Back in August, it was my humans’ wedding anniversary…it had been 15 years since they said “I do”!

So they decided to do something to celebrate but Hsin-Yi didn’t want to do all the usual boring old stuff, like go out to a restaurant and eat expensive yummies. Instead, she said that they should do some activity together, something that would give them a keepsake to remember the special occasion…

…and she found the perfect place: a paint-your-own ceramic studio! It’s called Colour Me Mine and you can go there and paint all sorts of different things, like mugs or bowls or plates or even vases and little statues. They are all white to start with and then you can paint them in whatever colours you like. The studio provides all the paints and stuff for you – and clean up all the mess afterwards! (and it doesn’t cost a lot of money paper either…)

Paul had been wanting to get a ceramic water bowl for Muesli for a while – so when he saw a cute little bowl in the shape of a kitty, he decided that was the perfect project!

Hsin-Yi decided to pick a plain, blank bowl because she wanted to paint her own picture on it…she had this picture in her head of two cute owls cuddling together, framed by a deep blue rim, and she wanted to see if she could re-create that on the bowl…

My humans had a wonderful 2 hrs painting away – they said it was really soothing, almost like “therapy” because they were just thinking about colours and shapes and things and all the stressy stuff in their heads just floated away…and it was lovely to do something “creative” and use parts of their brains that they don’t get to use every day…

Finally, they finished painting and the two bowls were ready to go into the special oven, called a kiln, to be fired and glazed. And a week later, they were ready to be picked up…Ta Da!

What do you think? Paul was so proud of his kitty bowl – he had never really painted anything in his life before and this was so much nicer than buying something in a shop, no matter how posh – this was something he had created himself!

And Muesli approved too! She came over to inspect her new water bowl at once and after she sniffed it carefully all over, she decided she liked it and happily lapped her water out of it.

Still, it was lucky that it was Muesli and not my first kitty sister, Lemon. Muesli may be a pest sometimes but she is a very obliging kitty when it comes to stuff that’s bought for her. She has played with every toy that my humans got her, slept in every bed, snuggled in every blanket and used every thing they ever bought her…

…whereas Lemon never used ANYthing my humans bought her, no matter how much money paper they had spent. It used to drive them crazy that she would ignore the expensive toy/kitty tunnel/catnip blanket/plush bed that they bought her – and play with the paper bag it came in instead!! The best thing you could get Lemon was an empty, cadboard box.

And Lemon never used to drink out of her water bowl – no matter how many different kinds of bowls my humans tried – she always only drank out of rain puddles in the garden.

Hsin-Yi was really surprised and pleased with her bowl too, ‘coz it looked exactly like how she had imagined it in her head. She hadn’t been sure if she could paint it but it came out really well! The studio owner was really impressed too that Hsin-Yi had just made that out of a picture in her head! Now, my humans had a lovely memento of their 15th wedding anniversary!

Well, when I saw the cool things that my humans had made, I decided that I wanted to do painting too!

I’ll bet you’re thinking “But doggies can’t paint!”

Well, Hsin-Yi always says that if you believe in yourself and you try hard enough – you can do anything.

So, a couple of weeks later, Hsin-Yi took me to the studio one day! It was very exciting arriving there – and I even had a special welcome from the studio owner, Eric, himself – who was very excited to meet me. I was the first Great Dane he had ever had in his studio!

Eric showed me all the different things I could paint…

…but I already knew what I wanted to do: Hsin-Yi had told me about these tiles where human pups had put their handprints – well, I thought I could do a pawprint one!

Hmm…so which colours should I use? I quite like this blue…

After I chose the colours I wanted, Eric helped pour them out for me…

…then Hsin-Yi helped me prepare my tile. I told her I wanted a pretty blue background and Hsin-Yi did it with a sponge, so that it would have interesting “texture”…

 Now it was my turn!

Hsin-Yi helped sponge some of the paint onto my pawpads… (don’t worry, the paint is water-soluble, non-toxic and lead-free. And Eric had baby wipes ready to clean it off my paw…)

 …and then I got painting!

Look, this is my Deep Artistic Face…am concentrating on creating my masterpiece…

 (well, OK, I might have had a bit of help…just a bit…)

There! Finished! I made two because Eric asked if I could make one for him too, to keep in the studio as a sample to show other people, who might like their doggies to get in touch with their artistic side too…

Whew! Being an artistic doggie is exhausting! Must be all that creative energy and stuff…I decided to have a little nap while Hsin-Yi put the finishing touches to my tile…

 

Finally, it was done!

We left it with Eric to be fired & glazed…and then a week or so later, Hsin-Yi went to pick up my masterpiece!

 Ta-Da!

What do you think of my Paw Art? Hsin-Yi says it will be a lovely thing to remember me by, when I go to the Rainbow Bridge one day.

So who says doggies can’t paint?

 

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