when we were in oregon, we celebrated a belated birthday for my mom’s husband (he’s a big fan of birds) so of course i knew i had to have these bird cupcake toppers (wearing party hats!). aren’t they adorable?

(it’s not my fault. it just jumped off the rack & onto my back.)

i may have inadvertently purchased these for myself today. (loving the new pieces from seattle based elephantine)

i’m just getting back into the swing of things after an amazing family vaca in bend, Oregon. i just loved it…we all did, so much so that we’ve decided to go back again next summer!

i mean really, can you ever ride your bike, float on the deschutes river with your dog (who is wearing a life jacket), lie in the grass, eat fresh fruit from the farmer’s market, hot-tub, stroll through the shops of an old mill town, read, make stuff, laugh at the things that come out the mouth of a 2-year old, or BBQ too much? i think not.

i have big dreams to build a little dollhouse. yesterday we received the modern playhouse from MOMA kids, and i had a little too much fun putting it together. of course the one i dream about building is far more elaborate. it will surely require power tools.

it’s 9:28 (pm) and i’m still at the shop plugging away. (maybe this should have been a tweet rather than a blog post. i dunno. i’m delirious.)

you guys know how much i love dogs. today i read a story about animal cruelty that brought me to tears. there was a phone number at the end of the article i was reading so i called it. i just wanted to see if there was anything i could do (like possibly adopt or foster this poor girl?), or at least make a donation towards her care.

i ended up talking to george who along with his wife judanna, run an animal rescue in merritt, BC called angels animal rescue. the story of the abused (now rescued) lab mix (april rain) touched my heart….and the story of how two people started an animal rescue was so beautiful.

april rain is doing very well so this story has a happy ending. if you’d like to read the story of how this rescue came to be, read on….if you want to learn more about april rain’s story, click here (it’s really tragic so be warned!).

angels animal rescue doesn’t have a website, but i just might be able to help them out with that. and rich and i were invited to take a trip to merritt to visit their 20-acre farm/rescue which i look forward to doing after we’re back from visiting family in oregon next week.

i copied this from the best friend’s animal society, this was written by Judanna:

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I would be happy to share our story with you. Firstly, all my own pets have always come to me due to their undesirable circumstances. So when Angel’s Animal Rescue came about, it just felt natural.

How Angel’s started: My Husband witnessed a car accident. Being the first and only person at the scene he naturally did everything he could. There were two people on the road, had been thrown through windshield. One lady had already passed and the other was on his way out. There was one person barely alive inside vehicle, she was wearing her seatbelt. George,(my husband) called the ambulance and stayed with the individuals until the ambulance arrived. While he was waiting for them to arrive a dog had crawled out from the ditch, badly injured, he proceeded to lay himself down beside the lady that already passed. My husbands heart broke. When the ambulance arrived he carefully put the injured dog in his pickup and took him to the vet. He had already fallen in love with this fella and informed the vet to please do all they could to save him. We would fundraiser to pay for the expenses.

We found out three weeks later that the lady in the hospital, was this injured dog’s person. They were so happy to find out that ‘Angel ‘ was being cared for and that they would soon be reunited. Deanna lost her arm as a result of the accident and ‘Angel’ lost his leg. While fundraising to help ‘Angel’, our phone did not stop ringing. We were bombarded with calls of neglected, abused and abandoned canines that were desperate for care.

Our phone has still not stopped ringing. Hence, Angel’s Animal Rescue.

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 i thanked george for doing what he does (and of course judanna too)… and i asked him to give april a hug.

donations can be sent to:

Angels Animal Rescue
2460 Torgerson Road
Merritt, BC
V1K 1R5

simply read is a canadian publisher who puts out the loveliest books. my little 2 (and a bit) year old niece has been in town visiting and we’ve been reading a lot of saffy, dotty and ollie. too sweet!

day trip: walk (or ride your bike) over to bowen island. it’s lovely and a short ferry ride from horseshoe bay. (don’t worry, auggie got to share my ice cream.)