Last Minute Gifts for Animal Lovers

With Christmas Eve being tomorrow there sure are a lot of people out shopping still. I'm betting some people will continue shopping right up until the stores close tomorrow night. I'm thinking some of these last minute shoppers may have an animal lover on their list so I decided to compile some last minute gift ideas for such folks.

Google Images

• A Calendar with the recipients favorite breed/animal on it

This may seem a little cheesy, but it's something that is usually pretty easy to find, especially in a pinch. Not to mention that most people use a calendar, whether in their personal or work life.

• Gourmet pet treats (specific to the animal they own)

Even if this seems more like a gift for the recipient's fur baby, I know that if I received gourmet cookies for Olivia I'd still consider it a gift for me because I would get to enjoy feeding those cookies to Olivia. 

• A gift card to a pet friendly restaurant

I love to take Olivia to restaurants with outside patios when the weather is nice, and I have a lot of friends who do the same with their pooches. You could even write a cute note with the gift card about how you thought the recipient could enjoy a fun meal out with [Fido]. Just be sure to ask ahead of time and make sure the chosen restaurant allows dogs, don't assume.

• Board Games

I don't know about other brand games but I know there is Cat-opoly, Dog-opoly, horse-opoly, and even dog breed specific -opolies. If you only know your friend has a dog and not the specific bree, you could just purchase the generic dog version. Even if they never play the actual game, it will still look cute on a game or coffee table!

• Tree Ornament

If you know the recipient's dog/cat/horse/bird/etc's name you can have it written on an ornament at one of those Christmas stores/kiosks that are at most malls. This makes a cute personalized gift that is relatively in-expensive and doesn't take long to make.

Funny Holiday Video

I found this on Facebook and thought it was pretty cute/funny! I wish our Christmas Eve dinner guests were going to be this cute!

Thinking About My Christmas List

With Christmas fast approaching, I've been doing a lot of Christmas shopping. I keep threatening Olivia that she will have coal in her stocking on Christmas morning because she's been rather naughty. We live in a neighborhood of horse farms and we have 13 acres of our own that Olivia loves to play on. But she and my parent'd dog, Fern Louise have gotten in a horrible habit of chasing squirrels. That in itself isn't bad, it's the ear splitting barking that causes us a problem. My mom is worried about upsetting the neighbors (even though they all have barking dogs as well). Fern Louise will come when my dad goes out to tell her she's being bad. But Olivia.... she won't make eye contact, and then she turns and runs away. You could ( and we have) easily spend an hour trying to catch her. She's just so darn stubborn. And this is why I keep telling her she won't be getting anything but coal for Christmas.

But there's one thing I'd love to get her (okay, I'd enjoy it way more than she would). The GoPro Fetch camera mount. It's GoPro's dog harness that has two camera mounts, one on the chest and one on the back. It looks so cool, and I already have the GoPro (it was my Christmas present last year). I jsut love tech-y toys, especially when there is a dog spin on them! Check out the promo video below and let me know what you think!

(And let's be honest, even with all the talk of not buying Olivia anything for Christmas... there will be many gifts under the tree with a "To Olivia, Love Mommy" tag loving taped to it. I can't stay mad at that adorable squishy face for any amount of time.)

Thoughtless Thursday: Cute Thanksgiving Cat Video

I found this really cute Thanksgiving video with a kitten. A Chihuahua looking dog makes a cameo in it, and the end of the video is pretty funny. Unfortunately, Olivia doesn't have a pilgrim costume of her own.

Olivia and I thought we would share it with everyone as a way to say... Happy Thanksgiving! Gobble till you wobble!

Wordless Wednesday: Family Portrait

Dogs as Disney Characters-- Too Cute!!

A blog called Oh My Disney posted this adorable video of dogs dressed as Disney characters. I may have actually squealed aloud when I saw this.

Holiday Family Portrait Day, By Olivia

For today's post I'm going to try something I've never don before. 'm going to let Olivia take the wheel... er, rather keyboard. She has a lot to say about today's outing.


Olivia here! Today started out like any other day. Mommy's alarm went off and then I helped Mommy wake up Daddy (she poked him and I stepped on his head. We make a great team). Daddy put my coat on and i went out to... take care of business. Then I came in and had a lovely breakfast before we went out and took care of those very large, very delicious smelling, funny looking dogs that Mommy calls "horses". Mommy told me that she had to make herself beautiful for the portrait but that since I am already beautiful (duh) there wasn't much to do to me.

I sat in my dog bed in the bathroom and watched as Daddy shaved off all the whiskers on his face (Mommy told him to). This always amazes me. Doesn't he realize how important those whiskers are? Mommy got all pretty and then she said it was my turn. My turn? She came at me with a dress. And she stuffed me into it. She called it my Christmas dress. I don't think I really like my Christmas dress but my Mommy, and my Granny made a big fuss over me when I was wearing it, so maybe it's not so  bad.

Mommy, Daddy, and I got in the car and I didn't realize until then that Mommy had also brought my sissy (Harley the cat)! Harley screamed the whole way to the store where we sat for a nice man who had bright light bulbs that flashed. Apparently this was what Mommy called the portrait. I love going to that store. I always get lots of home made cookies and everything smells so good in there!

After the portrait we walked around what Mommy calls "Downtown. Sissy was in her carrier bag and nobody even realized she was there. We went in a few stores and Mommy showed me off to the people she knows through her work. Then we sat outside at a cafe and Mommy and Daddy had breakfast. I got to sit on a chair at the table because Mommy says I'm well behaved.

I watched some little birds while Mommy and Daddy had
breakfast. Sissy is in that zebra bag.

There were two big English Bulldogs waiting for their person who was inside eating and everyone who passed made a big fuss over them.

It was a fun day, aside from the Christmas dress, and I always like getting to go out places with my Mommy and Daddy.

Mommy is excited to get something called proofs early next week. all I know is I'm exhausted from looking so cute all day!


Do your parents dress you guys up and take you for portraits?

Too Cute to Leave Behind

Let's be honest. We all think our dog(s) is the cutest dog(s) in the world. I am definitely no exception! In my eyes, I've never seen a dog cuter and with more squish-ably chubby cheeks than my Olivia Rose. I'm biased. We all are.

This morning Olivia was being exceptionally cute. All through eating my breakfast I couldn't stop with the "oh my God"'s every she rolled over or played with a toy. And then Olivia even decided to use her heavy winter coat as a dog bed. The result? I did not want to leave her to go to work (more so than usual). I like my job. It's a wonderful job. But I long for the day when either I have a job that allows me to bring Olivia to work, or I'm self employed and make my own rules about my dog being allowed in my office/store/etc. I'm always very eager to get home to Olivia at the end of the day so I can scoop her up, smell her unique warm puppy smell, and kiss those big chubby cheeks.

Olivia is pretty sure that her coat makes
a cozy make-shift bed.

Playing with toys this morning.

Thoughtless Thursday: Big Deal Thursday

Yesterday I jumped back into blogging (head first, no less) after a four month hiatus (if you'd like to know what Olivia and I were doing during that time please check out the post and I promise it will get you all caught up).

So, anyways, back to the whole jumping back in head first... I had read many months back that having a blog that used a URL with wordpress/blogspot/etc at the end of it was kind of cheesy, it went on to say that not paying for your own domain name detracted from the legit-ness of your blog. I found that to be offensive! My blog URL ends in .blogspot! And my blog is awesome... even though I have, like, 3 people reading it.-- I had thought, insulted.

But yesterday I decided one way I could keep myself writing and from abandoning my blog again was by investing money (not just my very limited free time) into it. If I paid money for some aspect of it I figure that I'm less apt to make excuses for why I'm not writing. So I looked into how I could get a domain name. And I bought one. 

I am now the proud owner of www.oliviashuman.com-- and I'm really quite excited! While I don't think this is a step that will make or break my blog (who knows, I could be very wrong) I am pretty pumped about this big step/decision I made for my blog, my writing, and my brand. I know I haven't been so good about any of those things lately but I want to change that.... starting...now. 

Olivia is also very excited about this next big step. As you can clearly see:

And.... We're Baaaaack! Not-so-Wordless Wednesday

It's been so long since I've sat at a computer and opened up Blogger... and I feel so guilty. I think that guilt was part of why I haven't been on here in so long. I didn't want to admit it had been as long as it has.

But back in May I bought my 2015 BlogPaws ticket for Olivia and I and the other day I told myself I'd have to sell that ticket if I didn't get back to blogging. So here I am. Let me tell you about what we've been up too since... July.

I got a job. My first adult job since graduating college... my first job...ever. I'm the assistant to the executive director at my town's Downtown Development Association. Although having a job was something I was striving for, turned my life on its head. To be honest I'm still trying to fit everything I need to do into my days, especially as it gets dark earlier and earlier.

When I got my job the thing I felt worst about was leaving Olivia every morning to go to work.

I've learned a lot so far. I've had to step outside my comfort zone. I've met so so so many people. I had to figure out how to take minutes and type them up after our monthly board meetings. I learned how to use a dial-up credit card machine. I now know my town's Downtown area better than I could've ever hoped.

Unfortunately, one of the things that got cut when I'd get home from work, ride my horse, eat dinner, and crash for the day was this blog. But it never stopped nagging at me.... write me. Write me. C'mon, one paragraph and a couple of photos.... you know you want to. and I did want to! But I was just so tired that it never got done.

My pet crafting business has gotten a bit of a lift off. I sold my first item on Etsy (a Boston Terrier pin. A woman bought it for her daughter for a Christmas gift). And a new dog boutique, Downtown Dog, opened up Downtown and I spend a lot of time there. They are super nice and even bought some of my dog tutus to sell in the store!

Since July Olivia took another class at Petsmart. A trick class. She learned to roll over and stuff like that. the funniest thing that she learned, or actually taught herself, was to jump up on the stools... but we had her jump on and off the stool through her hoop.... while wearing her tutu.

We went to the local SPCA's Bark-a-Rita Ville fundraiser which was a lot of fun (last year it rained and we didn't stay long). There was food and beverages, music, and an awareness walk. Olivia spent the evening eating dropped snacks off the ground and thoroughly enjoyed herself. I wore a purple wig and Olivia had bat wings on.. .and surprise! We ended up on the front of the Sunday paper the next day.

For Halloween Olivia and I had matching Steampunk costumes, both made by my wonderful mom. Brian had a few Steampunk accessories to go with us. We won third place at Downtown Dogs' costume contest, ate snacks, had our photo taken, and received tasty looking dog cookies.

I'm excited to be back blogging. I really have missed it. I can't wait to re-connect with everyone!

Thoughtless Thursday: Craft Show Edition

Last Friday (July 4th) I did my first craft show, something I've been aspiring towards. For my first time out I think it went pretty well, especially because it wasn't a true craft show. It was just vendor row at a Peach Festival where people were not necessarily going in order to shop. There's a pre-Christmas craft show, just for crafts black friday weekend and I'm hoping to do that one too.

I sold my Boston Terrier (Olivia) dolls and their clothes as well as my jewelry I make. My mom made some housewares like fabric coasters and microwaveable potholder bowls. Our friend Pat made purses and brought along some collectible cookie tins she wanted to part with.

You can find the items that I sold on my Etsy.

Olivia even made an appearance to debut her look-a-likes

inside the booth. we hung the dolls from the tent so people could
see them better.

jewelry table

doll tutus and pat's purses

collectible tins

housewares and dolls and doll dresses

front table

Wordless Wednesday: An army of Gremlins

Some of you will remember that last fall I started an attempt at making a plush doll to look like Olivia. I finally did it! I'm super proud of how they turned out. I created them from start to finish. Everything from making the pattern to sewing to stuffing them.

Check my Etsy to see the listing for the dolls as well as the jewelry I make!

Here's my army of gremlins!

"Uh Mom? Why are they all looking at me?"

Olivia's Florida Vacation

This past weekend Brian, Olivia, and I all took a trip to Florida to visit my aunt, uncle, and grandparents. The last time my grandparents saw Olivia in person was almost a year ago to the day and Olivia has certainly grown and changed a lot since then!

We left on Friday morning and got to Florida in time for dinner. Saturday we spent time together with the family, found a local dog park, and went swimming. Sunday passed similarly. We left Monday morning to come home.

I was so amazed at how gentle Olivia was with my fragile diabetic grandpa. It's like she knew he needed her to be calmer in order for her to interact with him.

My aunt who is very choosy when it comes to whose dogs she likes absolutely loved Olivia (they'd met before at our house) and even let Olivia on her furniture.

Here are some of the things Olivia got to do this weekend!

• swim
• go on several golf cart rides (that's one of the ways the residents get around the gated community where my family lives)
• play with her relatives
• go to a "town center" that was western themed
• take a photo with mommy in a wooden head cut out
• go to a new dog park
• watch TV with her great aunt and uncle on their couch
• go on vacation with mommy and daddy
• eat at a McDonalds

  

  waiting for handouts at McDonalds

  
  

  

  swimming and chilling out with her new ceramic friend

  
  

  

  eating dinner with her great uncle

  
  
  
  
  

  

  checking out great grandma's screen porch

  
  

  

  exhausted

  
  

  

  playing with her great uncle

  
  

  

  her great uncle loved spending time with her
  walking in the "town center"

  
  

  

  inside the lobby of the themed movie theater

  
  
  

  

  visiting with her great grandparents

  
  

  

  golf cart ride

  
  

  

  doggie water fountain at the dog park (I had brought her own
  water for her)

  
  

  

  at the dog park

  
  
  
  
  

  

  family portrait

  
  

  

  playing with and being held by her great aunt

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  wiggle butt

  
  

  

  playing with her great grandpa

  
  

  

  golf cart ride

  
  

  

  watching TV with great aunt and uncle

  
  

  

  sleeping on the way home

• 
  

Wordless Wednesday: Eating in Style

For a while my mom and I had joked that it would be funny/cute to get an antique high chair for Olivia so she could join the family at meal time. My mom found an old wooden high chair in a second hand shop for a good price and brought it home. Then this happened.