artsy pugsy is back

Well, after my hiatus, I have a little pug news. This site will be really focused on pugs, so if you are a friend or family member and want to keep up on personal information, I can send you a link to a personal blog. Unless you are the wife of an ex boyfriend or something-thank you site meter!

So, saybone.com will be relaunched soon. I have a new shirt to debut, and my mom and I rocked the Pug Crawl 2008 with our booth. (-: It was the perfect event to be part of, and benefited the Oregon Humane Society. We have really improved since the first time we went 2 years ago. We had a canopy, a banner, credit card machine, and chairs. Woo hoo.

I'm still very sad about dear Shayna and wish we could get another pug. That is looking less likely for now, but I can still keep the pug dream alive through art.

My muse is gone.

You know without the pugsy, and not too much artsy, I'm going to need to start a new blog. Or not. I don't like to write really personal things for the internet as you may have noticed, so I tend to skip a lot of the most interesting stuff. Anyway, my friends know where to find me, and I will continue to keep you in the loop. Everything is fine.

To the people who I don't know but like to check on me regularly (hope you found what you were looking for) sorry to leave you hanging.

You can comment with any burning questions, and if I check back I will try to get you the answers.

Peace,
Amy

April

Let's see, I have a few faithful readers who continue to check up on me (one possibly not for friendly reasons but you never know), so I guess I will write a new post. Several things happened this month, obviously losing Shayna was very, very sad. I don't know when or if I will ever have another dog, especially a pug- for many reasons. I don't think I have the heart to go to pug crawl next month to sell my shirts or cards as planned. Even though last year it did really well, I'm not in the mood to see literally hundreds of pugs. This has made me want to move ahead with a special idea for Shayna's memory.

A lot of blasts from the past lately. This summer is my 20th high school reunion ( I know! can you believe it?). Suddenly, I heard from my best girl friend from those years which was great! (hi J!) I had mentioned also seeing my estranged college travel friend in Portland. Then, the oddest thing happened last week. I went to a photography show in Portland, the photographer was someone I met at a Seattle friend's wedding years ago and invited me. I went by myself since I couldn't get anyone else to come short notice. It was in a residential neighborhood and only about 10 people were there. I looked around for awhile and left in the dark (it was about 10pm). I was crossing the street and out of the corner of my eye I saw a couple locking up bikes and didn't think much about it. Then I heard my name called. I was shocked to see another friend from high school-- D*linda! She looked and sounded the same, and I can't believe how random it was and how she could even see me let alone recognize me. We talked and briefly caught up. Hopefully I will hear from her- so funny to think she has been living in PDX the same time and we never crossed paths before. I wouldn't have even known she was living here except I was told about a week or so prior from a mutual friend.

The next day I left for the Tri Cities. And I was going to call you J, but I knew you were just back from Hawaii and it was an ultra quick trip. I wanted to see my dad since he was pretty sad about Shayna. He is living there part time and I had not been there for so long, probably 10 years. Anyway, it is a pretty drive from Portland and I took my favorite boy for company. He is a great companion except he insists on listening to Dinasours music non-stop for hours.

That place has changed so much, I didn't really recognize a lot of it. My dad is living out by 68th street exit. That stuff is all new. I don't mean to be negative, but I felt really strange that I practically grew up there and I look at it with such different eyes now. It really suffers in comparison to the other places I've lived since then. It seems to draw a lot of people back to it to live, which I really don't understand. We did drive around and do a memory tour. And saw some very good friends who live on the river and that was very nice. There are some great people who live there, and that is the only reason I will ever go back. My good memories are about the people anyway, not the place. Which is good since seeing the old high school and surrounding area just depressed me. I felt relief wash over me on the drive home as the landscape changed from desert back into familiar pine trees.

That's a long enough post for now- more later...

Shayna, we love you always

Today started out great- beautiful warm sunny day, work prospects looking great.
Then we got a strange call from a friend of my parents in the Tri Cities, "the little dog went to the hospital and didn't come back". My husband answered it and was confused since the call was supposed to be for my dad. My stomach lurched and I immediately called my parents to see if Shayna was sick. Shayna died. They don't know why, she acted sick, went to the vet and died there.

I can't believe she is gone. Just like that. It really makes you realize, that is how fast you can lose someone. She was such a big part of our family- always there. I've lost my two favorite pets within 6 months.
I know she had a good life, but it was much too short. She would have turned 7 next month. I just don't know what to say. She is the reason I started saybone. The last few years I've spent less time with her because of the kids, she always loved me the same regardless. Last week C pushed her in the stroller to the park. It was Shayna's idea to ride in the stroller, she preferred it. It was so cute but I didn't get a photo, I thought I'd have a chance to do it later.

I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to her but she brought me so much joy.

Last post for March

I don't have anything exciting to say, but since I have some regular readers than I feel like I should at least write something.
We had an uneventful trip to Tennessee, and that is always a good thing when traveling with small children. I find it very hard to separate from work and I was worrying about it pretty much the whole time. I need someone to take care of things while I am out next time.

We always go directly from Nashville to the little town where J grew up. There is really not much there- no movie theater, no mall, and up to this last visit...no espresso! Now there is a new Starbucks for my latté fix (Cracker Barrel hasn't cottened on to that yet). I was pretty happy about that, and it is a drive thru for the freeway stops. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have qualified baristas in that area, and they cost about $1 more than back home. No competition I guess.

I am a coffee snob probably due to living in Seattle and Portland where wonderul coffee shops are plentiful. I normally go to an organic coffeeshop near my house that beats Starbucks anyway. The rest of the trip I drank Seattle's Best Coffee brewed at home. I may have kicked the twice-daily latté habit. I even have my own little espresso machine at home.

What else? Well, I talk about this a lot, but I get so tired of dealing with poop. This morning I awoke to a horrendous mess on the bathroom floor, tracked around the house and all over a small child with an upset stomach. Not a good way to start the day. There were other incidents during the day, after the child had been bathed twice and I had carefully disinfected the entire bathroom we had a repeat of the morning accident. I don't think I could deal with this alone. They had better take care of me when I am old!

In pug news, Shayna is here! She loves being pushed in the stroller. So if you saw a little girl in a princess nightgown and rainboots pushing a pug dog in a stroller you saw how cute it was. Maybe I can get a photo of that tomorrow. Except the princess nightgown needs to be washed (see above). Portland Pug Crawl is May 20. I need to make cards and a new shirt for that.

I had a lot to say apparently, but really nothing important. If you continue to read this, it pretty much follows this pattern.

Warning signs

As some of you may know, my real job is my graphic design firm. It has been around for 6 years and I have learned a lot during those 6 years- sometimes the hard way. Here is a quick list of warning signs in a new or potential client.

1. Any mention of a family member or friend doing the design work (unless that person is an actual professional).
2. Wanting to do the work in Word, Publisher or any software for the general consumer.
3. Has tried more than once to do the project themselves.
4. Has a very specific idea already in mind and wants you to bring that vision to life.
5. Has had multiple bad experiences with other designers or firms.
6. More concerned with price that anything else.
7. Acts suspicious or overly concerned with YOUR ethics from the beginning.
8. Just wants a "business card". Doesn't understand the value of creating a visual brand for their company.

I'm sure I will be adding more to this list as I think of them.

puggish

I finally watched Marie Antoinette which has been blocking the Netflix queue for some time. I'm not a big Kirsten Dunst fan, but I really love the costumes from that time. How come no one told me that pugs are very prominent in this movie?! Especially at the beginning when she tries to bring an adorable fawn pug puppy with her to France from Austria. (Later has a black pug.)
Notes about the movie: I don't feel like it even came close to covering many of the facts, but I guess it was more like a teenager or pop version. I looked it up on imbd since there was this really bizarre part in the movie where she is looking at fancy shoes of the era, and in with the pile on the floor is a pair of converses. I kept thinking there would be other references to modern life or something, but nope, that was it. It was intentional, I guess I just didn't "get" why there was suddenly one modern reference.

Some parts of the movie were true to history, for example M.A. gave birth with the whole court watching. That alone gives me a great deal of sympathy for her. Apparently she really did have to relinquish her dog when she joined the French court, but it wasn't a pug it was a shih tzu. Guess pugs just make better movie stars.

That's all I've got to say for this post. Maybe I can make my new tagline: "Putting the blah into blog..."