Pet Photography: Nikolai in Natural Light

When I was in Florida, I got the chance to photograph someone else's dog, my sister E's Nikolai! So if you were getting tired of my Tessa, this post is for you. If you were getting tired of Chihuahua's, well, I can't help you. You'll just have to wait until I get to photograph M & W's pug.

Nikolai was rescued by E and her boyfriend, after he wandered into her mom's yard. The pup had been abused by his previous owner, and left outside all hours of the day. He's technically a long-haired Chihuahua, but most of the hair on his back is gone. Hopefully with E's love and care some of that will grow back.

I loved shooting Nikolai because of his wild and expressive eyes, crazy mane, and loving personality. Enjoy these pictures of this cutie pie!

Dress Up Tess: My Chihuahua Valentine

The Boy is working late on Valentine's Day, but that's okay. It means there's literally no pressure to make a reservation and get dressed up and go out to eat a prix fixe dinner that is far too overpriced. It also means that I get to spend the evening instead cuddled up with my little Muffin.

This dog has so many nicknames, but Muffin is one I probably use the most (other than her actual name, Tessa) if you include all of its various incarnations. Muffin became Puffin - a combination of puppy + muffin, which became Puff.

Her full name, which honors her Arizonian heritage is Teresita Cascabel. It means Tiny pepper of the earth, which is pretty appropriate for an itty bitty Chihuahua. I like portmanteaus when coming up with nicknames for Tess, so I often call her Tessabel. Occasionally she's Fluffkin, a matchup of fluffy and pumpkin.

The dress she's wearing in these pictures was a Christmas gift from Aunt A, my best friend in the entire world. I thought the soft red skirt was perfect for my little Valentine. You may recognize the heart pillow from my Disney-themed living room. Enjoy the photo shoot, hopefully more than Tess did!

Because the dress was a gift, I don't know where you can find this exact one. However, I found one that's similar. Note: that is an affiliate link. If you click on it and make a purchase, I can earn a little money at no extra cost to you!

Dress Up Tess: Yoda T-Shirt

My Chihuahua, Tessa, has huge ears.

Seriously, we talk about her "wingspan" and joke that she is about to fly away. Sometimes, when she's relaxing her ears stick straight out to the sides and she looks a bit like Yoda.

When I put a blanket over her head, it looks like a hood, and I call her my little Jedi master.

But this shirt doesn't just celebrate my Chi's ears. It also makes a solid point about how people perceive my pup. Tessa may be a Chihuahua, but that doesn't make her any less sweet and loving than any bigger dog.

She still goes nuts when I walk in the door, jumps up and licks my face, plays tug-o-war with her rope toys, and begs at the dinner table.

Judge her by her size, do you? Don't.

Love this shirt that Tessa is modeling? Get it here.

100 Posts!

So I noticed yesterday that my french toast recipe was post number 99 - which means today's post is the first real milestone of this blog: Post 100!

While it's more within my personality to celebrate a Disney number (and thus making tomorrow's 101 an even bigger deal) I figured, let's start with one that everyone can relate to. So for my hundredth post-iversary, here are some of my favorite posts that I've written in this blog so far. Enjoy!

Before Pictures

I have been living in my apartment for just over a week now, but before I moved in, I had a completely blank slate. Looking around me now, it's hard to believe that just weeks ago this place was totally empty, and a month ago it wasn't even mine.

Cute little cactus garden out in front of the complex

Butterflies

Before I left New York, one of the places on my "Rochester Bucket List" was the Strong Museum of Play.

I had been there once before, but it was closing and so I didn't have time to see everything. So this time, The Boy and I made sure that we had plenty of time to see the whole museum, especially the butterflies.

Upstate New York

Every single day is a little closer to leaving the state of New York.

And everyday I get a little bit more nostalgic for all the time I've spent in this place and all the people and memories I'll be leaving behind. I already wrote about some of the things I'm going to miss about upstate New York, but I keep getting reminded of more.

My Boyfriend vs. The Museum of American History

It was a touristy trip to Washington, DC. We went to the zoo, three Smithsonians and hit up all the national monuments. On the way home we explored Gettysburg.

And this was all during that heat wave in the middle to end of July. So needless to say, we were tired. Our feet hurt. It was exhausting. But so awesome.

Just Some Flowers

Flower pictures are so cliche, right?

Oh well. They're gorgeous and nature's artwork. So I photographed some when we were at Genesee Country Village. Here's an easy picture post for y'all. (No, I'm not actually southern. Yes, I say y'all. What's it to ya?)

Genesee Country Village

I love historical buildings and home design.

To be fair, I also love modern home design so I think I might just be into interior decorating. Anyway, we went to this cute little village in upstate New York that has restored old homes from the Civil War to the turn of the century called Genesee Country Village.

Letchworth State Park

Oh you all know about my waterfall obsession. I'm going to skip over the raving this time and just say that Letchworth State Park is pretty much amazing. I'm not sure how I'd missed visiting it before, but it is truly a wonder of nature.

They call it the Grand Canyon of the East, and I can completely see why.

Kayaking

Once, I canoed for five days down the Delaware river. Another time, I sailed on the Chesapeake bay for four nights with the Girl Scouts. Somehow, though, I'd never tried kayaking, until last week.

My toes in the kayak. See, proof I was in the boat!

During my refuge at the Boy's house, we decided to take advantage of the one day where it wasn't gross and rainy all day by taking his family's kayaks out on a little creek.

Straight Lines

I went with a friend who likes to practice Parkour around a little village I'd never been to.

One thing I noticed about this cute canal town is that it's full of straight lines, and so I grabbed my camera and photographed some of what I saw. The results are an interesting geometric and abstract collection of images. Enjoy!

A Hike Through the Woods

If you can't tell by now, my boyfriend and I like to go on walks. Sometimes we bring his puppy, and sometimes we just walk around somewhere. Sometimes we have a destination, and sometimes we don't.

This one day, we took the puppy on a nice shady path in the woods, and he surprised me by taking us out to a series of itty bitty waterfalls, which he knows I love!

Fancy Schmancy

My old apartment had a Formal Party last Friday.

Essentially this means we all got dressed up real fancy and drank out of clear plastic cups instead of those awful red Solo cups. Classy, right? Actually, we all had a really nice time and there were no disasters. Good night overall, and of course I took a bunch of pictures.

Dogs Days of Spring

Boy and I took his puppy for a walk one day last week when it was like 80 degrees out.

 It then proceeded to snow not three days later, of course. Anyway, we enjoyed the day and I took a bunch of pictures of the adorable puppy, Riley.