happy hound roundup: roxie

 dear diary,
remember how my mom made roxie that dud a couple of weeks ago? you know, the snackielicious one that i really wanted to landshark? well looky! her mom sent pictures and i just had to share them, cuz roxie is such a cutie pie. she even gets to go on a trip with her new dud, which is more than what i will be doing. it seems like i haven't been on a trip in forever.  but that's okay, cuz my uncle dana is in town and even though he says likes cats better, he and i have an understanding.which means i have a whole nother lap to sleep in.  yippee!

i hope u r having a wonderful saturday!
toodley-doo,
b

happy boy

Despite the lure of luscious afternoon sun, tiny chumley was practically a blur yesterday afternoon, high stepping about with giant rawhide bone hanging from the side of his mouth, looking like he had places to go and things to do.

sorry, no time for anybody.  today it's just gonna be me and my bone.   once i find the perfect spot to work on it.

bed slob

There must be something magical about turning four in a dachshund's life. At least for this little kielbasa. A switch of some sort that flipped on December 12th and told my little friend that he must from now on dig thru blankie after blankie in his bed, to get down to its supposed comfy core. Strewing his bedding carelessly about like a little kid digging through his toybox. Turning each bed he encounters into a disheveled pile of fleece, down, and whatever else I might have stuffed into a box to give my boy the cushiony comfort I thought he wanted. A switch that turned him into a total teenage bed slob.

It used to be that fresh-from-the-foster-home-Baxter would climb delicately into his bed, first lying gently atop whatever bedding he encountered.  Hardly leaving a trace of his presence after he left it.

As Baxter got older and began sleeping with us more regularly, a new phenomenon.  The uncanny ability to wiggle himself under the top layer of blankie, covering himself as he had seen his mom and dad do. Using his blankie the way he saw us use ours, and still leaving a fairly tidy bed in his wake.

But now at the ripe old age of four, it's now all about the digging. The rooting about.  The undoing of that which I redo everyday.

I am actually quite heartened that our journey has led us here, to the point where the little kielbasa thinks of this place and his beds as his home and sees fit to make it his own.  His little den, to be made however he likes in whatever fashion he'd like. I am heartened, even as I tidy up one colorful blankie explosion after another.

Home is most definitely where this little bed slob lies.

suspicious minds

Our garage has been in disarray these past couple of weeks, keeping me out of dyeing adventures and keeping my car in the driveway, which in turn keeps the little kielbasa busy almost every morning as he barks at my chariot new.


intruder alert i'm tellin ya, intruder! he quickly tells me from his kitty perch as I open the blinds for the day.

Pish posh, I'll tell him.  It's the very same car that takes you on rideys.  You've seen it practically every day now.


But most days my words aren't enough to calm my little security guard, and so often to settle our implicit bet, suspicious sausage boy and I venture out in the cold for a good circle and a sniff.

well i'll be. it is ours. okay, let's go inside now!

And up the stairs he quickly trots, another day ready to unfold.










 

to george, with love

 

o george ,my buddy, my dear sweet friend,

stick to you like glue I have,

keeping close to the warmth that you send.

faithful and true, i'll always love you,

but I am ready

for winter to end.

- baxter, 4.2 years old,
written during a wedgie moment of a different sort,  between his beloved heater and his beloved bed

ooo dat was fun

A fine day for a walkies to the art museum yesterday, though somebody got a little hot in his hoodie and had his mom and dad carry it for him after a while.




ooo dat was fun! can we totally do it again next week??

i sure hope so, baby dog. :)

walkies in wonderland

A chilly wet day yesterday, the kind of day that was confusing for the little kielbasa considering the warm weather we had earlier in the week.  The kind where we walked for miles exploring new trails, and enjoying an early taste of spring. 

Based on the weather forecast, no such luck this weekend,  but at least tiny chumley will have plenty of lap time while big boyfriend catches up with work and I do a tiny bit of etsy posting.  And the little kielbasa can happily dream of walkies in wonderland.
   

of snackies and sunshine

Some happy packages went out in the mail yeserday. Tiny chumley's fundraiser crowns, all wrapped in crinkly cellophane and pretty rick rack so they looked like glass princess pillows.

Little chum, of course, couldn't contain himself with all the hubbub going on above him as I prepared the packages, despite being rudely awakened once again in what he considered to be the earliest of morning.

Wiggly wienerboy orbited the kitchen table in skippy fashion with his nose held high up in the air, til finally I fell under his spell and lifted him on to the table for a peekypoo.




 

Tail gently wagging, Baxter let out a few sniffs, then turned with seemingly the most earnest look a little furry face could muster.  be sure to give them lots of snackies and sunshine, won't u? lots and lots. promise?





Well, baby dog, I think I can take care of the snackies,  but the sunshine? That's totally your specialty.   :)

evening snooze

I've been trying to be good lately, getting up earlier so that I can take advantage of working in the morning sunlight. Which has worked pretty well for me craftily speaking, but no so much for the tiny chumley, who I gather misses our late morning time together in bed. Who now has to catch up on the sleep he missed, by snoozing even more heavily in the evening.


somebody please wake me up when it's time to go to bed, okay?

etsy fresh: calling all royal doxies

Well hello, it's me, Baxter, here to show you these super pretty sparkly rhinestone crowns that me and duk duk are selling to fund Project Monkeys in Space. Need a unique valentine's day present for the special girl doxie in your life? Want to help your doxie dress the part she already plays? Just love sparkly treasure?  Hop on over to the Project Monkeys in Space section of my mom's etsy shop and get your crown today before they're all gone!  And feel good knowing that every crown u buy helps put a monkey in outer space.

My name is Baxter, and I thank u for your support. :) 

crowning glory

dear diary,
well diary, as you might be aware, duk duk and i have been working on project monkeys in space for like forever now. well, mostly doing fundraising in the form of saving our kibble n worms so we can buy the monkeys cuz i hear they cost a lot. well, the good ones anyway, the trainable kind that u can use as a butt-ler afterwards, and not the grouchy kind that might throw monkey poo at u if u know what i mean.

anyways, me and duk duk kinda got the munchies yesterday night after mom n dad went to bed and, well, let's just say the funding for project monkeys in space kinda suffered a setback of epic proportions.

so duk duk and i were stuck trying to think of ways we could earn more kibble fast and wouldn't u know that mom said her little ontrapuhnoors - wait apparently that's not spelled right - entrepreneurs should consider a fundraiser. and wouldn't u know she had just the thing we could sell.

ooo, i was thinking, sign us up! maybe mom made greeting cards of the poopie snake i made the other day, or even better, castings so we could paint them gold and offer them as paper weights. and this time duk duk could be the model cuz he could be the duk that laid the golden poopie in our ad campaign.

but, no such luck. mom came back with a half dozen sparkly girly crown things and said "looky at these pretty little treasures! there are only a half dozen of them all together in three different designs, and i just know there are six lucky doxie girls out there who would love having their very own, very well made, very sparkly princess crowns. and i can even help you and duk duk with the ribbon and instructions on how to tie it on their heads so everything stays neatly in place! it can be your very own project mister universe!"

mom was so excited i really didn't have the heart to say anything but i think u can tell by my face what i was thinkin when it came time to start taking pictures for our ad campaign.



yeah, this is me in the Princess Diana. and yeah, u know what duk duk was doin when mom wasn't looking.  laughing his feathers off.

but don't worry, diary.  moments later i remembered that this was all for a good cause and i got really into it. cuz at sixteen bucks, plus shipping, i'm thinking we'll be able to turn a few little doxies into the queens and princesses they really are and we can buy like a whole zoo of monkeys! and i hate to admit, but these things really are very pretty!

well, mom said duk duk and i could use tomorrow's post to tell u more about our crowns so i best get ready for it. duk duk already set up our email to take questions and everything. i am so excited!! :)

toodley-doo!
b.

rainbow connection

A picture from our wonderful walkies yesterday, complete with sunshine, rainbows, and my little pot of gold.





pot of gold? sheesh, mom. couldn't u call me a mega power transformatron or sumptin?? cuz i was thinkin aliens were totally gonna come out from that light and i was gonna stop em with my stink ray!

inside out

dear diary,
mom says the deer in our yard was as big a hint as any that she should finish my new blaze orange duds, and looky, here it is! well, the inside rather. which i hope u can keep a secret from the deer, cuz i'm not sure how threatening they'll think i am if they know i have cute little flannel bunnies and tigers and penguins n monkeys n such on the inside of my dud.

anyhow, i am looking forward to seeing where i will go in my new duds. i hear it is some place really cool so when i find out about it, i will tell u more. hope u r having a wonderful saturday!!

toodley-doo!
b.

some kind of wonderful

The magical wonder that is tiny chumley's charmed little life paid off big time after a seeming lull in his yellow moon, orange stars, blue diamonds and green clovers existence. Mother Nature, who had been so unkind as to keep the sun all to herself recently, decide yesterday to share her bounty with the world once again. And everyone except me, it seems, took notice.

"Its the same thing you see every day, baby dog," I told Baxter as I petted my little hopeful friend on the head. "When you get lonely, come down from your kitty perch and come help me sew."

As I gave him one last pet, tiny chum moved his little head so that my wandering fingers wouldn't obscure his vision.

yeah yeah sure thing mom. but something is going to happen, i just know it will.

Moments later after I had returned to my sewing machine, furious barking.

see? i told u there would be something interesting!! looky!!








And indeed there they were. Rats with hooves to anyone else, but to Baxter, the intruding deer were strange new creatures the likes of which he had never seen before.

bow rowr rowr rowr rowr! machine gunned my little boy while practically floating on air.

A few minutes passed, and the deer had bounded off toward the open greenway. But Baxter became convinced that they had invaded his backyard.

hurry please! quivered my ecstatic little wolf as I fumbled wth the keys to open the back door. see i told u! i have no idea what those things are but don't worry mom, i'll keep us safe! said he before rocketing into his backyard world of wonders, with the lucky charms of his yellow moon, orange stars, blue diamonds, and green clovers trailing gloriously behind him.

rainy day craft boy

Little brown eyes trundled up to my table and asked for a peek at what I was doing yesterday, tired and bored as he was of waiting for something interesting to pass by the window on such a gray and rainy day.

mom, he seemed to ask as he gently sniffed about, when do u think the rain will stop?

Hard to say, baby dog. But come sit in my lap and we can listen to the falling rain together.

knick knack paddy whack

It has been eons since the little kielbasa has been out for a bit of socialization , and it showed the moment we walked into the pet store yesterday.

brip! skitter. browf! sniff. bow wow wow 2 u, daycare doggies behind the glass! yikes - what was that noise?? i'm keepin my tail tucked. training, what training? that was years ago. let's get outta here now please! i'll lead the way, mom, and i will cover us with my barking!

The little kielbasa's protests resonated as we walked throughout the store, the echoes making it seem like there were a growing battalion of noisy wiener dogs.

Sigh. There was no way I was going to let tiny chumley leave the store in such a state, yet the lunchtime kibble I brought wasn't enough of a lure to get Baxter settled and focused.

And then we came upon the aisle of plenty.





ooooooo. brip. well if u - sniff sniff - okay, hang on a sec. bwoof! okay, i'll take this one. and i can totally carry it myself, see mom?.




We sauntered pass the little white fluffy dog with nary a peep. Stood silently by the fish tanks while we waited for the Jack Russell Terrier and his mom to check out. Ignored the cooing crowd who wanted to admire Baxter's bone stogie carrying ways.

sorry. no time for barking. on a mission now, thanks. sniff ya later.



And this small dog went quietly home. :)

roxie fabric

Often times in the past when I went on a bizcation trip with Robin to New York, I would get overwhelmed by the selection of goodies before me and lose focus on what it was I should be getting. And don't get me wrong, I'd still be getting stuff, but I would amass a load of goodies that I couldn't use immediately, buy one off treasures that would sit, waiting for the day when I had enough other buddy components to make something kalyxcraftoperrific. Which wasn't too bad a thing to do, only now I really am hurtin for storage space.

But luckily, I was fairly focused this trip, and found, amongst other things, super fabrics and trims to augment what I already have, to make purses and other flights of fancy, including a fabulous dud for a special wire haired girl name Roxie.

Tiny chumley was, of course, his helpful little self when it came to putting together options for Roxie's dapper doxie dud.

yep, definitely something in pink orange and maroon, cuz look how good these colors look with me on top of everything! and may i please have a snackie?

art of cute

If Sun Tzu had only owned a dachshund, he would have realized the Art of War is nowhere near as effective as the Art of Cute.

stare deeply into my eyes, my friend, and know that soon you will be giving me a supersized snackie.

little romeo

But soft! What bark through yonder doorway sounds?
It is the beast, and Baxter is the one.




A little bark sonnet from the baby dog yesterday while I futzed with updating our wreath with a little handmade Valentine's decor. Still not quite done, as I'd like to make some paper leaves and experiment with dipping them in melted beeswax, but it'll all be for another day as today our pack will be in the garage, moving stuff about as we prepare for the termite guy to do a little preventive maintenance work. Which pretty much means that the little kielbasa isn't done with what he was doing either, come to think of it. Our lives, as always, celebrated one craft and bark at a time. :)

my snackie toy revisited

dear diary,
so this is me, a few months later playing with my snackie toy, and yes, i am doing much better with it. part of the problem, you see, was that mom wasn't filling it up enough so even when i nudged it really hard, nuttin would come out. and that was very frustrating. but now it pays out a lot better and i am so happy. not so much that it's over in a minute, mind u, but enough to keep me busy for like a good five to ten minutes instead of twenty, which mom says is good cuz five minutes of occasional barking is so much easier on the ears that twenty minutes of frustrated barking.

now i only wish that duk duk and i really had gotten those monkeys we were gonna use for project monkeys in space because i could have gotten them to fill up this toy more often. or just have them refill my tummy directly by way of my food bowl. cuz really, every dog should have a trained monkey to help him out, right?

well this weekend i hope to help mom and dad with cleaning the garage. somehow i get the feeling they might wish they had trained monkeys, too.

toodley-doo!
b.