About

Hello and welcome to the RubyDog blog.  I used to have a bricks and mortar store called RubyDog’s Art House, named after my beautiful, gentle Yellow Labrador/Beagle cross, Ruby.  She is the great love of my life.   As of this writing (February 2014) she is 16 years old and still eating everything that will fit into her mouth!  The little munchkin in front is Roxie, my sister’s Brussels Griffon.

Before my sojourn as a store owner I was a stockbroker (yes it’s true).  After 20 years in the financial industry I did an about face and entered the world of collage and altered books.  I’d been dabbling for years and had, in fact, opened what I believe was one of the very first  craft stores on the Internet and certainly the first with a shopping cart.  I finally decided to take my shop into the real world and opened RubyDog’s Art House in Vancouver, B.C.  For no reason that I can explain I elected not to name it after my online presence (Collage Joy), but decided, instead, to honour my wonderful canine companion.

RubyDog’s Art House served the Vancouver art community for 7 years.   And let me tell you, we had a lot of fun during those years!  At the same time, commercial lease costs were skyrocking and, when I lost my mine, I could not find another affordable location in the city.  So, I’m now back to being online, only; both with this blog and my etsy shop.

I sincerely hope you find some inspiration and, perhaps, a few chuckles while you’re here.  We met a lot of incredibly creative people and made a lot of friends through the original store.  We’d like to keep that up.

We’re glad you stopped by!

Leanne and Ruby