I JUST JOINED P.E.P. ON EBAY

Well, I don't know if anyone out there cares, but I just joined P.E.P (Painting Ebay Pretty)...

KEEPING IT ALL TOGETHER

I forgot to show you the cabinet that I keep the whole collection in. Jockie suggested using some of the hankies that I have to fancy up the shelves and I must admit that it DID do the job. You can actually see the scotties now.

This is one of my favorites! I call him Buster. He came to me from Ebay! He is really OLD - what a character. He stands on top of the cabinet and keeps his eye on the rest of the pack to be sure they stay in line!

HEY, have you noticed that when you post this way your first posting ends up at the bottom...sigh...

This cup and saucer made my heart race when I spotted it in a case at a thrift shop! Scottish humor, not always easy to understand, but profound when you "get it".

The little funky brown guy was given to me by my friend Larry. He said he had it when he was a child. I felt quite honored that he would give it to me.

Aren't these adorable? I found them on Ebay. The little one is from Germany. The larger one has a little leather collar.

A few years ago Steve & I went to England and while we were there we celebrated our anniversary - he surprised me with this little guy.

See that little tea pot without a lid? That is all that is left of my childhood tea set. OH how did the other pieces go missing??? Once in a while I think of replacing the set but that's as far as it goes...

Back to the collection...

The fuzzy dog was hand made by a wonderful lady in California named Earleen who I came across on Ebay. She makes miniature one-of-a-kind needle felted sculptures that are amazing! I feel blessed to have won the auction for this little brindled beauty! He even has big ears like our Gus! Anyway...check out Earleen's work at sacredbeararts on Ebay.com.

I'll show you some of the figurines in my collection...some of them I found on Ebay, some in thrift shops and best of all - some were gifts from friends! See that black dog on the far right? One of my friends brought that all the way back from Scotland for me! I was delighted.

I have a few vintage greeting cards with scotties on them...I'm always on the prowl for those!

I never thought I'd be sharing my collection with the world at large, but hey, if you want to see what's in my case, here it is!

I have enjoyed collecting scottie stuff for about 15 years. I put all of the small items in this cabinet to keep it contained! My husband is grateful for that...

The first thing that started my collection was a pillow that I actually made for my mother. I cross stitched a scottie in the middle of it. Years later, when we actually got our very first live scottie, Maggie, Mom gave the pillow back to me. So from then on I have scouted out all kinds of little goodies...stuffed animals, linens, dishes, glasses and of course figurines!

I think my most prized pieces are the orange Goebel salt/pepper shakers that I purchased at an antiques show in Regina, SK just before we moved back to the States.

SHOWCASING MY LITTLE SCOTTIE COLLECTION!

When Jockie was here we spent a bit of time in my workroom. I climbed over a mound of stuff to show her my case with all of my scottie dog collectibles. Then we looked through a ton of hankies that I have and she suggested that I use some of them in the case. After she went home I picked out some of the hankies and tried it.

I LOVE THE RESULT! What do you think???

Now you can really see what's in the case and the hankies compliment the Mary Engelbreit valance that I have at the window. Well, I must say that this little room is shaping up (okay, it's still a mess but I'm getting there)!

THREE DAYS OF RUNNING AROUND

Well, it doesn't get better than the past three days! My friend Jockie flew in from Ontario and we had a blast checking out the local thrift shops. The first day we drove over to Dade City where there are lots of antiques shops and a few antiques malls. We each found a few little goodies. I found an adorable wooden magazine rack for $3.50 that I will paint white and use for my teddy bears and magazines in the guest room!

We ate lunch at a place called "Lunch on Limoges" that's 100 years old! The food was fantastic...the service left a bit to be desired though. It wasn't a relaxed & charming atmosphere. Between the two of us we had a pecan encrusted chicken breast & red potatoes to die for and a turkey, bacon & cheese croissant sandwich with red potato salad. There were also yummy mini muffins and strawberry butter to start off the meal (served on Limoges plates) with our raspberry iced tea. YUM!

The next day we headed down into Tampa. Of the five thrift stores we hit, three of them were having a HALF OFF day. Now that made it all worthwhile!

Yesterday we decided to have a cultural day and drove to St. Pete for the day. We went to the International Museum to view the Vatican exhibit-200 objects. Amazing textiles. Then we took in the Pier and the Fine Arts Museum. We saw wonderful masterpieces for such a small museum...Monet, Renoir, and others. They just opened the new wing...modern and in my opinion it just doesn't blend well with the original wonderful older building, but what do I know? I'm no architect! I just know what I like! The last thing we saw was a shop that sold Croatian reverse painting...very interesting and colorful. After all of that culture, the heat and humidity we stopped into a little cafe and had some gellati (sp?)....YUM!

We hightailed it up 275 and missed the brunt of rush hour. Jockie left today, we both agreed that we had a great time!