Horse show or train wreck...you be the judge!

I showed in my very first ever dressage show on Sunday. What an experience! On Saturday, I had a final lesson with my trainer, who was very pleased with how well things went. I ride one of her horses, a fabulous Steady Eddie with just enough fire to be a fun ride. He's definitely been around the block and has shown most of his life. My trainer told me he'd be a little livelier at the show because they always give him an adrenaline rush. But I'd seen him at shows before; he was always very forward-going, soft, and just lovely. I was really looking forward to the show.

Then came show day. Suddenly my -- gelded, I should note -- Steady Eddie Arabian mount thinks he's a wild stallion roaming the desert gathering himself a harem!! The warmup ring was a joke. He just would not listen to me. Giraffe neck, not focused, uneven tempo to his gaits. Not good signs. We got into the ring to do our first test and things really fell apart. I'll spare you all the gory details, but suffice to say the judge was NOT impressed with our performance. Our score was pretty sad.

The second test went somewhat better. At least I felt like I had more of my Steady Eddie and less Walter Farley's Black Stallion. It still wasn't great, but it was better. We ended up placing second in our class, and I came home with a big pink rosette, which made me pretty happy. I have no idea what got into him at that show. Well, my trainer was right--he was definitely "livelier"!!!

More projects than money

V and I have been spending money like we have it lately. :) It's all for stuff we need (well, mostly), but boy oh boy is it difficult to watch that savings account self-drain!

Now we've got a ton of projects we want to work on, and no money! We're going to have to get creative and work for a while on things that require more sweat than cash. Looks like it might be time to start pulling wallpaper down, or carpet up! I'm itching to see what condition our first-floor hardwoods are in...if they're anything like the rest of the house, they'll look great. But you never know.

If there's anyone who follows this board and has splendoriferous ideas for no- or low-budget projects, by all means bring them on! I can only watch so much TV. I need to work!

Ye olde cedar chest

Well, our visitors had a great time, as did we. We really enjoyed the whole weekend, even though the temperatures were nearing Hades-like highs. And oh, the humidity! It was like breathing underwater. Under really hot water, no less. But still, we all had fun. The house sure did seem quiet on Sunday afternoon!

While they were here, we had a little fun time with the house. There are storage spots we have not yet gone through completely, either from lack of time or from lack of accessibility, or maybe just lack of knowing what to do with stuff once we find it, so why not leave it where it is until we catch a clue or two???

So over the weekend we sat down and decided it'd be fun to go through the cedar chest in our bedroom. This thing is mammoth--as wide as a full bed and at least two feet wide as well as two feet deep--and we've opened it but have never pulled anything out of it, really. Besides the parasol that was sitting right on top of everything (which we had seen the first time we opened the chest), we had no idea what we'd find. So what did we find? Tea towels by the dozen, some still wrapped in tissue and obviously unused; bed linens; table linens; a baby dress with home-tatted lace (at least that's what the note tucked into it said); fabric scraps from assorted wedding gowns and other important garments; several lovely handkerchiefs; and several pairs of woollen stockings that still had the original tags on them. They're beautiful, but it's very difficult for me to imagine wearing these on a daily basis! Talk about a different time. I whine and cry if I have to wear anything on my legs at all besides Sally Hansen's airbrush pantyhose (if you haven't tried them, do--they're fabulous!).

We've got visitors coming

V's brother and his family are coming for a visit, which means two things:
1) we're super excited to get to show off the house
and
2) we're super freaked out because the house is nowhere near ready to show off

Our to-do list just got a little more, um, time-sensitive. We want to get the bathroom in decent shape, and we've got more than a little cleaning up to do. Yesterday we tidied up the guest bedroom and put clean sheets on. Whenever we have houseguests I like to pretend that we're the kindly proprietors of a B&B, so I leave fluffy towels and personal soaps on the bed. I also leave a few magazines for nighttime reading.

But back to the to-do list. We've got to clean up the grounds big-time, I have to finish painting the garden bench my dad made for us (that probably deserves its own post, because it totally ROCKS), we have a half-finished garden bed that we should at least mulch so it doesn't look so hideous, and then there's the inside. Clean, clean clean! Rearrange some furniture, maybe patch a few holes in the plaster (it's good motivation to do it, so why not do it while I'm motivated?), figure out how to make it not quite so swelteringly hot upstairs in the bedrooms without turning our AC down to 50 degrees or something....

Cripes, what am I doing sitting here typing? I should be working!