It's Derby Day!

Derby Day has really snuck up on me this year. I did get my Derby glasses out (one for each of my kids' birth years), but that's it.

An interesting Kentucky Derby fact was circulating on social media last week. Every horse that is running in today's race is descended from Secretariat.

Including Tiztastic, the horse I am rooting for.

He's probably not a contender for the roses, but I am still hopeful. And how can I not root for him when there is a very distant but real pedigree connection to him through my Quarter Horse, Cee Hunt? It's not a direct line, but if you trace back through the Tizzy line, you come to Cee's Tizzy, the King Ranch, and Leo who was my Cee's grandsire.

That's enough for me to be pulling for Tiztastic today!

He is at the 14th post position and his jockey is wearing maroon silks. The original field was of twenty horses, but two have scratched. (Grande and Rodriguez due to foot bruises according to one source, another said cracked heels.)  

The track is also going to be very muddy and that will certainly play a role in who wins. I don't like muddy tracks for racing - I don't want to see a horse slip and fall or injure themselves due to the slick track. The jockeys, too, are at greater risk when the track is sloppy.

Some Derby decor from a past year. That's my carpet herd Man o' War. Such a rich color! Metal race horses, a real shoe from Churchill Downs (complete with track dirt still in it), and my Derby salt and pepper shakers.

A close up of them. Another antique shop find.

Ever heard of a Crying Towel? I had not until I found this one while out thrifting.

They were popular in the 1920s - 1950s for a variety of sports, not just horse racing. I no longer have it as I gave it to a friend.

Mila has a soccer game this morning and Ian one this afternoon, so I won't have time to make a Kentucky Derby pie as I usually do. Here's my recipe in case you do:

Maybe I'll stop by a bakery after one of the games and pick up something to celebrate the race. A cupcake would be just fine! 

Happy Derby Day! And go, Tiztastic!

A Most Unusual Haversack

Going through a decade of photos is taking me longer than I thought, and with needing to finish preparing and packing for this weekend's Great Lakes Congress show, I'm not ready to publish the next post.  In the meantime, here is a most unusual haversack.

Remember the crying towel the I found at an antique shop?

After doing some research and discovering that they aren't too rare, I felt comfortable turning this one into a haversack.

In order to preserve certain aspects of the text, I had to cut a much deeper flap than I normally would.

 

And to make sure the jockey caps and crops on the sides didn't disappear, I had to make narrower seams and work around the hem that ran along the perimeter of the entire towel.

The back of the haversack.

The back with the front flap open.

The crying towel haversack sold before I even made it - I mentioned the idea to a hobby friend and she asked if she could buy it.

The crying towel has the same dimensions as the towels I embroider, and that gave me an idea. I may play around and embroider some tea towels and then turn them into haversacks. It would not be cost effective (embroidery work is far more expensive than general sewing), and I'd have to charge more for the haversack so we shall see.

I guess that's a stay 'tooned, right? LOL

A Crying Towel

Ever heard of a crying towel? Neither had I. Not until I stopped by an antique shop and ran across this:

The phrase "crying towel" can be dated back to the 1920s and is slang for someone who is in a fit of self pity. Apparently they were popular in the 1950s for a variety of sports or situations.

This one has had comments added to it - look under the text in the upper right and bottom right.

Some of the comments appear to be human names (Fox, Miller)

 while others are horses (Centanni, Sleglest, Loboda.)

I am not much into horse racing, but this was so unusual I "rescued" it from the antique store and brought it home. I have a friend who is avid about racing and I think I may give it to her.

Although the more I look at it, the more it makes me smile. Hmmm, it might look really nice framed and hanging in my horse room...