greetings

I love emails. I love sending them and receiving them. But more than emails, I love snail mail. I love love looooove opening my mailbox and discovering an envelope snuggled in, under those uninvited bills, with a happy little greeting in there just for me. I love leaving in the morning and stopping at my mailbox to drop an envelope in, sending a happy little greeting off to someone I love. I have a shelf dedicated to cards; thank you cards and no reason other than I wanted to say hi! cards.

I have wanted to have some custom greeting cards printed for some time now. I am pretty awesome at procrastinating so obviously, I never followed through. Then I said goodbye to my Doodle Bug. And I pored over all her portraits. And I came across a photo that stomped it’s feet, begging and pleading to pretty puh-lease be made into a custom greeting card. So I finally had them made. And. I. LOVE. Them.

I had them printed on art linen paper, which is just gorgeous. You can see the texture it gives the card in this shot.

The inside…. (my Dave friends will appreciate the greeting 🙂 You know I had to slip a Dave reference in there somewhere!)

And my absolute favorite, the back ♥…

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and a random cuteness alert: Last weekend I headed to the 14th annual Pug Parade. I always enjoy this event; there is nothing like being surrounded by a ridiculous amount of pugs. It was sad for me- this was the first year going without my faithful Pugger by my side, but it was also fun because I got to bring Tinsley for her very first experience of Pug craziness. While there I was excited to see my friend and fellow photographer Emilee Fuss had a table set up. She snapped a quick shot of Tinsley, which you can see on her blog HERE (her photo is about in the midde of the post). SO CUTE!!!!

another goodbye

sigh. It’s only March and it is safe to say that I am completely and totally over 2011. I have said goodbye to a good friend. I have said goodbye to my best pug friend. And yesterday we said goodbye to poor little Walter, our gopher tortoise that we have been working so hard at getting healthy. You can read Walter’s story HERE.

I know it probably seems silly to most people, but losing Walter makes me very sad. I have grown quite attached to him, and we have put so much effort into helping this little guy feel better. He was faced with some tough odds right from the start, which made me want to do my best to give him a happy little life.

A few months ago we brought him to a vet when we realized his shell had gone very soft, very quickly. Hubby prepped me for what he thought was inevitable. Surprisingly, the vet was optomistic. The softness of his shell was a major concern, but he was hopeful when he heard how well Walter was eating and drinking. He got a super shot of antibiotics and vitamins, I was given a quick tutorial on how to give a tortoise injections, and we were sent home with numerous pre-filled needles of antibiotics and vitamins. I usually work my denial talents at this point, but instead I was realistic and worried often that he wasn’t going to make it.

But he turned around. Just a few days ago I was reflecting on how well he has been doing. I was sure his shell was getting stronger. He was eating great. And then, he died. I don’t understand what happened. We know that he has been struggling with a respiratory infection since the day we got him, and I am sure that is what finally took him. But he was doing so good.

I hate goodbyes. I am not good at them.

I am tired of saying goodbye.

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The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.

– M. Scott Peck

happy spring!

Happy first day of Spring!

caution

This sign cracked me up. As a Floridian, I am accutely aware of the presence of gators. As a Floridian, I don’t need a sign as a reminder that my dogs would be tasty morsels to gators. I don’t think much about it- I am aware they are there. I am cautious with my pups. I don’t wonder if a gator might be in a body of water, I assume a gator IS in the water.

So at first this sign surprised me. Ummmm, DUH people! Do you really need a sign to tell you this?! Then I remembered we are the land of the tourist. Tourists need signs. They definitely need signs. I had a customer come into my work the other day. They are here from Canada. They asked their friend that they are renting their home from if there were any gators in the lake behind the house. The friend said nope, I’ve never seen a gator back there. So the Canadians let their boxer swim in the water. They heard a loud splash, looked up in time to see their dog charging out of the water, bloody midsection, with a gator sinking deep into the water. The dog was ok; superficial wounds and quite shaken up.

Whether you can see them or not, they are there. Kinda like sharks 😉

backseat driver

she likes going for car rides

distractions

Yesterday proved to be a fairly difficult day for me. Yesterday I picked up Punky’s ashes. It was harder than I expected. ‘Nuff said. I got home and could feel my emotions flailing around, desperately seeking something to latch on to and be thouroughly distracted by. My eyes landed on my camera and I shot in an incredibly careless manner. I felt like someone who had never held a camera, who had no idea how to work it, but just desperately wanted to take some pictures. SO, here are some incredibly distracted photos of two very random items that I happen to have a love affair with.

My Kindle.

Dear Kindle,

It took me a loooong time to get the courage to buy you. You see, I don’t particularly like change. I happen to love books. A lot. I like the way the paper feels. I like the weight of them in my hands. I like underlining and earmarking and passing them on. I like the comfort of spending stupid amounts of time in the bookstore. The idea of you concerned me. What would I do with all of those bookmarks I had made? What if I read something that I loved so much that I wanted to underline it? How would I survive never passing an actual book along to a friend?! But after a year of serious debate, I caved. I fell to the peer pressure and bought you. And I love you. I am so very sorry that I had ever doubted you. And really, I need to thank you. Your incredibly easy access to instant books came along at a time when I needed some serious distraction. The death of a friend. The death of my beloved dog. You let me walk away from my realities and spend time in the worlds of others, with just a little tap of a button. Thank you for that, dear Kindle.

My Purse.

I have been searching for a purse like this for YEARS. And finally I found it. It meets all the requirements: crossbody? check. perfect size? check. goes with pretty much everything? check? is as far from trendy as you can get? check. will actually look BETTER with age? check! Yay for perfect purses!!!

Combine two of my favorite things and you get this:

My bag has the perfect Kindle pocket! Clearly, they were meant to be!