Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers) – Page 17

A puppy emergancy

By Karla Nathan / April 12, 2010

We've had a rough night, Twinkle and I (Twinkle's night was a lot more rough than mine was!). She went into labor but no pups were coming. I stayed up with her all night, she and I hung out in the studio and between cuddles I got the room cleaned up and some work done. She seemed fine, in a good mood and very brave through it all. What a great dog, she just has such a happy outlook on life.

As soon as the vet's office opened, I called to see if she should come in and they had me bring her right away. The Dr. gave her a shot to stimulate contractions, and said he'd give her some time to see if it worked.

Well, she had one pup, and then he worried that she was too tired, so looks like she'll be having a C-section. Its 9:30 and I've been up since yesterday morning, but I can't go to bed until I hear how she is. I'm sad that I don't get to deliver the pups myself and be the first to whisper in their little ears, but now, that doesn't seem as important as getting them and her through this safely.

This picture is from yesterday before all the drama began. We were trying out the new furniture I picked up for the Fairy Berry Trail tree house.

This set was only $65 and is that really heavy, old stuff. Just Sugarwing's size, but still comfy for me to sit in, and perfectly pretty for the space.

Sugarwings is sure that the fairies brought her the new furniture to play house with, and they also get credit for spreading 10 bags of mulch. She's pretty excited about the whole set up, and so am I. Twinkle and I went and sat out there for a while in the afternoon by ourselves. I think it will be an area that I use more often than my fairy grand baby will.

It kind of sounds nice right now. I might go out there and sit while I wait to hear how Twinkle is doing at the vet's. I certainly can't sleep. And am too worried to work. Although, while I was in the studio over night with Twinkle in a basket at my feet, I sure got a lot accomplished. Of course, with no sleep, who knows how good the stuff I made is. My judgment might have been off a bit.

Edit– 11am- (I'm still up!)

I just had to go see Twinkle at the Vet's instead of napping. She has 3 girls, one boy and an Xray shows 2 more on the way. So far, no C-section was needed, but the Dr. is keeping her for the day and keeping an eye on the last two pups as they arrive. I'm feeling much better after seeing the little family and am now going to sleep a couple hours. Thanks so much for all your emails and messages, and concern.

Later- All six babies and mom are doing fine, she delivered 3 girls, 3 boys without surgery. Photos later, they are pretty durn cute.

And I got a nap!

A new look for the cost of a quart of paint and a bit of shuffling around

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers, Hand Painted Furniture, hand painted signs, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / April 10, 2010

Well, I just had to finish the porch redo, and honestly, it was a quickie. I used stuff that was already here and a bit of paint. Sugarwing's blue and pink chippy chair was in the garage, and I'd
already bought the hydrangea to plant. So, of course, it won't stay
here,it has to go into the ground. Too bad, its just right for the spot.

The only purchase I had to make was a quart of "Birds Egg Blue" paint from Ace Hardware. I fell for the name, as well as the soft shade. I added speckles of brown paint over the blue for an even more egg-like look.

To do this, I watered down a squirt of dark brown acrylic craft paint, dipped in a stiff brush, and then flicked my thumb across the brush to splash speckles over the blue paint.

Its a little messy, you need to have a wet paper towel handy to dab up the most rambunctious speckles, they tend to fly everywhere. I don't cover and tape off anything, that seems to take longer than just wiping up the runaway flecks.

No puppies yet! Twinks is resting up and getting bigger by the moment. We'll both be glad when they are here.

I'm still not thrilled with the white wash on the rockers. I might repaint them later on, or else scour garage sales for something better. Like a glider. Or a porch swing. That's the fun part, always planning for a change, or being on the hunt for a better idea.

The flowers on the shutters had been a deep, magenta red like the door used to be. I pinked them up a little and added some blue hydrangeas to tie all the colors in together.

I was going for a rustic, vintagey feel, so after painting, I used sandpaper for some distressing.

The shutters themselves started out as a pair of black, bi-fold doors from a garage sale for a couple bucks. The other half of the set of doors is painted to match these, but I have those inside my breezeway on each side of the entry way door. (which opens onto the kitchen- we don't use the front of the house. You walk straight into our kitchen or the studio when you come here, the two most loved rooms of the house!)

Its a gorgeous, spring day here, and our niece's church group is busy working on the community garden that we loaned them space for. They've decided to put up a fence, which is smart, we have about 3 billion rabbits and almost that many deer watching through the trees eagerly waiting to see what we are planting for their lunch.

Before I forget, the winner of a Peat Pot Pretty is:

Sasha Girl

And if you want to win one, I am drawing names from the list of Google Friend Connect followers, for every 50 followers I get. You name stays in the contest as long as I am doing this.

The next drawing will be at 200.

A so-so redo

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers, redos, vintage paper/collage art, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / April 7, 2010

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! Our little fairy baby is feeling better, but now we are dealing with trying to convince her that she really needs to take her yucky medicine twice a day for 7 days. I gave her the dropper and a glass of water to play with and that has helped. After giving herself pretend medicine for a while, she is not fighting us as much when we try to squirt the real stuff into her mouth.

My big pile of giveaways from last week are in the mail, hopefully at their new homes by now. The Peat Pot Pretty in the front went to Dawn. The one in the back is listed in the Boutique, and a third one is a giveaway for the first 150 sign ups I get on the Google Friend Connect on the sidebar of my blog. If you want a chance to win one, just add your name. Thanks!

Did you notice that this is not the peat pot pictured in the giveaway post at the top of my blog? I made up a special "nest" pot for Dawn, complete with some fluffy, downy feathers.

No pups yet! Look at that belly. She must have about 20 packed away in there. (not really, she had 6 last time and that was a lot for a dog her size)

You know, I have never claimed to be a math whiz, but you'd think that even I could count 62 days from Feb. 6th to figure out when the babies are due. I was a week off, she isn't due yet. I feel a bit foolish about it, but Twinks is really disapointed, that dog is worn out and ready.

Have you ever done a makeover and then wondered why the heck you bothered? I got an itch to repaint these chairs, but am not happy with the white now. I just dry brushed the white on, for a rustic feel, but I wonder if I'd like them better if I'd spray painted them nice and solid. And green. But- I've been thinking about repainting the French doors blue, that would be better than the red. Nothing seems to go together anymore, when the chairs were black, it all tied in just fine. What I'd really like, is a porch swing… But I wonder if we'd break the window in the door with one?

This Spring weather got me antsy to make a change, and adding a few pansies to the planters in front of my studio was not enough, but painting the chairs didn't do it either. Doing that just makes the porch look like it really, really needs some redoing now. Durn it. And I don't feel like I have the time to complete it right now.

In the past, I've been called a Serial Painter. I couldn't leave my
house alone, was constantly repainting rooms. But since we've had
Sugarwings, and I discovered blog surfing… well, I've slowed down on
the redos, my days seem full already. I'm sure that I could find the time to repaint the French doors blue and add some blue hydrangeas to the shutters so it would match, and now, I'll just have to squeeze it in somehow.

I did find time to add a few little things to Etsy as well as to the Boutique.

This is a note paper holder that I foofed with some of my favorite old wallpaper. Its made like a book, and comes with a stack of paper and a tiny pencil. Its not old-old, but its not new either. I'd say late 60s. I've made it look older with the coverings and velvet ribbons.

Wouldn't it be a cute storage box once the note paper was used up? I could see keeping a little art journal or diary in it… Speaking of which, I told you about Hope's journaling classes the other day, but since it was Easter weekend, I was worried no one saw it. She is GOOD, I love her work, if you are interested in learning about keeping an art journal, she's the person to learn from.

Bejewelled

antiques/junking, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), jewelry, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / April 3, 2010

We are hoping that the Easter Bunny will bring us some puppies. Twinks gets bigger each day, and is very restless. I've had to make a bed on the floor for her, since she can no longer jump up onto furniture.

So, I put a blanket down in my room for her to sleep on, but most of the night she paces and wants up with me. I scoop her up, but an hour later, she needs to get down again. Then, she paces some more. I was tempted to lock her out of the room so I could sleep, but I really need to keep an eye on her and be ready to help with the delivery. The most important thing about newborn Yorkies is to keep them warm. Sometimes, during delivery the mom gets busy with the newest pups and one will get pushed aside and gets lost and cold. If their body temperature drops too much, they will die. I've learned the hard way to stay with the mom constantly and be there for the babies when they come.

At least we have a pretty view while we are not sleeping at night! I saw Andrea's new ceiling fan/chandelier and asked where she got it. When I saw they were on sale for 1/2 price with free shipping, I ordered one for the bedroom. Our fan was getting old, loud, and sometimes would just quit for a day or so. (I was worried about fire hazards)

This thing is gigantic. And heavy. But glorious! I am probably going to paint the ceiling medallion to match the fan better, its glazed bronze now. I'll swipe some ivory paint over it, letting the bronze peek though.

My poor husband has deserted Twinks and I, he seems to think he needs some sleep. Sugarwing's passed on more poison kisses to me, and I have caught her latest cold. Which make me snore 50 times worse than I normally do (and normally, it ain't pretty). Plus, I'm so worn out with the limited sleep Twinkle is letting me have, that when I do zonk out for an hour or so, it is DEEP and apparently LOUD. So, Rich is sleeping on the office sofa till the puppies are safely here and my snoring is under control.

The office is in our addition, over the studio, and he jokes that my snoring is so loud, he has to go sleep in another house.

Oops, I hope any potential Silver Bella room mates didn't read that.

Today, I'll be listing some new goods in the Boutique. I've got lots of sparklies and some ornate perfume bottles.

What I have to say has nothing to do with the photos. I just wanted to let you know that my friend, Hope, (who designed my blog layout) is starting an online journaling class. We met at Silver Bella, but got to be friends at a blogger's luncheon in Virginia that Heather set up.

At the lunch, she brought one of her journals with us to have us all sign as a memento. So, I've seen her work in person, and have to tell you, its really, really good!

She has had to deal with my endless questions about various blog/online/design oddities and has been a thoughtful teacher and very helpful when I was too dense to understand something that she was patiently explaining for the 5th email.

So, I'm quite sure she'll be an excellent teacher! Check out her class, Nostalgic Musings, HERE.

There are some great classes available out there now. Mary (my Craft Day bud) is hosting another Artist Class right now, with projects I wish I had time to do… Her last one was impressive and I hear this one is too.

I'd better get busy listing all these schmancy, bejeweled baubles so I can get on with my day. We are hoping to get the pontoon out of storage and into the water today. And those pesky taxes need some attending also. urgh.

I hope you have some fun plans for Easter! I might be taking a boat ride…

Party prep

antiques/junking, Books, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, I do tend to run on, don't I?, jewelry, the Boutique at Karla's Cottage, vintage paper/collage art, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / March 25, 2010

We are counting down the days till puppy time, poor Twinks looks about ready to pop! She still has some time to go, and it looks like she is going to spend those days resting.

The whole time I am in the studio, she curls up in this dog carrier/purse. She barely fits anymore, and I'd hate to have to sling it over my shoulder with her (and that tummy full of pups) in it at this point.

It was given to her when she was a puppy herself by a friend, and I used to carry her around in it. It has become her dog bed under my work table. Now that her birthing time is getting closer, she rarely leaves the bag.

Or maybe she just hides in it to escape the chaotic mess that my studio has become?? I feel like hiding when I look at it too. I have two craft days and an Easter Egg party coming up, one tomorrow, so I might need to rent a back hoe to clean this quickly.

Here is something I have learned about having a nice, big studio to work in.

THE MORE TABLES I SET UP, THE MORE STUFF I LEAVE OUT.

Its really sad, because I enjoy having a pretty place to work in, and I'd never let my house get to this point. My home always looks lived in, but not scary like the studio. I like things pretty and peaceful. But out here, things just pile, and pile, and pile. Till I force myself to do something about it.

I knew I'd let it go too far when Sugarwings lectured me about covering up her Play Doh table with packing materials. We talk a lot about her not messing with my stuff, and I was in the wrong to over flow into her area. And I sure heard about it too.

It may look like utter chaos, but there really is a working order to it… at least that is what I tell myself. I'm sure that is what all the people on "Hoarders" say to themselves too.

So, today, I've spent the morning clearing away the last of the Alice themed goods. I've listed the remaining 4 tag covers (I think I'd made about 100!) in the Boutique and all of the materials I used while working on the tags and books are stowed away.

Then, I finished up making Peat Pot Pretties with Charlotte fairies from all of those materials that were still out. I've listed these two and have a few more to photograph. Soon, I hope to gather up what I need to make up the kits that you have asked for to make your own. Maybe after I face the taxes….

There was a big pile of flea market finds that I was trying to get photographed and listed, and that is done now too.

The trouble with cleaning up, is that I can't just put things away. I have to finish up whatever I had them out for in the first place. And use up the scraps. So, of course, when I come across something like an old candy box that was torn, I had to make tags out of it. If I'd packed it away, then it would have just become clutter and would have looked like I was saving torn up trash. Then, I really would have felt like a Hoarder!

So, I made tags from the box. And took photos, and listed them. (I'm patting myself on the back big time over that) I used tidbits laying around on my desk. That is such a much more fun way to clean than to just pack it all away. Plus, its a challenge to limit myself to using what is on the desk, not getting anything new out.

And then, when I get to the place when there is not much left to use on the desk, I can get back to the rest of the clean up.

I'm kind of looking forward to it. I have all day and all night by myself, till as late as I'd like to stay out here and putter and clean. I'll watch the Idol results and Runway while I work and eat granola bars for dinner.

Although, so far, this season of each has been kind of blah to me… Still a fan, but just not as excited about either this time around. I'm still hanging on to LOST too, but I kind of feel like every time they give us one of the so called, promised "answers" its still a question. So, is Richard right, is the island Hell, or was that just his way of seeing it, because of his background??

And please remember, if you want a chance to win this month's giveaway- the shard and rose quartz pendant, you can leave a comment on any post, you don't have to go back to the one where I ann
ounced the MARCH GIVEAWAY.

Okay, back to work for me. But first a quick trip to the PO and the gym.

March giveaway does really exist and some Tag Book Tendinitis

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, family, give away, jewelry, Sugarwings, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / March 17, 2010

Happy St Pats! There is a great parade downtown Lawrence, but I had to skip it today. Sugarwings went with the rest of the family and I stayed home to rest.

Remember the Frozen Charlotte flu that knocked me out of commission a couple of weeks ago? It turned into pleurisy. But on top of that, I seem to have some tendinitis in my left arm, from making over 70 tag books and typing out the labels. Funny, when you are over 50 and call the Dr. to say that your chest and left arm hurts, everyone starts to panic.

But, I knew it wasn't a heart attack, I could just tell. But my Dr. wouldn't see me to say what it was, I had to go to the ER. And since my stubborn, doctor's office hating, husband has high cholesterol issues and a family history of heart problems, I knew that if I refused to go in to get checked, he would use this as an excuse to not get checked himself if a future chest pain ever came up for him.

Since I KNEW it wasn't my heart, I finished all the tag books (from the tags that were already here, I am expecting a few more yet) and got them to the PO before I went to the ER. The pain had been around for more than 24 hours, I figured that if it was an emergency, I'd already have been dead.

So, the tags are in the mail, I am feeling better, but am supposed to rest up. I might take a couple of days off from typing, this hurts!

Sometimes it sucks to get old. Things hurt more. And linger longer.

Just ask poor old Bookie and Sparkle, they know how I feel. Those two hardly ever leave their pillow by the space heater. But I did coax them out to pose in their St Pats finery.

I'm going to take today and tomorrow off to get cozy and rest up while I recover from Frozen Charlotte Flu induced pleurisy and Tag Book Tendinitis. I've got some reading to do for book club and need to go see Alice in Wonderland.

Before I go, I wanted to show you the giveaway for March. Yep, its once again past mid-month by the time I remembered to announce my month long contest….

This is a china shard pendant that I've made from a vintage plate, a rose quartz cab, two rose quartz beads, and vintage crystals. This giveaway is retroactive, all comments all month, all posts go into the hat.

Now, back to my ibuprofen. I hope you all find a lucky four leaf clover and a pot of gold today!

what a nice week

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, swaps

By Karla Nathan / March 12, 2010

Well, the parties are done, and today was back to work. I wish I could have had one more day to play! Between Carol here to do photos on Monday, and the surprise online shower for Andrea, then the Craft Day Tea Party Baby Shower for Shawn, its been a blast of a week.

Not to mention all the Alice tags filling my porch every day when the post man comes! Talk about fun!

I'm excited about them all arriving so that I can get them sorted, stacked and ready to build into books. Some people are running a bit late, so it will probably be Monday before I start in on them. I'm sorry that so many of you over-nighted tags to me, just to have them sit and wait here for other's tags to arrive! I wish that you had asked me before you paid so much extra for postage, I feel really bad. But I do appreciate your efforts.

Also, I figured that you were sending 480 tags to me, I'm adding 81 covers, plus my 6 tags too. That is 567 tags. So, please forgive me, if I can't follow your wishes to put certain tags together in books. Some have asked to get their own tag in a book, others say to make sure that they don't get their own tag back. I will TRY, but honestly, I'm just not that sharp. My skills will lie in putting tags together that look pretty in a book with each other. I might not be able to do that plus keep track of who gets which tag.

I'm really sorry, but I can promise you that ALL the tags that are coming in are cute as can be and you will like your book!

And I greatly appreciate the tidbits that have been included! Its really nice to get so many extra tags as gifts, they will make my own book really special. I'm overwhelmed with the generosity that's been rolling in. Lace from Debra, teacups, bowls, goodies, all sorts of pretties. I'd just admired this Alice collage on Sandy's blog, then was so surprised to see it arrive here at my cottage! Notice the cards painting the roses? What a cute touch.

This package came from Marian Ballog and I thought it was just about too pretty to open, but I'm glad I did- it contained the book in the previous photo, by Marian herself!

Thank you everyone, its all such a treat for me. And for little Miss Sugarwings too. She has a little pile of pressies to open. We will have a party and I'll get some pictures of her as she sees all of her goodies. Debra (who sent this beautiful lace panel) also sent some books for Sugarwings to share with Pixie Pie, so we'll invite her to the party too, and maybe make some fairies from a kit sent by Cindy.

Thank you everyone, once again, I have to say, I'm just BLOWN AWAY !

Since I can't start on assembling the books until the tags all arrive, I spent the day photographing and listing goods for the Boutique.

Yep, there are Heavenly Paper Packs FINALLY for sale. In the extra large size, 11×14" sheets of some of the prettiest papers ever.

And Millinery! In gorgeous springtime colors.

Also bits and pieces of jewels, and a sparkling bird in its flowery nest (first photo).

It feels good to get the shop stocked up a bit. Yes, its been a nice week. And tomorrow is a Sugarwings day, so the week just gets better and better.

Plus- my house is still clean from getting it ready for Monday's photo shoot! That is a miracle of some kind. I'm loving having a tidy home. Lets see, its been 4 days
now and things still look good? Yes, a miracle.

I'll have some photos of the shoot for you in the next few days, thanks for asking about them. Now, I'm off to wrap up some Peat Pots and wallpaper and millinery that I need to get in the mail.

There are 2 Fairy pots left, from the 12 I had for sale, if you want one, please email me. They are $25 plus postage, and are not listed in the shop.

Oh Baby, Baby! Twice the fun as just one.

celebrations, Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, Food and Drink, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / March 10, 2010

Surprise! Today is a surprise baby shower for our sweet as can be, friend, Andrea. She is expecting a little sister for her two boys.

So, a group of us are helping her celebrate by sending her some hand made girly gifts to Hope, who lives near Andrea and is gathering all the presents and surprising her with a shower.

My gift is a little cartoon painting of her two sons as elves, holding a newborn fairy girl.

Its done in watercolor with ink. And I added some pearl paint to the baby sister's wings, with a hint of glitter.

Her gift was sent wrapped in vintage paper, and I used very little tape, so she could reuse it for a project. Don't you hate getting some cool old paper and having it ruined by the tape?

Here is a section of the paper that you can click on to enlarge if you'd like to print it to use.

Please visit the other shower "guests" and see what pretties they have made! Here's a list of who is attending the shower today.

And of course, what is a baby shower without some yummy treats? I made a carrot cake up for yet another baby shower. Tuesday, we celebrated Shawn's upcoming addition with a Craft Day Baby Shower Tea Party at my cottage.

As a surprise, I made a fairy picture of Shawn's daughter, Bethany holding a new baby brother.

We really wanted an Alice theme for our tea party, but since I had the photo shoot the day before, my time was short. I was able to make a mini effort to Alice up the table. The party favors were little Charlotte babies that came along with a pig picture cut out of a vintage book. Since Alice was holding a bundled baby that turned into a pig.

And I cut out little "drink me" notes to put by all the tea cups.

Beth was the Mad Hatter (or Russel f
rom Survivor?) and I was the March Hare.

Shawn and Bethany came with Rabbit Ears too.

Shawn has more photos of the day here.
Shawn's baby is due after Twinkle's babies are coming, so I told everyone we had to squeeze in one more craft day and make it a baby shower for Twinks. (if you live nearby and want to come, let me know!)

For Shawn's gift, we bought her an album and each created a page for it. Her husband is an aquarium enthusiast, so I thought that a fish theme would be good for my page. I made a pocket out of watercolor paper that I painted like to look like water, with little purple fishies in it. I cut out fish shaped tags for her to glue photos to, and slid them into the pocket.

Next, I painted some colorful fish and grasses on watercolor paper and cut them out to glue onto the pocket for a 3-D effect.

For the back side of my page, I used sparkle scrapbook paper over reversible scrap book paper that I folded into a pocket page. I do like pockets in photo albums. The little card with the old fashioned baby picture opens up, so that Shawn can add a small picture there too.

But that isn't all the babies, or all the gifts! Our other friend, Holly, is expecting her 3rd son. I wanted to send a little something to her and since I am on a Charlotte roll, I thought I'd use one of them. Although her child is a boy, so we won't say Charlotte, we'll say Charles.

The carriage is made from a box that I have cut down and covered in flocked wallpaper, then lined with white velvet, and trimmed with ruffled ribbon. The wheels are mother-of-pearl buttons.

And geez, as if this post wasn't already long enough, I need to let you know that I've restocked the crown rings in my Boutique.

Also, I will be emailing everyone who asked me to save a Peat Pot Pretty with Fairy for them, and will have a couple left to add to the shop too. Thanks so much!

And congratulations, Andrea, Shawn, Holly, and Twinkle on this spring's new crop of little ones!

Poison Kisses

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), family, flowers

By Karla Nathan / March 3, 2010

Thanks for your well wishes! It was nice of Beth to ask you to send me get well messages. I sure appreciated them, this has been a rough week.

Last week, Sugarwings had a little tummy ache and didn't eat for a couple of days. So, of course, I cuddled, coddled, and kissed her better. Friday night, her little bug bit me and by then, it was like one of those bugs from 1950s horror movies. Remember the attack of the giant mutant bugs that had been zapped with radiation?

Since we've had a grand baby around, the whole family has had one thing after another. We say that her poison kisses are so sweet, we just can't resist, even when she drags home one germ after another. Seems like she catches everything going around (then gives it to us!). Probably because she is one of those kids who are always putting everything in their mouths.

Please forgive me if I don't return comments right now, I'm still feeling a bit droopy.

But I am much better than I was a few days ago, when that mutant bug sent me to the ER all dehydrated and weak. They pumped a few bags of IV fluid into me, and filled me with anti nausea medication and sent me home to recover.

Yes, I'm a mom, so I know that fluids are important when someone is ill, and I never let my kid's cups go empty when they were laid out with a fever. But somehow, I forgot about doing that for myself. I just didn't care, all I wanted to do was sleep and have everyone stay far away from me.

So much for my much anticipated weekend all alone with nothing to do but play in the studio and get my house ready for the photo shoot that Carol and I were doing! A weekend all alone is not quite the same when you get to the point that every time you force yourself to face getting out of bed to lurch to the bathroom, you fall flat on your face.

My sweet boys came by to check on me, but of course, I just kept telling them that I just wanted to sleep. Adam made herbal tea and rented a movie for me then sat to keep me company while watching it. Ryan fed the dogs and brought in the mail and kept asking if I needed anything. My sister-in-law and niece came by to bring me a bottle of vitamin water. I should have opened it and drank it, but just couldn't stand the thought. Then, my husband flew home early from his business trip and brought rose and made broth. He wouldn't take no for an answer when I refused the broth.

Twinkle never once left my side. If I didn't already love that dog to pieces, she sure won my heart this week. Every time that I landed on the floor, she was right there licking my face and crying. Not that I like to have my face licked by a dog, but I knew she was doing it out of love.

I don't know how anyone can get through any kind of flu or cold without a warm, furry friend by your side. Of course, we have a fenced in yard and a doggy door, so she didn't need to be walked or taken out, that might have not been so pleasant otherwise.

Anyway, today I woke up feeling bright and shiny and raring to go. I had plans a mile long, packages to send, emails to get caught up on, projects to make for the photo shoot that I rescheduled for tomorrow.

But, after taking a look at my house and realizing just how much work it would take to make it picture perfect, and cooking breakfast for Sugarwings, I felt like I hit a brick wall. Sweet Carol and I will reschedule again for next week and Sugarwings and I will curl up with some movies. Its her turn to cuddle and coddle me back to health!

Too bad, these roses would have been wonderful for the shoot.

Tomorrow will be my day to be in the pink again! Everything else can wait till then.

Pretty girls

Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, family, Sugarwings, yorkies

By Karla Nathan / February 27, 2010

Pixie Pie and Sugarwings had a mini fairy fest last night with some new sets of wings. Now, my little fairies have plenty of wings, but there is nothing like a spankin new pair to get the fun going. Its kind of like when I have a room full of stuff to work with, but still get really excited about a flea market haul of new (old) supplies.

The little girls weren't the only ones who got treats yesterday. I splurged and took all three little Dorkies to the groomer. I usually cut their hair myself, but its easier to do outside in nice weather. I hate cleaning up all the hair after trying to cut it indoors.

Since I was splurging on groomer fees, I went all out. Twinks has painted toenails and a sparkly bow too.

It was so worth it. Look at that face! She deserves a hair cut that no one makes fun of. When I do the styling myself, there isn't much style to it. She is smart enough to act embarrassed about how funny she looks from my chopping. Last night, she was showing off, knowing she looked GOOD from the groomer's work!

Plus, she's going to be a mama, she needs some pampering.

Thanks for all the Charlotte shopping! I've been packing boxes for hours tonight. I think there are a couple left in the shop, not many. Man, those went fast. You'd have thought these girls had wings too, the way they flew out of here.

Thanks!