Back in November, I took my "little boy" to have his picture taken by the amazing Curt O'Neil. Being completely honest, I never thought I would become one of the people who had their dogs photographed, but it happened. It started out as $10 to charity, and by the end of it I was flat broke and could hardly afford to buy my family Christmas presents because I spent all of my life's savings on pictures of my dog...Well, that might be a stretch, but I did grossly overspend in the dog portrait department! They were just all so cute, how could I not buy them all?
I had donated some canned goods which gave me a chance to win a free 16x24 canvas of Tytus, but since I never win anything, I thought nothing of it until I received an email from Curt hours after he had completed his PAWsome Booth shoots. The email, titled Congratulations, was sent to inform me that Tytus and I had indeed won the canvas! I was ecstatic! People would have thought I had won the lottery from my level of excitement. I was in the living room on the computer and Ange was in the kitchen having coffee and after reading the email I jumped up, made a huge gasping noise, let out a gigantic fist pump and exclaimed, "I always knew it buddy! You're a winner!"
Ange was perplexed by my statement, but not for long. I ran over to her and showed her the message on my phone. "He won! He was the cutest one there and so he won a canvas so we can put it in the living room!" This was a bold faced lie. It was a random draw, but I still think his cuteness had some sort of effect on the outcome. Ange's laughter quickly turned to a sort of a look of panic. Not wanting to burst my bubble, and sort of trying to pump me up, she said "You mean a canvas for YOUR bedroom. It would look waaaaay better in there than in the living room, don't you think?" Ridiculous! How would every guest who came to our house see this wonderful portrait if it wasn't properly displayed as the focus of the living room?
As I danced with the dog and reassured him that I would love him no matter what happened, I just always knew he was a winner at heart, I anxiously thought about his pictures and how amazing they would be.
When the pictures became available online, it took me WEEKS to decide which ones I would order (or in my case, which ones I wouldn't order) and even longer to figure out which one would be the canvas. What a tough decision. Should I choose one with his Christmas sweater, or one with the reindeer antlers, or should I choose a more natural photo? Excited Tytus, or sweet Tytus, angry Tytus... so many options. At one point, I actually considered getting 2 canvases, but the $300 price tag was a bit too much! I made my choice on the one that I thought was an absolute classic. Something that I told myself, I would buy in a store even if he wasn't my dog, if I saw it on a canvas because it was so amazing!
My pictures came in, but the canvas was delayed. I made Christmas cards, showed my family and friends his pictures, but sill didn't have the "piece de resistance", the canvas.
Today I got the email. "Your canvas is in. I can drop it off to you at the bar if you're there." Excellent! I was so excited. Thoughts of how I would display it in the living room started runnning through my mind again, until Curt showed up.
I unwrapped the canvas and it is so perfect, I seriously almost cried. Now all I could think of was how to display it for Ange, Kieran and Jason to see, since Ange and I prepared dinner for the boys tonight! I walked in the door and unfortunately Ange was here, so no surprising her, but I placed the life sized canvas near eye level for Kieran and Jay to see as soon as they walked in the door! They, of course loved it, and probably partly think I'm nuts, but mostly, they loved it! I can't wait for others to come over and see it when I find a permanent spot for it in the living room!
I have a 16x24 canvas of Tytus in the living room. Now the house is a home. AWESOME... or should I say PAWsome!
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| THE CANVAS PHOTO |
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