OurBigAdventure

It has been just over three months since we said goodbye to Duke on December 26th. I still miss him so much. He was such a sweet dog and he made me so happy! He would stay at my feet for hours while I worked. And when he wanted to go out he would bump his nose on my office door knob. The weather has been perfect and Goblin has been outside a lot lately. I know he must miss Duke, too. It breaks my heart to see him play alone.

We went to the beach for our anniversary for a few days in December. This was right as Duke was getting sick and he didn't have a lot of energy. But his spirits were high and he always loved exploring the beach and finding stuff in the sand!

I miss you Duke!

I have to honestly say I've never been a big fan of balloons. When you see them at a party it is either not enough or too much. And there is a fine line in between. But lately I've been seeing balloons everywhere and I've had a change of heart! Either the ideas and design is better or they are just growing on me. I'd like to think it is the design - I love those BIG round balloons I am seeing everywhere.

Here was the first time I saw balloons and thought "Wow! That looks great!" on the cover of Martha Stewart (who can make anything look good I've decided):



Then they showed up on the cover of Cookie with Tori Spelling (by the way I don't really like how Tori looks here - I am surprised she let them pick this photo for the cover!):



Then a local photographer said he was going to use balloons for an engagement shoot he was doing and I was SO excited to see the pictures! I won't post any. They were a huge disappointment. Remember the fine line? He was not on it.

But this photographer hit the mark with a large balloon (sorry I don't know who shot this - the photo was found on a wedding blog and no photo credit was given):


Some fashion mixed with balloons:




And balloons in weddings where it looks really great:






And finally, my first shoot using balloons and I loved how they added to the birthday girl feel:

Our friend Lee Forrest is an INCREDIBLE florist in Orlando and earlier this year he made me a dog made of flowers. More specifically a Poodle made of white carnations!

I told Chris if I can't have a real Poodle (I have always wanted a Standard Poodle) then the floral Poodle made by Lee was a fine substitute!

Check this out - he was huge! And the tongue is a cymbidium orchid! We nicknamed him "Famous" because everyone we know was talking about him. His last leg was at a Poodle Party over in Windermere. They all got a kick out of him, too!

I don't remember how many carnations Lee said he used - but he used full size and mini carnations. He said once he started the floral dog he had to order more carnations since he ran out!