I’m back!

Hello all! I’m back from my vacation and after days upon days of relaxation and fun, I’m excited to get back to work! I’ve got some fun shoots lined up in the next couple weeks that I’ll be sharing. And speaking of sharing, I’m excited to share with you the newest addition to my family…

Jamie, my youngest sister, decided she wanted a cat as her high school graduation gift and Oscar has stolen the hearts of everyone in my family (except for Bella who’s not entirely sure what to think of this little fluffball).

I pretty much find any excuse I can to drop by my parents’ house to hang out with the little guy. I conjured up an excuse and went over there last night and to my surprise there were two kittens running around the house! Being that Oscar’s so playful and energetic, my parents thought he should have a playmate, so they ended up getting another kitten! The new guy doesn’t have a name yet so I’m pushing for “Puma”. I’ll try to find time in the next few days to get over there and snap some pics of him. Maybe I’ll take a couple of him and Oscar while I’m at it, just to overload you all with cuteness.

🙂 Amanda

Summer Vacation

🙂 Amanda

Go Dog, Go!

I think we’ve made you wait long enough for our exciting news, so here it is:

PaddyWag was asked to participate in the first annual Go Dog, Go! Canine Festival!

Here’s a little blurb about the event:

The City of Kirkland in conjunction with Kirkland Off-leash Dog Group (K-Dog) and Washington Owners of Flying Disc Dogs (WOOFD2) is proud to announce the first annual Go Dog, Go! Canine Festival.  This event will be held in Crestwoods Park in Kirkland on July 25, 2009. Area residents and their canine companions can come out to enjoy games and contests in addition to flyball demonstrations and the Cascade Classic Canine Disc Championship. This event is free to the public and the goal of all this fun is to raise funds to maintain the city’s dog waste clean-up stations, with the ultimate goal of creating an off leash park in Kirkland.

Charity and I are really excited to be part of this event! We’ll have a booth set up at the park, so please come by and say hello! We’ll be offering some fun products and even a discount or two on our portrait packages. We’re also sponsoring a dog and owner look-a-like contest at 11:00AM, so don’t forget to bring your pup along—we’ve got 3 fabulous prizes for the winners!

Look Out Spokane!

I’m headed your way, and bringing with me one heck of a deal!
For one week, July 6th-11th, PaddyWag will be having a “yard sale”.

So if you or someone you know is in the Spokane area, and is interested in getting some fun pet portraits done – now is the time!

Contact me, Charity, for more info or to set up an appointment.
I can’t wait to meet you and your furry friend!

any guesses?

Charity and I have some exciting news

that we’ll unveil to you all soon!

Hint: it will take place in the same city where this photo was taken

Team Beer

Yes I’m behind on blogging, but I’ve got a good reason this time! I’ve been in Arizona participating in the 22nd Annual Arizona Hockey Classic.

I played on Team Beer (great name, huh? 🙂 ) and we came in 2nd place for our division. Not too shabby for a team that’s never played together before! We were a hodgepodge mix of friends and friends-of-friends. Our players traveled from Seattle, Philly, California and even Alaska to play in the tournament. My body is aching and exhausted, but I had so much fun playing with the girls! I can’t wait until next year when we do it all again, but for now I’m going to enjoy a little bit of rest…and the massage I’ve scheduled. 🙂

**Don’t forget to book your PaddyWag session by August 15th in order to take advantage of our 15% off sale!**

summer sale!

always do your best

A friend recently gave me an excerpt from “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz and I wanted to share it with you all because I think it pertains to everyone and what they do in their lives:

Under any circumstance, always do your best, no more and no less. But keep in mind that your best is never going to be the same from one moment to the next. Everything is alive and changing all the time, so your best will sometimes be high quality, and other times it will not be as good. Your best will depend on whether you are feeling wonderful and happy, or upset, angry, or jealous.

Doing your best, you are going to live your life intensely. You are going to be productive, you are going to be good to yourself, because you will be giving yourself to your family, to your community, to everything. But it is the action that is going to make you feel happy. When you always do your best, you take action. Doing your best is taking the action because you love it, not because you’re expecting a reward. Most people do exactly the opposite: They only take action when they expect a reward, and they don’t enjoy the action. And that’s the reason why they don’t do their best.

La La La La Lola

This is Lola, a super sweet and loving shar pei that I photographed last week. Her rolls and wrinkles were just about the cutest thing ever! I wish I had brought my video camera because she did the funniest snort thing with her nose whenever she was excited. All of the excitement wore her out and I was able to get some really beautiful pictures of her sleeping by the fireplace before I left.

I hummed the song “Lola” throughout the entire photo session and now it’s stuck in my head again as I post these pics!

short story

My friend got me hooked to the StoryPeople website and I’ve been receiving the story of the day via email for the past year.

I was looking through the ones I’ve saved and thought I’d share this little gem with you…

Class Act

taking himself for a walk hoping he doesn’t poop on someone’s lawn like all the other dogs in the neighborhood since he’s trying hard to better himself