Saddle Racks

Shanti, one of my blog readers, sent me this really neat photo the other day.

 

She made a rack to display the saddle she made with the Saddle Guide! Isn't it cool? She did such a nice job.  At first glance, you wouldn't believe that it's as small as it is.  She mentioned in her email that she used matches for parts of it - ingenious!

I've made some saddle racks myself, but none as tidy as Shanti's.  It doesn't help that I rarely have anything around long enough to display.

Much Too Much

Sorry for the radio silence.  I had a sudden time crunch last week and was out of town over the weekend, which of course meant that Monday and Tuesday were spent catching up on home and college stuff.  Midterms and Mondays are not a pleasant combination, but turned out well enough for me.

I have a couple of big assignments due in the next two weeks and desperately need to finish up the Show for the Cure donation.  It hasn't been touched since my last update; just haven't had the time or the muse, which isn't a good thing when I'm on a deadline!

Business cards are something on my list, too.  I've been putting off printing up some new ones because I hate hate hate Avery templates, but have a partial package I need to use up.  After this one is gone, it's off to VistaPrint, I think.  I wouldn't be bothering with business cards right now, except that I like to throw 10 or so in with each donation that I ship out, and I don't think there's time to get a VistaPrint order in.  I don't want to risk it, anyway.

My old business card needed to be updated; the information is correct, but the pictures are from 2010, as far as I can tell.  I don't have my original Photoshop document to edit, so guess what? I have to design a new one! Such a hardship, right?

Here's the current design, somewhat open to change.  I haven't printed anything yet, but I think this one will stick.  If I'm feeling adventurous, I'll have two or three versions with different pictures.  I have some neat photos of last year's Red Deer Rebellion (now Sugar High Live) donation that might look nice on the left side of the card.

So in the next couple of weeks, don't expect to hear too much from me.  It's a bummer, but I need to focus on class and the donation piece.

Pretty Pictures! (And Lots of Pictures!)

It's already staying light longer and longer.  Seems a little early, to me, but I'm not going to complain about additional daylight.  It means I can take pictures when I get home from work! Here are the "pretty" pictures of my Sugar High Live donation.  It'll be nice to get this one out the door! I'd say that the donation for Show for the Cure is almost done, but boots can be kind of labor intensive. 


All pictures are clickable thumbnails - sized them small since there are so many.

One Down!

I was slightly more productive than anticipated.  Over the weekend, I finished assembling the saddle and made the double bridle for my donation to Sugar High Live (formerly Red Deer Rebellion, see last year's donation here), which doesn't appear to have a website but will be up yonder in Canada over Easter weekend. 

I'll ship this out as soon as I take "pretty" pictures, which was supposed to be today.

And then it snowed.

Four or so inches of the stuff.  Snow on a grey day does not a good background make, and I have never had satisfactory results indoors.  We'll be 46 and sunny on Tuesday and rainy on Wednesday, so maybe by Thursday I can take some pictures, eh?

New Arrival

I don't buy new plastics that often, and new Traditionals are an even rarer addition to my collection.  After scoring a black Proud Arabian Foal at an antique mall, though, I had to start searching for a mother.  I finally found a winner: Carinosa, at the right price and the right time.  She arrived today, and wow.  Such a gorgeous sculpture! I dubbed mine Carnivale, and her baby has been named Casio. 

She needs clothes now! I'm thinking a nice, normal stable halter.  I have some Rio Rondo halter hardware floating around, and this would be a perfect use for it.

In other news...there really isn't a lot of other news.  I've been painfully lazy all day, and it's the kind of lazy that doesn't have a very good cure.  My house is busy and loud today, and I'm having difficulty focusing on a lot of the really important stuff that needs to be done.  I'll keep plugging away at it, but I don't think today is going to be very productive.

Also! The pilot light on our water heater went out last night.  I discovered this when I went to take a shower.  It didn't get fixed last night, but no one told me that.  My first thought this morning was "Shower!" and alas, the water was still very, very cold.  A repairman can't be here for another 3 hours.  It's funny how when you can't do something, it's often the only thing you can think about.  And by funny, I mean start out laughing and end up sobbing hysterically. 

The Most Wonderful* Smell in the World

*As a disclaimer, the most wonderful smell in the world might actually go to that odd, lovely combination of scents that spells HORSE.  I haven't been close to that in forever, so, we'll just go with this, kay?

Is opening up a big box of leather.  A full hide, in fact.  The tack store smell just wafts out of it.  It's beautiful.  The dark marks on the second quality hide that I purchased? Not so much.  I knew it would have those marks going into it and I chose the hide anyway.  I figured that I could work around them, but I just didn't realize that they'd be so...everywhere.  This is one of the largest and most concentrated areas (hand for scale, wet spot is a test area for lemon juice), but they're scattered over a good 2/3 of the hide.  There are maybe a couple of square feet of clean leather in the whole thing.

 Next time I decide to do something on the cheap and save a bit of money, I'm not going to assume I can work around something sight unseen! This will be a great learning experience, right?

 I have been told that they will dye over with dark dyes and can be gotten out with diluted lemon juice.  On to experimenting! If the lemon juice doesn't work and you see lots and lots of black and havana saddles out of me over the next 8 or 12 months, you'll know why.

The yellow cat was almost as excited by the big box as I was, and insisted on helping.  He got his own little piece of leather to hopefully keep him out of the good stuff.

And did his best to "help."

What Am I?

Short on time today, so here's a little guessing game.  Post your guess in the comments!

What Am I? I may or may not be right side up.

No prize or anything, just the warm fuzzy feeling that you've solved the mystery!  I'll throw out some hints if no one gets it by the time I get home from work.  Happy guessing!

The Babysitter's Here!

I ordered a copy of the Babysitter last week, and got an email on Friday saying that she'd shipped.  I really wasn't expecting her this soon, but she arrived today!

And wow, she's a BIG GIRL!  Easily on par with Wee Jay, though still smaller than Dinky Duke.  For those curious, I measure her around 7cm tall at the withers and 10cm from nose to tail. 

I'm running short on time, so here are some comparison shots.

With WeeJay

With Little Lonestar

I have a post on tools in the works, which I hope to get out ASAP.  Maybe tomorrow.  I've got a paper to write and two donations to finish this month, too, so we'll have to see.

Redemption

Tearing down a saddle is nerve wracking.  What if something pulls off where it's not supposed to? What if something rips? What if it doesn't go back together right?!

I went from this...

To this...

and finished with THIS.

I still need to do some clean up, but I'm far happier with the fit.  I was a little concerned when I started tearing down, but now I can proceed with the rest of the plan, which includes a five point breastplate, stud guard, and boots all around.

False Start

I had high hopes for last Friday.  As usual, reality didn't quite live up to the hype.

First, I decided that I really ought to have just started out working on the floor.  I spent so much time down there trying to find bits or cheekpieces or buckles.  It was ridiculous.  At least there's a low-pile rug down there (mostly as protection from dye!), which usually makes finding things easier.

And then, oh how lovely, the saddle I started for my donation to Show for the Cure didn't fit the intended model.  It didn't fit WeeJay, either.  It looked okay on Working Girl and the WEG Driving Horse, but trotting models are often best suited to lower level eventing, and that is one thing this saddle is not.

There are other issues besides fit.  The flap is too round and it's just...off.  It's a little too big and too round.  Other than that, it's lovely.  There's contrasting piping between the seat and jockeys, around the gullet, and between the seat and panels.  What I'd like to do is tear out the flaps (oh the pain!) and start over.  The seat and panels are pretty good, so maybe I can salvage it.

I started a dressage saddle just in case I can't pull off the entire package for the eventing saddle in time.  The plan was to include boots all around, a five point breastplate, and two bridles: one for the tricky G3 Warmblood, and one for Working Girl.  It's nice to have all of the bases covered, y'know?  The dressage saddle didn't get very far, either.  The eventing saddle and a small double bridle order took a lot of the day, so I have nicely dyed pieces waiting to be assembled.  Hopefully I can get into that soon, but I have lots of plans for this weekend.