Holly the Havanese

I received some nice comments and a couple of emails about the little dog in my guest house table post, so thought I would "introduce" her!

Meet Holly!
 

Holly is a 5 lb purebred Havanese. My daughter came home one day in late fall of 2009 and asked for the 1,047th time if we could get a puppy. One of her friends had a pregnant dog and the puppies would be born in December. She got the usual "no way!" answer from her dad. (If it were up to me, I'd have many dogs.)

Later that evening, I asked her what breed of dog her friend had. When she said "Havanese" I assumed it was a designer dog that was part Maltese or Pekingese. So I googled it. 

The more I read about the Havanese breed, the more I became convinced that it was the breed for us! At this time, we had a 9-year-old miniature Schnauzer named Kramer and one of the reasons we chose his breed was for low shedding and allergies. 

My daughter didn't mention the puppies again after her first inquiry -- but I was hooked. They are not a common breed and relatively unknown. I started sending Hubby all the information I could find about the Havanese. He did agree that they were adorable. I talked about the Havanese every chance I had. He ignored my comments... I changed the computer desktop background to an adorable photo of a Havanese puppy. He changed it back...  

I was ready to give up on this group of puppies but we had decided that when we were ready for a new dog one day, we would definitely get a Havanese.

After a few days of not bombarding hubby with the usual stuff, I brought up the puppies again. To my utter surprise and shock his exact words were "Are all the puppies spoken for?" Bam! I knew we were going to get a puppy!! He doesn't ask something like this without having put a lot of thought into it first. 

So before he could change his mind (not that I would let him), I called and found out more information. They were due about mid-December and so far nobody had dibs on a puppy. I can't remember for sure now, but I think I yelled when I said "we'll take one!" over the phone. I was soooo excited! 

The "catch" : We were not telling our daughter about the puppy until Christmas. Even though the puppy would be a family dog, we were going to wrap up something to announce it at Christmas. Keeping this secret from her was so hard! She mentioned the puppies a few more times, but we told her since she was a senior in high school and going to college in less than a year, we simply were not getting a new dog.

We had to wait about three more weeks for the puppies to be born. Puppy Mom sent me photos the morning after their birth: 3 little boys and 1 little girl.
 

One day old and each puppy weighs about 6 ounces.

On Christmas Eve, K opens a few little gifts. We had wrapped up a book about the Havanese and two little dog bowls and a dog toy. It was in a small, unassuming box. We saved it for last. Watching her open this box and seeing the confusion, the disbelief and ultimately the pure happiness on her face was sooo much fun!

For the next few weeks, we flip-flopped back and forth between the girl puppy or a boy. Kramer was our first boy and we loved him so much. He was so playful and loaded with personality. However, we wanted K to pick the puppy when it was time... Hubby and I did get to visit the puppies a few times -- K was there almost every single day. She loved all of them!


About 5 weeks old and hanging out with their mom



K never did choose a puppy. A puppy chose her...

Her name was chosen because she was born close to Christmas. Her "puppy name" was Noel and her official name is "Holly Noelle."

She came home to live with us the first week of February 2010. We had a big homecoming for her and she adapted to her new home very quickly!

Holly's first day home!

First day home on her "blankie"

She has changed over the last year and has lost most of her coloring and is now almost all white. It's typical of the Havanese. Her brothers, who were so dark as puppies, are now also very light-colored dogs.

Holly and her little boyfriend, Chaco, who lives next door.

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A Found Treasure

I have been going through some family items I've never looked at before. My mom gave me some boxes a couple of years before she passed away in 2009. They are mostly photographs and a few little mementos.

One item I was thrilled to find was my father's bible. It is embossed with his name on it and is very worn. I'm sure some of the wear and tear on it came from being boxed up for a long time but it is obvious that this bible was used. There are many dog-eared pages and notations along the sides of the pages, especially in the New Testament.



The ribbon bookmark was left in the book of John. I don't know if this is where my dad left it or if it just ended up there but I'm going to go with the former. The location is one of my favorite verses:

"You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” -- John 8:32



Yesterday, I was in a local Christian bookstore and made a purchase. When I removed the purchase from the bag later in the day, I found a little card in there with a Psalm verse on it and below that were these words:

A well used Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't.

The other item I came across was an old Gideons bible. It was presented to my father when he was baptized at the age of 25. There was a space inside the front of the bible where my father had signed stating he accepted Christ as his savior.

I never knew my father was baptized -- and I didn't know he was saved. This meant a great deal to me!

And then to find the little card in my bag with those words printed on it...

Wow. Love it.

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The Guest House: The table arrives!

While working on our guest house, the one item that is noticeably missing is somewhere to sit down. So we have been on the lookout for a table and chairs to fit into the little nook area. Because this is a very small living/dining/kitchen area, our original plan was to put in a large table and six chairs -- and not use the space as a living room. We have a large room upstairs where we will eventually put a family room of sorts that can also be used as a 2nd bedroom.

Plan B: find a table that fit the area. Requirements: had to be small and round and have at least four chairs. And not expensive -- after all, it is not going to be used very much. However, this is so much easier said than done! We began looking last fall and all the tables we liked were much too large for the space. We considered a round table with drop-down sides and we did find a couple that would work -- but in order to use the table with four chairs, it would always have to be pulled out. Not to mention two chairs look great at a table like this -- but the other two chairs would need to be kept elsewhere.

Last week, while looking at one of my favorite websites -- Slickdeals -- someone posted a link for dining sets on sale at JC Penney online. One of them (the Fitzgerald) looked absolutely perfect for what we had been searching for! Plus, it was only $135 with all of the coupon codes instead of the original retail of $399.99.

So we ordered it!

It arrived at our local JC Penney store last week and we picked it up yesterday. One big box. Assembly required. (Two words my hubby loathes...)

From the moment we opened the box; removed all the pieces; took them into the house and put them together; then carried them over to the guest house and set them up -- only 95 minutes. 

We're very happy with our first item of furniture at the guest house!

The box arrives in the garage!

All pieces out of the box and into our house. Holly is our little helper. She sniffed each piece to make sure they were ok.

More "stuff" to put put it together.

 

Four chairs done! They were very easy and quite sturdy.



Table went together very fast. It's 36" in diameter. Perfect for the small space we need it for.

  

We carried the table and chairs over to the guest house and set them in place. Perfect size!

The "before" photo

 


The "after" photo

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Linking to:

Debbiedoo's Newbie Party 

and

       

The Guest House: First floor

Last year we finished building my playhouse our garage and guest house across the road from us. Because of the zoning laws, we could not build the stand-alone storage and garage that we wanted to, so we had to add a small house onto it as well. We don't anticipate using this guest house very often but still want to have some furnishings and decor in it for the times that we do have someone staying there. It's going to be fun!

Over the last few months, we haven't done much over there. The plumber finished his work and we are waiting for the carpeting to be installed. The carpeting was purchased a year ago and hopefully in the next few weeks it will finally go in.

Now we're starting to think about furnishing it. It is the equivalent of a small apartment with the kitchen/dining/living downstairs and a half bath underneath the stairs. The upstairs has two bedrooms and a bath and a nice storage room.

We decided on stainless steel appliances and the little kitchen now has a microwave, stove, fridge and dishwasher! We also put up the very first item -- the curtains over the main window in living room. And we have found our first piece of furniture! More info on that coming up later!

A few photos (taken in a clockwise circle):



Looking towards the front door. Door on left goes into the garage.

 


Living area. The alcove to the right is where we plan to put a table and chairs.



Dining area.

 


Looking from living area into the kitchen. Dining area alcove to the left and door to bathroom under stairs is open.

 


Closer view of kitchen




We installed hickory cabinets. Love the lightness of them and the natural character of the wood!






Staircase. Door to garage to the right. Door to bathroom underneath the stairs is open.

  


Looking from bathroom into kitchen.

 


Sink in half bath under the stairs.




Toilet on other side of half bath under the stairs.

 Check back later as I will be posting our first item of furniture in the guest house!

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I'm glad I don't like antiques!

I live in a rather isolated and rural area -- yet there are still some pretty fun places to check out!

I'm not an "antique" person and rarely go into the many antique stores in our area... To me, an antique store is just filled with a bunch of old boring stuff. Occasionally we will have friends visit who love to go antiquing, so we head off to the stores. When I'm with someone who knows what they are looking at and appreciates and loves it -- the "old stuff" becomes much more interesting!

So I find it a blessing that I don't care for antiques -- otherwise I'd go broke with the many antique stores in my area!

Today at lunch, I thought I'd check out one of the stores in my little town. I was on the lookout for something to go with an upcoming St. Patrick's day tablescape I'm planning. Since I live in a predominently Irish town (complete with an Irish name!) and St. Patrick's Day is practically a national holiday here, I thought maybe I would come across something.

Two items in the store that interested me were this duck (and it didn't look very antique to me) and the pitcher:


This guy was a cutie! It said "cookie jar or casserole" so they probably don't know what it is either.
I liked the basketweave on it.

This pitcher with the grapes on it was very pretty!
I usually am drawn to anything with a grape pattern.

I didn't find anything else... This store had a lot of dishes and glassware -- the stuff I love to look at -- so I may go back when I have more time.

A few more photos from around the store:

 

I did like these dishes -- they were marked "Royal Mail" Fine Staffordshire Ironstone.
Made in England. Each piece had a stagecoach on it.


   



These were different. Kind of a western theme in green.



Many complete sets of dishes...



The blue stemmed glasses said Avon and had George or Martha Washington on them.
Cute for a President's Day theme or 4th of July.



The bunches of glass grapes on the floor reminded me of the ones my mom had back in the 70's.



Old cookie jars



Some pretty linens all over the store

Tall green vase on 2nd shelf down is something I did like!



The 'old' stuff may not be interesting to me, but ALL dishes are. Definitely a place I need to go back and check out one of these days.

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