Working in Northern Alberta/BC

Well here I am typing this from my hotel room, waiting for my microwave dinner to finish heating up and I thought I'd share some pictures of what I've been up to.

First off, some pictures of my garden before I left. I can't wait to get home and finish planting!
I love my tulips and I can't believe how much they've multiplied in just a year!


This one it my favorite...


Now for some work pictures.

Here's my work truck for the week, a shiny new dodge! Although, I think it might be related to "Herbie" because it keeps trying to lock me out!


And the exciting point of my day was seeing these two across the field from us!

Yup that's a great big mama bear and her cub!

And I think it's time to build another saddle rack or two...

Yes, I've acquired another sidesaddle! It was too neat to pass up! It was made by the Great West Saddlery Co. in Calgary in 1902 or 1903 back before Alberta was a province. It's marked "Calgary, North West Territories".

How neat is that? What a piece of history and it feels really special that I was able to bring it "home". A lady in Texas had the saddle for years. If only these old saddles could talk, the stories they'd be able to tell. To go from Calgary to Texas back when this saddle was made, must have been quite the journey.

Considering it's age, the saddle is in fabulous condition. There are a few tears on the upright pommel (which you can see I covered with a brown sock to protect it a bit) and a little bit of surface cracking but it is in rideable condition.

Wedding cakes!

A different kind of post for today! I've also tried my hand at making fancy cakes for a few friend's weddings. I now know why wedding cakes are so expensive to buy, they actually do cost a lot to make and take a lot of time and effort. It's a LOT of work but also a lot of fun.

This is the first one I made. It was a carrot cake with cream cheese icing on the inside between the layers and smooth, rolled buttercream icing on the outside, decorated with fresh flowers to match the brides colors.


This was the second cake I was commissioned to make. It was also rolled buttercream on the outside but it was a chocolate/vanilla marble cake, decorated with fresh flowers. It turned out really well too!


And lastly, here is a photo of a baby shower cake I made for a friend's sister's baby shower. I like the rubber ducky the best! This was my first attempt at using fondant. I was a little worried but it was SOOOO much easier than the rolled buttercream (although I still think fondant tastes gross lol).

Well no show tomorrow...

It decided to snow today and the roads were really slushy and nasty so I decided against going to the show. Ah well, there will be others!
I felt so bad for my poor trees this morning, they were bent right over with the snow. My pink crabapple tree is about to blossom and I hope the snow hasn't killed the flowers. We got some pretty new garden lights today though.

So tomorrow I'm back to my regularly scheduled lessons and then packing to go up to Northern Alberta & BC on Monday. It's super neat country up there and there should be some wildflowers out this time of year (hopefully anyways!). I'll try and upload some pictures when I can next week.

Speaking of lessons, here's a few pictures of some of my adorable lesson kids. They're doing so well! I'm taking them to their first show in two weeks, they're super excited!

Heart Shaped Stirrup

Ok I really want one of these too.... They just so feminine and delicate looking!



Well we're off to Edmonton for the Horse Showcase, wish me luck! It should be lots of fun! Hopefully it doesn't rain on us. I'll post pictures when I get back!

Sooo I guess I'm officially becoming a collector....

I have another sidesaddle on the way.... It's much older than my Aulton & Butler and not rideable but it's super interesting. I'm really hoping with some reconditioning and some repairs to the stitching and probably billet replacement, maybe it will be rideable again. And the leaping head is bent a bit. Ok, it'll probably be lots of work but oh well! Not so bad for only paying $70 for it!

Here it is!



Isn't the stitching on the safe super interesting? I think it's a neat collection piece if nothing else. Riding sidesaddle is definitely habit forming!!! LOL

Eeek! It's been nearly a month!

Sorry everyone! I've just been so busy and haven't had a chance to update my blog. I have lots of interesting stuff to post though so I'll do my best to post more regularly again!

This weekend we're off to an event in Edmonton called "The Horse Showcase". I'll be riding sidesaddle in their english pleasure class, breed parade and in the jumping! I've been trying to master the art of jumping sidesaddle, which is definitely not so easy! But I'm getting better at it, it's hard as Brigit likes to jump very round. It should be a really fun weekend!

This past weekend I went riding with some other ladies that ride sidesaddle, one of which was here from France! It was a lot of fun, we were practicing a quadrille for a performance this summer. Here are a few pictures, it was a gorgeous day.