Heaven

My apologies for my extended absence.



But I was in the most beautiful place in the world.

More soon...

Tour guides are people too.

At the end of a weekend all I can ever muster the energy to do is lay on the floor, beer in hand, and scream incoherent babble, laced with obscenities, at the ceiling. At least that's all I want to do.

You see, I work in tourism. It's my "real job" except that it's not a "real job" according to most "real job" standards. It's what I do to make money while I pretend to be an artist. One day it will be the other way around. Anyway, the point of all this is that working in tourism in August in the south SUCKS.

So as we launch into another weekend, please play nice and tip your guide, for the sake of my sanity.

A few things

Sorry I sort of fell off the wagon last week. It was sort of crazy and I took a minor vacation from life (and did nothing).

My Silversun Pickups station is my favorite station on Pandora, ever. Until they play Vampire Weekend. I was listening to it with my phone while I was riding yesterday, and their song Oxford Comma came on. It was extremely aggravating, and my ride promptly went downhill from there. Thanks Vampire Weekend.

Finn has been weird lately. 99% of the time I can blame this on me, so it looks like we need to go do some no stirrup work. And we need to work on stopping off my seat. Again. He was doing really well with it, until Vampire Weekend came on and I guess he fed through my tension and forgot he knew how to stop like a nice pony, and not like an inverted, gaping mouth camel. It's ok Finn, we all have bad days.

Anyway.

Here is something I'm working on! I'm not all grumpy today I swear. I've been doing stuff.



I'm not sure where to go from here. I have some ideas. I want the birds to be red, even though I know there are no red swallows. I just need some red. The background will stay white & gray. Note to self: never stain blocks with crappy IKEA stain before you draw on them. Because drawing over that crap is annoying. Then I realized I was going to paint oils over water based stain, so I may have to start this over from scratch. Oh well, it's an experiment anyway.

Man... Modest Mouse - One Chance just came on. Damn that's an awesome song.

Finneversary #5

Late July 2005 (as a two year old), the first time I saw him.


The end of May 2009. He was coming back from his "fence accident" when this was taken. He had been out of regular work for close to 4 months.


August 2, 2010

My horse is a beast.

Happy Finneversary to us, to us.


Those massive shoulders. Awful to fit a saddle to, but so great to nestle behind.












Our favorite summer activity.
(I am fully aware of the dangers of this photo... and I don't really care. For the sake of a nice picture)


To many more Pretty Boy. <3

Sketchbook Sunday

I've always been so in love with the live oaks here.

Night riders

Last night was the kind of night that I wish would happen more often. I had an absolutely lovely ride with friends. It was sort of a last minute thing, and by the time we got on the sun had mostly set. My barn owner is an incredibly gracious person. She's always said I could use her horses for any friends that want to ride. My former barrel racing friend hadn't ridden in a long time, so she rode the western pleasure lesson horse. My other friend, a fellow SCAD Equestrian dropout, had never ridden a gaited horse. My barn owner has a little Tennessee Walker mare who is such an odd ride if you're not used to gaited things. It was hilarious on both counts. I rode Finn, and let everyone have a turn on him. We laughed, and played, had a beer or two, and sweated our butts off. Yes, even light riding after dark and I still came home soaked to the bone.

Anyway.

The latter of the two friends, has known Finn since I got him. Our horses are two months apart in age, so they both just turned 7. We've had them both since they were babies. We have decided that 7 is quite a good year. All of a sudden our babies have become "real horses". It's kind of hard to describe what we mean by that, but it's like all of a sudden they have come into themselves. Suddenly I have A Real Horse, and not a dimwit baby. He stands still, he travels in a straight line, he is polite. It's amazing. I mean, he still has his moments, but he's 99% better than he was even 6 months ago. He has just been blossoming and being all sorts of amazing lately (knock on wood). I'm so proud!!!!

Also... I have had the Finn-monster for 5 years this week. I plan on doing an anniversary post this weekend, after I take new conformation shots of him. Finn and I have quite a history in only 5 years together.

Tonight I am working on art stuff, but man... I lost a sketch I did for something and it's driving me crazy!!!! I had this great image in my head, I sketched it out so I wouldn't forget it, and I lost it. Crap.

Mine all mine

I'll love you forever
I'll like you for always





As long as I'm living
My babies you'll be.