Category: Living life

Weekend Coffee Share; Nov. 16, 2019

On By dprastkaIn Barn stories, Living life, weekend coffee share22 Comments
Weekend Coffee share is a time for us to take a break out of our busy lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new)! Please grab a cup of coffee or tea and share with us! What’s been going on in your life? any weekend plans?

I can’t believe half of November has gone and Thanksgiving is right around the corner! I am really excited though because we leave Monday for Arizona to help my son and family move to a new place. They decided to move from the house they were renting (they raised the lease payment) and they found a place that will save them money. It’s a really nice town home and I can’t wait to see it and help them with this move! I am so excited not only to see them and give my grand daughter a GIANT HUG, but to have this time off from work! Oh forgive me, did you get a cup of coffee? maybe tea or OJ? I am drinking a nice strong cup of Joe because it is cold. You will laugh for those who live where it freezes, it was a chilly 48 degrees this morning. Us here in CA, anything under 50 and we shiver. It can get down in the 30’s here which is bone chilling. We are just not use to the cold weather. Haha! 😀

I know millions of women get their nails done but for me this is a new thing that I decided to spend money and treat myself. I would rather spend the money on my horses, but my daughter is helping me feel more girly and I actually LOVE having them look nice. I am in the festive spirit with the snowman! I need all the Christmas spirit I can muster!

My daughter actually found the nail salon and the employees there are so sweet and the lady that did my nails this time was so proud of her work she said she wanted a photo. So after she took a photo for herself I had her take a photo with my phone too. I thought why not share! Haha, I do not know how long I will keep up the pretty nails, definitely through the holidays and maybe longer? We will see if I stay motivated to go and get them done and spend that money that could go to buying a bag of grain. It’s all what we think is important right? Beautifying myself hasn’t been my strong suite. I have makeup I hardly use and to be honest, I don’t really know how to apply very well. I try sometimes, but mostly no makeup. I try to keep up with lipstick, and that’s tough to do for me as well. I’m not much of a lady. My poor hubby, he has to put up with a drab cowgirl. But she has pretty nails now! 😀

This photo was taken by my pony sister (a good friend) at the stables on our ride last weekend. I don’t have many of me riding with my ponies, this is what I will do this weekend! Thank you Jane! I am so excited I can share my favorite hobby! ❤

I will be heading to the stables soon and will be riding on the trails. I’m thankful for this photo to share with ya’ll as this is Norco and our trail sidewalks. Our ponies are very trail savvy as there are dogs that run up to the fence and all sorts of things that can spook them. They have seen just about everything, and do not spook often, thankfully. It’s all about time in the saddle. I call it TITS – yup, you just said it! Haha, Time In The Saddle is so important as every day you ride you take the unusual and make it usual, anything and everything you do in repetition helps you and your horse gain confidence. I am not going to explain all the training here on this blog that goes into making a strong, stable trail horse but that tip, TITS is part of making a GREAT trail pony. I also like this saying, KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid! It helps in training, trouble shooting problems as often the most simple thing is the problem. I guess I like acronyms, LOL! 😀 😀 😀

Miss Chloe looking beautiful today! Love her color as it darkens in the winter time. I just LOVE HER!! ❤

As I head into this weekend I will be preparing my horses for this next week ahead. I will buy some shavings so that their stalls will stay nicely bedded and make baggies full of grain and supplements for my girlfriend to feed each day I am gone. I know they will be well taken care of and I won’t worry about them.

I enjoyed sharing my morning with you all. I hope you all will have a wonderful weekend. I know some of my friends are traveling home this weekend, safe travels Maria! I will be thinking of this huge move back home. I know many of you are trying to stay warm as I saw a blanket of cold weather across the US. I know my family will be doing family things and my sister’s quilt and love doing crafts. Thinking of you all as I finish my cup of coffee and my breakfast here in Norco. What are your plans this weekend? I thank you for stopping by and would love to hear your plans or maybe you will just stay in and enjoy some R&R.

Happy Cowgirl,

~Diana

My Weekly Smile; Nov. 12, 2019

On By dprastkaIn Barn stories, Living life, Smiles, weekly smile13 Comments
What makes you smile? This is my weekly smile hosted by my blogging friend Trent! Thank you Trent as I just Love to share and to see everyone’s Smile!

I am finally able to share a weekly smile! I am excited because I have been wanting to share and for one reason or another it just wasn’t possible to share my smiles for the last few weeks. I actually have 2 smiles I would like to share. I’ve been saving one of these smiles as I have completed what I am going to share a few weeks back and I am making progress on the new project. You will see here what I am talking about. Have I perked your interest? I am enjoying my projects immensely, I hope you enjoy!

I have completed my granny square blanket! I am smiling ear to ear as I am SO HAPPY with the way it has turned out. Other than the pattern for the squares which I followed – the color scheme was all my own. I wanted it to look very colorful, I think I accomplished that!
It’s very soft and warm!!
On to my new project which is making me smile too! I have a lot more done as I took this photo last week. I included in the photo the pattern I am doing. For grand baby number 2! ❤

Any one who follows me knows I can’t help myself when it comes to my blog posts. I love to share my craft projects which at this point in time is only crochet projects and I would share other crafts if only I had time to do them. It’s all I can do working full-time fitting in crochet and my horses. Nice flow into the subject of horses, haha, see how slick I am? Because that is my second smile this week! I am SMILING big because my horses have rescued me from a stressful few nights at work. I come home very stressed as my instruments gave me trouble and I had to call service. I get it all done but to have the ability to go to the stables and unwind and escape is beyond words. It is my stress reliever!! Thank you Ponies! 😀 😀 😀

This is where I want to be, looking between the ears of my mighty steed!! Thank you Chloe and Zack for a wonderful trail ride! My other smile for this week!
I LOVE THE SHADOWS!

As I rode today around the corner of the block I was on I didn’t need to look down to far when I noticed an amazing shadow of Zack being led next to Chloe and I. I feel like a little kid, but what a PERFECT SHADOW! I have written and shared before shadows that I have taken while riding. I suppose since I am sitting up so high and if I am out with the sun at the perfect place in the sky (this was taken around 11:45am) the shadows are just so cool. I know it’s silly, I am clearly easily entertained. My shadow and me, my shadow and Chloe and Zack! I just think it is really cool and it made me SMILE!! What makes you smile? it can be something really simple – like a shadow! Thank you again to Trent who hosts the Weekly Smile and I will stop by and read your smile. I hope you join in if you haven’t, I think it is fun to share! https://trentsworldblog.wordpress.com/the-weekly-smile-weeklysmile/ (Here is the link to the smiles!)

Happy smiling, crochet and horse crazy gal!

~Diana

Weekend Coffee Share; Horse Clipping Fun!

On By dprastkaIn Barn stories, Horse stories, Living life, weekend coffee share16 Comments
Weekend Coffee share is a time for us to take a break out of our busy lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new)! Please grab a cup of coffee or tea and share with us! What’s been going on in your life? any weekend plans?

Welcome to my coffee share! How are you today? do you have any weekend plans? or are you going to take it easy and relax? I am going to take it easy and maybe do a little housework (that never ends) and enjoy spending time at the stables. My girlfriend who owns Gracie is out of town this weekend celebrating her granddaughters first birthday! Here’s HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Andrea, aka Andy. She is so adorable, but then all grand daughters are… I digress, as I have to say I have been so incredibly busy at work that I have had trouble getting to my writing and sharing. My schedule is now back to normal and will hopefully stay that way for awhile and through the holidays! How can it be November? and Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming fast!! CRAZY!

Zack body clipped. We call this clip a trace clip as it just traces along the sides of his body starting at his chin all the way to his rump, and includes his entire belly. I actually went up higher on his body than is normal for this clip but that is because we live in a very warm climate so he can handle a little bit more hair off of his body. He will be much cooler on our hot days as yesterday it was just over 90 degrees. It’s been in the high 80’s, this is SOCAL!

I decided to share my barn stories and since I did not take a new photo of Miss Chloe I decided to have her with Zack as my first Weekend Coffee share photo. It’s all I’ll mention of her, even though she is my most favorite mare I have ever owned in my life ~ this last week is about body clipping and I only clipped Zack as Chloe does not grow a long winter coat. I also clipped my girlfriends horses Sadie and Juan. They both grow long winter hair and I have been telling her that these trace clips are so wonderful at keeping the horses cool AND you do not have to blanket them at night because we leave a large amount of hair all along their top-line. With the warm climate where we live, the horses do just fine and they will be easier to cool off when worked and easier to keep clean from sweat and dirt. I will share photos of my other clip jobs of Judy’s horses!

I wanted to share this photo as you can really see Zack is a flea-bitten grey. That is what they call his color. If you look close, he has black flecks all throughout his coat and you will see a big difference with Sadie who is just grey, and as grey’s age they turn white!
This is Sadie and her mane and tail are still very dark as she was born almost black. As she ages she has turned white. She is 15 years old and is pure white except her mane and tail. She has no little spots like Zack. Thought you would enjoy seeing the difference. She is now trace clipped!
This is Juan, Judy’s other horse. She actually owns 3 horses but we did not clip her other horse. All of Judy’s horses are Tennessee Walking horses. He is black and a big boy, and is very beautiful! ❤

I truly enjoy helping others wherever I can and I have been doing this trace clip on Zack every year for the last 4 years. The first year I actually did his whole body called a hunter clip which leaves their legs hairy. Their legs are the hardest to clip and since he is not showing I don’t bother and they don’t sweat like their body. This trace clip is absolutely perfect and works great in our area. My girlfriend paid me for my service which I appreciate and of course we agreed upon a fair price. Its a messy job as hair goes everywhere and gets blown in your face from the clipper fan as I have a huge pair of shears that they use for sheep, but can be used on horses and it makes the job easy and fast!

I have been body clipping horses going back to the 70’s when I use to show Hunter/Jumpers. I clipped for trainers for 30 years into the 90’s and my sister Sharon and I would clip for several barns and it was a great way of earning Christmas money for the holidays!! That’s why I own a nice pair of body clippers and other smaller clippers to finish the job in any ticklish areas on the horse! How is your coffee? or did you decide on tea? or Orange juice?

I am so enjoying my coffee with you this morning. I will be taking care of my girlfriends horse this weekend along with caring for Chloe and Zack. I am hoping to take mine on a trail ride or two and then relaxing at home. I’m thinking of skipping the house work! Haha, okay maybe I’ll throw in a load of laundry, that’s easy peasy. I really wanted to get this coffee share out as I so enjoy sharing with ya’ll. I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and let me know what your doing. If you have a coffee share I’ll stop by and say hello! Thank you to Eclectic Alli for hosting the coffee share!

Horse Crazy clipping girl!

~Diana ❤

My Furry Friends, Kitty and Horses!

On By dprastkaIn Barn stories, Horse stories, Living life, Memories14 Comments
She was the best kitty I have ever had and someday I will have another kitty! ❤

What a crazy month, October. I had a birthday and I was crazy busy working way too many days at work covering for a few vacations. My employees need vacations and so I didn’t mind and they are very thoughtful about taking them too. Meaning they will work with me as I can’t afford to have more than one employee off at one time, so we all work together figuring out who takes what days or weeks when. I am trying to avoid talking about the pretty kitty that I had to send to kitty heaven at the end of October. I kept wanting to write a Weekly Smile, but was too sad the last few weeks to participate but as my heart heals I am needing to get back to writing and sharing. Rest in Peace Mara, aka, mini kitty. She was all of 6 pounds, a small white with a splash of orange domestic short haired cat with a personality twice her size. She will be greatly missed. LOVE HER SO!

I’m getting better each day. We’ve had kitties all my life, we do not have any now but I have my pups so we are not without our furry friends!

As I am finally feeling a little better and always try and keep a smile on my face even if I am feeling sad inside this post is going to be all about what keeps me sane. I have in my mind all these thoughts but what helps me through each day is what I really want to share. I will just keep this simple as these next set of photos make me smile and these giant animals amaze me and really have a way of healing my soul.

Chloe on Monday. It’s been pretty hot in the high 80’s and this was after a nice relaxing trail ride! She was eating when I called her name she looks up at me!
Zack got a really good bath Monday. I am planning on clipping him to help him stay cool. I will share a photo when I am done with the trace clip I’m going to do tomorrow!
Zack eating his grain and hay. They get lunch most every day!
I couldn’t get my girlfriends horse to look at me with ears up! She has rolled in her shavings after her bath!

My horses are so darn sweet. I am so truly lucky to have them and even though they are not 100% sound, they are serviceable sound and can be ridden on the trails and lightly in the arena. My girlfriend who owns Gracie has been struggling with some health issues with her and bless her heart we are finally seeing some positive results with her issues. She has been having skin issues and we were able to get her moved to a different stall at the barn. We think this should help as we don’t know if it was the tree or other issues in the stall where she was living, but we feel strongly that this move will help. This is a photo of her in her new stall! She is near and dear to my girlfriends heart, I totally understand. She is in her late 20’s so every year she is here with us we cherish. I help care for her, so I am very attached to her as well. ❤

After I made them exercise lose in the arena I sat on a mounting block in the middle of the arena. My horses came to me on their own, visiting as I sat and took in their kindness. Or are they just looking for a treat? Haha, either way the attention I adored!
Haha, he had been drinking water so his nose was wet and the sand in arena is sticking to his nose! What a silly boy, this is how he entertains me and himself!
Chloe was standing right next to Zack, as he entertains me – she was nuzzling me as well. This is up close and personal! They never left my side!
I am sitting as I take this photo. I am not sure what she sees? But I like this photo. I rubbed their face and we chatted. Yes, I talk to my horses. Mostly I ask them what they are thinking and I think out loud they are most likely looking for a treat which I eventually got up and did exactly that. Gave them a treat!

Thank you for sharing my furry friends with me. I use to not like calling my animals my furry friends. I don’t know why but I’ve warmed up to calling them that or thinking of them in this way. I know that we out live our furry friends and as I see it we need to enjoy every moment we can with them and be thankful for them in our lives. As we lose a small piece of our heart with each one that passes, I always hope that someday we will all meet again.

I am glad I take as many photos as I do as I love to have the memories. I have been printing photo books and am planning on having more printed soon. I hope you have enjoyed my photos as I think you can see their personalities, a little bit anyways. I sure enjoy sharing and will continue to share as it brings me much joy and happiness!

Feeling better each day, crazy animal lover,

~Diana

Weekend Birthday FUN!

On By dprastkaIn Barn stories, Family is important, Horse stories, Living life5 Comments
My Birthday cake made by my good friend Colleen! She is a friend at our barn and loves to make the most delicious birthday cakes!

My birthday was October 21st and I have to say I had a ton of fun this birthday weekend. Colleen at the stables has been making cakes for each of us and we have had some fine cakes as she always changes it up and makes something entirely different each time. This cake was featured on Facebook called Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Cake including the recipe and Colleen asked me if I’d like this cake for my birthday. YES! I said, if you are up for it as I knew it would be a bit complicated. Colleen said it was a challenge with a cake layer top and bottom, and a blueberry cream cheese filling. The cream cheese icing was lemon cream cheese and oh my, this was SO DELICIOUS! ❤

This was one of the best cakes I’ve tasted in awhile. LOVE homemade cakes!
I think my lens was dirty. I took this photo out because there is a distortion in it, but I decided to put it back in just because I think its fun to share even though its not perfect. Nothing is ever perfect right?
Getting ready to eat cake! Thank you all ladies, making my birthday weekend special!

I had a wonderful ride this weekend. I rode by myself on Chloe and ponied Zack along side and we just went on a short ride as I had to get back so we could eat cake. My birthday wasn’t until Monday but there are ladies that work day shift so we had the cake on Saturday to include as many as possible. It all worked out great! There is another birthday being celebrated today, so more cake on the way to my tummy. It seems October is a busy month for birthdays, so here is a shout out to ALL celebrating birthdays this month, HAPPY BIRTHDAY YA’LL!

Zack walking next to me on the trail!
The best view EVER! Looking between the ears of my horse!

As I am writing this I am thinking I should have started out with the SURPRISE of my life as seriously, I do not get surprised often which is a good thing. Maybe this is a fun way to end as I am actually writing in chronological order as all of the above happened on Saturday. When I returned from the stables with the left over cake, I drove up into my driveway and opened up my garage and low and behold I am staring at this white car in my garage. What???

My daughter was so sneaky telling me she was driving to SLO (San Luis Obispo) as we chatted on the phone while she was actually heading home. She spent the weekend with us and left Monday evening. THANK YOU LINEA from the bottom of my heart for this wonderful surprise. We had cake, lots of time together chatting while she went through cookbooks and I worked on my crochet blanket. These relaxing girl times are so precious to me and that was all of Saturday. I had to work this weekend but I work night shift so I still have time to spend awake during the day.

Sunday she drove down to my work as I am 10 minutes from IKEA. She had already items to be picked up that she bought online. We had a great lunch of Swedish Meatballs, so yummy and we shopped. I bought a few things and she bought more to help fill up her new apartment. Her items are like a coffee table that also is like a basket that can store items. And she bought a kitchen table which is what she ordered online. So FUN shopping with her, one of my favorite things to do for sure!

Monday was really fun too, but I felt bad because I already had an appointment with my farrier. My daughter’s best friend came over thankfully and hung out with her so they had some good girl time together. Then we got lunch and we went and got our nails done! OH MY, that is a treat and my nails look so beautiful. It is fun to look pretty as I am not much of a girly, girl. What an amazing, fun, surprising, fantastic weekend. I just had to share and I am going to end with a photo of my pony as I am heading out to take care of them this morning. I can’t believe it’s going to be in the 90’s today and its near the end of October! Cool down please! Go away Indian Summer as we call the fall heat wave here….

Miss Chloe coming to me for a trail ride!

I was so busy I didn’t take any photos with my daughter. Darn it all, but the memories will be with us forever never the less. I hope you all have a great week. I wanted to share my birthday happenings yesterday but just could not fit it in to my very busy day and weekend. I hope all the birthday celebrations this month are fun for everyone. Thankful and grateful to my family! I do LOVE YOU ALL so much! ❤ ❤ ❤

Birthday Pony Girl,

~Diana

Weekend Coffee Share; Reflecting, Family and My Loves!

On By dprastkaIn Family is important, Living life, Love being Grandma, Memories, weekend coffee share26 Comments
Weekend Coffee share is a time for us to take a break out of our busy lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new)! Please grab a cup of coffee or tea and share with us! What’s been going on in your life? any weekend plans?

Welcome to my coffee share and I am enjoying a nice hot cup of coffee with my sweet Italian cream. I looked back and I have missed a few weeks as they just fly by at record speed these days. Here it is the middle of October and my birthday is right around the corner, another year gone and Wow, turning 29 again and again suites me fine! Haha, 29 as I reflect back I had 2 new babies only a year apart back then. The memories, but I digress. Can I get you a cup of coffee, hot or iced? or maybe tea or orange juice?

I wanted to thank you all today. I can’t tell you how much my life has changed when I joined WordPress and started blogging. I look forward to reading as many blogs as I can and respond in kind when I can and I am learning so much through blogging. I have had such great advice from you all in one way or another and I also have grown so very fond of all of you and enjoy all our interactions with one another, AMAZING!!

I had no idea what I was doing but I strive to be here one way or another trying to write interesting posts but find I am just sharing what I LOVE and with an audience that I never knew would be so warm, caring, sweet, heartfelt, compassionate – I am running out of words but I think you get the idea. I can say from the bottom of my heart I am humbled and thankful for my blogging friends, and may I meet many more! ❤ As I reflect this morning, I can’t tell you how much I look forward to sharing and writing my blog! I’m thinking of joining the 100 word count writing prompts. I love the imagination and writings of these posts!

My son sent me this photo of Miss Alice in Montana! They visited there a couple weeks back and it snowed! Her first time seeing snow! ADORABLE! My new home screen photo, of course! ❤

Family is just so important to me, so much so that my youngest son and I had a conversation about where we should live. I have really good friends and family that have had life long dream places they wanted to live, and they’ve made those dreams come true and have moved away from family to live at those destinations. I however do not have that “favorite” or “dream” place. I can’t think of one place I would die to live, and the thought of moving further away from family is just not going to happen and too sad to think about. That’s when my son said your destination is your family. You will live anywhere close to them, at least one of them since I can’t be by all of them all at the same time.

It made me think about my future plans, which are on track still to move to Arizona. I will be visiting there to help my family move from a house they’ve been renting, to a townhouse they will rent. They will be able to save money for a house by moving into the townhouse in November. I LOVE seeing Alice’s face every day on my phone! She makes me smile! 😀

My LOVES as I enjoy a day at the barn. I can’t share enough of my horses!
My girlfriends redhead mare! They have a reputation these chestnut mares of being a handful and she lives up to this reputation! Gracie is 27 years old and going strong!
Chloe and Zack. I so love this photo of these pretty ponies!

I want to be true to me and so I will always continue to share these pretty ponies. I try and share different sides of them both in photo and in the written word. I have so many posts about them, the history of us together and how I got into horses. I have loved horses since I was born, how can you say that you think? I truly believe there is something we are born with that is hard to explain, probably in our DNA. My Mom and Dad found me loving the rocking horses at Sears. They surprised me for Christmas when I was 2 years old. They said I knew what was in the box, jumping up and down and once opened and assembled I rode that pony every single day singing, “A horsie, a horsie” as I rocked back and forth. The perfect babysitter I was told! Haha, here I go digressing again. I guess I am in a reminiscing mood this morning.

I so enjoyed sharing coffee with you this weekend. I keep forgetting to share that the weekend coffee share is hosted by eclectic alli – oh gosh, I struggle with links but I want to give her credit for hosting this wonderful share each week! If you visit her sight you can find the link to where you can share your weekend coffee share if you are blogging one. Thank you for visiting and I SO ENJOYED having coffee with you this weekend.

Have a wonderful weekend!

~Diana

My Weekly Smile; Oct. 7, 2019

On By dprastkaIn Living life, Smiles, weekly smile16 Comments
What makes you smile? This is my weekly smile hosted by my blogging friend Trent! Thank you Trent as I just Love everyone’s Smile!

My weekly smile made me giggle as my husband came home and threw me a new hat. I LOVE hats of all kinds! Baseball caps, wide brim hats, there is just something about hats that I am a bit obsessed. I do not ask people to buy them for me, I usually do a good job buying them all by myself. But sometimes my husband (who has a large hat collection himself) sees something that he thinks I would like, or he likes and thinks I should have, which ever way you look at it this is what I got today! 😀

A new hat for my collection, and it will get well worn!

My hubby tossed me the hat and said here is a new hat for you and as I picked it up I thought why did he get me a camo hat? I actually just said thanks and set it aside. He told me it was new and that he took off the tag and he wanted me to look at it again?? Can you see what I didn’t see? Haha, it made me giggle as we looked over the hat. There are black, gray and white kitties all over this hat. This is my smile and giggle for this week!!

I also haven’t shared in a long while my pups. The shepherd mix we got as a puppy and has a good friend who I adopted from my daughter-in-law when my son got married and they had my granddaughter. So I lost my son but gained a wonderful friend, they are truly best friends these two lovable puppy dogs. ❤

What a funny angle, but she doesn’t sit still for a photo! Silly girl, very lovable and goofy!
He is such a sweety and is a bit older but doing great! They are BEST friends! ❤ ❤ ❤

This is my smile for this week. A new hat, some lovable pups and I am ready for my week. It is a busy week for me, but we always have time to smile, right? What makes you smile? Would love to hear from you, and thank you for visiting and sharing my smiles and giggles with me this week.

Happy crazy hat lady, loving her animal friends!

~Diana