a flash of red
It's another snowy day in the city, and this little guy flew into the bushes outside my office.

vote for me and help a rescue!
The Star Tribune is holding a Cutest Canine Contest, and the winner receives $1,000! If I win the contest, I'll be donating $200 to Pet Haven Inc. of MN, $200 to Homeward Bound Rescue, and $200 to Feline Rescue Inc! Click the links below to see my entries. There are 5 total: "Christmas Gracie," "Rudy," "Jump for Treats," "Mija," and "Stella." The website is really slow, which isn't surprising since there's over 6,000 entries! But please bear with it, register, and vote often (once per minute, it looks like!) and tell your friends!
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bad plus
We had our 2nd annual Bad Plus double date last night, and it was fantastic! Every year at this time, The Bad Plus plays a series of shows at the Dakota Jazz Club downtown. They're an amazing trio, and so much fun to watch. I definitely recommend seeing them whenever you can!

brady + moke
Brady and Moke had a session at the SBP home studio today, and these pugs are very photogenic! They're not exactly the best of friends, but we still got some good ones with the two of them together.

merry christmas! / happy new year!

cooper
Cooper came over tonight for a session, and we definitely had our hands full! This gorgeous, spunky mutt is a coonhound-mix, adopted from Homeward Bound Rescue (go rescues!) We had alot of fun, and got some great photos....here's just a few of my favorites. I love his coy look in the blue one :) and I'm now realizing that we were inadvertently patriotic in the background choices.....hmm.

new toys
Gracie always seems to love a new toy, no matter what it is, but she took a particular liking to her new set from Room Candy! This is one of the things I won for the ODP '08 contest They sent 2 donuts and an ice cream cone. Here's Gracie enjoying one of the donuts!

gifts to delight dogs and dog lovers
It's hard to believe it's almost Christmas already, and if you haven't picked out that perfect gift for the dog-lover in your life, be sure to check out Sidewalk Dog's Gifts to Delight Dogs and Dog Lovers! They have some great ideas for Christmas (or any occasion) and you can even find me listed under Photo Sessions!

In the spirit of gift-giving, you can now purchase SBP Gift Certificates! They can be used for photo sessions, prints, custom cards, or any other products we offer. Please contact me for more details!

an easy way to give back
I came across this great organization today, GoodSearch. It works just like any other search engine, except every time you do a search, one penny is donated to your charity of choice. The really cool part though, is they work with over 700 retailers (big names that we all shop at) and when you get to their site through GoodSearch, a percentage of your purchase (sometimes pretty significant) is automatically donated too! For example, ebay gives up to 37.5% on qualifying purchases! I wish I'd have known about this sooner!

Need a couple good ideas for causes who could use donations? How about Homeward Bound or Pet Haven?

award winning photographer!
I entered the Outstanding Dog Photo '08 contest, sponsored by pamperedpuppy.com and I won the Humor category, AND got an honorable mention, AND am featured as March and May in their 2009 calendar! They said I was the only photographer to win in 2 areas. Over 3500 photos were submitted, and the contest was judged by amazing dog photographers nationwide, like Sharon Montrose and Erin Vey to name a couple. I'm so honored, and very encouraged to keep doing what I'm doing! You can see all the winners here and the calendar here.