Chelsi's Favs and to my Suprise....

I am a little stunned right now! I was just putting together a "Chelsi's favorites" post when I went to get a link to this mare I've had my eye on by Gangster Chic (one of my favorite hot new reining studs) but found that she had sold. So, naturally I took a quick boo at the other horses on this site and instantly was drawn to this gorgeous bay gelding! I had one of those moments where my throat hitched and heart skipped a few beats...I think I said something like.... "Oh wow! Hello beautiful! I think I'm in love!"... I popped back over to my post and put up his picture and link....





- "Gorgeous gelding, finished reiner and started in roping. I think I'm in love!"


I then went back to the website to check out his pedigree and was surprised to see that he is by the same sire (Dunnit In Hollywood) as my old mare Ghala (Ghala is the mare I bought locally but sent to a big name reining trainer in Texas and ended up selling her to the East coast rather than bring her home (for various personal reasons nothing to do with her).)





Anyways... I was looking at this pedigree and out of habit looked at the dam's sire and grandsire before looking at the actual name of the dam. I was shocked to see that this gelding was also out of a Colonel Freckles daughter! And then....the real shocker! This gelding is a FULL brother to my old mare!! Isnt it funny how life is like that?


I called DB and let him know that I would be needing a few $$...asap... please?

Damned if he isnt a gelding though! Grrr! If he were a mare I'd be begging.



Anyways, here is the post I was writing before I found my next horse :-)

I havent been horsey window shopping very much lately but I do have a few in my favorites right now that I've been looking forward to sharing with you guys... these horses are what I refer to as "all-rounders" because they are nice square looking horses that look like they could do a little bit of anything.



7 YO Black 15.3HH mare that I like the look and shape of as an all-rounder.



Here is a really cool looking Rocky Mountain gelding that might not be your typical all-rounder but certainly looks handy! There is a video on youtube of him going through an obstacle course.... I'd love to have one like they have set up at home! Hey Lisa he is in Arizona!! Go ride him for us and tell us what you think! lol



Cat is a bit small at 14.2 but they say she has the athletic ability to make up for it.



A little bling? This mare has a nice way of going...maybe not a speed horse but could show all-round outside of games, she has lovely movement. Video of this mare on youtube.



Simple bay mare...good size at 15.2 and they say she has cow!



This mare I really like. She's a Smart Chic Olena/Beuno Chex/Sonny Dee cross, solid size, proven broodmare and well broke. I like the mix of blood she has, plus color. Video of her on youtube,.



This mare is only 14.3HH but looks bigger.



Here is a gelding I've had my eye on for a long while. He's an own son of Gunner (Colonel's Smokin Gun) and though he is deaf his ability under saddle makes up for it in spades and he looks super quiet. Video of him on youtube...I'd just die to have a Gunner!



Big fancy 16.1HH gelding. Love the socks!

This is a mare I've gone back to again and again. She's a King Fritz/foundation bred mare, 15.2HHH, dark bay and has a video that shows just enough to keep me interested but not enough to decide if I like her! lol... here it is.... What do you think?

Rollin' With the Homies!

This weekend I've been "rolling with my homies"!

Remember that classic 90's song? Well every time I hear it (as I did at my cousin's wedding) I am reminded of another 90's pop culture fav...the movie "Clueless" with Alicia Silverston ?

Anyone fallowing me? I love the way Brittany Murph says "rolling with the homies" in that movie....



Actually did you know that movie is actually (very) loosely based on the classic Jane Austen novel "Emma"!?!

I am just full of useless facts like that. Dont ask me about anything useful (like what in the hell is going on in the Middle East) ....but if you need to know how many times a Blue whale's heart beats a minute (5-8) or if you ever wondered if "dreamt" is the only word in the English language that ends in "mt" (it is) ... I'm your man!

Where was I? Oh yah! I actually wanted to tell you all how I've been spending my weekend.

I've been "rolling with my homies" (are you tired of that yet? Good 'cause I am!)

My "homies" this week have been:

Mom, My Sister, Hunter (dog), Buddy (dog), and Hawkydog!

Mom, Sis and I were suppose to go away this weekend but due to some family issues we ended up staying close to home. We also had a wedding to attend....which was fun!

My Sis and I decided that it would be fun to go to the wedding together!

My Sis had her hair dyed dark brown (from nearly blond) just before the wedding and as we both recently had bangs cut back in our hair (and my hair was already a dark brown) we ended up looking a bit a like for once....which sparked the idea that we could show up together with matching hair (or better yet she could wear a black dress with white dots and I could wear a white one with black dots!) and do our own impression of the dimwitted but hilarious sisters in the movie "My Best Friends Wedding" with Julia Roberts.... oh and we could also get up and sing Dionne Warwick's "Say a Little Prayer for You"...





But we didnt.


And yet we still managed to have a good time! My Mom was the life of the party, (as usual) and my Sis and I just tried to keep up. We danced and danced till my poor little feet in my very high (but very fabulous) heels just couldnt dance no more!

The next morning we went for a walk and then headed out to look at a multi-million dollar show home on display in Langley, BC. It was an absolutely gorgeous Cape Cod style home fully staged and drool-worthy.

No, that isnt it! But this cute little building was nearby and I just loved the color it was painted.

Here is a pic of the show home we went to see....


My sister and I (Mom waited outside with the dogs) were tip-toeing through the fabulously decorated rooms, the beautiful kitchen and decks, the yoga room and the wine cellar....when we found ourselves in gorgeous master ensuite...



There my sister, like Goldilocks, decided to sample the tub and see if it was "juuuuuust right"...

....and you know what? It was!

When we finished our "when I win the lotto" shopping and after taking a walk along the river with the dogs we headed home...

...which was about the time that my Sis mentioned to my Mom that she should probably stop for gas. "We have plenty!" my Mom said.
"Mom!" said Sis worriedly, "It is nearly on empty! We should stop!"
To which my Mother said nothing... just smiled deviously....

Did she stop for gas? Oh no! Not my Mom! We took the looooong way home!


Up and down the country roads! Mom loves nothing more than to teach us girls a lesson and have a little fun while she's at it.

Here's Buddy nervously watching the gas gauge tip lower and lower.... (actually he's just always nervous in the car)....

We looked at fields and houses, horses and barns...



We stopped for Slurpee's and Drumstick ice creams and Starbucks too...



But did we run out of gas? Of course not! My Mom is always right (I've finally come to accept this.) As a matter of fact we didnt stop until we'd nearly reached home. I believe we ran into that gas station on fumes. And dont think that my Mom wasnt a little smug about that too!

Later that night we went to see "My Sister's Keeper".... which was actually decent but warning-a real tear-jerker!

Today we took the dogs to the river...


Hawk absolutely LOVES to swim....

But the tranquil beauty of the river was interupted by the a few little nuisances....

You see, my Hawk likes to paw at the water and yelp and bark and the white foam he stirs up.

Its a great game...but a nosy one.

While Buddy, on the other hand, only likes to wade in to his belly and didn't like the look of Hawk's playing, at all. He stood on the shore and barked furiously while Hawk continued to splash and yip obliviously.

Hunter took little interest in Hawky or Buddy.... Instead he did nothing but bounce between the water and a sandy patch of beach....getting wet and rolling blissfully in the sand in turn....

And to top it off.... Unfortunately my Sis was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes (though for some reason Mom and I didnt get a bite!) and so we booked it back to the car.

There Mom received a few bites but I still didnt. Weird! Must be something in our diet?

(My sis slapping at mosquitoes)

Overall it's been a great weekend.... This evening we watched the Bachlorette (I'm so frustrated at that little twit for keeping Wes around!! Grrrr!!) and tomorrow we are headed out for our last day together. I'll miss my Sister when she heads home.... I sure do wish we lived closer together.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

So Fabulous...But oh so Painful!

It is 1am and I just got in from my cousin's very nice wedding.

I decided that I am no longer going to look dowdy. In fact, I think I'd like to look fabulous... (if possible).

This evening I discovered that looking fabulous comes at a price.


OUCH!!!!

I am not nearly drunk enough.... (or drunk at all).... to not feel the pain....

That comes from spending an afternoon and evening in these!

But aren't they fabulous? (its okay if you dont agree....but dont tell me till next week, k? By then my feet should have healed. Until then just tell me that it was worth it!

Rodeo, Rednecks and Redstraps, Oh my!

Now that we have safely gotten that awkward little admission out of the way (my perverse desire to write/read smut) I hope we can move on to a more mature and dignified conversation...

Perhaps we should excogitate the nineteen century whaling industry and the avant-guard anecdotes found inaugurated in Herman Melville's Moby Dick as well as the esoteric sub-cultures of the Nantucket proletariats?

Sorry.

Call me Ishmael!

Seriously though...

I guess I need to find a way to tell you all what in the heck this "novel" is all about.

But first...

I heard that sigh! Okay, fine! I'll get right to it then!

This is the tale of a woman who, at forty-four years of age, finds herself with kids grown, home empty, and all at once free of the responsibilities and obligations that had once bound her, in both body and spirit. However, this was a freedom forced upon her, not one she had welcomed. She had taken shelter behind the labels of mother, wife, and homemaker and for twenty-four years buried the unholy wants and needs of her true self under the hallowed demands of family. Now she would be forced to face that which she has avoided since a summer long ago. Sitting down to write a grocery list she instead finds herself delving into a dark and barricaded part of her heart, tracing the path of her life- now come full circle- and wondering who or where she would be today had she chosen a differently. There she starts the memoir of her youth.

Written in the first person, this is an intimate and affecting account of the misadventures she faced during the summer of her twentieth year....when she left a community, religion and, in essence, her very identity behind to face an uncertain future with the innocence and optimism of youth, the reckless and boundless freedom of a woman untied, and of course, an open heart.

Oh and there is this guy...

Actually.... there is more than just one!

But not at the same time. (Whooop! I did not just say that! Sorry Mom!)

No seriously...

It's about a woman. And a guy. And well... lots of other stuff.

There are some horses in it! And smut too! Rednecks, loggers, trucks, small town gossip and outdoor lovin!...*wink*

....which reminds me of something I wrote for my yearbook inscription...

"Fords, 4x4ing, Fishing, Rodeo, Rednecks and Redstraps, oh my!"

(for those of you who, bless you, dont know what Redstraps are- they're a popular brand of pant worn by loggers.)

More tomorrow.

Here it goes! I'm going to say it! Sex!

(LuLu can handle a close up)

NOTE: the pictures in this post have absolutely nothing to do with the subject! Promise! But I'd like to point out that Tyra Banks should totally make LuLu her next Top Model! I'll tell you why (in the notes under the pics)

The real subject of today's post is to tell you all how the idea for my first novel started (note I said first novel)

Does anyone remember that "Ghosting It Forward" thread from Halloween 08 where the challenge was to write a ghost story? Do you remember how I went a little crazy and wrote a mini-novel about two horse crazy girls who went for a ride in a haunted forest?


(LuLu can always "find the light")


Well...that story didn't end when I quit posting about it. Oh no! I was inspired! I kept going with the intent of writing a pre-teen/teen drama (with a bit of thriller/sci-fi thrown in for good measure.)

(LuLu even looks pretty in her sleep!)

But then....I was about 20,000 words mark when something happened.

What? You may ask.

Twilight. That's what!


(LuLu "knows her angles")

I thought that it would be a good idea to read a few other teen fiction books to get an idea of the writing prose, language, style etc... I thought I'd read The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Harry Potter. But I figured out something very important by the time I had finished the Twilight series... something that quickly stomped out my desire to write within the teen fiction genre! Let me tell you!

The Twilight series left me incompressible....terribly, inexplicably, sexually bereaved!

There! I said it! And I know you were thinking it too!! Dont tell me that when you turned the page on the night of Bella and Edwards honeymoon to find "the next morning" you didn't feel utterly depraved!!

You wanted the glorious, juicy, sexy details! Didn't you? Didn't you! Well so did I!

(LuLu knows how to "look fierce")

I wanted to read som...

Bodice ripping sex. (as Cndcowgirl put it!)


Harlequin sex.


Nora Roberts sex!


Oh glorious SEX!


Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex!


(LuLu can pose down to her pinky toes!)

I didn't write a single word of that story after reading Twilight.

I left the teen fiction genre behind me forever! And you know what?

The very first chapter I wrote of my new book was a delightfully satisfying, bodice ripping sex scene. It was delightful!

(LuLu can "smile with her eyes")

More tomorrow!

(btw- I'm not a sexual degenerate. Promise.)

On Writing 75,000 Words & Bitty Pics

(I grew these strawberries!)

I have something I'd like to share....(besides these rediculously adorable pictures of my kitty Bitty and the strawberries I grew)....

You see, I've been writing quite a bit these past eight months.

(the ears you see sticking out are actually Hawk's! He is sitting at the foot of the bed).

As a matter of fact, I've been writing a story about a woman.

And this a guy....

And well... lots of other stuff.

But for the past eight months or so I've really hesitated to applying the term "novel" to my fledgling effort...

...to my mediocre (at best) writing, plot development, pace, characters, etc..

But then, a few days ago I collected all my chapters, all the bits and pieces and tabulated them together to discover that.... I have written 75,000 words!

75,000 words is a approximately 375-400 pages of your standard paperback (that figure based on the 200 words per page average I calculated.)

Seventy-five-thousand words.

Is it okay if I take a minute to feel a little smug about that?

Thanks.

So today, I'd like to say, for the record: I am writing a novel.

Oh and I'd also like to say thanks you!

Yes, you! All of you.

Because without this blog I don't think I'd ever have discovered how much I love to write. More than that, how fulfilling it is to write. More than that! How wonderful it is to SHARE what you write.

That "sharing" part is really new for me. I'm not an exhibitionist by nature...or at least not when it comes to my writing/art *wink wink*

This week I'd like to share a little of what I've been working on and how I hope you all might be able to help me finish this novel. More on this tomorrow!