Month: October 2021

PastSquare Challenge, Last Day To Join!

On By DianaIn Past Squares, square challenges19 Comments
  • In The Pink and FLOWERS!

I thought I would join one last post with Becky B’s PastSquares’s Challenge for the month of October. This is where we can share our favorite square from a previous theme or if we have leftover squares from a previous theme. It just opens up such a whole bunch of square photo challenges that I have missed in the past and Becky has kindly provided all the square challenges that she has done. It can be a bit overwhelming to decide what to share but I’m going to put something together. I hope you enjoy!

I thought I would try and share one photo of each themed previous square challenge and I am not sure I have all the square photos needed but I’ll give it a try! 😀 I may combine some like I did above for “In The Pink” and “Flowers” pastsquare challenges.

This PastSquare photo is from the challenge “Trees” best view through the ears of my horse Chloe looking at a Jacaranda Tree!

I joined Becky’s square challenges late last year and have enjoyed sharing photos that I make square in shape and fit the theme’s she provides. The “Tree” theme was one of my favorites and so is this photo above! As I look at the list of past theme’s, I am not sure I have photos to represent all theme’s. But I know looking at something that isn’t exactly the name of the theme we can use our imagination a bit to “fit” a photo into a theme. You will see what I mean as I progress and see what I can find in my archives.

I may have used this in a challenge before but this is for the theme “Sky” isn’t the sky so expressive!

This photo is taken at the barn where I board my horses not far from my house in my hometown. This was taken last winter and I may have used it in a previous challenge. I can tell you that I don’t have time to research where and when I’ve shared all these photos, could be coffee shares, smile posts or trail rides! Haha, or challenge posts! How fun to share again!

Ha! I didn’t think I had a photo for “Circle and Squares” but here you go! Circle ball with the square tiles! And cute grandson!
This photo is for the theme “Roofs” and I’m combining “Perspectives” as those mountains look closer than they are because of the snow!

This is turning out to be fun looking through my archives, like I am on a treasure hunt and I am checking off the boxes of each themed box! I don’t really take many photos of roofs, so this one will work just fine and I just love the perspective as how huge and close those mountains appear when they are covered with snow. This is taken on the street I live on about 2 years ago when we had a lot of rain which in turn means a lot of snow in our local mountains. A sweet photo! ❤

This is one of my son’s cats and a photo they took and can you believe those “Bright” “Blue” eyes? Just an amazing photo!
I found a photo for the theme “Lines” and I am so excited when I found it! I thought I’ll never find a photo with lines in it! Wow!

Haha, I get so excited over the silliest things. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the lines in this portable cage for the guinea pigs. I take care of my daughter’s guinea pigs from time to time and we have to put them in here so we can clean their cage. I combined another two themes above for the theme “Bright” and the theme “Blue”. I’m wondering, can I find photos for all the themes? What’s next?

  • This is a perfect photo for the theme “Top” as you can’t get up on top of anything higher than the kitchen cabinets! 😀
This is for the theme “Kinda” as aren’t they kinda in a shape of a heart? I think so! I ❤ them very much!
My phone is looking “Up” for this photo and I am thinking this works perfect for that theme! 😀
Aww, my family in Arizona (grandson is in the stroller). This is for the theme “Spiky” as I think spiky cactus works perfect! And a very cute photo of this precious family!
Aww, I had to use this for the theme “Time” as time can be fleeting, but we need to make the most out of the TIME we have and so for those of you that have lost, this was sent to me from a friend for my beloved horse Zack who passed earlier this year. I picture him running free which makes me Smile! ❤
This photo is for the last theme on my list, the hardest one in my mind “Word’s containing the word light” Sunlight shimmering on the ocean! This is the Pacific ocean not far from where I live. ❤

I did it! I didn’t present them in any particular order but I think I got them all from the list provided, I’ve shared every theme. Here is the list I used and I hope I didn’t miss anything but I’m very close if I did. Flowers, Sky, Circles and Squares, Roofs, Time, Spiky, Blue, Lines and Words containing the word light. There is Top, Perspectives and Kinda, Up, Bright and Trees. This was a ton of FUN and I hope you enjoy and I am so happy to join in on Becky’s wonderful Challenge of #PastSquare Challenge! Thank you so much for visiting! AND Thank you Becky!!

Squaring with Photos!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; October 24, 2021

On By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share47 Comments
Welcome! My sister and my best friend went in together to buy me this cool mug for my birthday! I LOVE IT!

Howdy! How are you doing, can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? It’s very gloomy outside but it’s a good gloomy because we have lots of clouds and are expecting some much needed rain! Tomorrow it is to rain almost all day and we really need the rain in our dry climate here in California. I have some small cupcakes for a snack to go with the coffee, can I get you one? I didn’t make them but they are really good. It was my birthday this last week and my hubby picked up the cupcakes so I didn’t have to bake for myself. I’m the only baker at home. 😀

I can’t believe there is only one more week left of October, but it’s been a very fun month. A couple weeks ago I went to Arizona to see my son and his family and I was there with my daughter who bought tickets to a comedy show. I went to babysit for that evening and it was so fun watching movies with my grand daughter and grand son. Well, my grand son went to bed and was super easy to put down which I was thankful for since he’s 19 months old and I know at that age they can be a handful. But they have a wonderful routine and that helps so much with young children. I had a blast and I’ll share a few photos.

My daughter enjoying Wolfie kitty who use to be her kitty, but now lives with my son. And a blurry selfie! Kids just don’t sit still!

Wolfie remembers my daughter!! He slept with her while we stayed the two nights for our weekend visit. For those of you who follow me will remember Wolfie’s brother Dublin is my son and daughter-in-laws kitty. My daughter tried to have Wolfie live with her but he was a handful and actually was eating her guinea pig hay and there were other problems and so we did some kitty swapping. I took 2 cat’s my son had (two sisters) and Wolfie was brought to live with his brother in AZ. Now my daughter adopted a beautiful black kitty she named Evie. We are all happy and the cats are all happy too! Thought I’d fill ya’ll in again and for any new followers. Haha, it was a bit of kitty drama at the time when we went through the exchanges!!

These brothers still lay together all the time! This is my photo of them sleeping on my bed when I visited AZ! Adorable!

I had such a nice weekend and when I returned home my sister from Idaho came back to town with her husband because it was her husbands 40th High School reunion. It was so fun because this is my sister who also rides horses and who is the sister I adopted my horse Zack. She couldn’t take him to Idaho, so I kept him and had him until earlier this year when he passed. Now, her and I are having fun with my new horse Murphy! Together she is reminding me about bringing along a young horse. Since he is almost 3 1/2 years old now, he is learning so much every time I ride. He is like a sponge, soaking up all that he is learning. I was able to take some photos when Sharon rode and I will share a video I took as well. We had so much fun as we also took him out on some trail rides too!

My sister riding Murphy! She and I ride alike and he was such a good boy for her. He is so relaxed and calm. He is a joy to ride!

Can I get you a refill on your coffee or tea? We have some Halloween candy too. We do not have Trick or Treaters in our neighborhood because it is considered a rural area. We do not have any street lights and the houses are a bit far apart so we do not have any kids that walk any of the neighborhoods in this area. They all usually drive to local residential areas to Trick or Treat. So we usually buy ourselves a couple of small bags of candy and we buy our favorites! Usually they are chocolates of some kind. YUMMY!

Back to the horses, sorry I got off on a tangent but you know, candy is always worth talking about and more importantly consuming! Haha! I was so happy I took my phone with me into the arena when I asked my sister if she wanted to ride Murphy. That’s when I was able to take these photos and the video I will share. After the arena we went out on a short trail ride and I was able to take a couple of photos out there as well. I am so proud of him and I thanked my sister so much for all her help and encouragement as he is coming along nicely.

My sister riding Murphy and he is so relaxed and now I have him on video cantering to the right. He is doing great!

I am so enjoying my time here with you and I am also enjoying celebrating my birthday this last week. My family in Arizona sent me a bouquet of flowers, they are so beautiful and smell wonderful! They arrived Saturday and my daughter sent me some fun Star Wars things as I Love all things Star Wars! Including a coloring book, The Princess Diaries by Carrie Fisher to read and these cool light saber earrings! Yes, I am a geek when it comes to Star Wars!! My hubby got me a cool Disney cookbook. I have a small collection of specialty cookbooks so this is a nice addition. I will finish up with these last photos.

I am a happy Grandma, Mom, wife and horse crazy gal! Thank you Natalie for hosting the #weekendcoffeeshare! I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead and thank you for visiting with me today. 😀

~Diana ❤

Smiling And Past Squares!

On By DianaIn Past Squares, weekly smile26 Comments
I took this photo last May when I first got Murphy! ❤

I wanted to share a smile post this week and as I thought about smiling I thought I could also share this post with Becky B’s Past Square challenge for the month of October. Since she picked the theme “past squares” we could use past photo’s from other square challenges or use things from our past that we want to share or re-share. I’ll be going through my archives to retrieve photos that I wanted to share that make me smile and they will all be selfies.

I am not sure why I like selfies so much, but I do, they make me smile 😀 and selfies and horses are hard! I should stand in front of them and then take the photo, but I usually try to squeeze their enormous head next to mine, haha, which is really difficult. It is really fun to try and here are a few more selfies!

Murphy and I and a fly! Haha, he was so curious looking at the phone when I took this photo! ❤
These three photos are from summer 2020. Chloe in two and Zack’s nose in the middle! Wonderful memories, which makes me SMILE! 😀

I am sorry the first two photos are rather huge but I made them both square. The three together are not square but I found out that’s okay. I have a few more selfies I will share and they are with my grandkids. I have slowed down my selfie taking with them partly because I’ve slowed down taking photos of them in general. I think when I visit my grandkids I am trying to spend quality time and so I don’t think to pull out the camera (my phone) and so the time zooms by while visiting. My son has been taking some awesome photos and sending them to me so I am not missing out too much. I make a photo book each year of the grandkids and so I can use his photos too!

Here are some selfies of my grandkids, Love them and they are so silly! Love my daughter and I too, they all make me SMILE! 😀

I just realized that I do not have any selfies of me and my sons. Guys are just busy doing their thing as I just don’t think to ask them to stand with me for a selfie. I think they would say what? Why do you want a selfie Mom! Haha, I am joking as I really don’t know what they would say but I never think to ask or make a selfie with them. I do have a few with my husband. Let me see if I can find a good one to end my post.

Oh I found one of me riding, even though my friend did not know I was taking this photo! Haha! AND my hubby and I at a beach concert last year. It was cold at the beach that evening hence why we are bundled up!

I so enjoyed sharing and as I am thinking about what makes me smile, these silly photos always bring a smile to my face. And it is great to look back into the past and re-share fun times. Oh wait, I hear Chloe asking to end this post and she says Smile, it will make you feel good! ❤

Chloe’s selfie! Sweet silly pony! 😀

Selfie Silly Grandma,

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; It’s October, My Favorite Month!

On By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share21 Comments
Beautiful wild flowers blooming at my friends house in Kentucky! She is so kind and sends me photos!

Welcome to my coffee share, can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? I am remembering summer as I share these wild flowers from my girlfriend. She has shared with me some beautiful photos of her flowers in bloom. She knows I have a LOVE for all flower photos, I could actually have a separate blog just for flowers except then I would have trouble keeping up so I’ll just share them from time to time here on this blog, my one and only blog. Can you believe it’s October? I can’t believe it as September just zipped by and here we are starting a new month. I have had Murphy for over 4 months now and he is learning and growing and is so much FUN! 😀

When Murphy arrived I took my time getting to know him as he got to know me and remember, he needed time to heal up a splint bone fracture. It is completely healed and he is perfectly sound and it is a non issue. But that time was well spent as he learned our routine. I could have done this earlier but never seemed to have enough time in my day to do some extra trimming and this weekend I was able to trim up his mane. Some people leave their manes natural and let it grow long. I prefer to have it shortened and an even length across his neck. I think it could be even shorter but that would have taken me longer and he stood so well while I spent the 30 to 40 minutes it took me to shorten his mane. When he first arrived, he did not stand still very long and was restless as he got to know our routine. Now he has gained great patience, I am very proud of him!

  • Before I trimmed his mane, it’s pretty but very long!
  • After I trimmed his mane. I love it shorter. He is so shiny too!

As I share my horsey stuff which includes riding Murphy in the arena and Miss Chloe on the trails, I am looking forward to a visit to Arizona to see my family. My daughter bought tickets to a comedian show in Arizona and is treating her brother and his wife. I asked if they needed a babysitter and they said Yes! So we will head out to AZ this coming Thursday and spend the weekend until Sunday. My son has some new games that we all can play together and Alice can join us playing some of these games too. I am looking forward to a fun game night with our visit. My son found a fun small water park for the kids and I look forward to taking them there as well. My son sent me this photo of them just the other day and I thought I would share. 😀

They are so adorable! I know they are my grandkids, but they are so darn cute ~ how can you not smile! ❤

Oh how they melt my heart! I have the hugest smile on my face right now! I have to say they are two such different children which makes sense. Alice is so sweet and cuddly. Loves hugs and attention. Teddy is very much the opposite, as independent as they come getting into everything and is not cuddly, so curious and very busy. Of course, he doesn’t know me as well as Alice got to know me at his age but he is all boy. Climbs up on everything and is as smart as they come. He will push chairs over to climb up on the countertop, he is such a handful and then some!! He is not even 2 yrs old yet and I would say has already had a few of those terrible twos temper tantrums. He will turn 2 in February. My goodness, they grow up fast! ❤

Thank you for visiting with me today and I so enjoyed your company. Do you have any travel plans? I am enjoying being able to have these long weekend get-a-way’s. I also am looking forward to my sister who lives in Idaho to visit again in a couple weeks. She is my horsey sister so we will have fun riding together again! Her husband is coming with her this time as he has a reunion to attend and she decided to come and visit too.

I want to thank Natalie for hosting our #weekendcoffeeshare link up and if you want to visit her blog or other weekend coffee shares I’ll add a link here. I hope you all have a wonderful week and I will see you again in two weeks time since I will be traveling this next weekend. Take care and stay safe out there!

Horse Crazy Grandma,

~Diana ❤