Weekend Coffee Share; June 14, Early Summer Days!

On June 14, 2026 By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share7 Comments

BERJAYA — African Iris blooms are so pretty!

Welcome to my coffee share, as the days have been heating up here in Southern California I am enjoying iced beverages over hot coffee or tea. I honestly can’t believe we are half way through June, the weeks are just flying by! In three weeks my daughter and I will be heading to Idaho to spend July 4th weekend with my sister and her family. They moved to Idaho about 10 years ago and we’ve only visited there once, so we are overdue a visit.

My crazy thoughts have settled down and for those of you who didn’t read my last blog post, I was feeling really stuck with my blogging. I was needing to sort out my thoughts and it took writing it all out before I felt better. It helped so much getting that post written as I so enjoy sharing and am hoping to make more of an effort as each weekend comes along. 😀

I am enjoying my tiny garden and pictured above on the left is green bean bushes. They are just starting to flower and will be making the green beans soon. And my giant dill plant I started from seed. The last few days it has almost doubled in size! 😀 I am going to add another herb or 2 in the container with the dill since there is room. I am thinking of chive or garlic chive as they grow well in my area. I am going to keep my garden tiny for now, as I am a novice and want to learn and achieve what I can in small amounts. I can grow plants well, and I do have some flowers that I don’t need to fuss with like the African Iris’s I’ve shared!

And speaking of gardening, my husband and I had breakfast a few weeks back with some good friends of ours who are both retired. It was so fun to catch up with them as it had been over a year since our last visit. My friends love to garden and they have also visited with Murphy in the past. When we said our goodbyes they gave us a grocery bag full of goodies. Carrots and apples for Murphy, almost 20 tomatoes and a huge zucchini and a cucumber! I ate the cucumber in a couple of salads.

We thought about the zucchini and on a weekend I thought why not make zucchini bread! Aha, better than savory as my family doesn’t really enjoy cooked zucchini much. Honestly, it doesn’t have very much flavor and it can get mushy unless you deep fry it. In my cookbook they had a variation for the zucchini bread, a chocolate version. On the left is my chocolate zucchini bread with slivered almonds. It was so delicious and everyone loved it! I mean, who wouldn’t with all the chocolate and nuts!

My daughter made homemade tomato soup with all the tomatoes. She roasted them first and oh my, it was so delicious! She happened to have on hand some goldfish that are seasoned with Old Bay seasoning, so I put a handful in my soup. Haha, I know Old Bay is usually for fish, but it wasn’t overwhelming and was good with the soup. YUMMY!

On to my sweet horse Murphy! I didn’t share Murphy at all in my last post. He is a steady and true partner. He is so much fun and he is a consistent sentient being in my life who looks forward to all that we do together. He is my muse and my partner in our adventures together. He enjoys when we play in the arena or when I am up on his back and we go for a ride! I could not be more blessed to have him in my life! ❤

This weekend a good friend gave us some mats that you can see in the middle photo. I have them all under his shelter too, and this keeps the ground even and more importantly dry when its the rainy season. I will put a thin layer of shavings on top to sort of help keep them in place and then when the rains come, I’ll add even more shavings and then the area won’t get so muddy. Murphy is fun to spoil! He is definitely a very special guy! ❤ ❤ ❤

I’ll end with a short video that I will share from my YouTube channel. I make so many video’s of sweet Murphy and share on my social media pages. I don’t edit them at all. They are raw and just are the way I take them. I don’t share for any reason other than to have a fun place to look back on our journey together! I enjoy them, and I hope you do too!

Thank you for visiting this weekend. What’s up in your world? Please share in the comments as I would love to catch up with you all. I will head over to my notifications and try and catch up on everyone’s post. I get so behind, and try and read and catch up when I have some extra time! Take care, and have a great week ahead!

Horse Loving, Garden Loving Blogger,

~Diana ❤

Blogging Struggles Crazy Post ~ June 7, 2026

On June 7, 2026 By DianaIn blogging, Family is important, Living life10 Comments

I haven’t been able to sit down and write in a long time. I used to love to share all the happenings in my crazy life but then I hit a wall. It truly feels like a wall and I am not sure why I am finding it so difficult to write. So I decided to write about how I am struggling.

I think part of my struggle is the fact that I am writing and sharing on a social media platform. I realize that there are certain personalities that love to write and share to the world, that includes ME! I feel like I have to give myself permission to be this kind of person. I don’t know why exactly, maybe because I share personal stories and not everyone in my life shares like I do.

I have met some really wonderful people through this blog and even though I have not met anyone in person, I still feel like they are friends. All of you that take the time to comment, and as we share our thoughts and feelings, inspirations and gratefulness and the ups and downs of life. It has meant a lot to me, all the wonderfulness that comes with connecting with so many all over the world. ❤

I feel like I should share a photo as that is a huge part of my blogging. I absolutely love photography and even though I am a complete novice, I find sharing cathartic, fun, enlightening and ME. My photos will not reflect my crazy thoughts today, just to warn you this will be a very crazy blog post! Maybe by writing all my crazy thoughts, it will get my writing flowing again. I feel like I need to give myself permission to share. It is all so strange and a bit mixed up in my mind.

The photo above reminds me of family. And one of my biggest struggles for my emotions has been with my family and I mean with my children. They are all grown and my daughter is in transition living with us here at home while she gets ready to start on another Masters degree for a new career path. She will be looking to move into an apartment near the end of this year. We are helping her with this transition and have so enjoyed having her here at home for a short time. She has been such a blessing and help this year in particular. ❤

I have some good news, and that is about my son who I’ve not spoken with in 3 years. He has reached out a few weeks ago and we are reconnected!! I could not be happier, but it is bittersweet as he is now separated from his wife and children. Life is hard, no road or path is easy, and as much as I can be the most positive person in the world sometimes there is just hard, and even sadness when the marriage doesn’t work, kids can’t be with both parents and grandparents are lost in the shuffle. Its okay, and its going to be alright. There are worse things in the world to deal with, as I want to shout from the mountain tops but I can’t as I have missed him so much. And I want to fix everything and I can’t. They will be much happier apart and I am so grateful I have my son back in my life. ❤

I did not realize that I would be going through so many emotions this year! If you know me, I am not a Debbie Downer and I hope my writings today are more upbeat in nature. I promise I will get back to myself soon. I think getting all these thoughts out of my head and written, I can move into my more natural carefree ways. I want that so badly, shed the things that are hard and try and be realistically happy about all that is happening in my life this year. Sometimes it is a lot, and so I try and take each day as it comes and make the best of it. 😀 I’m Smiling at the photos above, brings me to an outing at the beach to a local car exhibit for the VW Buses! There were so many buses lining the Huntington Beach pier on this beautiful Sunday!

And then there is my tiny garden. My dill seeds are growing and my green bean bushes from seed are taking off. I did not get any of the flower seeds to grow so I will go and buy some small plants that are already started soon. I really wanted some marigolds. None of my seeds flourished which is okay. I will look at some other flowers to grow too. I need a few more containers and I will think about what to plant around in what could be a nice flower bed in my yard. I know I will do more gardening when I retire from work. I have about one more year, and I will fully retire. That’s my plan!

Me and my silly selfies! I almost did not share this but I do love the photo. This is my hubby and I at a wedding I attended at the beginning of May. It was for one of my best friends and she got married in Flagstaff, Arizona and it was a fun trip for my hubby and I to attend. We got all dressed up, which we haven’t done in years. It truly was a wonderful mini vacation for my husband and I and I have to say the month of May turned out to be so wonderful with my son connecting with us too.

I ‘ll end by saying I know I packed this blog post with a lot of things which is for myself very meaningful. I am not expecting any special comments or anything like that. I appreciate you taking the time to read my crazy post and I hope in some way it is enlightening and maybe even entertaining as that would be okay for me too! Haha, maybe I am not completely lost, just a little lost in my own head. I have written earlier in the year that I want to write more often. And then I don’t and lose my way. Clearly, it helps me tons when I write so I need to make a promise to myself to write more often. Take care, and have a wonderful week! 😀

Crazy, blogging, lost but am finding my way!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; April Birthdays and Spring Days!

On April 19, 2026 By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share5 Comments

Welcome! Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea as we sit and chat? I am so happy with my flowers blooming in my garden. I LOVE Spring so much. How can you not smile when you see beautiful flowers? Nature’s beauty’s! I am thankful that many of the flowers that bloom do so without too much care on my part other than watering. I did finally buy some rose and flower fertilizer which I hope helps keep them blooming. I wanted to also share that this is a birthday month for my hubby and my daughter. My husbands birthday was April 13 and my daughter’s April 14th. I took both days off of work and we had fun celebrating together. We went out to nice breakfast places and yummy dinner places. I decided to bake brownies instead of making a cake. They both received birthday desserts at the dinner places. FUN TIMES!

We decided instead of buying gifts that we would spend the money on good food and a fun day together. We decided to go to Top Golf which is a fun place to hit golf balls and earn points. I had never been before and it reminded me of bowling. It is set up almost identically, but instead of a bowling ally it is a big outside netted area where you hit golf balls as hard as you can and aim them at targets to earn points. They had pretty good food I thought. I was really hungry and we got this tray of food for the four of us, which included chicken sandwich sliders, macaroni bites, pretzel bites and chips with salsa. They had other sauces too.

We had a fun day together and I enjoyed the golfing games. I could do it again. I am grateful for our family time together. Let’s see, can I get you a refill as I go back to my garden? I wanted to share a bit more as I bought a couple of self watering containers to see if I would have better luck growing and sustaining flowers and maybe some veggies.

I decided to plant marigolds and I have two different varieties. I planted regular marigolds in one container with bush green beans. That is my only vegetable I am trying to grow starting from seed. The other container is all flowers. African Daisy’s and another really pretty marigold variety. I forgot the name but they will look pretty with the daisy’s. If all goes to plan and with this self watering system once the plants are established I might try growing some more veggies. I know I can grow some fall lettuce and kale in the future. I love salads and have never tried to grow any kind of lettuce before. What’s nice about these containers is I can easily move them around the yard so if I plant something that is getting too much sun or something needing more shade I can move it as needed. I am excited this year to see how this works!

I have to make sure I share a photo or four of Murphy. He loves to graze and I enjoy spending time with him after a nice turn out or ride. I sometimes take my silly selfies and as I look back at my photos I thought this would be a good place to share them. I enjoyed having my daughter out with me this weekend to ride. We can only ride together on the weekend because she works day shift and I work swing shift hours during the week. He was a very good boy today for both of us.

I will end with Murphy here as he looks for a treat in the photo on the right. He is a happy boy always looking for attention which I try and give him every day. I was hoping to be riding him more often each week, but it seems things keep coming up on my schedule or the mornings get away from me and I can’t fit in a ride. Sometimes I do hop on him using my bareback pad and we just walk and jog around the arena. I figure it is better than no ride at all. He has an easy life as he could easily do with more exercise and I should try and keep up with keeping up his shape and mine as well. However, I do tell myself I just want to have fun and then that turns into lazy days.

Thank you for visiting and for sharing coffee with me today. Let me know what’s been happening in your world if you would like to leave a comment or two….

Family loving gardener and horse crazy gal,

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; April, Spring and Easter!

On April 4, 2026 By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share5 Comments

Welcome to my weekend coffee share where we share what’s been happening in our world. Can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? I have hot or cold brew today. I often say how fast the time flies and here it is April! I have a few rose bushes and this one is the most fragrant and such a soft pretty pink. Although the petals are a little rough around the edges, it still deserves to be admired. Nature’s beauty, right? And as this rose is right next to our garage I see it every day I come and go ~ and as I watched it age, I took a couple more photos. 😀

The sunlight was on it’s petals so pretty the day it was completely open with it’s beautiful pink hue, and the fragrance still there as I stopped to smell the rose. The days passed and it started to really show its age, but before all the petals fell away I was able to get one last photo. Thank you sweet smelling rose, you made me smile every day! ❤

As I sit and gather my thoughts, I had started a blog post last weekend and decided to delete it and start over again since a whole week has passed. With my family here at home (my daughter moved in with us temporarily while she sells her house and saves up money for her next place) it gets so busy and my writing time has dwindled away. I decided to take some time tonight to see if I can put pen to paper as they say, and get an April post written.

Speaking of my daughter, her house is in escrow and it should be sold by end of this next week. Unfortunately, it cost her money to sell it and its just the way the market is right now and why she wanted to get it sold. Once she gets this behind her, she will stay with us and save up money to recoup the loss. I told her she can stay as long as she needs too, but I know she misses all her belongings (they are in storage) and her “space” or alone time. I don’t know how to explain it, but I think most will understand. She is the most caring, loving, giving person I know and I hope this will be a new beginning for her as well. We Love her so much! ❤

On to my latest projects is ZEBRA’S! Haha, I decided to make one and I shared it on social media and low and behold my sister’s grandkids mascot for their high school is the Zebra! They absolutely LOVED it and I told them I could make each of her grandkids a Zebra. That will be 4 zebra’s please! I also had a request for one from the horse rescue where I adopted my horse Murphy from in Oklahoma. They are the best people and of course I would send them one, my donation to the rescue. They have a table/booth at Remington Park (Races) in OK, to share their thoroughbred aftercare program with all who attend and they display many things like shirts etc… and my crochet animals! April 10th they have a race called extreme racing with Zebra’s, and I think they sponsor a Zebra and why they wanted one for their table. We both are honored to represent for this event! YAY!

I sent them one of the Zebra’s above and that means I have 2 more to make for my sister’s grandkids. She said it wasn’t a rush to complete them, but they stitch up fast so I should have them done and to them by the end of the month at the latest! SO MUCH FUN!!

I have so much fun with Murphy! Last month was pretty stressful at work, mostly problems with the instruments I run blood work on that were acting up and breaking down. We had engineers in at work doing maintenance and fixing issues. My relief and stress reliever is my time with Murphy. Even on days when I am tired and I always make sure to see Murphy to check on him and feed him his extra hay and grain. The stress just melts away. The fresh air I take in is wonderful and I enjoy every minute I am outside and tending to all his needs. Often, I grab my bareback pad and hop on Murphy and walk casually around in the arena. Every day I thank the good Lord I am able to have this beautiful horse in my life. They give so much if you let them and we have so much fun together, its hard to describe. It is much like the kindness and bond you can have with a dog, even though its a bit different too, there are many similarities.

I will wrap this up so that I can get a post completed and published before I get to busy to write again. I’m starting to feel sleepy and if I give up and think I will finish this tomorrow I fear the day will get away from me again. Especially when it is Easter Sunday! Happy Easter to everyone, and I hope you all have a blessed Easter weekend.

Feeling blessed and Grateful,

-Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share, Photo Fun! March 14th, 2026

On March 14, 2026 By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share8 Comments

Welcome to my weekend coffee share, come on in for a cup of coffee or tea. I also have ice tea since its been really warm here. Since we do not really have much of a winter here, we are getting some blooms which are so pretty. I took the opportunity to take some fun photos which I will share. The rose above is a little rough around its petals, but smells so good and I thought why not take a photo even though the rose isn’t perfect. 😀

It made me think of how we aren’t perfect, but we are still loved. I decided this sweet rose deserves a spotlight even though it isn’t perfect! I also wanted to share that even though the weather is warming up, the sun and its rays just fill my soul. I was watching the America’s, narrated by Tom Hanks and if you haven’t seen it yet, it is worth watching. Everything they filmed is so amazing and some is out right jaw dropping. I enjoyed it all so much. What made me think of this is when I mentioned the sun, they filmed all the Monarch butterflies in Mexico and how the suns rays warm them up and give them energy. What a sight to behold!

Nature is truly so beautiful and the bounties it provides is amazing. I have some more flowers that are blooming that I will share. I love these small pretty blooms that start out a little white but as more blooms arrive they turn pink! So pretty! ❤

My sister and her family are in town for a short visit. They are celebrating together with her husbands side of the family, a very late holiday visit. I guess they all could not get together for Christmas this last year, so they are celebrating this weekend. I think its just to share food and drink and each other of course! We will be joining them all for lunch on Sunday which is very nice of them to invite us. Its a lot of people gathering together at a restaurant at a local mall.

As I was outside enjoying the flowers in my garden, our sweet dog BZ was outside with me and she has turned 16 years old this year. I have never had such an old dog and she still has lots of energy for a big girl. She is almost completely deaf, but I think can see well. And even though she gets a bit stiff, once she is up and moving she really gets moving! haha! We Love her so much!

My succulents and other indoor/outdoor plants are thriving. This succulent is so pretty and I think I will find it a bigger pot soon. BZ is so funny as she is incredibly shy and I have never been able to get her to like photos. I gave up years ago, and now she doesn’t really notice so much. Haha! She is nothing like my horse Murphy, that guy is a ham and has learned and loves posing for the camera. At least it sure does appear that he understands “the job” when I get him to stand while I step back to snap away! 😀

It is amazing what you can do with photos. Do you play around with the settings on your camera? Now I can have AI enhance the photos which I don’t use at this time. The photo on the left I clicked on “dynamic” so it brightened up the original which is on the right. I can’t decide which one I like better!

I think I will let BZ be the star for today. She has proven to be a force to be reckoned with as her stamina is truly amazing. She was attacked 2 years ago by two big Pitbull’s which could have been the end for her but we gave her a chance and got her all stitched up. She is a survivor and in my eyes an amazing animal. It warms my heart that we have been able to have so many years with our sweet girl, and she is still going strong!

I hope the weather is being kind to you where ever you live and that you have a wonderful weekend and week ahead. Thank you for joining me for coffee (or tea) today. I honestly can’t believe it is the middle of March, this year so far has been flying by!

Grateful for my sweet pretty girl! ❤

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; March Arrives!

On March 8, 2026 By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share4 Comments

Welcome, can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? This bush that has these flowers are blooming right now and they are so beautiful! I am hoping I will get some bearded Iris blooms this year. Last year they didn’t bloom, and I did not research why, so hopefully this year I will get a bloom or two.

As I sit here and write the wind is blowing outside. This is day three of these gusty winds that often cause damage, blowing limbs off of trees, toppling chairs and they have broken a pot or two in my front yard. I was hoping to ride my horse Murphy this morning, but the gusts were just too strong as the dirt and dust fly up in your face. It is not fun at all, so it was a turn out day for my boy. He doesn’t mind at all, as long as he gets his lunch he’s a happy camper.

I have a friend who used to be a coworker who we have kept in contact via social media, her sweet daughter takes horse back riding lessons. I shared the crochet unicorn and commented I could make one for her daughter. She replied with, her daughter would rather have a horse, as she is a horse girl through and through. I totally get it and I have this pattern and have made many of these crochet horses years ago. Buckskin is a hard color to match with yarn, I think he came out just fine but at one point in creating him my daughter says, it looks like a peanut! Haha, it did and he is one fat horse. I had to stuff it well, or it would look funny and be limp and it stands up better well stuffed too. There are things I wish I could fix, but then I am just trying to be a perfectionist. I have to leave him as he is now. I think she will love him!

She has two younger brothers and so I offered to send them each an animal I have already crocheted with this horse. They live in the state of Washington, so I will be mailing these off this next week. The mom said she will take my crocheted dog and yak. Here is a photo of them. I will keep the kitty in the one picture for someone else.

The mom said one of her sons loves dinosaurs which I do not have a pattern to create a dinosaur. She said he has so many dinosaurs a change is nice and thought the Yak would be good. He does have horns and is much like a cow, he is super soft, floppy and huggable. I guess they are all huggable! Haha!

How are you doing? would you like a refill? I forgot to mention I made homemade chocolate chip cookies and sure wish I could share them with you all! They are so delicious, and I found a recipe that I have made several times now as they turn out so wonderful each time. My daughter is in South Korea for her work which is for the Air Force supporting troops and all. She will be there for three weeks and she has been gone for one week now. These are her cute kitties we are taking care of and since she is now living with us it is super easy to take care of them.

She is also in the process of selling her Townhome in Arroyo Grande, CA. She has an offer, but she had to counter so we will see if the buyers will accept. I am praying it will get into escrow soon and sold so she can move on and have less stress in her life. She will be looking for an apartment either this summer or by the end of the year. I know she feels very cramped living with us as she has been out on her own for more than half her life. It is hard to move back home when you have been so independent for so many years! I totally get it!

Gosh, I feel so boring. I haven’t been as motivate to write as I thought I would be. In my last post I shared I wanted to try and participate in a Daily Gratitude Post and as much as I want to, I am not able to get to my computer and sit down to share. I know I don’t have to do this, and clearly I’m finding it very challenging. I know I am not ready for something like a daily post, but I thought I could share more and I think I need to be kind to myself. I woke up this morning feeling rather down and sad. I was blaming it on the time change. I truly hate these time changes, neither one of them goes without a struggle. (Meaning gaining an hour or losing an hour, I hate each change.) I should move to Arizona as they do not observe the time changing. However, that’s not in the cards right now. To be honest, I would love to move to Arizona but I know its just not going to happen anytime soon.

Its funny, because I did not think I would grow older and struggle with family issues, and friendships. I guess these issues are ageless and can affect all of us even if we have lived to 65 years old, and we think we have things figured out. I know I can seek out a therapist, maybe talking it out would help find some comfort in these times of discomfort. I have no problem with this, its the seeking out part that I don’t even want to try.

It is cathartic to share here, even though I know blogging is no substitute for therapy. My sadness is mostly missing my grandkids. We are estranged from my son and his wife and they are the only grandkids I have. There truly is nothing I can do about that and I can only hope and pray we may see them again one day. I may not share this post, I’m going to think about it for awhile today as I don’t want to be an imposter by only sharing happy, fun loving stuff, when sometimes life can just feel hard. I am truly lucky and am grateful though for my health and loving family who are not estranged.

I’ll close with my sweet boy Murphy. He truly is my therapy as he is a constant that is there making me laugh and smile. He loves hanging out with me, whether I am playing with him in the arena, chasing him around or going for a ride! He loves the rides too! I can tell, and we don’t do anything too hard as at this point and time I just want to have fun. We always work on something in the arena, as every day you are with a horse you are always training and learning each other! ❤

I can’t believe I caught him with his tongue out! Haha, I didn’t notice until I looked back on my photos. I had just put the shavings in his stall as you can see in the foreground. And I thought it fun to include the photo of him checking out the bag that had the shavings. He is always so curious and gregarious, so cute and so FUN! He has so much personality, I just love him so much! ❤

Thank you for stopping by and thank you for listening to my rambling mind, sharing my heart and I know that I am not alone with any of my feelings. I know all of us at one time or another have hardships, family issues and friendship woes. I haven’t really delved into the friendship part. It concerns losing a friendship of a friend that I have had since I was 10 years old.

Here we are over 50 years later happier to be apart than together. It just makes me sad, and I know friends can come and go, it just was a gut punch to completely lose this close friend that I thought I would be friends with forever. This friend will answer a text and I think would answer a phone call (we are both very non-confrontational, so neither one of us wants to pick up the phone and I believe is part of the problem, but maybe its time to move on.) Through our communications I could tell she is happier with no communication at this time. I will honor this decision and move on with my life. 🙂 Here I am trying to sign off and I am rambling on, Haha, I am feeling better sharing. ❤

Have a great week!

Keeping it together,

~Diana ❤

Silent Sunday; Gratitude With Beauty

On February 22, 2026 By DianaIn Daily Gratitude, Silent Sunday13 Comments

Weekend Coffee Share ~ February Fun! And My Gratitude!

On February 21, 2026February 21, 2026 By DianaIn Daily Gratitude, Living life, weekend coffee share8 Comments

Welcome and come on in for a cup of coffee or tea! Winter is still here and it has been cold and rainy this winter. I know we need to have the rain but I am more of a warm weather gal. I am looking forward to Spring, and am happy the days are getting a little bit longer. I had started a post 2 weeks ago and didn’t ever get back to it so I deleted it. I had only the title, so I didn’t lose any writings. I also wanted to write last weekend but my computer was completely dead and it was Sunday evening. I had to charge it and of course got busy as the week went along and finally I have some time here to write!

I can’t believe it is February 21st, this month is almost over and I want to get some gifts out to a few family members that have birthdays this month. I am trying to blog more often but unfortunately am only able to find the time about once a month. I am happy that I am able to do this much as I accumulate my photos that I so Love to share. Let’s start off with art and creative things that I have made and one item that was recently gifted to me by a sweet friend.

My girlfriend does a craft called diamond art where you put all these diamond beads or rhinestones which are glued in place to create the picture above. She had started with smaller art to get the hang of this craft as she has shared Christmas ornaments she has made. She surprised me with this full horse head which looks a lot like my horse Murphy. I know she spent a lot of hours putting all the individual tiny beads to fill in this horses head, and then framed it for me to display! It’s So Beautiful!

On the right, the grey Arabian horse I had stitched over 20 years ago. It is cross-stitch and I had it in a different frame that over time broke. I actually had it packed away for awhile and why the glass broke on the original frame. As I stared at this Arabian horse, I realized that if I reframed it I could bring it back to life and gift it to my friend. She has actually shown Arabian horses with the fancy headwear and saddles for the horse and fancy clothes for herself. I knew she would love having this artwork and it seemed so fitting to gift it to her since she painstakingly made and gifted me her artwork! Such a win, and she said she Loves it so much! ❤

Earlier this morning my nephew and his wife invited us to a Paint and Sip class that they have every couple of months at their clubhouse where they live. It was a lot of fun, and my daughter came too. The theme was for Valentine’s day and what I painted I followed the directions from the instructor except for I left off all the hearts in the sky that she had on the class project. Here is what I painted!

Well, it looks a little better in person and I am no artist and haven’t painted in a million years. I am going to take it to work because we actually get to test blood from flamingo’s from our local zoo’s. I think they will find a place to hang it, otherwise what do you do with these things? My daughter wants to throw hers away. She ended up painting one flamingo and didn’t really follow the instructions. Actually, my nephew and his wife painted a completely different scene! They did the background but they painted boats in the ocean and added bushes a fence and other things on the beach. There was a couple next to them that painted sea turtles! Haha, the instructor didn’t care and my nephew said it doesn’t matter what you paint as long as you are having fun and enjoying yourself!

Let’s see, can I get you a refill? As I sit here writing, my thoughts go to how I so admire my blogging friend Maria who has been sharing such inspirational posts and posts filled with daily gratitude. She has invited all of us to share if you would like and I will include a link here if you would like to participate. Since I am not writing a separate gratitude post I will share this on her blog and tell you what I am grateful for. I also want to share, that I would like to participate more often to her daily gratitude posts and maybe this is the nudge that I need. I am not sure if I can share daily, but it sure can’t hurt to try!

I have to be grateful for my sweet horse Murphy. I imagine that I will be sharing lots of little things to be grateful for in the future if I try and share more often! I am not sure how much longer I will be jumping Murphy and I plan on keeping the jumping to small jumps and it is just for fun. I am not planning on much more jumping for many reasons. Mostly, I do not want him to get injured so if I keep the jumps small, this shouldn’t be a problem. I used to jump horses in my youth and attended many horse shows throughout my state and won many ribbons. My showing days are over as it is a very expensive sport and I am getting old. I know, I may not be too old, but it really isn’t where my heart is anymore. I just want to have fun and enjoy Murphy, and he seems to enjoy these little jumps! I know I enjoy it immensely! ❤

I am so grateful that my family understands my love for horses. It sometimes seems all consuming, and I have to stop myself and make sure I take care of myself and my family. I could be an obsessive dog lover too, but since our sweet dog lives with the family there are others that help take care of her so I know I don’t need to worry. Murphy is a one in a million horse for me. He is a gentle giant and we have such a bond and it grows stronger every day. We truly have so much fun together and he makes me laugh and always makes me smile! 😀

Thank you for visiting and for sharing coffee or tea with me today and I have to thank Natalie who hosts the #weekendcoffeeshare. And to help spread the gratitude, what are you grateful for today?

Love, your craft loving horse crazy gal!

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Jan 24, 2026 ~ Winter Days

On January 24, 2026 By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share14 Comments

Welcome to my weekend coffee share, can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? I couldn’t decided which rose to share so I am sharing them both. I live in sunny Southern California where we can get rose blooms in January! The few rose bushes I have loved the recent rains. I will get them some rose food soon as we get closer to Spring. Speaking of things growing, this last November I was at Tractor Supply and they had winter tomato plants for sale. They were $19.99 for a full grown potted plant and I thought maybe if I buy it I would actually get some tomatoes!

I know that is a little expensive for a tomato plant, but you see, I haven’t had any luck in the last few years growing tomatoes from seed. I didn’t realize these were cherry tomatoes but am happily content with them all. We have gotten many and roast them and used them in a sauce for spaghetti and I have them in my salads. Here it is almost the end of January and I still am getting these lovely treasures. I often pick them as they start to turn red on the vine and let them continue to ripen inside! YUMMY!

I want to garden more and may have created time in my schedule since I take care of my horse Murphy in the early mornings now. Ever since the new trainer took over the barn where I keep him, I arrive most mornings by 7:30am and am home by 9am. This gives me about 3 hours at home to get any house chores done and get ready to leave for work by 12:45pm. I can see that I can do some gardening this Spring and hopefully cultivate some veggies in containers. I am always hopeful, but need to do my homework as to what grows well where I live. I also want to grow stuff that my family and I like to eat, so I will get their input as well.

How are you doing, can I get you a refill? As I am writing this many places in America are experiencing severe Winter weather and I have read other blog posts showing pictures of all the snow and the frigid cold. My heart goes out to all that are affected, and I hope they can bundle up, stay safe and warm through these harsh winter days. I feel very grateful to be living in such a Mediterranean climate, we do not see such harshness and we are more dry and arid since I live inland from the Pacific Ocean. I just wanted to mention this as I can’t even begin to imagine what it is like taking care of my horse in such winter climates. I think I will stick with my sunny Southern California home! ❤

I love doing crafts all year around, but in the Winter where I am not doing as much outside I have time to crochet and/or cross-stitch. I am back to making my Star Wars figures which I have made many times before as gifts for friends. I intend on keeping this batch and I would like to try and make every figure in the little pattern books I have. These are small, Princess Leia is about 3.5 inches tall, with the other 2 around 3 inches tall. I like it as they don’t take up as much space as my bigger animals I have been crocheting! I have a request for a Unicorn for a friend who owns a chestnut horse. I found the closest red I could find and I am almost done with him. I just need to add his colorful mane and tail. Here is a photo of him! 😀

Haha, I set him near my computer and snapped a photo! The yarn I use is super soft and gets a little fuzzy the more you handle it which is rather nice with the animals I make. I like the fuzzy appearance, and the softness. I hope that all the folks I gift my creations to like the soft fuzzy feel and appearance too. They are the complete opposite of the rage of the Woobles. I am being barraged with Wooble ads on social media. They use something like t-shirt yarn that does not split or fray. So the finished product is super neat and tidy. That is really nice and all, and very interesting. My daughter got me a Snoopy Wooble which she said was on sale. (They are all rather expensive, in my opinion of course) and I opened the package and the only way to make Snoopy is to watch the directions on YouTube! Oh my, no written direction at all. I know it is for beginners, clearly I am not a beginner at crochet. I may give it to my daughter to make as I am not sure I have the patience to sit through videos of how to crochet when I can read a pattern!

Sorry to go off on that tangent, haha! But let me say I am so happy that there are I think millions of people out there getting into crochet because of Woobles. I have seen they have created lots of cool characters which are fun, like Harry Potter and the cutest ones SpongeBob SquarePants! I want to have written patterns with photos! That’s what I have for all the Star Wars characters I make. I have to buy my yarn and all the things to go with it and the packages of the Woobles comes with everything you need, crochet hook, stuffing, everything! That’s cool I guess. I like to get creative and use different colors. Like the hood on the Ewok is not exactly the same color as in the pattern. It works! Okay, enough of crochet and hope I did not bore you to bits and pieces! And if you are a newbie to crochet and want to learn, buy a Wooble as I know you will learn and make a really cute character! ❤

My sister riding Murphy 2 years ago on the left and my daughter riding Murphy on the right. He is so relaxed with my daughter!

I hope you love to hear about all things Murphy! Haha, for me he is such a special horse. On social media my memories came up of a photo of my sister riding Murphy. I screen shot the photo (I know I have the original but didn’t want to go find it) so it isn’t the greatest photo but I was boarding him at a different facility 2 years ago. He was not happy at this facility and is why I moved him to where he lives now. Not that he is super tense, but when I look back at photos two years ago there is something about his stance where I can see that he just was not happy. Now, he is as relaxed and happy as you can get and he so enjoys his time with me and my daughter!

I wanted to share this video of how well he can relax and stretch in his happy place at this wonderful barn where he lives. He is such a joy and I LOVE how he free lunges around with me and he is listening to me and the connection we have together just melts my heart. We have so much fun together, whether its in the arena like this or when we go for a ride together!

This morning I took this photo as he stood so regal, staring across the way probably at the neighboring horses. Yesterday it had rained and the arena sand was really wet. I find it interesting that horses like to roll in the wet sand because yesterday he rolled on both sides and is why he has a sandy dirt color across his topline. I call it Winter dust since it is too cold for me to bath him and what’s a little dirt, right? Haha! I am very thankful for Murphy, my muse and my therapy!

Stay Warm and Safe wherever you are!

With Love,

~Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; The New Year!

On January 4, 2026 By DianaIn Living life, weekend coffee share8 Comments

Welcome to my weekend coffee share, can I get you a cup of coffee or tea? I have some roses blooming this last December and although the blooms are gone now, I am so happy I took a few photos of them. The subtle pink is so pretty and these roses from this bush are amazingly floral. I wish you could smell them! As I write this the weather has been a bit exhausting for me this winter. I know many love the rain, and its okay in short spurts but days of rain make me work hard to keep my sweet horse high and dry as he lives in a big giant paddock with a small roof to stand under. You’ll see a few photos later in this post. He is doing great and he likes the rain so at least I know he is happy, yes, fat and happy! 😀

As we share a cup of coffee together I wanted to share that I have been crocheting a lot. With all the rain Southern California has been getting, I have the time in the mornings before work to crochet. I have been making animals and have a few I’ll share. I am thinking of making enough animals to send to my nieces and nephews kids. Gosh, I am getting old since I have a lot of grand nieces and nephews! Haha

I just finished these up over the holidays. The kitty in the middle is smaller because I used a thinner softer yarn. And the kitty on the far left I ran out of the calico yarn color so I decided to make longer white socks for his front legs. Maybe he is a misfit kitty, like the misfit toys in the movie Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer! It is hard for me to just sit around. I suppose if I wasn’t creating things by crochet or cross-stitch, I would be coloring adult coloring books. I would love to do puzzles, but the kitties in the house would get into all the pieces on the table. I like reading and read before I go to bed, I love creating even more! It gives me so much pleasure! ❤

We had a wonderful holiday and the gifts did not disappoint. This was a surprise gift that my son gave me and it was so much fun to put together. It makes me want to buy more adult LEGO’s which we bought for my daughter. She asked for them, and we bought her a few flower LEGO’s that have turned out so cool! This Star Wars sign sits so nicely with my Star Wars figures as you can see in the second photo. This inspired me to go back to making more Star Wars crochet as I am missing Yoda, Princess Leia, and Wicket the Ewok to name a few. I have made so many of these figures over the years and given them away to many friends requests. SO MUCH FUN! I truly love making and gifting this craft! ❤

How is your coffee, can I get you a refill? I have so much to share as you can see I can chat for hours! Haha, but I won’t today. I won’t chat for ever and get this post written so I can publish and share. Let’s see, what’s next. I wanted to share my word for this year. I have read on other’s posts that they share a word that they will use for the year instead of a resolution. I have always loved this idea and for this year my word is “Tolerance” with my second word being “Patience”. Now that it is 2026, I am feeling a little bit less chaotic then the end of 2025. My daughter has asked to move back home for this year, maybe only until summer or until her townhome sells. So it’s been a bit chaotic, but things have settled and we are all getting use to each other again. She has been gone for over half her life leaving home at 18 to head to the Air Force Academy in Colorado. She is still in the military, in the Air Force Reserves.

She has moved back home close to us, but realized having a mortgage and renting an apartment is crazy expensive as the renters in her townhome don’t pay the exact mortgage payment. To make a long story short, she is saving money by staying with us and will be heading back into her own place probably by end of the year at the latest. We have fun together, a little stressful at times, but am grateful for her and all that she does for us. (She loves to cook, and cooks many dinners and desserts for us all!) ❤ ❤ ❤

Wrapping things up if you know me at all, I have to share my horse Murphy! Since it is past January 1st as a Thoroughbred he is considered 8 years old this year. He was bred for racing in Kentucky but never raced. He was retired because he kept getting small injuries (probably because he was goofing around with other horses, I am only guessing but he is so huge and has quite the personality I wouldn’t be surprised!) His real birthday is May 1st, and in May will be our 5th year together! My how time flies!

How I love to SPOIL Murphy! I mean who wouldn’t be spoiling this sweet guy. And how I go about spoiling him is seeing him every single day. Bringing him his lunch which is extra hay in a hay net. The hay net provides a slow feed so it lasts all day for him and mimics grazing. I also give him a little extra feed when I see him, with a carrot and supplements. The last month has been the wettest in some years. I add bedding when I see things getting too wet. I also add shavings that get wet but he can lay down and roll in the wet shavings which he does every night. That way he isn’t covered in mud. It’s worth it all and I know the sun will be shining soon!

Thank you for visiting and sharing coffee with me today. I am looking forward to some much needed sunshine and it’s back to work after the holidays. I was able to have some long weekends off, which I thoroughly enjoyed with my beautiful family and fur family too!

Busy Crochet Happy Mom,

~Diana ❤

Silent Sunday!

On November 30, 2025 By DianaIn Living life, Silent Sunday

I know this is supposed to be Silent Sunday, but a few words won’t hurt. I am so grateful for the family I am surrounded by and the Christmas spirit that we have brought in a small way to our house. I am also grateful for our sweet girl, BZ who is almost 16 years old. May she be here to bring in the New Year with us and maybe a few more, God willing. Have a blessed Sunday and week ahead.

Lovingly, Diana ❤

Weekend Coffee Share; Thanksgiving Week!

On November 29, 2025 By DianaIn Family is important, Horse stories, weekend coffee share6 Comments

Here in the states it was Thanksgiving this last Thursday, November 27th. We had yummy food and enjoyed the day and I am very grateful for all the things in my life. I have to give thanks this year to my beautiful family and friends, including all of you ~ my blogging friends! 😀

I have been uploading photos each month as I’ve planned on sharing and then the weeks just flew by. It is crazy how fast the last few months have gone and we are almost to December. I think that I will dedicate this post to my sweet horse Murphy, but then that is appropriate since this is my horse stories blog. 😀

I should not be looking down in the photo above. I am not sure what I am looking at! Sit up Diana! And I love the view of his trot in the second photo.

I have been fortunate to be riding my horse a lot and I am working on getting him in shape and build muscle especially on his rear end. You may wonder, why would that matter? Well, he is such a huge horse standing at 17.2hh and he was already 17.0hh when I bought him 4 years ago. He was tall and gangly, big boned but not a lot of muscle as he was still growing. With a tall skeletal frame, he was a bit off kilter. Meaning his hips were uneven is the best way to describe it. I had a horse chiropractor look at him last year and he has been working on getting him in alignment. I also could tell he was off or not aligned when I worked him at the canter (which is like a slow gallop) and one way he would be more stiff than the other way.

My chiropractor said that if I could get him muscled out in the hind end, then his tendons and ligaments would keep his hind end in check and in proper alignment. He doesn’t get enough exercise just walking around his stall to obtain the kind of conditioning and muscling he needs. Which makes it fun for me as we work together at different gates to get him conditioned. It also works for me as I get a work out as well. Riding a horse at a trot and canter is a work out and I get out of breath posting and riding as I hold myself in a good position using my core muscles as well as my legs and arms. I am absolutely in my most happiest place up riding him around the arena!

This photo is a screenshot taken from a video of me and Murphy jumping! We are literally flying! ❤

This is another screenshot I made from my jumping videos! I'll attach a video of some jumping I did a couple months ago!

Murphy is 7 1/2 years old now and since he is in his 7th year I really wanted to get him started in some jumping and he thoroughly enjoys it! He has even gone over the jumps by himself while he is lose in the arena. Now that is a horse that likes to jump! Haha, and I thought it would help strengthen his hind end as a bonus workout. I have tons of muscle memory for jumping as I showed Hunter/Jumpers in my youth.

After graduating High School I went to work for 2 different horse trainers. I went to many horse shows jumping the horse that I had at the time and thought seriously of becoming a horse trainer or at least an assistant horse trainer. In the end, I ended up getting into medicine which I have always been fascinated and interested in and went to school to be a nurse. I didn’t make it as a nurse and ended up working behind the scenes in a laboratory. My career has been in the veterinary laboratory business with over 40 years as a technologist. I digress, haha, lets get back on track! Do you need a refill? or a snack to go with?

Here is the video I wanted to share. I have links to my YouTube videos in some of my other posts. I was jumping him almost once a week through September and in October. By the end of October we had some huge changes happen at the barn. We have a new horse trainer who moved in with all her clients and she arrived Nov. 1st. I wanted to see how we would all get along (I can report, everything is going great) and then we had some bad weather with tons of rain. So, the jumping had to be put on hold. It has been really nice weather for the past week so I am going to try and jump this next Monday. We won’t do too much and we don’t jump very high. The highest so far has been about 2.5 feet (0.76 meter) which for Murphy is easy for him. He is so much FUN! ❤

As I wrap up this post I wanted to share how much I appreciate my sweet daughter and her love for horses too. Although, it might not be as deep and sometimes all consuming (you have to be a horse crazy person to understand the emotions and love that we have for these beautiful creatures!) we or I practically devote my life to this gorgeous horse. I see him every single day and have to tell myself its okay if I skip a day. I rarely do, the draw to take care of him is that strong and I get so much in return with his kindness towards me.

My daughter riding in the above photo has a natural seat and I have encouraged her to ride bareback to strengthen her core and balance in her seat. He is really fun to ride bareback with that pad we have on him. My daughter is hoping to learn all the things with Murphy, and he will teach her a ton of things. She is so brave as he is a very large horse and being a Thoroughbred to boot. But he is not hot headed, nor spooky or unpredictable. He is a gentle giant, very loving and kind. I’ll end here as I know this is getting a bit long. I hope you are having a good day and/or weekend and thank you for visiting and reading my post!

Horse Lover and Horse Crazy Mom!

~Diana ❤

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