A Dog's Life

I need to get more in the swing of things with this blog. It's a bit intimidating for me but I will get used to it.

Wow....is the feel of fall in the air today. We haven't even had our summer vacation yet and already kids are heading back to school. Labor Day is too early on the calendar this year and that means everything will be starting back up with a bang and the lazy days will soon be behind us. Fall in New England is gorgeous and I love it but summer can definitely stay around a few more weeks!

We just finished orders for three memorial boxes for beloved pets....2 cats and 1 dog. It brings it closer to home that we haven't done one for Cowboy yet....I just haven't been able to paint his portrait to this point; but I think now that it's been a year since we lost him, I might be able to do it. This product we offer is such a bittersweet one....it's a wonderful way to remember your pet and keep him/her close.

Our special Cowboy Jackson continues to fill our memory. This big black lab impersonator settled into our household with no problems and we quickly got used to his eventual 100 lbs. of adoration! He never thought he was anything other than a lapdog...especially when we were sitting on the floor....and would muscle his way into every gathering we had. His big cow eyes were always so filled with love; and when our grandchildren started arriving, he was instantly their protector.

He and our other dog, Kelsey, became best buddies. Oh....and did he have to be in charge when we went for walks. It was his self-assigned job to walk Kelsey. He would not settle down unless he had her leash in his mouth and he could make sure that she turned into our yard as we neared home. What a guy! I just saw a girl walking a dog when we were in Maine this past weekend and the dog was carrying his own leash....another Cowboy trait when we walked him by himself. There are signs of him everywhere!

Cowboy and Kelsey (we lost Kelsey in 2002) Christmas 2001. They were such buddies just like Cowboy and Sassy became.

We so love animals and we hope that you will visit our website and see our functional art which features not only pets but homes, scenes and people as well. We work closely with our clients to custom-make special gifts for their friends and family or for themselves. Next time we'll treat you to one of the stories behind one of the items we made.

Visit us..... www.hearttohandcreations.com We'd love to have you drop by!

A new venue for us

Who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks?!

We've been told over and over to write a blog; and the more we read (or rather, my husband who is also my business partner reads), it is obvious that blogging for businesses as well as for personal reasons is the way to go. I will admit that I'm the one who has been dragging my heels, thoroughly convinced that what we were doing to promote our business Heart to Hand Creations was just fine....and I will now also admit I am ready to head into the 21st century. It isn't that websites, word of mouth, shows and referrals still don't work. You just need to constantly find new venues which is hard for me...such a creature of habit.

We have been in business for several years now and have a staff of 3----our two cats, Jaz and Snow and our dog, Sassafras (a.k.a. Sassy). The "staff" oversees our business and so far the three of them have been pretty proud of their family's work! Our precious rottie-golden mix, Cowboy, was the senior member of our organization until he lost his battle with lymphoma last fall...gosh, do we miss him!

You know the story....a puppy arrives at your home via one of your children who has come home temporarily after moving out. In our case it was a son returning to New Hampshire from Colorado with a beautiful 4 month old Rottie/Golden mix named Cowboy Jackson. Sure enough, within 3 months our son found a place to live but could not take his pup. Of course, we had fallen in love with Cowboy and were not about to try and find another home for him so he was added to our menagerie.

Over a period of time, we'll be sharing bits and pieces of Cowboy's life with us as well as some of the interesting stories we have heard from people who have custom ordered pieces of our personalized functional art including pet memorial boxes and pet treat jars.




Take a look at a couple of our creations. These are samples of a solid cherry pet memorial box with a hand-painted portrait of "Dusty" and a pet treat jar featuring a portrait of "Hunter." Clicking on them will bring you to our site.