I get to chat wif clever peacock lady aka Erica @allthingsdoggy

Ello hope you all hafin luverly weekend

 

 

 

 

 

Fur a few years I has been lookin longingly at da pics me fwends had done by me peacock lady,sowwy I calls her dat cos I see a pic of her once and she was as bootiful as a peacock you knows her as Erica Ratcliffe, the lady behind http://www.allthingsdoggyboutique.com, anyway mum nevfur quite managed to get around getting any of us done until recently and we were so blown away with it I jus had to share it wif you & take da opportunity to ask peacock lady a couple of burnin qweshuns.
I sended da qweshuns to her cos we bof busybees

How long you been painting?

I’ve always drawn and painted and was a hobby from a young age…its how I like to de stress and realax!!
Bella’s notes:
Young age pfffft you not dat ancient now

Wot made you start painting?

I was asked when I had my online doggy shop if I had anything that could be personal for one of my customers to put lots of doggie Christmas pressies in. So I scratched my head and thought “what would be more personal than having the lil cutie patooties face on something”. So I came up with a simple technique of a portrait on to a Santa sack. Great stuff…happy customer!!! My style has developed from there and now I offer portraits on Treat Sacks, canvas bags, cushions as well as canvas art. I love working with such beauties too and each dog is obviously different meaning each commission I work on is always a pleasure.

*starts making notes on fings to be painted on*

Has you painted fings on your walls at home ?

Now this question really did make me laugh as if I had my way I would have frescos adorning all my walls😁 However, I live with my better half who pulls in my reins somewhat to stabilise these urges😂 I did let loose on a small feature wall once *winks*

Oh dats bootiful Bella makes note if peacock lady ever visits make sure there’s blank wall fur her to play wif

I calls you me peacock lady has you painted a peacock?

Oh my yes I love peacocks!!! Such stunning birds with all those fine colours and feathers. Hmmmm no I haven’t yet got creative with peacocks, I will now!!! However, I started a Phoenix piece (ver early stages)which is a bird to me that is quite similar in stunningness. “Peacock Lady” is such a lovely name…Thanks Bella *blows kisses*

 

Omb OMB dats bootiful is it available on postcards or blank cards you really are a clevfur lady
Dus you paint kittys too or jus dogs?

I have had the privilege of painting Kittys too yes and I would quite happily paint any pet and actively welcome new challenges.

 

 

 

I have a commission coming up which I’m excited about…A pet piggie. He is going on a Canvas bag for a little girls birthday pressie. So yep any cute and furries and I’m in!!!

Oh I luvs Piggy’s can you show me wen you has dun it pleaseeeeeeeee

Has you painted your own dogs?

 

I have yes, Boydee became my model for my Santa Sacks and Riz has been on quite a few items too. The only thing I’m needing to do is get them both on a canvas together.

Well I’m glad I asked now cos I been wondering all dat fur a while it was gweat fun intervooin Erica & we luv da painting she’s dun of me & babybruv twas so hard not to pester her evfurryday and say can I see please wot you painted today .

this is the painting  peacocklady did of me & babybruv aka Rossi , dad has put it on a shelf mum cant reach so she not bang nails in wall to put it up

 

The uvfur day mum was printing gwanmas photos for her & gwanma had taken loads of pics of the painting you did of us (mum didn’t print them all fur her) gwanma asked if you haf evfur exhibited your paintings as you haf such a wonderful unique style that truly captures da characters *whispers dat quite a compliment comin from gwanma she goes to London to look at paintings*

if you are on Facebook you can get in touch wif da Peacocklady here https://www.facebook.com/allthingsdoggyboutique

if you are on Twitter she’s here @allthingsdoggy

 

I’ve got to say my bit

Ok so if you know me n I mean really know me you know how sensetif I can be and how it’s taken a while wiv da support of sum gweat fwends to get to da stage where I push the send instead of delete button on tweets, pics n blogs, well dis blog been hanging awound fur a while in different forms and today is the day im pushing publish!

I luvs bein on twitter n haf had gweat fun n met sum gweat fwends sum of which I hopin are gonna be fwends fur life but I has also met sum oddbods n dats fine cos takes all sorts to make da wurld go round n I am not judgemental & we is all on twitter fur different reasons

I do twy n be polite even wen bein cheeky an I rarely swear more than the occasional blinkinbonios of furflyingfurssake n dat has helped me meet n tweet sum gweat tweepals

I’m involved wif a few fings fru twitter n I dus enjoy em n it gifts me sumfink to do wen da weathers so poopy I can’t be out layin in da sun and one of em is agony aunt at www.spanielharry.co.uk although I gets most of da #askbella as dms or private messages on facebook but dats fine as long as I can help it not matter where it is.

There has been few fings goin on wif twitter lately and I feel I wants to speak up a bit sum peeps is leaving through bullying and nasty DMs , now sum of you who are lucky enuf not to have been through this type of bullying will think its easy to just block and report but it’s not that simple.

There seems to be a new sort of bullying on twitter as well as the traditional nasty spiteful bullying there’s emotional bullying going on,now this comes in many forms and I wanna tell you about wot happened wif me to hopefully help others realise they are not alone.

Some of you that have known me since I have been on here know the problems I had with somebody last year, they were new to twitter (allegedly I know now its just what they do) and they wanted to make friends and be involved so I introduced him to some of my friends and we all went out of our way to make him feel welcome. Sometimes I would be tweeting and he would jump in on the tweet and make a comment that I though ouch that was nasty but then he would say he was joking, there were dms why aren’t you tweeting with me you made my mum cry we love you so much and others would get fed up with it but I thought at the time they were a friend, so I would end up tweeting them more than anyone then if I didn’t reply to a tweet quick enough I would be accused of ignoring and he would tweet I’m going nobody’s tweeting wif me or things like that and then we would all say nooo don’t go, it got to the point where I was dreading tweeting as they would jump on every tweet and niggle at me sometimes I felt uncomfortable but thought it was just because he was lonely but then it was happening more and more the end came one day when yet again I was trying to repair a friendship that he had messed up again and I got a very nasty tweet telling me I was his friend and shouldn’t tweet that person that was it I couldn’t take anymore so I blocked and walked away , that took a lot for me and I still worried about how he was and how he was getting on, little did I know he was using it to his advantage to get attention.

 There was lots more to it but this is just so you get the gist of it as I was so caught up in it at the time I didn’t see what was going on as he was saying I love you, you are my twitter sister you help me so much I miss you and was very good at turning it around so that I felt bad, friends used to tell me to get away from him that he was toxic but I really thought I was being a friend.

When I eventually spoke up it turned out it had been happening with a few others too and he would constantly close his account and reopen it and say people were being nasty to him but it was him being manipulative and trying to get attention.

My friends helped me get through it and gradually built my confidence up again , I’m still wary when I meet new tweeters as you never really know whats going on behind the screen we all tweet for different reasons I am fortunate that I know who my real friends are and I know I can turn to them and they can come to me I don’t like seeing people having to close their accounts and leave because of somebody else.

 

Sumone I spoke to at da time who also went fru it said “dont let it put you off tweeting with new tweeters.  We all know what it is like to be new and to try and make friends.  Just tweet as normal and if you think that something isn’t adding up or not sounding right dm a few of your friends to see what they think.  I don’t want what happened to my friend put anyone off tweeting with someone new as they won’t all be like that”

Dis a quote from anuvfur fwend “I luvs twitter and got many good friends but don’t like it wen a friend gets a bit possessive  if I tweeting and don’t get to tweet with dem every time I pop in. I come on twitter to have fun and chat mostly about silly fings like mum being mean or not getting de treats I fink I deserve.It’s fun on twitter but not wen I’m frightened to tweet who I want to in case I get de dreaded DM saying “Aren’t you my friend any more cos you tweeting others more dan me” why can’t everyone just be niceSum of us dus haf uvfur fings to do away fwom twitter so please don’t give us a hard time fur not being awound or if we don’t get straight back to you.”

Twitter is meant to be fun but lately I been finkin blimey if its dis stressful fur us dogs wot must it be like fur hoomans

Sumtimes peeps send messages sayin why you  ignoring me, I pawsunally don’t ignore tweets and I don’t fink any of my fwends do but I do know tweets get lost sumtimes and the more you follow or follow you it’s hard to try n keep up so if you tweeted Sumone n see em tweetin n they not replied jus DM em if it was urgent sayin did you see my tweet earlier, tis bit better than accusing Sumone of ignoring you, da uvfur day I was waitin fur a reply from my fwend and it hadn’t shown up but wen I looked at her tl there it was she had replied and anuvfur time she hadn’t replied cos she had got called away, we don’t always say goodbye or like to announce we are going out that’s the fun of twitter you pop on and off wen you can .

Unuvfer fing dat causes unrest is if fwends fall out, dats it THEY has fallen out. Fallen out wif each uvfur  doesn’t mean evryone else gotta fallout or take sides . Jus cos jack don’t tweet wif Jill don’t mean you gotta be friends wif one or the other if you has an opinion on it or wanna support em do it via DM not on tl so many peeps get hurt n peeps not directly involved get upset n are so worried about tweeting wif either of em they don’t tweet.

Dats it I’ve said my peace, if you wondering why I’m speaking out about these fings its cos as #askbella I get to hear all sorts from all sides and at moment I am getting messages about peeps worrying wots goin on  .

Ohhhhh and take photo of the dms if you start to get nasties.

I am glad I stayed cos so many gweat fings has happened ovfur da year so lets end on a happy note haf you seen dis munfs cartoon and I am off to go test sum vewy yummy tweats fur squiggle and do some more woofstockuk bits

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im gonna do a follow up to dis so if you has anyfink you wanna add or wanna share your experiences get in touch wif me

What Twitter means to me

 

I am not allowed to enter Harry’s competishun as his unofficial PA, it wouldn’t be unfair to put him in an awkward position and if I was the only person who entered I and won then it would be called a fix.

I hope a lot of people enter Harry’s comp as not a lot realise how much time and effort he puts in trying to help others all the time, some thought his mugs were a novelty item but a portion from each mug goes to charity and this comp will end up costing him money if nobody enters and knowing hawwy he will probably still donate to charity ,so I’m going to write wot twitter means to me anyway.

 

Twitter means so much to me its hard to put it into words but sometimes I wish I could really step into twitter and be running awound wif da fwends I haf made and da family I has gained.

Wen I first started on twitter last November I wasn’t sure if it was for me but I met some gweat fwends  some of whom I’m proud to say are still friends and some thank dog aren’t friends anymore, sadly some haf gone OTRB.

When I met squiggle and hawwy lickle did I know I would end up wurkin wif them and hafin two of da bestest fwends I cud evfur wish for.

I haf got sum Luvly fwends sum I tweet wif evfurryday and sum I tweet to occasionally and sum I know even thou we not tweet vewy often they wud be there if I needed them.

Recently one of our twitter pals died suddenly and it upset so many of us so much but if you tried to explain to someone not on twitter you were heartbroken over the death of a dog you had never met they would think you were mad , but as a friend said to me recently its real life but its not real life, its alternative wurld we haf created for ourselves and we escape into .

We have our own twitter friendships and families and we have our ups and downs and sometimes some numpties will come along and try to cause problems and that’s not nice but what it has done is show us who our real friends are and who we can rely on .

 

So I would like to say thank you to my followers old and new thank you for following me and tweeting wif me , sum still don’t believe I’m shy but I am until I get to know sumone an after fings dat happened here in d dat wif numpties I’m sumtimes bit wary.

To my speshul fwends and you know who you are fankyou for always being there for me and encouraging me in every fink I do , I luvs you vewy much and am grateful fur each day you are in my life .

 

Twitter has made me more aware of things like the moon bears ,(thankyou hawwy) dog meat trade (thankyou hawwy) animal cruelty (thankyou Alfie & alfies army) DDA and gweat work they do (fanks mookie) and how hard rescue centers work for every single animal and try to do all they can for them how individuals like kris at aniaid will do everything they can to help a dog or cat they have just come across , how someone like nightowls mum will invent something wonderful like the staffyknit to keep us all warm there’s so much more I cud write and fings I cud menshun like how gweat Charlie& dereks mum was in creating a bacon tweat after I kept nagging and how Samantha at waggy campers made me  a pink alfies law banana and how pooch & co give gweat advice on food,  I haf so much more I cud say about what twitter means to me but I as an appointment wif Sumone to intervoo for da blog and if I not get it done Squiggle be chasin my tail and Hawwy needs a new poster for da comp cos he has extended the closing date so please check out www.spanielharry.co.uk for competition details

The story of Bellissimo Bella

The story of Bellissimo Bella.

My blog been hijacked! I been intervood.

Dis was an intervoo me n my bestest fwend squiggle did do

Spaniel Harry

Bella;  Arrrrooooowww dis is Bella n Squiggle, we is hijacking Hawwys blog

Squiggle;   We not hijackin we makin speshul guest appearance, hallo Hawwy how is you today ?

Hi Bellisimo Bella Hi Squiggle I doin grrrrreat fanks. I so honoured dat two of me bestest fwiends has decided to intervoo me. Makes a change bein in de intervoooeee seat quite comfy actually. Coulds get used to dis!

Bella:  Oi I fort I waz doin opener, wot happen to respectin your elders .

Squiggle:  YEAH you right grey chops you waz doin first queshun, but you can do second cos I iz your life coach so best I lead

Bella:  What made yoo write your first book Hawwy ?

Squiggle :  Dats boring Bells, What your favourite toy?

Bella:  Like that’s a queshun , you jus wants him to say sumfink he gots fwom your Kind4k9 shop, oh by the way…

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