Sometimes at the tail end of a long work week I wish I could hand in a note to buy myself a little extra time to rest up, wander through a museum, curl up for an afternoon nap, or tell larger than life stories to an old friend.

I thought that on the chance you feel the same way, I might try to help you out…

If I could play hookey today I would steal a friend away from work and go to a matinee showing of an old fashioned thriller. We’d eat frozen yogurt, hop out of our seat for all the jump scares, and come out laughing. :)

Not to say that my Very Official Looking Note won’t work

but if you could play hookey today what would you do?

- John D. Rockefeller

Mal is a good dog. Really, he is. He hasn’t bribed me with cuddles…wooed me with his eyes…paid me to tell you so, he’s a good little guy. He’s just excitable, and it means that when we go on walks we’re not strolling, we’re working.

It’s a bit of a perfect storm- he’s easily excited and a little unsure of the world at first blush, so if someone comes down the street when we’re walking, he’s instantly aware. If we met you on the street and I let him do what he wanted, he would run up to you (barking a YOU ARE NEW, I DON’T KNOW YOU bark) wiggle around you (barking an I AM GETTING TO KNOW YOU, YOU SEEM ALRIGHT bark) and then after he’d smelled you (barking a WE ARE BEST FRIENDS NOW!!!! IT IS DESTINY!!! bark) he would calm down, let you pat his belly, and be quiet. Like a normal dog.

But if left to his own devices those first 30 seconds of meeting Mal would leave an impression, so we’ve been working hard to make sure he doesn’t get a reputation. Because the last thing any young man needs to do these days is ruin his reputation. How will he ever marry if people think he’s anti-social?

(As a character from a Jane Austin novel, I think it’s important for him to think of these things)

We’re working with him on our walks every day- we bring treats so we’re more interesting than the new people and dogs, we stop and ask him to calm down any time he gets excited and wants to meet someone new, and if he starts to bark we pull off the sidewalk and keep him quiet while the new friends walk past us. And he’s never allowed to meet someone unless he’s quiet and calm.

He’s been making great progress, for instance his barking has been downgraded to excited panting (and thinking about barking) when he meets someone new now, but I’ve still been considering taking him to classes… the only thing is I’m not sure where we fit.

Mal doesn’t really need an obedience class for the obedience – he loves learning new tricks and is extremely focused. He learns quickly and will sit and stay and dance and roll over until the cows come home if you ask him to. But he’s not a puppy, so all the socialization classes I can find are out (and we already did one!). I would just head to the dog park to have him slowly meet other dogs who would model calm behaviour for him…. but inexplicably, none of the dog parks in my city are fenced in! Unless I tied an anchor to him, I wouldn’t feel comfortable starting our real off leash work in a high stakes environment like that. And I think anchors are out this year.

I just need a “How To Meet Dogs and People While Keeping Your Cool” seminar for him- and finding the right fit is looking like a project rather than a phone call. I’m hoping that soon we find the right place and person to work with us- and at least for the mean time we’re stocked up on treats and I’m working on sounding stern when I say “quiet”.

Have you had any experience with excitable dogs or obedience classes?

Do you think a class is the best next step?

ps – Before you ask we walk the dogs for a minimum of 45 minutes a day, have done puppy socialization with them and are experienced with handling dogs. He’s just rambunctious! :)

I’ve been wanting to post more DIYs and recipes for a while, but I keep pushing them back in favour of telling stories! Every now and then I’m going to be adding in a Tuesday post about something hands on, and today is one of those days… Hope you like it!

kr.

I’ve been fascinated by lomography for some time now, and I thought that our trip was the perfect reason to make the leap and have something a little more lo-fi to play with. I bought a Diana F+ right before we left and wanted to give her a little more flare for the trip – this is how you can make a fancy strap for your toy camera too!

Supplies:

- Two lengths of thin ribbon (I used 52″)
- A glue gun
- Four buttons
- Binder clips and paper clips as needed
- a heavy book to anchor your strap

Start with a shiny new toy camera, that is just begging for you to mess with it. Only slightly, I promise.

Choose and cut two lengths of a thin ribbon, for mine I cut 52″ of each and then trimmed the extra at the end. Remove the strap from the camera, then lay the ribbon on the outside of the camera strap and use a small binder clip to secure them together:

Flip the project over so the outside is facing up, and pop a heavy book on top of the tail end of the camera strap to keep it from getting any ideas about the process. This will allow the ribbon to move freely around it without being tangled.

Start to wrap the ribbons around the strap one at a time, letting them cross each other at the spacing of your choosing.

When you get halfway finished, pop a paperclip or binder clip on one of the crosses. The ribbon tension will be a little slippy, so this lets you adjust when you’ve finished the next half without the project becoming unwieldy.  Continue wrapping the ribbons until you reach the end, then slip a paperclip on just above the last place where the ribbons cross.

Adjust! Things may have slipped around while you were working, so make sure both sides are spaced out how you want them to be and that the first and last ribbon crosses are approximately parallel to each other. You don’t want to look lopsided, afterall.

Starting at the centre point of the strap, then moving to the ends, add a small dot of hot glue on the camera strap under one of the crosses, and anchor the ribbons in it. On each end, cut the tail ends of the ribbon off and add small buttons with hot glue to hide the ends.

This is a fast, fun cute-ification project that is easily undone with no harm to the strap.

And yes, my diana & I are having a lot of fun, as you can probably tell. :)

The big day has come and gone and…. I have my outline!

{Tattoo by Rich at Kapala Tattoo}

The decision to get this tattoo took me a long time to come to. My last tattoo experience was hard. My koi fish was done on the part of my back where my chronic back pain comes from, and at the time I wasn’t doing much to keep it under control. About twenty minutes into the colour, I lost it- the pain went off the richter scale and the muscles in my back started spasming. I ended up having to leave, let it heal, and did two months of physio and massage and yoga to get the pain into a place where it was manageable. I went back and sat through the colour, but for a long time the sound of the tattoo machines made me feel like I was suddenly seasick. I knew that my shoulder pice was something I wanted, I wasn’t sure that my body could handle it.

And of course, my questions didn’t end there. While I loved the idea of having a big visible tattoo in theory, I wasn’t sure how I the old parts of me would mesh with this new part. I see other women with visible tattoos all the time and I adore them. Their art suits them perfectly and they’re these amazing, larger than life indie sirens to me… but until I saw the finished stencil, I wasn’t sure that I could be that kind of girl. What if I got it and it didn’t suit me? What then? My imagination was caught up in a tug of war between what I wanted and imagined worst case scenarios right up until the appointment.

While part of me wanted some kind of a litmus test so I would know that this was the right thing, I knew that all I could do was dive into the experience and see what happened. I was incredibly excited to see it, but prepared to pull the plug if I didn’t like the art… and then if I did love it I was just going to pray my shoulder didn’t feel like my back did last time around. And if it did I wouldn’t make myself be brave, I would just sit still and wait for it to be finished. So at least I had a plan!

When I pulled up to the shop, I still felt shaky (because I’m me) but I took a deep breath, got out of the car, and went in.

I met my artist, who was warm and quick to laugh, put Serenity into the DVD player… and the shop broke into a faux opera rendition of the firefly theme song. When I could stop laughing we did the first part of a flower and I knew that I would be fine. The art was beautiful, the pain felt normal, and I was clearly with my people.

On the other side of it, I didn’t need to be so concerned! I’m in love with it and the experience was fabulous. I’m actually excited to have the colour done, and for someone who’s not made of tough stuff that says a lot. And indie siren or not, I think it suits me perfectly. It’s healing beautifully and the colour will be finished at the end of June. I love how big it is, and that it’s a partial sleeve. I love that it’s old fashioned and feminine, and I love how it peeks out from my shirts and dresses. I’m enamoured.

My cherry blossoms are a reminder of the west coast, of how short our time here together is and how beautiful it is while it lasts. And it’s a reminder that no matter what is happening now, the whole world can change by spring. I feel like its always been a part of me, I’ve just been waiting to meet it.

You can see close ups here & here, and if you have any questions please leave them in the comments, I’d love to answer them.

This winter my (amazing, gorgeous) little sister moved to France for a semester abroad, and we don’t get her back until August! I’m missing her these days but she’s on an amazing adventure, her updates are wonderful and I’m living vicariously through her.

But it’s hasn’t been all fun and games- for instance, a little while ago she visited Monaco… but it was cloudy. From what I hear if there are clouds it’s not even worth going. I’m so glad that I’m not there! Could you imagine having to deal with that? Not on my watch, let me tell you. That’s where I draw the line.

Have a beautiful weekend…

& have a drink for all the poor folks in cloudy old boring Monaco, won’t you?

I don’t know how they suffer though, brave souls ;)

Love you Lana! <3

{images: her blog, tjejsajten}