Our Favorite Gifts

Today's post is a little belated show-and-tell about some of the nifty things Brutus and I got for Christmas. My turn first!!

My husband Paul came up with an amazing idea for a gift for me. He started planning way back in early Novmeber to get the surprise together, and did he even hit a home run with this one!! From looking at some of our followers/friends posts, Paul noticed the artwork of Dasha Goux (click to see her blog, French Bulldog Works). She does fun paintings and sculptures, all inspired by Frenchies (she also is mom to Frankie the Frenchie). Paul saw her work while browsing about links from my blog, got in touch with her and asked her to do a custom piece of me & Brutus. Since Dasha was already a follower of Brutus' blog, all she had to do for inspiration was come here and poke around a little. Here is what she came up with, isn't it fabulous??

It is an original oil painting on an 18x18 canvas. Not only did she manage to capture so much about me & Brutus, Dasha even managed to include our passion for Ohio State! I just love it, still looking for the perfect place to hang the treasure! What a great idea, not to mention a great husband for thinking of it :) Here is one more photo that I took of the actual piece, kind of gives you a little better idea of how it looks (it's sitting against the back of a chair).

Speaking of significant others, now on to the gift Brutus got from his main squeeze, Stella the pug (she lives in California). She picked out a fun collar charm & sent it along with holiday wishes from her pack!

Brutus was so excited to get mail, especially when he found out it was from Stella:

Stella!! Hey there beauty!!

Ahhh.... If only you were really here.... *sigh*

Brutus fussed around while I fumbled getting the charm on his collar (note he is naked in the previous photos), then did some of his best posing to show off the new bling from his sweetie:

Here's lookin' at you, babe!

Here's a close-up. That's his CGC (canine good citizen) medal/name tag underneath. I keep it on a clasp so I can easily change the tags between collars as we swap them out. The charm shows up so nice against his black fur!!

Brutus is happy to have a little something to carry around at all times (except when he's doing agility, then he has to be naked) as a little reminder of his gal Stella. Since he couldn't give you a kiss in person, we figured this was the next best thing (I didn't have the heart to tell Brutus that he was actually kissing Gunther, oops!).

MUUUWAAAHHH!!!

A huge thanks to both of our sweeties (Paul & Stella) for thinking of such wonderful presents. You can be sure I gave Paul a big smooch too! Sorry, no photo of that... The only bad thing is that Brutus is already bugging me about what he wants to get Stella for Valentines' day!