In 1997, a very pony-crazy 15 year old girl discovered this thing called the internet and, for the first time, found out that all the ponies she had dreamed of in her childhood (and more besides) existed in a magical world across the atlantic ocean called "North America".
In those days, there were very few UK people online, and even fewer people who knew about UK ponies. There were limited pony ID resources, and some of the ones that existed were not able to update with correct information at the speed required by the ever more interested collecting community.
From that, the Scrapbook was born.
I adopted the name "Taffeta" in 1998, after finding that most of the ponies I loved as a child had already had their names claimed. Since then, though, Taffeta has become deeply precious to me as my namesake pony, and I couldn't imagine ever using a different pony name.
In my childhood, though, there was no such thing as "Princess Taffeta", because she just was not sold here.
I grew up in the UK, in the Midlands, where pony distribution thwarted me and my sister at most opportunities. In spite of this, I had my first pony in 1984 and have never entirely looked back.
The picture at the top of the page is me in around 1988, with my newest prize possession: Lullabye Nursery. This was probably my favourite playset for a long time. Surrounding it are clips and snippets of what My Little Pony meant to me over the course of my childhood - bits of the many stories I wrote about Magic Star, Cherries "C.J" Jubilee, Paradise and Princess Pearl, and other pony paraphernalia that made up the past. Everyone's pony history is unique to them, and so this is piece of my pony history, as well as the history of UK sold ponies in general.
I don't have a ton of photos of my current pony collection on this site for two reasons. First and foremost, most all of my ponies are already on the site, "working" :) They appear across the pages to share information with you about My Little Pony, because my collection, to me, is not just a trinket on a shelf but a piece of my childhood and pony history.
In the spirit of that history, then, here is the collection I grew up with - before we discovered car boot sales, clearance stores, and, ultimately, online trading.
All of these ponies still live with me now, and are very precious to me. Windy, the Rainbow Pony was my first. Sunburst, the Mountain Boy, I got when my sister was born. Rainbow Magic, the Rainbow Curl Pony, I got when my mother was ill, because she could grant wishes. Baby Blossom was my first ever baby pony, and Bright Eyes was bought on holiday in Wales. Gypsy came to me second hand, and I stalked her on the Orange Item stall at my Dad's school fete for half an hour before opening just to make sure I got her (she cost me 30p!). You can't see them, but in the middle, between Ripple and Sunshower are my childhood Petite Ponies (Kingsley and Princess Moondust) from the castle. My sister and I both collected and played with the ponies together for many years, and we both still have all of our ponies, plus many new friends.
The ponies above are the core of my collection, and the reason all the rest of it is now here. Many of them appear on the individual ID pages. Please, when you see them, remember that they managed to survive living with me for more than two decades!