april schooled

hmmm...hmmmm..nope, duk duk, i think it will be funny! 

oooh - shush shush shushy shush! i hear her coming! no, we should totally do it. you'll see! shh shh shh!

hee hee, hi mom! me and duk duk were just thinkin, well, u know, that we'd like to take a bath today! u know, with purple flower stink stuff n everything! :) :)

(sigh)..u were right, duk duk. mom does not understand april fools' day jokes at all...

delicious ham

hee hee hee. no wait, I do not understand. why do u think we will not need to buy a ham this year for Easter brunchy brunch? 

tiny wisher

mom, i know it is going to rain today and u still have your taxes to finish up, but, seeing how it is spring and the dirt smells so fresh, well, dontchoo think we should dig in the backyard for just a little while?  and maybe not wash our paws or anything when we come back inside? :) :)

baxter & duk duk's rules for everyday living #174

baxter & duk duk's rules for everyday living #174:

when your mom takes your power blue ipad mini away for plotting to pay back the stinky neighbor bassets that got u in trouble in the first place, turn ordinary household objects into toys and you might just get your mini back faster :)

hee hee, i know u r holding the camera, duk duk, but u go get the glue just in case because i am pretty sure i can hold it for at least - 

 

- whooop,and there she blows! oopsie. :) :)

(soon to be) etsy fresh: say hello to my new little brooch friend

No matter how optimistically I'd like to think otherwise, the first three months of the year seem always to take me places I haven't gone in terms of makey.  This year, compounded by the fact that I somehow messed up my left middle finger and consequently rendered myself at least temporarily useless for sewing and the ambidextrous nimbleness required of the double layer french fold binding technique I use for duds, my mind turned to the brooch ideas that started percolating late last year, and the challenge of turning those ideas into well made, hand crafted reality.

It's been a long road on the brooch makey front, needless to say, but I'm happy to post today an early peekypoo at the results of all that effort.  Forged from copper sheet, sawed, bent, sawed, pickled, soldered, pickled, soldered, pickled, sanded, pickled, cut, soldered, pickled, sawed, sawed, cut, snipped, sawed, sanded, pickled, soldered, pickled, sanded, sharpened, bent, buffed, patinated, waxed, and finally inlaid with thoughtfully arranged and carefully cut wool.  Yup, these cheerful little pups definitely take some time and effort to make, but as tiny chumley would say, the results are totally worth it, dontchoo think? :)

Look for tiny chumley to load this puppy pin and the rest of its brooch litter in our Etsy shop sometime in April, after the hubbub of taxes has died down and I've reintroduced myself to those patient friends who were already in proximity range on my duds radar from  - eeps - from before the holidays.  Boy it's hard to believe March is already almost over.  Well, it'd also be easier to believe if winter didn't keep coming back.  Happy makey, my friends! :)

wait!! while we are on the topic - mom, dontchoo think maybe i should be paid half up front for all the etsy work i will be doing later?  like, maybe, o, i dunno, a whole box of milky bones or scooby snacks? or maybe, if u just want to give me one snackie even? like, now, i mean. :) :)

we so wanty

see mom? me and duk duk checked. with chocobot and lul the tiger and lil pink puppy all busy with spring skipboree this week, there is nothing here we can play with at all. and we checked -  robokhan kaiju with kung fu kitty death grip in electrophosphorescential purple with mega super stun ninja attack pack and bonus power kick is on sale now for a limited time only. so act now and don't delay because quantities are limited.  so, u know, can we? :) :)

the way things are :)

As a small standard doxie, tiny chumley fits much better in his dad's lap than mine, but that still doesn't stop him from worming his way into the bowl of my crossed legs and hunkering down in it as best he can without falling off, because he knows just as I do, that these are just the way things are. :)

l'homme poopita

that's right mister rainbow manhands, the two stinky bassets next door. easy peasy with your excellent throwing arms, right? and in exchange, me and duk duk will give u three gummy worms and a banana peel.  oh, and u can have unlimited access to our wii for two whole days!

but, remember, this mission is top secret so you will have to use your own poop. and, if u get caught? or your secret ops mission is somehow traced back to me or duk duk? or if u fail to hit your targets multiple times as outlined in this discussion? we will call in Viktor the cleaner and this transaction becomes null and void.  do we have a deal? :) :)

little fang

see mom? I bet by the next full moon, my fangs will be so long, the kids at school will think I am a saber toothed wolf! :) :)

nice n nubby

hee hee dad u were right it only tickled. but while we are talking about tickling, now that my nails are nice and nubby, may we please tickle my tummy with a little yummy from chikky-fil-a ? :) :) 

tiny bloomer

Seasons aren't the only things that change this time of year. The arrival of Spring and warmer temperatures seem to coax tiny chumley out from under his blankies much like a daffodil out from the ground, prompting him to switch from his daily morning winter routine of making a beeline to his heater friend George and find cover under his Mount Everest of blankies, to seeking out precious slivers of morning sun that will all too soon disappear once the leaves of summer fill in.  And so it seems, too, that my morning routine changes, from going downstairs first thing to turn on George, to lingering upstairs a little while longer, skritching someone's little shiny sun drenched noggin, so that he can bloom and spread joy, much like a daffodil in spring. :)

collective barkaining

hmmmm..hmmmmmm..hmmmmmm...it does look and smell very tasty but i am not sure if...

...hmmmmmmmm...hmmmmmmmm....

okay, mom, how bout if i promise to try not to bark at the stinky neighbor bassets for the next three weeks?

 

fun for a girl or a boy: ezpz doxie tube sweater makeyproject

Yesterday while goofing around upstairs,  tiny chumley and I stumbled across a simple and easy way to keep him warm when George or a heat vent isn't nearby. Behold the ensausage-free ezpz cashmere twisty tube sweater! It's really just tube, formed from the cut body of a thrift store cashmere sweater.  Big enough to slide on to his midsection, then twisted once on his back and fed back over his head so that it covers his neck in a snug but not too snug way.  Think of it as forming a figure eight, with one hole filled by his midsection, the criss cross resting on his back, and the other hole filled with his head.  Futz a little with all the folds and twists of the sweater so that it covers the back and chest and such, and voila, an i-made-it-in-two-minutes happy little doxie sweater guaranteed not to hinder movement or trap little forepaws in an unfortunate ensausagification incident.

If you're inspired to follow through or have questions, please feel free to ask or send/link me your results! The little kielbasa wore his all day yesterday so needless to say his is a more than little rumpled up and throughout the day i refutzed to keep things smooth, but I love how toasty he felt when it finally came time to take it off, and I have a feeling he loved how toasty he was in it. :)   




PS - don't worry - thift store cashmere is your friend! go ahead and treat the cashmere as you would a cotton tee - no special handwashing necessary. I just throw ours in the washing machine, and if I remember, I put it on wool cycle, but even when I forget, cashmere turns out fine.  The fibers are soft and smooth enough so that there isn't quite the felting action (and therefore shrinkage) as there is with rougher wools.  :)

PPS - more helpful info added below.

 

jiffy pup pupcave

Cold and rainy Mondays are hardly a welcoming way to start the week, but with a little help from a happy-go-lucky sausage boy now thrilled to have made his own little heat cave, at least Mondays can be a little cuter. :)

happy st patricorn attack day

um, well, mom, do i have to? i mean, i know i am small like a leprechaun. and, i know green looks really good on me, but, well, for one, i am not even irish.  and two, well, if u think about it, there is really nothing to celebrate about having all the poopie snakes driven from your backyard because then there would be no poopie snakes to collect, would there?

oh, and for three, me and chocobot and duk duk were just getting ready to play robot unicorn attack 2 :) :)

our very own :)

hee hee,  know it's so exciting, isn't it chocobot? our very own ipad mini with power bluey aqua pleathery case!! totally worth all the weekends we spent at the pupscout sales booth selling poop mushies and i am so glad we all agreed to pool our points! what should we do first? watch scooby doo on netflixxy or play poop goes the weaselcorn? :) :)

a nice day at the mall :)

hee hee, okay mom, i do not see any signs saying we cannot so let's do it!! 

wheeeeeeeeee!

okay may we please go to the apple store now so i can get duk duk a new iphoney case for his birthday, and then maybe go to the pet store for snackies? :) :)

craigslist

hmmmmmmmm...well, mom, i am not certain exactly how me and duk duk would use an old cement truck but probably it would come on handy for, u know, mixing cement. and maybe, well, if we do not have any cement to mix, we could use it for maybe fun fun swirly rides? :) :) 

skid marks

okay mom, i will be right there in a second...

...just as soon as I figure out how to slide around the poopie snake me and duk duk sent down earlier.

body language

dear diary,
some things are better left unsaid. but that doesn't mean u cannot say them without ever having said anything at all.  i sure hope she gets the hint.

toodley-doo!
b. :)