Mosaic Dog Buffet! For The Dogs Who Truly Have Everything.

Quite a while back (like two years back?), Suzan, the Godmother to my furs, sent this fabulous, handcrafted dog buffet to my Leah. It was so tall she couldn't get her snout over the bowl at first, so we cut the legs down a bit. Even after the modification, she still couldn't quite figure out how to chow down at this odd, elevated angle.

Suzan suggested I use it as a mosaic base, which at the time, sounded like a totally awesome idea!

Christmas of 2007 found me, Leah, and FOUR CATS headed down to Sullivan's Island, SC, to celebrate with Suzan and Stephen. While there, my project was what we called The Dog Grotto. I did a small area in their front garden wall that has an inset water bowl for thirsty, passerby dogs.

I'm not gonna whine (much) but you'd be surprised how tricky it is to get those heavy Bauer and Fiesta shards to stick to a vertical wall without constantly sliding down on top of each other. You'd also be surprised how quickly you can whack your back while working on your knees on concrete for two days.

Last we heard, every single shard was still stuck on the wall. Considering it was my first outdoor, weather-from-hell-by-the-Atlantic project, I'm thrilled. And very relieved.

Anyway, I started the Dog Buffet to match the Dog Grotto, er....many cases of wine ago, let's just say. And it sat around my home, 3/4 finished, for months. And more months. After Christmas of 2008 came and went with it still unfinished, followed by Christmas of 2009, I finally hit my wall of shame and just GOT ER DONE. (Only because Suzan and Stephen were coming to town this week and it was nearly Easter of 2010, frankly.)

Leah always looks ambivalent, or frightened, when I stick a camera in her face.

Loathe me much, Leah?

The Universal Potteries Iris pattern is one of my very favorite to work with so it was nice to carry the theme over into this project, along with the same vintage Bauer and Fiesta colors that Suzan had chosen for the Grotto.

And God Bless Stephen for telling me a year ago to just paint the inside and back since I was totally overwhelmed at the prospect of covering and grouting all that additional space.


And here it is, being test driven by Monty the Lab Doodle, just yesterday.

Ralph is quite pleased. And quite adorable.


Zeke looks freakishly like my Leah. You can tell them apart because Zeke has a tail. And he is sane.


Merry Very Belated Christmas (2008), Suzan, Stephen, Zeke, Monty and Ralph.