Renegade in San Fran

Today, my whole family, including Cabana, drove into San Francisco to attend the Renegade Craft Fair. It's a craft fair that's geared for the teen/20's crowd, very hip and trendy, rather than the usual old-fashioned "grandma" craft items, although vintage is "in", so who's to say what's old-fashioned and what's new-fashioned these days!

Here's Cabana smiling and posing for me at the yacht harbor at Fort Mason where the craft fair was held.

We were strolling through the aisles when this dog collar booth caught my eye. Of course, I had to check it out, and I had to take a photo of Cabana in the booth! But she was very distracted by something under the table and wasn't compliant about posing. The vendor at the dog collar booth was nice enough to bring out a dog treat and helped me get Cabana facing the camera. After finally getting my shot, I looked at the vendor's face and realized that I knew her! Her name is Jessica, and we used to work together over 10 years ago, when we both worked at a scrapbooking store in San Rafael, probably less than a mile away from the Guide Dogs campus.

In fact, I have often thought about Jessica because she was the first puppy raiser and true "dog person" I ever met. All her scrapbook pages were filled with pictures of dogs, which I thought was slightly unusual at the time. Little did I know how like her I'd be some day! She raised for Canine Companions, and I still remember her career changed dog, Ocean, a beautiful lab/golden cross. She used to bring Ocean to the scrapbooking store sometimes, and I was amazed that this dog was a "flunkee"! She could do all kinds of tricks and could even read words--of course, she wasn't really reading but had been trained to point to the correct word. Ocean is now 13-years old, which shows how long it has been since I've seen Jessica.

Now, Jessica has a little beagle, in addition to Ocean. She didn't have Ocean with her, but she did pull the beagle out from under the table (so that's what was distracting Cabana earlier). I think she is the cutest beagle I've ever seen.

Jessica also makes some of the cutest collars and leashes I've ever seen! They are handmade from natural and eco-friendly materials. Check them out at Aroo Studio.

One final shot of Cabana with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. Walking along Chrissy Field and across the Golden Gate Bridge with Cabana are on my dog bucket list. I can't believe we haven't done those things yet!

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What's with the Poodles?

Cabana is at a puppy sitter's house this weekend. To be a GDB puppy sitter, you must attend half the puppy meetings (or something like that). Our group had a puppy sitter for a while, but then she stopped coming, most likely because no one ever used her services. Not as a reflection of her abilities, but more because no one needed their puppy to be puppy sat. So earlier this summer during my week of alone time, I would have loved to take Cabana to the puppy sitter's, rather than the GDB kennels--but she hadn't been coming to the meetings and wasn't eligible to puppy sit. Last week, she started coming back to the meetings, and I felt that it would be nice to utilize her services. It would be encouraging to her, a respite for me and my family, and good practice for Cabana.

So today, being puppy-less, we decided to spend the day in San Francisco. First, we went to the Renegade Craft Fair, where my daughters and I drooled over all the fun items (and my husband patiently humored us). We stopped at Emily Martin's booth, The Black Apple. For anyone familiar with Etsy, Emily is one of Etsy's top sellers with over 23,000 sales! She's what every Etsian aspires to be. She's even been on Martha Stewart's show. And when I asked if I could take a photo of her and her booth, she gave me the sweetest pose! I felt so privileged to meet her.


Then, we went to SFMoMA (Museum of Modern Art). I personally enjoy abstract art and the way its message is left open to the beholder's interpretation. The exhibit that attracted me most was a pristinely white baby doll, lying on an 8-pointed gold star, and surrounded by hundreds of black poodles.

It was so interesting! I asked each of my family members to tell me what they thought the artist was trying to convey. And I'd like to ask you all the same thing. WHAT does it mean--the white baby, the black poodles, the star, the concentric circles?

In a few days, I'll post what my family members said. Of course, there's no right answer, and I'm not sure what the artist herself meant by it. Please don't do any online research--just post from your own gut feelings!! I'm curious to hear what you think!

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