I'm a paper folding fiend, acronym junkie, horsecrazy grownup, scarychristianchick, wife, mother, and breast cancer survivor the order of which is likely to change at any given moment... http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/Wysiwigs Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:46:37 -0600 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.squidoo.com/wysiwigs There are a gazillion sellers on the Internet, have you noticed that? Maybe you're wondering why I chose to add to the problem - I'm afraid I couldn't help it. My creative monster is officially out of the closet (see explanation by way of a rambling monologue below - or, if you're really brave - and want a longer, continuous ramble try the Sketchpad hyperlink which will take you to my wysiwigs blog). It's nice to be able to buy handmade touches to put in your home or give for a gift; it's awfully hard to find them though. I'd rather have a root canal than go to the mall. I'm tired of stores that hire bubbleheaded individuals that know nothing about the things in the store, and really don't care either. Why should they? It's not THEIR stuff. I like trying to find that special and unique something to give as a gift to be cherished - who wants to get 5 of the same item in as many colors for a shower gift? On the other hand, there are some mighty strange things out there when you try to find something that's a little different. I've found a wonderful site to set up my shop - Etsy - it's a special place for "all things handmade". One of the best things about Etsy; you're buying directly from the person that made it (and you'd better believe WE care!) Wysiwigs, pronounced "whizzywigs" is an acronym and stands for, "What you see is what I've got : ) smile" and was a good fit for me AND my shop. With my creativity all over everywhere, I think I have covered nearly all the bases as far as occasions and individuals (wedding, baby shower, birthdays, home decor, housewarming, old, young, holidays, and just because - that one's my favorite! :o) As I have all but created myself into a corner on my mad benders, I hope you'll come visit me at my shop. I haven't found a way to curb my creativity yet, but I did find a wonderful group of women known as "FAM" - Fabulous Artistic Moms, who are similarly afflicted. I am signing off here and going to publish this page, which I have hopefully done correctly (and do I know? Nope.) I have added a technological disclaimer below, in the event that perusing this lens causes a headache... I need to go and be a grownup now, so I'm going to try to focus here by reciting my daily litany: I will not start another piece I will not start another piece I will not start - OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOh I just had the BEST idea... shopping Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:29:20 -0600 http://www.squidoo.com/EpicFarms I don't pretend to have all of the answers (shoot, I'm still coming up with questions). This is simply offered as a collection of learning experiences and personal observations that I found fascinating. Of course I find horses in general fascinating, so I'm starting from there :o) Horses are a tremendous responsibility, but such a joy to own! I feel extremely blessed for the privilege of having them right here with me...there's nothing like it. While I have some definite opinions and ideas on horses and training, I must confess to being a bit of a coward and tend to keep those thoughts and opinions largely to myself in order to avoid confrontations (I'm a peaceful sort - and opinions can get MIGHTY strong). The A#1 biggest stumbling blocks are these: You might have to admit you don't know quite as much as you thought OR (and this is a biggie) maybe you had it wrong. I have come face to face with these issues (and subsequently 'fessed up) so many times over the past couple of years I sometimes think I should just go ahead and post a billboard in the front yard with those very words plastered across it. Or maybe a T-shirt would do... The few people I have TRIED to share some observations with, tend to react in one of two ways: 1) Placate the Idiot, because I don't want to hear it - Agree with everything and then walk off rolling their eyes. Future discussions with others include phrases like, "That Jennifer and her horses, bless her heart..." This is a southernism generally used to describe those clueless individuals that are several bricks shy of a load, a few french fries short of a happy meal (you know, nuts or stupid - take your pick :o) 2) Steamroll City, because I don't want to hear it - This method utilizes constant interruptions to interject personal opinions and pontifications that often contradict and always override the speaker (yours truly) and are always made up of run on sentences and monologues. After a couple of these, I'm happy to throw in the conversational towel (or at least wrap it around my head to stifle the noise... :o) NOTE: It never ceases to amaze me how many "experts" there are out there who are full of more poop than our pasture, (which can be a LOT of poop). Even more mind boggling, is that they can offer training tips that make absolutely NO sense (sometimes seriously stupid), but because they were uttered with complete confidence they are followed without question. Of course then I'll discover something else that's just way too cool to keep to myself, so we just start all over again (hmmm, maybe I should lay claim to #1 after all...) I have, however, been extremely blessed with the most wonderful of horse-loving friends (that'd be you, Lori) who has been a fabulous sounding board and staunch supporter, and Shadow's buddy, Suzanne (my frequent photographer - see Taya's pic below :o) who is every bit as fascinated as I am over all this stuff and who I honestly don't know what I'd do without (so heartfelt thanks to you too, Suze!!). Over the past two years, I have slowly discovered other people traveling down this road; like Carolyn Resnick, Klaus Hempfling and Allen Pogue who are on our Horse Heroes page. Of course, they're a bit further down the road than I (as in if I climbed a redwood and had a Hubble telescope to look through, I might be able to catch a glimpse of them waaaaay off in the distance...well, maybe :o) I've tried to make sure I gave appropriate credit whenever applicable (but not being perfect, if I've missed a step please let me know) I hope you enjoy reading through the information on our website as much as I enjoyed writing it (except the technical aspect, which gave me a headache :o) With love and Tylenol, Jen, Horse Lover and Professional Amateur animals Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:29:40 -0600 http://www.squidoo.com/EpicFarmsSoapbox I'm not a competetive person; perhaps it's best to say that straight out and right up front. Sure, I participated in shows when I was younger. Did I want to? Sort of. But the morning of the show would usually find me in a frantic state over something (usually along the lines of turning my room upside down searching desperately for my missing glasses...you know, the ones I was holding in my LEFT HAND???? Sheesh). So I think it's safe to say that showing was not really my thing. Did I have the skill to win? Yes. But it wasn't something I truly enjoyed. In fact, I suppose I can best sum it up with the results of my very first show (at age 8). I participated in two classes: Hunt Seat Equitation (skill) and English Pleasure (enjoyment). I won first place for the Equitation class and place last for Pleasure. Yep, that pretty much covers it, and while I did continue to show and win some ribbons and trophies over the next several years, it really just wasn't for me. That was a long time ago, about 30 years (cringe), and we can fast forward through the horseless years to the here and now. Horses came back into my life a few years ago, via the best Christmas EVER, and I have spent these past few years relearning AND (more importantly) UNlearning much of what [I thought] I knew. I'm still learning; hopefully I'll never stop. I readily admit to messing up on a regular basis, but then I tend to think that if you're not MAKING any mistakes, you probably aren't DOING anything :o) So now that you're wondering if I actually have a POINT to make, I suppose I'd best get to it. We decided awhile back to go to a local horseshow; not because I have any interest in showing, but just for fun. I'm sorry, did I say fun? No, I do believe fun and reality have gone off together - straight out the proverbial barn window... Now to tell you just how far out of the loop I was, the first thing that struck me were the tails. There were only a few horses I noticed with the shorter "Quarter Horse" version I remembered. How could almost ALL of the horses on the show grounds have been born with these perfect, long, lush tails? I remember leaning over and telling my husband (we were watching a western pleasure class) that if I didn't know better, I'd swear they were wearing fake tails. You know what? They were! A woman behind me, who I'm sure was vastly amused by my observation, leaned forward to tell me you could buy tail extensions. Hmmmm, oooookay - weird, but I guess if your horse has a lousy tail it's a thought... I was deep in thought - still pondering this new revelation - when I heard the request for a lope eminate from the show ring speakers. I glanced up at the ring and found myself goggling at the spectacle before me. THAT is a lope? What happened to it? Only one or two of the horses in the arena seemed to be actually practicing forward motion. The rest were barely going anywhere at a seriously funky angle along the rail. It was a strange parody of movement that I could only regard as utterly bizarre. Out of this class of perhaps 20 competitors, there were two that really caught my eye. What I guess you'd call polar opposites. One was an older woman decked to the nines (she kind of looked like "Ode to a Rhinestone" well, maybe more like ode to few thousand of them) and sitting astride what I'd classify as a gorgeous pushbutton horse (ergo: a hideously expensive and fully automated equine). She didn't seem to be doing much of anything from a participation standpoint, other than smiling broadly and seeming to enjoy the ride. Her horse was huge, looked very well cared for, certainly polished, and was sporting what I now knew to be a tail extention. His lope, which looked extremely comfortable for the rider, was not looking too easy from the horse's perspective; it appeared very unnatural and seemed to require an awful lot of equine effort to achieve. The second rider was much younger, and far less glitzy. Her horse was also a nice looking horse, again well cared for but with a shorter Coke-A-Cola tail (you know, the real thing?) Her horse was one of the ones showing actual forward motion at the lope; with his rider actively participating and demonstrating skill. I suppose that's one reason they caught my eye - their lope was recognizeable as such :o) The last instruction for the class was to back the horse. Polly Pushbutton had a little trouble with that one; she actually had to ASK her horse to back (twice). Plain Jane, however, executed a flawless back...as one for partnerships over pushbutton I thought, "You GO girl!" Confident they had done well, I waited for the results... Would you believe Pushbutton won? First place? Are you kidding? How about seriously nearsighted? Adding insult to injury, Plain Jane didn't even PLACE. What kind of competition is this anyway? Certainly not a real one. We watched a few more classes and walked around a bit, but it only confirmed the sad state of affairs that had become the new norm. I tend to avoid shows nowadays, they don't do much but make me cranky and hurt my feelings anyway... animals Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:30:39 -0600 http://www.squidoo.com/EpicFarmsDayInTheLife Anytime I watch horses I get dialogue. I don't mean I sit there and try to make it up, I mean it's just sort of there; running through my head automatically in accordance with what I see. While it definitely ups the fun factor of watching horses interact, I often wind up laughing out loud [at aforementioned mental dialogue] "in public" and earn myself some mighty strange looks in return :o) This is a short, but hopefully entertaining lens featuring some pictures of Taya that were just too cute to keep to myself (and the dialogue - Taya's own words - running through my head when I took them). There is a collage print available of these pictures at our Etsy Shop listed as a link below her "tail" (ha-ha). Enjoy! animals Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:30:02 -0600 http://www.squidoo.com/pinkthink As strange as it may sound, my life has been enriched by cancer in so many ways. Things that used to be important are not, and in the same vein, things that once were not, now are. My Christian self has changed for the better. I can be grateful that God has brought me through this and asked me to experience it. I've discovered that I am a much better Christian when I am suffering in abject misery; this is not a very flattering thing to realize but whether I like to admit it or not it's true. I have met some truly amazing people on this journey, and it is my biggest hope that reading this will help another patient somewhere. Anywhere. Even if it's only one person, I want you to know that there really is life after cancer; and sometimes it's even better than the one you had before :o) health Wed, 30 Jul 2008 03:49:59 -0600 http://www.squidoo.com/Etsyfame Etsy Fame is comprised of a talented and ambitious group of artists who strive to create genuine handmade goods for all of mankind. We are a fun-loving (but fairly well behaved) group that is comprised of work at home moms and work at work and home moms (how's that for confusing? :o) Below is a growing list of shopping links to each Mom's shop with a short descriptions of what you'll find there. For Moms that blog, there is a link to her blog under the shop. With all this creative talent and such a wonderful variety of handmade items to choose from, what more could you ask for??? WAIT WAIT WAIT I know... "Can I shop in my jammies and bunny slippers?" YOU BETCHA! :O) shopping Mon, 04 Aug 2008 06:45:54 -0600