Family Pet Photography

I love taking family portraits.  No two families are ever the same, and that certainly keeps my job interesting!  And perhaps because my own little furry babies are such an integral part of my family, I am always excited when a client wants to include his or her pets as part of a family session.  

I recently met Ms. A, who was fostering three sweet puppies for POODLE RESCUE HOUSTON until they were old enough to be adopted.  She asked me to do a photo session for her so she would have pictures of her foster pups as well as her own dogs; and I was more than happy to oblige!  So, I traveled to her home where I took both posed and candid photos.  These are a few of my favorites:

First, we have the "family portrait" where I managed to get everyone to look at me at the same time - no small feat!

Here are a couple of photos of the adorable foster pups, who have since been adopted and are now living in their forever homes:

This is little Monique, who is clearly the independent one of the trio!

And here are roly-poly Christopher and sweet Chanelle.  Aren't they adorable?!

Next up are a couple of photos of Ms. A and her "grown-up" babies:

We wanted to include casual, every day photos.  So Ms. A. sat down and played with her four-legged family members while I took pictures.  I love the results!

Look at the love and devotion on this girl's face for her human mama!

Remember, a family doesn't have to be human.  Families are not just made up of people related to you by blood or marriage.  Families are comprised of those you love, who love you back.  To me, that includes pets and lifelong friends.  When is the last time you had family pictures made?

Saying Goodbye to Starbucks

This is one of the hardest photos I have ever had to take.  I took it, knowing it would be he last one I would ever have of Starbucks - our sweet little Rat Terrier (we think), who was about 15 or 16 years old.  No one knew for sure.  She was found on the side of the road many years ago, abandoned.

She was the sweetest little dog  - not very bright, but she always tried her absolute hardest to please.  And she loved us with the heart of a dog ten times her size.  The Hubster called her our "me too" dog.  And she was.  She just wanted to be included in whatever was going on, and she always made sure she was in whatever room of the house we were in.  Towards the end, she was blind and going senile but she still loved to go outside and bark at anything that moved; and she lived to go for weekend rides with the Hubster, with the windows rolled down and her nose sticking out.  She would practically inhale any treat I gave her, and she always felt so important when we would give her a chew bone that was just for her.  She pranced when she had a bone as if to say, "Look at me!  Look how special I am!"

She was the Hubster's dog before I even knew him.  Over the years, she and I became very close but he was, without a doubt, her favorite.  She knew when it was time for him to come home from work, and she would wait patiently by the front door until he arrived.  She was stubborn about that, too!  She would not budge for anything while she was in waiting mode.  

About four weeks ago she started getting sick - coughing and wheezing and acting more lethargic.  The vet at first thought it was congestive heart failure, but we later learned it was cancer.  She stopped eating her favorite treats and, for the first time ever, she no longer followed us from room to room.  But our Starbucks was a fighter and it was clear that she was stubborn enough to insist she wanted to stay with us no matter how much pain she was in, how hard it was for her to breathe.  So - we made the decision for her.  Sometimes being responsible means making the decisions that hurt the most.  I hate that.  I hate that more than anything.

We petted her and held her throughout the night.  And this morning, we took her to the vet.  I know we made the right decision, the merciful decision.  But that doesn't make things any easier.  

As the drugs were administered, we held her in our arms and told her over and over how much we loved her.  We told her that she was the best dog ever.  I pray that her last conscious thought was knowing she was a good girl.  And that she was much loved.

Starbucks, you are sorely missed.  

Echo Park Sketch Challenge

I have been enjoying a few days of "me" time (which has been pure Heaven!), and I actually had enough spare time to play along with this fantastic Sketch Challenge over at Echo Park's BLOG.    I love Lori Whitlock's Hello Summer collection and have been waiting for the opportunity to break it open and play with it.  And this seemed to be the perfect time!

After spending a good 30 minutes sorting through the papers because I had such a hard time limiting myself to choosing just a couple of the uber-adorable sheets of paper, I decided on the patterned papers you see with an orange background.  And after being absolutely, positively sure I had exactly the papers I wanted and gluing everything down, I came to the conclusion that, while cute, the orange background didn't give me quite the crisp summer look I was going for.  So....I ripped and cut the patterned papers away from it and put them against the white cardstock that you see.  Perfect!  Sadly, the lovely orange paper from the Hello Summer collection became a casualty - there wasn't enough left in good condition to save - but I think the end result made the sacrifice worthwhile!

Of course I HAD to fussy cut these wonderful flowers from the paper they were on and use them in a cluster.

I also fussy cut these little bees, and I doodled on just about every piece of paper and embellishment on this layout!

What kind of journaling would a dog have about summer?  Well, I think it might look a little bit like this...

That's it for now.  Stay tuned - Let's Capture These Sketches, Lori Whitlock projects, and Practical Scrappers fun coming soon!!!

Negative Space - Practical Scrappers

A Second post today - this one for PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS where today's challenge was (insert drum roll) to create a layout with negative space - think empty frames like the ones I used, the empty spaces from sticker or chipboard sheets, even misting or spraying around something. Yep, this is one way that negative can be a positive thing! If are here to see my Lori Whitlock project, click HERE! (or just scroll down to the next post) I am an equal opportunity scrapper, so it's only fair that if I create a layout about one of the dogs in my family, I have also got to create one about one of my cats - especially when I caught this one laying across my laptop staring intently at the screen! He had one of the keys depressed, and he was extremely interested in watching the cursor zip across the screen! My papers are all Pink Paislee (from the Prairie Hill collection). I have had these Maya Road frames for well over a year and keep finding ways to incorporate them into my layouts. They were perfect to create little pockets of negative space since they are framing, well, nothing.

I made up a little journaling because, frankly, I couldn't resist. And my Danny is FOR SURE a lover boy! Ha! If any cat were to post a personal ad for a purr-fect Persian princess, it would be him!

Finally, a cluster of randomness and stitching - two MUSTS for me!

Have you created a negative space layout? No? Well, then, why don't you challenge yourself to give it a try! Until next time... Happy Crafting!