Busy, Fun, Hot Weekend

This is the first week of fall and the hottest weekend of the year so far. It has been an unusually cool summer, however, at five o'clock tonight was was 106 degrees!!! Red-flag fire warnings are in effect due to the hot dry conditions, so I have my fingers crossed that no wild fires break out. I rode early before the heat really set in so as not to torture my horse too much. Poor Kylie has already grown a winter coat. As soon as the days begin to get shorter the hair grows. Time for body clip #1.

We had a nice dinner at Edendale in Silver Lake on Saturday night. It is located in a beautifully restored craftsman-style firehouse, built in 1924. The restaurant is named after the Edendale Valley, a stretch of what is now Glendale Boulevard that was home to some of L.A.'s first film studios. The bar has a really cool hammered-tin ceiling and firehouse doors and sits on what was once the station’s fire-truck bay. We enjoyed the perfect night on the large outdoor patio, which was really charming all decorated in twinkly lights. The food and drinks were good, but it was our good friends that really made the night fun.

This morning we met a friend and her two doggies for the 12th annual Wiggle Waggle Walk fundraiser to benefit the Pasadena Humane Society. Literally thousands showed up to walk around the Rosebowl - a gigantic dog party!!!! It was fun checking out all the other dogs in every possible shape and size.
After the dogs were exhausted we dropped them off at home (in the air-conditioning) and me and my friend headed down to Santa Monica for the gem & jewelry show. I found some GREAT things today. Lots of vintage equestrian themed clasps, charms, pendants, and a few rings.

Murphy beating the heat by enjoying some yöghund, doggie yogurt. He absolutely LOVES it! But then again he loves anything remotely edible.

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Horse Show

I don't show Kylie too much anymore, just a few times a year, but decided to at the last minute this weekend. I woke up super early to go pick her up and get her to the show and into the ring before the show started. Luckily she got right in the trailer, since I was the only one there to load her, and it was pitch black out. We got to the show and she was so relaxed and happy. She warmed up perfectly. My first equitation class was pretty good, she was forward and relaxed, all my distances were good, but I added a little leg in the line (just to make sure) when I should have just sat still and she swapped leads coming out over the oxer. I was happy with that round. In second round, she was great, but I had one fence I would rather forget. Stupid mistake, again if I had just sat still and stayed out of her way, Kylie would have made a better decision than me. I won the flat eq, and ended up reserve champion of the equitation division. The last class was a medal class. I laid down an awesome round, nailed ever jump and felt great. I was called back on top for the work off and not sure what the judge didn't like about my work off, but moved down to third. My trainer said I should have won (and the girl who moved up from 4th to 1st was also her student). Who knows? It didn't really matter to me because thankfully, I wasn't trying to qualify and I didn't need the points, but I'm sure I would have felt differently if I was trying to qualify and needed to win to get the points. I was just super happy at how good Kylie was after not showing for so long. Fun day!

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Treasure Hunting for Mixed Media Necklaces

I've been on the hunt for cool and unusual things to incorporate into my new line of jewelry - vintage buttons, coins, antique pins, trade beads, and pieces of vintage jewelry. This jewelry is a combination of the old and new, of contrasting textures and colors, repurposed, reclaimed, redefined, reimagined. They are all one of a kind made with unique materials.

Free Rein Equestrian Necklace

Equestrian Treasures Necklace

Bel Cavallo Necklace

Equestrian Victory Necklace

Vintage Inspired Show Jumper Equestrian Necklace

Vintage Inspired Equine Couture Necklace - SOLD

Horse Treasures Bracelet - SOLD

I went to the Rose Bowl Flea Market this weekend, and it was a bit overwhelming. I was looking for vintage equestrian jewelry or even broken pieces to incorporate into my new designs, but wasn't able to find much with horses. There are over 2,500 vendors there, tens of thousands of people, and tons of junk to sift through. Some people are better than others at "treasure hunting", I am not very good at sifting through junk. I got frustrated pretty quickly. The stuff that was neatly organized, was priced accordingly (high), so basically in order to find a bargain, you had to dig through lots of junk to find a treasure. Some vendors had big boxes filled with trinkets a foot deep. I think I would need gloves to dig through that, not knowing what lurked beneath.

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