Monday in October

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Traipsed through last week, hoarded a bazillion reference images for some drawing (the references are birds. You didn’t know I draw?), wrote on an ongoing story (yes I write stories too!) and then on the way home on Friday I realize I hadn’t popped in to give you guys the updates on the fall colors! Whoops!

Better today than to skip a whole week, especially since we are in the peak time of colors!

BAM! We have color people! If you didn’t get out on Sunday, make a point to carve some time this week to take a stroll in the fall colors. The North Shore is in full peak and should be EPIC! Plus there’s been some solid rainfall so the waterfalls should be flowing. What an epic combo – waterfalls & fall colors!

St. Cloud is in 25%-50% with some trees already dropping their leaves and some still in their greens. Minneapolis & St. Paul are in the 10-25% range, there should be some beautiful colors showing up as the week progresses. (Minneapolis and St. Paul are often a week slower in color change than the rest of the state!). 

I would love to meet up with you and your dog for some fall color dog photography! If not a session, at least get out and stroll amongst the colors. A great way to relish the tail end of the warm season. Plus your dog totally loves walks!

Time for Halloween! 🎃 Why not a whole month of ghosts and ghouls?

For us that means rocking a Halloween collar for Bender (Spooktacular from Atomic Collars) and oranges, purples, stripes and Halloween inspired colors and shirts for each day. (I found an epic shirt yesterday – the Wizard of Oz scarecrow, arms outstretched in classic zombie pose muttering… BRAINS! BWHAHAHAHAHA!)

Decorations for the house haven’t been put up yet, but they will be arriving soon. Costume will be a mummy, with the front of the house matching the tattered cloth. There are visions of cookies, haunted gingerbread houses and bloody cakes dancing in my head.  There are 27 days until Halloween!

Are you and your dog dressing up this Halloween?

If you want to get to know me a bit better and learn about my adventures into sewing, cooking, vintage recipes and more pop over to Banterings. 

Enjoy your fall days, the vibrant colors and time with your dog. Catch you on Friday!

Monday in October Read More »

The End of September

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The end of September is on the horizon, merely a week away! That means we will be entering into full on fall – pumpkin spice and Pumpkins 🎃 galore! We’re planning on giving Halloween a full month of celebration (tis our favorite holiday!).

Fall leaf colors have edged forward quite rapidly in the past week.  From Paynesville to St. Cloud there are more and more trees popping into colorful displays.

BAM! St. Cloud has moved into the 25-50% of peak colors, Minneapolis is in the 10-25% range and full peak is creeping in from the north (the red bits).

Crazy how the leaves can change in the span of a week!

Today is… my sister’s birthday! She’s hitting the big 34! Happy birthday sister!

Plus today is National Cherries Jubilee Day!

Have you ever eaten Cherries Jubilee 🍒?

I haven’t! Though it’s been around since the late 1880s! Seems it is a sauce of cherries and liquor that goes well with a tasty vanilla ice cream.  (I’ve been on an ice cream making kick so an ice cream topping is perfect!).

Want to make your own?

Here’s a recipe from Saving Dessert:

Ingredients:

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Instructions

  • Wash and pit the cherries (leave whole.) Place the cherries in a flameproof skillet large enough to fit the fruits in a single layer. Add the sugar and lemon juice and stir to combine. Cover the pan and heat on medium-low until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes.
  • Uncover the pan and increase the heat to medium-high. Cook until the cherries are juicy and syrupy, about 5 minutes.
  • Slide the pan off the heat and add the Kirsch. Ignite the alcohol with a utility lighter or long fireplace match. Quickly move the skillet back onto the burner and gently shake and swirl until the flames subside, about 30-45 seconds.
  • Remove from the heat and serve immediately spooned over vanilla ice cream. Store any leftovers in a jar in the refrigerator.
  • ** if fresh cherries aren’t available you can substitute frozen ones

Have a lovely weekend! See you next Friday!

 

The End of September Read More »

Mid September

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It’s fall, though the temps have us back to rocking flip flops and tank tops. We’re in favor of summer taking a slow stroll to transition into fall. 

Fall colors are beginning! It’s rather early (mid October is average central MN peak) which means October will be sporting spooky naked trees (all the better for Halloween!)

The North Shore is peaking (yellow to orange range is typically peak and best colors). If you get a chance, head up north this weekend and see the colors for yourself! St. Cloud and Minneapolis are still in the green, though by next week this could totally change! 

What happens if we miss the fall colors? Then we quest for golden grasses, pine trees or head inward to the city for some alleys and brickwork that stays classic year round. 

Atomic Collars is in progress of being relocated, a slow process but sewing and cutting will resume in the next week!

Today is National Apple Dumpling Day and National Monte Cristo Day! 

Monte Cristos…. drool! Totally not a dog friendly recipe (mega sweet!) and Apple Dumplings also fall into the too sweet for pups category. 

Instead opt for some Baked Apple Chips or Baked Apples!

Baked Apple Chips

Found on mybrownnewfies.com

  • 1 apple – Fuji, Pink Lady, Gala or Honeycrisp work well

  1. Wash & dry apple.

  2. Slice, remove core and seeds. Thinner slices will need less cooking time, thicker slices will need more cooking time.

  3. Place apples on parchment paper lined baking sheet.

  4. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

  5. Bake at 200 degrees for 1 hour.

  6. Flip and bake for an additional hour. The longer you bake them the crisper they will get!

  7. Allow to fully cool in the oven. When the oven is cool, remove the crisps.

  8. Enjoy! (You can eat them too!)

These should keep for up to a week in an airtight container. 

Snack
Dog
dog apple, dog apple crisps

Baked Apples for Dogs

Found on twolittlecavaliers.com

  • 2 apples – use ones good for baking (like Granny Smith, Honeycrisp or Braeburn)
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • juice of half of a small lemon
  • 3/4 tsp cinnamon

  1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

  2. Peel and core apples.

  3. Cut into 1/4 inch thick slices.

  4. In a small bowl, whisk honey, cinnamon and lemon juice together.

  5. Dip apple slices into the honey mixture.

  6. Place on parchment lined baking sheet.

  7. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until apples are baked through and golden brown.

  8. Cool and enjoy! (Yes you can eat them too!)

Will keep in the fridge for up to a week.

Snack
Dog
dog apple, dog baked apples

If you make them, let me know what your dogs think of them! 

Enjoy this lovely stretch of weather and keep an eye on those leaves! Catch you next Friday with the color update!

Mid September Read More »

September has rolled in!

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Welcome to September!

School has arrived and completed a week, the air is beginning to shift to crisp and pumpkin spice has arrived to flavor everything it can. Fall formally arrives on September 22nd, though I’ve always considered fall to start in September.

With fall comes fall colors. 2 weeks ago in a trip up to the north shore there were trees that were starting to gain color. Because of the dry summer we’ve had we could have fall leaf colors much earlier than normal or we can end up with no colors at all!

Here’s where we are at: 

It’s beginning! Remember if you want to do the North Shore and waterfalls with fall color we’ll need to plan for mid to late September. Mid October is when St. Cloud peaks on average, while the end of October is when Minneapolis and St. Paul tend to peak. 

With the arrival of an ice cream maker attachment for my stand mixer, the inspiration that is ice cream has been high (I haven’t made a batch yet!). Normal ice cream isn’t good for dogs due to the amount of sugar in it. You can find dog friendly ice cream in grocery stores (Ben and Jerry’s makes a doggie ice cream!) or you can whip up a batch at home!

Try this recipe:

Peanut Butter & Jelly Ice Cream for Dogs!

Found on: https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/ice-cream-dogs/

  • 1 small ripe banana
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter (unsalted and smooth)
  • 1 cup natural plain yogurt (low fat, non fat)
  • 5 strawberries , pureed

  1. Mash the banana well until smooth and no lumps.

  2. Stir in the peanut butter, followed by the yogurt.

  3. Mix until well combined.

  4. Puree or mash the strawberries and fold them into peanut butter mix to create a swirl.

  5. Pour the mixture into freezer safe air-tight containers and then freeze for a minimum of 4 hours but preferably overnight.

  6. Ice cream will keep in the freezer up to 8 weeks! Yum!

Dessert
Dog
dog ice cream

Don’t forget – weekday sessions will be available until October 18th with select weekends available into the fall.

2021 feels like a reset year for everyone, including About A Dog Photography. Aside from a few local sessions for an advertising arrangement, there haven’t been any sessions on the book for this year. I understand the rebuilding since covid and with photography (especially dog photography) being a luxury item that it isn’t in line with budgets at the moment. Don’t worry we aren’t going anywhere!

Additionally we’ve been funneling a ton of time and energy into Atomic Collars – from sewing to events every other weekend from May until the beginning of this month. Busy hardly covers how the summer went. 

If you were to improve, change, update or inspire About A Dog Photography what would you do?

September has rolled in! Read More »

The End of Summer

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Whoosh.
Summer came, it heated up, served us ice cream and swimming outings, parades and fireworks and rolled into lazy dog days. Now its lazily waning as school supplies and Halloween display in the stores, the early leaves are transitioning and children anticipate school.

This was one of those summers where it went streaking by too quickly.

Mondays at the part time gig of the camera shop, weekdays sewing as a madman for Atomic Collars, every other weekend at the Minneapolis Pet Market hanging out with other awesome pet vendors, every opposite weekend filled with adventure and my two favorite guys. There was a trip to a cabin and a long weekend for my birthday.  Then the summer was gone. 

Photography has been quiet. The oomph of steam that had the birthday excitement petered out when there was a loss of time (coordinated around the cabin trip, might want to rethink that…) and I lost the organization to pick winners as well as release the contests for all 8 sessions. Part was due to the amplification of Atomic Collars. Sewing = time. With more sewing to do to create stock, it ate into marketing and social media for About A Dog Photography.

Don’t worry, we aren’t going anywhere. We made it to 9 years, can’t stop us now!

With back to school happening soon there will be an adjustment made. I’m helping my mom out during the weekdays so Monday-Thursday won’t be available until after 5 pm. Fridays are out as that’s a pizza night and hangout day. This will hold steady until we reach then end of September when our start time is 5:30 pm (we meet up an hour and half before sunset for the best light).

Now if we need to, we can shorten the session to an hour and shoot until we lose light. This would give us weekdays until  October 18th with a start time of 5:30, sunset at 6:25 pm. Any weekdays after the 18th of October will be only available as a short session due to the loss of light as the season transitions. This will remain in effect for weekdays until the time change in March. 

Select weekends will be available pending events with Atomic Collars. At the moment the weekends of September 18th & 19th, October 3rd, 16th-17th, October 30th and November 13th-14th are available.  If you want a session then, call dibs ASAP!

Peak fall leaf color is typically late September to mid October for the middle of the state aka St. Cloud area. The Twin Cities tends to have a later start and later range, with leaves turning in late September and transitioning into late October, while the North Shore is going to peak in September (waterfalls and leaves? yes please! Though water levels are low this year…) 

 The week of October 11th-18th ought to have a fair display of color for the St. Cloud area, possibly for the Twin Cities (we know there’s tons of variables) and I’ll be doing active weekly reporting of the colors starting in September. If you want a session during that week, email me ASAP!  Only 5 weekdays that week are available for full sessions!

The weekend of November 13th-14th is the VERY LAST weekend to book a session to guarantee you receive your prints, albums etc in time for Christmas. Yes we can have sessions in December but you won’t get your prints and products in time for Christmas. Print and product production is 3-4 weeks, especially around the holiday season. 

From January to March 12th there will be no weekday sessions and only select weekends available. At the moment January 22nd & 23rd, February 5th & 6th, February 19th & 20th, March 5th & 6th are available.

Starting the week of March 14th we can resume weekday sessions! Start time would be 6 pm and as the spring heads into summer start times will get a bit later. When we hit the end of school in June, weekdays will be fully available for morning and evening sessions, with select weekends available. 

Can’t forget about Viewing Sessions! These will only be available in the evenings after 5 pm weekdays and can be done in person or virtually via Skype from the start of the school year until summer break. Summer will give us more flexibility, but Viewing Sessions will always be on a weekday, whether in the morning, afternoon or evening. 

Now you’re in the loop! Starting in September there were will be weekly blogs featuring a report on fall leaf colors. I may add some other fun dog things – recipes, dog facts, possibly adorable pictures of pups. 

Keep staying safe in this new normal world. Hugs from me and sniffs from Bender. (Kris says hi too!) ♥

The End of Summer Read More »

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