I’ve been meaning to blog about this adventure (well that’s what we’ll call it) all summer. We got tricked asked to watch David’s aunt and uncle’s monster lab for about 2 weeks. It was a long couple first days. There’s nothing like pairing a 40lb puppy with a 85lb dog. Puppy wants to play, dog wants to really play. And not in our fenced in backyard. ONLY in our living room. Scary. I feared for our sliding glass door that it would be shattered from the dogs running into it several times a day. They wouldn’t sleep unless we separated them and when we did, they were out within seconds. FINALLY on day 3, they passed out in the same room, exhaustion had gotten to them. Now, Isabelle got man-handled, don’t let it fool you, but she kept going back for more! By the end of it, Isabelle was cunning and knew how to get away. Mabel, was lazy to say the least. She didn’t really run, it was more of a fast walk. And in all honesty, we worried about her having a heart attack more than our dog being manhandled. So here’s some fun pictures. So if you need a dog sitter, call us, bring lots of wine for us to have and we’re so not responsible for your dog

Kar

OK, so Peanut Butter is not just something Isabelle loves in her kong, it’s also Amanda from Ladi Events dog! He had an over the top birthday party that Isabelle and I went to last month! It was a hot one and the dogs didn’t play as much as they just laid around panting and eating all the wonderful homemade treats Amanda and her mom made! Isabelle had fun, ate a lot, begged, you know, her usual deal.

Kara
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About a month ago, I got to photograph Polly! You may remember Marissa from way back in 2008 (whoa.) and I’ll be seeing her and Polly and Tim in less than a month! I wanted to get some more experience with dogs and we had a good time! Polly is a fun puppy and very well behaving but she could pretty much care less about me as you’ll see!

Kara
Contact | Portfolio

I know we just celebrated her birthday but some say this day is even MORE important because it’s when she got her forever home I remember when we first got her, she was no smaller than a football, couldn’t clear the couch to jump on it, wouldn’t go outside without us and didn’t dare venture too far into the yard. She slept in a crate, woke up in the middle of the night, and tried to carry one of David’s size 14 shoes around (I was impressed she could even lift it).

Now, she’s 40ish pounds, happy, content, loved more than she knows. Even though she has severe separation anxiety (but she’s getting better and hopefully off her meds this year sometime) she’s happy. She gets to cuddle, sleep on beds, play fetch (or just run and get it and run around not bringing it back), she loves walks and playing with other dogs even though she wimps out sometimes. She’s fed well (we feed her Wellness) and gets a few treats here and there. She just wants to be around us and a pillow to lay her head on (yep, she uses it like a human, it’s ridiculous). I love everything about her, even her neurotic things. I love how she rolls onto her back when she’s sleeping or when David comes home so she can get a belly rub. I love the way her little paws lay when she’s sound asleep. I love her giant ears and when they flop in the wind. I love how she slinks off the couch with her back legs still on it. I love how she rings the bells to go outside. I love watching her play by herself and toss balls up in the air and watch them fall all confused. I love that she traps and hunts flies in the house. I love how she thinks she can catch a bird when it lands in our yard (I fear the day when she brings back a surprise!). I love how she now tells us when it’s time for bed by running back to our bedroom and waiting to be let in to her bed. I love how much she wants to be petted sometimes and will pace back and forth under our hands or around our legs (we’re pretty sure she’s a cat too). I love the looks she gives us, she seems to have so much personality. I love how excited she is to be fed and how she runs down the hallway (it’s way cute). I love her so much and I’m so thankful she came into our lives just over a year ago (her gotcha-day was last Saturday the 8th).

So without further ado, my puppy

Kara (David and the Isabelley)
kara@karaschultz.com

So my husband thought I was crazy that I made cupcakes for the dog but I was assured by my other furparents that I was not. And of course I had to document it! I’ve been pretty lazy about capturing our stuff because I have a camera glued to my face every weekend and working hard, so I tend to calm down a bit on our own stuff. I don’t take my camera everywhere but shhh, don’t tell anyone.

First, this is how she spent her birthday, hello nylabone #3

She’s such a princess, she uses pillows like humans do.

I’m not sure how this is comfortable…

“can I go back to sleep now mom?”

“seriously, you woke me up AGAIN?”

“aaah stretch!  This sock looks delicious…”

Hi honey, nope, this isn’t your sock that I’m letting her chew on while taking pictures, not your sock at all….

And now it’s cupcake time!  Notice how she perks up when the cupcake gets set down…

“is this mine mom?  I’m just going to sniff it….”  (notice David in the background ignoring this whole situation…lol)

“um yeah, this is mine.”

“this is delicious!”

“I’m just going to take it before they realize what’s going on and take it from me…”

(notice the frosting on the carpet…thanks belley…I seriously can’t wait to get it replaced this May!!)

gotta get all the crumbs!!

“is there any more left on the plate!?”

“thanks mom!!”

Now wasn’t that fun!?  Happy 1 year Isabelley

Kara

kara@karaschultz.com

Oh it’s been about 9 months since Isabelle came into our lives and we couldn’t be happier!  Today is her “birthday” or at least the one we write down on vet paperwork because we don’t really know when or where Isabelle was born.  She was abandoned at 3 weeks old and had little chance of survival if someone didn’t pick her up.   Thankfully, Jessica and Kyle of Lizzi and Rocco’s Natural Pet Market took her in despite Lizzi and Rocco’s distaste for puppies   But their deaf boxer, Emma served as sleeping buddy and playmate for Isabelle, originally Itty Bitty because she was TINY.  We got her the 2nd week of May after she was spayed and it’s been a rollercoaster ever since!  Life with Isabelle never amazes me. 

She loves all things plastic (especially milk cartons), she’s incredibly camera aware and will on occasion be nice and pose for me, she loves food and kongs filled with treats, and squeakers and just walks around squeaking away! She maybe barks once a day if we’re lucky unless my parents are around, then she barks at them! She wiggles her entire butt to wag her tail. She’s destroyed 3 indestructible nylabones and the black kong for “tough chewers” was no match for her teeth!

When we wanted a dog, we knew that we wanted to adopt one, not only because we had no breed restrictions but I was also adopted so it was something more personal to me (and here I start crying…).  My mom joked that we went through a lot of what they went through when they adopted me!  And it was just for a dog!  There are millions of puppies, dogs, kittens and cats of every array in shelters and rescues and every day they’re turning away animals or looking for fosters (we’re waiting to foster until we get Isabelle’s separation anxiety under control).

So I made a slideshow of the snapshots over the past 9 months of her life, enjoy the craziness that is the Belley!  She’s currently enjoying her birthday napping on her favorite couch!  Tomorrow or late tonight I’ll post the birthday celebration!

I also hope you all come to the studio opening on Sunday! Isabelle will be there so you can meet the puppy And because since all our friends and family will be there…..there’s no one to watch her!

Kara
kara@karaschultz.com
3.2

I really didn’t have an idea of what I wanted to write about today in this post so it’s going to be a bit random!  I threw it out on twitter for people to suggest a topic and a few take too long to write and dig up pictures!

The Engagement Project suggested that I write about something I complain about most to which I said my disaster zone of a house and dirty dishes.  Seriously, these are the things that drive me NUTS.  You know what’s the worst?  Is trying to break my husband of his bachelorness (hi honey, love you) and piling dirty dishes in the sink.  We have one of those giant deep double sinks in the kitchen, one side to wash in, the other to have the dishes drip dry, he likes to pile them in there.  All. the. time.  It’s my biggest pet peeve and I think he gets yelled at for doing that at least once a week!  On the other side, I leave tons of water glasses or coffee mugs out, so we’re kind of equal!  And I know I work from home so my house should be immaculate, guess what, it’s not!  Though I work from home, it’s not like I can not work and just clean all the time nor do I want to.  I do spurts throughout the day, but that’s what you get for waking up at 5:30am every morning.

She then suggested that I write about some of the cute, romantic stuff I see on shoots or the like.  I said that I usually make fun of myself, trip over my own feet (or fall), or throw my husband under the bus, usually it’s a combination of all three.  Don’t worry, I always sacrifice my body for the safety of my camera.  Someone once said how you’re not a great photographer if your camera body is in perfect condition and I wish I could say that people didn’t bump into it, or I hit it against a wall, etc.  I’m pretty sure that I threw my husband under the bus in the last segment so maybe we’ll talk about how clumsy I am.  See, the problem is that I don’t pick up my feet and wear crocs that are non-slip.  And before you crucify me for wearing crocs because I see it coming, I wear the semi-cute not ugly gardening shoes ones!  They’re the only shoes that I can wear 10+ hours carrying 40lbs+ of equipment, running, jumping, squating, and the like with still being able to walk the next day.   These are the ones I wear:

The next suggestion came from my friend Otto and was to blog about my passion for photography, I told him that post would take a year to make and it was in the works anyway, and I don’t feel like being deep today!  Ha!  We’ll do that next week sometime!

I am stressing out about getting my space ready for the big opening on March 7th from 12-5…I suggest you being there to try my dad’s wonderful chocolate chip cookies (no joke, I had these at my wedding!) and some great giveaways like enlargements, accordian albums, portfolios and who knows what else!

Then Anna suggested that I blog her and her parents dog that I took pictures way back in November of!  And there will be more but I pulled 2 for the occasion!

I love this one of Kuba, he was EXHAUSTED after our photo shoot and I love the drool spots on the concrete.

And can you blame Scooby here for scratching?  I love how he looks so into it and like he just got the right spot.  I love labs!

And since this post is random, I just saw a brown blur run across the frozen tundra that is my backyard.  Love you Belley.

Kara

kara@karaschultz.com

It’s felt like forever since I’ve blogged about Isabelle!  Next week there will be a grand post as she’s turning ONE!  Where did the time go?!

I’m going to write what she’s thinking in quotes, because we talk for her, she stutters because she’s always excited!  It’s a habit that we can’t break.

“hi mom, can you let me sleep and get the camera out of my face?”

“here we go again…can’t I just sleep??”

“yeeeeees??”

she’s a toy destroyer.  This was a toaster.

“seriously mom, can you stop with the pictures now?”

It’s rare that I can actually capture this…when she gets off the couch she slinks off and is lazy.

And I never can get upside down sleeping Belley….unless it’s on my iphone and there’s no sound…and even then I have to be very quiet and careful!

she loves to tug on the sock!

“my sock!”  (p.s. don’t judge the carpet, we moved in and this is what was here…we were waiting until post-puppy to replace it…it will. be. gone.)

I just love how she holds things with her little paws!

I’d like to think she was winking at me but caught her during a blink!

“are we done mom?”

Oh how much I love my little Belley-cakes!

Can I just say that my little puppy has just grown up SO fast from where she was just a few months ago?! Remember this sweet puppy? She’s actually a dog and becoming more difficult to photograph. Though I love taking pictures of pets and Isabelle is basically a cute business write-off right? Well, I think she’s more than adorable! I’ve learned a lot about photographing pets and especially photographing dogs from her, treats and bribes are a must, as well as knowing sit-stay. And you know that there will be a photo montage at her 1 year!

I just love this series, shows her love of having her photo taken! Who knew pets would be harder than people?

and one last picture of my fur baby!

I just love taking pictures of pets! Contact me if you’re ever interested!

Kar
kara@karaschultz.com