It was a good year!

I hope the next one will be even better! Though I got Alfred The Pug this summer and that is almost impossible to beat! Unless it's another pug of course:)

Anyway, the following picture is supposed to compensate the super creepy one that I made for our wedding anniversary:) I hope Andrey will like this one better!
And I think we got the holiday colors and spirit:)

Happy New Year to all!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas!

To all our friends and family! Pugs and kisses!

I love our Christmas card for this year:)

We like stairs

Because it adds graphic element to the picture instantly and light is always awesome ( when staircase has a window). 

Alfred The Pug suddenly decided that he is afraid to go up the stairs and spent some time pacing down there. So, I took the picture and went to get him. New quirk every day!

For dear uncle Victor

Alfred The Pug and I would like to wish a happy Birthday to dear uncle Victor and promise to visit soon. In a meantime we have a card for him:)

No, he's not sad. Just like in Ringo Starr case - "It's just me face."

Study in red with the pug

For our drawing classes at Dawson we had sometimes a model came in and pose for us. Nude. Usually private parts were elegantly draped with piece of fabric. This image reminds me of such lessons:)

Movie pug

We had an adventure on Saturday.
Friend and colleague of mine Daria http://www.dariamarchenkophotos.com/ was shooting a short movie for cinema program at Concordia U. She asked if Alfred The Pug could be in the movie.
His task was to quietly sit on actresses lap in the car most of the time and look cute.

Sitting and looking cute - no problem here, but I had serious doubts about the quiet part. He loves to bark and growl at strangers now as well as participate in the discussions. . Happy to say - he proved me wrong!
He was nervous a bit of course, but didn't bark or cry.  I made sure he can see me trough the car window all the time and that actress had enough treats to keep him in his best behavior.

I hope Daria was satisfied with everyone's performance and I can't wait to see the final product:)))) And here are some Behind the Scenes pictures that I took:)

He does look cute! Probably I should have "Rent'a'Pug" service started for such occasions:)))))

BTW, starring here is Lara Brown. Singer-songwriter from Montreal http://www.lara-brown.com/. I fell in love with her immediately:)

Whistler's mother had a pug...

That was fun to shoot.

I'm definitely pleased! Consider it my Halloween card:)

Breaking rules

Planner from our Sunday wedding said she was waiting 10 years for this to happen. It was our first time too... Behold!

Red wedding dress!!!!!

From Vera Wang of course. As far as we know 3 of  her red wedding gowns were bought worldwide, and we shot one of them. That is absolutely amazing!
Accessories were also red as well as the decor. I was curious what veil would go with that dress, and it was a nice small one.

Bouquet from the red roses and black feathers:)

As well as red earrings

The shoes made me jump and squeal. I never saw anything like that before. And I never saw a bride that would go for this style. Red Alexander McQueen scull pumps! I loved them so much, I spent quite a bit of time shooting them:)

That was a memorable wedding for sure. Guests were very surprised but loved every bit of it. So did we...

Weekly pug

Alfred The Pug is having a sad day. He's not going to Toronto with me this time. If he could tolerate cats - I would take him, but since he cannot - I have to live him behind because there are 2 of his "enemies" at the studio. And apparently one of them would travel with us back to Montreal. So, we decided not to risk our sanity and have only one animal in the car.
Alfred will stay with Andrey and I hope the two of them will be good boys:)))))

Also Alfred will be 11 months old tomorrow.  Time goes by so fast:)))

***

I produced this picture to be some sort of a postcard to Andrey for our wedding anniversary. 
I'm pretty content how it's turned out. I like theatrical feeling of it and I absolutely love how Alfred The Pug looks more like some freakish plush toy than a dog (probably because it took us quite a few takes to shoot).

Well, Andrey said it was creepy (and I'm not sure that's a compliment this time) and he needs time to get used to it:)))))
Anyway, happy anniversary to us!

Last days of summer

***

Another selfie with the pug:)

Yes, I do realize that Alfred The Pug is taking over my blog... But, hey! He is my shadow now:)

Weekly Pug (courtesy of my husband)

This is from the last visit to Ottawa. View from one side

and a closeup from another:)

They actually fell asleep:)

Hey, Honey...

Just because.

Pug life

What could be better than having a long weekend! Even if I worked Saturday, we still have two days to relax! So we went to Ottawa.
Dogs remembered each other to my huge relief. There was no drama at all, Alfred got accepted right back in the pack (even though Wooster and Ci Da took turns trying to claim his kennel:).

They had long walks in the woods, Alfred measured all the  puddles he could find, and we played with them a lot.

After humans got tired, dogs continued to play tug of war by themselves:)

Tired pug was the best indication of the time good spent:)

Pugs N Roses

I think I will do a new series of selfies with the pug. That would be fun! This one is very summery in my opinion. And I'm able to fit in my wedding dress again. It's even slightly big now. I'm giving myself a nice pat on the back!

And Alfred The Pug by himself for dear uncle Victor:)

Dressing up

I decided to see how Alfred The Pug feels about clothing. I think I'll have to get him something warm for winter, so I needed to know that he doesn't mind being dressed. And truth to be told, I somewhat like the idea itself:) I know, cheesy, but cute anyway!
Dog clothes can be quite expensive, so before I buy something serious - I've got a tuxedo onesie meant for babies. Actually Tatiana found it at Winners:) I need to adjust it a bit, but not bad for starters.  Here he is, looking pretty cool to me!

Didn't struggle much wearing it around the house, so I guess I can buy (or make) him some other stuff! Will be good for pictures too:))))))))

Traveling pug

Alfred The Pug is not very social yet. He is fine and friendly with people, but very confused around other dogs. He just doesn't know what to do with them and how to play. I take him to the dog run almost every day, he shows interest in dogs, but at the same time is afraid of them. That's why last week we spent in Ottawa, hoping that being around Wooster and Cida would help.
At first all 3 of them were not happy at all, and tried to kick each other asses. Alfred looked quite miserable first day:)

After some persuasion they learned  how to tolerate each other, and despite some tension left were able to keep quiet and seat together waiting for permission to eat.

 On a third day when I was teaching Alfred the "Place" command all of them were doing it at the same time, and all 3 of them would run to me afterwards to get "good boys" and a treat! We had a lot of run - like- crazy -arounds, as Cida was playing with Alfred all the time!

By Friday they shared a dog bed for a while, and Alfred and Wooster even slept together on my lap! (If Max will sent me a picture of this moment - I'll show you later!)

So he enjoyed the stay very much, learned a few things (as well as I did), and had a taste of normal dog's life.
I'm very grateful to Victor and Tatiana for hospitality and assistance, and very happy about that experience! I would love to repeat it again:)
And then it was time to go home.