Now that the Christmas holiday is behind us, I find myself under a virtual (and literal!) pile of what I’ve come to call “blog fodder”!

"Blog Fodder" is any picture or random thought that I find inspiration for a paragraph or two or…more?

I thought my first blog post for 2015 should be about what I’ve been up to that has “blocked” my blogging output. As I began to gather the photos it quickly became apparent that it would be way too long for one posting!

So (in characteristic fashion) I changed direction and decided to make a visual statement that might begin to convey the past couple of weeks, and that led me to making my new facebook cover and profile picture.

Well, at least a new cover photo because, quite honestly, I’m still in love with the profile picture of me and Chloe that Mike took on November 10th!

Looking back through Mike’s archive from that shoot, two things occurred to me. Firstly, there are other super pictures from that day and (secondly) that was the last “pretty snow” that we’ve had! Since then we’ve had rain, sleet and (what one native informed me was) “Ithication”…a local term for a delightful (NOT!) blend of snow, rain and freezing rain! Snow is very much preferable! Thanks to Alice, I have a new verb!

However nasty the Nov and Dec weather might be, it works out great for the way I have always liked to spend those two months….giving myself a “guilt free” ticket to indulge in art and cooking. Mind you…riding, training and “horse chores” still go on! But we give ourselves “permission” to cut ourselves a little slack and more time is devoted to “other” stuff that we LOVE doing!

As you look through the results, I think you will see that even in those moments when we aren’t physically touching a horse, the horses continue to “touch” us and inspire us in everything we do.

The collage I’ve created for my first facebook cover of 2015 was intended to give an impression of the volume of “creating and making” that was unleashed the past few weeks! And this collage doesn’t include the holiday horse portraits…I’m saving those for Mike’s cover! Manyof these projects will serve as inspiration for my upcoming horse training posts!

But even the projects that are more “Kathy” than Mike, his influence is there. From the fact that I have a husband that is completely comfortable living in the chaos of being surrounded by works in progress (two entire rooms....three if you count the kitchen!) to the reality that the best of the pictures of the finished works were photos that Mike took with the “big boy” camera!

Christmas card photo "studio"

I’ve always been drawn to including certain symbols on my “art work”…bells, stars, blue birds, horse shoes, coins, and feathers…to name a few! And while most of this symbolism predates the celebration of Christmas, so does the actual date that we celebrate the holiday and a lot of our traditional holiday motifs as well…like the idea of decorating with holly and evergreens.

Some of the creations developed to the point that they now have "names"…like Triple Luck, Chasing Opportunity and Bags of Blessings.

The base for Chasing Oppotunity...a "found" branch and other "stuff"

"Triple Luck" started with Gavin in Colorado and finished up on my entry way in NY

While wings suggest freedom and movement, the feathers they are made up of symbolize the tiniest unit of weight. The most minute, but ultimately the most important unit of weight. The weight of a feather is the tiny, almost immeasurable weight that can make all the difference, either in saving a day, or influencing an outcome of events big or small. A feather’s weight is all that it takes to tip the scales…one way or the other.

Another blogger (I confess I can't remember who) put it nicely by saying, "The Feather represents all of the subtleties which are present not only in our personal lives but in the cosmos as well; subtleties which seem insignificant but are so powerfully important." So the message of my tree topper is just that. A symbol that every person is important, every action we make starts a ripple. Even when it might seem that we aren’t making enough headway or enough progress or enough of a difference….we are! Now that it’s complete, “Dan’s Feathers” will become very special Christmas tradition indeed.

Here's hoping everyone has a great 2015!