we're in business!

So after what could be the beginnings of a quarter life crisis, I broke down and my poor husband called me right in the middle of it all.

He's so wonderful. Even though talking to him only made me slightly more hysterical, everything he said I knew was true and truly did make me feel better. I only cried more because I realized how lucky I am to have him.

I am especially lucky because despite what concerns he may have about this idea (which he has not voiced) he is supporting me whole heartedly.

I have officially opened my own Etsy shop! It's called J&W gallery (can you guess why?) and it's very, very new. And there's nothing really on it. But I did manage to make some art and put up my first listing! Very exciting things. You can check it out here. There's also a cute little etsy button permanently on the right side of this blog that will take you right to it.

And for those that don't love the French language like I do, fait a la main means hand made.

And for your viewing pleasure, and a little thanks to my man, here's yet another photo from our engagement shoot back in May from Melissa.

it wasn't just beginners luck

After their first creation... (we rotated it to have it fit better on the wall, and signed their names to it) They have done it again! They don't tolerate the paint any better, but this time Jack got to use TWO colors, turquoise & navy! It's hanging beautifully above our bed.

Winston getting love after painting... note the giant splash of blue paint on my hand.Huge mess of blue paint (and yes ONLY blue paint... Winston is kind and doesn't run a muck when he's done. It's just Jack).

my dogs can paint... what can yours do?

I have taken on a new venture, and I have grand plans for this but for now we just needed to fill wall space. Are you ready?

dogs...plus paint...equals...tada!the artists and their masterpiece

They really hated getting paint on their paws. But hopefully we'll be making some more, and hopefully they'll get used to it. Afterall, they DO get cookies afterwards!

day after shoot

It took a lot of convincing, but I managed to 'persuade' Patrick into letting us do a photo shoot the day after our wedding. Correction, the morning after our wedding. To be exact, 7 in the morning. Well, it was apparent sometime in the night that we wouldn't be able to make our appointment with our photographer. I texted her at some ridiculous hour and asked if it would be ok to push back our meeting time an hour. She agreed and we were set to meet at 8 am. Patrick was still not feeling 100%, but he suffered through the shoot and we ended up with these fabulous shots, courtesy of Melissa Barrick:

In hindsight, we couldn't have made a better decision! Since we started so late we didn't get as many posed pictures the day of that we would have liked, so this day after shoot allowed us to get plenty! Thanks again Melissa!

finding nemo

I can't remember if I have posted about our first fish tank or not...

If I haven't, it's a 46 gallon bow front salt water tank, full of live rock and tons of fish and coral. It's been established for about 9 months now. I'll have to get pictures to show it off!

This post is about our NEW tank! We recently got a 29 gallon bio cube. We wanted to get a new tank because our eel just keeps getting bigger and more aggressive. And I absolutely reject the idea of giving him away. Now that we have the tank - catching the eel is another story. So far we have just made him a lot more fat, and a lot less hungry...

BUT! since the eel is aggressive, we figured this was our chance to set up an aggressive tank and get fish that we couldn't put in our other tank.

First on the list, a miniatus grouper. Check! Second on the list, a humu humu trigger (state fish of hawaii). Check!

These are just phone pictures, sorry! When Pat gets home I can take some decent ones (camera is in his car).

hurricane season

September marks the busiest that hurricane season gets. And sure enough, the second of September brought us Earl. We had to evacuate the island Thursday night, as they were shutting down the bridge to the mainland due to high winds they were expecting. Patrick, the dogs and I all got out of dodge and headed west to my parents house for the weekend. BUT! not before I could run down to the beach to snap some pictures...

our huricane pass that says we're residents not tourists, and lets us back on the island first when the evacuation was lifted. it might be the wrong address, and I'm not sure who's name that is... but we didn't have to wait in line at town hall to get it!

the ocean side of our house all boarded up

the waves rolling in

water washing all the way up to the dunes

As it turns out, Earl stayed off shore and the worst we got was some rain and wind gusts up to 70 mph. Our landlord called us Friday morning and let us know that there was no flooding or power loss (which means our fish tanks were safe). Next time maybe we'll try to ride out the storm?!