Birds, Birds, Birds

I love Elizabeth Foster's paintings. She's a local Nashville artist.

Marie-Joe gave me one of her landscapes for Christmas this year.

I don't know if I like the birds or the landscapes better, it's a toss up. They are all so great. I'd love to have them all.

You can find some of Elizabeth's work at The Loft at Henpeck Market. See my links for info.

This landscape is just so lovely. When you stand in front of it you get a real R Kenton Nelson vibe. The whole thing is of course more muted, but still...

Usually the little squares of pattern on the paintings are appliques. I think this one may be an applique on an applique.


I wish these translated better in photos, they lose their vibrancy and depth, like most art when photographed. Also most of these are quite large paintings, which gets lost here.

Learning New Tricks.

I'm learning new things every day. Today I learned to add videos.

These two are almost identical. Sarah didn't want me to put these in, she said they weren't good. I'll delete them later when I have better ones.

For now - Sarah and Moe.

Max's Day Out.

Max had a great day out at the barn, it was his first trip there. I couldn't leave him behind when it was time to go.

The weather today was the best it's been in a while; the dogs had a great time. There'll be no going back now, Max will be furious if I leave him behind in the future.

Baths were in order afterwards but they didn't mind after all their fun. Poor Max, he has to stay on the leash all the time.

He still had a ton of fun. Bubbles loves the creek more than anything.

Candle Putter-outter

Mike and Michael had a great time and a lot of laughs building Michael's Physical Science project. This is the candle putter-outter.

It's at school at the moment but when he brings it back home we'll make a video of it in action and add it here.

Bubbles' Resolution

One of my resolutions for this year is to bring Bubbles to the barn any time I possibly can when Sarah rides.

The vet has been after me for a couple of years about Bubbles' weight. It's hard, because of her breed she really needs to run a lot to keep the weight off. Ever since we moved to Nashville she hasn't had enough exercise except when Pop comes to visit and takes her for walks twice a day.

Bubbles likes to run. And run. And run.

This is Bubbles heaven.

Oh yes, she likes to swim too.

On this day it was cloudy, windy and 35 degrees. No telling what the water temperature was. She didn't care.
Here are a couple of photos of some old slave walls on the property. These are all over the Nashville area.

Horse Show Season Is Coming...

Last year's show season ended for us in Spetember but the 2009 season is just around the corner.

In anticiption of that, here are a few shots of last season's shows.

This is Sarah riding Dakota at the Atlanta classic last March.

Sarah and Dakota worked very well together.

Isn't he gorgeous?

After shopping around at several shows we found Moe, who was a perfect fit and makes a great team with Sarah.

This was their first show together. They had been together 4 days at this point.

Moe is a big, big, boy and will benefit from moving up to the 3 foot jumps next season.

More Before and After

Here are some more before and after of the new house.

This is the smallest of the upstairs bedrooms which has become a secondary makeshift office. The yellow is gone and new carpet installed.

Before:

And After.
This was the guest room before. Bright blue walls and ceiling, old off white short pile carpet.
And now, a soft parchment color wash is on the walls, a creamy ceiling and new mocha frise carpet. The drapes are being lengthened, so the rods will be remounted almost all the way to the ceiling. We went ahead and hung them lower for the time being since this is on the east side of the house and a very bright room in the mornings. The bath for this room was all blue like the bedroom but that has been redone in Ben Moore's Sea Glass.

The powder room before. Heavy craft paper glued to the wall, painted red and then aged with a dark brown glaze over the top. This was very hard to remove. This is a small room under the stairs without a window. It was very dark and very red. Also the vanity was dark wood with flowers painted on it.
The powder room now. Cream venetian plaster, troweled over a sea blue painted base with a earth brown wax over the top. I'm not completely satisfied with this room it's a little busy. I'll probably redo the wax in the future. The vanity still needs it's new knobs installed here.The back stairs off the bonus room. You don't see a lot of difference in the photos.

Before: Yellow paint, walls and ceiling! Maple finished stairs and oak banisters.
After:
Mocha on the walls really warmed the room up. The stairs, like the other hardwood was refinished to a dark walnut. I refinished the banisters with a faux finish product and then hand waxed them with Liberon.
Sarah's bathroom before:
A pink lovers dream. Too bad Sarah likes blue.
Sarah's bathroom after.
A soft turquoise on the walls with a graphic black and white morrocan trellis on the ceiling. The black white and turquois reflect the colors of the bedroom, which isn't finished yet.The ceiling.

More of the front office.

Before, this is the only shot I have. Yellow walls, yellow ceiling, same as all the rest of the house.

After.

The walls are Ralph Lauren Suede, I believe Mesa Verde. The ceiling is Porter's Jute.

Another shot of the office. The wall hanging there was an old ceiling medallion I retrieved on a job at Dolly Parton's sister's old house. I filled in the hole and faux finished it with a rusted iron finish. It looks like it weighs 100 lbs.

New Sarah and Moe photos

I haven't posted any new pics of Sarah and Moe lately so I thought I'd add some while I was on a posting roll. These are from this past autumn, October I believe.

He was just getting in his winter coat here and looking a little fluffy.

This is from one of their first lessons moving up to 3 ft. Moe was overcompensating just a little. Things are going much smoother these days.

I don't have many photos of the Dogs...

I just realized I didn't have any pics of the dogs on here. It's hard to get a good photo of Bubbles, the flash scares her. This one is pretty good though.

This is actually my favorite recent photo of Max and Bubbles. It captures them completely, especially with Max going out of the frame. This is the "Well, if we aren't going on a walk can we at least have a treat?" look. The treat jar is on the counter just to the right of Bubbles there.
Max. 'Nuf said.