World Diabetes Day

November 14th

Mark your calander. Why? Because it's...

World Diabetes Day

So we thought this would be a great opportunity to combine a cause we are passionate about with pets we love.

Please watch this video we found. It's about special dogs who do amazing things for people with diabetes.

Diabetes awareness and education is important. Help us recognize this important day of the year. Wear blue, or put a special status on your Facebook page, or support the Diabetic Youth Foundation (www.dyf.org) or some other diabetes non-profit group. Whatever you choose to do, don't let silence or indifference be your decision.

On behalf of our family members and friends with diabetese, we thank you for your support.

Drum Roll Please....

The winners are in for this year's Halloween goodie bag drawing. Thank you to all of our amazing fans! Congratulations to:

*Brie Poirier
*Malana Monson
*Cassie Cass

We appreciate you participating :) We will be in contact for your mailing information and hope that you enjoy them. If you'd like to take a photo upon receipt we'd love to share.
It's not too late to order your own bag for this season. Just go here

Halloween Candy Bag - Bruno Dog from Zazzle.com

Halloween Candy Bag

It's halloween night. You're all set. The kids are all dressed up in their costume, their faces are painted, they have their flashlights, they're ready to go. But wait! They have nothing to put their candy in. You forgot to get candy bags! Oh no!!

Don't let this happen to you. Fortunately Peticular Fashions has the perfect bags. Made from 100% cotton and strong handles with reinforced stitching, these bags are a great value. And best of all, we're giving away two for free.

Just comment here on this blog or on our Facebook page to be entered for a chance to win. Winners will be announced Friday, October 10th.

Don't miss out on these cute Halloween gift bags and trick-or-treat in style.

Deojee Trick or Treat Candy Bag from Zazzle.com

Rule of thumb: 1 people year equals 7 dog years - not that accurate

You've heard it time and time again; for a dog, each calendar year that goes by is like seven years for the dog. So if your dog just celebrated his 2nd birthday, he is the equivlent of 14 years old in dog years.

It turns out, this rule of thumb is not accurate at all. It doesn't account for several important factors such as the breed of the dog, it's size, and it's weight. For example, the larger the dog the faster it ages.

However, taking all those factors into account you can still come up with a more accurate rule of thumb. Generally speaking a one year old dog is about 15 years old. After two years it has aged about another 8 years and for every year after that it ages about 4 years. The larger the dog, the faster it ages. Of course, diet and excercise are important factors as well as to how long a dog will live.

Speaking of age. Any idea what the record is for the oldest dog to ever live? Give up? According to the Guiness Book of World Records honor belongs to an Australian Cattle Dog name Bluey. He died in 1929 at the ripe old age of 29 and 5 months. That would have made him around 140 years old.

Here's a graph that can may help you visualize the different aging rates:

A-MAZE-ing fun for all the kids

Here is a maze for you to solve. Print it out and help Ginger get a drink of water. Enjoy!

A puzzle for kids

The school year has started. In celebration of that here is a puzzle you can print out and solve. Good luck.

Learning to read? Read to your pet

A few weeks ago I was reading an article somewhere that talked about an interesting way to help your child learn to read:

Have him or her read to your pet.

How does this help? There's no pressure. The dog (or cat or whatever) won't correct your child, won't say he or she is reading too slow or mispronouncing words, and won't judge. If anything the pet will appreciate the attention. With the pressure gone your child is free to read at his or her own pace. If encouraged to read for half an hour a day you should see an improvement in their reading ability after a couple weeks.

Give it a try. Set your child down with your pet and an age appropriate book for a few days and let us know if it works.

Who knows, your pet might even begin reading to you!

Postage Stamp & Business Card Zazzle Sale!

Great deals today at zazzle for postage stamps and busniess cards!

Postage code:JULYPOSTDEAL

Business Card code:BIZCARDS5010

Coming Soon - Kids Zone & Bookmarks

We have been busy working on modifying our main website page. One of the exciting changes will be introducing our kid zone area. This area will include coloring pages as well as some fun contests for kids of all ages.

In addtion we will be posting new products on zazzle next week. What are they....the bookmarks we are giving to 77 lucky participants at the ESPY awards. As the new school year is approaching these make great gifts for both students and teachers.

Hope you are enjoying your summer!

Animal Goes Scuba Diving?!?

Who says your animal can't do everything you do? Today I learned there is one less frontier awaiting exploration by our canine (and feline) friends. Which frontier is that? The ocean depths.

Yep, that's right. I'd thought I'd seen it all; dogs that surf, pets that skateboard, squirrels that waterski. Now you can suit your dog or cat up in scuba gear and have them tag along as you dive under the ocean's surface and explore the world below.

That gives a whole new meaning to dogfish and catfish.

http://animal.discovery.com/videos/most-outrageous-scuba-diving-pets.html

Pet Emergency Plan

I often get updates from Dr. Mercola for our own families personal use. Recently I learned he has a "Healthy Pets" info page. His topic shared today was:

Why You Need a Pet Emergency Plan
Here is a wonderful checklist
1. Locate the emergency clinic you will use
2. Pay a visit to the emergency facility
3. Decide how you'll handle payment for emergency services
4. Find out about any special procedures the clinic requires you to follow
5. Create an emergency file for your pet

You can watch the video and get more details by going here
http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2010/06/23/why-you-need-a-pet-emergency-plan-now.aspx?aid=CD945

How to Follow PeticularFashions

Did you know that we not only have this blog to watch our updates on BUT we also have:

Zazzle Store ~ http://www.zazzle.com/peticularfashions*
Here you can find a variety of products with our fabulous characters. You will find ties, stickers, postage, mugs, postcards and even a skateboard. If you don't find a pet you are looking for you can send us an email and we will put it on the wish list.

Our pet store ~ http://www.peticularfashions.com
This is mainly for your loved one. We currently offer products for dogs. Soon we will have a wider variety for many different pets. Let us know if you have any particular items you wished we carried and we will gladly see if we can make it happen.

Facebook ~ Peticular Fashions
We are getting excited as we are almost to our 300 followers. As soon as we get there one of our loyal fans will win a PeticularFashions gift basket made especially for their loved one.

How to Spice up Your Princess

I know one of my favorite things to do is have a nice relaxing day at the spa. Why not treat your pup like a princess for a day??? A nice bath, a pawdicure maybe even a haircut before a soft brushing.

A simple accessory can turn your little princess into a:

~Sweet Looking Puppy ~ A Puppy that has Style ~

~Someone you love with who loves to be Sassy ~ OR even HiP pup
Go to http://www.peticularfashions.com/ and order yours today.

Sully's Diabetes Question of the Day: 3/31/2010

Received by our friend Marla:
What are the early warning signs of diabetes?

• Frequent trips to the bathroom:Urination becomes more frequent when there is too much glucose in the blood. If insulin is nonexistent or ineffective, the kidneys can't filter glucose back to the blood. They become overwhelmed and try to draw extra water out of the blood to dilute the glucose. This keeps your bladder full and it keeps you running to the bathroom.Unquenchable
• Thirst:If it feels like you can't get enough water and you're drinking much more than usual, it could be a sign of diabetes, especially if it seems to go hand in hand with frequent urination. If your body is pulling extra water out of your blood and you're running to the bathroom more, you will become dehydrated and feel the need to drink more to replace the water that you are losing.
• Losing Weight Without Trying:This symptom is more noticeable with Type 1 diabetes. In Type 1, the pancreas stops making insulin, possibly due to a viral attack on pancreas cells or because an autoimmune response makes the body attack the insulin producing cells. The body desperately looks for an energy source because the cells aren't getting glucose. It starts to break down muscle tissue and fat for energy. Type 2 happens gradually with increasing insulin resistance so weight loss is not as noticeable.
• Weakness and Fatigue:It's that bad boy glucose again. Glucose from the food we eat travels into the bloodstream where insulin is supposed to help it transition into the cells of our body. The cells use it to produce the energy we need to live. When the insulin isn't there or if the cells don't react to it anymore, then the glucose stays outside the cells in the bloodstream. The cells become energy starved and you feel tired and run down.
• Tingling or Numbness in Your Hands, Legs or Feet:This symptom is called neuropathy. It occurs gradually over time as consistently high glucose in the blood damages the nervous system, particularly in the extremities. Type 2 diabetes is a gradual onset, and people are often not aware that they have it. Therefore, blood sugar might have been high for more than a few years before a diagnosis is made. Nerve damage can creep up without our knowledge. Neuropathy can very often improve when tighter blood glucose control is achieved.
• Other Signs and Symptoms That Can Occur:Blurred vision, skin that is dry or itchy, frequent infections or cuts and bruises that take a long time to heal are also signs that something is amiss. Again, when these signs are associated with diabetes, they are the result of high glucose levels in the body. If you notice any of the above signs, schedule an appointment with your doctor. He or she will be able to tell you if you have reason to be concerned about a diagnosis of diabetes.

Don't forget to support our friends at http://www.firstgiving.com/tylerchilcote

References used ~ http://diabetes.about.com

Introducing our Diabetes Dog Sully

Over the next month I am going to share a lot of information about diabetes. I would like to introduce our friend Sully who is here to help us with that mission.

As some of you know I have three children, two of them (age 10 and 3) have been diagnosed with the diabetes label. All three however are affected by this disease. Diabetes doesn't just affect the individual living with the disease but the entire family when you are diagnosed as a child.

So WHAT is diabetes??

Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a general term for a variety of different metabolic disorders that affect the ability of the body to process and use sugar properly. Medically, this is referred to as an inability of the body to metabolize glucose effectively. This results in an abnormally high level of glucose in the blood, called hyperglycemia.

There are three most common forms of diabetes. I am going to be focusing on Type 1 Diabetes since that is what our family is mainly familar with.

• Type 1: It occurs when the human body's autoimmune system does not produce enough insulin to combat the foreign bodies entering the bloodstream. It is caused by genetic and environmental factors. Formerly known as juvenile diabetes, this type often begins to make its appearance in pre-adolescence or adolescent growth. It is an insulin dependent autoimmune disease in which the body destroys its own beta cells. It accounts for 10% of all diabetes types.
• Type 2: Also called adult onset or non-insulin dependent diabetes and is less serious of the two. It starts occurring when most of the muscles and other organs of the body stop utilizing insulin to breakdown sugar. It is caused by obesity and environmental factors.
• Gestational Diabetes: This occurs during a woman’s pregnancy, the mother has difficulty digesting carbohydrates. Though its a temporary condition which mostly disappears after the pregnancy, the fetus has high chances of having Type 1 diabetes later on. It affects 2 to 3 % of the diabetic population. But, the kids born to diabetic parents have 20 to 25 % chances of having diabetes later-on in life.

So why am I going to do this...My son Tyler has taken on a BIG job to help with an event our family is now involved with called the Families in The Forest Walk FUNdraiser. His mission is to not only make awareness of what diabetes really is but to also help keep an amazing organization around for another 50 years. So stayed tuned to find out more about diabetes and the Diabetic Youth Foundation.

http://www.firstgiving.com/tylerchilcote

Information found on www.diabitieslife.com and "A First Book For Understanding Diabetes" by Eli Lilly and Company

Dog of the Month: February 2010 Daphne

This month's dog is named Daphne. We are not sure of her breed, and we have to guess at her age, but she is spotted and lovable the most perfect dog in the world! Do you have a rescued pup like Daphne?
Our family has always enjoyed taking trips to our local SPCA or shelter when the time comes to add a new member to our family. I still remember the first dog my husband and I got together. His name was Clyde and boy was he a unique pup. We saw him when he was still on observation and my husband insisted we were the first ones at the shelter the day he was available for adoption. He was basset hound/sharpee mix and was honestly an awesome dog! People say he was blessed that we found him, but honestly I think we were blessed more by him.
There are thousands of animals waiting to find a home to go to. Next time you are ready to add an addtion to your family I highly recommend you check out your local animal shelter.

Daphne the Adopted Dog Magnets from Zazzle.com

Six Month Celebration!

Become the 350th fan on facebook Peticular Fashions and your little companion will win a prize. This month is our sixth month doing business and we just want to say thank you for the support!

Baby It's Cold Outside

Maltese Magnet by PeticularFashions
Create a refrigerator magnet at Zazzle

">Female Maltese

January 2010 Dog of the Month

Maltese by PeticularFashions
Design personalized stamps on zazzle

'>Maltese Stamp from Zazzle.com

Maltese ~ They come from the island of Malta, located in the Mediterranean Sea. They are the most ancient of toy breeds, having been a great favorite lapdog of women in Greece & Rome. Aristotle wrote about the Maltese in 350 B.C. Maltese were once much larger and they were used as rodent hunting dogs in the woods and marsh lands. The glamorous Maltese is an adored pet and sought-after show dog. Preferably the dogs should weigh between four and six pounds. Their coat is all white, long, straight and silky. If not trimmed their hair will drag on the ground while they walk. The Maltese is smart, affectionate and much like a Toy Spaniel. Maltese pets have a lovely stable, out going and sound temperament. Their training must not be harsh in nature and they should be trained with gentle, love consistency, reward and patience. They will not do well in hot climates or damp conditions. Maltese are bold and quick to sound the alarm in case of suspicious noises. These will do well with other animals and love to play outdoors and sometimes can be picky eaters.