Finished! - Green Braided Bridle

So happy to say that I finally finished something! whoot!!!  This is anna's green bridle.  Fully braided.  No beads.. those are all woven knots.

Sunday :)

I have now spent two weeks in my new studio and I love it in here.  It feels cozy, everything is a bit closer to me and I'm finding that I have more storage than I thought.  The lighting situation is working out and the cats are very happy on their "kitty clouds". (although they still would prefer to be ON me).

Above you'll see the bridle that I'm re-doing for Anna Tackett (she didn't ask.. I couldn't stand the old work I had attached to that bit so I am redoing her bridle with my better skills)  The reins are split reins, staying with the design of the original bridle.  I am considering doing more knots on the bridle but part of me likes the minimalism on the split reins. (they aren't romels after all..)  The bit is from a seller that used to be on ebay - Marsha WTT. (she has passed away since I bought it all those years ago though, sadly)

I am feeling more creative than ever.  I think that the surgery is finally helping and my hormones are finally calming the hell down.  I am much less depressed than I was.  In fact I didn't realize HOW down I was until this weekend.  There were other weird behaviors too.  I think that we humans forget how VERY in control our hormones are over our bodies.  I became obsessed with a certain kind of shirt (designer shirts too- couldn't be cheap shirts.. oh noo..);  Certain kinds of foods (Qdoba 24/7) and I was a bit.. ahem.. Flirtier than normal (read cougar! LOL!). My concentration is better now too.

I've decided to not play in the pool league over the summer. I really need more studio time and more photography time.  I'm seriously missing the horsepark and the polo etc etc..

Next weekend I'm going to Tennessee to attend Model horse Mania and my boys are coming with me.  We'll be visiting his folks on the way back home too.  It'll be nice to have company with me while I'm traveling.

 I'm hoping hoping hoping I'll have my good lens back too.  I broke it last October at the Akhal Teke Event. (Too excited taking pictures and I dropped it.. loL!)

I hope you're having a beautiful spring weekend.  Louisville Kicked off the derby festival yesterday with "Thunder over Louisville" and I'm certain I have derby fever :)

New Studio!!

We finally had our basement finished! These are photos of my new digs - studio in the basement.  Complete with Kitty clouds (so that the kittehs are not ON me when I work) and work tub with running water :).  I've already started working down there and I love my new space :)!

Model Horses Anonymous Donation Up for Bids!

This model horse show supports Throroughbred Rehab and retraining so this bridle's proceeds will partially go to that. Please bid early and bid often! :) (pictures of finished bridle are in the auction ad)

http://www.modelhorsesalespages.com/view.asp?id=1071384&p=g

Real Fast! Donation For Model HOrses Anonymous

Donation for Model Horses Anonymous 2014.  This is the bridle that I complained about due to the difficulty of the black knots...  I would only make black knots again for two reasons:  A. Vast sums of money or B. an exceptionally special occasion.

Everything

Every sunday, and just about every other day afterwards, I think of blog topics. Every. Sunday.  And lately I've rarely actually sat down and written anything.

All I can think of is complaining.  Complaining about my health, complaining about how busy I am, complaining about how complicated life has become and complaining about how I'm not an artist full time.

All I can think of to type is negative.  Occasionally I want to type a how to, or describe the difference between using light thread and dark thread in miniature knots.

So this in this blog post I'm going to start on one of my topics and then I'm going to barrel forward and just type.  If I offend you or if you feel I go too negative, my apologies in advance.  This is just how I feel.

My health has been awful.  It's never been great but lately it's been off the charts and uncontrollable.  I've hit perimenopause and I'm miserable.  It's like PMS 24/7 with some added hot flashes thrown in to really make me feel nuttier than usual.  I'm starving all of the time, I'm angry one minute and want to cry the next. I can't focus some days to save my life.  Some days I'm so exhausted that I have to fight falling asleep in my studio chair or at my desk at work.  Taking some kind of hormones is out of the question for me because they give me fog brain.  I can't have fog brain. I refuse.  I have far too much to do..lol.

All the DRs say is that this is all "normal".  My hormone levels are "normal".  My bloodwork is all "normal".  Let me tell you, these days, I don't feel "normal".

Today I woke up with an awful migraine but I'm feeling a little better now.

I haven't been in the studio very often. I really miss it.  My focus is so gone that I sometimes get into the middle of making a knot, and then I get distracted and then I forget where I was in the knot.

I haven't touched my western pleasure saddle in over a month, I've forgotten the ideas I had on how to finish the shoulders.

I am making progress on the bridle donation for Model Horses Anonymous.  This particular bridle, has reins that are black with Black knots.  This may seem like "no big deal" but let me tell you, the darker the thread, the harder the knot.  With white or light thread it is very easy to see where the crosses and strands of the knot are, and therefore very easy (for me) to interweave.  When you're working on a knot that is black thread, against a black rein it is exceptionally difficult for your eyes to differentiate between strands and places where to run the interweave.  I haven't destroyed and restarted so many knots since I first started making knots!  But I think it's turning out great.  I feel like the hard work is entirely worth it.  I don't have any really "Good" photos of it but here are a couple of photos from my phone:

I broke my "Good" lens last fall after I dropped it so I am sending off to be repaired.  When that comes back I will be going to the Kentucky Horse Park to get photos of my favorite Akhal teke, Magnatli. :)

Another Quick update

I'm still here.. I'm still working slowly in the studio.  I've been really really tired and my concentration is almost non-existant.  I work a lot and I sleep a lot.  My surgery was successful in that there was no complications but I do not feel better.  My dr mentioned it would take a few months for my body to re-adjust. I hope thats true because I'm really sick of all of the hormonal weirdness.  I'm just not myself.

We have now finished our basement and I have a new studio room down there.  The room is about half of the size of my current studio and I have no idea how I'm going to cram all of my horses and all of my supplies in the smaller room.  I forsee a cluttered disaster ahead.. lol

Anyway, I haven't forgotten anyone, or any orders nor have I disappeared. I'm just hibernating I guess.. :)

Catching up a little!

photos of my back yard after the ice storm this past week

Just want to catch everyone up.. no I haven't dropped off of the face of the earth although I feel like I have.

I finally had surgery this past Thursday and I'm still recovering slowly from it.  I had a pool tournament yesterday (team tournament, not individual) and probably did a bit too much being on my feet and sitting up.  I'm paying for it a little today but it's not agonizing or anything.  Just soreness..

I've spent the last month in a half in a mental depressive fog so I haven't done much of anything.  I've just been overwhelmingly tired.

Today though I feel a bit better and I'm hopeful that the coming months will be better still.  I've tried to get out and walk when I can but between the basement being finished and the weather being "insane" (For our part of the country) I haven't gotten as much excercise as I'd like.

Anyway, enough whining.. I am hopeful that my health will be better so that I can create more tack!

Leetle more whining.......... and more photos

Photos are from the 2013 Arabian Celebration (taken by me)

Well, the surgery was postponed because somehow I contracted food poisioning.  Before you feel sorry for me, you must know that this happens to me like every 6 months.  I have some "weird" allergies to food such as, cinnamon, caramel, and apparently Red Bell Pepper.  Don't get me wrong though, I LOVE all of those things.  Usually I can have a little bit of those foods in small doses but apparently I hit my limit on something.  Also there are sauces and other things that are derived from the same root that cinnamon comes from that make me ill as well.  (Ginger snaps come to mind). I don't know what all sauces are made from so sometimes I get hit with some sauce or food or something that has something that I'm allergic to on it. (Mole sauce is one that I've had a problem with)

Anyway, I'm still feeling the effects of the 12 hours of food poisioning so I'm glad I didn't just tough it out and have surgery anyway.  I am going to reschedule the surgery as soon as I can.

Today though, because of all of the laying around in bed I've been doing, I actually feel pretty decent.  My shoulder aches but not to the point where I'm immobile.  I've actually puzzled out the shoulders on my western saddle set some more so I think I have a good point to work from.. today feels like a happy day and that is awesome :)

Lets make this a little happier..

Sorry for the downer post before.  That was a low day for me.  Still not feeling myself, in any way, but trying really hard to keep the ole chin up :).

So to make this post a bit better, and a bit cheerier, I'm going to post some more of my photos from the 2013 Akhal Teke guest breed weekend at the Kentucky horse park.  This particular teke, is a beautiful, metallic rose grey.. Just loved this horse!

Enjoy and Hope that your new year is much better than the old..

Real Fast - a bit of a downer..

Real fast.....

I've been in pain almost constantly for the last two weeks or so.   It has been due to hormones and "female" issues and now, it's due to not being able to take Advil until after my surgery on Jan 9th.  I know that I can take tylenol but seriously, tylenol is not an anti-inflammatory and does nothing to alleviate the pain.  My shoulders, head and back are constantly sore...  In the morning I'm so stiff I can barely move.  I really can't wait until this is all over.

I've been walking again for the last two weeks because I'm hoping that'll help.  IT does, temporarily..

I've been working on a lot of photos that you can check out on my flickr page or my facebook page to see some of them.

The saddle is going slowly.  I'm so so tired.  Hard to sleep when I'm in pain a lot.. 

Hope that everyone has a great new year!!!

Absence... sorry!

My apologies to you guys for being so quiet and absent.  I have been so busy with work and with life that I have spent precious little time in the studio.  You may have seen some facebook posts where I'm working on the shoulders of the Western pleasure saddle - but thats about all I've been doing.

My Mom has moved into a facilitiy that helps folks of her age and condition and that's been a great relief to our family. 

RJ celebrated another birthday and is growing up into a smart, inquisitive boy.  He is also bristling under public school rules, like I did.  We (RJ and I) have this fabulous "Talent" of being so focused on what we're doing that we hear nothing else.  Teachers don't like this "super power" of ours - it appears disrespectful.. But we are just focused on the task at hand.  I'll have to figure something out for him.  I do not have the patience for home schooling, so maybe some other kind of schooling is called for.

What I have been doing a lot of, so that I fill my artistic soul, is working on whittling down the 3k worth of photos that I took at the Arabian Celebration and the 2013 Akhal Teke Weekend a couple of months ago.

You can see them on my Flickr page or my facebook photography page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/desertnightcreations/

https://www.facebook.com/abounaderphoto

My health has also been wonky.  Without going into too much gory detail, it's the usual problems that happens to a woman of my age and hormone levels. (Not menopause though thank gawd).  Just some weird things that my body is doing that has sent my mood and my brain into orbit and makes me think that I might just really be going crazy.  All at a time when I need my wits about me and my mind to be as agile as it has ever been!  Very frustrating..

So please forgive my quietness.  You can always write me at:  tackmaker at gmail.com or tackmaker at desertnightcreations.com.

I hope that you all have a really wonderful Holiday season and a fantastic new year!!!=

Akhal Teke Guest Breed Weekend at the KHP 2013

Yesterday I was able to get to the Kentucky Horse park early enough to get a few good photos of the Akhal Tekes that came to visit from all over the United States. (TX, WA and IN).  They were filming a "Horse Flicks" special on endangered Breeds.  I had been following the idea on the Akhal Teke Yahoo group so I was looking forward to this Saturday for some time!

I have watched the Akhal Teke Episode that was filmed in 2006 and funny enough, I appear in the video while petting the stallion Pieter. (Totally embarrassed when I saw it! LOL!)

The Tekes this year didn't disappoint!  Even better, the sun was out so their coats lit up with that legendary sheen!

I only remember a few of the horse's names because I was so excited about being there. (Even dropped and broke my favorite canon lens due to being so excited)

There will be a lot more photos up on my website www.abounaderphoto.com after I get through them all.  Above are just a few that I was able to tweak and get up really quickly..

Just in case I haven't shared this yet, I am on several forms of social media:

http://www.facebook.com/desertnightcreations   tack
http://www.facebook.com/abounaderphoto   photography
http://www.twitter.com/heathermoreton misc whatever
http://www.flickr.com/photos/desertnightcreations/   


So come join me in those places :)

Soooo Soorrryyyy!!!!

So sorry that this blog has suffered!  I've been exceptionally busy and I apologize for that.  I have gotten a raise and a promotion at work which comes with more responsibility and work.

Every weekend for the past month I've been swamped with either work or a horse show..  and I am still playing pool on sundays.  I'm more busy than I've ever been in my life and I have no idea when it'll calm down!!!

Precious little time has been spent in the studio...  Just working with my GRS block and my dremel graver, which I hate.  My hand hates it too.  I'm hoping that I can find a better engraving solution than the ones that I'm presented right now.

And I'm tired.  I'm deep down tired... so I haven't posted a lot. 

The Photos above are from the Arabian Celebrationi a couple of weeks ago.  I took about 3k photos but I haven't gone through them yet.

I hope things are good in your neck of the woods!!

Digging through the refrence files...

Like Most miniature tackmakers, I have a metric ton of reference.  For just about every discipline and from every corner of the world.  I love tack. I always think that I will some day use all of this reference...

I'm tired today and I have been most of this week, so I'm taking the easy way out by just posting photos.  (Most of these phots are NOT MINE and I'd be happy to take any down that folks wouldn't want me sharing.)

enjoy the fun! :0)