Horses Galore

I am most definitely a city girl and I don't think I'm in any way cut out for country life, but since moving to Texas, I have had a fascination with horses and ranch life.  Horses are majestic, graceful, strong and hard-working.....qualities I would love to possess, but usually fall short of my lofty goals. 

Here are some sweet, beautiful pictures of kids/babies and horses - enjoy!

Amazing that a parent felt comfortable enough to put their little girl on such a powerful creature......

 Itty bitty mule!

 Now THAT'S a HUG!

 I love her little riding boots.  I wish I would've been that comfortable with animals at such a young age.  I was scared of my own shadow then......

 OMG - so so so cute!

 In perfect proportion for each other.....

 True love......

 I've got a surprise for you.....

 I aspire to live life like this horse/boy - full speed and loving it!

 A perfect triangle?

 Clydesdales are absolutely stunning.  Big meets little.

 Story time with a horse??  So sweet.

 Horsey kisses.....

 Pool time with a mini horse?!

 Very official-looking!

 What an adorable bond!

 Sleeping babies......

 Little horses have even littler babies!

Glen

I received these pictures in an email from a friend and I just had to post it.  Cuter than the pictures is the fact that somebody named a squirrel "Glen"!  :)

Debby Cantlon, who plans to release Glen, the young squirrel, back into the wild, bottle-fed the infant squirrel after it was brought to her house.

When Cantlon took in the tiny creature and began caring for him, she found herself with an unlikely nurse's aide: her pregnant Papillion, Mademoiselle Giselle.

Glen was resting in a nest in a cage just days before Giselle was due to deliver her puppies. Cantlon and her husband watched as the dog dragged the squirrel's cage twice to her own bedside before she gave birth.

Cantlon was concerned, yet ultimately decided to allow the squirrel out and the inter-species bonding began.

 

 

Glen rides a puppy mosh pit of sorts, burrowing in for warmth after feeding, eventually working his way beneath his new litter mates.

Two days after giving birth, mama dog Giselle allowed Glen to nurse; family photos and a videotape show her encouraging him to suckle alongside her litter of five pups. Now, Glen mostly uses a bottle, but still snuggles with his 'siblings' in a mosh pit of puppies, rolling atop their bodies, and sinking in deeply for a nap.

 Glen and his new litter mates, five Papillion puppies, get along together as if they were meant to.

Glen naps after feeding.

Glen makes himself at home with his new litter mates, nuzzling nose-to-nose for a nap after feeding.

Spinning the Clay

On SuperBowl Sunday, I took an "Intro to the Pottery Wheel" class with April and Kelly in Fort Worth.  What fun we had!

Here is the store - full of clay, pots, supplies and everything in between.  There was dust and crap everywhere, but it had everything we needed.

Here were our stations - we each had our own wheel and tools (they look like toilets!).

Here is a clean wheel - before we mucked them up with our clay and water.

 

And here's me with my dirty wheel - in between pot #1 and pot #2.

Here is the board where they explained the steps in making a clump of clay into a bowl.  We used the steps in the second row.

And here's the results from all of our first 2 pots!  Don't they look cute??  My first one was tiny (in the back of the picture) - like a koozie.  Then my second one got a little bigger.  Practice makes perfect!

We all started with the exact same amount of clay for each one.  So interesting that they all end up different shapes and sizes, depending on how we work our hands and the wheel!

Here we are in front of our masterpieces.......

The one in this picture is my 3rd and final bowl.  I was pretty proud of myself for getting that 'lip' on the top of the bowl.  It's harder than it looks!

This is my messy pottery wheel when I was done with three bowls.  We had to hose all of our tools off outside in the bushes in the dark - too funny.

Here's Kelly and April, working their magic.  Kelly was a natural and her pots looked the best.

This is the table that we pounded and kneaded the clay before putting it on the wheel.  It's made of plaster, I think?  Or something very porous, so the moisture gets sucked out of the clay while we are kneading it.

Here's another girl in the class - molding her bowl the way she wants it.....

And here's April fake-crying because her third pot was a disaster and got smushed.  hahaha!

Good advice

18 Rules of Living By The Dalai Lama

At the turn of this century, the Dalai Lama issued the following eighteen rules for living. 12 years on, we thought that 2012 was a great time to revisit these timeless points.

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson

3. Follow the three Rs: 1. Respect for self 2. Respect for others 3. Responsibility for all your actions.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8. Spend some time alone every day.

9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.

15. Be gentle with the earth.

16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.

17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

Bagpipes and fiddles and drums, oh my!

About a week ago, my friends Denise and Renee and I went to an awesome show in Grand Prairie (the suburb just to the east of Arlington where I live) - The Killdares.  They are a mix of rock, celtic and who knows what else?

The theater is a restored old movie theater - The Uptown Theater in the old downtown Grand Prairie.  It was AWESOME.

The lobby has the original exposed brick of the building next door - with framed prints of a local Texas photographer.  Awesome new/old concept for the place.  I loved it!

Here's the band getting started - fiddle, drummer and bagpipe!

The bagpiper was awesome - and when April, Lauren and I saw them at the State Fair of Texas in September, he had on a kilt too!

Now here's the dueling guitar and bagpipe.  Who wins??

These musicians were fantastic - incredibly talented.

It was like Riverdance meets rock band.  Look at them work those instruments!

I loved this part - all of them going at it!

And at intermission, we saw a devoted fan......gotta love a man in a kilt.......

The bass player was the only one who didn't get really into it.  The others were pretty animated, which was fun.

The bagpiper was pretty cool - I wish he would've been wearing the kilt, though!

The fiddle girl was beautiful and talented - she played like crazy.

Bagpipes are the weirdest looking instruments!

He occasionally stopped blowing on the bagpipe and sang a little too - what a great show!