I’m still new to the things my machine can do, and my typical crafting MO is finding stuff second hand and seeing how I can use it, but I finally bit the bullet and bought (retail! gasp) a shadowbox for my Mina’s collar and pawprint, which have been sitting ingloriously with her ashes on a bookshelf. It needed something extra, and I came up with with this:
I did NOT enjoy weeding the tiny letters. But I love how it turned out. Simple, but informative. When I showed the text to my husband this morning to make sure he was also going to approve of the finished product (she was a daddy’s girl), he said “It’s too early for getting choked up and teary eyed.”
Thanks everyone! I’ve seen a lot of pet shadowboxes, and while they are almost always really cute and sweet and apt to make anyone who’s ever lost a pet a little teary, I really wanted something less sentimental. Not that we aren’t absolutely sappy about our girl, because Mina was one of those charmed once-in-a-lifetime dogs. But I didn’t want it to lean sweet, or feel generic. We’re too off the wall, sarcastic, nerdy, and wry for that. The dictionary definition style, for us, packs a lot of meaning into a little space. There’s just a lot of semi-hidden meaning behind even the most basic of the text.
<3 I LOVE that sentiment. And I’m definitely guilty. Except, well. I have two dogs now, one the same Rottie/GSD mix that Mina was, and one pure GSD, and both of them are AMAZING dogs whom I absolutely adore, but they each have their foibles and quirks. Mina really was practically perfect in every way. The week we had to say goodbye to her, one of our friends described her as “the kind of dog that everyone dreams of having when they dream of getting a dog.” You can’t measure dogs up against each other when they are a part of your family; it doesn’t work like that. It doesn’t change the way you love them. But Mina was like having all the good things about a dog and none of the bad ones. No behavioral issues, smart as a whip, absolutely gorgeous, fiercely loyal, obedient, and protective, but also quiet, friendly, and fastidiously clean. She even trimmed her own nails. She was objectively a Very Good Girl.
I just love this memorial to your Mina! I totally vibe with the non-generic and utterly specific look. For me the mundane things of my lost pets can speak the most to my loss - the tags, the collar. And you’ve really captured a lovely balance of tones and colors and visual weight in your arrangement of her things, too.
A little over a year after Mina died, we moved out of the house where she spent her whole life. Her ashes, collar, and footprint were in the very first box we took to the new house, the same day we moved the beds in. The old house was being renovated by my dad after we moved out so we had a couple of weeks to move everything else, and more than once both my husband and I heard Mina’s collar jingling while we worked at the old place. That very specific sound of her “jewelry” slowly clinking SO epitomized the memories of her life with us in that home. I actually had to take a moment to ask her to come with us, even though I don’t actually believe in anything like that. I just had to. Her collar, which is the same she wore for her entire adulthood, and each tag that counted another year with us, is a record of our love for her.
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Lynx
(In a world where you can be anything, be kind.)
15
So wonderful! We also made a shadowbox when we lost our Mia last year. It’s a special treasure. I’m sorry for your loss (even though it’s not recent). Mina looks like she was just the sweetest girl.
Keep a watch out at thrift. I lucked into 6 shadow box frames a few weeks ago! Always good to have on hand.
I also had the “perfect chihuahua” and I’m pretty sure my Jack Russell got tired of hearing how good of a girl she was. She even taught him how to sit up and say please!
Oh, I keep my eye out for EVERYTHING at thrift stores. (My nickname is Thriftmaster 5000. And no, that isn’t a joke. Lol) Mina’s been gone for a little over three years, and I have been waiting all that time to find a shadowbox 2nd hand, but never did. Now that I have the cutting machine, and got the idea for the vinyl decal, I decided I didn’t want to wait any longer. But I DID get them on a two for one sale, because even buying retail, ya gotta get the deals.
Our thrift stores actually have days when things are 50% and it’s hard to not wait for that discount on some things just because you know you can get it just a little cheaper if you wait.
