Creative Grooming

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It is that time of year.

Time for me to start drawing up ideas for Hershey's Creative next year.

I did not compete this past September.

I'd like to say that I did not compete because I wanted to take a break.

That sounds better then the truth.

The truth is...

I messed up.

I messed my design up when I was getting my girls coat ready for competition.

Her coat grows so slow, and I had waited a little too long to put the pattern on her.

So, when I messed up, that was it, no competing this year.

This is my girl.

'Hanna' is 6 years old.

I started competing with her in Creative grooming 4 years ago when two of my dogs passed away from Cancer within a week of each other.

I decided to compete as a tribute to them.

This was my first attempt at Creative Grooming.

It was called 'Heavenly Butterfly'.

I wrote a poem for my two other dogs as my presentation for the contest.

This was 'Hanna' the day before we left for Hershey in 2007.

I had a really pretty design drawn up that I was going to put on the wings.

(Sorry the pictures are so bad. I had not really gotten into photography back then.)

I first problem I ran into at that competition was that a lot of her color washed out when I bathed her the night before the contest.

We were up late that night redying her.

This is right before the competition started.

This is 'Hanna' finished.

Needless to say, I ran out of time and did not get to do half of the design I wanted to do on the wings.

I did not expect to take so long scissoring.

At the very last minute I decided to glue some flowers on her wings.

I never expected to win anything, I just wanted to say I tried it.

To top it all off, I humiliated myself by breaking down and crying before I even finished reading the second verse of the poem I wrote to my dogs.

I had to stop, and hide behind my dog.

Sally Liddick kindly finished reading the poem for me. (She broke up at the end)

I won 3rd place.

You could have knocked me over.

After the competition, I said I would never do it again.

Too much stress.

Too much pressure.

Hershey 2008.

I must have forgot about the stress and pressure, because I competed again!

This time I was going to make 'Hanna' into a Hippy.

The name of my creative groom was 'Wolfstock'.

This picture was right before the competition started.

My plan was to clip a peace sign on 'Hanna's' sides, but at the last minute I chickened out.
I decided to hand scissor a heart on her sides.
I was afraid to use the clippers and have her move at the wrong time.

I used Blow pens to try to make her look Tye dyed.
I was also going for Bell Bottom Pants on her back legs.

I had timed everything out before the competition this time.
I wanted to make sure that I had time to do everything I wanted in my design.
I am very happy to say, it worked.
I did not feel as pressured.
I would be lying if I said I didn't hope to win something for this creative.
I truly would not have been upset if I had not won anything.
I had fun with this creative groom, and I was too worried about messing up the presentation I had memorized.
When I did not win 3rd place I was okay.
So, I was unbelievably shocked when they called my name for 2nd place.