About

WELCOME TO NIKITALAND!

Come on in, we’re all friends here! I’m Valerie, the author of Nikitaland, who brings you fun blog posts from just about everything under the sun, our life with our two dogs, lots of gardening tips, and some interesting craft projects that I have made along my journey in life with my Sweetie.

VALERIE AND NIKITA

Our dogs mean the world to us and being able to provide them with a “forever home” brings us so much happiness!

NIKITA SO HAPPY 7-18-14

Nikita is one happy dog, can’t ya tell?

VAL BELLA AND NIKITA2

The photo above is one of the most priceless moments ever! I always take time in every day to spend with our dogs, hanging out, or just watching out the front door to see what the neighborhood is up to.

This blog is all about Nikita, and the reason I started this blog.  Nikita was our first rescue dog and she was adopted from the Cleveland APL through PetSmart’s Pet Fair on September 12, 2010.  She was born on July 18, 2010 and this blog was started to keep everyone up to date on new photographs and all the fun things that she does.  Nikita’s story began when she came from a litter of seven. Her Mommy was poisoned with anti-freeze after giving birth to her litter. The pups were in dire need of help & food and the APL rescued all of them. If it was not for the APL, these pups would have not made it.

BELLA BIRTHDAY SEPIA 6-29-14

We added another rescue puppy to our little family in 2012, her name is Bella, and we adopted her too from the APL.  Bella is brindle in color, but her breed is unknown.  Bella was originally found roaming the streets of Cleveland after she was born, but we rescued her and gave her all the love in the whole world. Someone threw poor Bella out of the streets to survive for herself, and we often wonder if these people ever wonder what happened to her. Both Nikita and Bella are the perfect match for each other!

Not only is Nikitaland about the dogs, but I love to share all of my craft ideas with you, some delicious recipes, free printables, and the lovely life that we all share.  We are huge fans of Halloween, and love decorating our “Home Haunt” for the witching hour!  Halloween is just not for kids anymore!  We became gardeners in 2012 and fell in love with growing our own veggies!  We hope that you follow along with our blog and we can all be friends!

PledgeForPetsRadiothon_SquareLogo-1024x1003Every year, we participate in the Pledge For Pets Fundraiser to help raise donations for the Animal Protective League and help give back to the community.  Nothing pleases us more than knowing that we helped a dog, kitty or other furry animal get rescued and find their “Forever Home”.  We rescued both Nikita and Bella from the APL and we know first hand all the good things they do to help save an animals life & find forever happiness. You too can help us each year by making a donation!

If for some awesome reason, you need to contact us at Nikitaland, head on over to our contact us page & leave us a message!

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts with us today! Don’t forget to subscribe too, as there is always room for more friends!

83 thoughts on “About”

  2. F-bomber! Haha you are too funny! I lost Linus as you know. He was the love of my life. I am not sure when I can get another dog. My ex has a beauty of a German Shepard and that Dog I swear thinks I am his mother!

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  3. Glad I found your blog. I’m pretty new at all this and trying to find bloggers who include gardening in their subject matter. The photography, coffee and pet affection are a bonus too! Although my wife and I have cats, I assure you we are not specest in the least and love all animals. I seldom pass a dog that I do not want to stop and say hello to.

    Your blog looks like a really fun place and I can’t wait to do more snooping around.

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    • Hey Karl! I am glad that you found my blog too! We fell in love with gardening a few years ago and can’t get enough of it. I love sharing our successes in our garden along with our failures too, because that is how we learn along the way! If you are on my blog, check out my link to my Pinterest boards and look up our few garden boards with lots of our photographs of what we have grown! I hope you have fun snooping around and can find something to keep you interested in our gardening efforts! This year, one of our projects we would love to change up a bit is our fence around our garden. We have to have a high fence here because of all the deer population we have. I think our fence right now is about 8-9 feet high to protect our garden. Thanks for stopping by and I hope we become great friends too! Hugs, Val

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      • HI Val, thanks! I have quite a few photos too. I’m just getting started on Pinterest and I’ll be sure to check you out. The only thing on my blog that I didn’t grow were some strawberries in one photo. Even my gravatar sunflower is something I grew.

      • Your sunflower is beautiful! We grew a whole bunch of sunflowers last year too. We have a nice strawberry patch too that has been established for a few years now which produces lots of fresh strawberries for us! You will definitely have fun setting up your Pinterest boards for sure!

  5. Hey my friends. I didn’t see a place to email you. I’m going to post something on my blog on the first Wednesday of every month about what we talked about. First post will be 1/7/2015. Hope you approve ❤ XOXO – Bacon

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  6. There are times where I find my faith in humanity has moved up a notch or two and I’m not quite as saddened by the outlook of our future. Valerie, I love that you’ve found a home for these two gorgeous hounds and I can only imagine that they give it back in spades.
    I so look forward to following both Nikita and Bella’s adventures, and learning from your truly clever crafty ways.
    Have a Merry Christmas!
    PS My dad sent this to me this morning. It had me “howling” with laughter. 😛

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    • Nikita and Bella’s love is overflowing each and every day and I could not imagine life without them. They have brought us so much happiness into our lives. I am so glad that you started following me today because you are in for a lot of great projects in the new year! I hope you look around and view all of the projects that I have made so far! Thanks for sending this video to me, I did happen to run across it the other day and I was laughing so hard! This has to be the funniest video I have seen! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you and your family!

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  7. Hi Valerie, so happy to have met you on my blog and for sure I will follow your lovely blog. Nikita and Bella are so beautiful ad how lucky they are to have ended up with you! Your crafts are great too. Charley dog and I look forward to hear more of all of you! Johanna

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  9. Pingback: Versatile Blogger Award, SAY WHAT??!! | Rad Maverix

  12. Just found your blog, It’s nice to know there are other people out there that love their dogs as much as I do!
    Can’t wait to see more posts! 🙂

    Merrissa @ Rad Maverix

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    • Hi Merrissa! Thanks so much for stopping by today! We just adore our dogs and we rescued them too! They now have a wonderful forever home with us! I am so glad you stopped by and I just subscribed to your blog too so I can follow along with you! Take some time to check out our older posts, as we have tons of great photographs to share!

      Valerie

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    • Oh Nora, you have just made my day & thank you for passing along to my little humble blog the “Very Inspiring Blogger Award”! That means so much to me! Thank you!

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    • We are so glad to have you stop by today! We do hope you follow along with us! We love finding new doggie friends like you! Hope you subscribe! Our Mommy writes some awesome posts about the silly things we do, not to mention some great photographs too, and our Mommy is really crafty too! You should check out all of her crafts when you get the chance! 🙂

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    • It is pure joy to find other fun doggie blogs for sure! Thanks for subscribing and hope you find lots of joy from our blog! We always post fun dog pics and lots of craft ideas too that you might be interested in! We’re also on Pinterest too! Hugs – Valerie, Nikita and Bella

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    • Welcome to Nikitaland! We love new followers and fellow doggie lovers! We are so glad you found us and have fun checking out all of our great posts! FYI: We started our blog almost three years ago when we rescued a puppy from the APL and we named her Nikita. Nikita is a German Shepherd/Akita dog and in 2012 we rescued our second dog from the APL and we named her Bella! Both of our dogs are the most wonderful dogs in the world and so lovable and we are so happy that we gave them their forever home! Thank you again for finding us! 🙂 P.S. – We love KDB too!

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      • We are so happy for Nikita and Bella to have such an awesome family!!!! And the biggest thanks to you for saving these precious angels!!!! Rescues are awesome!!!!

      • Rescues make wonderful companions! We can’t even call them pets because they are like our four-legged kids and are a huge part of our family! We give back to the APL throughout the year and also help raise donations for the APL once a year too! (that event is coming up, so watch for the blog post on it)

  23. Hi Nikita, I’m sorry I haven’t been following your blog lately – the emails I was getting when you post seem to have stopped (and the same for a number of other blogs I follow). I will try to fix it so I can read your stories and see your lovely pics. I appreciate you following my blog too. Kylie

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    • Hi Kylie! We are subscribers to your blog! I wonder what happened to your settings on your blog that you are not receiving emails when we post? That’s strange! I hope you get it fixed soon, as you have a lot of catching up to do on what’s been going on! Have a great day! We love you guys!

      Valerie

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    • Hi Wiley! Thanks for stopping by and checking out the blog! We found our forever home and love every minute of life with love and lots of hugs & treats! Subscribe so you can follow us on our journey through life!

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  25. I found your blog over at Rodposse. Helo (my Border Collie rescue from Akron pound) and I wanted to drop by, say hello, and wish you luck in the competition!

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  26. Hello Valerie & lovely Nikita! Just dropping by to say hi and hope all is well! Thank you so much for following my blog via email – the whole switching to .org has now been completed but unfortunately some features I used to enjoy (Like and Reader) are no longer available to me. So I really appreciate that you took the time to catch up wit me via email instead! Thank you and have a lovely weekend 🙂 xx Donah

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    • I love the new theme for the blog too! Much easier to read, as the font in the old theme was too small. I love that I can add and rotate photographs right in the header too that rotate on each page. Thanks for checking it out and giving it your approval!

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  28. Pingback: Blogging Friendships Rock ! « Boomdeeadda

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    • Thanks so much for stopping by, and subscribing to our blog! Nikita is a cutie pie for sure! We love meeting new people through our blog and bringing some funny news about our life with Nikita and some great craft projects too! We hope that you will be our new best friend! Thanks for stopping by & enjoy! Hugs, Val & Nikita

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  36. Hi, Nikita! Nice to meet you. You seem like a really fun dog. My name is Trooper. I’m a five year old Coton de Tulear (a very fancy name for what my mom calls “a little white dog”). I got adopted from a breeder my mom knew; because, no one wanted me. You see, I was born with cleft palates (hard and soft). My mom knew that could be fixed, so I came to live with her and my dad and I’m perfect now, except my front legs are all congenitally twisted and that can’t be fixed. I can still walk and even run; but, can’t take long walks. It’s okay, though, because my mom takes me out twice a day in my ‘trolley” and so I get around and say hello to everyone I meet, including their dogs. I live with a 20 pound cat named Jelly that my mom adopted from Petco last summer. He’s so good at intimidating me; but, I try to understand because he had a tough life. Someday, we’ll be pals, I’m sure.
    Anyway, NIkita, you have a good day and be nice to your mom and dad.
    love from Trooper

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    • HI TROOPER & JELLY TOO! I AM SO GLAD TO HAVE MADE NEW FRIENDS! I HOPE YOU HAVE SUBSCRIBED TO MY BLOG SO YOU CAN KEEP UP WITH WHAT I GET INTO AS I GROW UP! I WAS ADOPTED TOO AND NOW HAVE THE BEST LIFE EVER! I STAY AT HOME WITH MOMMY ALL DAY AND HELP HER GET THE SHIPMENTS OUT FROM THEIR EBAY & WEBSITE SALES, SO IF YOU EVER GET A BOX WITH A LITTLE CHEW MARK ON IT – THAT WAS ME! I AM ONE GOOD LITTLE GIRL WHO LOVES LIFE AND ALL THE TOYS I PLAY WITH ALL DAY, BUT THE BEST PART OF MY DAY IS WHEN I SNUGGLE AT DADDY AND MOMMY’S FEET AT THE END OF THE BED. AH, LIFE IS GOOD! I AM GLAD THAT I HAVE MADE A NEW FRIEND TODAY AND I HOPE YOU COME BACK OFTEN TO VISIT ME! WOOF WOOF, LOVE NIKITA

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  37. I can’t believe a year has gone by since you both adopted Nikita. She is truly loved, and it makes me smile everytime I see her picture on the APL happy tails site. She is such a lucky girl, to have found two people who give her so much love and affection. I am so happy she adds the same things to your lives as well. I would love to come over and see your Halloween decorations, they all look so cool 🙂

    Dave W.

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    • HEY UNCLE DAVE! IT IS ALWAYS SO NICE TO HEAR FROM YOU. MY LIFE STARTED WITH YOU AND THE APL’S ASSISTANCE, AND I WILL FOREVER BE THANKFUL FOR ALL YOU DID FOR ME TO GET A GREAT START IN LIFE……AND A WHOLE LOT OF LOVE. MY DADDY AND MOMMY ARE SO HAPPY TOO THAT I AM IN THEIR LIFE. MOST DEFINITELY, YOU & YOUR WIFE SHOULD COME OVER TO SEE OUR DECORATIONS FOR HALLOWEEN – YOU WILL BE SURPRISED. WOOF WOOF, NIKITA

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  38. Where are you located? I may be looking for a snow model for some shots if superstar Nikita is up for it!? Check out my website! Adorable Blog! You can join my Facebook business page “Michele Zezulak Fine Photography” if you like. Have a great day!

    Michele Zezulak

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