Redecorating: Pardon the Mess!

Regular readers may have already noticed that there's a bit of redecorating going on here around the Oasis ... for quite a while, I've felt that my old "design" was looking really tired and tattered and needed an updating, so I finally screwed up my courage to the sticking point, and made the scary transition to the new Blogger templates. Now I'm glad I did, though it did scramble up quite a few things in the process, but now that I've restored some semblance of its original order, I think the ole Oasis has a lot of room to grow in the coming months. I hope you'll continue to like what you see, especially when the snows recede and venturing outside isn't dangerous anymore (as it has been frequently of late!) ... the promise of the bulbs and spring flowers is already making me impatient!

Au salon de la rue des moulins, Toulouse Lautrec, 1894

Now, some of you may be wondering what Toulouse Lautrec has to do with all this ... trust me, it does go with the redecorating theme. This piece was a placement we made back in August when we had a major rearrangement and decorating of the living room, and it somehow didn't make the cut at the time. When we watched Moulin Rouge again on New Year's Eve, I was reminded that I'd never posted this Lautrec lithograph and decided it was about time to do so! This lithograph is from a series of numbered and stamped editions from the Musée Toulouse Lautrec in Albi, France ... though it's not one of his more famous works, the subject matter is well known in his work. Yes, these are filles de joie from a maison privée on Rue des moulins in Paris, where he was reputed to have spent some time living around this time period. I know little else about this particular work, but, as a long time Lautrec admirer, I'm really glad it's part of my collection.

I came by this print rather by accident ... one of the former owners of the company where I work had bought this for the office and it arrived damaged (broken glass and frame), and no one really wanted to put it up in the office. Quite frankly, I was the only admirer (other than the purchaser) who liked it and it wandered about the office before ending up in my cube. When our office went 'virtual' a year ago, all of the artwork was divvied up among the employees, and this, the ugly duckling was unwanted ... except by me! So I got to bring it home in its ramshackle frame to await better treatment, which took a few months but finally happened. Since Fernymoss is a professional framer (he's the frame shop manager for a local retail big box craft store), he was delighted to take it on as a project. Believe me, the framing work wasn't cheap, but the results more than made up for the expense! This photo doesn't do justice to it really, because it looks like it should be hanging in a museum ... well in a sense it is, the museum of our eclectic delights ... thus the inclusion in this post devoted to spiffing up the familial spaces, such as this blog.
Of course you must have guessed that more puppy pictures were inevitable, didn't you? Here are a couple of candids of Hanna playing with her new squeaky puppy Kong earlier tonight ... we've just about decided that Kongs are the only way to go for her in terms of toys right now, because she manages to destroy just about anything else (even apparently durable) at this point. And boy, do the Kong toys keep her entertained and busy! Just what a growing puppy needs to slake that chewing instinct. One of our dear friends from the neighborhood dropped by last night with a welcome bag of toys and treats for her, only to see her destroy two of them in minutes ... I felt so bad about that, but at least a few of the things she gave Hanna seem like they may survive to play another day. As responsive and obedient as she is already, I have to keep reminding myself that she is still a puppy and any kind of insane idiosyncratic behavior is indeed possible ... but isn't that part of why we love pups? Their in the moment way of living and their downright funny-crazy antics ... honestly, I'd forgotten about a lot of that, since Pepa was a bit older when I got her, but still wild and crazy ... but that was 13 years ago and many things have changed since then. Anyway, here's Hanna chewing away on her Kong and reveling in the squeakitude!
Here's the happy pup taking a break and holding one of her new favorite toys securely in her paws. I set her loose earlier tonight with the evil alien squeaky mouse for a while and she went wild, bounding across the room squeaking and growling at it as she lept about ... despite the noise (I was trying to watch Countdown and The Rachel Maddow Show at the time, with varying degrees of success), she was having such a great time entertaining herself (and me) after being such a good girl while I worked today. Now in our second week, we sort of have a routine established now ... out in the morning, breakfast, lounging on the futon in my office for most of the day (with regular outs) and then romping at night. And, despite the cold, she even looks forward to "walkies" with Fernymoss when he gets home from work ... and for that, he's declared that she is going to get boots very soon to protect those puppy paws that aren't quite tough enough yet for the snow and cold. We'll see how that works out, but she does get chilly quickly outside with her short coat, so anything we can do to ease that, we'll do (though I've always thought doggie boots silly ... curmudgeonly me).

So, tonight at Casa IVG, the new doggie era continues to evolve, and we couldn't be happier with our new little girl ... I'm glad that my previous dogs Coco and Pepa had a paw in her being here ... before we got Hanna I had a series of dreams about them, and in retrospect, I feel they were messages to seek Hanna out and make her a member of the extended family, but that's a post to come when I can do them justice. Suffice to say, Coco the corgi tipped me off about her and Pepa gave her approval ... you'll have to wait for the rest at some future point.

So ... please let me know what you think of the new look around the place (I've even posted a poll, lol), and make any suggestions you think would improve the overall look! I believe in evolution in blogs as well! It's about time this one had a bit of a shake up!