Sit. Stay. Smile. Photography & Art

We just back from visiting my in-laws in Baltimore and we had a wonderful, relaxing visit. My husband is a native Baltimoran as I like to call him…(ha ha) and he was in his element this weekend. We went out to dinner at the Crack Pot Restaurant where he had his favorite thing…steamed crabs with enough Old Bay to choke a horse. Next, we continued on our donut pilgrimage and visited a place called the “Fractured Prune”…not sure who came up with that name but the donuts were REALLY good! Lastly, we took our daughter Caroline down to Ravens stadium on Sunday so she could see the hysteria of a Ravens game tailgate party firsthand, eventhough we did not have tickets …..If you have never been to a professional football game and hung out tailgating, you are missing one amazing party…My husband was thrilled to be “among his people” and the sea of purple that surrounded us. Here in Va. Beach, everyone is a Redskin fan which is very depressing  for us. So, that was our weekend in a nutshell, along with spending time with family…I am happy to be home to see my puppies and get back into the swing of things. I hope everyone has a Happy & Safe New Year!

I seem to be having a run on Bassett Hounds lately…Meet Wilbur and Bailey. Wilbur was recently diagnosed with cancer and my heart aches for him and his family. He is the sweetest boy and has those sad, droopy bassett hound eyes that just tear at your heartstrings. He has had tumors removed from his tail, ear and leg so far and he seems to be holding his own. His parents are doing everything they can to keep him happy and healthy and I would ask my readers to send Wilbur some positive doggy mojo…He had not been eating well before our photoshoot the other day, but he found his appetite when I whipped out my trusty bag of treats…His brother Bailey was equally adorable and he loved spending the afternoon at the beach as well. Here are a few photos from the shoot….

I just upgraded to the new Prophoto theme and I think I am going to like it even better…It is a whole lot easier to change your headers, photos and overall appearance of your blog now…no more searching out tutorials just to figure out how to name your masthead, etc. It is also much more customizable (is that a word?)…If you already own the original template, you can upgrade for a lower price to the new theme. Jared over at Prophoto is soooo amazing and has always been really helpful to me in the past so I thought I would give him a plug. After the holiday madness dies down I am going to play around with my pimping my blog even more…stay tuned!
I actually have time to bake cookies today and I am very excited to do something that will help get me in the Christmas spirit. I have been kind of Scrooge-like latey….my apologies to my husband and daughter. Whenever I get overwhelmed by work I get snarky and I am so sick of myself right now…Just breathe, I keep telling myself….

It’s not too late to give the gift of photography this holiday season…The perfect gift for the pet lover who has everything! These gift certificates are good for one year and can be used towards either photography or digital pet paintings…Email me at jill@sitstaysmile.com and get yours today….

This past weekend I had my annual holiday pet portrait day that benefits the Virginia Beach SPCA. We had lots of fun and met a bunch of really cool dogs…I am very happy to say that my paper backdrops survived the day and my clients seemed to like the change. Below are a few of my favorite photos from the day…there were just too many cute dogs for me to post them all unfortunately. On a side note, I would like to remind everyone to PLEASE support your local animal shelters as well as the national ones. With these hard economic times, all of the charities out there are really suffering and they rely on you to help keep their doors open and supply a very important service to our communities.