Classy lass and high brow family pictures....

Yes, i am a classy lass. And my family is high brow. And to prove it I will post photographic evidence. Instead of writing an entertaining post (or TRYING to, at any rate) I will post my favorite pictures of the three of us humans, my dog and my pony.

First, the lovely and classy Pony herself:




Then, my handsome and intelligent husband:



My brilliant and lovely child:



My dog, Nigel (he did not get beat up, lol, he had just woke up):



And my pony Sparrow:




Aren't we a stunning looking bunch?


HAHAHAHA!!!!!


Sorry, I was just bored and feeling silly. *chuckle*



And just to prove that we don't always look that way.... here is a picture from our wedding in 2001. I was bigger and less black haired, the kid was smaller but just as feisty and the husband had no idea what he was in for!!! Look how peacful and happy he looks here.... hahahahah!!!!!




**********ALSO!!!! Don't forget, you have until the end of the month to keep entering the monthly give away!!!

January Monthly Give Away!

SEW WHAT!!!!!

I can't believe it but I spent most of the day yesterday hand sewing.

!!!!

Never thought i would be able to do that again. And yet here I am, sewing. By hand.


I did, however, wake up with weak shaky hands this morning. So what did I do? Started sewing again. lol.

OK, it occurs to me that some of you might not know what the deal is with my hands so I will give the "Reader's Digest Condensed Version". I was an artist, training to be a tattooist, working at one of those "One stop shopping" stores in the deli after my ex left. Developed pain, numbness and weakness on the job. Job screwed me over, union wouldn't help, couldn't afford medical care OR to quit my job so kept working even though I was hurt. Did permanent damage to my arms. Carpel tunnel, cubital tunnel, tendinitis in the elbow, wrist and hand, and some pain in my shoulders. It destroyed my ability to write or draw by hand, and it completely obliterated my tattoo career.

Now I have spent the last several years trying to rebuild my ability to do ANYTHING. I am at about 45% of where I was before all that. That doesn't sound great but trust me, I was at about 12% for several years so 45% is AWESOME. I still can't write or draw with a pen or pencil without pain and weakness followed by a day or two of discomfort, weakness and trembling. With my gourd art I make sure all of my tools have big fat handles so that I don't need to have any fine motor control with my fingers to use it, and my wonderful husband got me electric scissors since normal ones just destroy my arms for days when I use them.

My biggest difficulty is with anything that requires strength between the thumb and fingertips. So you can imagine now WHY I am so thrilled to be able to hand sew! Now to be honest I have to use some creative hand positions, and sometimes if the fabric is thick I have to use my teeth (hehe), but I made myself an apron and got half way through a skirt yesterday. I will probably finish the skirt today then take a break before I start on my shirt. This is an outfit for the Primitive Shoot at the Black Powder Sportman's club later this year, so I am trying to hand sew it all like a good pre-1840's woman. I really want to get it done even though I won't need it until August or so. But I really will need a break before I start the shirt.

GOURD GOLLY!!!!

So I mentioned my gourd obsession in the "Ask Pony" post last friday... well, this weekend I discovered I still had some gourds on a top shelf in the barn that were ready to use! I had forgot I had them because they were up where I couldn't reach them and apparently I never look UP from my low vantage point, hehe.

I climbed up onto an upside down bucket, pulled them all down, and hauled them into the house. This weekend i cut several of them and cleaned the insides, washed them, and set them aside to dry. yesterday they were finally dry enough to craft so I started on one and this is what I ended up with:




I am pleased with it. It is wood burned, leather dyed, waxed with paste wax, and the rim of the lid is garden twine unraveled and wrapped on with some crochet string with gold metallic accents. The handle is, I think, Maple.


As soon as my name change on paypal is finished I will be listing this and a few others on Etsy.

I hope they sell, I have NO clue how to price them. I guess I will look around on Etsy and see what other gourd crafters price theirs at. I'm going to stress that all proceeds go towards the "Buy Pony Her Dream Horse" fund. *grin*

To Celebrate This Historic Day...

... I ran to the library and picked up a vampire book for my kid, bought some Ramen noodles, and got flea collars for our cats.


I find it comforting that on a day that will live on as a great historical moment I am doing such mundane things as buying flea collars and Ramen noodles.

I got bucked off today.

OK, that title is almost entirely inaccurate, but saying that makes me laugh so hard I almost wet my pants.

We are having a heat wave today, it is a balmy 16F right now. So I decided to ride the ponies since they have been on vacation for almost two weeks while we had temps as low as -33F wind chill. Sparrow got some ride time in once or twice but not much.

I wanted to test my bit warmer, and fit Mary's new English bridle, and try riding Sparrow in a bit for the first time. I decided to ride Sparrow first because he is the most difficult, physically, to ride. He is taller, narrower, and a lot faster. I also know he is VERY light on the mouth. I grabbed both bridles (I keep them in the house) and tossed my Bit Cozy in the micro for a minute, then wrapped both bits in the single warmer.

I also hauled my Aussie saddle out to the barn. Got that put away. Put Mary in the stall with some hay in front of her. Grabbed Sparrow and groomed him quickly, redid his tail (It is being kept braided and the braid folded up and vet wrapped so it can grow stupidly long) then put on his bridle. The bit was very warm, I gave it a second to cool so it was warm but not hot, and stuck it in his mouth. Upside down. *slap forehead* Pulled the bridle off, turned it over, put it back on. I don;t have a browband for this bridle and since it is just my back up bridle I'm not worried about it but yeesh.

OK, so everything is as it should be, I grab my dressage whip and drive him out of the barn then climb on. So far so good. He is playing with the bit a little but not over reacting to it the way he does when we ground drive. I take him around the pasture and when we go under the pear tree a low branch scrapes the shoulder of my snow suit. A full second later, after we are another 2 steps away Sparrow has a delayed reaction.

"HOLY CRAP!" he shouts, "What was THAT?" I have a hand full of mane to steady myself so I don't pull on his mouth if he gets jumpy and good thing because his back side dropped by 2 feet (neat trick when you are only 3 feet tall) and he shot forward about 5 feet in one leap. But, you know, my feet were on the ground so I didn;t really go with him properly. More like he ducked out from under me and left me standing there in a riding position. Because I was focused so much on NOT hitting him in the mouth with the bit I tightened up my hand in his mane, kept hold of the reins but held them slack, and as he bolted out from under me that turned me around and laid me gently in the snow on my butt. Still hanging onto his mane. Because, you know, he is really short. And I can lay down in the snow on the ground and still hold onto his mane.

I was laughing so hard that I think that freaked him out more than anything. I got up, climbed back on, took him past the tree again, and he was skittish but not stupid and I managed to stay on.

So I didn't ACTUALLY get bucked off. I didn't really fall off either. He just ducked out from under me, and then I fell down.

Once again, I wish I had that on film.

At any rate, he did fantastic aside from that little hiccup, and Mary's bridle fit perfectly (and her bit was just right when her turn came). And now I am so tired. Not from falling down, but just from riding them. It is really exhausting!