VERY. BAD. DOGS.

The Suspects

As most of you who read my blog already know, I am an animal lover....Yesterday, I almost killed my dogs with my bare hands...They have done some pretty bad things in the past, but this one just about sent me over the edge. After having a difficult day already, I left the house to go to a photoshoot. A client was coming by to pick up a painting, so I told her I would leave it inside the storm door and she could just leave me her check under my mat since I was not going to be home. Well, she decided to pay with cash and didn't want to leave it under the mat so she decided to put it under my door...Big mistake! I have four dogs who go nuts when any one comes to the door in the first place and when they saw that envelope come under the door it was party time! They proceed to shred $200.00 in cash. I came home and found scraps of an envelope on the floor not knowing what it was until I went in my daughters room and found a pile of confetti cash...I almost cried. After a lot of cursing, yelling and blame casting I got out the scotch tape and spent a half hour trying to reconstruct what was left of the money. Thank GOD they did not eat it entirely...Here is my finished work...

Lucky for me...I went to the bank today and met with the nicest lady (who is also a dog lover) and pleaded my case...I had enough of the serial numbers from each side of the bills so they could accept it and credit my account. My dogs came pretty close to getting coal in their stockings this year....Never a dull moment, that's for sure. I hope everyone has a wonderful, safe Thanksgiving holiday!!!

Molly & Sam

Meet Molly and Sam..I photographed them over the weekend and let me tell you, they were two cool hounds...Molly is the Brown and white shepherd looking mix and Sam is the black and white Pointer mix. Molly was the more laid back of the two...her ears had a personality all of there own. She was sweet and a daddy's girl I think...Sam was a bit more high energy with his Pointer blood...he loves his ball and did the coolest trick balancing it on his nose...My dogs are soooo bad compared to these two. But as the saying goes, there are no bad dogs, only bad owners. I am a bad pack leader, I admit it.

And lastly, this is their Sun Conure named Wally...he knew one song and sang it over and over and over....he was too cute. I just love his vibrant colors...

Crazy Lily, Journal Pages and Paris the little diva dog

Here are some shots of crazy Miss Lily, my sisters dog, using my new Sigma 10-20mm lens...I LOVE it! It is basically a fish eye at the 10mm end of the zoom and it is fun to use with the dogs so they get that big snout thing going on...My old fish eye puts a black circular border around the image, so this is a nice change and much sharper (except on that last shot, which I was trying to blur for a dreamy effect). Lily loves to drool all over my camera and lick the lens, yuck!

These are two different color options of the same painting....not sure which one I like better??? This little dog is named Paris, and her owner had her decked out in everything from little leather shoes, to jewelry, doggles, shirt, etc. This is just one of Paris' many ensembles I am sure.

Oh, the things we do to our dogs! At least she was supporting Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

Lastly, a few journal pages...The first two are just for me in my own art journal and the third is for the round robin swap. You had to do a page about "What is your Muse"...Easy answer for me! I have set a goal for myself to complete one of my art journals by the end of the year...I am ready to bind a new style of book and think it would be a nice way to start the new year. I only have about 10 pages left in my current one, so it shouldn't be tooooo hard. If any of you have been thinking about starting an art journal, I say Go For It! It is one of my favorite things to work in...There is no pressure to create perfect, beautiful art. You can experiment, journal what's on your mind, get to know yourself...I love flipping back through my older ones to see where I was at in my life when I was working in it...it's kind of like a photo album of my art and life. The first step is to buy a journal and just get started! Go on YouTube and watch some of Suzi Blu's crazy videos...She is a trip and offers some prompts and demos that are fun to watch.

I guess that is it for me today....Have a good Monday!

Happy Halloween...

I hope everyone had a safe, fun Halloween...My daughter Caroline was a vampiress and she had a blast. I love Halloween..it is the one holiday that is not all bright and frilly. It is bats and ravens, spiders and skulls, dark and mysterious...my kind of holiday! The only down side is all of the candy I feel obligated to eat so it won't go bad...ha!

On a different note. I bought a new collage book the other day that I am really enjoying. It is called The Art of Personal Imagery by Corey Moortgat. It is has both "how to's" and beautiful examples of her work. I can't wait to try out a few of her techniques in my art journal.

Lastly, for you photographers out there, I have just purchased a new set of Photoshop actions from a fellow photographer named Leah Profancik and they are AMAZING! I have downloaded many actions int the past that I never really use and these are worth every penny! Visit her site here if you want to take a look. Here is a before and after shot of Caroline using her color action.

That's all for now...I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!