Gosh

Can’t believe that it’s been over two weeks since I last wrote a blog. Good job Ian’s been on the case. The weather has turned hot, and the floor is warm when I stand outside at night with Milly who gets taken outside in theory to spend a penny, but in reality to run around (her, not me). She is a changed little dog, and speeds around like a little bee. She doesn’t run in a straight line and often stops to turn around a few times, which is why she makes me think of a bee, flitting from flower to flower. She obviously has a bad leg and I don’t think anyone would ever think otherwise, however she certainly moves quickly. I don’t think she is very strong on her back legs, and I think that this will be a problem for her going up steps. She can get down steps (gravity helps), but she has to clamber up them. And there is certainly no problem with food, I think that her hesitance before to eat was definitely down to nerves and stress at being in a new home.

We’re getting a better idea of Queenie’s sight issues. Undoubtedly she can see albeit limited, however she does seem to have a bigger problem in the bright light. I was sat inside, in front of the window and she kept running past me unaware that I was there. I think because of the bright light coming in through the window she was blinded. She also has problems at night with the dark, she doesn’t recognise me when I come in through the barn into the patio, as I am in the dark.

Unfortunately, because Queenie is putting all her effort into growing her ears and nothing else, her Doggles still don’t fit her.

Alfie has been put on a diet. Ian trimmed him and found that it he didn’t have quite such a big thick coat as we thought, instead he was developing a big, thick waistline!

I realized that after writing about how our Spanish dogs were less interested in food than our English dogs, I had forgotten that Dumpling has the spirit of Bob with her. While admittedly, we haven’t found her yet on top of the fridge or climbing the cat tree, she has his optimism – Bob was always convinced that while he NEVER had breakfast, this was simply a temporary measure, and that one day we would remember that he should have breakfast and give some to him, so he’d always be outside and ready for the breakfast that never came. Dumpling is much the same and wanders round hopefully while the morning eaters get on with their breakfast. And, while Ian has never ever forgotten to feed her in the evening, she feels that throwing herself at the garage gate at tea time is a good way to remind him!

I didn’t have classes over Easter week and spent the time preparing some new rubber stamping tutorials for About and making greeting cards to sell on Etsy. About.com are planning some changes to the way the site looks – bringing it up to date – and they are going to be putting more emphasis on photos. Which is good for me, as rubber stamping is a pretty visual topic. So I’ve been putting some extra effort into making some tutorials which will photograph well so they look nice in the site’s redesign. I bought some lollipop sticks so expect a few project featuring these!

I’ve been making card to print for the Etsy store – https://www.etsy.com/shop/AwayWithThePixels . These are not finished cards – people buy the digital files and then print at home or at a printer. This is something I’ve been talking about for a while, so I spent a few days at Easter putting these together. Ian did a few too – you will be able to tell Ian’s. We thought about offering printed cards as well, however the cost of printing and delivery makes them unviable, but it is something we’ll continue to investigate.

I’m also planning selling my jewellery on Etsy. I don’t know how things are going with the Artesaños de Extremadura people, but I guess that as I haven’t heard anything nothing has sold. They did warn me that things would be quiet until now though (Mother’s Day and then First Communion are in May) so we’ll see. Ian is currently photographing it all and I plan to spend the next free week I have getting it all written up and on the Etsy site.

While I didn’t have regular classes, I did have a lady come to me from Bienvenida who wanted to prepare for an exam. She has just had a baby and is using the time to study English at home. She says she practices talking by talking to the baby in English – I wonder if her baby’s first words will be English or Spanish!