::Barkley::

We're in the 4th week post TPLO surgery and Barkley has been an awesome patient. While I can't remember how she progressed with her 1st surgery on her other back leg a few years ago, she really seems to be excelling this time around. 

And you know what, I totally jinxed myself because I started this post earlier this week AND now we just came back from the vet because her leg is making noises. Yep, you read that right, she clicks as she walks. But thankfully, the vet assures me that while she may be a little bit more noisy, she's healing and doing well.  PHEW!  

{if you hang out with me on Instagram, you've seen this one, but I just love it so much, I had to share it again}

{pretty sure I can read her mind, and she's totally thinking ... "life is great when they let me out of the crate!"  or maybe it's "Ohmigosh, Friends is so funny!" (we may watch a LOT of Friends reruns)}

{this face, oh how I love this face}

oh hey! let's recap the last year and a half! (or however long it's been...)

it's been a while.
Sorry about that.
but to be honest, I'm pretty boring and I've probably only done a few things like sew, watch the Bachelorette and have my blood drawn daily that it's amazing my entire arms haven't just stayed a lovely color called "bruised".

But, there's also been some fun stuff like we purchased a house we don't know if we'll ever move into* (more on that in another post), a few road trips, some great books (and not so great books) read and I've started to work on some new items for the shop that should be finished soon and you know, that whole IVF thing.... but first, I know the real reason you stopped by the blog, it's to see this little human wrapped up in a white fur coat.

Hot day, happy girl

Sometimes I pretend to use Barkley as a pillow. She allows it for about 0.3 seconds, unless you put the camera into selfie mode and then she's happy to look at herself for hours.  Pretty sure that either means she needs a friend or a full length mirror. 

The kennel we take Barkley to takes pictures of her daily and posts them on Facebook. This one was so great I had to save it.  She loves it there so much. 

Kisses!

Don't you touch my Barron's Daddy. I'm not done reading *ahem, upside down, ahem* she's a really talented reader.  And she loves her stocks -- DOG, SQRL, CAT, WLK -- just to name a few. 

This is Barkley's favorite pet store -- Molly's Pup-per-ee in Danville. It's such a cute store, we love to go there, the only trouble is that she refuses to leave (they give really good treats inside, I don't blamer her!) 

yep, you could say she likes it...

While walking through Costco a month or so ago, I saw this dog bed with a westie on the tag and thought, "OMG, Barkley would love this!" But I didn't buy it because I hate to go to Costco and come home with 12,000 extra things, typically I still do come home with 12000 extra things but the three flights of stairs and the full cart are enough to make me think twice if I really really need something.  

This time however, I kept thinking of this bed.  I knew that Barkley would love it and so I finally gave in and ordered it.  The bed was delivered last week and while it took Barkley a few minutes to figure out that she should jump in, she did and you know because there are 1137 pictures of Barkley on my phone at all times, I had to take a picture of her in her new bed... you know for the grandparents. :)   I'm also thinking that if the Costco dog moves onto bigger things (like the Cesar dogwood commercials) I think Barkley could stand in at a moment's notice.

{photo credit for the Costco dog bed -- or in case you need to buy one too!}

ready for a parade

OK, I'm a bit late...this post was supposed to be timely for the 4th of July...however I didn't realize that I never published it. I whipped up this bandana while Mike and Barkley were napping on the couch right before we went to our local 4th of July parade.  The best part is that it fits right onto her collar so she really doesn't ever realize that she's wearing it. Although who am I kidding, this dog loves to wear clothes.

...and a selfie for good measure. 

fancified

hi again.
it's me. (yep, just in case you were confused.)
I just wanted to point out to you that I figured out how to put those super-sweet-all-the-cool-kid's blogs-have-them social media icons. (ahem, look over onto the right sidebar of the page, you can find me in all sorts of different places, now!) I may not be a cool kid with 7 billion followers, but you are reading this and you are cool (hi mom) so I figured I could do a little jazzing up of the ye old blog with some social media connections for you to enjoy. that's all.

 XO, AnnE

And because every post needs a picture... I can't pass this one up.

{just your average internet-savvy westie tooling around on the iPad}

bark bark

Scenes from the weekend

My shopping buddy - riding the elevator at Macy's. Yes, dogs (not just service dogs) are welcome, she even played with another dog in the men's dress shirt area for a while. Pretty much the coolest part about CA - how pet-friendly every place is. She also knows which stores have dog treats, she'll stop and sit in the entrance until she gets their attention. Little stinker has become such a beggar that I don't let her get treats anymore, just some pets is all she needs. 

$3 bushel of tulips makes me happy. Whole Foods rocks! 

Super clean puppy dog! 2 baths in 2 days - not typical but she smells delightful! 

Full bloom! It's amazing how all the leaves and flowers have bloomed in the past week. Rainy nights and 70 degree days with sun make the plants happy (me too, for that matter!) 

Sunday Funday by Barkley's standards is to sit on the busiest street in town and watch the traffic whiz by! 

tis the season...

So, it's Lent.  I like Lent, it's a good time to reflect about 3 months into the year on how those New Year's resolutions panned out and how to make yourself better.  I'm not one that gives things up, mainly because I always seem to pick something that I actually don't mind living without and then it's not that big of a deal.  I did give up soda about a decade ago, which was hard at the time but I've never really needed to jump back on that bandwagon so while that was a good start for a Lenten resolution and a good outcome, most of the time I like to take this time to try and better myself.  So this year I've decided that I'm going to try and blog every day during Lent.  Not in a churchy, reflective way, because that's not me.  Just in a - hi, how are ya doing?  This is what I'm up to, or this is what I'm thankful for, or this is what's for dinner.  Typical blog stuff, just that it'll be everyday, which is not typical for me as of late.

So here's to holding me to it. I hope you all do. :)

Today I'm thankful for the gift of working from home. I am so lucky to be work so well with my husband.  I never thought it would last (the working together part, not the marriage part - he's stuck with me for life!), but it has and it's wonderful to be able to work with him and from home.  To be able to do laundry in between phone calls. To let the dog hang out in the sunshine on the deck for a little longer in the morning than she would be able to had I needed to leave for work - she's kenneled throughout the day when we're gone. She's also kenneled while I'm working in the morning and afternoon for the most part...not because I want her to be away from me, but because she really likes it.  She chooses to go into her kennel basically from 9am - 3:30 pm.  While I'm doing phone calls, I actually appreciate that she wants to be in her kennel because every so often there's a strange noise and if she's not in her kennel, she will defend this house with some big dog barks.  Big dog barks tend to not look professional when talking to professionals, so it's good that she likes her kennel so much.

I'm also so very thankful today of all days that I work from home because just when I was about to start working this morning, I squatted down to pick up a leaf on the rug and RIP! My pants became crotchless...totally not a good thing if I were in a public space like an office. But in the comfort of my own home...pants were tossed in the trash and new jeans were put on.   I was just thinking the other day that it seems like I've been living in 2 pairs of corduroy pants this winter, and sure enough, that's definitely the case.  Bummer.  I did love those pants, clearly.  I fear the other pair of cords isn't far behind, so I'll have to make those my "apartment pants" from now on, for fear that I might actually have a wardrobe malfunction while at the grocery store or something.  Yikes!

Vitamin D time!

This dog loves warm laundry.  She refuses to let me fold any of it until it has fully cooled down. 

My boots aren't cursed!

For 14 months, I thought my boots were cursed. 

Let me explain myself, it used to rain and rain and RAIN before I had appropriate rain footwear, and then I got these Hunter boots and...

BAM! No more rain. 

So, you can see why I thought the drought was due to me. Yep, pretty scientific assessment, I know. That's what a bachelor of science will get you. My dad is so proud.

oh, hi!

Seriously, where did September go?  My apologies for losing my way to the blog. Luckily, I'm here now, and hopeful that October will have more action than September. It is our golden wedding anniversary this coming weekend, so I am sure that will prompt a good bottle of wine, some seafood and a trip down memory lane and some blog-worthy documenting. But until then, here's a review of September, in picture form.

Mike went to bed early one night, Barkley wanted to join him. She started playing the springy door stop like a guitar until I came over to check on her.  And then I had to tear her away to ensure that she didn't wake up Mike. However, I'm pretty sure nothing can wake up that man, so really, I am not sure why I told her to stop.

The Twins were in town - sadly, we didn't recognize a single person on the team. I think it's official, we can't quite call ourselves Twins fans.  We can however call ourselves fans of Star Wars night. You wouldn't believe the amount of people  - young and old - that came dressed in their favorite Star Wars character.  The game was boring, but the people watching was stupendous.

I started selling women's accessories on 52nd & Barkley! First up on my new adventure, jersey knit infinity scarves. They have been a huge hit...and I might have wanted to keep all of them for myself they are just. so. cozy!

Quick trip to Napa over Labor Day weekend turned into a seriously awesome wine frig restocking. 39 bottles came home with us. Sadly for you (not us) we brought home 2 cases of the Castello di Amorosa Cab, which means the wine blogging might be a little dead, but fear not, we are enjoying it immensely. Especially on favorite TV night of the week, Sunday night on HBO did not disappoint in September, our two favorite shows (Newsroom and Boardwalk Empire) were on back to back. Yahoo!

Weekend golfing with Mike. Some of the world's worst golf I have ever played, but besides giving up after 14 holes, we had a great time hanging out together and getting sun burned. {opps}

We've got a turkey hunter in the family. Do you see 3 turkeys without-a-care-in-the-world to the top right of Barkley?  Fast forward about 20 seconds after I took this picture, Barkley and I ran like crazy fools and spooked these turkeys into the hills. I know, I know, that might not have been the nicest thing to three turkeys, but man, you should have seen Barkers, she was loving it! And I have to admit, so was  I. {simple pleasures} 

Happy National Dog Day!

Who knew there was a "National Dog Day"? Not I, until I was perusing Instagram and learned of this fantastic day. How have we lived all these years not realizing what a blessed day aug 26th is? If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, "it pays to procrastinate on Instagram", but this is probably just the first time I've said that out loud, the other 999 times, I've most certainly thought it.

discovering a water fall...

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it sure kept Barkley's attention.

bark

all you need is love ... and a dog 

peace out. happy weekend.

ps - shout out to my sweet 13 year old niece, how on earth you are 13 boggles my mind.  Happy Birthday Em! 

hello!

knock knock.

who's there?

orange.

orange who?

Orange you glad that I remembered that I have a blog?

Sorry for the radio silence.  Life, work, one small white pup, a sewing machine, a trip to Spain and a husband have kept me rather busy.  Oh yes, and my really crappy PC that has finally kicked the bucket which lead me to getting a shiny new Mac (yippee!) which means that I actually can handle being on my computer again! 

attention span

My iPhone has about 3.7 million pictures of Barkley not looking at the camera.  She's a big fan of looking directly at the camera until the exact moment I hit the button.

She's got a sixth sense about that.

Luckily, I don't take it personally and keep snapping away (and apparently I think my dog is so cute that I don't ever delete the pictures of her walking away from me.  Good thing they've been put to good use in this blog post, otherwise, I'd probably be considered that girl that likes their dog too much and is probably a hoarder.)

I do love my dog.
I am not a hoarder.

These are all pictures of Barkers - pre-surgery.  How do I know that? Well (1) I know my dog (2) these days (post surgery) she's sporting a look like LL Cool J (only with her fur, she doesn't wear pants) and has one entire back leg + butt cheek totally shaved.  

The good news is that she's recovering quite well.  The bad news is that she's shivering all the time because she's missing that fur covering her rump. 

good morning!

Hope your weekend is full of messy hair and relaxing in bed.

Seriously, life as a dog is the best.  I want to come back as a dog in my next life.  

Buddies

My sister sent Barkley this dragon at Christmas. Most stuffed toys meet Barkley and in about 0.7 seconds she has totally torn them apart. Not dragon though. These two are buds.

Dragon has been a bit lonely this week. (How do I know this you ask? I can talk to stuffed animals - if you remember, I had 2 imaginary friends, count them, 2.)  Barkley had knee surgery on Monday and is still at the vet recovering.  Dragon - along with Mike and I - are feeling very lost with her not around.  She's doing great.  She had surgery similarly to TPLO which means her tibia has been cut and now she's 3 inches shorter in her back right leg. Kidding.

magic in a bottle

I've been totally digging this homemade shower door clearer for a while, but I have yet to blog about it.  I'm sure you've seen it on pinterest, but it's 1 part vinegar to 1 part dawn dish soap.  After living in our apartment for 4 years and trying just about every product under the sun for cleaning our shower doors, this is the winner.

Sometimes my posts are boring.

This might be one of those times.

Here's a picture of Barkley that I took, I was trying to make her look like a super hero.  As it turns out my photoshopping skills aren't all that great and it in fact just looks like she's lying on the bed with a bandana around her neck...which is exactly what is happening.

Carry on.  I promise I'll be more exciting tomorrow.  :)

pup

“A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down.” 
― Robert Benchley

Can you feel the love?

Mike and I saw Lion King over the Christmas break. It was AMAZING. Seriously, nothing compares to this musical. This was the 2nd time I saw it (first time over a decade ago in Minneapolis) and I has tears in my eyes with how amazed I was by all the animals and the fantastic singing. (This is when you might think, tears, really? But I did my fair share of musical theater while growing up, so I am not strange, well I might be, but for other reasons.) What a show.

If it comes to a town near you, really you must go. For reals.
I rarely use the words bomb and diggity. But this show is the bomb diggity.  You know I mean business now, people.

Seal

of

approval 

Mike has taken to re-enacting the beginning scene of showing off Simba. In this case, the role of Simba is reluctantly being played by Barkley.