Secret Santa gift!!! & a confession

I just started blogging this year (technically in June or something, even though I didn’t start writing regularly until mid-November) and so I was super, super excited to see that Tracy at Fly On Over was hosting a gift exchange.  I am really enjoying my foray into horsey blogging, and something to get me more connected to the community + presents was right up my alley.

So, I signed up, and then cleverly put my barn address down as my shipping address (because duh, why shouldn’t horse stuff go straight to my barn?) and then left for a two week vacation.

On the beach in Oregon with my best girl.

Much clever.

Imagine my surprise when I got back and found an envelope from Jenn at Stories from the Saddle waiting for me at the barn!!  Inside that envelope was a much coveted gift certificate, that has inspired me to make a bit of a confession.

 

I’ve been on Twitter so I’ve obviously seen MangoBay belts around in the rootds.  I have never really been a belt wearer, in part because I lose them a lot and I just haven’t felt the need.  Constantly pulling up my pants and breeches has always seemed perfectly classy to me, and in a pinch, a piece of rope did the trick.  However, thanks to some stretching pants, possibly a lingering parasite infection from my time in Africa, and my new-found love of actually dressing well while riding (and teaching), I found myself desirous of a belt.  Maybe a MangoBay belt.

But I’m also really, really cheap.  And a belt was at the bottom of my list — especially when there are polo wraps and saddle pads and bits that actually need buying.  So in order to guard myself from disappointment — here comes the confession — I very maturely chose to jealousy hate them instead.

Yes, that’s right. I’m a jealousy hater.  I want something, I can’t have it, so I rationalize in my head all the reasons that thing isn’t that great, I don’t actually want it, and I have no reason to be jealous of those people who do have it!

But it wasn’t true! I did want a MangoBay belt! I lusted after their multicoloured rainbow displays at trade shows and coveted the splash of colour that broke up an otherwise-traditional riding outfit.  And don’t even get me started on a belt that would lay flat!  Buckles kill me.

So now I’m getting a MangoBay belt!! THANKS JENN!!

Specifically, I’m getting this burgundy Art Noveau.  Shopping there was hard.  It really was.  I wanted something colourful enough to break up an outfit (see above), but also traditional enough that I could wear it with my street clothes and not worry about a major clash.  And —  believe it or not — I am getting a little sick of all the pink that’s in my life.

So — secret santa gift SUCCESS and a new blog friend, I hope.  Thanks again, Jenn.  It is greatly appreciated — by me and my bosses, probably, who will no longer have to watch me hike my jeans up fourteen times a day!