I do a lot of long walks now as my legs are injured, and on my walk this weekend I came across a ‘free’ table and it had books, toys, random stuff and this beauty: A horse head cake pan by Wilton!
So of course we made a cake!! I love it.
And of course, now that we can’t really travel or do things we are used to: Visiting with friends, happy hour, running races or in groups, horse shows, going to a movie, swimming, etc etc etc…
My watercolour attempt!Â
Ian and I have had to get much more creative- literally! We have done a few fun projects, from an Easter gingerbread house to making Sculpey animals, to watercolour paintings. It’s been pretty fun, and I guess, a fun distraction from the things we can’t normally enjoy.
My Easter house- isn’t it fun? I bought like 5 gingerbread houses from Thrifty’s because they were a dollar each, so I used one this year for Easter. My friend even bought me some amazing flavored Peeps from the USA!
Of course, we can get take-out meals, drinks, have a picnic and have done many of these activities throughout the past 3 months as well!
Our sculpey projects- I want to get some magnets and do up the backs of these, they are too cute not to share!Â
So, I’m back from my holidays. They were much-needed, not necessarily that relaxing (are holidays with family EVER relaxing?) and ended with some car drama, but I’m glad I had the time away from work.
Christmas with the family
I needed the perspective, quite frankly.
I also needed some time away from my ‘real life,’ an area that bogs me down in the details so much so that I become enveloped from what is ‘important’ and get stuck on the routine. And I can get obsessive about ‘the routine’ to an unhealthy point.
Colossal gingerbread house
But, family was stressful. We did a lot of great things, and I enjoyed good company, great food, and other fun activities. However, I also felt the strain of ‘try hard’ and a bit fakey, ‘let’s cover it up with fun and ignore the festering sadness underneath’ that I can be sensitive to…
Oh well, it’s over. Holidays aren’t always Hallmark-worthy, are they?
Buster shares a moment
And when I flew back, my car was making a weird stuttering on the highway and stalled out in a parking lot. I was like, how long has THIS been going on?
The remains of the gingerbread house
An entire week, $1,115 later and I think it’s pretty much back to being road-worthy, but jesus. Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to me! (GAHHHH!!!!)
And my darling pony has been alternately good and bad my week back. Pissy and kicking out some days, relatively forward and willing others. Pissy yesterday in my lesson with 1 kick out briefly, but was nice to jump (tiny x-rails) and we did some interesting work on straightness and coursework. Felt nice to get back in the saddle, even if my old insecurities came rearing back at me!
Now I am kind of dreading my dressage lessons…If he is pissy and bucky doing my regular work, how on earth will the more-demanding work of dressage go for us?????? I am also trying to break in new boots, ouch they are not feeling super great either.
EEK!!!
To be continued next week….
And I am back at work. Not so glorious either…
I know that he gets mentioned on here now and again, but that I have definitely mentioned that my husband is decidedly NOT horsey. He will get on Oats (under extreme duress by me!) once or twice a year.
So.excited….
He goes with me to horse shows when I’m showing alone, for support, photos, video, emotional support, company…Someone to hang onto Oats and to see when Oats has run out of water and is banging his water bucket around “aka” help I’m thirsty! Can’t you see this?!!
But he’s just not horsey, and doesn’t always ‘get’ my extreme drive, passion, all-consuming lifestyle.
And that’s fine (for the most part!!) Except when I’m running late at the barn because my ride went longer, or I forgot what time it was and got chatting with a barn-mate, or…Yeah you can see where this is going- I’m late from the barn all the time! It’s like a time warp.
Definitely trying on his nerves, haha. So I do try to compromise (poorly) and get home earlier if I can, take Wednesdays off if we have something planned, like a show or a concert, I also take Mondays and Fridays off.
But would I change him for someone else? NO way! He tries, and I try.
And here is a great example of his support- I mentioned I was going to do something with my horse show ribbons that are rapidly multiplying in the house, and found three empty frames. My idea was to attach a backing to the frames and pin ribbons to the backing (using foam-core or something).
While I was away at a horse show, he did one of them for me as a surprise!
Check it out!!
Ribbon-worthy
A huge success! Friends came over on Halloween and we made caramel apples.
caramel apples
They were great, a recipe for diabetes if there ever was one, haha.
I bought 3 small bags of the Kraft caramels, and we had a variety of garnishes (smarties, teddy grahams, gummi bears, gummi worms, Reese’s, Smarties, choc chips, crushed peanuts) and we went nuts on them!
Key things to remember- put apples covered in caramel in the fridge to set a bit before adding garnishes, spray the baking sheet they are placed on with PAM first.
They will still stick a bit.
Be careful with adding melted chocolate, it made our caramel melt right off! Still trying to figure how that one works. Maybe only use it if you plan on covering your entire apple, caramel and all.
Enjoy! I don’t really recommend drinking caramel apple ciders at the same time though, wooooah…My stomach hurt from all the sugar. Too sweet! I didn’t even want candy or anything sweet the whole next day even! And this is ME we’re talking about.
Halloween
And a key ingredient- Friends! They make it all the more fun đ
So here they all are!
Once you melt everything down (1 tbsp cosmetic-grade beeswax melted with 2 tbsp coconut oil) you add in 8 drops of peppermint oil- though I would now add more, having tried it) and pour as quickly as you can into the containers.
They harden SO FAST. I spilled a bit as I was trying to pour quickly.
They smell great, and feel really nice. You have to let them sit for an additional 2 hours to harden.
Cheap, easy and fast! Love it!
Here are the ingredients:
1 Peppermint essential oil
1 bag of cosmetics-grade beeswax
1 jar of coconut oil
(not shown: Mason jar to melt everything in, and a bunch of little containers to pour them all into)
Optional: Tinting by shaving some lipstick into the melted ingredients. I didn’t end of up having any lipstick so the colour is ‘au naturel’.
It was SO EASY!
The adventures of Mr. Oats 