Breaking Rules

As a dog, I know without a doubt that rules are made to be broken.

I broke some rules last week, when Mom decided to take me out to breakfast. The restaurant allows dogs at the outdoor tables, and Mom has often seen dogs snoozing under chairs, snacking on table scraps, and generally chilling beside their family. She thought I’d be great at all of these skills. I wasn’t. There was something about the metal chairs scraping on the sidewalk, the window shoppers walking by minding their own business, the motorcycle zooming past, and the firetruck 2 blocks away that just set me on edge.

I twirled and twisted, shivered and struggled, pulled and panted, jerked and jumped,

and eventually sat down IN the water bowl that the waitress gave me.

After Mom choked down part of her bagel and gulped down half of her coffee, we went back to the car. Mom said, “I think my shoulder is dislocated.” and “Why can’t you be normal?” and “You are never leaving the house again. Ever.”

Since when is Mom such a rule follower? She breaks rules all the time in her writing. She loves using sentence parts instead of whole sentences, the picture book rule of three sometimes turns into the picture book rule of five, she calls herself a full-time writer, but she only writes for one hour a day, and once she even wrote a story BACKWARDS. Maybe I should ask why SHE can’t be normal??

Now it’s time for me to break some more rules. I want to thank the blog friends who have so graciously nominated me for awards. If you know anything about me, you know I love winning. I will break the rules of the awards by saying that if you’re reading this, I am nominating YOU to take and enjoy whatever award(s) you like. Post them and follow their rules, like a normal person (or pet). Or not. Normal is definitely overrated.

Thanks to my friends Wallace and Samuel for calling me family with the WordPress Family Award.

Thanks to one of my favorite positive thinkers, Shaun for sending over the Shine On Award.

Thanks to the most mellow and most golden golden retriever, Miss Harper Lee for the Sunshine Award and the Super Sweet Blogging Award. See my answers here and here.

Thanks to a newish friend Nikita (and Val) for a newish award called the Dragon’s Loyalty Award.

Long Overdue Thank You!

I have received some awards, and would like to thank the people who gave them to me (finally). I have learned that being a blogger made me part of a big, giant, always-growing blogging family of friends, and I LOVE that. If you are reading this and you would like to share any of my awards, please grab the badge and go for it. If you don’t do awards, and would just like to share a smile, see something different, or learn something new – take a minute to visit these special blogs.

My friends at Collies of the Meadow awarded me the Blog of the Year Award. I could add another star to my former badge, if Mom could figure out how. Those collies make so much mischief, they may have stolen the stars. (Ginger is like that, sometimes…) To see the rules for this award, click here.

My friend at Another Boomer Blog gave me the Sunshine Award. She always shows me interesting, unusual photographs (sometimes with Duke, Lou, or Augie). She has such a great eye. Click here to see my answers to the Sunshine questions.

My deep-thinking, profound friend at Wiley’s Wisdom surprised me with a new award, that I never had before. Leave it to Wiley to dig up something brand new – The  WordPress Family Blogging Award. Since then, I have also been awarded this honor by SIX more of my cyberfriends. That proves that this is a big family and it keeps growing and growing! Thanks to Granny and Little B. at AngelsWhisper, Chelsea at JennyMac Book Blog, the whole zoo at DogDaz, Buddy, Basil, Nutty, and Nibbles at Hutch A Good Life, Savannah at Savannah’s Paw Tracks and Sue at Kid-Lit Reviews. You all bring us tons of smiles and giggles and great information.

Thanks, friends! xoxo

Take-My-Picture-Tuesday

This is my new bandana which Mom picked out at Mollie’s blog.  I think I look adorable and Christmas-sy in it. 

I also have a couple of awards to say thank you for today. 

Thanks to Easy for the Super Sweet Award.  He definitely got it right.  I AM super sweet… except when I’m not….  See my super sweet answers here and help yourself to the award if you’re sweet most of the time.

Thanks to AngelsWhisper for the Seven Things About Me Award. 

For this award, I need to tell 7 things about myself, which I love to do. I will also invite anyone who likes telling about themselves to take this award and tell us about yourself.

1. I am part Jack Russell and part something else.  Mom thinks I might be part monkey because of my long monkey tail.

2. I love treats.  My new favorite is called Gooberlicious. It’s not what you think.  They look and taste like peanuts. Yum.

3. I love stuffed animals, but not the mechanical ones.  I think mechanical toys are evil, and I’m pretty sure they’re trying to kill me.

4. I help Mom with her writing a lot.  I take her to the park and for rides in the car so she can get ideas. I bring toys to her while she’s working, so she can get up and play with me and not sit still too long.

5. I want Mom to write a book about me so I can go to school visits with her. I know how to behave… except when I don’t…

6. After I eat my food every day, I try to eat my bowl.  That’s just how delicious my food is!!

7. I love to wear dresses.

Winning!

It’s almost Thanksgiving, and there’s SO much to be thankful for.  Mom and I have many blessings in our lives.  We’re super grateful that we were fine through the storms, and we continue to say prayers for our friends and family members who are still dealing with the sadness and nightmares of what the storm left behind. 

I have a lot of friends to thank today. A ton of awards came our way last week. And I even won a Thanksgiving contest!

Oh and Mom is kind of a winner, too. Her story came out in Turtle Magazine.

It looks really cute with all the fancy illustrations, and she is proud and excited and Blah. Blah. Blah…

But seriously – back to me and my awards. 

Thank you to Chelsea for sending us The Very Inspiring Blogger Award. She inspires us, too. To see some Inspiring facts about me, click here. If you’re inspiring, feel free to take the badge and tell 7 Inspiring things about yourself.

Thank you to AngelsWhisper for another Super Sweet Award.  Mom says there’s no such thing as too sweet. To see my Super Sweet questions and answers, click here. If you are Super Sweet, feel free to take the badge and answer the questions on your blog.

Thank you to Chuck and the Collies for giving us The Champion of the Heart Award. Such a special award from the brave and beautiful Trevor.

Thank you to Misaki for the Blog of the Year 2012 Award. It has stars and everything. Plus a ton of rules!

1 Select the blog(s) you think deserve the ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award

2 Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen – there’s no minimum or maximum number of blogs required – and ‘present’ them with their award.

3 Please include a link back to this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award – http://thethoughtpalette.co.uk/our-awards/blog-of-the-year-2012-award/ and include these ‘rules’ in your post (please don’t alter the rules or the badges!)

4 Let the blog(s) you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the ‘rules’ with them

5 You can now also join our Facebook group – click ‘like’ on this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award Facebook group and then you can share your blog with an even wider audience

6 As a winner of the award – please add a link back to the blog that presented you with the award – and then proudly display the award on your blog and sidebar … and start collecting stars…

Yes – that’s right – there are stars to collect!

Unlike other awards which you can only add to your blog once – this award is different!

When you begin you will receive the ‘1 star’ award – and every time you are given the award by another blog – you can add another star!

There are a total of 6 stars to collect.

Which means that you can check out your favourite blogs – and even if they have already been given the award by someone else – you can still bestow it on them again and help them to reach the maximum 6 stars!

For more information check the FAQ on The Thought Palette.

Whew! That’s a lot of rules (to break), but I can handle it! Feel free to take this badge and follow the rules, if you like stars (and rules). 

Mom sent in my picture for a What Am I Thankful For contest at Pawsitively Pets and I won third place! Yay me! Here’s what I know about numbers – 3 is bigger than 1 and 2. That makes me the biggest winner of all! Thanks Lily and Ann!  Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

How Sweet Am I?

Prizes! Yay! We have won another award or two or three. We were given the One Sweet Blog Award from our friends at Hutch a Good Life and the Super Sweet Blogging Award from our friend Clowie and the whole zoo at Dog Daz.  Take a look at them!

Cupcakes! Like my name! Mom named me Cupcake because I am so sweet and now my blog is also sweet, just like me!

Mom bakes cupcakes sometimes. She mixes up butter, sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla, flour, and baking powder.  She says, “Baking is like writing.  All the ingredients need to be in there.” and “If I leave anything out, the cupcakes won’t be any good.” and “Get your head out of the oven!”

When Mom writes a new story, she has to get all the ingredients into it. Right now, she’s working on two stories at once. Each one needs original characters, an interesting setting, some scene changes, a fun plot with lots of conflict and a satisfying resolution, opportunity for illustration, poetic language, humor, tension, and dialogue. And vanilla and eggs. (I’m lying about that last part.)

After Mom gets to the end of the story, she has to leave it alone for a while. That’s like when the cupcakes have to cool off. When the story cools off for a while, Mom will put frosting on it.  Oh no! That’s the cupcakes. She’ll revise the story A LOT.  She’ll cut words that slow the story down, add words that move the story along, read it out loud ten million times, do everything she can to make it better, and cover the top with sprinkles. Wait. What? I love sprinkles. And frosting.  And cupcakes. And stories!

There are no rules for the One Sweet Blog Award (except to be sweet). For the Super Sweet Blog Award the rules are:

1. Give credit to the person who chose you.

2. Answer the ‘Super Sweet’ questions below.

3. Nominate a “Baker’s Dozen” (13) blogs.

Super Sweet Questions:

1. Cookies or Cake? Both. And bacon. And anything from the garbage pail. And goose poop.

2. Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate is poison, for dogs, so I’ll say chocolate.  I like eating poison every chance I get.

3. What is your favorite sweet treat? Mom’s homemade frozen yogurt dog pops.

4. When do you crave sweet things the most? Every minute of every day.

5. If you had a sweet nickname, what would it be? I already have a sweet name!!

Now I will name 13 blogs that I like.  If you already have the award, then congratulations. Either way, we picked you because we like you, and want lots of other people to like you along with us. 

1. Jenny

2. Charlie Eve

3. Bubba

4. Mollie

5. Misaki

6. Sammy

7. Susanna

8. Hamsters

9. Doggy

10. Collies

11. Bassa

12. Marcie

13. Donna

I wish a baker’s dozen was 100, because we really like a LOT of blogs!

Addiction!

A big thank you hug and cuddle to my friend Misaki and my friend AngelsWhisper for passing me The Addictive Blog Award.  That means they are ADDICTED to me.  That’s a good thing… I hope….  I think it means they want to give me treats. 

For this award I need to:

1. Thank the giving bloggers.
2. Put a link to their blogs.
3. Talk about why I blog and why I started blogging.
4. Post my award.
5. Nominate ten other bloggers for the award.

I can do this.

In case you haven’t noticed, Mom is a writer.  She writes a lot on her computer AND even more in her head.  Because of that, she’s also a reader.  She reads grown-up books on her Kindle, picture books from the library, directions, cereal boxes, websites, and junk mail. 

Back in December, 2010 she started reading blogs.  Mom said, “I can do this.” and “I have plenty to say.” and “Get off my lap. I can’t even see the screen.”

Turns out Mom did not have plenty to say at all, but I did.  I watch her all the time (she thinks it’s actually kind of creepy),

so I know what it’s like to be a writer, and what it’s like to be the dog of a writer. So in January, 2011, she said Bye-Bye to her blog and we started mine.  I will admit, she does the typing, because I’m too little to reach the computer on my own, and the keys are not correctly paw-sized. But I’m the one who tells her what to say.  We’ve been blogging about Mom’s writing and about ME, ever since.  We’ve learned a lot along the way and made a ton of human and furry friends.  Someday, we’re hoping to get to 100 followers.  That’s a nice round number, and we’re almost there!

Now, let’s see if I can find 10 fun  blogs that you should become addicted to and that hopefully don’t already have the Addictive Blogger Award.

1. Bassas Blog

3. Bongo

9. Chuck and the Collies

10. Nibbles, Nutty, Buddy, and Basil

Yup.  That’s 10!  Check them out for laughs and learning, and maybe some treats, because they’re addictive!

Award on Fire

I am very grateful to my collie friends and Chuck at Collies of the Meadow for sharing the Blog on Fire Award with us. I do hope my blog isn’t REALLY on fire, because that could be dangerous, plus Mom would be angry if her computer burned up and she couldn’t be a writer anymore. She says she forgot how to write on paper. Yay! Maybe I can eat the pencils that I haven’t eaten already. 

To share The Blog on Fire Award, I need to tell 5 things about myself, and then give the award away to 5 blog friends. Here goes! 

1. My birthday is in September.

2. I wear a harness in the car, but most of the time I stand up and stretch as far as I can, anyway.

3. I have 9 dresses, 4 jackets, a couple of tutus, and more bandanas and collars than I can count.

4. I love the park, but sometimes I get stuck under Mom’s chair or under the park bench.

5. One of Mom’s Facebook friends drew a picture of me. I think I look adorable.

6. I shed. A lot.

Yup.  That’s 5.

Visit these friends for pet fun and writing fun…..

http://hamsterdiaries.wordpress.com/

http://hutchagoodlife.wordpress.com/

http://donasdays.blogspot.com

http://susannahill.blogspot.com/

Yup. That’s 5.

I’d also like to thank our guinea pig friends Bingo, Buddy, Nibbles and Nutty at Hutch a Good Life for awarding us honorable mention in their Olym-Pigs.  Click here to see lots of crazy guinea pig antics, and ME on the short list in the couch-surfing event.

Sisterhood

A big thank you cuddle to our friend Misaki at The Misadventures of Misaki for awarding us the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award.  Of course I love awards because they are all about me, and I like when people like me, and I love when people love me.  Mom totally gets that about me.  She feels that way about her stories and poems.  She likes when people like them, but she LOVES when people LOVE them, especially when they love them enough to buy them.  Yay!

I also love how the award looks like jeans, which is my favorite thing for Mom to wear.  When she wears jeans, it usually means that she might not be leaving me alone for a long time that day, or better yet, she might be taking me someplace.  Road trip!

The rules of this award are:

• Share 7 things about yourself, and
• Pass the award on to 5 other blogs.

1. I’m on a diet.  I gained a pound and a half, so Mom has cut back on my treats big time.

2. I hate diets, and I’m pretty sure this can cause me to develop an eating disorder  and have problems accepting my body as being beautiful the way it is.

3. One Cheerio is not as delicious as 3 Cheerios or 8 Cheerios or 20 Cheerios.

4. I love watching Dogs in the City on TV – especially when the dogs bark at me.

5. I went to the 4th of July Parade and wasn’t afraid of the sirens or the bagpipes or the drums, like the last parade I went to.  Instead, I was afraid of the flags, the local soccer team, and the people riding in antique cars and throwing candy. 

6. I don’t like taking a bath or having my fur brushed or getting my teeth brushed.  I do it because Mom said I have to suffer to be beautiful.

7. I’m hungry.

We would like to share the Sisterhood Award with 5 blogs that are definitely worth a visit:

If you like dogs and like to smile:

1. Bassas Blog

2. Collies of the Meadow

If you like artists drawing and taking awesome pictures and like to smile:

3. Illustration Junky

4. First and Fabulous

And if you like reading about writing and like to smile:

5. Banana Peelin’

I like to smile!

The Best

A huge cuddle and snuggle and I-hope-I-don’t-accidentally-bite-your-head-off-thank-you to Eve and Dexter and their human at Hamster Diaries for choosing us as June’s Best Blog.  Although I am still a little afraid of my mechanical hamster, Eve and Dexter don’t seem as scary as that baby Frankenstein monster in its evil, unpredictable plastic ball.

Mom also won two awards from our friend Beth at By Word of Beth.  These awards are for being a 12×12 writer, which Mom is.  To me it means Beth likes me.  She really really likes me. 

These awards require us to:

• Link back to the person who gave us the awards – Thanks, Beth!
• And tell 7 things about ourselves

You can read 7 things about me here or here or see 7 of my favorite toys here….

Having 3 new awards is helpful, since yesterday Mom found out she didn’t win the Highlights Annual Fiction Contest.  She said, “This story is SO cute, how did it not win?” and “Oh well.  I’ll enter a new story next year.” and “Being a dog is so simple….”

Sunshine!

We’ve have had some sunshine come into our blog lately!  Look how happy I am…

Yes, that’s my happy face!

First, we received the You Make Me Shine Award from our friend Bassa, our favorite Caucasian Shepherd Dog.  She has a really cool blog and talks about her view of the world in exotic Tbilisi, in The Republic of Georgia.  Thanks, Bassa and Tall Person!  You make me shine, too! 

More shining happiness came from our friend AngelsWhisper who sent us the Sunshine Award.  AngelsWhisper has a couple of snarky cats.  I love snarky, but I don’t love cats.  I do love the comments AngelsWhisper leaves on our blog.  Thanks, AngelsWhisper, you’re fun.  Our Sunshine Award answers are here.

Mom had some sunny things happen, too.  She was featured on the blog of a crafty artist named Autumn, who has a blog and a business called BiblioBags.  Not only did Autumn talk some about Mom, but she also made an awesome purse out of Mom’s book, Keep Your Ear on the Ball.  I hope Mom puts gum in there, soon.  I’m pretty sure I can squeeze my bony little head in and get some.

Mom also sent a story to her new best friends at Rate Your Story, and her story got a score of two.  TWO!  That’s one away from ONE, which is the best score.  Mom loves having a two, because now she can fix up the story a little more, talk about it with her writing group named DavidLaurieandOtherDavid, and send it out to some publishers.  Then we can wait for the mailman to bring us a happy letter.  I don’t love the mailman, but I do love happy letters and sunshine.