It's a girl!!!

Meet Lovie!  Remember the cartoon Belle and Sebastian from the 80's?  This is her twin.

Lovie is a stray that showed up at the Animal Hospital that I work at a couple of months before I started there.  She is an aptly named Great Pyrenees.  She loves to give hugs and cuddle.  She thinks she is a lap dog, which wouldn't be an issue if she weren't 70 lbs.  I can't figure out how she ended up homeless and why no one would adopt her because aside from her shedding and current bad hair cut, she is pretty much perfect.  After a couple of months of seeing her locked up in the kennel day after day, looking more depressed as time went on, I couldn't stand it anymore and I brought her home.  It took a lot of convincing to get Justin to agree, and he may still be a little on the fence about it.  Hopefully soon, he will love her just as much as Stella and I do.  That's right, Stella has a new best friend!  Notice the Rancid bandana?  That is Justin's and he put it on her.  Hopefully that means we are making progress!

Unfortunately, Lovie is a little camera shy.  This is the best I have been able to capture so far.

Stella seems really frightened of "The White Monster", huh?  If you don't get the reference, please do yourself a favor and watch some quality 80's television entertainment.

Not to be outdone, Stella put on her cuteness for the camera.

I know this is a terrible picture, but what is up with the look on Stella's face?

Grandma's Roses

My grandmother was an avid gardener.  She could take the most unruly soil and turn it into the most lush, beautiful garden.  Green thumbs must be a recessive gene because I can't keep anything alive.  I've even been known to kill a cactus.  As a result, the Knock Out Rose has become one of my absolute favorite plants.  They are virtually impossible to kill and require little to no care.  When my grandmother was in the hospital dying last summer, I went to her house and saw that stuck to her refrigerator door was an article that she had clipped from the newspaper.  It was a short snippet about the Knock Out Rose.  I have one in my front yard and now every time I see it, I can't help but think of her.  I am not normally a huge fan of roses, but these hold a very special place in my heart.

These roses bloom almost all year.  There were only about two months during the winter when it did not bloom, which gave me the opportunity the cut it back.  It is currently in full bloom.  I couldn't resist photographing it this morning!

These are the Lamb's Ear that I have planted around the roses.....

They are called Lamb's Ear because the leaves are super soft and fuzzy, much like the ear of a lamb.  I thought that the softness of the Lamb's Ear would be an interesting contrast to the thrones on the roses.  They are also amazingly durable plants

Another lazy, rainy day

This dreary weather that we've been having all week is starting to take a toll on the entire Levanger household.  Stella and the cats have been even more lazy than usual.  Sure, I'm running around the house packing for our move next week, calling utility companies and running out to pay bills.  That doesn't seem to make them feel at all guilty about laying around all day while watching me run around like a maniac.  This is what Stella has done all day....

Is this not the most pitiful face you have ever seen?!?

About the only thing on a farm that has an easy time is the dog.
--Edgar Watson Houe 1853-1937 American Journalist

Harry Potter's Chocolate Frogs

If you haven't been to The Wizarding World of  Harry Potter at Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure in Orlando, FL, you really need to go!  Being a huge Harry Potter nerd, I was so excited when they announced this project several years ago.  I followed the progress from start to finish.  Last September, I finally got to visit it!  I went with my husband, sister, brother-in-law and one of my best friends, Liz.  The weather was pretty terrible.  It was rainy, and humid and yucky most of the day, but that didn't matter because as soon as we saw Hogwarts Castle towering in the distance, Liz and I began to squeal like little girls at a Justin Bieber concert.  

The creators of The Wizarding World of  Harry Potter truly brought to life so many wonderful details of the Harry Potter stories.  One in particular, was Honeydukes candy store, which was filled with so many of the delicious treats that Harry and his friends enjoyed in the stories.  My good friend, Ginni Galuk recently took a trip to Universal with her family.  Even though she is a grandmother, she too is a lover of all things Harry Potter.  She brought back to me a gift of a Chocolate Frog......

If you have read the books or seen the movies, you know that every Chocolate Frog includes a card featuring a famous witch or wizard, much like a muggle baseball card.

My Chocolate Frog contained a card for Godric Gryffindor.  On the back of the card is a little bio of the famous Wizard who was one of the founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. 

These Chocolate Frogs are HUGE!  It is about the size of the palm of my hand, and I have big hands!

Isn't he cute?  You almost don't want to eat him, but I have a chocolate problem, so trust me, he will be eaten.

  

SNAKE!

I don't know what it is about our front porch, but for some reason it attracts a lot of wildlife.  I'm pretty sure I could spend the day in the forrest and not see as many creatures as I do on a daily basis on my front porch.  We always have at least one lizard with its tail hanging out from under the shutters.  Toads and tree frogs are frequent visitors as well, not to mention the plethora of insects including praying mantis, and a wide variety or spiders.  As a result, the neighborhood cats treat our porch like a prized hunting ground.  

This guy showed up on our porch recently......

I am not a fan of snakes.  This isn't the first snake to venture onto our porch, be he is definitely the most colorful.  After a quick google search, we realized that he is harmless and will eat our annoying bugs, so I allowed him to stay.  However, I am extremely paranoid every time I step out of my front door!

Cherry Blossoms

Since it is such a dreary day here in Savannah, I thought I'd post something cheerful.  This is the Yoshino Cherry tree that is in my front yard.  Yoshinos have a special place in my heart.  I am a native of Macon, GA.  If you don't know much about Macon, they have a big Cherry Blossom Festival every spring with over 300,000 Yoshinos is full bloom.  

It all started in 1949 when William A. Fickling, Sr., a realtor in Macon found a the flowering tree in his own backyard.  In 1952 while on a trip to Washington, D.C., Mr. Fickling saw the same trees blooming around the city.  These were the trees that Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo had gifted 3,000 of to the city of Washington, D.C. in 1912.  These trees are very rare to the South.  When Mr. Fickling returned home to Macon, he began growing even more Yoshinos and shared them with the community.  They are now all over the city.  You can still see Mr. Fickling's trees today.  The long, winding driveway down to his old house is covered on both sides by big, beautiful Yoshinos. 

Yoshinos are my all time favorite tree.  Unfortunately, they grow painfully slowly.  I planted this tree about 4 years ago and it is still only slightly taller than myself and only had about 50 blooms this year.  When I was a kid in Macon, my dad planted 2 Yoshinos in each of the front yards of the houses we resided in; one for my sister and one for me.  We still drive by and check on them every now and then when we go visit family in Macon.  Do I recommend the Yoshino?  Heck yes, but only it you have a lot of patience!

Miss Stella

This is the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning.....

This is Miss Stella. Her name came from the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire. If you haven't seen or read it, you need to. It is a masterpiece! Stella has been a very important part of my life for almost 7 years now. She truly is the most loving creature anyone could ask for. She lives to snuggle and follow me around the house. Stella has 2 major flaws; her flatulence and her distaste for the camera. Boston Terriers are notoriously gassy by the way, it isn't just her. I'm not sure how I managed it, but I live in a house full of camera haters. Between Stella, her 3 feline brothers and my husband, I have a lot of pictures of the backs of heads. I have found it best to photograph them all while they are asleep (yes, I know it is pretty creepy).

Keep an eye you for Stella. She will be showing up from time to time on the blog for sure. She rarely leaves my side.

"We long for an affection altogether ignorant of our faults. Heaven has accorded this to us in the uncritical canine attachment." ~George Eliot

Crazy bugs!

These crazy bugs have been showing up on our gardenia bushes lately. I have no clue what they are but I thought that they were kind of cute. Anyone know what they are?

Update!!! Thanks to Doug Chase for informing me that these are Assassin bugs. Apparently they will bite (but rarely do) and are actually pretty helpful little guys because they eat a lot of nasty little critters that you don't want around your yard.

Kim Davies & Craig Reilly

On February 26, 2011, Kimberly Davies & Craig Reilly were united in married at the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum in Pooler, GA. I was so excited when Kim asked me to be their photographer and share their happy day with them! It was such a beautiful day! We could not have asked for better weather.Yummy, yummy cupcakes!

The chapel at the Mighty 8th is so adorable! If only the sun hadn't been so bright, but at least it wasn't cold or rainy!

The garden around the chapel was starting to bloom. Don't you love this little arbor?

Congrats to the happy couple! I wish you many, many years of wedded bliss!

Femme Fatale's Femme of the Year

Last week, I had the great pleasure of photographing Femme Fatale Salon's Femme of the Year, the beautiful Miss Tara Nguyen. After Paul and Lauriel did her hair and makeup, we headed over to The Mansion. Unfortunately, it was an incredibly windy day so we could only shoot indoors. That didn't really seem to matter, because Tara's images came out beautifully, if I do say so myself. It helps when your subject is gorgeous and your hair and makeup artist are incredibly talented.

Thanks to Tara for being such an amazing model! Go see Paul and the rest of the Femme Fatale team for some seriously amazing hair! www.ffsalon.com