Sweet Lil' Gretchen

I'm doing a special post specifically to link up to Donna's Saturday Nite Special over at Funky Junk Interiors this weekend.  Last week she shared the sweet story of her special cat and how, sadly, she had to say goodbye to him.  Then she gave us readers some homework - "Do a photoshoot of your special furry friends in your home alongside your favorite decor. Capture the essence of your decorating along side your buddy and you will have a portrait that will mean the WORLD to you once your pets are gone."

I've never been one to neglect doing homework, so here goes! 

This is our sweet Gretchen, a 7 year old Jack Russell Terrier.  We've had her since she was just 7 weeks old and she is near and dear to our hearts.  It is known as a fairly common trait of JRT's that they aren't always very good with kids.  But not so with "Wigglebutts."  She adores our kids and is so great with them.

She plays tug-o-war with Halie, follows her around the house playing "games," and lets baby Burl pull on her ears without so much as a whimper.  I don't allow him to do that, but it happened before I could catch him and she never moved a muscle, just waited for him to let go.

She LOVES to hunt and loves to snuggle.  Sometimes her personality seems almost human-like.

Those warm chocolate eyes are what I fell in love with the moment I picked her up as a tiny little puppy, and I knew I had to have her!

Here she's sitting next to a collection of things I love. 

Old crates with wonderful typography.

Of course, my Edison Lamp I made (if you missed it you can read about it here).  The rusty round metal thing the blue canning jar is sitting on has special meaning to us.  My husband and I were able to visit the land where his great grandpa's farm used to be and where his grandpa grew up.  We found it amongst the rubble/remains of the house.  The little galvanized bucket is from our wedding almost 9 years ago.  We used them to put nuts and mints in on the tables.

The tin cup was a gift from Hubby's grandma.  The old black and white picture is of my husband's deceased Grandpa Burl (our son's namesake).  I want to replace it, though, with a picture of my dad's parents when they were young, because my grandpa gave me that old horseshoe.  It was from his farm many years ago.  The old butter churn has also been in our family for many years.

And here we are on the front porch (still a work in progress).  You can read a little about the bench here.  Those old cans were out of a box of junk I got from someone's garbage, lol!  We used that tea kettle for a couple of years before retiring it to another use.

I got the watering can at an estate auction.  It was lumped together with a small grill and I paid $10 for both.  The couple standing beside me were disappointed they hadn't won because they wanted the grill.  I had no use for another grill so I sold it to them for $5 and kept the can.  The large glass jug was a gift from my mom.  I'm still trying to figure out how to decorate/fill it.  Any suggestions?

So there you have it, our sweet little, loyal, protective, loving, playful, Gretchen.  Or as our 3.5 year old, Halie, has humorously named her, "Gretchen Wigglebutts Licks Halie All The Time Knock Knock Who's There."

Linking to:

Saturday Nite Special - Funky Junk Interiors