I still haven't heard from the museum folks that I had been talking with. I'm sure with staff changes, things are chaotic so I'm being patient.

In the meantime, I'm hurtling forward with my miniature "mother hubbard" project. (as I've so labeled it in my head). The first picture is of the miniature bit shanks that I hand made and etched out of silver. I've found that even with the fine gague silver that I"m working with, I can still use jewelers rouge to buff it out to a high shene. I'm fairly delighted with the progress that I've made so far. I'm also going to work on hand made silver buckles for the matching bridle as well as braided vaquero reins and a bosilla. (and then paint the tree and and and and and...)

I REALLY wanted to be finished with this by the end of January, but I don't think thats going to happen. I should've started earlier but for some reason The time I took on the roping set got away from me. I regret how long that took but I don't regret the end
product.

I can see that these mother hubbard saddles can get addicting for me. I REALLY want to do another one in a different color like Mahogany.

Today when I woke up (today is a "late day" for me because I usually work out in the mornings but I take wednesday's off) I found that it had SNOWED! I know this isn't a rare occurance for most places in the US in the winter, but the Ohio Valley here where Louisville, KY Is situated is a strange place. We sit in a bowl of sorts. Weather tends to go AROUND us. Literally. I live on the very outskirts of Louisville so we were treated to some lovely snow. Just enough to blanket the ground in white but not enough to cause too many issues. I think the temp is going to get up to 38 degrees today so there isn't a lot of chance for freezing roads.

Anyway, I got a nice shot (second picture) of our backyard right before the sun came up. Everything was black and white.. it was very serene and lovely. I'll attach it.