Blog Giveaway Winners

Alright, the winners have been chosen and I am going to blog about it now, and try to contact them all later. Each winner will have 48 hours from the moment I attempt to contact them via email or blog, etc to respond. If they do not then someone else will get their prize!
Also, to thank ALL of you that participated you may take 20% off in my Etsy or Artfire shops up until 2/28/09. Just send me a convo or put "blog giveaway" in the notes to seller. This only applies to people who participated in the giveaway, and I know who participated and who didn't. i will also offer 10% off to all followers until 2/28/09. Just put "blog follower" in notes to seller.

OK, now lets get down to business.

Grand Prize horse shoe dreamcatcher goes to Angie.

Runner up gets any keychain of their choice - Twilight Knits

Second Runner up also gets any keychain of their choice - Mel

and the last prize of an amigurumi owl in their choice of color and expression - Digital Misfit

There will be more blog giveaways to come. If you're a winner and youread this before I contact you (because I'm going to have a nap!) feel free to comment about what you want. All items can be custom or already in my shops. It is up to you!

Apollo and horses and dogs, oh my!

Here are some photos, as promised!

This is Apollo. I just named him last night, thanks to a suggestion by a friend! He is 5 1/2 weeks old and so cute!

I also thought I’d include some photos of my other animals. The kitties and the snake are the only ones I didn’t get.

Orion had his face in the camera so I tried to push his head away, and I snapped a photo. He tried to lip me!

Of course, this is what he looked like BEFORE I pushed him away.

You can really see how much he’s growing up in this picture. He is 10 months, working on 11, so he’s starting to get that yearling physique.

My Sid-dog! She’s put on some weight and looks so much more filled out. We got her from the shelter in November 2007 and it has taken us quite a while to really get her to not look greyhound thin in the flanks.

Dakota, impatiently waiting for me to catch up with her.

I love the look on Thunder’s face right here! He looks like he’s asking, “Oh, really?” I believe the shadow that looks pregnant is Titan behind him!

And finally,

my Titan looks pretty darn handsome in this picture. It isn’t often I get one of him with his ears forward!

Also, on an unrelated note, Windows Live Writer is the best little program for blog writing ever! I love the effects and stuff I can do wit it. So fun!

I will post the winners of my blog giveaway tomorrow or maybe later tonight (if you’re lucky), for the time being, let me rest after another tortuous day of work! I have tomorrow off and will be catching up on my internet duties but I also need to ride. Yesterday I only rode Titan, I hope to ride tonight, but we’ll see. I feel drained after work, it is hard to get up the gumption to ride. Plus, getting up at 4 am doesn’t help…anyone.

By the way, yesterday, someone totally trespassed up and down my property and had the dogs freaking out. It woke me out of a sound sleep (it was about 9am I was sleeping in)! I was so afraid to feed horses, I came out with a gun in hand and let the dogs go with me. The person was gone but their tracks went from my driveway all the way to the pasture and the dog runs, and then back toward the front of my property again. I’m definitely fencing in my property when I have some more money to spend on it! In the meantime, I’ll be nervous that they were scouting out the horses to steal them or something. I probably sound paranoid, but I don’t like when strange people trespass and walk right up to the dog run and horse pasture. They walked pretty much right by the house.

Animals Galore!

Sorry I've been kind of MIA. I like to try to post 6 days a week at least, but this week has been a rough one. On top of the animals requiring my time, I started working again this week.

My job sort of has large breaks, like the one we've been on since November. I worked a 12 hour day yesterday and was pretty exhausted (and emotional) by the time I got home. Then of course I had to feed horses, the bird, and the dogs. And during work I backed a rental car into a pole and had lots and lots of sarcastic fun.

Now, I work again tomorrow, and I'm determined to post pictures of the baby bird, but don't be completely assured that it will happen. I will post one way or another, as I know tomorrow will not be anywhere close to a 12 hour day.

Anyway, about the bird. We're hand feeding him (don't worry the pet store owner and the veterinarian showed us how to do it right and we haven't had any problems). He's already grown up a bit since we got him! And he's adorable! I need to name him (or her really) but I'm drawing a blank. It took me so long to name Orion! However, he should have a name soon so he can start to learn it as he ages.

All the other animals are well, and I have little to speak of in regards to the horses, dogs, cats, or the snake. I haven't made any crafts either in the past few days. I'm rather boring as of late, but I'm trying to fix that!

Pictures to come, I promise!!

By the way my blog giveaway closes today! It is your last chance to enter for a dreamcatcher, keychains, or a amigurumi owl! Go Here to Enter!

More rambling and goals

The dogs are driving me nuts. We got a sun conure on Friday, and Dakota won't stop searching for the bird and staring at him intently. The cats are better than her!

I rode Thunder today with a neighbor and it was a great relaxing ride. Thunder's feet were less sore than normal (I don't think I mentioned that here before but Thunder's front feet have been incredibly sore lately).

I'm going to take pictures of the baby and such tomorrow, I promise! I've been so busy financing a motorcycle for my husband and grocery shopping and tending to animals.

101 things in 1001 goals plans for February-
Go to the gym everyday for a month, that will be fun to attempt.
Participate in NaBloPoMo! I will try to post every day!
AND
Volunteer 1 day a week for 3 months.

It will be fun to make some major progress on my list! Wooo!

Welcome to all my new followers! I love comments so feel free to introduce yourself if you haven't!

Meshing personalities

I learned something, that I probably already knew, but I guess I only really learned the lesson recently.

Anxious people + Anxious horses = BAD

You see, my horse Titan, is highly fearful and anxious. I've never wanted to give him up because I trained him and I love him to death, but when we go to a barrel race together it is unpleasant. Now, this year I am going to try my hardest to work on relaxation at the shows and not being too nervous, however, I don't see myself improving 100%. This may mean that really, the best thing to do would be to sell him to a rider that is much more confident. I don't want this to be the outcome, as like I said, I love him and he's definitely got potential to be an amazing barrel horse. I'm going to try to figure out how, perhaps, I can decrease both of our anxieties at shows, we'll give it a whirl, but honestly, if I can't run him, then he will need to find a new home. I can't afford to feed a horse that I can't use for much of anything. Unfortunately, he is horrible on the trails, being spooky and anxious you know, and he doesn't much care for dressage (even though he looks beautiful doing it). I'm going to take him team penning, but we'll see how that goes, he's currently scared of cows. I hope to get him over that.

Anyway, it is another gloomy day in the desert. I didn't ride yesterday, but I guess I'm going to brave the wetness to ride today. I hate going too many days without riding, it can be like torture. When I broke my collarbone in March 2006 and had to wait until the end of April to ride, I went a little stir crazy (the vicodin didn't help). You know, speaking of Titan, he's the one that broke my collarbone! Although I blame myself. You see, he had a rib out of alignment and it was causing him some pain and I ignored the signs. When I was brushing the girth area he acted out and tried to nip me. Right there he was saying, "yes, that is what hurts, fix it!" However, my brain just thought, "Oh, he's being a brat today I see." duh. What ended up happening was I got off of him out on the trail and when I went to get back on the girth put some pressure on that rib and he shot forward. I, having only one foot in the stirrup, didn't stick with him and flung around and landed on my shoulder.

I did learn to pay attention to little things like that when grooming and saddling. I just learned the hard way.

So, I don't have much else to say today. I'm going to go to town with the husband and maybe get him a motorcycle. I also signed up to volunteer with the local therapeutic riding center (C.A.N.T.E.R.) on Tuesday morning.

The sun needs to come out so I can get some nice pictures of the horses! Oh, and they need to not be so wet and filthy. haha.

So, an idea given to me in the last post was to make specific days to blog about specific things. I think that I will do that for sure! I also think I'm going to close the other blog, I don't know what I was thinking really. I'm going to talk about horses here, how can I not talk about something that makes me happy and motivates me? The crafts obviously will still be here too, maybe not the leather if I decide to sell off my supplies (which is looking more and more necessary as I need ice hock boots for the horses, hoof boots for Thunder's front feet, and preferably some more therapy machine and accessories to keep them sound). As I told my husband, I like decorating the leather, but cutting it out, sewing it, all that jazz, is tedious and I'm not fond of it. I have far more fun making dreamcatchers. I might try more jewelry making, which I know probably isn't the smartest thing since there are thousands of jewelry makers on Etsy and Artfire and at all the craft shows. Oh well, if I like it, it doesn't matter! I also like photography, so I might try to focus on that more. I have a nice camera, but I'd love to get a macro lense, and a telephoto lense!

Speaking of the horseshoe dreamcatchers, I finished two!


They will be available in my Etsy and Artfire in the next day or two.

I love rainy days in the desert. Its cloudy and gloomy out, which I'm not fond of, but the smell of rain on the desert soil is the best smell next to horses, ever! OK, maybe I'm just weird, but that's what I think. Hopefully, I can at least get Titan out and work him out, since Thunder is still really sore on his front feet. I need to get him those boots and pronto. I've been thinking about trying magnetic bell boots also. I've heard lots of people say they work wonders. I believe in the science of magnetic therapy, but most of the magnets sold for it are too low in strength to be any good. The ones in the bell boots I'm looking at are supposed to be pretty high, and they have great ratings. Have any of you tried magnetic therapy on your horse or yourself? Any results?

Oh, and one more thing! From now on, Mondays will be horse talk days and Tuesdays will be craft talk days. Wednesdays might be animal talk and my 101 things list combined. The rest of the days will be a crazy mixture. I will try to get some newer pictures of Orion up so people can see him! His tail is getting so long!

I'm a conundrum

So I started that new blog about barrel racing and horses and I'm not sure I'm going to keep it. I keep thinking I'd rather stay here with that content as well. However, I'm not sure what the masses of my readers are here for, so there is a little poll off to the left, if you wouldn't mind taking it for me.

Essentially, I might start blogging much more often about the horses here, and mostly showing photos of my crafts when they are completed. I'm thinking about backing off a bit in the crafting department anyway. I want to spend more time with the horses. I want to take eventing lessons and take Titan to team penning as well as more barrel races. And, I have a baby to train! I've always loved horses, more than anything. All I've ever wanted to do is ride horses and train and give lessons. I started doing more crafting to pay for my hobbies. However, if I go to school soon and end up in a career, I'm not sure between the horses and the crafting that I'll have any time at all to relax! Honestly, I need to weigh what is most important in my life. Immediately, it is horses, and having fun with them. Needless to say, my craft volume is about to decrease dramatically (and it already has decreased dramatically). I'm starting to think more and more about closing the Etsy store, but I don't know what I want to do.

Essentially I have more hobbies than anyone should have time for and I feel stressed out, because of things I'm supposed to enjoy. This makes me want to declutter my life. And honestly, the leather is one thing that is going to go.

Anyway, if you could comment here as well as take the poll and tell me what you're here for and what you like to read. Let me know if you think this blog can be a catch all for my crazy life, or if I'm going to have to stay branched into two like I am trying out.