A One Horse Open Sleigh

This week my sister Leslie sent me some photos of a sleigh that is for sale and asked if I might be interested in it. 

 Oh, my! I have such a weakness for sleighs.

 This one is a beautiful vis-a-vis (face to face) sleigh.

The seller had a photo of the manufacturer's tag, so I did an online search to see if I could find out more information.

It was an easy search: Roberts Carriages popped right up. And since I didn't think that the sleigh was a vintage that had been restored, I was not surprised to find a photo of another one like it in their online catalog.

It is so beautiful! I don't have a horse that is harness trained, but Tim does - Diablo! I sent the information about the sleigh to him to see if he might be interested in it.

Sleighing is an amazing experience. If you ever are offered the opportunity, don't decline - do it! You go gliding across the fields and the snow flies up all around you. Believe me, there is a lot of truth to the line "Laughing all the way" from Jingle Bells!

The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future

While I was taking this photo of the kids' table for Thanksgiving dinner,

I noticed something next to Pony Pal Mila's plate that made me smile and took me right back to my own childhood.

I give all my grandchildren, whether they are near or far, a new Christmas ornament at Thanksgiving. Pony Pal Mila liked her new unicorn ornament so much that she had brought it to the dinner table.

It also made an appearance in the photos I took of the Pony Pals and Cow Pokes playing upstairs with the Fisher Price Little People Christmas Village and Nativity. Mila is so like me in that she always has a horse to hand.

Julie, Mila (with her hand on her unicorn ornament), Lukas, Kate, Ian, and Susan.

I felt the shade of Dickens and all three of his Ghosts yesterday. Mila's horse loving activities in the here and now connected back to my own past. They also foreshadowed the future.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from all the Pony Pals, Cow Pokes, Horse Buddies, and the rest of the Isenbarger clan!

Grandma Honeywell's Pumpkin Pie

I am a pretty good cook, but what I really like to do is to bake. And since we always host the family gathering for Thanksgiving, I have made a lot of pies in my time.

Today I will be making a pumpkin pie, two cherry pies, a Christmas Jello, at least one cheese ball, stuffing for the turkey, and several other things. Pony Pals Mila, Julie, and Kate, Cow Poke Susie, Ian, and Lukas have asked if I will take them out to the barn so that they can ride Diablo - definitely there will be a time crunch today!

 Maybe this year I will add a horse head to my pumpkin pie! (Photo from Google Images.)

Pumpkin pie is my favorite pie of all and I always use my Grandma Honeywell's recipe. It has been in our family at least since the 1950s and probably longer than that. Grandma passed her recipe on to my mother who then passed it on to me.

This is one of the first recipe cards I made as a newlywed way back in 1976.

Grandma's recipe is MUCH better than any store bought pie and very easy to make. I thought I'd share it this morning in case anyone would like to have it for their own holiday.

Grandma Honeywell's Pumpkin Pie

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon flour

1/2 teaspoon salt (I omit this, but am including it since it is part of the original recipe)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Mix the dry ingredients well, then add:

1 beaten egg

1 cup milk

1 cup plus 2 heaping tablespoons of pumpkin

Mix all ingredients well, then pour into an unbaked pie shell. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, then turn down oven to 325 degrees and bake 20 minutes longer. (You may need to adjust that second time. I  just watch the pie and when it is firm, I know it is done.)

The recipe is very easily doubled - the only reason I am not making two pumpkin pies this year is that I know I would eat them both and having worked so hard to lose weight, I don't want to regain it. Haha!

If you do try the recipe, please let me know how your pie turned out! 

Frozen II with Pony Pals

Yesterday Craig and I took Pony Pals Mila, Julie, and Kate to see Frozen II.  Mamas Emily and Vanessa joined us, and Lukas tagged along, too.

 Pony Pal Kate was wearing her favorite tee shirt.  Pony power indeed!

The soundtrack for the preview shows was incredibly loud and Pony Pal Kate was very bothered by it. (So was I.) Emily, Kate, Mila, Julie and Vanessa.

Lukie simply froze at the loudness. (Seriously, no pun intended. That's what he did.) I think he was really scared and just didn't move, staring straight ahead and not saying a word. Boompa distracted him by playing with the buttons on his seat, adjusting it so that Lukie could recline, and that helped  him relax. He ended up enjoying the film (whose soundtrack was much quieter.)

The movie was okay but very confusing in parts. It is not one I would pay to see again. 

 

Hallmark Nokk and Elsa ornament image from Google Images.

I did like the character of Nokk, the spirit of water, and have already added the Hallmark ornament to my Amazon wishlist!

The Ghost of Christmas Future

Nashville Son and his family arrived Sunday afternoon to spend Thanksgiving week with us. That means Pony Pals Julie and Kate, along with Cow Poke Susie, are here, too!

After everyone had gotten in the door and had a few moments to recuperate from the long drive from Tennessee, Julie and Kate asked if they could see my unicorns. I don't have many but I do have a few so I took them upstairs to my office.

Julie and Kate were so excited to see all the horses, and were especially attracted to the colorful ones. They were very good about pointing to one they wanted to see and then asking me to get it off the shelf for them.

They especially liked my Running Stallions - four of the nine they selected were from that mold. (The orange pail is holding some Mini Whinnies that Kate had been playing with downstairs.)

Kate wanted to see horse after horse, but Julie just wanted to hold two of them, the Stardust and St. Moritz. (Julie was with me when my St. Moritz arrived. ) I have a note on its tag with her name and will give it to her when she is older. (Or, as my kids said about the tablecloths, "When the time comes...")

I'll admit, I was holding my breath at times as I shared some of my collection with the Pony Pals. But as I listened to the absolute delight in their voices, the exclamations of Oooos and Ahhhhs as they excitedly pointed out one piece after another, I let that breath out and remembered that I wanted them to appreciate my collection. I wanted them to make memories with me and to have that love of horses as a thread intertwined between us and then in their memories when I am gone. 

The Ghost of Christmas Future (a happier one than Dickens' portrayal) seemed to be standing at my shoulder. And it was smiling.

Isn't She Lovely!

I just can't stop marveling at Abby's coat this fall. I've had her seven years and I don't remember her ever having this much roaning in it.

 "Aw, shucks, Mom. You're embarrassing me, gushing about my coat like that!"

"Maybe if I turn my head you'll stop taking my picture."

 "Okay, that didn't work so I'm outta here. And I'm sticking my tongue out at you as I go."

 "I was just kidding! Please come back!"

A One Reindeer Open Sleigh

As I mentioned a few blog posts ago, I love to sew.  With Christmas fast approaching, that means I am sewing several things for gifts or home decor.

One of my current projects has a lot of sentimental value to me. When my kids were little, I wanted to make a Christmas tablecloth with horses on it. I looked and looked (this was pre fabric.com days) but couldn't find what I wanted. But, I did find something close.

Santa in his sleigh being pulled by a reindeer! If you can't have a horse drawn sleigh, a reindeer pulled one works almost as well.

After about thirty years of use, and many launderings, my tablecloth is faded but still functional. It is also highly sentimental, not only to me, but to my kids as well. Already I have been asked if I could pass it on to one of them "when the time comes." (How do you say THAT delicately - in other words, when I die!)

Since there are six kids and only one tablecloth, I decided to see if I could find the fabric online and make one for each of my kids.

I searched for several years, and then last January, found 15 yards of it on eBay. I snapped it up.

The seller said the fabric was in excellent shape, and they were right. And, compared to my well-loved tablecloth, the colors are bright and the fabric crisp. Mine is faded and more than a little limp. (Think well-loved.)

And now I am sewing tablecloths.

I love my reindeer sleigh tablecloth and all the family memories that are tied up in its history. But if I ever find fabric with a horse-drawn sleigh, you can bet I'll buy a couple of yards and make myself a new tablecloth, too.

Horsey School Projects

Lisa sent me this video yesterday afternoon. One of her students had presented that day on the classic children's book, Misty of Chincoteague, and had made an interesting project to accompany it.



Personally, I love the fact that she made her own horses and did  not use Stablemates, Collecta, or other brands of model horses. By making her own, she could personalize the ponies to be more like the ones in the book.

I enjoyed the project from a horsey aspect but also from a teacher's perspective. Ponies on a lazy susan? Terrific and creative idea! The teacher in me could not stop smiling. And it reminded me of a few of my own students' presentations on horsey classics. 

A Breyer in the Classroom

Black Beauty in Art

Six Classics Presentations

Some days I really miss teaching. 

A Bright Spot

The snow has melted and there are just a few little ice cubes floating around in the horses' water trough, melting away with help from the heater and temperatures that are in the 40s.

We are back to damp and gloomy days, sometimes with a bit of fog. Tim is back in town and feeding hay daily, but the horses still wander the pastures and forage.

Abby's winter coat is so beautiful - she's a varnish roan Appaloosa, and so her pattern changes as she sheds out/grows in her summer and winter coats.

 Some spots never change, like that big one on her cheek. (A great place to plant a kiss.)

Those two black spots on her upper lip don't change, either. (Apparently neither does sticking out her tongue when I am photographing her, too!) But that roaning in her coat comes and goes without any discernible pattern, year after year.

Abby is definitely a bright spot on these chilly late fall days.

My Other Hobby

I have another hobby and that is sewing. I love to sew and usually have a project going of some sort. I just finished my granddaughter Susan's quiet book, and I am so happy with how it turned out!

 I love this woodland fabric (I also made a matching pillow for her.)

 I used felt for backgrounds on every page.

 That helps the pages to be more stable and more easily played with.

 I've made one of these for each of my children and grandchildren. Susan's is my twentieth quiet book - I'll start Melissa's next spring. (I try to have them done for their first birthday, although I am late on Susie's due to my pancreatic surgery.)

Here is a look at the individual pages.

 I found this great fake fur at JoAnn's and love how it turned out on the title page! Susie can untie and tie the green ribbon bow.

The plaid fabric is a remnant from a Christmas dress I made Jessica when she was five or six.

 Peek a boo! There you are!

The black velcro circle on this page is an experiment. In the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the caterpillar eats holes in the food. The velcro circle can be placed on the food items to look as though he ate them.

I designed this drum for Lucas' quiet book earlier this year and am very happy with how it turned out for Susan.

The flowers are attached with velcro and can be "picked." My mother used to help me make these books, and it was her idea years ago to add the buzzy bees and dashed lines indicating their flight paths. I always put them in now so that a little bit of their great grandmother is in their book.

The orange and blue of the jellyfish is a nod to Cole and Emily's affinity for the University of Illinois. The gold and black are for Purdue.

 I drew the waves and added the mermaid, fish, and dolphin for interest.

 Picking apples! A family favorite, and reminiscent of my family's apple orchard.

I make sure I stitch that yarn hair down really well so that it can withstand a toddler's tugs!

Naturally, there is a horse in the quiet book. The pony can be removed to play with and the saddle is also removable.

 I added some brown to her hair with fabric paint after this photo was taken.

 It took me two hours to hand sew all those buttons on!

I designed and created this page for Titan a few books ago. (His middle name is Rex and they call him T-Rex.) It's one of my favorites.

 Unzip the T-Rex's mouth and you find some things to play with. 

I will give Susan her book when she and her family come for Thanksgiving. I can't wait!