Bunny Photo Contest

We have entered Stormie's photo in the 1-800-flowers' website The New Easter Bunny contest. I'm not sure that we will win as there are a couple entries that already have over 1,000 votes. It would be fun, as I would love some of the prizes. But, either way, it has been fun to see the comments that people have on how cute our little Stormie is. She was such a little trooper in wearing

You should have seen the photos we tried with Breezy. She just sat there, wearing the ears and giving me the death stare. She wouldn't move a muscle.

Shimmer just flopped right down and looked humiliated.

The link to vote for Stormie is:

http://ww10.1800flowers.com/template.do?id=template3&page=2000&conversionTag=true#photos/easter_2012/page/detail/31343

Thanks for your support!

Easter Basket Roundup

Easter is coming very quickly. When my kids were younger, I loved spending so much time finding all kinds of treasures to put in their Easter baskets. Now that they are all grown, I get to turn my attention to the girls and Cooper.

You can tell from last year's photo that they had a pretty good haul. I was sort of pressed for time last year and didn't devote much time to shopping, so they all got a combined basket.

This year I have done much better! I have already purchased individual baskets for each of them and have started to gather some of the greatest items ever! I can hardly wait to share some of them with you, especially some special collars from my friend Suzanne at Crazy for Collars.

I found these adorable little containers at The Dollar Tree yesterday. They will be perfect for carrying their treats in their travel bag, etc.

The pile of stuff for the baskets is growing. Can you hear Peter Cottontail coming down the bunny trail yet...???

Chihuahua Mama

My family and friends have referred to me as the Chihuahua Mama for quite a while now. I prefer that title much better than the Crazy Chihuahua Lady. Regretfully, I have been called that one also.

I guess I do look that part at times when I am holding all three girls. I haven't quite got enough room to hold the girls and Cooper. My arms just aren't big enough to hold them comfortably.

So, it seemed appropriate that I should get this vinyl decal for the french door that leads into my studio:

I will always be proud to be known as the Chihuahua Mama. My little four-footed kids are the love of my life.

Dog Food Drawers

I'm not really sure why, but I get requests often to show how I organize things for my dogs. Perhaps it is that we have 4 dogs and some people think that we must be bursting at the seams with doggie paraphernalia. Or perhaps they know that I am some what of an organizing geek and they are sure I have some cool new ideas for everyone. Yeah, I am going with that one.

So, to satisfy the requests, today I am showing you our doggie drawers, located in the kitchen.

They are located behind this door. This area of our kitchen was once a built-in desk, with open space underneath. I wish I had a before picture to show you, but I do not :( And yes, that is more evidence of Cooper's chewing that you can see on the left.

Shawn, the wonder-guy built this cabinet, as well as located our trash compactor in this space and it is much better used. Boy, we love that guy.

There are three drawers inside. They are built of double-sided melamine, which makes them super easy to wipe down and keep clean. The top one holds potatoes, onions, etc. I didn't bother to show that one.

The second drawer holds the large bag of dogfood that we buy. I purchase the large size, for even with the small amount they eat at each meal (please observe the tiny measuring cup), there are 4 of them eating twice a day, so we go through it fast enough that I don't worry about it going stale or spoiling.

The bottom drawer is divided into two sections. In the front is where I keep the dog treats and Cocotherapy coconut chips. In the back is where I keep other small items that I often need for the dogs, such as their vitamins, their toothbrushes, tooth spray, etc. I just purchased some small baskets to organize them in a neater fashion.

There, you have it. I used to have the food in the bottom drawer, as I had something else in the middle drawer. The problem was that Cooper would literally climb into the drawer as I was filling the dog bowls and rapidly scarf down as much as he could get. The girls would looked horrified at such boyish behavior, but in reality you could tell they were just jealous that they hadn't thought of it themselves.

This system works much better at keeping the little chow hound out of the drawer.

Disclaimer note: Shawn the wonder-guy is rather perturbed with me for taking the photos and posting this before he had the chance to finish all the drawers with the white edge banding that you see on the bottom drawer. I figured it might just give him the motivation to hurry up and do it. Hehehe. Such evilness.

One other note: if any of you bloggers know how I can fix the problem with the wide gaps between my paragraphs, I would greatly appreciate you sharing that with me. It will not show up that way in the preview, but as soon as I publish, this is how it ends up. I have looked everywhere for a solution and am getting a little exasperated!

Our Little Weapon of Mass Destruction

Take a look at that face above. So sweet. So adorable. One would never know that he is, in fact, our own personal little weapon of mass destruction.

We have raised many puppies through the chewing stage. We had a Collie puppy who almost ate the entire back deck in the yard. We were looking into buying Bitter Apple by the gallon. While Cooper's chewing is on a smaller scale by comparison, it is still destructive in it's own right.

Let me show you.

This is the food bowl holder for his sisters. All four corners look like this.

He isn't prejudice, he has done it to his own holder also.


The antique secretary continues to take a huge hit from the sharp little teeth.

Almost every lower kitchen cabinet looks like these. While we do appreciate the somewhat rustic, cottage-style, shabby chic look that he is implementing, it wasn't exactly the look we were going for.


The furniture has not been spared either, as you can see from the chair leg above and the table leg below.

He only works on this one table leg, leaving the other three completely unscathed.

Admire the nice line up of crates, complete with new metal doors, as he devoured the plastic tabs/handles off the fronts of the ones that came with the crates. It was getting very difficult to try to grab hold of a tiny chewed stub to latch them.

You may be wondering how he can do all of this while remaining undetected. He is deathly quiet, much like a covert Navy Seal. You can never catch him doing the deed, but you certainly see the results of his handywork afterwards.

The face remains so innocent, but if you look down at his sisters, you will see them all pointing their little toes up at him as the culprit.

Except for Breezy. She is doing the 'L' shaped loser sign to her forehead. And laughing all the way to the food bowl.

Snow Day in March

We didn't have a very snowy winter here in the Northwest, but boy have we been making up for it this first week of Spring. We have had some snow every day, but this morning was the most that has accumulated at our house. We sort of live in a banana-belt. Everywhere around us will get much more snow than we do, so we have to be happy with what we get.

I took the girls and Cooper out in it this morning. I can always count on Cooper and Shimmer to play and have a good time. They are much less inhibited than the other two.



They ran around in the snow, checking it all out and acting like a couple kids on a snow day from school.

Her-Royal-Highness Breezy refused to step in it and kept to the cleared sidedwalk.

She quickly ended up back on the patio, waiting for all the silliness to end.

Stormie knew that I wanted her to come play with me in the snow, and really would have liked to have obliged, but she reaaaalllly hates getting her feet wet and cold. You know, it's just not what a diva does.

Soon, everyone was back up on the patio, waiting patiently for me to get the message that it was time to go back into the nice warm house.

The question I have is: How did you all ever survive living in Spokane...????

A Gift From a Friend

I love to receive gifts. There I have admitted it, I do have a materialistic side. I love when someone goes out of their way to do something nice for me or lets me know that they are thinking of me.

Guess I am like everyone else in the world after all, huh?

We have a friend named Yoshiko that we work with. She has a boutique in Honolulu, Hawaii and I sew the little doggie Hawaiian shirts and mumu dresses that she sells in her boutique, called Luna Blue. Here is a photo of the recent HUGE order we did for her to take to Global Pet Expo in February:

Yoshiko often returns to Japan to visit family and on a recent trip she found this adorable mini Chihuahua calendar and bought it for me! I love it , it is just so cute and it is even more wonderful because it is Long-haired Chihauhuas. It is not always easy to find items like that.

I especially love that the in the first six months there is one that looks like each of my Chihuahuas!

I have the calendar sitting right by my sewing machines where I can see the smiling little Chihuahua face all day.

Thanks again Yoshiko!