True Colours - Red Hearts

Well, life and the weather just got in the way and we didn't get around to doing last week's challenge. That was almost the case this week too. But today I had to buy a birthday card for one of my nieces and I decided to quick walk ( I was on my coffee break) around the card store to see if I could find any red hearts.  There weren't that many but I did find two. Picture quality is not that great as I took them with my smart phone.

There is a whole collection of these pose-able bears. I think they are so cute. I have a niece who will be having a baby this fall, maybe one would make a nice baby shower gift.

I almost didn't notice the heart on this gift bag as I saw the butterfly on top first. But as you can see all of the pink and white butterflies make up a heart.  It's not red but pink after all is a just shade of red.

True Colours - Black

Well this week's colour challenge was to go over to the dark side and find interesting things that were black.

I decided I would take Beckett and Keltic downtown and photograph them with a few of our interesting finds. Well that didn't work out too well and I couldn't get them to sit and stay together while I took the picture.  I did take their pictures on a little hill near the Peacekeepers Monument.

So our first picture of black is the Peacekeepers Monument. This monument is to all the men and women of the Canadian Forces who have served on peacekeeping or peacemaking missions.

Our second picture of black is the reason I went downtown.  This sculpture stands outside the National Art Gallery and is called the Maman. She's called the Maman as there are marble eggs in her thorax.

You can just see some of the white eggs if you look closely at the picture above

I didn't know it until I tried to find out the name of this sculpture that there are other museums that also have it, the Tate and the Guggenheim are just two of the others.  The Maman and the Peacekeepers Monument are not actually black when you get up close, they are both bronze but at a distance they look black.

There is a sculpture at the Museum that has black. It was a new one for me as I don't recall seeing it the last time I was down.

Does the horse leading the herd look black to you? No, well let me show you the other side.

Nearly all of the horses were a different colour on the other side.  Makes the sculpture look very different depending on your point of view.

We also found black lamp posts in this part of downtown Ottawa. This picture was taken very near where Beckett and Keltic checked out pee mail.

We had only paid for an hour of parking as I thought Keltic might be getting a wee bit tired with that much walking so we headed back home but on our way we stopped to see some horses, black horses.

One horse named Edward came over to check us out. At first Beckett was a little scared, barking and growling but then he calmed down as Edward started to eat grass. And how do we know his name is Edward? Well, from the name plate you can see on his halter.  These are just not any old black horses but they are the stars of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Musical Ride.

They have their stables right here in Ottawa and before they start the show season they put on free Sunset Ceremonies at the end of June.  I went with my niece a few years back; it's all outdoors, you bring your own lawn chair or blankets and sit on the grass of an outdoor amphitheater. Sometimes you have to walk a ways as parking is hard to find.  Well behaved dogs are welcome. I may just have to take Beckett and Keltic this year.

True Colours - Rainbow

The theme for this week's photo challenge was rainbow or tutti-frutti. I wanted to get over to the Bulk Barn and take some pictures of the bins of wine gums, jelly worms, other assorted coloured candy but life just got in the way.  Taking care of a puppy is a lot of work.

So all I have this week for rainbow is some of the many many dog toys in the house.

Next week I hope to have something a little more interesting.

True Colours - Brown

Well not only does the color have to be brown this week but it has to be a brown teddy bear (or a dog stuffie). I do happen have a few brown bears and they decided it would be a good day to go out into the backyard for a play date.  They played on the agility equipment and sat out in the sun. A wonderful time was had by all.

Tanner, my Brass Button bear decided to play on the teeter. Be careful, Tanner, hold on tight.

Aunt Yvonne DuBeary, yes that's her name, wanted to swing on the tire. She had a good time.

Mink played with the tunnels. You're supposed to go through the tunnel, Mink. Mink is hand-made from an old fur coat. I'll bet you can guess what kind of fur.

Then after playing, they decided to relax in the sun on the back of the bench on the deck. Being pretty high up there, they had a wonderful view of the backyard. I'm sure they enjoyed their day out. Almost like a Teddy Bear Picnic.

True Colours - Polka-dots

This week's True Colours Challenge was to find one item with polka-dots of each of the colours.

I thought it would be very hard but I guess given the time of year and because I made it my goal to watch for things every time I was out shopping; it wasn't all that hard.

First is red and white polka-dots. The red mixing bowl, I happened upon in Home Sense and the blouse that is part of my own wardrobe. If you can't tell what the other item is, they are cupcake papers; this photo was taken in Micheal's a craft store. Micheal's proved to be a treasure-trove of polka-dot items.

 

Next, up is light blue, here I was lucky as Easter items were still to be found in many stores.

Craft Ribbon

Both of these pictures were taken in Micheal's and you can see also my purple polka-dot Easter basket in behind the blue one.

My green polka-dot items were also found in Micheal's, again craft ribbon and lined baskets.

Black polka-dot items, I thought might be harder to find. After all, who would want a black polka-dot Easter basket but I did find some items. Black polka-dots look kind of blurry, but this photo of a ladies blouse taken with my SmartPhone. This photo was taken at a discount department store called Giant Tiger, sometimes people call it the GT Boutique.

I also found black polka-dot flowers at Micheal's

For yellow polka-dots, I was back to Easter baskets.

Then I got a a little snap happy, as I said Micheal's craft store was a wealth of polka dots so here are some of the any other coloured dots I found.

 

 

Last but not least, I nearly had a hole-in-one at Micheal's when I found a shelves full of ceramic flower pots. But you be the judge, they very nearly match the True Colors swatch, just no black and orange instead of yellow.

 

Who knew there would be so many polka-dots out there. I certainly didn't!

True Colours - Gingham

This week's True Colours Challenge was to find articles that not only were gingham check but also blue or yellow. I have to say it was a really tough challenge so some, maybe most, of my items are gingham-esque.

My first item is a blouse that I have. It has floral embroidery over the blue gingham check, but maybe it's actually a plaid. Does anyone really know the difference between plaid and gingham?

My next choices were all taken at the grocery store with my Smart Phone.  I thought perhaps because we are all thinking about summer that some of the picnic items might be gingham but it seems that floral patterns and spring green are the in-thing for this year.  I did find these napkins, although the pattern on them is really a basket weave.

I did find one item that had a gingham pattern but it wasn't really the colours I wanted as the green seems to be the predominant colour although there is blue and yellow in the pattern. And if you can't tell what it is; it's an ironing board cover, it was hard to get a good photo with the loose plastic packaging.

The other items I found have the colours I wanted but not the pattern so as I said they are gingham-esque.

Ladies summer flats

Candles

I hope you all had better luck than me finding gingham in blue and yellow. We had fun looking though.

True Colours - Red and White Stripes

Well this week's colour is red and white stripes. I hope the stripes don't exactly have to be straight lines.

We had to dig into our Christmas decorations. Our first selection is candy cane ornaments we have for our tree. They are plastic and are good to hang down low as little inquisitive dogs can't break them.

Candy Canes

Our next selection is some of Beckett's qualifying score ribbons that he got last weekend. In the Agility Association of Canada, a Qualifying score ribbon has to be red and white.

Beckett's ribbons

The next selection I chose is of my favourite soft drink.

Things go better with Coke!

And lastly, how could I not show our Canadian pride?

But Beckett was just a bit upset when he heard last week was black and white stripe day.

You know as a bi-black Shetland Sheepdog, he likes black and white just a little bit so he wanted me to show you his favourite black and white toys. The tiger that he inherited from Ceilidh and the zebra that was his "gotcha" day toy, for his first day at home with Ceilidh, Tucker and me.

Beckett's toys