Button Wednesday : It's raining CATS and DOGS

It is Wednesday again, so it's BUTTON DAY on my blog !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is raining CATS and DOGS ......

(hoover over the pictures and click to go to their original links)

Have you seen a lovely, beautiful, stunning, crazy button or button-related thingy, or did you make something with a button / buttons, or did you even make buttons yourself, blog about it on your blog on Wednesday, and give the link here in the comments so that everybody can enjoy it !!

Monday Mood Board : Doxies

We have lots of fun here with the summer weather, the water in the fjord, the garden and our doxie Peggy. She is the most sweetest Dachshund you have ever seen ! Therefore, some lovely Doxie pictures from four of our European Street Team members on Etsy.

For more monday mood boards see Estella and Esther's blog.

1. YanArt
2. FioreJewellery
3. lesfrotteurs
4. reevpapercuts

And here's my own little Doxie:

Button Wednesday : Doggies

It is Wednesday again, so it's BUTTON DAY on my blog !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just found this terrific button dog on knitspot's blog; is he not adorable ? 

And then I found this one by Robert Bradford; lots of recycling, among which lots of buttons !

And a beautiful dog button mosaic by Kate Kessling:

And what about this cutie at Stylist.co.uk ? It's a copy of the Obama's family dog Bo, made out of buttons.

Or this lovely colorful species by William Accorsi ?

And you can always make your own button doggie (The Funky Maven) !

Ohhh did I tell you I love dogs ?

Have you seen a lovely, beautiful, stunning, crazy button or button-related thingy, or did you make something with a button / buttons, or did you even make buttons yourself, blog about it on your blog on Wednesday, and give the link here in the comments so that everybody can enjoy it !!

Button Wednesday : Halina, The Button Sculptor

It is Wednesday again, so it's BUTTON DAY on my blog !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



This Button Wednesday is about the button sculptures from Halina. Halina's father was a tailor and pattern maker, and the family came directly after the war to the USA when she was eight years old. Due to language barriers and finances, the family made most of its own basic clothing. Self-dependence and recycling are Halina's main drives in life. She loves buttons because they were her first real possessions and they came from her dad. They came in all shapes, sizes, and colors and she says she loves the sound of them when piled high or when falling from of her hands like a waterfall. She started with flat images, sewn onto clothes and bags, but it developed quickly in a wish to make it 3D. She experimented with a lot of materials to form the body of her sculptures; different battings, recycled plastic containers, glues, fabrics, scissors, tapes, and threads until she figured out what works best for her projects. And the result is stunning !! It's fantastic to see that she is using the same technique as I do with my own button art; she sews the buttons together like I do. A clear evidence that two people who live miles and miles apart and don't know of each other, will develop the same technique by using and studying the same material. The expression though is our own, and Halina's sculptures are one of a kind ! You can read a lovely interview with Halina by Halina's man Robert here. (All pictures are from Mel Mashman on Flickr.)



Have you seen a lovely, beautiful, stunning, crazy button or button-related thingy, or did you make something with a button / buttons, or did you even make buttons yourself, blog about it on your blog on Wednesday, and give the link here in the comments so that everybody can enjoy it !!

Tidbits : Peggy goes crazy

Vanessa and Matthias from EST on Etsy came to visit us last weekend. Our Peggy loves visitors and is always the center of attention, at least that is what she is trying to do :) Although we had to eat a lot of cake and ice, and I got photo-lessons from Matthias, Peggy managed her task quite well :) Matthias could not resist her charm and took a zillion of pics of her. Here some beauties. (By the way, that awesome art work on my shoulder is the last tape of my bursitis....)

Button Wednesday : The Buttons Dog

It is Wednesday again, so it's BUTTON DAY on my blog !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


This Button Wednesday is about a dog named Buttons. He is made by Suzanne Noll, an animal and nature inspired, ceramic and mosaic artist. Buttons is fearsome and beautiful at the same time. I simply love that dog !

Buttons is handmade from high-fire clay with various glazes without the use of any molds, making this an original work of art. The mosaic is of steel balls and ceramic buttons, while on the collar hangs an antique key. His whiskers are made of copper wire with silver plated balls at the tips. If you love Buttons, go and have a look at Suzanne's other creations in her web shop Animal Instincts Art and her Etsy shop animalinstincts.


Have you seen a lovely, beautiful, stunning, crazy button or button-related thingy, or did you make something with a button / buttons, or did you even make buttons yourself, blog about it on your blog on Wednesday, and give the link here in the comments so that everybody can enjoy it !!

Monday Moodboard: Peggy

This Monday Moodboard is a tribute to my lovely Peggy who was so brave at New Year's Eve ! Therefore today some great doggies from some of our European Street Team members on Etsy.

For more monday moodboards see fleurfatale's blog.

1. chomelkidswear
2. ArtMind
3. secdus
4. LouisestArt

Tidbits : Flickr Favourites

When thinking about what my favourite happy was, I alway think of dogs. All kind of dogs, young and old, small and big, white and black, playing and sleeping, etc.
For more "favourite happy" flickr favourites see ArtMind's blog.

1. dogs in love, 2. Meet Woody!, 3. Lucky Fons "dressed up", 4. happy dog=upside down

Tidbits : Flickr Favourites

The day started not so good; when I put Peggy outside she immediately grasped the first blackbird chicken that flew out. It was my fault of course, I expected the birds to fly out over 2 or 3 days, and not so soon. So, I scolded her and she had to go inside, and she is not allowed at the back of the house anymore. The other three chickens are doing fine ....
Then Peggy tried to be nice and walking around my feet, looking with those big brown eyes up to me (because I scolded her); so how do I deal with that ??? Maybe the flickr favourites can help...
For more flickr favourites see ArtMind's blog.

1. teckel_klein, 2. Oh puppies!, 3. dachshunds, 4. BIRTHDAY DACHSHUND COOKIES

Tidbits : Peggy in the snow

Peggy loves the snow ! Although the snow is pretty high, she somehow manages with her short legs to jump-run in it. The snow is cluttering on her legs, but that does not diminish the fun. I am always astouned how long she can do this. It tires me faster than her.... The pics are from this afternoon in the fields behind our house.

Tidbits : Flickr Favourites

My flickr favourites of today are about animals I would love to hug and cuddle !!!!
For more flickr favourites see here.

1. Red Rabbit Pin, 2. blue bird, 3. Socks Dog, 4. Marcy the Christmas Sock Mouse!

Buttons : Animals

I did an Etsy search for buttons with all kinds of animals: mammals, insects, amphibia, fish, birds, pets, etc. Found some terrific specimens. Have fun looking through them !

1. ceramic turtle from AcquadelleDonne
2. fabric sheep from mwendas
3. ceramic blackbird (pie) from siennaorlando
4. polymer clay bee from shandyscandy
5. beaded ladybug from thelonebeader
6. plastic giraffes from SpareButton
7. wood painted owl from stardogstudio
8. ceramic cat from MixedMediaByZehner
9. ceramic dragonfly from ButtonBliss
10. polymer clay mice from TinyArk
11. bronze clay dog from SRNdesigns
12. embroidered turtles from Beetastic
13. lampwork glass bird from belvedere
14. resin birds from buttonsbyrobin
15. ceramic fish from muddymuse
16. ceramic frogs from SandhraLee

Tidbits : Peggy and Relaxation

I am always very impressed by the postures Peggy can hold when sleeping; and the amount of relaxation is awesome ! I could learn a lot from her.

Tidbits : Caught in Action !

Most of the times I am too late with the camera when Peggy is shaking; but this time I was there ! She prefers doing this on my bed though :)

Tidbits : Tagged .........

Estella of staroftheeast tagged me ..... pffffff difficult task, but this is what I could think of:

1. I love all dogs, but especially my Peggy
2. All muscles and bones in my body are hurting at the moment from painting the house
3. Love the colour orange. When I lived in Holland, I could not wear orange because all people would say "Oranje Boven" to me because of the Royals; now, living outside Holland, I wear it a lot.
4. I am a real chocolate addict (that's why I started a plus size clothing line on Etsy.....)
5. My hubby is a much better cook than I am; so, I never cook .....
6. Indonesian food is my all time favourite !
7. I am an avid collector; at the moment I own about 10.000 of old postcards with traditional costumes from all over the world


The rules are:
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving theirnames as well as links to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving acomment on their blog.
Here are the ones we are tagging:
1 emmapardos
2 paperflowergirl
3 littlellama
4 sandfibers
5 TanyaMac
6 AppleAndEve
7 trudette

Tidbits : Peggy's Daily Morning Ritual

How can I say it ? Yep, Peggy is sleeping in our bed....
Most of the night she lies somewhere around our feet, but in the early morning she moves up. And when she hears one of us starting to wake up, the ritual starts. Licking arms, rolling, begging for tummy rubs, licking noses, etc., till we go out of bed. She runs downstairs, runs in the garden, does her doings, and runs upstairs again, up in bed, and start snoring again. And from that moment we are totally awake and cannot sleep anymore...
The world is unfair !

Tidbits : More Peggy .....

We celebrate 1 month Peggy !
She is doing very well; sleeps a lot, eats a lot and plays a lot. Took some pictures of some of her funniest postures; she loves to roll in her basket, asking for belly rubs.



And she likes to sit on the terrace table in the sun, looking out over her territory ....

Tidbits : More Peggy

It's now 5 days since Peggy came to us and she is doing better and better. She loves walking and is sweet for all other people and dogs. Sometimes she still whimpers a bit in front of the outside door, but when I take her tennis ball she comes directly for a play and forget everything about whimpering.....
Here some more pictures of our new star !

Tidbits : Peggy

We just got our new dog; she is called Peggy and is a Dachshund. She is pretty nervous at the moment; a new house and new people. But she is very sweet, so we hope she will calm down in the next days, because we want to give her a very happy life !

Tidbits : In Remembrance to Lemy

Friday evening our dog Lemy became suddenly seriously ill; up to that moment she had been very lively, we even played ball that afternoon. We went to the vet on Saturday morning, and he diagnosed an acute pancreatitis. He gave her an injection against the pain, antibiotics, took blood for tests and told us she was not allowed to eat or drink for a couple of days. So we got a lot of bottles with fluid with us and had to put her on the drain. Saturday night was hell; she had so much pain and started to pant very fast, something she kept doing till her death. She kept going outside, pacing around and digging holes, vomiting and panting. Terrible, that face of pain, panic and not-understanding I will never forget. Sunday morning we phoned the vet and he gave her a very heavy shot against her pains. That helped a bit; she became a bit more quiet. Monday morning we could go to the scanner and in the afternoon the blood test results were there; it was clear that she had a very heavy liver disorder. In the afternoon, I had her on my lap and started to stroke her head and behind her ears; she clearly liked that and reacted on it by staying with me on my lap and asking for more, something we could not achieve in the few days of her illness before that point because she was much to much upstressed until that moment. Now she stayed on my lap and I stroked her for an hour and then she fell unconscious. We went to the vet, he did an emergency operation and that proved she had a very severe cardial infarct. At that moment we decided to let her pass away.
I am still devastated that my little baby had to suffer so much, and that I could not help her. And I think it's pretty unfair that such a lively little dog who has done nothing wrong has to die in this way. She was my little baby, I loved her as my own child and I will never forget her.