The World According to Angie

2010's Monday in Photos + Words

I'm making progress, slowly but surely, in pulling together the photos + words I collected last year into a cohesive album. Here's how Monday came together:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is an excellent exercise to undertake ten days before beginning my 2011 round of "Week in the Life" documentation. I've found I'm taking note of those photos that are most meaningful to me, and those that I didn't capture, but wish I had. I've also discovered while I'm good about taking pictures for a week, my weakness lies in the documentation of words.

I'm going to work on that this year ... I've got some ideas.
 

Halloween, Doggy Style

With just a few days left before Halloween, preparations are under way in the Key household to kick off the start of the holiday season. The Irish in me has an affinity for celebrating Samhain, with its carved vegetables and bonfires and costumes. And even the dogs get to play along.

Jim won't let me put the dogs in costumes. (He claims that's why dogs bite people.) So this year, I got sneaky ... and smart. I decided to make them t-shirts.

I picked up a pack of white newborn onesies and cut off the bottom.

I found the Halloween-themed iron-ons at Michael's. A couple minutes with my iron, and voila: super cute wife-beater t-shirts fit for a Yorkie and a Morkie. 

Jack-Jack is in desperate need of a haircut. Forgive my hippy-dog; he's got an appointment with his groomer next week.

Isn't this just about the most adorable thing you've ever seen?

Yeah, it's ridiculous. I know.

Eddie was SO beat down when I put his shirt on. I've let him run around nekkid all summer long, so he's gotten out of practice with wearing clothes.

The promise of a treat, however, perked him right up.

His shirt stretched out quite a bit more than Jack's, but it was still a perfect fit. Seriously, the white Gerber onesies look like little wife-beaters. Hysterical.

 

So on Sunday night, as we sit on our front porch and hand out candy to the neighborhood kids, Eddie and Jack-Jack will be greeting them in style.

And I'm quite amused with myself.

project SAVOR - C ... Cuddle (REDUX)

 

( graphic elements - Carina Gardner - ABC Inspiration @ JessicaSprague.com; page layout - all me. fonts - elephant, adobe garamond, and amaze )

 

One of the things the redesigned journaling page allowed was more space for writing ... and I took advantage of it to go deeper on some of the layouts. This is one.

Journaling reads: Don't ever pass up an opportunity to cuddle. When life gets crazy, and your body is cruising on overdrive, the last thing you want to do is stop for a snuggle. But that's precisely when you need it the most. That's one of the reasons my house will always be home to a dog. Canines know the true value of cuddles (especially on a cold day, beneath a cozy comforter) and they won't let a day p0ass without giving you your minimum recommended daily dose. Yorkies in particular.

 

project SAVOR - C ... Cuddle

 

(page template & graphic elements - Carina Gardner - ABC Inspiration @ JessicaSprague.com)

Journaling reads: Don't ever pass up an opportunity to cuddle. Especially with a cute canine on a cold day beneath a cozy down comforter.

I shot this photograph of our Yorkie, Eddie, on a rare snow day. While the rest of us were outside playing in the snow, he was cuddled up on my down comforter where I'd left it piled on the couch. I love his "smooshed" face and bed-hair.
 

Don't get between Eddie and his bone

My Eddie is picky. Finicky. Persnickety. And it's a pain in the butt - especially now that we've begun obedience training, and we have to keep treats on hand that he likes.

Hot dogs? Good. Dog food? Not interested.

Rawhide? Only if he's in the mood.

But I happened across a type of chew that he goes CRAZY for:

Wag'n Wraps by Dingo Treats. It didn't take any cajoling; Eddie took one sniff, snatched it out of my hand, and made a beeline for the living room, which is where he takes any food item he's afraid I might decide to take away from him.

 

And he proceeded to make love to that rawhide wrap.

 

Seriously, it was kind of creepy.

 

But he's so stinkin' cute ... like a little teddy bear. A neurotic, opinionated teddy bear. With teeth.

 

It makes me laugh to watch the way he uses his paws and claws to hold on to stuff. Kind of like a racoon. Or a greedy toddler with an ice cream cone.

 

But the very best part of this whole gig?  The way that little dork was lying on the carpet:

 

Sigh. Why does he do that?!?! I sit on that carpet sometimes, y'know.

Jake, on the other hand, polished his Dingo Wrap off in about five bites.

 

Of course, this is the dog who pulls empty plastic bags out of the trash can and pulls them like taffy, ripping and chewing and swallowing.  He thinks plastic frisbees are a good appetizer.  And let's not talk about what he can do to a poor, unsuspecting tennis ball.

So I think I'll spend the money on those Dingo Wraps for Eddie.  Jake?  I'll give him the packaging.

In a Photo Frame of Mind

I spent my lunch hour playing with photographs.  I'm trying to actually take a one hour break mid-day, even though I'm Medifast'ing and just doing bars every 2.5-3 hours.  It's awful tempting to just work straight through it, since I'm not sitting down to a meal, but that "mental break" is super-important.

I was able to get my photography blog updated with shots from December that have been in my "to be processed" pile.  It's shots like this:

 

(I'm so in love with my nieces...)

Make sure you go check 'em out.  And now, I'm itching to shoot ... so Jim and I are taking Eddie and Veronica to the park after work.  It's a beautiful, clear, crisp day here in Dallas - and I'm sure my furry little guy will be ready to runandsniffandpeeandrunandrunandrollinthedirtandchasetheducks.

I swear, that's how I hear him in my head.

Eddie loves Santa

 

Eddie loves Santa ... mostly because Santa is the one who gives the dogs T-R-E-A-T-S (don't say the word, because they'll all go crazy, don't tell me they don't understand!) every hour on the hour, because mean ol' Mrs. Claus won't let them have 'em any more often than that.  It says so, right on the fridge.

Eddie loves Santa because sometimes his beard smells like bacon.

And Eddie loves Santa because he has a warm lap and when he's watching back-to-back football games ... well, that means Eddie can take an extra-long nap.

Eddie loves Mrs. Claus, too, even though she does the treat rationing... mostly because she has a really soft chest he likes to lay on as he gazes lovingly into her eyes.  Just like he does with me.  Man, that Eddie is such a boob-dog.

Huh ... boobs, Santa, and bacon, all in one blog post.  Yes, that's how we roll here on The World According to Angie.

Someone's had a bit too much cough syrup.

Jim started it ...

I will take responsibility for my part in this particular caper, but I have to place blame - er, give credit - where it's due.  Jim started it.

A few weeks ago, as the weather began making like it might be autumn here in Dallas, Jim said something that shocked me: "I want to get a raincoat for Eddie."

A raincoat?  For our Yorkshire Terrier?  Is this the same man who used to say, when he'd see dogs wearing clothing, that this was why they bite people?

Yeah, he was serious.  Jim pointed to last winter, when he'd take Eddie for his daily walks in the freezing rain.  Our poor boy - with his thin coat of Yorkie hair, not thick big-dog fur - would get soaked to the bone in minutes, and was utterly miserable.  By the time they got home, Eddie was freezing cold, a drowned rat with uncontrollable shivers.

Of course, Jim still snickers when he recalls the day Eddie decided to shake off the water in his hair when he was standing on a patch of ice.  He begins to shake, and - whoomp! - his little legs go out from under him.  So don't go "awwwww..." and get all gooey, thinking that he's all super-sweet and empathetic just because he wants to buy the dog a raincoat.

Today, after work, we took Eddie with us for an outing to PetCo ... where we found a waterproof yellow rainslicker.  The small was too short for his body, and the medium is just a wee bit too big, but it'll do the job of keeping him dry.

Is that not the most ridiculous thing you have ever seen?  We should have bought this a couple weeks ago, and he could have been the Gorton's Fisherman for Halloween.

With the hood up, he can only see straight out the front.  Poor guy was walking sideways.  Mean ol' Jim was laughing so hard he almost fell out of his chair.  <sniff-sniff>

Well, if we're going to get him a raincoat, why not get him something to keep him warm on chilly-but-dry days as well?  So when I found this, we added it to our basket:

No fuzzy-frou-frou sweaters for our dog ... oh, no - he gets the uber-manly Jeep brand quilted all-terrain vest.  This thing is super-thick and will keep him really warm.

Yeah, he was glaring at me when I took this photo.  Can you blame him?   Here I'm wrestling him in and out of clothing and Jim is laughing at him.  I'd be glaring at me, too.  Good thing Eddie loves me anyway.  Because as I type this, he's curled up at my feet, sleeping on his blanket here in my studio.  All is well with the world...

...and if cooler weather ever actually does make it to Dallas, we've got him covered.  Literally.

Jim calls him Garfield

This weekend, as we began our first major married home improvement project (which I’ll detail in a separate post to come) Eddie’s neurotic side came out.  We packed up stuff into boxes – he freaked.  We started moving furniture around – he shook like a leaf.  And as we began preparations for painting the big room, we wanted him out from under foot, but he wanted to be thisclosetous…

So we compromised: we let him hang out in the room while we worked, and after some love and reassurance, he settled down a bit.  In fact, he settled down enough to do this:

Which is exactly what I would have been doing on a Sunday afternoon if I wasn’t wrapped up in blue masking tape and brown paper drop-cloth.

I pointed out our peaceful, sleeping boy, and Jim laughed – “Just call him Garfield!”  I disagree.  He might act like a cat more often than not - snoozing in the sun and sleeping on the back of the couch, curling up in my lap and kneading both blankets and pillows to make a nest before he lies down - but truthfully, Eddie is much more like Odie.

The moment we let him out of his crate, he’s just like that brainless dog, running rampant around the house with his tongue hanging out.  He does laps around the kitchen, through the breakfast nook, out into the hall, and back into the kitchen, around and around and around, until he skids into the carpet or runs into something.  I keep waiting for the day he’s going to mess up his timing and slam headlong into the sliding glass door.

He’s neurotic, he’s lovable … he’s our Eddie.  So, Jim – the next time you’re ready to kill him because he went all Rambo on a food expedition and nabbed the bag of Cheez-Its from the counter where, yes, he wasn’t supposed to be climbing … look at this photo and remember why we love him … furry little pain in the butt that he is.

Vacation Dogpile

Aaaaahhhhh... vacation.  Boy, did I need this break.  Sea World on Thursday was hot and exhausting (but Veronica enjoyed herself, which was the whole point), and Friday at the caverns and the Animal Safari park was equally hot and exhausting (but we all enjoyed ourselves, and I got amazing photos) ... and now, on Saturday, I think I actually get to relax.

And the dogs are going to make sure of it.

This, my friends, is what we call a dogpile.  I think Koa was first to jump up and make her nest in the crook of my knee.  (She's my Mom's 6-lb teacup Yorkie.)  Then, Eddie decided he needed to stake his claim on his Mama, so he cuddled up to my chest.  And finally, Bear, who has grown to be a whopping 5 lbs - most of which is hair - decided he needed to climb on up and be a part of things.

Just me, the dogs, and my Frosted Flakes pj pants.

Aaaahhh... vacation...