Squirt in the surf

It’s been a rough few days here – our Black Lab Squirt was diagnosed with cancer at the end of January, and took a turn for the worse on Wednesday. Up till then, she was happy and comfortable and showed no signs of being in any pain or discomfort. Now, she can’t even stand up :-( I hate seeing her in distress, and I know we’re going to have to make the decision that all pet owners dread in the next day or two.

Back in August 2010, hubby and I took Squirt and Jackson on a trip to Nova Scotia. We went with some flyball friends and all their dogs – there were 20 dogs between us all! We took the dogs to the beach every day and played with them in the ocean. It was an awesome week, and this is how I’m always going to remember Squirt – having the time of her life in the ocean surf. Here are some of my favourite pictures from that week…

Squirt and Jackson… splish-splash!

Squirt getting nailed by a big wave – hehehehehe!

Sticks are fun!

Don’t make me share…

Well then, I’ll just get two of my own…

A couple of big shakes…

…and a roll in the sand…

That was fun!

Cancer might take Squirt away from us, but nothing will take away our love for her and our happy memories of our almost-11 years together.

Give your pet an extra-big hug & kiss today.

Sorry, butt I just couldn’t help myself

In honour of Valentine’s Day, I was going to write a sentimental blog post about hearts. But then I came across a picture that totally changed the direction I was going in. So now, my friends, I give you… heart butts :-) Because that’s just how I roll…

Image via Small Dogs Rock

 

Image via MyCorgi.com

 

Image via Twinkie Tiny Dog

 

Images via OCD: Obsessive Corgi DIsorder

 

Image via (Wild) Rice for all Seasons

 

Image via 2 Guys, 2 Dogs, and lots of Food

 

Image via Cute Overload

 

Image via DogForums.com

 

Image via Molly Montana’s Blog

 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

♥

The painting bug is back!

It’s been a while since I posted pictures of my art. Between our foster puppies and not feeling inspired, I just wasn’t in the mood to get my paint on. I did have a moment of inspiration back in September, though – this amazing sunset at Cap Rouge on Cape Breton.

I knew right away how I wanted to capture it in a painting. And this is how it turned out:

“Cap Rouge Sunset”

I’ve changed up the gallery wall in our hallway, and this baby is now a part of it :-) Pics of that project coming soon!

Then there’s this painting that had been sitting on a shelf half-done for months because I just wasn’t feeling it. I bought some new foil and decided to try it out on this painting, seeing as I figured if it didn’t work out, no great loss. And I liked it! I added some sparkly crystals to it, and voila…

“Be Dazzled  “

And I just finished this painting on the weekend. I tried something new, and to be honest, I was really surprised that it worked!

“Molten Metallics”

I guess the painting bug is back, because now I have five more paintings in the go :-) One of them is using my new technique, and it’s looking pretty cool so far. I just hope I don’t mess it up! But like Bob Ross says, we don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents :-)

The dog days of winter

It’s been a while since I shared our foster dogs with you. And I also don’t think I told you that we added a new dog to our crew! We officially adopted our foster Gizmo last August :-) There really wasn’t much choice, hubby and Gizmo obviously have a little somethin’ somethin’ goin’ on ;-)

I call Jackson and Gizmo our Brothers From Another Mother ;-) Here they are celebrating their birthdays in style :-)

Our foster puppies Cane and Chloe were adopted in September, and they’re both in great new forever homes :-) Cane and his new mom stopped by for a visit last week – our cute little boy is growing up to be a very handsome dude :-)

Chloe loves to hold paws with her big sister :-)

Wally stayed with us for a few days in October till he hitched a ride to his foster home near Toronto.

And then we had two fosters arrive in mid-October, Jazzy…

…and Boo…

Jazzy was adopted after just two weeks, and then a few weeks later Sparkles arrived.

Boo was adopted in mid-December, and the same day that he went to his new forever home, Henry the honourary Catahoula arrived!

Sparkles went to her forever home a couple of weeks ago, and Henry will be going to his forever home this coming weekend. And then hubby and I are planning to take a break from fostering for a bit! But I have a feeling that isn’t going to happen, because there are always dogs that need to be saved, and I just can’t not help! So I’m sure I’ll have another foster to show you soon… stay tuned!

Elephant love

Way back in April, I told you about an awesome item that I won in a blog giveaway at Mix And Chic – a wall mural from Murals Wallpaper in the UK. Well, it took hubby and me FOREVER to decide which mural we wanted. I, of course wanted something coastal and beachy. But hubby wanted trees or a landscape. What to do, what to do… why, an elephant, of course! This is the mural we finally agreed on:

Last year, I was totally blown away by a kitchen on The Block that included a huge rhino photo on the wall in the eating area:

Images via The Block Shop

So the elephant caught my attention because it has the same sort of vibe of a really big cool animal waling towards you :-) And hubby likes that it’s also got landscape, which kind of makes you feel like you’re right there. All in all, a great compromise that we’re both really happy with :-)

We’re going to hang the mural on a wall in the basement, and the whole space is going to be designed around it. No, it won’t be an African safari ;-) What I really love about the elephant is that it lends itself to any kind of design…

Image via Pinterest

 

Image via Pinterest

 

Image via Pies & Pints

 

Image via art.com

 

Image via photowall

At the speed we get renos done around here, it’ll probably be three years before our elephant makes it out of the shipping tube and onto the wall! But as soon as we’re got him up, I’ll post some pics.

Thank you Mix And Chic and Murals Wallpaper!