Hand-embroidered and smocked dresses for little girls. Rabbit Whiskers designer-original children’s clothing is lovingly styled to inspire your child’s imagination.

So how hot do you think it was today?

When I went down the hill to get the mail at 5:00 P.M. it was 103`!

Walking back up to the house I heard a little rustle in the tree and out of the corner of my eye thought I saw something move. I stopped for a second to look and this is what I saw. This little guy had slung himself over the tree limb and just lay there in the hot shade. He didn’t quickly run away like he usually does,  instead,  he lay there watching me & Pascal- who was either  too hot to bark, normally he totally “loses it,”  or he was pretending not to see the squirrel so  he wouldn’t have to bark~  It’s a rare occasion that Pascal forgoes an opportunity to bark-  That’s how hot it was!

I quickly put Pascal inside and grabbed my camera, feeling pretty certain the squirrel would be exactly where he was when I left him~ and he was!  Normally he and I are enemies, as he gets even more delight in digging up my garden and unplanting my flower pots, than he does lying on a shaded tree limb on a hot day, but today, with the heat on high, we seem to have called a truce. I actually felt sorry for the little guy. I could say he posed for me, but I can’t give him that much credit.  He did lay there and silently stare-  or was it glare-   at me while  the camera clicked back at him. Mission accomplished!

Too hot for me, I left him, hangin’ out on the tree, (probably mapping a new game plan for my garden,  once it cools off-)  and went back in to join Pascal in front of the fan. Having finally finished my baby dress, I needed to figure out what I want to make next!

This is the dress  I just finished~  the one that I started too long ago-  I wanted to make a plain white baby dress for summer. Some people gasp at the thought of a white dress for a baby, but if you stop to think about it, what difference does it make if it’s white or any other color; if it’s going to get dirty, it’s going to get dirty. Whatever shows up on white will also show up on light pink, blue, green or yellow; all of the classic baby colors.   Actually white has an advantage over the other colors when it gets dirty because with white, you can usually bleach out a stain, whereas with a color, you don’t have that option.

So~ I wanted it to be white and I wanted it to be intricate and soft, but appear simple and elegant. Most of all I wanted it to say, “baby!”   I’m happy with the results and I hope you like it too. The smocking on the side panels is a double wave design that’s easy for the eye to follow, yet at the same time,  notice the gathers the smocking has created. They add the degree of intricacy that I wanted the dress to have. The central panal,  smocked in a white diamond design, gives a nice background for the brown hand embroidered bunny to stand-out against,  and the blue bow tied around her neck,  ties-in the blue smocking from the side panels. The white, diamond design of the smoking holds the background flat.  To add dimension, I hand embroidered several  flower stalks in both baby-blue and white that give the scene a 3-dimensional effect.

To me this` dress says,  “Baby”~  it is baby-fresh;  soft & delicate, feminine & sweet, and most of all, like every baby~  totally unique!!

Life is full of surprises~ and of course,  being their nature, you never know when or where they are going to pop up!!  With my latest surprise I literally mean, “pop-up!”   Like this,  above-   the first, and most visible thing to see in my garden.

A few weeks ago I received a call from my mom saying  she had bought a large bag of Dahlia tubers, but hadn’t enough room in her garden to plant them all, would I like what she had left? (I have become known as the one to ask if someone has a plant to get rid of , because I can’t refuse them.) I have had a few dahlias in pots for several years and they do very well, so the thought of adding a few more , pleased me. Sure! I’d take them! Did I say a few more? That was my first surprise-

The bag of tubers I was given was about 95% full! I think my mom planted all of 2 tubers! Oh my gosh, I thought, when I looked into this very large, very full bag. Where am I going to plant all of these, and,worse yet, when am I going to find the time to plant them?

Somehow I managed to find a way to get  80% of them planted, (so far.) Most of them came up immediately, but many had already started sprouting in the bag; impatient, I guess. My first flower to open is the one  pictured. I watched the plant’s leaves grow from large to larger. The flower stems seemed to shoot up  4 ” per day!  I never saw small flower buds. I looked one day when I didn’t think the stalk could get much taller, and there was a fist-sized flower bud!

These were definitely not the same variety of dahlia that I have been growing. It was only a few days after I noticed the flower bud, that it began opening. It took a full week to be fully opened as you see it today, but I measured it a few days ago when the outer petals were fully opened and the flower looked huge already-  It measured 6 1/4″ in diameter. I’ve watched it opening the rest of the week, and almost can’t believe what I’ve seen.  These flowers are probably comparable in size to some large sunflowers. I measured the flower again today, now that it is fully opened. It’s 9 1/2″ in diameter!!  I wouldn’t call it beautiful, but it is definitely spectacular-  Most amazingly, today the second bud on this plant is almost to the 6 1/4″ diameter that the first one was a few days ago, and two more buds are at slightly lesser degrees of development, but within a few days, depending on how long this first flower remains,  there will be 4 gigantic monster flowers in my garden- and that’s just on this first plant! My second dahlia to bloom is pink with a light yellow center and is halfway opened right now and showing signs of being equally as huge as my first . And I’ve just spoken of the two dahlias that are the furthest along. There are many more, some in the process of emerging and some beginning their flower stalks.

It shouldn’t be long now before I will be typing from somewhere deep in a freakin-tall, monster-dahlia-forest!

I said in my previous post that I was going to talk about my second set of note cards, but I’m going to save that for next time. Before I go, I want to give you a sneak preview of the baby dress, (size 1,) that I’m working on and hope to have finished and listed,  soon~  (provided I have no more “free-plant” offers to distract me!)                               Coming Soon!

***One last note~ Please excuse the little “spill” into the margin at the beginning of my blog.  My blog was updated to the latest version and we encountered a problem that we hope to be able to correct soon!

My third  series of notecards, As Scene by Rabbit Whiskers, consists of notecards with photographs of various scenes that I have found to be pretty, interesting, or both; usually things that I see while on a walk with Pascal.

Many of my photos come from my favorite “haunt,” Heather Farms. This is a huge open space park with both natural, wild environments and carefully planted and tended, beautiful gardens; a photographer’s dream place! I could go there daily forever and still see different things each time.

While a majority of the scenes on my cards come from pictures taken at Heather Farms, we also often go downtown for walks and I always encounter something unexpected there, like the koi pond that I posted photos of a few posts ago. I haven’t used them yet, but I may decide to use some of the koi pictures on notecards in the future. There are also scenes taken from my own garden as well as scenes from other places that I walk.

Do you like this cottage in the picture above? It has a rather funny story to go with it. A year and a half ago my daughter gave me this wonderful little camera for my birthday. I was so surprised and excited,  I couldn’t wait to go try it out.  I quickly browsed through the manual, learning just enough to know where the button was to push for a picture, and a few other basics, but otherwise, I really knew nothing about using the camera. I took Pascal, and of course my new camera, downtown for a walk the following morning.

I parked the car a few blocks outside of the central downtown area and thought we’d walk into town from there. I had walked by this old cottage many times before, and each time wished that I had  a camera to take its picture. I love this cottage!  So- here I was, finally!  Me, Pascal, the cottage……. and my new camera! When we got to the driveway of the cottage I made Pascal sit while I pulled out my new camera  and “click, click-” just like that, took a few quick pictures and continued into town, taking  pictures on our way. Once home again, I downloaded the pictures to my computer and was pleased to see that yes, my picture of the cottage looked, well,  just like the cottage-

Several months before I got my camera I came across a photography site online, Zytu.org that had different daily slideshows of pretty and interesting scenes; photos that I enjoyed looking at, so I added them to my homepage.  After downloading  my photos to the computer I decided to post my photos on the web pages Zytu offered. Now that I had a camera I thought it would be a good way to keep track of my favorite photos and also thought it would be fun to see if anyone else looked at them. In the back of my mind I remembered reading something earlier about Zytu adding some photos to its daily slideshows taken from pictures they found on the pages on their site. I didn’t really think about that when I put my pictures on their site. I just barely knew how to use my camera. My photos wouldn’t be picked.

This picture of the cottage was one of the first  that I uploaded to the Zytu site. A few days later I happened to walk by my computer which I had left on my home page. My eyes hit on the zytu slide show just as the photo of the cottage flicked past! I thought I was seeing things. It couldn’t be-  It must have been a photo of another cottage that was similar to the one that I took-  But I waited for the twenty photos to flick by so I could see  this “other” cottage again. There it was! It was no “other,”  it was mine!! I was so excited, I must have watched it flick by a zillion times that afternoon.

Zytu is fun because it keeps track of how many people click on each individual picture. Not only did I never expect to see my photo in their slideshow,  but everytime I think about it, it makes me laugh~  this photo of the cottage made it to their section titled, “Most Viewed Photos”-  It is not only in that section, it is the first photo on the fourth row of the first page of that section, where it has been for the last year and a half! To date, this photo now has 816,889 views!! If someone had told me this was going to happen, I would never in a million years have believed them. Sometimes I wonder what the people who own that cottage would think if they were to be told that 816,889 people from all over the world have seen their home. Do you think they’d believe it?

Anyway, this cottage is also going to have a place on one of my notecards, so if you like it, it might be something to watch for~

This photo was taken at Heather Farms and is one of my favorite photos of Heather Pond. This too will be on a note card,

as will

this

and this, all from Heather Farms. My next post will be a bit about my second series of notecards, Notes From Rabbit Whiskers~

Does this picture look familiar to you? You may already have seen it because it ’s one of the photos that I’ve used in a set of four blank notecards that you can find in the new notecard section of my shop. For the longest time I have wanted to make my own notecards and I’ve finally begun! My love of photography was just the  motivation I needed to ignite the spark and set me off-

And set me off it did!! I spent about two weeks  working until 1,2 &3:00 A.M. putting the notecards together; not because I had to,  there was no great rush. I was having so much fun creating them that I lost all track of time and tightly wound myself into a  sort of,  creative cocoon!  I couldn’t,  (didn’t want to-) stop!

I wanted to group the cards so that they related to each other and could  be hung as a grouping on a wall, if one preferred to use them in that way. The concept being similar I would think,  to the one used in creating an Etsy treasury – (I’ve never tried creating a treasury, but I think this is the concept behind it~)

For the present, I’ve arranged my cards into three different series, each consisting of sets of four different notecards. The first series is called The Language of Flowers and consists obviously, of flower pictures or scenes; like the tulip above, this rose photo is another example of the kinds of pictures you will find in this series, either in sets that are listed now, or sets that will be listed.

When I look at my photographs of flowers, they often look to me as if they are talking, which is the reason for the series being given this title- ( Between you and I, looking at the photo of the rose above, you see the hands cupped around a mouth, as if the rose is whispering some deep dark secret-  don’t you?)

I have only begun listing my sets. There are many, many more made, but not yet listed, so keep checking, because I will add new sets as these sell.

You can find my notecards listed in my website shop or in my etsy shop.  I’m really, really hoping that they will sell so that I’ll be able to continue making them, as I’ve become totally addicted to my camera and to the art of making note cards!  In my next post I ‘ll describe  what the other two series of cards I’ve created contain and show you a few examples of those~   here are a few more previews~       

Pascal and I took our walk downtown yesterday morning. I keep returning to the creek to see if I can capture my lost picture, but it’s finally sinking in~  that aint gonna happen~

Perhaps because he’s a terrier, or maybe it’s just because he’s Pascal, Pascal has always had a very strong mind of his own and a definite opinion about everything. When we walk he decides before we get to the curb, which direction he wants to go and when we get to the curb, he goes in that direction, no matter that I’ve begun in the opposite direction, or that I’ve said, “no Pascal, this way!”- or even that we happen to be right in the middle of a busy intersection! He goes as far as his leash will allow and then braces himself for a tug-of-war with me- So yesterday after starting  our short trip to check the creek, with Pascal braced against me every step of the way, I decided, o.k- I’ll let him have his way today and I’ll follow him.

Leaving the creek I think he was a little stunned to see that I was letting him lead the way. Every few steps I could see him looking back , checking to make sure I was following. With him leading, we took the same route we usually take, up one side of the street, down the other. It was kind of nice not to be in charge and not to be pulling in opposite directions. We started down one of the streets we have walked down so many times. There is a men’s clothing store, a small, interesting-looking brick alleyway and a fancy restaurant across the alley, and Tiffany’s jeweler’s on the corner. As we always do, we walked past the clothing store, across the alley way, and were almost beyond the restaurant when I decided that I had to know what was down that pretty little alleyway we always walked past. Fortunately we had been walking for a while already, so Pascal’s initial excitement at being out walking had waned and he didn’t seem to mind that I was changing our direction.

We started down the alley and I absolutely couldn’t believe my eyes! I had truly found a hidden treasure! And guess what? This time I had my camera with me! The walkway was entirely terra cotta bricks and they were laid out in beautiful circular patterns. Along the left side of the alleyway, adjoined to the restaurant, were several little cafe tables, each with an umbrella in the middle- (it was early morning so the restaurant wasn’t open yet-) On the right side of the alley, opposite the row of tables, the wall was also terra cotta brick, but flat against the wall, from floor to ceiling,  was a beautiful, sculpted metal waterfall! We stopped for a few minutes to look at the water slipping down the metal and then were lured further down the alley. After the initial waterfall there were huge pots filled with lush- green, blooming plants. The photo above is just one of them. Here is another~   Looking at the beautiful plants, I hadn’t realized that the alley had suddenly opened into a large outdoor room the center of which, was raised and totally surrounded by trees. There were more dining tables in this tree-enclosed,  raised-brick, section. The entire area, alley and “room” the alley turned into, were open-air.

The best and biggest, most beautiful surprise of all was at the very end of the alley/room. Across the entire end was a huge pond/pool-  formed from large, dark, rocks. One end of the pool had a large gurgling, gushing waterfall with several lily pads floating at it’s base. There was a mound of boulders piled in the middle of the pool, also surrounded by lily pads and as we approached a large turtle dove off one of the rocks into the water. The other end of the pool had a sculpture of a large metal frog lying on it’s back with water bubbles blowing out of it’s mouth! Best of all, and I was very excited to have my camera, but not so excited with the pictures I took, (we’ll just have to go back! SOON!)——- were too- many- to- count, huge, yellow, orange, and white, koi fish!!

I would never in a million years have dreamed such a treasure lay down this alley.

I guess you just never know what you might find, but if something tweaks your interest even a bit,  I’d say it’s definitely worth exploring~    Oh! And don’t forget to bring your camera!

Last week Pascal and I went for our walk downtown. I almost always bring my camera with me when we walk, but once in awhile the thought of not having to carry my camera, (which is tiny & actually quite easy to carry,) appeals to me and I leave the camera at home. This happened to be one of those “once in awhile times.”  My camera was home, safely hanging from a door knob, and my hands were free to swing as I walked. It felt great!

We were nearing the end of our walk as we approached the overpass where Walnut Creek, as always, was gurgling and rushing on it’s way through town. I noticed someone across the street waving to me and recognized him as Pascal’s friend, the window washer of the shops downtown. “Come over here!” he called, “You have to see this!!”  For the first time that morning, my hands didn’t feel so great to be freely swinging- I shoved them into my pockets and crossed the street to see what the window washer had found.

Not only had he found a treasure to see, he had found a treasure to photograph!! Yes, photograph!! This would have been the shot of a lifetime I thought, looking out at the creek and picturing my camera hanging  from the door knob at home!  Imagine the scene you see pictured above only instead of the goose and goslings swimming above the waterfall, as they are in this scene, they are walking down the steep bank on the left of the overpass, to the water, close to where I was standing. Swimming in the water directly below me on the right was a mother duck and six tiny ducklings. Then, to “crown” the picture, standing above in the center, at the edge of the fall, looking down over his brood that was quickly scrambling downhill to the water, was the gander, his silhouette magnificent against the blue-green backdrop of water stretched out behind him~

I vowed that I would return the next morning with my camera and get that picture, foolishly expecting to find everyone posed in their exact same spots-  The next morning when I returned, the only one there was the creek- minus all geese and ducks. I have returned four times with my camera. The shots pictured here and above are the closest I’ve come to getting THE picture——– and they’re not even close! Sigh~

“B”stands for Bark– and it also stands for “Baaa”~

To Pascal and I the distinction is pretty clear, but you’d be surprised at how many people are surprised when Pascal “Barks” instead of “Baaas”-  Really!

Over the years, we have been asked so many funny questions~ If I could only get Pascal to say “Baaa” when we’re asked, it would be wonderful! I keep working on it, but so far, Pascal’s clinging to his  “Bark;”  loud and proud!

If only-   Here-  just the other day is a wonderful example of how perfect it would have been  had Pascal responded, “Baaa”-

We were driving home, ( Pascal buckled into his seat belt in the front passenger seat,)  and  stopped at a traffic light. My window was open just a crack; just enough for the nearby sound of laughter to slip in and grab my attention. Looking in the direction of the laughter,  I looked up into the truck that was stopped beside me. The woman next to the window was looking directly into my car at Pascal and I could see just the top of the driver’s head as she craned her neck amidst her laughter, to see over her passenger and into my car as well. I smiled, (their laughter making it impossible not to,) and the first woman motioned me to roll down my window . I did, knowing full well what was coming~

“Is that a lamb in the front seat with you?” she asked. They were still laughing, but I could tell they both were serious about their question.  As has happened so many times in the past, all of these deliciously fun answers began competing in my mind………. pick me! pick me! Just as I was about to tell “the big lie,” Pascal decided that he’d answer the question himself~  “Bark! Bark”   That made them laugh all the harder! “We thought you were driving around with a lamb in your front seat!”  The light turned green and we continued on our way,  their laughter echoing in my ears.

I tried once again-  “Pascal, say Baaaa”-  He looked at me-  “Pascal,…… Baaa!”  I looked at him, he looked at me,………

“Bark!”

In my last post I mentioned that I intended to add notecards to my shop. I now want to officially announce that they are here!!! To begin with, I have two series of cards, the first is called The Language Of Flowers and contains sets of 4 blank, white notecards and envelopes, measuring 5.25″x 7.25″. Each card is mounted with a different, glossy, 4″ x 6″ photograph taken by me. Each card in a set is a different card, and each set differs from the other set, so be sure when you look,  to look at all four cards in the set. I have many more sets made up, waiting to be listed, so be sure to keep checking to see what I’ve added- This is the kind of picture you should expect to see in the series, The Language of Flowers~

The second series is called Notes From Rabbit Whiskers. These notecards are basically the same as the first series, except for the subject of the photographs. To anyone who knows the handsmocked, hand-embroidered girl’s dresses that I make, these might seem a bit familiar~  and very unique!

The next series is one that I  haven’t composed yet, but will very soon, so keep looking! This series will have sets with photos of beautiful scenery!

I Love making these cards and can’t seem to stop. I’m very excited for you to see them, so please come and enjoy! They are listed in both my website, and my Etsy shop!!!

So——What do you think, do you like it? Would you like to see more pictures like this, and what do you think these photos would look like on blank white notecards??? Hey—–these could even be framed and hung on the wall—–what do you think??? Thoughts like this have been going through my mind for months now. I had to find out-  to quench my curiousity!

In my last post I wrote that sometime in the near future I planned on adding a note card section to both my website and my etsy shop. And so I am!!!  I have been working on note cards until 1:00 A.M. for the past few weeks and I think I’m finally ready to list them in my shops!

In the past, every time I’ve posted flower photos in my blog people always comment on how much they like them. Now you’ll actually have the opportunity to buy them and own them yourself or give them as gifts to somebody special! Many of the photos are pictures of flowers,  but there will also be  photos of——– well, it’s a surprise! You’ll just have to come see!. I think they turned out great and I’m very excited for you to come see for yourself.

This has been such a fun project. I’ve  loved making the cards!!  (I always knew I would~)  They should be up in my shops in a day or two, so come by and take a look- I think you’ll like what you see-!

I promised a Pascal story for this post, so here he is, quite proud of himself in his new sweater!

Pascal has been alternating back and forth the past two weeks between being absolutely delighted to go out walking, and pouting, to be inside, lying around while I ‘ve been busy working on the dress I finished this past week-end.

He has so many funny quirks; many of them centering around food. Besides the fact that generally, Pascal could care less about food, he has a genetic liver disease called copper toxicosis. This is very serious because it means for dogs that have it, that their livers can’t process copper. If left untreated, the copper builds up in their systems until it becomes fatal. I was so lucky to have caught it in its early stages, and he is fine, but it means that besides having to take a lot of medications, his diet has to be very strict to make sure that he consumes as little copper as possible. To make matters worse, the most essential element in controlling this disease is zinc. Zinc comes in large tablets which I have to crush and mix into his food- but only after first giving him a pepcid a half hr. before – otherwise, the zinc upsets his stomach so much that the minute he swallows it, it all comes back up. Anyway, I mention this only because having to mix zinc into his dinner makes it even more important that he eat. I have to do my best to disguise the zinc-   and it’s been a real challenge. He does well with chicken, so every night he gets cooked chicken with crushed zinc, disguised with chicken gravy and shredded cheese, in a bowl along with his dog food. There are those nights, (few,) where he actually is hungry and will go right up to his dish and eat-  and then there are most nights where I just cross my fingers and hold my breath, hoping that after he runs through his “quirky routine, he will eat. It’s absolutely essential to his life that he have the zinc. We had another one of “those” nights last night, so I thought I’d give you a little glimpse of the quirky routine he puts us both through ~

Pascal and I eat with our backs to each other, his dish being about 6′ away from where I sit at the table. This gives me the advantage of being able to see his reflection in the window.  With Pascal watching, I set my plate on the table, go to his placemat on the floor and put his dish down, saying something like, “Ummm- looks good!”  I get a “ya right!” look in exchange and instead of going to his dish he comes and sits at my feet, staring at me.  I immediately show him the baked potato on my plate which is both my dinner and also my source of bribery. “Go eat your dinner and you can have some potato,” I tell him,  to which he feigns his best blank stare that I’m supposed to interpret as meaning he’s clueless as to what I’m saying. Only I know better! So I start eating my potato, but only after first scooping out a generous portion of the inside to save for after he eats his dinner. Still right next to me, he lies down and stares at his dish, as if carefully weighing the pros and cons of eating his dinner. After mentioning the bribe a few more times, I pretend to ignore him, while at the same time, sending mental telepathy saying, “Go eat, go eat!”  Finally after what seems like forever, but really isn’t more than 5 minutes,  he gets up and walks very slowly towards his dish- but then he stops about 2 feet away and stares at it again- like he’s expecting something to jump out at him. Still watching in the window to see what he’s going to do, I just hold my breath and think, Come on, keep going~  And he does! He actually goes right up to his dish, but he stops again and looks at it. Then I hear him take a bite, followed by a few more. I am so relieved. We’ve made it through another night, I think, and start reading my magazine to the pleasant sound of his slow eating in the background. But a few minutes later, he’s sitting by my side looking up at me as if to say, O.k- I ate! I’m ready for my potato! I look down at him and say, “You’re done? Already? That was awfully fast! He keeps staring at me like he’s very pleased with himself, but I’m on to him-” Let’s go check your dish,” I say. He follows me with his eyes as I walk over to his dish, knowing exactly what I was going to find. “You aren’t finished! All you ate was your chicken. You need to eat the dog food and the cottage cheese, too. You’d better go back and finish if you want your potato! I say, “Here. I’ll fix it for you,” and take a spoon and scrape it into two neat little mounds again. I bring the spoon into the kitchen and when I return he’s happily munching away at the rest of his dinner! I quickly walk past him so as not to disrupt his eating, and return to the table and my magazine.

After several minutes I hear the tag on his collar clinking and he comes running over to me. This time when I look down at him I know he’s finished- he’s wearing the last telltale blob of cottage cheese on top of his nose!  And he knows when he looks up at me and sees me smiling, that I know he’s eaten- we both know we’ve made it one more night. He gets his potato! But wow that was hard work!!

My very favorite thing to do when I’m not making my dresses is one that meets with much more approval from Pascal than when I sew, and that is gardening! I adore gardening and Pascal loves to be my “little helper” by keeping me company while I do the work! I few days ago I went around the side of the house, intending on pulling out the tall array of weeds that had moved in over the winter, and was greeted by these beautiful iris!! There is a huge clump of them over there and for most of the year I forget about them because they’re not in bloom, but when I saw them a few days ago, they were so breath-taking, I had to run back to the house to get my camera!——–Which brings me to one last thing, and that is, I enjoy taking photos so much, especially photos of flowers, and I also love writing. I’ve always dreamed about making cards, and I’ve been seriously thinking about combining my love of flowers, photography and writing, and creating some small, (4 or 5/pack,) gift packs of photographic blank notecards, with perhaps a sentence or two below the photo. So don’t be surprised if one day in the near future you see added to the handmade dresses in my etsy shop, and in my website, a new section of note cards for sale!