Puppy Profile - Winslow

Name: Winslow
Nicknames: Wingding, Windex, Dubby, Uno, Professor
Birthday: April 2011
Breed: Wirehair Dachshund

Picking up Winslow in Winslow, Arkansas

Puppy Winslow

As you can see from the photo above, we traveled to Arkansas to get the latest addition to our family. It was interesting when we tried to introduce him to the other kiddos. Myra, our other dachshund, has ALWAYS been the boss and doesn't seem to play well with other dogs (besides Harsh). So the first week was a headache because we thought she was going to eat him alive. Luckily, she eventually figured out he wasn't going anywhere and she eased up.

Giving his usual attitude 

Most current picture of Wingding

As you can see, Winslow is quite the clown. The beard and moustache are why we refer to him as "Professor". He looks like such an old soul. I also feel the need to explain his nickname "Uno". If you've read the other two puppy profiles of Myra and Harsh, you'll notice that we tend to favor pups that have medical conditions. Winslow is lacking in the testicular area. When we first got him, everything was normal down there, but about a month ago one of his little buddies decided to play hide-and-go-seek. :( The vet said it is normal, it will just cost more when he go get him fixed.

Such a rebel

Likes: Squeaking squeaky toys like a mad man, barking, licking & biting our toes (and everything else), picking on his big sister (Myra), and eating ice cubes. 

Dislikes: Sitting still, closed doors, being short, sharing toys, and strangers. 

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Fingernails with Facial Hair

Okay. I'm slightly embarrassed to share this fiasco of a paint job with you, but I've decided to share all of my adventures including the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Today I have an attempt at a fun french manicure with some moustache decals. I ordered these decals from My Crazy Worlds' Etsy shop. 40 decals for $3.50, and shipping is free! (And you can pick colors other than black)

As I mentioned, I'm not terribly happy with the results. I was in a hurry to do this, so I didn't use any sort of base coat. I should have used something like a light pink. Instead I just used my Sally Hansen French Manicure Pen on top of my bare nails. Then I placed the decals on my thumb & index finger with tweezers. Then I applied a clear, fast-dry topcoat. From far away, it was cute. But up close my cuticles are gross and dry, and the top coat started peeling the next day (probably because it had nothing to stick to).

This pen is handy for quick french manicures, but it is difficult to make straight lines even with your dominant hand. It looks much nicer if you use tape to make clean lines, in my opinion. 

My decals and the business card that came with it. 

I still have lots of decals left, so I plan to play around with these some more. I promise to do a better job next time! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

-Dixie

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Puppy Profile - Harsh

Name: Harsh
Nicknames: Henry, Herschel Walker Texas Ranger, Bubba, Hillary (when he's acting like a pansy)
Birthday: January 2005
Breed: Mutt (possibly a mix between something resembling a bull terrier/pit bull/basset hound?)

Here is Harsh as a young pup.

All grown up with his signature floppy ear.

Bad quality photo, but such a goofy shot!

I LOVE this one. I know he looks so vicious, but he is far from it.

And his most recent mug shot. Such a handsome man-dog.

Harsh is such a great dog. We have never officially trained him to do any tricks, but somehow he knows how to sit, lay down, and come. He is the most obedient out of our 3 dogs.

Sadly, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer back in June 2011. The prognosis was not good because the cancer is incurable. The specialist said that they could operate, but it would just be to de-bulk the tumor, not remove it entirely. She also recommended chemotherapy. All of that treatment combined would have cost us easily over $2000. It wouldn't save his life, and since it involved surgery and chemo, he would likely be made MORE uncomfortable. We couldn't imagine putting him through that mess. 

So we chose not to. The specialist offered an alternative to the above treatments. She said rather than doing nothing at all, we could always try to keep him on a regular anti-inflammatory medication. So that is what we have done... for the past 7 months! And he seems to be doing great. It was difficult for the vet to give us a time frame for his life expectancy, but he has far surpassed any expectations that any of us had and we are so grateful for that. 

On a happier note, below are some of Harsh's likes and dislikes. :)

Likes: Burt's Bees Lip Balm, laser pointers, tennis balls, pretending he is a lap dog, being the noisiest water-drinker, and giving kisses & hugs.  

Dislikes: Baths (all of our dogs hate them, but he hates them most), flies, the doorbell, weed eaters on the other side of the fence, and car rides.

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Photo Shoot!

I love me. So here are a bunch of photos of myself to honor my love for me.

Juuuust kidding. Kinda. Really, Micah mentioned that he has had the same photo of me in his office for a long time... probably 4 years or more. And I also haven't had any decent photos of myself since I got my braces taken off back in November. So we had a little fun on Saturday, and after nearly 300 photos, I think he found one he's not embarrassed to put in his office. :-P

I think the above photo is the one going in his frame...

Thanks for admiring my face. ;)

-Dixie

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Zoya - Phoebe

Sup Dudes?

I have a post today about a new nail polish that I acquired from ULTA (on sale!). It is Zoya's Phoebe. I first discovered this pretty little thing via one of my favorite nail blogs (Visit it at LetThemHavePolish.com). Please don't compare my blog with hers, she is REALLY good at nail polish. :)

Phoebe is different and awesome because it dries to a matte finish. Here are a couple of pictures of Phoebe on my nails (all photos are clickable to make them bigger).

I'm not all that great at photographing nail polish, so it took a lot of shots to get these two pictures. I'll work on improving that. Anyway, the first photo is just in regular lighting and the second is a close-up with the flash on. You can see the shimmer in the polish, and you can also see the matte finish.

This look is 3 coats of Zoya Phoebe on top of a clear base coat. I was really happy with how this looked!  So pretty.

The first two coats were all streaky and disappointing, but I decided to keep going because I had seen this polish on the aforementioned blog and knew it was capable of being pretty. Surprisingly, the third coat finished things off nicely. And if you aren't familiar with matte nail polishes, they are great because they dry super fast. No top coat required... because it will make the matte polish non-matte. :)

The major downside to the couple of matte polishes that I've tried: they seem to chip easily. This manicure only lasted me about half a day, if that, before chipping so much that I felt like I needed to take it off. 

Aside from the chipping, I really liked this nail polish. I managed to get its lime green buddy (Zoya - Mitzi) the same day. When I try it out, I'll let you know.

Thanks for reading! 

-Dixie

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January Birchbox

Hello All!

I've decided to do a quick review/ informational post about this month's Birchbox. If you're not familiar with what a Birchbox is, visit the website and click the "Learn More" button. In a nutshell, when you subscribe you receive four to five hand-picked deluxe samples for $10 per month. This is my first box, but I've read reviews about previous boxes on other blogs, and I was excited to get my first!

So quickly, some pictures of my box, and then I'll give some details:

Zoya Nail Polish in Megan

Miracle Skin Transformer Treat & Conceal

VMV Hypoallergenics Re-Everything: Eye Serum

So I was REALLY excited to see a bottle of nail polish in this box! My obsession with nail polish started when I was 10 or so. I had a HUGE collection of every color imaginable and I was always painting fun designs on my friends' nails. At some point I lost a lot of my collection, but I've recently been rebuilding that collection. You'll likely see a lot on here about nail polish. :-P

Zoya is a great brand of nail polish. I don't own very many of this brand, but those that I do own have a great formula. This particular color (Megan) is not my favorite, but I have it on my nails right now and I can tolerate it. 

I'm not going to be very good at reviewing the Miracle Skin Transformer Treat & Conceal because I am not a fan of concealer, but I do like the idea of a multifunctional product. I applied some on my hand when I first opened the box, and it seemed to conceal a freckle quite well, so yay?!

I was pleasantly surprised with the VMV Hypoallergenics Re-Everything: Eye Serum. Maybe it seems crazy, but I like using anti-aging skin care products. Being 25, I don't have a lot of wrinkles, but PREVENTION IS KEY! This eye serum seems nice. I've only been using it for about a week, so I can't say much about its claim to brighten and revive the under eye area. But it also claims to have "instant, temporary tightening" capabilities, and I can verify that is does seem to do that. Cool? Cool.

Juicy Couture Juicy Couture

I already own Juicy Couture's Viva La Juicy and I love it, so I was excited to get a sample of the Juicy Couture scent. It is described as "a blend of sweet floral notes." Basically, in comparison to the other scent I own, it just seems more grown-up. Sophisticated, maybe? I like it, though. I might eventually get a bigger size.

'wichcraft Granola

And then some granola. Haven't tasted it yet because I thought it would be good with some yogurt, which I don't have at the moment. If you're dying to know how it tastes, buy some! It's only $8.

Okay. That's everything! Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with my first Birchbox. I definitely look forward to my next one. I have stumbled upon multiple other websites that offer similar products, and I am very tempted to try them out. I'll let you know if I do. :)

So let me know what you think. Would you be interested in trying out Birchbox? Maybe not? 

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Puppy Profile - Myra

Inspired by one of my favorite bloggers, Amanda. Please give her blog a visit at indiejanephotography.com!

I'm slightly obsessed with my pets. They are my children with fur. Furbabies.

This post is a profile of my cute little doggy, Myra.

Name: Myra Louise
Nicknames: Myra Pants, MeMe, Boogers, Princess, Pookie, MooMaLou, etc.
Birthday: May 2005
Breed: Longhair Dachshund

The day I got to meet Little Miss. She was about 8 weeks old here. :)

Myra was given to me by a good friend's girlfriend. I was told that she was the runt of the litter, and also the oddball. Apparently both of her parents are full-size, shorthair dachshunds. Myra turned out to have long hair, and was closer to the size of a miniature dachshund.

Around 4 years of age, Myra was diagnosed with intervertebral disc disease. This is a very common issue in the dachshund breed. All it means is that the discs that cushion her vertebrae are prone to becoming calcified. Eventually, one of her calcified discs ruptured and put too much pressure on her spinal cord. She was paralyzed in her hind end and loss all function of her legs, tail, bladder, etc. Luckily we caught it at just the right time and were able to proceed with the only treatment that could help: surgery. Some people think we are crazy for spending so much money to save our dog, but I couldn't imagine not doing it.

After her surgery, she was still paralyzed for a couple of weeks, but she slowly began to improve. The improvement was amazing! I was so emotional through it all, but Myra was SUCH a trooper. I think she recovered so quickly because she was always in such good spirits. She never seemed to let her "disability" get her down. After much hard work and improvised physical therapy on my part, she started moving her legs. She built up strength in her hind legs, and before we knew it, she was walking again. Now, a little over a year and half after her surgery, I would say she is probably at 90-95% of where she was prior to the whole thing. :)

Likes: Cuddling, burrowing under blankets, playing in the rain, sprinkler, snow, etc..., sunbathing, chasing birds & frogs, and eating raw spaghetti noodles.
Dislikes: Her annoying little brother, Winslow (profile on him later), baths, blow dryers, thunderstorms, and cats.

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Introduction

Hello!

If you've read the "about me" on my profile, then you'll know I have a variety of interests (dentistry, nail polish, coffee, dachshunds, etc.). I attempted to have a blog on tumblr focusing specifically on my life as a dental hygienist, but after several posts I realized that I have so many other interests that I would like to write about. This blog is my attempt to incorporate all of those things together. My blog is inspired by all of the great blogs that I follow. I don't claim to be a professional blogger, so I will definitely be borrowing ideas for posts from other bloggers (and of course I will give them credit). If you find my posts interesting... great! Follow my blog. If you find them lame and boring... then don't read them! :) I won't be offended, I promise. (Okay, maybe a little, but I won't cry.)

Thanks for stopping by!

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