Mother's Day Ponies & Peanut Butter

I spent several hours the morning of Mother's Day with my big baby. I went for a ride on Rhia and then got some great photos of the horses when we let them out for the first-time in a long time on the secondary pastures. They were in heaven with all the grass they could eat. So without further adieu, here are some happy pony photos.

Rhia looking pretty in her red halter - Watching Jimmy & Harriet finish the fences.

Rhia (Half Friesian) pigging out on yummy grass.

What are you looking at Mom?

Betty Boop (Quarter Horse) & Chammy (Morgan Horse) enjoying the Spring grass after a few rain storms.

Max (23 year old Morgan Horse) surrounded by Dandelions gone to seed.

Tuffy (Morgan Horse) always checking out what is going on around him.

Tuffy shaking out his mane.

Rhia & Max heads down in the tall grass.

With all the Dandelions gone to seed I figured I would try and get a nice detail shot of the puffs. I think it came out pretty good.

After I got back to the apartment and cleaned up we headed over to Andrew's Grandma's house for Mother's Day dinner with his grandparents and his Mom & her boyfriend. After we enjoyed some yummy lasagna, we headed over to my Mother-in-Law's house to watch the Bruins game. And of course laugh at one very goofy Maxwell. He really loves a Kong filled with peanut butter, sometimes he gets a little messy.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Mother's day. I didn't get to see my mom because her and Dad are in New Orleans. Luckily, they weren't at the parade where the shooting happened on Monday. They have a way of always scheduling vacation over Mother's Day.

Spring Pinterest Challenge - Sisal Monogram

Yeah it is Pinterest Challenge time.

The Pinterest Challenge was started by Katie Bower of Bower Power and Sherry Petersik of Young House Love. It is not affiliated with Pinterest it is just a fun challenge to get us all off our pinning hinnys and start doing the things we actually pin.

My first Pinterest Challenge was the Winter edition. I made a Monkey Fist for the cat's to use as a toy.

I think it is currently hiding under the couch. You can read about how I made it Here. I have a few other projects that I've been meaning to do. One is to remove the torn-up carpet on the cat tower and wrap it with sisal rope. But I didn't want this blog to just be about cat related projects. So I took some time to sift through my pins on my Craft & Art boards. I found the below project.

Source

A large monogram wrapped in twine and decorated. I thought it was so pretty and I had most of the supplies on hand. I decided to use sisal instead of twine - though the twine probably would have been easier to use. The original pinner didn't have much of tutorial but that might be for two reasons.

1. There really isn't much to it. You take your letter and wrap the rope around it and glue it down.
2. There is so much glue that if you tried to take photos during each step your camera would be covered in glue. I was able to take some photos so you should be able to get the gist. 

Supplies:
Material to make your letter - I had a piece of Styrofoam hanging around
Box Cutter, Ruler & Sharpie - All to make your letter
Sisal Rope - Still had plenty on hand from the first Pinterest Challenge
Glue - White glue and super glue
Decoration - I used fake flower and a fabric butterfly
Rubber bands

Now here are a few tips

1. The original pinner said she use hot glue. I'm not sure how because from experience I've learned that hot glue melts Styrofoam. 
2. Super glue will also melt the Styrofoam - make sure you only use it to stick the rope to itself.
3. The rubber bands were a big help when it came to holding the ends of the rope down while the glue dried. White glue takes a while to dry.

Step 1: Creating your letter

You can do this a couple ways. Freehand, Stenciled or measure it out. Since I was making an M, it was relatively easy to measure it out. All I had to do was find the center and decide how wide I wanted the tops and the feet. Because of the size I was making the overall piece it was really easy when it came time to make the sides. The width of the ruler was perfect so I just used that to draw my lines.

Step 2: Cutting out your letter

This is a little tricky. The blade on my box cutter wasn't long enough to go all the way through. Also, make sure you have something underneath to protect your surface you are cutting on. I just used a piece of cardboard from the recycle bag. That's right Shock Top Apple Wheat, Yummm.

I also found that if you stick in the box cutter and pulled it to cut it kind of ripped the Styrofoam  It worked better if I did a jabbing/sawing motion. To cut all the way through I found a butter knife did the job perfectly. 

I may have also realized when I started cutting this that I probably should have waited to vacuum the house after doing this instead of before. Oops.

Step 3: Wrap It Up!

Front of my M

Back of my M - This doesn't have to look as good as the front.

Wrap the rope around a section of the letter without glue first. That way you can cut a length of rope and it makes it a bit easier when wrapping and gluing it to not have it attached you a big roll. Some people may like to put glue on the whole letter but I didn't think it was necessary. I only glued the ends. Make sure you wrap that rope tight. The blue and purple things are rubber bands that I used to hold the rope in place while the glue dried.

Wrap and Glue. Wrap, wrap, wrap.............wrap.......glue. I did mine in 5 1/2 sections. Each side, the center up to one side, then I filled in up to the other side and lastly the two feet. The ends require the most glue to hold where the rope coils around itself. 

Step 5: Decorate

I bought a sprig of fake flowers and another one with fabric butterflies. They were a dollar each at Dollar Tree. I also bought my white glue and super glue there. I cut the flowers down and tucked them in the corner made by the M and then added a butterfly. Then just add glue to hold everything in place. I had to let it dry upside down so the glue didn't drip all out.

If you want to you can cut a piece of rope and glue it to the back to create a hanger. Since our walls really suck I've been using a push pin and wedged it between the ropes on the back and that worked to hang it.

I also think it looks cute displayed on my Spring "Mantle". I made some fake nests with shredded paper that came in a basket. Then made some fabric flowers - I used the method found in both Ashley's (Attempts at Domestication) and Katie Bower's (Bower Power) tutorials. Add one of my favorite wedding photos, an owl and the My Town ornament of the sign at our wedding location and we have a great display. Plus it has all of my wedding colors - Sage, Ivory and Brown.

So did you take part in this Spring's Pinterest Challenge? Make sure you click over to the host's blogs and check out their projects as well as all the great projects everyone linked up.

• Emily from Sparkle meets Pop
• Renee from Red Bird Blue
• Sherry from Young House Love  
• Katie from Bower Power

The Colors, Duke, The Colors!

Yes,the title of this blog post is taken from that Popsicle commercial from the 90's. The good news - unlike Duke, the dog from the commercial, I'm not colorblind and I'm hoping you aren't either. Otherwise, you are going to miss out on the beauty of the photos in this post.

I've recently taken an interest in photographing flora. The bright colors of the Spring flowers and budding trees are just so beautiful. I've found some great shots in several different locations. Riding my horse at the barn, walking around our neighborhood and a trip around my mother's yard. Below is a collection of the pictures I have taken this Spring. I hope you enjoy their colors as much as I do.

Pink Tulips out front of the church near our apartment.

Apple Blossoms in the front yard of the school.

Black Walnut tree behind out house.

Even a weed such as a Dandelion can be pretty up close.

Pine cones from the giant Pine that was right our front of our apartment until this past Tuesday.

A lovely carpet of purple Creeping Phlox.

These were in my Mother's backyard. I'm not sure what they are. Anybody know?

Lovely Red Tulips - found on my neighborhood walk.

Scarlet O'Hara - One of my favorite flowers. This is a bush in my Mother's yard.

Bright green baby leaves on the tree behind our apartment.

Nothing like bright green baby leaves.

Weeping Cherry Tree in my Mother's front yard.

White Daffodil in the neighbors yard.

I start to say one is my favorite and then I look at the next one and change my mind. Which one is your favorite?

You May Not Know...

...About Me!

So it seems like everyone does one of these posts at one time or another. It's a little bit of a peek into the blogger's life and adds a bit more of a personal feeling to the blogger - blog reader relationship.

I was born in North Dakota! 

Source - I added my name

Yup, out in the middle of no where. Dad was in the Air Force before he married Mom. Once they got married she moved out to ND with Dad. We moved to Connecticut in 1999, when Dad retired from the Air Force. The first school snow day in CT had me baffled. There was barely any snow. We used to have a couple feet on the ground and it was still coming down and we went to school. How cold was North Dakota you may ask? It wasn't unusual for us to hit -40 degrees. We stayed inside and bundled up when we went out. But that doesn't mean it didn't get hot in the Summer, oh no it was common for several days straight of 90 - 100 degrees.


I'm legally blind!

Source

My vision started getting blurry around 4th grade. I had to get glasses but only so I could see the chalkboard. From then on it got progressively worse each year until I had to wear them full-time. I was still able to take them off and read a book but as time went by that book had to get closer and closer to my face. In 7th grade I talked my mom into letting me get contacts. I thought I looked like a big nerd with glasses. I still wear contacts today. Last year I got an updated pair of glasses in case I wanted to go without contacts from time to time but I feel like I see better with contacts, especially at night or where there are a lot of lights causing glare. I asked my eye doctor at my last appointment what was my vision on a scale of 20/20. Yeah..... her response, "You aren't even on that scale." I don't remember the exact numbers but pretty much if I don't have my glasses or contacts on I can't even see the huge E on the top of the chart clearly. I'm that blind.


I only have an Associates degree from a community college!

Source

And I am perfectly fine with that. I was originally accepted by UCONN but didn't want to go away to college so I went to one of their local branches my first year and lived at home. During that first year of college I changed my major from Equine Business (Horses) to just Business. I ended up taking Economics and loved it and wanted to just focus on business. I decided at some point that first year that I didn't want to transfer to UCONN and that I just wanted to get my associates at our local community college. Once, there I took some advertising and graphics classes and changed my major to Marketing. Some people felt I was taking a step down by transferring to a community college and some ways I guess I could agree. But I'm not the type of person who wanted to go to 4+ years of college and get a big stressful job. I love being a Marketing Assistant and don't know if I want to be the person in charge.  That also means I get to stay in a creative position and do graphic design work. The best part about going to community college. I paid for each one of my semesters in full. I never had to borrow money for college. I really appreciate this everyday. That means we only have one student loan to worry about and less debt overall.

Andrew and I met in High School!

We met our Junior year when my best friend and I went to the movies and bowling. She invited a friend of hers and he brought Andrew. The movie we saw was Monsters Inc. I found out several years later that Andrew had a crush on me since that night. I'll admit I thought he was cute, too. :) We then hung out with mutual friends at school for the rest of high school. We didn't reconnect until our second year of college when I transferred to the community college. I guess that is another reason I'm happy that I transferred is because if I hadn't I might have never reconnected with my dear husband.

I have a sister!
Some of you probably figured I had some kind of sibling since I've mentioned my niece on here before. My sister is 11 years older than me and is actually my half sister. My sister, Vicki, is from our Mother's first marriage. I was a huge pain in her butt as a kid. She was in high school and I was just starting elementary school. Whenever, she had friends over I always wanted to hang out with them. Not really something a teenager wants when she has friends over. I also may have jumped on her early one Christmas morning and pulled her eyelids open. She really loved me that morning, LOL.

Most of my graphic design skills are self taught!

I took a total of 2 classes in college for graphic design. And although my teacher did teach me some stuff I read ahead most of the time because I picked it up pretty quick. There were a few times that me and a couple of my classmates had to help the teacher teach. Most of what I know comes from messing around with the programs, reading the text book and looking things up online when I don't know something. Don't get me wrong there is a ton more that I could learn but I just don't have the money for classes. I also really only know Photoshop and InDesign. I know next to nothing in Illustrator though I did just fumble my way through it to make a logo for work last month. Currently, I use my skills for print and web items at my work. Though I have recently started doing a bit of freelance work for a customer as well.

I think that covers a number of things that you might not have known about me prior to reading this post. Hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about me. Feel free to ask me any questions and I might just answer them.