I just finished another Arabian costume today for Jessica!  She wanted this made to fit her Bint Soraya resin which is being painted to a red bay at the moment, so I thought it fitting that I take photos of the costume on my bay Twist Arabian so we can get an idea of what these colors will look like together!

Extra roominess was added to the headstall so that the halter will fit Bint Soraya, so it is slightly larger on the Stone Arabian.

In hindsight I probably should have tried to use a different background than this sky blue one I have because it blended a bit with the turquoise of the costume, but the idea was to get a less distracting background, plus I just love blue anyway!

On the halter piece she picked out the style of charms she wanted for the nose band, adding a unique touch.  The colors were a bit inspired by the "Tiger's Eye" feathered presentation set I did, she liked the turquoise and brown together.  The other colors used in the drape came into play later.  Special beads were also used on this costume on the halter and collar pieces, hard to tell from the photos but they are white with little orange and green stripes!  When I saw them I had to use them because I love a chance to add unique touches to my work when I can!

I just love the color of the blue velvet I used on this seat, it matches the colors of the set so well and just looks like luxury for a doll butt!

And there we have it, another native Arabian costume done!  Thank you Jessica for ordering this set from me, I had a great time making this for you and I hope you & Soraya will enjoy it too!

Now that I've shared this set, it's time for me to share the bad news.  I've had to cancel my remaining commissions/trades that I had lined up this month due to some unforeseen pregnancy ailments.  It turns out I've developed carpel tunnel in my wrists, and I've also been experiencing swollen fingers when I work.  I had been putting in 30-40 hour weeks sewing on tack and have made some great progress turning out many new pieces of tack, but I think it's finally catching up with me.  Since I'm getting so close to having my baby now (4-7 weeks), and with the awful Minnesota humidity in the air, it's no surprise that I should experience a little swelling.  Unfortunately it's slowing my work down, it's becoming painful and with my due date being this close I don't want to leave anybody hanging or waiting on me.  So this costume was the last of my commissions, possibly for the year.  I will continue to work at the hand embroidered costume that I have started, however the finish date on that set will probably be pushed back quite a bit more than I had hoped, but I'll post progress pictures here as I'm able to!

I won't be accepting any new orders on tack for awhile.  I do hope at some point to try to build an online store of my tack that I'll make at my leisure, but of course I'll need some time to adjust to being a new mommy first so I can't say when that will be.  I might post photos of new stuff that I make for several months to the blog and what's new pages, mostly keeping my website updated as I go, but won't probably release anything to sell until I become more mobile again.  I also want to work on hairing a few horses, so you'll see those pop up on the Blog.  I'll try to stay as active and current as I can, but I might go a little inactive for awhile as I adjust to motherhood!  

Thanks to everyone who has supported my work and who have been so welcoming on my return back to the model horse community!  It's good to be back, and I will be around!

Thanks for reading and happy collecting!

Melissa Halvas :0)