Words to live by................................................

courtesy of

Home is where your heart is

It's funny..... when my life was in a turmoil, I could have cared less what color the walls were painted or making my house a home. I was just so concerned with surviving.

I saved this picture awhile ago. I am not sure where it came from, but I love this room! I could go in and sit and just relax! I am discovering my style, what moves me and what I want to envelope me. I have always loved anything rusty, chipped paint, fabrics and items with lots of texture. So this is my inspiration for creating my home. As I progress, I will post pictures. I still rent, so I am limited in what I can do. As I take inventory of what I already own, I have found I have already collected pieces that will fit into my vision. I just need to put it all together. So with fresh eyes and a new vision....I forge ahead.

Redefining my passion

I am at a crossroads in my life where I need to analyze what direction I want my life to go. Years ago my passion was dogs, and their care. I groomed them, I raised them, I showed them. They were my life. My personal life took a turn for the worse and I had to give it all up except the grooming job I have held since I was a teenager. The job I had, was very stressful and complicated, and ate away at the passion I had for the profession. Then my accident. Now it's 10 months later and am healed enough to think about what I want to do with my life. My divorce is finally final and I am free from the chain around my neck that was drowning me. With that, I have been able to enjoy things that make me happy and fire a passion with me. I have taken an interest in decorating my house. I just plain ole, didn't care before. I do now. I love vintage. I love re purposed items. I like unique items that one does not find in everyone else's home. I love my horses. Going to the barn is my church. It brings me peace and every stress in the world goes away. And I love to create things. I paint. I sculpt. I take pictures. I am enamored with mixed media. And thoroughly enjoy designing art jewelry pieces. Unfortunately, the things that I am passionate about cannot support my family. I have considered renting a vendors booth, and offering things I make and/or re purpose for sale through there. I am going to dabble in re doing furniture. As I do this I will post my progress on my blog. I have already done a few things and I will share pictures as I go. Maybe , in time, I will be able to make a living at this. I have included a picture of an item in my kitchen. I use it as a coffee station and it holds some of my larger pots and pans. It has a wine rack, but I rarely keep enough wine around to use that. I sanded the wood top and used a graphic from and my TAP transfer paper to put a french inspired graphic on the top. I spray painted the base a flat black with spray paint. All in all a very easy redo.

The before picture was in a previous post.

I have been doing a bit of reorganizing my craft/art studio and decorating for the season and having fun doing it. I will post pictures when everything is complete. So off the computer and on to some organizing and maybe some painting and then a riding lesson this afternoon. A wonderful way to enjoy this nice fall day.

I big fat heart this!

This dresser is painted with chalk paint from Anne Sloan. I just adore this in all it's perfect blue, distressed, perfectness. This project was from http://missmustardseed.blogspot.com. I drool over the stuff on this blog on almost a daily basis. I have inherited an antique secretary from my mother in law, that needs some love. I have been surfing the web looking for ideas, and this may be it! I finally have some time & energy to work on some projects around the house. I will post pictures...stay tuned!!!!!

Doing the right thing

Sometimes I am challenged and succumb to levels that other people live by. I remind myself often, that to be happy, truly happy, in life, that you need to surround yourself with positive, ethical, motivated people. Thank Goodness, I do not hold on to anger long. Anger makes me sour and hateful, feelings I do not like. That does not mean, I will allow people to walk all over me either.


 The older I get, the more obvious it is, how different folks can interpret any one situation. I remind myself of this and try to be more understanding and accepting of those involved. There is only so much one can do, when having done something unselfish, for a good cause is misinterpreted and taken advantage of. It was not about my ego, it was about helping and making a difference. The sad thing about this is that I will think twice about helping again. Most likely I will help, but I will definitely be more aware of the egos around me.


As for the lesson I have learned from this situation. I will distance myself from those that make me sad and angry, and continue to look for companions that inspire me. I have come a long way. There was a day when I would have fed off the negativity, like a piranha. Now, it is like water off a ducks back. You live and you learn!

I want my daughter to learn these lessons. I am not sure if she gets it or not, but I am happy to say, she isn't into gossip and drama that would hurt people. She has gotten hurt a lot in the past few years and understands the damage that it can do. Life is truly too short. Each and every day, one needs to do something that will make themselves happy. Look for those things however small they may be. Life is not about egos, it is about people, and nature, and love and beauty. I started by doing small things for myself, that I could not do when working a stressful job with an alcoholic husband, who didn't work at home. I made some changes, some, not my own idea, and have moved forward.A year ago, I was a very sad, frustrated, negative person. Today, I look forward to each day and am thankful for those positive people in it.

Benefit Horse Show

So, this past Sunday was our benefit horse show at the farm to promote the cause of finding adoptive homes for  ex racehorses, who have been injured or are not fast enough from entering the slaughter pipeline. Unfortunately, we did not get the entries we were hoping for. We also has T-shirts made for the event and still have LOTS left over! I designed the logo and I think the shirt came out fantastic! If anyone is interested in purchasing a T-shirt and helping the horses go towww.thinkyourride.com and to the "pay here" link.

The silent auction bombed! I had so many great items. People were so generous with their donations. I am not giving up!  I am taking what I still have  and doing an online auction. Hopefully this will do better
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On a good note, a thoroughbred was adopted out AND it is being boarded at our farm. His name is "Laud Lazarus". So we get to see & play with him.

We also received lots of media attention and maybe more people will take a look at one of these amazing horses, when looking for a new horse.


My daughter, Mariah rode my horse "Jerry" and was Reserve Grand Champion OTTB for the day. Her horse, Hoy, is injured and could only be shown in the parade and in hand classes...which he won!

All in all a good day and I am very proud of what we all accomplished.

Projects....

In my kitchen I have an old wine rack with a wood block that I want to refinish. I want to paint the base a charcoal black and then using a vintage image from http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com, paint a sign on the wood.I plan on painting my kitchen a dove grey with black & white toile curtains and red accents. I love typography and signs and am going for a french country feel. I think the wine rack will fit in nicely.

My next project will be a vintage pastry table with an metal top. I would like to use a red chalk paint on this and re finish the wood side table in a natural stain.

My 3rd project is a birdhouse my sister in law owns that her father made. She loves the ocean and Cape Cod, so I thought I would decorate it in an ocean theme. Need to think on this for awhile.

So with these 3 projects and everything else that i want to do, I should be able to stay very busy. I can't start on any of this, this week. The benefit horse show I have been working on for 7 months is on Sunday. So many last minute details to work on.