Sweet Dreaming
The last day of the longest/shortest year I can remember - how strange it feels to have arrived.
I can’t say I’m particularly upset to see the tail end of 2020 (is anyone, really?) but I am making sure to enjoy these last few days of break before heading back to jewelry next week. It’s been a month of house projects and playing catchup and making new and exciting things - all in all, a good send-off for a particularly hard year.
This week, my constant companions have been the whir of the sewing machine and the swish of a brush, carefully laying a new layer of paint on the walls. Not crazy, world-changing things for sure, but I find that the real art in anything is in finding ways to feel creatively fulfilled no matter what the project.
The warm-up was making myself a pair of fleece stirrup covers because - I can hardly believe it myself - the new saddle I picked for Cirrus and I finally arrived! It is wonderful, glorious - and will get it’s time in the spotlight the next time I bring my camera out to the ponies. But, until then, let me just say that one of my very favorite things about riding in it has actually been these bad boys :
I’ve long had a fear of falling and getting my foot stuck in the stirrup - I’ve heard the horror stories and imagined it a few too many times so it’s often on my mind when I mount up. While I haven’t spent too much time in the dirt over the years, the thought is always there when I find myself airborne - “please oh please oh please let my feet come free!" Well. When I ordered the new saddle, these were suggested to me - safety stirrups, with a spring-loaded outer edge that swings open to let your foot loose. And they are the absolute BEST.
Wide tread for foot comfort? Check. Peace of mind? Check. Super spiky, grippy surface so my foot doesn’t slide? Check there, too.
But those little spikes - whoa. Leather scratchers, for sure. And there is no way, NO WAY, I’m going to to let them mar up the panels on the new saddle. So - here’s the solution. Little covers I can pop on after I ride to make double sure there’s a soft and squishy division between metal and leather.
Next up was curtains. Beautiful, canvas-y, southwestern curtains. Because, after three years, we finally decided to spruce up our bedroom.
The walls were whitened, the old nail holes filled. The light that has patiently been waiting to be hung since it arrived over the summer? It’s finally in place. And then, the icing on the cake - the curtains, of course, to tie it all together.
When we moved in, we were so sure we’d change EVERYTHING that we didn’t want to take the time to make things beautiful in the meantime - and the result was that we’ve lived in dreary, tired, uninspiring spaces for far too long. So there’s my advice to myself going forwards - don’t move into a place and wait till you’re leaving to make it feel like home. Life is short - paint the damn walls!
And there it is - the real nugget of hope and truth and fear that I’m holding in my heart tonight. I think we’re leaving. I think we found the piece of land that I’ve been waiting to find since I was knee-high and wild-eyed. Things could still go belly-up, of course, but our offer was accepted. The inspection happened this morning. All things are pointing towards go.
I will be sad to leave this house, this home, where we’ve learned so much and where we’ve GROWN so much. But when it’s time, it’s time. And if we only get to enjoy our new bedroom for a little while, if I only get to create for a few more weeks in the studio which has nurtured me so, then it will have to be enough. There may be tears, but there will be joy too. There’s a new year dawning and I’m going to ring it in with open arms.