Out of the woodwork!

Hello blogland, just a random post to say hi to everyone and check in.

Hannah is 13 months old now, and she's on the go. She started walking slowly about a month ago, but this week she got a confidence boost from a friend's son, and now is out of control. I actually took her on a little hike on the trails today! She's amazing.

Taking after Mommy

This is what I look like, too, after I finish an art project.

 I've been freelancing like crazy, because I got laid off again in early February. Thank you for the terrible luck, Universe! But actually it's been kind of ok. I've been doing lots of different work including logos and fine art. If anyone is looking for a horse portrait, web work or design work, I'd really appreciate the referral! My Etsy store is located at www.etsy.com/shop/polarsquaredesigns.

I designed the RISPCA's annual Benefit Horse Ride design again this year. I think this is year #6. It came out nicely and it is always cool to see them on t-shirts everywhere the day of the ride, which this year is the first weekend in May.

There is still a serious lack of horses in my life and though I sometimes feel sad about it, I know they'll come back to me at some point. I did go riding a few times in February thanks to Maddy, and had a blast.

I haven't seen Lucy since about November. We had a really terrible winter here and there was no way I was going to take Hannah to an unheated barn to visit her. Now that it's nice(r) out, I need to contact Kayla and see if we can go bring her some carrots!

Hope all is well with each of you.

Recent artwork

I've been pretty busy lately!

A graphite portrait of Cuna

Hunger Games saddle pad

Shepherd doggie ornament

Pit Bull doggie ornament

Friesian Heritage breed logo pad

RPSI breed logo pad

I love what I do!

Art!

Here are some of the commissions, saddle pads, and ornaments I've done so far this season! Some I cannot share because they are surprises. Some of the pads are still for sale on my Etsy store (click for link) and I am also running a 25% off sale on saddle pads through Dec. 31st -- use the code 25PERCENTOFF.

Photo weekend

This weekend was very busy. On Saturday, Lucy met her new rider, a local woman who is going to help get Lucy back in shape. I was nervous, as I always am when a new person gets on my horse, but it went great and I feel confident that Lucy will be happy! Maddy will still ride her when she has time, too. I am jealous!! The weather has been soooo perfect and I WANT TO RIDE! :(

On Sunday morning I got to give Maddy a little lesson on Brantley. At their recent show, the judge commented that he would make an excellent hunt seat horse. I was like, LET'S JUMP!

Sunday morning was our first little hunter pony lesson. I laid out a bunch of poles in the outdoor. On one side, the poles were set for a "normal" trot stride. On the other side of the ring, they were set for a longer stride. Brantley aced both of them! The next exercise was a 20 meter circle with four slightly raised cavaletti's at 12:00, 3:00, 6:00, and 9:00. The idea was to keep the pace even so that the horse fits the same amount of strides between each pole. They did it at a walk first, practicing fitting both more and less strides in there (shortening and lengthening), and then they tried it at the trot. It's a challenging exercise but Maddy and Brantley both did very well.

Brantley going through the poles

The next steps will involve actually setting up a tiny crossrail at the end of some poles. I think Brantely will do just fine.

After we were finished, I headed home, took Cairo for a bike ride, and then drove to MA for two photo sessions! It has been a long time since I pulled my camera out like that but man, I loved every second of it.

The first session was a little family shoot: husband, wife, massive 16 wk old Great Dane puppy, and they are expecting a baby too! It was really fun!

Yeah, that puppy is FOUR months old!! holy moly. He's huge!

The second shoot was with a girl and her pony. I am so pleased with how the images turned out:

Then I turned around and drove two hours home, edited a sneak peek batch of images for each client, posted them to Facebook, and collapsed into bed! It was a very long day for me but I handled it just fine and didn't feel any worse for the wear today.

photo weekend extravaganza

I had a very busy, but very fun weekend driving around Massachusetts doing photoshoots. Here are some of the photos!