This CoTTage is goin' to the DaWgS!

Oh! My! Gosh! How cute is this?!?

Awwww!! A~D~O~R~A~B~L~E, huh!! We had a visitor come a callin' yesterday! Look at that face! Precious! I could get attached to this little fella pretty darn quick. What a sweet snuggle-bug! He is a baby Shih-Tzu and couldn't weigh more than a pound and half of his weight is fur!
I think my furbabies know that their "Daddy" has told me, "No more dogs, honey".


OK, it's actually more like...



"No, Donna!! You CANNOT have another *@#*^`@ dog!"



When Mr. Simplicity calls me "Donna", I know he means business! I have to agree with him when it comes to this...the dogs outnumber the people in our "pack"!


Punkie took one look at li'l bit, she was not happy that a real lap dog had the very nerve to sit in my lap! Punkie Brewster is my 55 pound lap dog! Punkie is a bit needy because of her "past" -- I will blog about that later! The Boxer is my sweet Maggie Mae. She wanted to mother the baby -- she was in protect mode.
This sweet puppy is from a litter of four -- three boys,one little girl. My niece, Candi brought them (yes, the whole litter!) over for a visit. I'm sure she had an ulterior motive...she knows that I am a fool when it comes to animals...OK, my whole family knows it -- it's no secret! Heck, all the strays know to come to my house and they will be fed and brought in out of the cold until I can find them a forever home.
Three members of our pack. from left to right: Punkie Brewster, MaxieMan, and Maggie Mae

I haven't learned how to "just say NO" when it comes to critters. We've had three strays come here since we moved into the cottage. I have found homes for them all.
The little black and cream chihuahua warming-up by the fire, is a rescue dog. His name is "MaxieMan". I got him from Operation Kindness, a no-kill shelter. His "momma" passed away and he was used to sleeping "in bed, under the covers with his mom". There was a story about him on our local news station. I went and saved him because I didn't want him to go a single night of not sleeping under the covers with a mom! We've had him 6 years now!
Punkie Brewster is NOT happy! I think she might be saying, "OK Buster, enough is enough! You need to find your way back to your home, this is MY home! MY mommy does NOT have room for you in her lap...it's MY lap!"



Old Girl a.k.a OG
My daughter, Joei lives next door and Old Girl (OG), the first stray who came around lives with her now and has for more than two years. Sorry the pic is so dark but OG prefers to nap with the lights OFF! I think OG is part Wolfe. She is the smartest dog ever! I really believe that dogs sense when you come to their rescue -- they are grateful and show it in various ways. Do you think animals can rationalize something like that?
Oh! And this is Chloe. She is the snob, diva, queen bee, princess of the palace! You see, nobody has told her she's a dog! Shhhhh! She belongs to my daughter, Joei...or maybe I should say, "Joei belongs to Chloe". She just stuck her tongue out and blew us all a big fat RaSpBeRRy!


Punkie followed suit with a big ol' RaSpBeRRy!


Chloe was not in the least impressed with our sweet li'l visitor...

Puhlllleeeeease, turn off the lights...this party is OvEr!

Birds, Squirrels, Tree Frog and the Cold Duck!

It's so cold here!

I've got ice forming on my grilling deck! It's hard to believe that less than a week ago we had spring weather.

If anyone from the Pacific Northwest or even folks just north of the Red River reads this post they will laugh at this Texan...but our little part of the world is a frigid 28 degrees (brr!)...the drizzle is coming down...the newscasters are announcing business and school closings for tomorrow. In comparison to the weather the northern states have experienced thus far into 2009, 28 degrees would seem absolutely balmy to those poor folks!

Don't get me wrong, I love the changing of the seasons but I prefer observing the cold from the inside out...it makes me a shiver when I look out and see a thin layer of ice forming and more precipitation is headed our way!

We did have to venture out earlier this afternoon. Errands! The trip into town was a must. We were out of coffee. Not good! As we went over the bridge towards town, I saw the ducks swimming in the lake. How can the ducks get in the cold water and swim around as if it were the middle of summer? How do they do that?

Back home with coffee in tow...feeling the warmth and comfort of my little cottage surround me, I sit in my favorite chair and watch the birds and squirrels at the feeders in my yard. As I sit mesmerized, losing track of all time just simply watching the squirrels scurry about the yard picking at the cobs of corn while the birds flutter around the bird feeders. Chickadees, cardinals, wrens, finches, brown sparrows and even the occasional wood pecker, all of them just waiting for their turn at the feeder. Watching this is a simple pleasure that I never tire of.

We have a tree frog who lives in one of the planters on the front porch. Sometimes when he comes out on a warm night, he gets on the french doors on the front porch. His little lime green feet have cute teeny tiny suction cup toes to help him maneuver vertically. His cute toes suction to the glass of the french doors. As he moves slowly up the glass panes in the door towards the porch light, the lake bugs are already swarming the light fixture. The little tree frog moves slowly with anticipation of his next meal. Finally, the little frog arrives close enough to the fixture. With a lightning-quick flick of his long, pink tongue...dinner is served!

I love all animals -- domestic or wild -- I love them all.

This cold weather is making me long for the warm nights when the tree frog visits my front porch!

Banner Love ~

I'm lovin' my cute little ~banner~

I'm still learning all the ins and outs of blogland. Some of it is easy~peasy but some of it is just downright mind bogglin! I tried to figure out how to do my own banner...it was w~a~y over my head! My 13 year old granddaughter, Ashlei was over tonight and I casually asked her if she knew anything about blogs, banners, etc. I was amazed when she said "SURE" just like that-- no big deal! She also told me that she has her own blog and went on to ask, "Are you on Blogger, MeMe?" Ummm, I guess...

I asked her if she could help me with a banner. In a few minutes, she walked back through my front door and started snapping photos. I was sidetracked in deep conversation with my daughter and not really paying attention to the little shutterbug.

The next thing I knew she was asking me which photos I liked the best. She had actually taken several photos of our family room and my little studio/office area. She went on to make a "vintage looking" background for the banner and added the two pictures that we decided on. Next, she was muttering something about HTML...whatever that is!

She played around on her laptop for a few minutes and the next thing I knew she had picked up my laptop and handed it to me...VOILA! New banner!! I love it!

Kids! They are just too smart these days!

It's going to be a Soup Night...

Brr! It's cold in East Texas today!

We are staying inside where it's warm and dry...the weather is going downhill this week...the weather guy on the noon news predicted that we will have some ice Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning.

I'm cooking up a BIG pot of soup and some cornbread for tonight!

We had 80 degree weather last week! I had spring fever -- what a world of difference a day or two makes.

Texas weather is crazy!

Here goes...I'm finally doing this! I've been thinking about it for about six months...starting a blog, that is! I have been lurking about reading lots of blogs for months...enjoying every minute of it, I admit. I haven't even done so much as leave a comment on a blog and I have several faves. When I figure out this blog stuff, I will list my favorite blogs as well as begin commenting . My first experience with blogland was reading and admiring Tina's Cherry Hill Cottage blog -- she is awesome!

Being a novice at this, I'm not sure where to start but it seems logical to start by introducing myself and telling you a little about Simplicity Cottage.

My name is Donna. I've been married to Mr. Simplicity for almost 38 years...in two short days it will be 38 years...and "they" said it wouldn't last!

We have two children, Rickey our son and Joei our daughter. We are blessed to have three of the sweetest grandchildren around -- Ashlei, Aiden and Hunter. Ashlei and Aiden are Joei's kiddos and Hunter is Rickey's boy.

I am a little hesitant mentioning that our family includes a few "four-legged" babies, too! I am an animal lover and from the time I was just a kid, I can never, ever remember not having at least a couple of pets. Anyway...I have five (yes, FIVE!) dogs. I'm admitting this because I'm sure you will see them lounging around when I post photos. So there you go -- I've said it -- FIVE DOGS! Does anyone else out there have as many (or MORE)?? I guess I didn't do well with an empty nest...

Speaking of nests...I live in my dream cottage. We started building in October 2005 and moved in June 2006. We moved from a BIG house in the city (Dallas) to a small cottage in the country out in East Texas. We love it here and have never looked back.

I love flea markets, garage sales, yard sales and estate sales and am always looking for old stuff or something to repurpose! I have always loved antiques. For a few years while still in Dallas, I had a space in the Grapevine Antique Mall. I had more fun buying and selling, fluffing...it was another space to decorate. The only problem was, I soooo enjoyed the shopping and buying that I usually ended up keeping MORE than I sold!

When we moved from our BIG city house to our teeny-tiny country cottage, I decided to SIMPLIFY...that's when Simplicity Cottage was born...