Cold!

A while back, I drew another word out of my little bucket.  The word was "cold."  Of course, this was after our week-long bout of -35 degrees celcius.  It feels cold out there this morning, so I thought I'd better quit dragging my heals. 

Belle agrees. 

And I'm sure this little tree is wishing for warmer days.

 I hope you enjoyed my interpretation of the word cold - from things I could find around my yard this morning:) 

Happy Holidays everyone!  Stay WARM!

~Kristy~

 

Word of the day . . . .

So, I actually drew this word out of the "bucket" right after I did the cat photos.  This one took me a bit longer because I actually had to set it up a bit.  Finally, I got around to it though, so here is my interpretation of "High Key."  (The most basic and simplest way to describe high key photography is white (or light) on white.)  

My model started out, a bit less than enthused to be helping me.  

But the bribes of delicious candy and cookies, made her perk up a bit.

Then, things turned sideways.  She needed to do her hair. 

So, I had to bring in some reinforcements.  (He was just as enthused as she was to begin with!)

In the end, neither of them wanted to really cooperate, but I was happy to catch a special moment:)

Have a great weekend everyone:)

~Kristy~

Outtakes . . . .

So I was working on getting a shot of my girls to use for a Christmas card this year.  Here are a few of the outtakes.

She makes the strangest faces.  I think that really, she just tries to mess with me, because I don't usually see quite the same faces in day-to-day life as when my camera is pointed at her. 

Again, someone thinks that she is being funny.  I wonder why - her sister thinks she's hilarious!

So here's the point where I have to confess . . . . I was bribing them with M&M's to sit there.  It worked for a while, until they had stained lips, and the only thing they could concentrate on was getting more candy. 

Have a great week everyone!

~Kristy~

The word of the day is . . . "Cat."

Today, a friend and I had planned to do a photo scavenger hunt.  Unfortunately, she wasn't feeling well this morning so we didn't get to do it (yet).  I realize that I've been really lacking in the blogging department lately, so I decided that I would draw a word out of the hat (actually it's a McDonald's Happy Meal Halloween bucket - just in case you wanted the whole truth), and I would just run with that theme.  The word I drew was "cat." 

First off, I found Bowser.  I think he is a beautiful cat -  I love his white markings.

Next, was Oliver.  He's so fluffy, many people say he reminds them of a fox, but he reminds me of a lion.

Then of course, Oswald.  I think his whiskers are amazing.

 

I have a friend who is TERRIFIED of cats.  (I'm not exaggerating - she can barely look at them.)  She is scared of cats like I'm afraid of spiders, or people are afraid of snakes or mice.  She says it's because of their eyes.  I think cats have beautiful, intense eyes and the colours are amazing.  But, that's just my opinion of course:-)

While I'm being completely honest, I should tell you that I did have a little help from my personal assistant today.  Thank-you very much to my cat-crazed little girl for all of your help:)

I should also mention - there ARE other words in the bucket that are not animal related.  I thought it was funny that I pulled out "cat" the first time:)  Really, there are only 3 animals out of 24 words.  I'm planning to do a new word tomorrow!

Have a great weekend everyone!

~Kristy~

Happy Gotcha Day X 3

Today, November 5th is "Gotcha Day" at  our house. Not just for one of our pets - but 3. This is completely coincidental and unintentional, and none of them came to be part of our family in the same year.

First there was Ozzie/Oswald the cat. In 2000, my childhood cat passed away at a ripe old age of 20 years. I was sad and missing him (even though he had always lived at home with my parents, and I hadn't lived there for over 3 years), so I decided to get a cat of my own. Enter, Oswald. He was a total sheister of a kitten, but has been the best cat that anyone could ask for.  He is now amazing with my kids - puts up with way more than I could ever expect him to, and he is amazingly loyal and affectionate.  I'm convinced that he thinks he is actually a dog.  I've never met another cat quite like him:)

All of my old photos of Oswald as a kitten are packed away somewhere (we moved in March), and when he was a kitten digital cameras were still pretty new, so since I can't find them right now, here is a more recent one.  

Then, one year later, I had just moved into a new place, with a back yard, where I was allowed to get a dog. (The only reason I moved into that place:) So, along came Belle. Just thinking back to that day makes me smile - She was so scared on the drive home, but then she got do excited when we brought her into my living room - she just seemed to instantly know that she was at her forever home. We have both come so far and changed so much since then. 

Here's a picture of me and Belle.  I don't remember exactly when this was taken, but it was probably within a month of when I got her.  

It was a few months later when I was looking at both her & Ozzie's vet records that I realized that I had brought them both home on November 5, just one year apart. 

Then, onto 2005 and things have changed - a lot. Since getting both Oz & Belle, I got married and we moved to a different city. We had thought about getting another dog quite a bit, then we met a friends' 2 goldens (brother & sister), whom we fell in love with. Then we found out that there was a brand new litter of pups only 5 weeks old - so of course, I had to go look. Well, that was silly! I laid claim to one of the pups - Duke - but had to wait a few weeks to be able to take him. Finally, it came to the day when we could take him home, and it wasn't until we were pulling out of the driveway with our new puppy that I realized the date - November 5th! 

 (I'm astounded that I couldn't find any puppy pictures of him!  He was about 4 months old in this photo, so it will have to do:)

So, needless to say, every year as November 5th approaches, I get a bit nervous. Today, I've been watching out the window to see if there are any stray cats around, or if out of nowhere a new dog will find and adopt us.

I think it would have been really funny if my kids were born on November 5th!

So, here is the photo that I took today, for my 52 Weeks of Belle Project for Flickr.  

I had wanted to get a photo with all 3 of them in it - and it was a challenge.  Oz was less than impressed to be involved with this endeavor, so out of about 20 shots that I managed to get with him actually in it - this is as good as it got!

I hope you all have a great weekend!  Happy Friday!

~Kristy~

How to catch a ball - Belle style.

I went out tonight, armed with my camera in hopes of getting my "52 Weeks for Dogs" shot for a Flickr group that I'm part of.  I got a few shots that I was happy with, but as I was created a folder for my images to download into, (which was named with the date) I realized that I've been waiting all year to do this weeks' "52 weeks" photo.  I have high hopes that this weeks' photo will be really special, and I plan to blog about it on Friday - so I'll shut my trap about it for now.

Anyway - when I went through the photos from tonight, I had to laugh when I came across these ones.  Not the most fantastic photos by any means, but I still thought that it was funny enough to share:) 

Belle got a new toy - a big cuz .  Well, it's not that big, but she's only ever had a baby cuz, which she loved, but we lost it.  I wasn't sure what she'd think of this bigger version, but she loves it!  She'll even just carry it the whole way, squeaking every now and then when we go for walks (which she's never done with a toy before).  Needless to say, it's a hit. 

Here, Belle demonstrates how to catch a ball . . . kind of.

Step #1:  Anticipate

Step #2:  The catch! 

Step # 3:  Ooops, I mean the catch.

Step #4:  Oooops, I mean, the catch.

Step #5:  Hope that nobody saw that, and pretend like you caught it the first time.

I hope you're all having a great week so far:)

~Kristy~

Silhouette

Happy Monday everyone! 

I hope you have a great week:-)

~Kristy~

Meet Annie

This beautiful girl, who I got to shoot over the long weekend is Annie.  She is a Malinois/Shepard Cross who is full of heart:)

She loves to fetch.

and overall, is just a happy kind of girl! 

She knows how to relax!

 

She was a great model!  

 

with the whitest, cleanest teeth I have ever seen!

Thanks for a fun afternoon Annie!

~Kristy~

Bentley & Lily

I got to shoot Bentley & Lily back in June, but I didn't have a blog then, so I didn't get to really share them:)  I thought that today might be fitting to share some of their shoot with you, as I hear that Lily has to go in for surgery on her leg tomorrow. 

Bentley is definitely his Daddy's boy:)  He couldn't have cared less about what I was doing, as long as he knew where Dad was!

 

Lily is such a sweet little girl.  If I remember correctly, she was about 4 months old when we did these photos.  I've seen her once since then, at the Humane Society's Dog Jog, and she has really grown up (at least in body!).  She was is a total ham - she LOVES the camera.  She was a fantastic little model!

 

 

 

I'll be thinking of you tomorrow Lily!  I hope that everything goes well, and you'll be back tearing up the dog park in no time!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend!

~Kristy~