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Chic Dogs & Magnolia Dreams

The Art of Intentional Living

Chic Dogs & Magnolia Dreams
The Art of Intentional Living
  • Chic dog Emma’s 5th adoptaversary

    Chic dog Emma’s 5th adoptaversary

    October 7, 2024October 7, 2024 The Chic Dogs
    5 Comments

    Last week was Emma’s 5th adoptaversary! Can you believe it? Five whole years of Emma magic. From Romanian shelter puppy to Chic Dog! She is so loved and has now a life that looks very, very different from the first 6 months of her life. Loss and an…

    Read More Chic dog Emma’s 5th adoptaversaryContinue

  • The newest member of the Chic Dogs!

    The newest member of the Chic Dogs!

    December 3, 2023December 3, 2023 The Chic Dogs

    Well, three weeks have passed since my last post about the mysterious puppy. As you might remember, I was very eager and excited to adopt a new puppy from the Romanian shelter, Care 4 Shelter Dogs Vatra Dornei.  In fact, right after posting on the blog, the husband…

    Read More The newest member of the Chic Dogs!Continue

  • The promise of a new puppy!

    The promise of a new puppy!

    November 11, 2023March 30, 2026 The Chic Dogs
    7 Comments

    I got some exciting news!!! I’m adopting a new puppy! I had told myself I would wait a little longer after Milly passed away, but the truth is that the house has been quiet and the amount of dogs in need of a warm and safe home is…

    Read More The promise of a new puppy!Continue

  • How do you say goodbye to someone you love?

    How do you say goodbye to someone you love?

    August 28, 2023November 11, 2023 The Chic Dogs

    You don’t. You simply hold them close to your heart, give them a kiss on the nose and you say: ‘This is not goodbye.This is see you later my darling.’ My Milly, my beautiful girl with the most mesmerizing eyes. My wild child. You came into our lives…

    Read More How do you say goodbye to someone you love?Continue

Welcome to the Chic Dogs & Magnolia Dreams Blog! So glad you are here. If you are interested in cultivating the art of intentional living, you are in the right place!

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𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐴𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐿𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔
Gardener // Storyteller // Writer // Dog Mom
Flowers, dogs, books & Paris

The moral support we all need and deserve!🦊❤️🙅🏼‍♀️ The moral support we all need and deserve!🦊❤️🙅🏼‍♀️

 #encouragement #dogsofinstagram
Snippets of late summer. We're ready for Indian s Snippets of late summer.

We're ready for Indian summer.🌻🐕📚🩷

#latesummer #indiansummer
What if this is heaven?! This little life of ours What if this is heaven?!

This little life of ours.

In spite of all the heartache and struggles we all eventually face. 

What if this is heaven and we are all too exhausted, too angry to see it?! 

What if we zoom out for a second and really look at the details of life, of ordinary things...

A delicious meal prepared with care, a beautiful flower field, the ocean, a table filled with fresh food and friendly company, music that makes you pause, animals and the comfort they give us, feeling held by love, thrifted treasures, a vase filled with flowers, a garden grown from scratch, comfortable clothes to wear...

We would be in awe. 
We would finally be able to see the magnificence of ordinary things.
We would realize how fragile everything is and how much more care everything deserves.
Including us.

#simplelife #slowlife #ordinarylife things #intentionalliving
A visual diary of a gentle summer. 🎨Dogs 🎨Flower A visual diary of a gentle summer.

🎨Dogs 
🎨Flowers
🎨Home
🎨Books
🎨Simplicity
🎨Hosting dinners
🎨Seasonal cooking
🎨Intentional living
🎨Creative afternoons
🎨Ina Garten on repeat

#gentleliving
#August 
#slowsummer 
#slowlife
My babies were never meant to be human. I've kno My babies were never meant to be human. 

I've known, from a very young age that I did not want to become a mother to human babies. I had many adults and peers tell me that I would change my mind or that I would have regrets. They knew me as someone who was caring, someone who loved deeply. So in their minds, it would only be natural for me to become a mother.

I have. 

Just not the kind they had envisioned. Not the kind they think is the only one that matters.

I was a willful child and knew exactly what I wanted and even more so what I didn't want. I knew I wanted a house full of rescue dogs. I knew I wanted their company more than anyone else's. And yes, that is difficult for people to hear because we tend to place humans above any other species. 

I never have and never will understand why so many humans feel inclined to do so.
I don't see why we need to diminish, shrink, minimize any other species just to make ours more relevant. 

We are relevant, we can be magnificent... but so can other species. Acknowledging this doesn't take anything away from us. Quite the opposite. 

My babies were never meant to be human, they were meant to be furry babies. That I have always known.

#dogmom #dogs
Life lately from a homebody's point of view... Wh Life lately from a homebody's point of view...

Where everything centers around the home. Sun -  dried laundry, gardening, preparing home cooked meals with seasonal ingredients, hosting creative girl's nights, evening walks with the pups, flowers and more flowers, reading, writing, cleaning and tidying, flowy dresses, seafood dinners, sun-kissed skin, Brazilian jazz in the background, peaches everywhere, and weekly hydrotherapy dates with Marlow.

My heart is full.🩷🌸🐕🍉

I hope yours is too, wherever you may be.🩷

#summer #homebody #slowsummer
May every shelter dog find their peaceful forever May every shelter dog find their peaceful forever home. In this life and the next. 

🐕 Full bellies.

🐕 Gentle nose boops.

🐕 Soft blankets and comfy sofas.

🐕 "I love yous" every single morning.

🐕 Flower filled gardens and cool shady spots  under a tree.

🐕 Consideration and respect.

🐕 Beach and forest adventures.

#shelterdog #adoptdontshop #rescuedogs #dogsofinstagram #dogmom
We're ready for gentle mornings in the garden, sun We're ready for gentle mornings in the garden, sunkissed skin, slow evening walks with the dogs and peach cake on repeat.

#august #summerinthegarden #summerdays
A life that heals my heart. Again and again. One A life that heals my heart.
Again and again.

One that softens the edges of being a sensitive creature in a loud and cruel world.

Every time I bring a rescue dog into our home, a piece of my soul restores. 

Slightly, gently, irreversibly.

It feels like countering the darkness. As if some kind of balance gets restored. 

A defiance, a refusal to relinquish hope.
Regardless of how the sourness persists.

Every time I sow a flower seed and watch it grow into something that takes my breath away, I am reminded that beauty, awe and wonder are not frivolous. They are life-giving. 

That's what dogs and flowers teach me every single day. 

We refuse to be frozen by the heaviness... 

Instead we persist, we bloom, we experience joy, we create beauty, we take naps, we bring our neighbors brownies and flowers, we keep adopting the "unadoptable".

Not because it will stop all the darkness of this world. But it will stop your heart from turning just as dark, just as detached and sedated.

I know it is hard to be affected by it all, to feel the anguish coursing through your veins, the sense of hopelessness, the heartbreaking contempt you feel for your own species because you can't understand the cruelty and indifference...

Nothing brings you back to your own light like tending a garden, helping dogs trust the world and themselves again. 

It's easy to burn something down to the ground, it's also cowardice. But to lift something up, to create something, to nourish and heal... that is profound power and it's only possible if COURAGE is at the steering wheel.

#kindness #light #dogsandflowers
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