I love that so many of you share my fascination for rocks! Long time no post in this thread haha, but I ended up having a small disaster with my rock tumbler that threw me off track. I came back one night after a concert and thought my tumbler sounded off, but my ears were numb and a lot of thing sounded off so I ignored it and went to bed. When I woke up it still sounded off so I opened up the closet where I keep it and it had leaked. ALL OVER. There was sludge and grit just everywhere. Unfortunately that leak absolutely destroyed my rock tumbler and it stopped working.

Well I finally got another tumbler and got back on track! I got one with a slightly larger capacity, but I couldn’t quite afford a double barrel one like I really wanted. Here are a few of my select favorites from the batch I was working on last time.

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These 4 here might be my favorites so far - especially the funky brown one! I have no idea what it is, but I was shocked it took the polish so well! The texture of the original rock made me think it might not get too shiny.

This is another batch I just finished. These are actually all just landscape rocks from my grandma’s backyard. When I was a kid I had collected a bunch of rocks from her yard I thought were cool and put them in a bucket. She never dumped them back out after all these years, so I thought it was appropriate to tumble them! Most of them are pretty small since they were small to start with, but there are a few nice ones in there.

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Honeycomb, to answer your question the rock tumbler basically smooths out all the rough edges of rocks and makes them smooth and shiny! There are a couple different types that work in different ways, but mine is the more common rotary tumbler that basically just spins them around in a barrel! You add in some grit and water to each stage to smooth them out more nd more. The fun part is definitely Italy the first stage. When you first start to knock off those rough edges that’s when a lot of the neat little patterns and lines on the rocks start to show up!

I love G5! I personally prefer the low stakes style MLP over G4s grand adventures, so this is a little more up my alley. I really love the Make your Mark series and I’m sad that it is seemingly discontinued for now. I think the CG models of the ponies are really cute even if the lighting and animation can be a little wonky at times lol! My favorite character is probably Izzy. I love her crazy energy and unicycling crafts! I really love Sunny a lot as well, but I feel like ever since the movie her character hasn’t really gotten much exploration. Oh, and Misty!! Misty is honestly probably the shining star of G5, she is fantastic!

The Tell your Tale series is just okay to me. I really don’t love the animation style of it and it’s a little to short and quick paced for my liking, but I guess it must be doing well with kids for it to be the one that is continued! I stopped watching it a little while ago, so I’m not up to speed with it.

The toys are a little disappointing, but still better than G4 imo. The styling sized ponies are my favs of the toy line. Their molds are super cute and their hair is SO NICE! They just feel nice and high quality. I also really love the little articulated ponies, they are great for photographs! The little Polly pocket style ponies were a cute idea too. My main gripe with the toys is the repetition of characters. It makes me so sad that there is not more variety. The variety is what got me into MLP in the first place! The fact that Misty, a new main cast member only has, what, two releases? Is honestly crazy! The new sparkly ponies from the winter special would make such pretty toys! There is so much potential for the toy line to have more variety.

I’ve fallen off the wagon a bit for the holidays. I’m up about 5 pounds, but I’m not too worried about it, I know I can lose it again in time! I’m still overall happy with where I’m at health wise and I hope to keep improving in the new year.

I did my first 5k earlier this month! I actually ran more of it than I expected to. Having other people to pace me helped me not overdo it in the beginning so I could run longer. There was a guy there in an inflatable Olaf costume that was right behind me the whole time. I told myself I wanted to at least beat Olaf and I did lol! I ended up placing 174 out of almost 500, so for a first attempt I’m quite happy with that! I had a lot of fun and I think I’d like to do more 5ks in the future. I just wish there were more night runs, I don’t do mornings!

I LOVE that silverware set BC, so pretty! shockponie that cutting board is beautiful!

I got an amazing haul this year! I got a little green steam cleaner, a cute camping shirt, some fuzzy socks, an assortment of bath bombs and spa items, a gift certificate for the nail shop, and some candles. Oh, and ponies of course haha!

I’m especially pumped about the little green cleaner. My sister got one a coup,e years ago and I’m borrowing it all the time, it cleans so well! I’m going to do a deep clean of my rigs and furniture on my next day off!

If it helps, I use post images.org to upload images here! The site is free to use with no account required and it will resize the image and format the code for you! It sometimes will include a weird link at the end though, so just make sure to preview your post and delete out anything you don’t want.

I’ve seen a lot of the type of rhetoric lately as well and while I think it comes from a good place, I do think it’s been blown a bit out of proportion. Super lengthy and rambling post incoming!

The way I look at my collection is this: My ponies already exist, right? They can sit on a shelf in my room and be appreciated, the MAYBE could find a home with a kid, if just temporarily, or they can end up in a landfill anyway. Vintage ponies in particular however may not even be suited for kids play. With plasticizer leakage, rust, mold, hair loss, and the other issue that can be found in older toys it may not even be safe for kids to have them. I really don’t see what the harm is in collecting second hand toys that have already been produced. I figure they may as well be appreciated vs left to sit in the trash. There is no “undoing” the materials that created them at this point.

Newer toys I suppose one could argue that the more one buys the more demand there is for more to be produced, so I can see how curbing consumption can be helpful in that regard. But like you said, if you only buy what you truly want and will use, you are not single handedly destroying the planet with consumerism!! The toys will be produced regardless for kids who will love them for a time, and probably end up getting rid of them at some point. An adult buying a toy for themselves here and there isn’t going to skew how many toys are manufactured THAT much. I do think there is a troubling trend of buying more than is needed (I myself am guilty of this!) but idk, I never feel like it’s my place to judge exactly. If having like 20 of the same tumbler in different colors makes you happy, then hey, awesome! At least it’s saving single use plastic bottles from being used right?

I also despise how adults liking childish things has started to become negative in the eyes of some. I’ve seen a lot of the same negativity that you have that implies that adults who are into kids media are mentally ill or creepy or whatever. I mean to some degree I know it can come off as weird, but most folks I know who like kids stuff still are well balanced adults who just happen to still love a few particular things that make them nostalgic. My Little Pony obviously is a huge part of who I am and my interests, but I have other “adult” interests outside of it. I can hold adult conversations, work, and be invested in serious issues along with wanting an escape. I don’t particularly think that collecting toys is a sign of stunted development like some of these people seem to imply. Sure there’s a few in every group, but to paint us all with the same brush is so over simplistic.

To be honest with you I think part of the problem is just where you’re seeing the content. I love Reddit, but man it seems like negativity rules there. I’ve found myself really questioning myself a lot on my morality and views on a multitude of issues, and while that can absolutely be a good thing, it can also get exhausting when it seems like anything you believe in or enjoy is immoral somehow. I feel like there are some posters out there that think unless you live in a tent feel very bad about everything wrong with the world, you don’t take issues seriously enough and you’re part of the problem! The truth is none of us are perfect and we DO live in a very consumer driven society. I feel like if you are relatively mindful with your spending and don’t buy ponies just for the sake of having them, there are far, far more harmful hobbies to have out there. Of course I’m a bit biased, but I think us collectors are a pretty cool group of people!

Ive always wanted to try rock tumbling. the results looks so satisfying! However, I am concerned with the noise level of the machine and I have no place to put it that won't disturb anyone.
those rocks are so pretty! I used to have a rock collection when I was younger. I gave them to my niece since.

Thank you! The noise they make is definitely an issue. Luckily I have a shelf in my laundry room that seems to dampen the noise more or less. I can hear it in some areas of the house that share a wall with the laundry room, but mostly I don’t notice it running! That or it’s just become white noise at this point lol!

A thread for me!

Yes! I collected rocks as a child and still have some of them. I stopped in my 20s but picked it back up again later in the form of crystals and gemstones. I have some rough and polished stones too. I will have to take pics.

I've been looking into a rock tumbler myself. What did you get? I was looking on Amazon and they have a "kids" rock tumbler from The Smithsonian for a non ridiculous price. Others I looked up were too expensive, and then you have to take into account the grit and slick (am I using those terms correctly? )

Your rocks look really nice! Looks like you have some jasper there including some adventure jasper (the green ones)

Ohhh thanks for helping ID some of the rocks! I wondered if the red ones might be Jasper just based on the color, but I had no idea the green ones could be a type of Jasper too! That would make sense though, I think Jasper is supposed to be relatively common in my area.

This is the tumbler I got, I think it’s a knockoff of the Nat Geo one but I’ve been happy with it so far!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CLV773TF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

To be perfectly honest I think any of the rotary tumblers would be sufficient. They all more or less do the same thing, the results are going to come down more to the grit you buy and the time you spend tumbling them. There’s a Youtuber called Michigan Rocks that has great tutorials on rock tumbling and that is where I learned the method I’ve been trying! I think the biggest factors are running the first stage multiple times over until the rocks are as smooth as you can get them and getting a good polish. Tbh none of the kits come with good grits or polishes, so that is definitely something worth investing in. I’ve been buying Polly Plastics for my grit and polish. I’ve found they seem to be good quality and a fairly reasonable price. It’s cheaper to buy in bulk of course, but I don’t have a place to store huge bags of the stuff.

My area is known for serpentine, & one thing which has always intrigued me is pretty rocks & gems. I have some small gems in the Dream Castle for my Princess Ponies!!!

I’ve seen some polished Serpentine, it’s a really pretty stone! I love the idea of using the gems in pony displays! I currently have all of my rocks in jars, but I like the idea of scattering some into my play set displays!