In December 2006 my daughters were about to relocate to a different state; so in their belief that I would be alone and needed a companion, one cold winter night just before they were about to leave, I opened the door to my youngest daughter with a bundle hidden beneath her hooded sweatshirt... I said to her, "that had better not be a puppy," but alas as she slowly unzipped the sweatshirt, out peering at me were the little crystal clear, marblelike, chestnut brown eyes and a tiny chocolate nose. The tiny marble eyes immediately said, "I'm yours!" ... as my daughter continued to unzip the shirt, there shivering in the cold winter's night was a tiny 1-1/2 pound puppy. Although I was taken aback , I was also immediately smitten by this itty-bitty ball of shivering fur. I took him and wrapped him in a small blanket (one I'd crocheted sometime in the past}, and that became his "go to blanky." After days of searching the stores I was unsuccessful in finding doggy clothing to fit such a tiny dog, so I took the arm of a child's long-sleeved shirt, cut it and added a slit on either side and Voila!!, this was he beginning of my "small dog shirts." After receiving many compliments and requests about where I found the tiny turtleneck sweaters for my "Charlie", I decided to start making them from my stockpile of fabric, sweatshirts and huge supply of stored yarns. One day during a Skype session with my eldest daughter, she suggested I should try to sell the sweaters on Etsy (my first time hearing of the site)... It took about a year or so (maybe more), but after I had a large supply of tiny sweaters that Charlie had outgrown, I decided to take the leap and within a few weeks the Nic-Nac Paddwack Etsy Shop was started; at that time it only showed items exclusive for "...your small dog... ."

Since then both daughters have had baby girls and, of course, I started crocheting and sewing for those little ones, and added items for little girls to the shop.

Also, being one who loves to crochet during my quiet, meditative periods, I would make hats, scarves, shrugs, jewelry, etc. and wear them to work, shopping, everywhere; these requests prompted me to also added such items to my Etsy site. Well, in a nutshell that's my story... and I'm sticking to it :-).