by Candice DeVille | Aug 15, 2014 | daily outfit, Home & Garden, Pets
I’m about to hit you up with a whole bunch of photos today because, well, puppies!
Actually there are a few things that I really want to show you today, including Loki, but the first is this wonderful vintage dressing gown. You may not know but I have a thing for vintage dressing gowns; they are a collection within my collection. Not being a fan of track suits for down time, I prefer to have the comfort of lounging pyjamas or beautiful robes that still look good enough for a school run or just hanging about after a long day. They aren’t something that I’ve invested much cash in, but the benefits are priceless.
Today’s robe is one I picked up last week at an Op Shop for $15. It is a gorgeous emerald green velveteen with a gathered detail under the bust, and a rear zip so you don’t need to mess up your hair when you’re getting dressed and ready.
The 3/4 length sleeves are also handy so they don’t get in the way of hair styling or even wet doing the morning dishes. Yes, this bright, bright sunshine is the actual morning light that comes streaming into my bedroom on a sunny winter morning. I was tempted to tone it down a bit for the pics, but I wanted you to be able to see the richness of colour in these shots exactly the way it is. Yes, my bedroom is an intense peacock blue and my favourite chair is that red!
Since we are turning over a new leaf on the blog, I’m working on all kinds of new things that you’ve asked for over the years, one of them being more pictures around my house. This morning, playing with Loki in the sunshine, was the perfect chance to show you my favourite corner of the bedroom. It’s a place to sit and read, to put on tricky shoes, or sometimes (let’s be honest) a secondary chair-drobe space. (I do try and keep it tidy!) Nearly everything in my house has been put together as an eclectic mix of pieces that I’ve bought second hand online, found at Op Shops or even rescued from hard rubbish. My decorating style is “organic” in that it develops along the way when inspiration strikes, and I’m always moving things around.
The little foot stool has become Loki’s throne, the place where he sleeps in that morning sun soaking up the rays. And yes, he is just as mischievous as he looks and as his name suggests!
Are you a fan of vintage dressing gowns? If you haven’t tried out these sorts of styles with their fabulous names, (house coats, hostess gowns, honeymoon gowns, dressing gowns etc…) I suggest you start having a bit of a look around as there are still easy to find at most op shops. Make sure to tell me if you try it out too!
by Candice DeVille | Jun 20, 2014 | Pets
Super cute pet photography by Helen McLean!
If you follow along on Facebook and Instagram, you’ll know by now just why things have been a little slow on the blog front recently.
Meet Loki, our (now) 12 week old Cavoodle puppy! Like his name suggests, he has indeed been a Dog of Mischief (because dog is god spelt backwards..). The story goes like this:
Over the last two years we have been looking at rescue dogs to join our family. Having two children, three guinea pigs and two other special needs dogs to get along with, meant we needed to find one of a certain size and temperament. Of our other two dogs, Lola who is eight, has a serious anxiety problem and epilepsy and my other thirteen year old fur baby was blind, no sense of smell and was experiencing the onset of dementia. About six weeks ago we had to make the heart breaking decision to have him put to sleep as his health rapidly declined.
With the beginning of our renovations starting, and no suitable rescue dog to be found, it seemed like getting a puppy was the last thing we should be doing. Of course you try telling that to two little girls with all the enthusiasm in the world and some great googling skills.
Having recently been researching and learning about the puppy farm or puppy mill trade in Australia, this was a”teachable moment” to help them understand that not everything is as it seems. Although those images on google looked adorable, it didn’t mean that those puppies came from the best origins. It gave me the opportunity to look into alternatives and ways of identifying good homes and origins for non rescue dogs. Starting our research with The RSPCA, we discovered that the traditional Registered Breeder system (of pure breeds), now has a partner system (The AAPDB) for registering breeders of cross breed animals. If we were to consider adopting a puppy, it was essential that it came from one such breeder.
Of course, here I am thinking, “Yep, that should hold them off for a while.” but no. With their google ninja skills I was shortly presented with the most adorable images of an apricot coloured, eight week old cavoodle, and two sets of fluttering lashes.
And so it was that we headed off on an interstate road trip to go and collect said bundle of apricot fluff.
I’ll skip ahead here and tell you that Loki was instantly one of the family. When we arrived home on the Sunday night, his tiny little body weighed no more than one of our guinea pigs, and he fitted comfortably into the palm of one hand. He jumped and played and chewed on anything that dangled from your person. He sat balled up on my lap, dreaming puppy dreams, while I typed away on these pages. No less than a week later, the following Saturday, things started to go wrong.
Little Loki stopped eating, he slept all day and wouldn’t get up to walk. By midnight that first Saturday, I lay in bed with him on my chest praying he’d make it through the night.
The next morning, I bundled his motionless rag doll body into my arms and rushed to the vet. His illness was a mystery, his tiny leg wrapped in tape as he stayed on a glucose drip in an attempt to give him some strength to fight. Each night I’d bring him home and sleep with him on the lounge room floor, feeding him by syringe every hour until we could take him back into the hospital and back on the drip.
After rounds of blood tests and X-rays, and thanks to the perseverance of the vets, the cause of his illness was discovered. A stomach bug that in a bigger dog may have past unnoticed, but in this tiny individual, had nearly taken his life over night.
With the right medication and round the clock monitoring, I’m extremely pleased to say that Loki is now back to being a bubbly bundle of puppy goodness!
He’s learning to sit, stay and already has us wrapped around his furry little toes in the studio. He is our little living teddy bear, cuddly and full of beans.
And yes, he will indeed be seen frequently on these pages, because puppies make everything better!
