I ♥ lighthouses

I’ve always wanted to live in a lighthouse and once, for a week, I did. This day 10 years ago I was getting ready for my 21st birthday party at this lighthouse in Wicklow. After an unforgettable party I stayed on for a week, commuting to college in Dublin. Even on a grim January day it was so cozy. Looking out the windows on the top floors in foggy weather you couldn’t see the ground, and with a storm raging outside it felt like the safest place in the world. It was worth the sore legs from the 109 steps to the top!

These days I’m making heart shaped boxes. I’ve been testing out my templates in different sizes, colours and types of paper. They’re stacking up all over the house and one might wonder if there are little cupids hiding on the shelves throwing little hearts around! If there are I would like to ask those cupids to stop throwing my work around, its not helping. Roll on Valentines Day to keep them busy elsewhere!

I'm ready for my close-up!

Last Saturday Milo & I went for a bit of an excursion to Ranelagh Gardens to see a hot air balloon launch commemorating the 225th anniversary of the first manned flight in Ireland. Foggy weather conditions and off shore winds on the day meant that it couldn’t take off, but it was still an impressive sight to see the enormous balloon being inflated. What really made my day was the unexpected opportunity to end a phonecall with the words “I’m sorry, I’ll have to call you back. There’s a photographer here from the Irish Times who wants to take a photo of Milo”. On Monday Milo was famous for the day! You can see the photo on the Irish Times website by clicking the image above.

Another highlight of the weekend was receiving some great handmade birthday gifts from my nieces. Creativity and love of doggies run in the family, as you can see :-)

Fiona (5) sent me this gorgeous doggy birthday card from Galway.

Anne (11) & Grace (10) made me some fabulous polymer clay models. They have their own Etsy shop at www.muddylittlepaws.etsy.com  where you can find an array of handmade creatures available for rehoming, each with a unique story of tragedy and hope.

Fada Christmas

It turns out that Santa Claus believes in little white dogs! Admittedly Milo did go all out leaving a glass of milk, belgian biscuits, a carrot for Rudolf that was hardly nibbled at all, not to mention donning his reindog antlers with bells on. He was rewarded with a squeeky duck (squeek! squeek!) and some luxury dog biscuits. “Well, isn’t Santa the clever fella?”

The last pre-Christmas letter box project involved an acute accent. A cute Irish accent in fact! In the Irish language the acute accent (seen here over á é í ó ú) is called a “síneadh fada” or usually just a “fada”. I was asked to make the name SEÁN in letter boxes which gave me the opportunity to make a fada and find a way to get it to hover.  It’s a little box all of its own that wiggles happily over the A and is detachable for packing while in transit. Keep an eye out for more punctuation in the new year!

The Little White Dog is loose on the internet!

Christmas has come early here at LWD because the new website www.littlewhitedog.ie is up and running! A million thanks to GB for such a fabulous Christmas present xxx

It’s been pretty busy here in the run up to Christmas, with all sorts of handmade boxes and cards growing legs and running down to the post office to be sent all over the world.

There were a few custom orders for letter shaped boxes and the ones made from sheet music seem to be really popular. I love the randomness of making these because each one is different and one of a kind. There might be a string of notes running up the back of a letter or a nicely placed treble clef that really enhances the shape. O is probably the most challenging letter because it has no straight edges, but when something turns out well its worth the effort.