Pet Dogs Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Ottawa Dog Blog!

Pet Dogs :Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Ottawa Dog Blog!

From everyone at the Ottawa Dog Blog, we’d love to wish you a merry christmas, happy holidays and a happy new year!

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From everyone at the Ottawa Dog Blog, we’d love to wish you a merry christmas, happy holidays and a happy new year!

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Audrey Erickson..

Jay Howell sent me a link to Audrey Erickson's work, saying something to the effect that I may dig her work. Ok, well 1). The paintings include cats. So check. And 2). Some of them have laser beams. Umm, Hello, have you met me? So yes, you could say that I thoroughly enjoy Audrey's work. I'm thinking you will too. I asked Audrey to tell me about her work, before I go on...I have to say her answer just made me want to be her friend and own her work.

"The medium of most of my recent work is gouache on paper, and I guess you could say that the subject matter that I paint comes from the fact that I'm just a good old fashioned cat lady...well, maybe that's taking it a bit far, but avid cat enthusiast to say the least. I find felines to be wildly fascinating and they have a kind of otherworldliness and mystery to them. So although I'm sort of a realist style painter, I like to add elements of fantasy and humor to the little world that i've created for them. I like my paintings to make me laugh when I'm done, and can only hope that my peers get a kick out of it too. I'm starting to incorporate a variety of magical animals into my new work as well, along with plenty of cats of course, and I'm excited to see how it all works together."

nikki mcclure vote for survival..

just wanted to post about the nikki mcclure's traveling art show vote for survival that opened on the 10th of october at needles & pens. all photos were taken by andrew, co-proprietor of n+p. the show closes on november 10th. see more pics of the show here. not to be missed whether in person or online.

vote for survival is an art tour traveling by train, making stops onthe west coast: olympia, san francisco, los angeles. the show featuresa series of limited-edition signs, silk-screened on wood signboards andis a call to action-a reminder of what is really important as thiselection nears. original paper cuts will also be exhibited, includingartwork from the 2009 "wake up" calendar, book covers, and new workinspired by the summer of berries and boats.

APAK at Tinlark..

The ridiculously cute and ever talented duo APAK's (husband and wife team Aaron Piland and Ayumi Kajikawa Piland) Rainbow Garden opens on June 27th at Tinlark Gallery in LA. Known for their colorful and magically adorable paintings APAK's work often makes me want to glee like the pilsbury doughboy it's so damn cute. Here are a few pieces that will be in the upcoming show. Heee!"Expanding upon their beloved body of artworks featuring the utopian lives of curious littlecreatures and their animal friends, Rainbow Garden features new acrylic and gouache paintings on wood along with 3-dimensional mixedmedia pieces."

Funeral Services in Melbourne

There are several funeral arrangements in Melbourne that offer the best care and arrangement to suit the needs of their clients. These services are built with the object of providing arrangements and all the services that might be required at this unfortunate time. Several service providers in Melbourne offer transportation, the hiring of ministers to offer prayers, the choice between what kind of last services the deceased will be given. Families must decide whether they want to have a burial or cremation, the choice is sometimes already made by the deceased thus funeral services must provide the means to carry this out.

The above decision may be influenced by a few different factors. Some families stick to the tradition of burial or cremation, while some religions consider one of the two to be the “right” choice. The wishes of the deceased are the ones that should be given priority if they have specified whether they want to be buried or cremated. The clothing of the body is also sometimes left to the wishes of the deceased, otherwise they are dressed in their own formal clothing. The coffin is decorated as well, in order to show a reflection of the interests or hobbies of the deceased. Often the family of the dead, or friends and guests place their possessions in the coffin to commemorate the death of their beloved. There are fewer restrictions in the placement of these objects in a burial than a cremation.

There are different funeral arrangements in Melbourne that allow the deceased to be buried in a vault, at sea or even in woodlands. This may be dependent on the wishes of the family or the deceased before their death. However, often some traditions are passed on and vaults are chosen by families who want the family buried in the same place. Commonly a churchyard or a cemetery is opted for by the family of the deceased. The verbal tribute is presented by close friends and family of the dead and the proceedings are kept simple so as to avoid complications.

Foodventures

Tonight with Miles’s dinner I made him a smoothie.

A blueberry, strawberry, (banana bread frozen) banana, BREASTMILK smoothie! It was his first experience with anything like a smoothie. He didn’t let the new experience slow him down. Even mastering the straw with only just a few pull-the-straw-out-and-fling-smoothie-all-over-the-kitchen moments. I call that a success.

I may or may not have tried this smoothie. And it may or may not have been my very first time ever tasting breastmilk. (what??.. too much information??)

I also may or may not have let Miles take this smoothie into the bathtub with him since he didn’t finish it at dinner, and we may or may not have had a blueberry speckled bath.

While we are on the subject of new food adventures, I’d like to introduce you to Miles’s first pizza :

Homemade wheat crust, homemade tomato sauce, and topped with all sorts of delicious vegetables of the non-allergic-too variety. Black beans, peas, broccoli, carrots, corn & green beans. YUM!

After the first initial gagging, he loved it. And loved it again for lunch the next day, and dinner, then lunch again and then dinner again. I think you see where this is going. Tonight’s dinner was the last of it.

Tomorrow I attempt Quinoa and black bean hamburgers! I am so glad we don’t have to eat like him…

Bacon cheeseburger with a side of cheese enchiladas

I’m a talker.
If you come within listening distance of me, there is a good chance you will know more than you ever wanted to know about my life in a VERY short time.
BUT.. I’m also a complainer.

I learned a few years ago that if I don’t tell people what’s going on, it doesn’t give me an outlet to complain and thus, makes me deal with the situation better.

I didn’t tell ANYONE I was pregnant with Miles until almost 20 weeks. I didn’t tell anyone about my divorce for almost 4 months. And this time I haven’t told many people about my journey to reclaim my body before I start on my 2nd surrogacy journey.

Because doesn’t it always kinda suck to lose weight? And get healthier?? I know I’d WAY rather be a couch potato and eat whatever I want. (Today that would be a big huge bacon cheeseburger with a side of cheese enchiladas.)

I’m a month and a week into this journey. I HAVE TO get healthier before getting pregnant again (in 2 short months). I HAVE TO stay healthier this next pregnancy.

So it’s been 15 weeks since the day I got home from the hospital. I am officially down 28 pounds. (But down 15 in the month I have been ACTIVELY trying to get healthier.

I feel amazing. 15 pounds isn’t that much. But it’s made a huge difference to me. I put on a pair of jeans 4 digits smaller. Just returned 5 new shirts I bought so I could get a smaller size.

I have about 2 full months left before we are on to Surrogacy round 2! Nothing like losing a bunch of weight just to get pregnant again!
So now that you know.. don’t let me complain! :)

The Dog Improve Your Dog Training By Playing Like A Dog

The Dog :Improve Your Dog Training By Playing Like A Dog

I sent out a newsletter early this morning which covers all sorts of tips on tugging with your dog. As lengthy as that newsletter ended up being, I fear I only scraped the surface of what could be written on the subject. So, here I am sharing more (but again, I still feel I am [...]

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I sent out a newsletter early this morning which covers all sorts of tips on tugging with your dog. As lengthy as that newsletter ended up being, I fear I only scraped the surface of what could be written on the subject. So, here I am sharing more (but again, I still feel I am [...]

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im your buckaroo

Yes. Country music songs are cheesy. and predictable. and repetitive. and usually twangy. But they have such good stories! Seriously you guys, this song makes me want to cry. Or maybe that’s the excessive levels of estrogen and progesterone circulating in my system.Either way, you should watch this video.Ok so, be honest. Are my eyes the only ones watering? ::sniffle::

Kenji Hirata..

Kenji Hirata's work is busting with color and vibrancy. His work is described as trying "to capture the vibrancy of Jamaican dance hall sound systems, sci-fi futurism, billboards and hand painted signage of South East Asia." The below video makes my heart sing, it's so light and breezy. Kenji is in the two person show, Reverberations at Fifty 24SF with Che Jen currently up now.

love this..

i have so much to post...but i had to, had to post this painting by anthony pontius. glorious isn't a word i throw around casually...but that is the first word that came to my head when i first saw it. glorious. amen.

best readers friends in the whole world

Uhm, you guys rock, whether you’re a reader who is a friend or a friend who is a reader, you are the peanut butter to my jelly. The chai to my tea. The orange to my chicken.I love you, man.All those words you guys shared with me on my last post? I swear I wasn’t asking for them. I really wasn’t. I was just sharing what I think about at 5am when holding an icepack to my forehead and a baby to my chest.But you shared them with me anyway. ::warm fuzzies::It was just what I needed. You know what I did? I pretended that those were OBaby’s words to me. I imagine if he had an adequate vocabulary, those were somethings he would say to me.Mom, you’re doing great. I love it when you hold me, even if I am sad. You make me happy… etc. etc.Also, Sarah. Thank you for [all of] your sweet, encouraging words.We MUST get our kiddos/future spouses together soon. I’m sorry I’m such a lousy email responder.

amanda hughen's geometric swarms of gorgeousness..

detail of palstplasm.

is it too soon for me to start thinking about spring? maybe it's all the love in the air today, but i am jonesing for some warm spring air...w/ a nice yummy ice coffee from dunkies. ok, that may be pushing it, but a girl can dream. amanda hughen's sunny geometric paintings are helping me beat the winter blues and pine for spring's lovely warm ways. amanda get's her unique technique by drawing and painting on both sides of translucent mylar repeating patterns until she gets her desired effect. i think her artist's statement sums it up nicely:

"in my work, i layer geometric shapes until the forms reach a criticalmass, creating a release of energy, or an uncontrolled viral growth,like a scientific experiment gone awry. single geometric shapes arerepeated until they mutate into exploding swarms. the resulting form isambiguous: is it an aberrant island viewed from above, a blossomingvirus, a microscopic map of the brain, or a flower from somescience-fiction realm?"

if you want a sunny dose of amanda's work check out her website, where you can see details of her pieces. they're not to be missed, i promise. amanda has a few shows coming up, the first is this fall at sf electric works.

plastiplasm.

feastory.

detail of feastory.

engorget.

untitled.

sepidemic.

towel monkies

I was once solidly in the ‘Oh my word, pregnant ladies think everything revolves around their pregnant bodies’ camp, and I was confident that all the moaning and finger pointing that’s done is purely an act, you know, to bring themselves a little attention. As if you can really blame your stuffy nose on pregnancy.Oh look how long my nails are! Must be those prenatal vitamins.Darn breakouts – all because my hormones are whacked.My wedding ring has gotten so tight it hurts because my hands are swollen.Boo hoo hoo.And then, I experienced all of the above. In fact, my wedding band, which is 1/2 size smaller than my engagement ring, now lives a secluded life on a ring holder on my bedside table, pushed aside by increased blood flow and water retention (fear not, I wear my bling/engagement ring daily, but it has been notably tighter as of late).Ok, so maybe there’s validity to those complaints, but that’s surely as far as the list could go, I said.¬† Wrong. I present to you, my night life: My dreams are more bizarre, intricate, and realistic than I’ve ever experienced.And so, in place of the well-loved Toddler Tales installments from when I worked as a preschool teacher (Sorry. I know they made awesome stories, but I just wasn’t cut out to get paid a dollar an hour per unruly child in my care), I give you:Allison’s Epic Dreams (pt.1)Setting: Choir Cruise circa 2003, only this time it wasn’t the choir cruise. Same boat and room, but I was just on a cruise with two friends from high school.Context: Friend J was getting married on the ship and friend A and I were her bridesmaids. We hadn’t had time to shop for dresses yet (since they – and I never saw the guy, sorry friend J – just got engaged the week before) so we were looking for wedding appropriate bridesmaid attire in the on board gift shop. J, thankfully, already had her dress.Some memorable moments: Me getting frustrated that nothing fit (stupid baby belly!). Friend A looking super trendy with her poofed hair and pointed-toed stilettos. J debating if we should carry towel monkeys or towel swans down the aisle. And at one point, I think all of our parents were there, way dressed up more than we were.The final bridesmaid outfit decision: hot pink carnival cruise ship tee-shirts in XL with a belt low on our hips and leggings underneath. I can’t remember if J went for the monkeys or the swans, but I bet we looked something like this: Simply stunning.

training for a 5k

Less than 3 months after OBaby’s birthday, I will attempt to run 3.2 miles.Let’s face it: pushing a 7lb 11oz human being out of my body just wasn’t enough to do this year.Actually, no this will be awesome. It has been exactly the motivation I needed to get up and get moving. Even if my ahem remaining baby jelly belly keeps moving after I stop.Sorry if that was a little too much imagery for you; it’s just the reality of the situation.So what have I been motivated to do so far? 4 times a week for the last 3 and a half weeks, I have made myself get up and walkslashjog. At first it was 2 miles, then quickly it was 3 miles, then I’d mostly walk and jog a little of the 3 miles, and now I’m up to walking 2 of the 3 miles and jogging 1.Ok, so the one mile I’m jogging is split into 1/3 of a mile sections, but still! I mean, remember this?It’s only been 6 weeks.I know, right?!Also, I am back in non-maternity pants, but I don’t really want to talk about it. Thanks.I can’t pretend that the 5k date of October 10th being circled on my calendar has been my only motivation. Please say a big O My Family hello to my jogging buddy:The Jeep Overland Limited Jogger (say that 10 times fast)!O My Health Hazards Allison! You can’t put an infant in a jogging stroller!Obviously. Thanks for the heads up. (Bah dum ch! Get it? They shouldn’t go in a jogging stroller until they can hold their heads up? Bahaha. O. Sorry.)That’s the best part of this stroller though. Our car seat snaps right in. The manufacturer doesn’t acknowledge this, and technically it only snaps in coincidentally because the car seat and the sides of the snack tray are the right widths, BUT IT WORKS. So OBaby and I go hopping along, he safe in his supportive and shock absorbing car seat, and me, sweating off my I’MNOTTELLINGHOWMANY pregnancy pounds slowly but surely.The third prong of my motivation trifecta: Madam Germann whose idea this actually was. See, she’s the purposeful, driven, achieving type that sat down and set annual goals for herself back in January.No, I do not understand her. Love her, yes. Understand, no.On this list which I will never have the foresight to make for myself¬† (I’m lucky if I write a grocery list before I get to the store) was “run a 5k”. So Mrs. Germann tells me this back in January, and I (hopefully kindly) asked if I could totally crash her self-goal-setting party.She obliged.Dear Mrs. G,My baby jelly belly thanks you.-Mrs. O