the pain

OMG.. the PAIN. I am so sore I can't even believe it. My stomach muscles, my legs, argh! You'd think I was hitting the gym with a hard core personal trainer but my activity was seemingly much more innocuous than that.

What? you may ask.. well I started taking horse back riding lessons with Hannah. I used to ride Western all the time but its been years and I started off riding English Hunt Seat yesterday which I have NEVER done. WOW it works muscles you never knew you had. I fully expected to have sore legs but my abs! my calves! my shoulders!! the burn.. the pain. On the bright side, it was FUN! and a bit scary. I rode Faith who is awesome but he is so BIG. Its hard to tell in this picture but his back is nearly as tall as me. I need to measure him when I go out again. I am not afraid of horses but the thought of losing my balance and tumbling off him sobered me a little. There isn't much to hold on to on an English saddle.

Kerry ( our trainer) said I did well for my first time out. I trotted! I posted! I stayed in the saddle! Yay.. I am excited to go back. Hannah is delighted to be doing this together and I feel like it might help get me in a bit of shape. Maybe then it will be worth the pain..

On to a subject of a different sort. You may recall me mentioning signing up for Deborah's Shabby Mandala class. We just got our third lesson but I figured I'd show you my first stage pieces. The top one is one that Hannah started but she lost interest and I finished it up. Its much further along and she wanted me to leave the lamb showing so you will see how I tackled that.

This was just the creative stimulation I needed to get me back to creating daily. I have applied the basic lessons here to some other things and I think they will turn out pretty cool. More soon!!

the ribbons

Ok first off, look at that cutie will ya? Like a flea on a dog, perched up there atop her side kick Panda. Our little girl did so great at her first horse show. She was so brave and just went on out there in the big arena.

The night before when we talked about it, she said all she cared about was "bringing home a ribbon" and she brought home THREE! She is so proud of herself and WE are more proud of that than anything.

Once we returned home all she talked about was how to hang up her ribbons in her room for everyone to see so we took to the studio to see what we could create for her ribbons.

I had her help me by spray painting the base pieces and then after they dried I used some ribbon and hot glue to spiff them up to be cute for her room.

The top piece is a ruler from a pack of wooden dollar store rulers.. like 5 for $1. We used that as the support because A. it was handy, B. it was CHEAP, and C. she had been carrying her ribbons around on it anyway so it was just in my mind.

She chose the pink paint for the top and I had her spray it but we let the numbers show through a little bit.

The lighter pink part is a dollar store "matchstick" place mat that she also sprayed.

Since the ruler had holes in it already I just threaded some fuschia seam binding thru the holes and the spaces between the match sticks and tied it tight.

I then added more seam binding and a scattering of millinery flowers. Then we hung it up on her freshly painted wall and threaded her ribbons on it through the slats and its super cute. I think we can squeeze a few more ribbons on it too so it'll work for at least one more show ;). After that I guess I can add another place met below it.

It was a fun little project to do together and great to use up existing stuff from my stash and the dollar bin.

My other artistic endeavor today was just putting together a collage while sitting at the table from things I could reach without getting up. I like the outcome but am saving if for a larger project I am considering doing. I will keep you up to date if I decide to go ahead...

a horsey do

Yessss, school is OUT. Our year seemed to fly by yet drag on at the end. The kids all "walked" to their next grade in a fun year end ceremony on Wednesday night. I haven't uploaded any pix yet but I'll get to it.

Its the last days til our good friends move off to MN. I am sad. We will miss them a lot. They are those kind of people that either Greg or myself feel comfortable just hanging out with either one or both of the and the kids. I am babysitting all of them today while they clear the last things out of their house into storage. So I currently have 3 6 year olds and a 2 year old running around. In between supervising games and such I am working on invites I designed for a baby shower and getting ready for Hannah's first horse show tomorrow!

It seems we have really dove in head first to horse world. Hannah has been riding for about 7 weeks and will be riding in 3 classes tomorrow. I can't wait to see her all dressed up in her little outfit on top of her horse Panda in the ring. I will be sure to take pictures but until then here is a little video of her practicing with her trainer.