Puppies and Kittens (sort of)

I'm still a little nervous even saying this out loud, but I think we're looking for a companion for our dog, Ike. It started with me seeing a random pet store the other day with "Puppies!" on the sign, so I thought it would be fun to go see them. Then I went back to Chicago and saw a few more. We thought about it a little bit more, talked it over, and thought it would be a good idea to bring Ike to meet some of them, just to see how he reacted. We were hoping that being around these spritely little puppies would make him a little bit more active...

Ike

As it turns out, Ike is really annoyed by puppies. They jump all over him, and steal his chewies, and generally just make a lot of fuss about nothing (as far as he can tell). So now we're looking at older dogs, specific breeds, and this afternoon I came upon the cutest little Shih Tzu I've seen in a long time.

So he's going to be my Valentine's Day date -- on February 14th we're going to visit him (after he gets out of the medical center being treated for heart worms, and after the awful neutering which I hope he never associates with me). We're bringing Ike with us, and just crossing our fingers that they like each other, and want to be pals. I feel like Ike really deserves a buddy, someone in the pack who speaks his language, and I think Olivia would enjoy having a dog around who is a bit more interested in her than Ike is (which is not at all).

Olivia

In the meantime... we're all freezing over here. Apparently it's warmed up outside, but the heater in the studio hasn't turned on once since last night, so it feels like I'm living in an ice castle right now. I've got the portable heater running in here, and it's registering the temperature around it as 62-degrees. That temperature goes down at least 10-degrees once you're more than 18 inches away from the portable heater, I'm sure.

It looks warm, but I'm not standing anywhere near these drafty windows today!

I hope you're all staying warm out there, or in there for that matter. It seems like a great day to curl up with a cup of hot cocoa and watch old movies -- the old movies I can do, unfortunately my eating/drinking clean kick doesn't really allow for hot cocoa. Well, I'll just curl up with a nice glass of mean green juice, then. ;)

Sometimes the USPS is Just... Yucky

The terribly cold weather has been a thing of the past (well, sort of) for at least a week now, yet the USPS continues to use it as an excuse for slow delivery times. I might have mentioned this a couple times on my Facebook page. So I made a coupon code for free shipping for all of my customers through tomorrow, as an apology for anyone who has had to wait to receive anything I've shipped out. 

I feel your pain, as some of my supplies have taken TWO WEEKS to arrive in the mail at my studio. Unfortunately, even though the cold snap seemed to be temporarily over, I know they're still taking entirely too long to deliver to some areas of the United States, so I made another coupon code for free First Class shipping that will be good through next Saturday. I know this doesn't really help too much when you're eagerly awaiting the arrival of something you've ordered, but I hope it works as a small apology.

Through next Saturday, you can use the code: USPSNONSENSE000 on anything purchased in my Etsy shop and shipped domestically for free First Class shipping, and don't be shy about it. It makes me smile when people use coupon codes, and hopefully everyone won't experience the same slow delivery times that we here in the Midwest have had to deal with. Thank you to everyone who has been patient about it, and to those of you who aren't experiencing any problems (bless you, West coasters) you get the enjoy the benefits, anyway. :)