♥ Doberman Sculpture ♥

Karla, our beautiful doberman dog, recently inspired an etsy artist to create a sculpture of her. The timing of this gesture was special, since Karla had a real health scare this week and there was at least one moment when it appeared she might be in real trouble.

The etsy artist who created this lovely piece is DustyRoseDesigns. I had previously blogged about her sculptures in this post. Later, she was reading my blog and spotted the picure of Oz and Karla sunning themselves on the patio. From this picture came the inspiration for this beautiful sculpture of Karla. Please visit DustyRoseDesigns shop for more lovely items, including this bunny, and these charming squirrels.

Karla was bit by a rattlesnake last Monday. It got her twice in the back leg as she ran by. She probably never even saw what caused the pain, as usually she barks and backs away from snakes like a pro. After a fast drive to the vet, an injection, and a prescription for antibiotics, Karla was able to come home for recovery time.

Today is about the first time she has seemed close to feeling normal again. At first she seemed to be in pain, and was cycling large quantities of water and going outside. This was hard because of the leg's swelling, but she was brave. This pattern continued for many days and nights. Slowly she started being able to put more weight on the leg, so laying down and walking got much easier. Today, 6 days after, she is doing much better.

So thanks DustyRoseDesigns, for capturing this special dog in sculpture. She means a lot to us and we are so happy to have her feeling better now.

✻ Bumblebee ✻

Today I was hanging around inside and I noticed that a bumblebee kept landing on the window ledge. This seemed like a good opportunity to snap a picture or two, so off I went to get the camera. This is my favorite shot:

I like how it shows the segments on the legs, and the texture of the wings. The bee seemed to like the view, as it kept flying off but coming back for more posing. Here is another picture of the bumblebee:

This picture makes the eye look interesting and it almost looks like the bee is smiling! It was fun capturing images of this busy bee !!

♫ Hearts ♫

It has probably been around for a bit, but I just noticed that craftopolis has a new tab that shows off hearts from etsy ! For those of you not familiar with these hearts and why this feature is cool, let me explain. I'll use my etsy shop as an example.

First, go to the homepage of my etsy shop. Then move down the right hand side until you see "Favorites". Click on "See Who Hearts This Shop" to see all the etsy users who have selected my shop a favorite. The list is long though, so it is difficult to see, for example, how many hearts I got on a certain day. Here is where craftopolis comes in.

Craftopolis is another website that offers personalized information to etsy shop owners. We can find out a number of things, including the details about how many hearts were obtained on a given day. Here is the page that shows my information. Now I can get a really nice visual image of the heart situation, and also when I click on a particular day, the shop icons appear so I can go explore their shops as well.

By the way, hearts are a nice way to keep track of your favorites as you look around on etsy. You can give a heart to a whole shop, and also to individual products. Some people do this to remember something really nice to get as a gift in the future. There are a lot of possibilities.

So check out craftopolis sometime, and enjoy looking around at all the interesting features this website has to offer.

♥ Sun Dogs ♥

The calendar says end of summer, but don't tell that to Karla and Oz !! These happy doberman dogs love to sun themselves on our patio. Yesterday they were so content that I was able to snap a couple of good pictures of them enjoying their basking.

Karla is the black one, full of energy and curiosity. A biting fly was trying to land on her so she was alternating between keeping an eye on it and sniffing the light breeze for any sign of something interesting. Oz is the red doberman. Sometimes I think he is more like a fluffy teddy bear than a big dog, that is until he detects potential trouble. He can create quite the intimidating look when necessary !

This picture surprised me !! Karla decided to give me a shot that I didn't expect. Isn't she cute ???? Help me think of a cute caption for this picture !!

I love the warm weather too. Shorts and no coats, sunshine to warm the skin, not a worry in the world as far as snow drifts on the roads. But with the cooler nights and mornings, longer pants and fleece jackets are starting to come out of the closet again. There is something good that happens when it gets cooler though: the mosquitoes, little bugs, biting flys and pesky moths leave us alone again! So this post is dedicated to enjoying the change of seasons here in Colorado, as August turns to September and the cooler temperatures become the norm instead of the unusual.

☆ Who Let the Dogs Out? ☆

Today was family day - including Kiwi (the whippet), plus Karla and Oz (the dobermans). Since we got a vehicle that can hold the whole family, a new tradition of visiting garage sales began this year. We don't usually find much to bring home, but the road trip with everyone is the best part anyway. Since the sales were slim today, I did a little clothes shopping at my favorite thrift store while my husband played with the dogs in some shade. Win-Win !!

To stay with the dog theme, I searched around on etsy and found some whippet and doberman treasures:

DogFaceGirls makes great needle felted items. Here is a cute whippet:

This sighthound is felted from wool, has hand-blown glass eyes, and a handmade beaded collar. This is really a one-of-a-kind item ! If you love this dog, click here to read all about it.

Whippets are such good dogs, in my humble opinion. We lived in a townhouse when we started investigating dog breeds. Whippets were not a breed I knew much about. What I found out was that they were clean, quiet, fun, and very sweet dogs. Kiwi is 12 years old now, and still has all those qualities.

I found another adorable whippet in the shop of DustyRoseDesigns. This artist sculpts polymer clay animals, including this Sleeping Hound:

This sculpture is white and grey, and measures 3" by 4". The features are so delicate and so pretty !!

Since we live in the country, large dogs are important to have around. Karla and Oz are brother and sister, and constantly keep us amused with their antics. They have short hair though, and do get cold in the winter months. Cozy Horse has amazing products to keep dobermans warm no matter the weather. Check out this fleece snood:

I know a few dobermans who would appreciate the warmth this snood would provide to their sensitive ears. This one has a skull and cross bones pattern, but the shop owner says there are other colors available by special order. Check out the listing for more adorable pictures of this cute dog!

These etsy shops have other great items too, so be sure to visit them and look around. I hope everyone had a great family weekend and that the week ahead is lots of fun too.

༺ Violet Update ༻

Another month has passed, and the violet plant has certainly grown!! I just put it in a larger pot, so now there is nothing to stop the little fella from developing flowers. I have a feeling they will be dark purple, but the true color is still a mystery !!

I first blogged about this violet in June, then gave an update in July. Click here to read those articles. I had no idea this plant would grow so many leaves this quickly !! When I finally see a flower, I will update an let you know the color.

✈ Thirsty Buzzing Bees ✈

On my patio next to the flower pots, sits a blue dog water bowl. Or so I thought. Since we got bee hives this spring, it has become apparent that this bowl belongs not to my dobermans or the whippet, but to a constant collection of thirsty bees!

At first the bees were having difficulty getting out of the water when they hung from the sides to take a drink. I would walk by and see a bee struggling and all in a panic, floating in the bowl. I used dried grass to pick the bee out, but before long he was back in the water doing the frantic swim moves.

So I put a small piece of wood in the bowl to help the bees in their thirsty quest for a drink. Now, all throughout the day, the stick has bees all over it ! I had no idea that bees drank so much water.

The bees are enjoying their new home and seem to be busy making honey in the hives. It is too early to know if we will get honey this year, but if we don't, at least we have all learned to live together in harmony.

Feature This !

It is always nice to be noticed, right? I had this pleasure when Bead Happily Ever After put my crocheted flowers in a story on her blog. She featured one of my arrangements, made to look like a group of violets in a tweed basket. What a nice treat !

I hope you get noticed by someone today too !

✈ Ants All Over Me ✈

Here in prairie grasslands country, once a year the ants take to flight and do some really strange things. I just checked on wikipedia, and found out it is called the Nuptial Flight. For me, it means flying ants are swarming around the house, birds are eating them and sometimes hitting the windows in their excitement, and generally I want to stay indoors.

In trying to be more positive about this normal event, I decided to look around on etsy.com and find some examples of ants that would make me smile.

This adorable sandwich bag comes from the shop of Shale Photography. The ants don't have wings here, so I am good with this cute ant example. Stop by and see all the other items in the fun shop, including this beautiful greeting card.

I found this linoleum ant print in the shop of Bello Books:

This ant is pretty realistic looking !! Check out this shop and take a look at this other cute print of a couple of baby birds.

I'm all about finding solutions to situations, which is what lead me to this next picture:

In the shop of We & The Bean, I found the perfect antidote (in my mind anyway). Now I have to think up a way to lure a couple of ant eaters to Colorado. Take a look at this adorable owl I also found in this creative shop.

Thanks for peeking in on my blog today.