Finding the Inner Child

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have morphed into a thrifting, picking, crazed, treasure hunter feeding my booth in an antique mall. At the old age of 60, I have discovered a new passion, and I feel as if I am a little kid again. Yesterday, I was knee deep in a storage shed 'picking' old wooden school chairs and desks from an assortment of trash. I came home with a van full of dirty treasures including a 1960's radio in wonderful condition and a school desk and chair from the 1920s complete with hole for an inkwell. Then this morning, I woke at 5:30, too excited to sleep. Walked and fed the dogs and horses in below-freezing temps, piled into the van before my husband (and the sun) was up, and headed to an indoor yard sale.

My adrenalin was pumping as I hurried into the church hall. I'd never been to this particular venue and figured it would be filled with kids' clothes and old purses. But when I walked inside, the first thing I spied was BREYER HORSES!

I galloped over to that table like my horse Relish races to his grain bucket. Right now, my booth does not have a horse 'section' but I have been slowly collecting an interesting array of horse stuff to create a nice display. I have vintage Thelwell books, hunt scene place mats, a needlepoint hunt pillow and a brass horse towel holder (don't ask.) But I was missing Breyer. My own collection suffers from chipped ears and broken legs (from hard riding) and I really didn't want to part with them. So finding Breyers with good prices was a treat. The problem? My heart took over my brain.

I wisely picked three horses still in boxes as well as a bag of miniatures (I knew not all were Breyer in the bag, which was okay because they were all cute.) I unwisely did not check the name of the horse on the box with the horse inside the box until I got them home. Um. Snookered.
I have the horses, and I have the boxes, but they don't match. And really, I am happy with the price, and as my husband said "It was a ten dollar mistake, so who cares" but oh how I wish I had kept my head and scrutinized each horse and box. If I'm going to be 'good' at this business of thrifting and picking, I have to make smart choices. Fortunately, I redeemed myself at the same yard sale with a Winnie the Pooh jewel box full of the complete set of Madame Alexander Wizard of Oz dolls (McDonald's happy meal prizes in 2007)that are absolutely adorable and worth four times what I paid. In the end, it did balance out.

So if anyone needs a box for Polo Pony No. 733. I've got one. And what in the world is "Bareback Riding Gift Set"? I couldn't find it online, so have no idea what should be in that box, but I know it's not the prancing pony I found. Or if someone wants to sell me polo pony 733 or Bareback Gift Set, let me know. Hey, let me know if you are ready to sell any of your horse statues, china horses, stuffed horses, Billy and Blaze books . . .you get the picture. I have a home--and love-- for them all!

Breyer World

Big Bro with Little Sis with just a few of the Breyers

My little girl is all about horses. She lives and breathes horses. If she isn't with the pony or at school, she is in her room with her world of Breyer horses.

Watching her play with those models brings back so many fond memories from when I was a kid and used to do the same thing. I could be in my room by myself with those models for hours. I made up all sorts of stories that fueled my imagination. Sadly, when I went away to college my mom packed up the model horses and put the box in the garage. There were a couple of little girls who lived up the street and they discovered that box when they came down to visit the live horses living there. My dad told them that they could play with the models. I guess they interpreted that as play with them in their room at home because they all disappeared over time. That really stings now with the investment I have in the models I buy for Kaitlin. I would have loved to have given those models to my daughter. But I do hope those girls had as much fun as I did with the models.

Now that Kait has a bazillion of them and her room seemed to be shrinking, my husband built her a loft bed over the holiday break so that she had more room to play. He also built her a twelve stall barn with cross-ties and everything to boot. He is still working on getting electrical into the miniature barn. You walk into the room and Kaitlin has it all set up. She has a cross country course, arenas, pens for special horses and the barn stalls for the really special ones.

I have to admit that at first I frowned a bit. Let's face it, with age comes a desire to have your house in order and with all those models and jumps, etc on the floor in her room it isn't exactly the original vision I had for a sweet little girl's room. But after watching her and listening to her create stories around her model horses, I came to realize I wouldn't have it any other way. The facts are that Kait is going to grow up and go to college in only 7 short years. I know how quickly that time goes as I have teenage sons--oops, only one now. The other one is twenty! With that perspective in mind, I look around at the horse world now created in my daughter's room and I realize that I wouldn't have it any other way.

Cheers,
Michele
http://www.michelescott.com

P.S. My skills are quite lacking as a camera person and my cold doesn't do much for my voice, but if you would like to take a look into the Breyer World in our house then please check it out.