Pillow Pet

It's only taken me a couple of days with the dog to realize that she's not a fan of sleeping on the floor. We've decided to have a "no dog on sofas/beds" policy here though, so in between lots of "down" and "no," she's been getting cuddly on the sheepskin rug in our bedroom.

Since we're now Rudy's official new family (yay!!), I wanted to set her up with a proper bed that she could snuggle into and make her own, so I browsed Petsmart and Petco and Target, but didn't really see anything I would be happy to add to our home decor, didn't have the time to browse the smaller pet shops, and didn't have the patience to order something online. So of course I wondered (as those who know me well would expect) how hard could it be to make my own dog bed?

I thought about using foam or stuffing, but decided that pillows would probably be easier and not much more expensive, so I picked up two extra firm pillows on sale at Target for $5 a pop.

Then I overlapped them slightly and sewed the edges together:

...and stitched them together in the middle for extra strength:

To fill in the the extra space between the pillows I rolled up two hand towels:

...and then to protect the pillows from any doggy mess that might occur, I wrapped it all up in a waterproof mattress cover left over from when we needed to cover the kids' beds at night. I secured the edges with a few safety pins for now, but might add buttons later to make sure my pooch doesn't get an accidental pinch if one of these opens up.

Now that the insert was done, I moved on to the cover. I had two brown faux fur throw blankets left over from the kids' old room decor that were gathering dust in our linen closet, and when I laid one out under the pillows it was a perfect fit. I folded it in half inside out and sewed it closed up one long side and across one end, leaving the other short end open to insert the big pillow pile. After much deliberating I left that short end open and just folded and tucked the extra blanket material inside so I can easily remove the cover for washing.

I think it's a hit!

Hershey Kisses

Our first weekend with Hershey was an exhausting adventure! First off, it's looking like her official new name will be Rudy, inspired by the dog of a close friend of mine growing up. I consulted a few online tips for changing a dog's name and they suggested adding the new name to the old name for a few days and then dropping the old name all together. After about 12 hours of confusing each other - sometimes we'd call her Rudy, sometimes we'd call her Hershey and occasionally we'd remember to combine the two - we decided to drop the Hershey alltogether, and I'm pretty convinced she's already adjusted to the change.

The first day I really just tried to follow her cues since I wasn't sure how she would tell me she was hungry, thirsty, needed to go out or just wanted to be pet. And because I was paranoid of accidents in the house, I probably took her out WAY more than she needed, but three days in I'm feeling more confident that I know what to do and when.

I'm also pretty confident that Rudy is here to stay. Although the rescue organization had allowed her to stay with us for a trial weekend before committing to adoption, we're loving every little hyper, silly, sweet, crazy puppy thing she does (including when she jumped right into the dirt and rolled around immediately after I took her out of the bath) and are happy to be able to give her a "forever home."

To mark this new and official family addition, I did my first doggy DIY! Remeber this bucket of popcorn from Trader Joe's that I noshed on during my sick day?

Well, it seemed like the perfect size for a dog food container, so I took it out back and gave it a quick spray prime and white lacquer coat.

Then I lined the bucket with a drawstring trash bag so I could keep the food as fresh as possible by cinching it closed.

I have a feeling this is the first of many creations I'll be whipping up for our new pooch!

Dog Days

The kids have been begging for a dog ever since we moved into our house, but considering our busy schedules and our freakish need for organization and tidiness in our house, we’ve resisted. After much debate, we decided to appease them with a small critter for Christmas – maybe a hamster or guinea pig instead. So while the girls were at the Nutcracker with their Grandma (thanks for all the great holiday shows you’re taking them to GM!) we ventured off to Petco to explore their small pet selection. The guinea pigs were pretty cute, and from what I had read and heard, fairly easy to care for, super social (once they get used to you) and prone to making cute squeaky noises and hopping up and down when they’re happy.

Kinda cute, right? We checked out their food, hay and cages and were fairly sold on them as our newest family additions, until…

We noticed the tell-tale cages lined up under a canopy on the store’s patio. That's right...dog adoptions. We should just go look for fun we agreed, and with that innocent decision, our fate was sealed.

Within minutes we were making the acquaintance of Hershey. She’s a six month old black lab/retriever/shepherd mix with giant puppy paws and a super sweet disposition. She had us at woof.

See what I mean? In the days that followed our meeting, we discussed the pros and cons of dog ownership with each other and the rescue staff endlessly, but in the end we realized that a) this was a great dog that needed a good home b) we have plenty of love and space to make her happy and healthy and c) the right dog would bring so much more joy into our lives than even the most amazing guinea pig could (sorry, piggies and pig lovers, I’m sure they’re great, but just not for us after all.)

Hershey (new names are being considered now, send me your suggestions, please!) arrived last night for a trial weekend visit and we're smitten. Wish us luck! 

Wrap It Up

I’ve started to accumulate some Christmas gifts for the kids (they know that most of the presents come from us, but that one or two from their list to Santa are delivered by the big guy himself…wink, wink) and a couple for the Mr., so while I was alone with a glass of wine - ok, fine, I had two - and Grey’s Anatomy on the DVR the other night, I decided to get wrapping.

I like to put together a “wrapping palette” each year - last year was a black and white tweed print from the Container Store, the year before it was houndstooth. While the gifts looked especially lovely and the paper was of great quality, I wasn’t so happy with the price tag, especially since the kids tear through it in under five seconds per gift. So while we were in the Ikea holiday tent a couple of weeks back I was thrilled to spot some cute but affordable options. Best of all, many of them weren’t holiday-specific, so I can pull them out again for one of the dozens of birthday parties we have to buy for throughout the year.

I was totally smitten with the red bucks and plaid pattern (very Tommy Hilfiger, wouldn’t you say?) and at $1.99 for 5 ½ yards, how can you go wrong?

I also got two smaller roles of red and a craft-paper colored brown to complement:

And these tags are the perfect addition:

I have to admit that I wasn’t thrilled with the ribbon options (the quality of ribbon really makes the packaging, in my opinion) so I’ll probably go with some simple twine, or maybe even this great jute upholstery webbing, which you can find online for around $.80 cents per yard. I would reserve this more for special gifts.

Look forward to giving lots of great gifts this year!

Sick Day

I had managed to stay one step ahead of the kids' colds for the past couple weeks - they've been coughing and sniffling non-stop, but it finally caught up with me yesterday, so I decided to indulge in a rarely taken sick day and stay home.

Once I got the kids off to school I crawled under a blanket on the sofa, where, other than trips to the kitchen and bathroom, I remained for most of the day. I took in a ton of HGTV and TLC, along with a viewing of Sherlock Holmes on demand (I'll give it two stars) and spoiled myself with lots of little comforts:

My favorite sick day South Park socks:

A big bowl of peanut butter Puffins with bananas:

Water from my new carafe (which I glass etched myself!):

And handfuls of popcorn from this giant Trader Joe's tin:

I'm back in action today, although a little sad I can't spend the day at home again -it was such a nice break!