CRUD

Last week I thought that I temporarily linked ONE webshots photo (The bosal) to my blogger account. Well, apparently I permanently linked them somehow. I see now on my website's blogger feed (www.desertnightcreations.com/halters.html) that it updates anytime I do anything to my webshots albums. This is not at all what I intended. My Apologies if you get anything weird like an email about me updating my webshots albums. I'm going to try to find out how to Unlink it.

This weekend was somewhat productive in the studio. I got further with the Lady phase halter and I read up on how to create a real nose button for a bosal. My brain hasn't "cooked" this piece of information yet and I don't know how to make it miniaturized. (Again, it makes me marvel at Susan Bensema Young's brilliance of making things in miniature.)

Little Man is doing great except for being a bit restless when he sleeps. I think he's going through some pre-teething stage. He's drooling a lot and not sleeping soundly. Last night he was very very restless which is continuing into this morning. Every time he falls asleep he seems to wake back up - all with his eyes closed... Course I don't mind looking at him..he's pretty cute

Finished Bosal!

Ice Storm

Last night and part of the early morning today Louisville, Ky experienced an Ice storm. You northern folk might be giving me the "big whup" signal, but here in Louisville, this is a fairly rare occurrence. Louisville is in a geological/weather "bowl" of sorts. Mostly any "weather" (meaning storms or bad weather) goes around us - North to Indiana, and South to Bullet county. (Louisville is in Jefferson County). It literally usually just skirts us and we get the edge of the storms. (Except for the winter of 1994 but that's a different story).

I precariously went out on our back deck and our front yard today while munchkin slept this morning. The first picture shown is one of the pictures I took. Even though it's raining now, it's only 35 degrees and for some reason the ice is hanging around. Which is good for those of us that have the time to play with our cameras.

The second picture (which is horrible, my apologies)is a miniature bosal in progress that was designated for my "Mother Hubbard II" set. It marks the first time I've done an interweave heel knot on a bosal. I really haven't made that many bosals in my "career" of making miniatures. I think I've made about 10 total. This bosal was supposed to be a "bosalita" or "bosilla" or "Pencil Bosal" that marks a horse near the end of his bosal training, before he becomes a full "Bridle horse". I feel as though the heel knot is too large and I want a fancier bosal for my mother Hubbard set.

Therefore this bosal has turned into a regular bosal (in my mind) and will be donated to the Model Horse anonymous Live model horse show hosted by Heather Jackson-Lain. I had totally sworn off any donations to any shows this year because my schedule is so wonky but everything kind of fell into place for me to do this so I am. :-) The great thing is that I can finish up this bosal and make a twisted mecate for it which will give me some practice for the new bosal I'm going to make for the Mother Hubbard set. It lacks a couple of details that I want to put on it, but otherwise the headstall portion of it is pretty much finished.

I'm happy to report that Susan Bensema Young saw my last blog post, took pity on me and has graciously sent me the formula for a single interweave on a turks head knot in an email. I still can't find that original piece of paper. I've literally looked everywhere at this point. I wonder if I brought it with me somewhere and forgot it or it dropped down underneath something. I hope that I didn't throw it out with a bunch of other papers!

Anyway, if you're reading, THANK YOU SUSAN!!!!! You are always so gracious to me with your time and your knowledge, I don't know that I could ever repay you! (but I'm gonna try!) :-)

I now have high hopes for the new bosal that I'm going to make. I have it all pretty well planned out in my noggin and I hope that I can bring it to fruition.

My son is doing really well and life around here has definitely changed for the better. I'm still really, really tired but he's sleeping longer at night inbetween feedings so I'm not as tired as I was before. He really brings a lot of joy to the house and to our lives. He's learned to smile at us and laugh a little. It's very heartwarming and makes all of the sleepless nights worth it.

Ok, I admit it...

When Susan Bensema-Young came to visit me this past year during Breyerfest week 2007 she was kind enough to write out a "primer" for knot interweaving. I cherished this piece of paper because I thought it was SO NICE Of Susan to provide me with this information even though, at the time, I didn't entirely understand it. I KNEW though that it would be important to me when I was ready for it.

Well, This past week I was finally ready for it. And yes, you guessed it, I can't find the Damned thing! I had it in my "Inspiration/reference" binder and I must've taken it out at some point, thinking that I would do some knots and I've now entirely forgotten where I put it. I have now been searching for it for four days and I can't find it anywhere. Its not in any of the numerous piles of stuff in my studio or in any of the magazines that I normally read. Of course, it's not also in it's place, in my inspiration binder. It's not in my English/other pattern binder or my western saddle pattern binder either.

I was really bummed because I was really ready to start on some new interweaves for the NEW bosal that I'm going to be doing for my mother hubbard set. I have bought THREE books on how to braid leather, not realizing that only one, The Encyclopedia of Leather Braiding would've been fine. I also have "How to make Cowboy horse tack" and I found the section in it on bosals. (well, I found it because I went looking for it). I am going to attempt a miniature bosal made very similar to a real bosal. I wanted to do a certain interweave on the side buttons of the bosal. I feel as though the mother hubbard set "deserves" more sophisticated and realistic knots than those I've made in the past.

Luckily, I have a piece by Susan Bensema Young. A lovely leather/woven knot bridle in which she employed the herring bone interweave and the single interweave that I was looking for. Thanks to her excellent teaching I was able to look at her knots with the single interweave and I *think* I've figured out how to do a single interweave on a four bight five part knot. I've semi-successfully done this intweave twice now on a scrap piece of leather lacing and I'm ready to try it on a bosal.

Because of doing this, my brain automatically went to pondering a two color herringbone interweave. At first, I thought that I had it figured out, but sometimes what I have contemplated in my brain doesn't translated into real life. So that is going to take more cooking and figuring in my subconscious.

Well, it's Saturday again which means I take Munchkin to his Grandparents house. I have to run to the store first to get a Birthday card and more mylicon. I think this will be the first time I've actually gone to the store since my son was born. His dad has been wonderful enough to have done all of the food shopping up until this point! I'm kinda looking forward to going to a grocery store again! ha!!

Stuff I'm working on..

Above is a picture of the projects I'm currently working on.

The Western halter with the interwoven knots is the "lady phase" mold halter that I've been promising for a while. I am up to the point where I attach the buckles and the real silver keepers (the flat strips of silver are the keepers). My son doesn't like the sound of the engraver - he cries when he hears it - so I have to wait until he's asleep in a different part of the house to use it, which slows down the process even more. (thank goodness for intercom systems!)

The bosalita is for the Mother Hubbard II set that I have been working on for almost a year now. I'm not entirely sure that the bosal is finished. I'm "cooking" that one in the back of my mind.

The long string is supposed to be the mecate that I mentioned in my previous post but it doesn't really look the way I want it to either. It will be done over and some interwoven knots will be added at each end. I did learn that if I left the waxed strings overnight that they kept their shape! This leads to all sorts of new possibilities because it solves some of the issues that I was having. Thank goodness for happy accidents!

I'm also feeling rather "brave" about trying some new interwoven knots. I don't know where this bravery has come from but I'm glad it's here. Now to find the time to actually try them out!!

a really good day

Today was a really good day.

We went as a family (me, my son and my husband) to my favorite Mexican Buffet restaurant, Marimba, in Shelbyville, Ky. Their food is excellent and all of the waiters know us. So it's kind of like going to a friend's for brunch.

Then when I came home, I took my son to my parent's house. They really love their latest grandson (and all of their older grandsons)and they subtlely teach me how to handle him every time I'm there. I don't know if they know that they're teaching me anything but they are.

Today my dad held my son and talked to him while my son was coo-ing and smiling at his grandpa. Today was the longest that my son has been awake his entire 8 week life and my Dad encouraged this. My son absolutely came alive and was very very active. He waved his arms, and kicked his legs and smiled repeatedly at my dad. This has taught me that he (my son) needs to spend less time in his bouncer and more time in my arms interacting with me.

When I came home, baby was tired so we let him sleep as long as he wanted to. This gave me time in the studio. (2 and 1/2 hours!!!!!) I was able to put a heel knot on my bosalita that matches my mother hubbard saddle and I started on making a new mecate for it. By looking at Susan Bensema Young's mecate and using Carol Williams Of Rio Rondo's method of making a rope, I thought that I had figured out how real twisted mecates are made. My method wasn't working however... I'm going to have to come up with a way to twist one in small scale.

I did find a video on the internet showing how life size mecates were machine made and I was indeed making it how real ones were made... Somehow it didn't work for me though so obviously more practice is needed.

Still this is progress and I feel really good about it.

After coming out of the studio, I fed munchkin who drank a whole bottle (which is rare for him) and then we interacted. He coo'd and smiled and even laughed at me as I chattered on at him! It was wonderfully heart warming and worth going through all of the colic episodes of the last two months :-)

Now to get him to sleep through the night!!

Happy Feb 1, 2008!

Hi Folks!
Happy Feb 1st!

The last two months have been exceptionally busy and life changing for me, as you can imagine. RJ was suffering from colic every night and we've gone through four different formulas. The last formula seems to be working because the poor little guy isn't as colicky as he was on the others. He had a lot of gas and tummy issues. He's still waking me up several times overnight but that is more my fault than his. As expected, I'm a bit overly protective of him, so if he makes a weird noise I have to wake up to investigate.

This means I'm not getting a lot of sleep. I'm very grateful to my husband who takes over watching munchkin when he comes home from work, after dinner, so that I can get some solid sleep before taking over "third shift" again.

My son has brought a whole lot of joy to my life and I really shouldn't have waited till I was 37 to do this! (but I really think I wasn't ready till now.. I'ma bit of a late bloomer)

I am not going back to regular work as I thought that I might. It just hasn't worked out with my former employer so for now I'm staying home to raise munchkin.

This also means that I may get a bit more time in the studio. This week I've gotten up there for about an hour a day. My son comes with me and listens to music with me. Sometimes he sleeps and lets me work and sometimes he complains. On the weekends I should have more time cause hubby is home to help me watch munchkin.

The good news is that I have finished the knots on the new Lady Phase halter, but I don't know when it'll be finished.

Secondly, my staying home means that I'm gonna need money. Currently the only way I can legally get money is to make model horse tack .

My plan is to make a piece of tack for sale and offer it via lottery to folks only on my yahoo lists as a thank you for their continued loyalty. This will probably be in march because I need to finish the mother hubbard set II for it's owner first :) ( I swear I haven't forgotten! - I just need to learn one more interweave and make the bit!)

WOW what a couple of months!

I can't believe that I haven't blogged for almost two months! They have been very hard but very worthwhile months!

I don't have a lot of freed time right now of course because our son is still very young. (Six weeks this week!) My free time is spent washing baby bottles, squeezing in a shower or sleeping!

The worst part of all of this is the sleep deprivation. I get very emotional when I'm so exhausted and the hormones on top of it just make me sort of a useless blob..

The weekends are wonderful though because my husband insists that I get at least 8 hours of sleep for a couple of days.

I don't know when I'll get into the Studio again for a consistant amount of time because I'll be back to working on Feb 1st.

If you've emailed me and not heard back, I'm so very very sorry. I'm just so tired!

Peaceful :-)

Today I'm feeling very peaceful for once. Friday (yesterday) was my last day at work and I am now on Maternity leave. I have a TON of stuff that I need to do this next week but I have faith in myself that I'll get most of it done

On Thursday evening I spent time with my two closest friends, Robin and Anna. We went out to dinner and then went to a book store. (I LOVE book stores!) It was nice to get out and have a leisurely evening with very good company.

Today I met another friend of mine, Lori, for Breakfast and we had a nice chat about munchkins and grandparents and stuff. Lori is expecting too. It was good to see her because I don't think that I've seen her since I got married in 2002!

I'm still feeling rather tired but I presume that is to be expected. Thursday morning and intermittently friday I had shoulder problems and headaches but it seems to have subsided today. I made myself sleep a lot after I got off of work yesterday and that seemed to help some. Hopefully now that I don't have to worry about work I'll get a bit more sleep.

Unfortunately I haven't been in the studio at all. I am either just too tired or I can't focus on what I'm doing. I find that when I'm like this, it's best to just wait until my focus is back. I end up making something wrong and having to do it over anyway which frustrates me.

Anywho, tomorrow I get to go to Marimba's mexican food buffet which is my favorite!! YAAY!

EXHAUSTED....

Thats all I can say to describe how I'm feeling. I'm just friggin exhausted. I'm having a lot of anxiety over every subject under the sun regarding bringing the baby home and how it will affect my life and my relationship with my wonderful husband. In fact, I went to bed last night at around 10:30pm and woke up at 2am and just started to worry. Then I was up every hour or so.. I had a catnap once today which I think helped some but I still have that nagging tiredness in the back of my mind.

I did finish the Breyer "lady phase" Mold halter that I was working on but it's just not up to snuff. I had to redo the knots (they were dirty)and re-adjust how it sat on the horse's face only to find out that the mold year of horse I was using is actually smaller in the head than the current year's mold. I've decided that I'm just going to keep that halter in my "collection" and do another one on a more recent mold's head to sell later on. The halter "Looks" really great.. just as good as usual but I have a nagging feeling that it shouldn't be sold or "played with".

I can not get my head around making a bit for the Mother Hubbard saddle's bridle. I just can't focus on it. It's probably my sleep depravation.. I just look at my reference and wait for it to zing me and inspire me like it normally would but no clear picture actually comes. I keep trying to come up with something that is unique and "Jungle" inspired but I just can't translate it right now to a miniature bit. I think that a snake would be nifty but I'm not sure How I'd incorporate that thought into a spade type bit... so maybe a leaf? or a flower? And then I tell myself to just go simple.. and then I laugh.. as if I could do something plain and simple now that I know how to do something more elaborate.. I want the bridle to be as special as the saddle so the bit (which is the foundation for the bridle) will have to wait until I can be more mentally clear..... Probably three or four months from now..hA!

So as of now I'm officially taking a short hiatus from the hobby and probably from blogging for a while... I can't push myself any more. My chair upstairs in the studio is too uncomfy but any other kind of chair is MORE uncomfy.. when I sit in my little space, bambino kicks me really hard and wiggles around and distracts me... then the Kitties want to sit in my lap and I just end up stopping. It's much easier right now to just lay down. I have a lot of respect for women who are perky and can work in their last few weeks of pregnancy and all of this change not bother them.. Cause it's certainly bothering me. I think I'm just overly sensitive though..

Getting closer..

This past week I've been utterly exhausted. I feel like I'm back in my first trimester again! I was getting off of work and almost falling into bed. I can't focus mentally on whats in front of me and I just want to sleep!

I finally got back up into the studio last night after a whole week of not getting up there. I got one silver plate finished and was working on the crownpiece of a halter and I wanted to go to bed. So I did. I fell asleep by 9:30pm and slept solidly until 5am. That longest I've slept in weeks!

I'm still a tad groggy today but I'm looking forward into getting into the studio today for a few hours and trying to get something accomplished!

Scary night

Yesterday started out as a normal day.. Work was nutso, and then a trip to the Dr's for a checkup. The checkup went great but after I got home my lower back started to hurt really badly. I wasn't overly worried about it(in the third trimester lower back pain is normal from the weight gain (don't get me started on THAT topic)and from not sleeping well) until I started getting some cramping up front too. Turns out these are the signs of preterm labor and hubby immediately got me into bed and promptly called the dr. The dr told me to lay on my left side and drink 2 or 3 glasses of water (whatever I could get down in the quickest amount of time). I got about 2 and 1/2 glasses of water in me and my body really WANTED those glasses of water. I was also really hungry - it kind of snuck up on me.. After about 3 hours I was back to normal thankfully but not without shedding a few "I'm scared, it's too soon!" tears.

I feel ok but achey today in my belly and especially in my shoulders and in my back around my shoulderblades.

Needless to say I guess I need down some more water throughout the day. I normally drink quite a bit but because I was at the drs office I got distracted and didn't drink as much.

As an interesting note, I mentioned that I am not sleeping well(as I mentioned.)to my Dr, and she said that this is due to hormones in my bod that are getting me ready for the bambino to come. It's keeping me alert even though asleep for when the bambino cries for me at night so this explains why I wake up at every noise and sometimes for no reason. I've also found that sometimes I'm just hungry when I get up in the middle of the night which doesn't make any sense to me.

Well, needless to say no tack got done yesterday. I think I fell asleep at 8pm and I woke up once at 1:30am with "The reflux". (Another lovely side effect of pregnancy is getting acid reflux because everything is pushing up on my stomach). I like saying "I gots the reflux" in a southern accent. (I live in kentucky so I'm entitled to whip out the southern accent whenever It pleases me ).

Today is election day for State Governor. Don't get me started. All I can say is that I wish that there were more viable Liberal Candidates in Kentucky. I know, I'm dreamin. I will be trudging to the polls late this afternoon provided I'm still feeling ok.

On Sunday I did manage to get a couple of bit shanks done. I'm not overly happy with them. I see these beautiful, "vaquero" spade bits on the Internet and I really want to duplicate them. Unfortunately they take some skills and tools that I don't know how to use an don't have access too. (like gas torches! ) I really wish that I had gone to art school and majored in something fun like metalsmithing. Of course, when I was in my late teens, early 20's there is no way you could have convinced me that my path was anything other than fine arts and I probably wouldn't have taken the class even if it was offered to me. Live and learn.

Here are some pictures of what I accomplished. I'm not sure if I'll use this design or not. Since, as I mentioned, I'm not as "on it" as I have been in the past (yet another side effect of being pregtnant my Dr told me) I'm not sure how this bit will turn out. I DO know, and feel confident in the fact that this is good training for mah brain and learning something new is always a step forward.

Been A awhile..

It's been a while since I posted and I apologize for that!

I've been very tired. I'm Due to give birth in December and the extra weight and the lack of sleep has caught up to me a bit. (Hard to sleep on my back because of the baby and hard to sleep on my side because of my shoulder problems) I've been "good" about napping every day so thats been sustatining me in my endeavor to keep working on tack so that I can keep relaxed.

I am very "fuzzy" in the brain. I'm not used to really not being "on it" mentally. An artist friend of mine says that the creativity and the spark of ideas will come back in time and for me not to fret!

I am happy to say that I've finished the reins for the matching bridle for my mother hubbard set. After a lot of mental indecision I've decided to do a fully braided bridle for the set. I think it just "fits" to do one. I have no idea how long it'll take me to get it finished though. I know that after the baby comes there will be at least a few months where tack will definitely go by the wayside due to sleep deprivation.

Today I've been looking through pictures of Spade bits to try to spark an idea for the bit for the bridle. Everything on the headstall starts with the bit so I need to get-a-movin!

Not a lot of progress

Well, the last few weeks I've been very busy at work which has exhausted me by the time I get off of work. This means, unfortunately, that I haven't gotten a lot accomplished.

I even lost a piece of the Romel reins that I was working on for two days, only to find it after I had started over.(SOOO frustrating). The good news is that I did successfully do a tiny brown interwoven knot last night on that part however. That is always progress for me!

The Green interwoven/silver halter was a Rousing Success on ebay! I was so flattered and pleasantly shocked that it went for $270 u.s. at auction! What a thrill for a miniature tackmaker! I hope that the next one I offer will go for as much and be as popular.

The Picture above shows a Donation for the NAMHSA Region 10 Regionals in Buffalo, NY. My husband's family is originally from up that way so I have a soft spot in my heart for that area of the country. I don't do very many donations over the course of the year because I just don't have the time and the stress of too strict a deadline makes me anxious. (The brown interwoven halter is the donation and the green one on the horse in the background was the one that sold so well on ebay.)

I rarely have more than one of anything finished and laying around here so I decided to take a picture when I did.

Today I'm exhausted because I wasn't feeling well over-night. I guess I ate something yesterday that didn't quite agree with me so I woke up several times... Of course I've been craving mexican food through the last part of my pregnancy here so It's probably my own fault! HA!

I am utterly exhausted today though (practice for when the baby comes), I'll definitely need a nap after work.

The baby has been doing what I call "the jig" or "the riverdance" lately. It's interesting to me how over time, his kicks and arm flailings get stronger and stronger. Not long now until he comes into the world and I have a whole new set of things to obsess over..

We are finally getting a lot of rain here. We are down 10 inches for the year which is known as an "extraordinary" drought. Overnight We've gotten 4 inches so that should help the water table. I feel deeply upset for the farmers here in Kentucky who make a living off of the land. It must be a very rough year for them.

The Creek that had been almost dry in our back yard is now very swollen and has gotten past it's banks. We should be fine however as long as there is no flash flooding.

As a completely silly side note, I've become a "Farscape" fan. I've been streaming it a bit over the last few days and although I find some of the plots rather predicatable, I find the show very imaginative. All hail Jim Hensen!

Happily Busy..

I'm happy to say that I've been busy and I've felt fairly ok, other than being tired.

I have put another halter up on ebay (see picture) and I'm thrilled and surprised at the response to it! Thank you to everyone that bid!! Click here to go to the auction..

I have also finished part of the Romel reins that I was working on. I braided up some more artificial rawhide last night so that I could move forward with working on it this weekend.

Some of you guys may already know that I am pregnant and Due In December. My husband and I are going "baby shopping" this weekend to register for stuff. The amount of things one needs for a tiny person is staggering and overwhelming! I thought I was bad with all of my artist supplies!