puppy sleep-away camp...

my little darling is going on vacation with her grandparents to their house in st. margarets bay, nova scotia for an entire week! i know she'll have a wonderful time running across their large green lawn, swimming in the frigid ocean on their private jetty beach, and napping in their beautiful ocean front home (although no sleeping on their bed)... but i'm going to miss her to pieces while she's away...

photos from summer 2008 in nova scotia, penny's 1st visit

i couldn't resist...

inside joke...sorry.

beach dining...

image courtesy of country living

i'd love to have this look in my someday house. crazy in love with the dark floors against the whitewashed walls, so simple, so fabulous. even the white on white lettering on the wall makes me heart sing.

the never ending story reincarnated in daisy...

the never ending story might have been my most favorite movie of all time growing up, it may still be in the top 5 for me even now as an adult. over the weekend my friends parents brought their dog daisy to the party and i could not get over her resemblance to falkor, the luck dragon. she has the longest body for such a little thing...decide for yourself...

penny & dickens play date...

today penny had a play date with our neighbor/ her boyfriend, dickens...


he's such a little ham...


but quite the gentleman, he brought penny flowers...


they did this for about 2 hours straight...

reese turns 1 year old...

it's hard to believe my goddaughter turns 1 this week. saturday her mom & dad threw a bbq birthday party for her intheir backyard...the weather was perfect, the company was great, the food was delicious and the babies were adorable!...



she did not however like to being sung happy birthday....

dog knows best...

i saw this photo of gracie relaxing in bed on erin vey's blog today...erin is an incredible dog photographer and gracie is her (massive) beautiful dog...look at how long those legs are!...


this got me thinking about dogs, how they always seem so happy (even when you're not), and in general how relaxed they seem. it must be good to be a dog who is loved. i think they know something we don't.... dogs are secret little zen masters...hence the downward dog yoga position they've all mastered...penny's favorite position too...

quoteable...

image & quote courtesy of oprah magazine

"i don't want to get to the end of my life
and find out that i've lived just the length of it.
i want to have lived the width of it as well."
- diane ackerman

summer plans...

i would like to spend my entire summer in this suzanne crocker painting. right along the ocean sea breeze, with the dogs running in the fields, watching the sun set each night...perfection...

image courtesy of copley society of art

what makes a house a home?...

"Home is the one place in all this world where hearts are sure of each other. "
-Frederick W. Robertson

for a long time i used to think that a home is a place that you decorate, furnish, light, clean, sleep, cook meals, shower, entertain, store your stuff in, etc...but the more i think about it i realize it's not the things that make a home, it's the people in it. without those people it's just another lonely space we pass through.

come home sweets, i miss you. xoxo

so cute i can hardly stand it...

my sister & brother-in-law picked up brisby today. my sister said SHE cried when they took him away from his birth momma. he seems to be a happy little camper so far in his new home. he's so stinkin' cute i can hardly stand it. we sent him a care package last week for his arrival, toys make everything better. i need to fly out to colorado asap to snuggle with him (my sister is adamant about snuggling, she tried to teach penny how to do it but penny had no part of it)...


ps- look at the size of those paws, he's gonna be a monster!

canine companionship...

a few weeks back my aunt suggested a way of cheering me up, in fact a brilliant idea, volunteer with penny. she mentioned that she knew someone who volunteers with her dog & autistic children and loves it.

now i don't know too much about children, especially not autistic children, but you always hear of foundations like make-a-wish granting special things to children...and not that they are not 100% deserving of such acts of kindness, but i wanted to maybe be involved with a different age group, like the elderly. i have always had a very special relationship with my aging relatives, and sadly it seems as people get older they sort of get forgotten about.


i've done a little research in the last couple of days about local organization that we might be able to connect with and found match-up:pet pals, an organization that provides support and companionship to elderly and disabled adults living in the boston area through pets. we just submitted an application.

i know that volunteering just a few hours a month will make me feel better for sure, thanks aunt kris!

artist love...

i had cocktails on saturday night with a friend from college whom i greatly admire. she had me laughing so hard i was crying at the bar as she told me about this crazy astrologer/painter/photographer/animal lover family friend of hers. our new inside joke is 'our saturn has return to fuck up our lives'...don't ask.

anyway, she sent me her friends gallery website, yellowdog gallery, the following day. now i do not love her paintings, at all, but her photography is quite a different story...


did i mention she has 4 golden retrievers? hence the name of her gallery. i'm hoping to meet her someday this summer when i'm out in martha's vineyard so she can photograph my little darling too...

currently reading...

i started the help, by kathryn stockett, two nights ago and i'm already more than halfway through it. it takes place in jackson, mississippi during the 1960's during the civil rights movement. i am in love with the way stockett gives a voice to her main characters. go get this book!

i also read abide with me, by elizabeth strout...i was less thrilled with this book, but it was a quick read.

pick of the litter...

i told my mom to pick up one of these this afternoon (people are GIVING AWAY dogs in tn these are lab/collie mixes), only half jokingly...she had to call me to ask me if i really wanted her to. she would have, in a heartbeat. i had to decline though, i don't have the stamina right now for a puppy...


i wanted the little darling girl to the far right though, badly. penny could use a little sister too.

missing the south...

despite growing up in the northeast (for most of the time...a few years in between spent in texas & kentucky) i'm a southern-girl-wannabe. i love the heat, sweet iced tea, cowboy boots, and southern accents. i skipped a trip to nashville this weekend to visit my parents, so instead i watched crazy heart this afternoon with the pup, pretended i was there, and loved it. it might be a little too twangy for y'all though...

fantastic front yard garden...

i sort of think brooke, from velvet & linen, is amazing for doing this to her front yard...

music for my heart...

if it's a broken part, replace it.
if it's a broken arm, then brace it.
if it's a broken heart, then face it.
hold your own, know your name, going your own way...and everything will be fine...

yup, i bought these...

nothing like a little retail therapy to get you out of a funk, right? these are my new boots for the tim mcgraw/ lady antebellum concert i'm going to with my girlfriends in july...think tim will notice me in these & my mini jean skirt?

if i were a 12 year old girl again...

...i would be dating this boy, in a heartbeat. my friend megan sent this link to us today and i am totally smitten...

something to do...

the sowa market opens in the south end this weekend, i might try to drag myself outside for it, especially if the weather is nice...