With four online parties in February for the Region 11 (GTA) hobbyists, I decided to condense the experiences into one super post as not to bombard anyone!
Party #1 - February 1st
Last week I held a Dinner & Prep party for those in my local hobby area (Region 11 - Greater Toronto Area) who were feeling that they needed to connect with their fellow hobbyists for the first time since 2019. This event was not much different than last week but with one big difference: it was held on the first official day of NaMoPaiMo which meant the unleashed energy for painting that had been held back! Many people came making it a huge success, and most of the attendees were painting something!
One of the highlights was a giveaway for a gold Frida 2019 NaMoPaiMo medallion (which just seemed right for the occasion) which was won by Beth Peart-Weekes!
Another highlight was a visit from Lisa Sharpe, Canadian expat living in the sunny country of Equador (and enjoying the warm Pacific Ocean out her window). Her presence brought tears and a lot of happy faces since its been about 5 years since we've all seen her!
Attendees:
Beth Peart-Weekes
Lisa Sharpe
Victoria W. Krentz
Gina Tarita-Nistor
Eric Yeh
Ashley Bellisle
Elana Oakes
Erica Ferguson
Neena Bickram
Zoe Lewis
Elise Lewis
Phew, like I said, it was a huge crowd! People came and went... some stayed invisible due to camera troubles. It was extremely fun and like I said, a lot of us got some work done on our model horses; I personally got 2 of my soon-to-be chestnut mares base coated in metallic gold paint (a tip from Kristen Cermele) which gave me a little anxiety since acrylics are my worst nemesis. However, all seems to be turning out fine!
Dinners Officially Served:
Pizza
Lasagna
Pork tenderloin
BBQ Chicken Wrap
Kraft Dinner
Japanese curry
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Party #2 - February 8th
Keeping the momentum going, we rode into this party with full force! Victoria offered to do another giveaway for a chance to win either Stablemate Club horses Cassidy or Sultan, which drew a big crowd. Lynn Cassels-Caldwell won and chose Cassidy as the prize! Thanks Victoria!
Attendees:
Beth Peart-Weekes
Victoria W. Krentz
Gina Tarita-Nistor
Ashley Bellisle
Lynn Cassels-Caldwell
Erica Ferguson
Brooke Southgate
Janine Haq
Helen Vanos
Nearly everyone had a horse in front of them and were working diligently. The rest happily chatted about a variety of topics, and Lynn showed off some sneak peaks for her Breyerfest Sale (psst they are pretty awesome). Eventually cats started popping up all over the screen with Oots (Janine), Mojo & Titi (Beth), Nova (Erica), and Suki (myself) on display for everyone to see. It seems every party we have we do an animal show n tell!
Dinners Officially Served:
Pork and Cabbage Bao Buns
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Party #3 - February 16th
The day after Valentine's Day is actually a holiday here in Ontario called Family Day, so although I did put in the poster that it was the 15th, it was postponed until the 16th. Talk about poor planning on my part!
I actually wasn't able to attend this party because of work, but I requested that my father leave it open for everyone to connect! I asked what I missed and apparently I missed quite a few things! Of course the latest in Breyerfest news, new purchases, painting techniques, life updates, and number systems at horse shows and how they are vs model horse shows. I'm keen to hear about the number systems and I bet I will next week!
Attendees:
Beth Peart-Weekes
Beth's friend, Jean
Gina Tarita-Nistor
Ashley Bellisle
Helen Vanos
Janine H
Dinners Officially Served:
Fish, grilled avocado, and rice
Volcanic jerk lamb burgers
Chicken
Meanwhile I unofficially had fish n poutine lol I actually got stuck at work, a rare time at the office these days. So while I was arms reach from a computer, I was slaving away scanning tax documents. I didn't leave until 10:30 and got home just before midnight. Oh and I got snow in my boots trekking to my house because Canadian winters.
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Party #4 - February 22nd
Here we are galloping across the finish line at our last official NaMoPaiMo Painting Party! It has been a wild ride between people actually painting their models, to Breyerfest, to everyone just catching up! We did another giveaway, this time for a Jennifer Show medallion, which was won by Brooke Southgate!
We debated tobiano in thoroughbreds (I was on the losing side), talked about our dogs, and of course painted ponies! I personally got just a little closer to finishing my Bangles micro.
Attendees:
Beth Peart-Weekes
Erica Ferguson
Gina Tarita-Nistor
Ashley Bellisle
Brooke Southgate
Neena Bickram
Dinners Officially Served:
Pork dumplings
Cottage Pie
Curry Chicken
Chicken
I really wanted to take the time to organize a gallery of the Toronto region official models in their current stages - some complete and some still in the works! There is still a week to go, so many models are still in progress (like mine), but this is where we stand right now!
Im so proud that my local hobby is so talented!
And that concludes the official Toronto hobby painting parties! We had a lot of fun and this has opened the dialogue for our locals to hold online meetings and activities in the future. I'm really glad I hosted these because they really topped of NaMoPaiMo for me, I really hope we can all get together in person next year for more fun and frolic. A massive shout out to my father, Andrij, for letting us use his GoToMeetings link!