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!

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...