say good bye to him, the dog in the kennel beneath him got sick all over me. And when I got back form cleaning up, the vet had finished, she didn't realize I wasn't done with my goodbyes. My husband tried to make it there before hand, but his phone wasn't working properly so he didn't get there in time. Overall not the way I wanted things done.

I've been working mostly non stop on my art and pony projects since. In all honesty I've been avoiding sleep since I don't want to wake up in my bed without Porthos on his pillow. One of my other cats used his magic sleep inducing abilities to make me fall asleep in my living room chair for a bit today, so technically I got some sleep. So yay sleep! 

Anyways, I've been really focusing on my art because I was planning on going to the Southeast Pony Meet at the end of September. I really wanted to have a bunch of stuff to trade and sell. The gofundme thing for the vet bill isn't going well. The whole reason my husband made it was so that I wouldn't have to give up going to the pony meet, but as the days tick down, it looks like the pony meet funds will have to be reallocated to pay the bill. It's frustrating when I think about it, so I chose to not really think about it and keep working on my art. Maybe I'll get lucky and we'll be able to find the money some other way.

I haven't really been doing my sketches daily like I was at first. I have been electing to work on larger projects. I think part of that is a little fear after that whole incident with my friend, I'm planning on trying things a new way and make myself sit down first thing in the morning and sketch, as the second challenge. No longer will sketching time be optional as to when I decide to do it. It will be done before I'm allowed to do any of my other work. Hopefully that will motivate me to get it done.

For me the Healthy Pony has been all about getting myself to a healthier state of confidence. I grew up fat and was treated horribly by just about everyone.  Even my own parents undermined my confidence by constantly telling me I'd never get anywhere while being fat, and that the kids at school were right, and all sorts of various things. So while I'm exactly focusing on my weight (which is still a problem), I think I've been succeeding over all though this challenge, in working on my confidence which I feel may be more important over all at this point. I've gotten more artwork done in the last three months than I have in over 2 years, and I still have more I hope to finish before the end of this. It feels really good to recognize that. I know I'm not brimming with confidence yet, I struggled with the eyes of one pony for several days before putting it down and waiting a few weeks before I could bring myself to pick her up again. But I did pick her up again and I did finish her instead of giving up and forgetting about her. So it is a start.
     

[Crowning_Glory13]

This is why I do healthy pony. Being a better pony is hard. The struggle is real, but so are the posting ponies who struggle right along with you. Retrgradnova you have found away to love yourself and understand yourself. That took me over 30 years to do. That is the hardest thing to do. We all know we will never be perfect. But having a support system is what helps us through.

Hugs for your loss

[banditpony]

I'm really enjoying working up at the top floor. Going up the large staircase is like ~7.5 flights of steps, cuz the ceilings are so tall on each floor.

Commute. :/ Not so much. I am so exhausted each day, and get no time with my family. I'm so scared of when winter comes around ><  But I'm trying to stay positive with everything I dislike about the move... I remind myself there is something good too...