Puppy Love

Well, it's Valentine's week.  For some of you, this means you will be spending the week frantically searching for a last minute gift for your honey or fighting for the last reservations at your favorite restaurant.  For others of you, this means you will be drinking heavily and trying to avoid all the love-sick couples that have seemed to received the memo that you are boycotting happiness.  And for some of you, this means that you will be baking a extra huge chocolate cake because it's Valentine's day and that's reason enough to eat an entire cake by yourself.

I think I'm mostly in the first of the aforementioned categories, however baking myself a chocolate cake does sound like a pretty good plan as well.

Anyway, I figured that no matter what category you are in this year, I'm sure that there are still plenty of kinds of love for you to celebrate this week.  So I figured I'd try and dedicate all my posts this week to a different kind of love to be especially excited about.  And don't worry, I'll try not to be particularly vomit inducing.

First up:  Puppy Love.




Do you read Desire to Inspire?  It is a lovely design blog that features drool-worthy homes from around the world.  It is dangerously addictive.  As if it were even possible to make the blog more awesome, every week they dedicate an entire post to pictures of pets on furniture.  That's right.  Just cute animals on awesome furniture.  Could it get any better?

Here are some of my favorite pets on furniture as of late.  It's true that I tend to favor the canine variety mostly due to my own four-legged furry smelly children.  But seriously, is there really anything better than a nuzzle from your favorite pup?  I think not.

(Yes, I realize the last pic is not a dog.  But I have a somewhat unhealthy obsession with bunnies and have been begging my Mr. for one for years and I just can't help but include one here for your viewing pleasure.)

Start following this lovely blog if for no other reason than to get a dose of precious animal love every week.

Wishing you lots of love from your favorite animals this week,
MEL

(Images, in order from top to bottom, from here, here, here, here, and here.)

A little change of scenery...

So, the big news is...

WE'RE MOVING TO COLORADO!!!

Yes, we are completely stoked.  Yes, we are completely overwhelmed.  Yes, we are completely over the moon.

Yes, all the details of moving across the country in less than 3 months, have in fact not hit us yet.

We are on cloud nine for the moment and trying to savor it as long as possible.  We have begun the house hunt and started trying to tie down some loose ends here before our journey.  We're already starting to experience some stressful moments associated with the move, which kind of terrifies me.  But overall, we're nothing short of thrilled.

Here are a few little sentimental things that I may just have to pick up to signify this momentous occasion in our lives:

I'm thinking it would be wonderful to have a custom portrait made of our home here in FL by Rebecca Seale.  After all, our little home here means so much to us--we got engaged here, married here, adopted our newest pup dog here.  It would be beautiful to have a little memorial to it all.  (Found via Babble)

We've made a ton of amazing friends here who we are going to miss like crazy.  Plus, we have family here who are going to miss us like crazy.  I think this pillow would be an amazing gift to give to the people we love who we will be leaving behind.  (Found via the lil bee)

My husband and I have lived in some really amazing places in our lives and it would be great to represent them in our new home.  I love these state bird prints by Kelsey Oseid.  They are so whimsical and would be perfect artwork to carry with us throughout our lives.  (Found via Design*Sponge)

I hope you'll come with us, my dear internet cosmos, as we embark on this new journey!

XOXO
--MEL

Dalton

So, this time I have a good reason for neglecting the blog for the last few days.

The reason is wiggly and black and drooly and the silliest thing I've ever met.

Meet Dalton.

We have always known that we were meant to be a "two dog family".  Yes, I know, most people don't really think about things like this but, the Mr. & I, we are the type of people who absolutely do.

Anyway, we've had our wonderful Florida Brown Dog, Pax, for 3 years now and we knew now was the time to get him a friend.  Have you met Pax yet?  Let me refresh your memory:

So, back to the point.  Pax needed a friend and we went searching for his perfect companion.  To make a super long story short, we found the perfect dog, Dalton, from this great program called Paws on Parole and we knew he was the one.  After a long time of applications and meetings and such, another couple ended up taking him home.  We were destroyed.

Fast forward 3 weeks and it turns out one of Dalton's new owners is allergic to him.  (!!!!!!!)  First of all, let me be clear, if that were to happen to me, if I were to adopt a pup and be allergic to him, I would be devastated.  Needless to say, they were, and I truly felt for them.  But we were of course over the moon to be bringing him home to us.

I know it may sound silly but we just feel like it was meant to be.

So now we have a new dynamic duo in the house, and I'll tell you what, they are quite the pair.  Here, see for yourself.

Green & Giddy

I'm feeling particularly inspired by nature today.  Yesterday, I spent all day planting a garden that we are starting at the church I work at.  All the fruits and veggies we grow will go into meals that we cook for the homeless and underserved in the community.

There is an 80 year old member of the church who headed up the planting and design of the garden and he singlehandedly taught me how to do all of it yesterday.  He and I spent hours with our hands in the soil, lovingly inserting new growth into the ground to be further raised by the nourishment of the earth.  He told me all about nitrogen and the importance of rain and reasons we should all go organic.  He also showed me how to rake and level the garden (My body is paying for that today), stake out and make straight rows (well, his were straight) and fill them with seed and cover the seed appropriately with a correct level of soil, all the while pushing me on with a sturdy "Thata' girl."

I felt so inspired and connected to our ancestors in connecting with his old wise soul.  I'll share pictures of yesterday's garden raising soon.

Until then, here are some images from my life that inspire me and encourage my continually evolving relationship with creation.  I hope you all will nourish your relationships with creation today--go outside, look into the sky, touch a tree or flower.  Or just breathe in and out and remember how that simple act is a miracle.

Magnolia at the Mississippi River, Memphis, TN

Pax in the Grass, MLC

Weathered Tree, Colorado

Mom & my rock, Colorado

Majesty, Colorado

Sky, New Mexico

Road to Taos, New Mexico

Enjoying the River, Colorado

Voluptuous Aspens, Colorado

Sidewalk, MLC

Wedding Walk, MLC

Yummy fruits of the earth

Pax in Bed

Happy Friday everyone!  I hope you all have had a wonderful week and I hope you have a beautiful weekend ahead of you!  We are going to fire up the grill tonight and probably spend the entire weekend outside in this beautiful weather.  

I woke up this morning, hopped into the blogosphere, and read this post.  Then I went over to the good 'ole NYT and read this article on pets in bed and realized that as I was reading, I had our lovely Florida brown dog, Pax, at my feet.  In my bed.

First of all, let me explain my reaction to this article.  I thought, "Our dog doesn't sleep in our bed!  We make sure to put him on his bed on the floor every night before we go to bed!  He knows his place!"  

Then, I stopped and came back to reality.

Fact of the matter is that every single night, like clock work, Pax will wait until the Mr. and I are fast asleep, quietly get up off of his bed and climb up at the foot of ours and snuggle up at our feet.  We don't even realize he's gotten on our bed until the morning.  Except for the times when he decides to sleep on our feet, and come to think of it, those times are not few and far between.  That actually happens quite often. So I guess actually, we do notice him in our bed.  All the time.

The truth is that Pax sleeps in our bed every single night and we do absolutely nothing to stop it.

Anyway, reading this article made me smile this morning so I thought I would share it with you all.  Tell me, do you have pets in your bed?  Don't be ashamed. 

After all, how could we possibly resist that face.  

Here's to lots of snuggling with your pets this weekend.  

--MEL