DIY Dog Furniture

I saw this online and immediately wanted one.  Andy has a standard dog crate big enough for a golden retriever.  It lives under the dining room table and is just an awkward eyesore.  It would be great to have one that doubled as a classy end-table.

This particular one is listed for $105, although the nicer ones can run $200-$400.  Looking back, maybe we should have just bought it, because in the end we only saved about $50 by doing it ourselves.  The original plan was to only spend $20 and seemed like a stroke of brilliance. 

We begin with an old cabinet of unknown provenance that we acquired for $20 at Goodwill six years ago.

Until lately, it had been used to store our DVDs.  Now it will be transformed into Lady Andromache's doggie boudoir.  

First step was to remove the shelf and pull out the support pins with pliers.  Easy.  Next we had to cut windows into the doors.  That was a bit more complicated because the only power tool we own is a drill.  I used it like a woodpecker, and after three days of drilling and chiseling, we had fabulous open spaces.  

A little wood stain and varnish, and it looks great.  Just don't look too closely.

Anyway, we added fencing to the front doors by cutting up the divider that came with Andy's big crate.  We had never used it, and it was about time it justified the space it was taking up in the closet.  I attached it be means of screws and big washers for lack of any better ideas.  Then I pried the rotten cardboard off the back.

I was still undecided about how to finish the back when we went to Home Depot this morning.  The original plan was to use a panel from the portable dog fence on the patio, but that proved impractical.  After wandering around for a while, we found a pet grille meant for a screen door.  At $35, that was what pushed us over budget, but it worked out perfectly after trimming it down to size.

Scored some 3" high density foam for the bottom today at the craft store.  That stuff is usually $50/yard, but we only needed 13" AND we brought our 50% off coupon.  So, $9.

I covered the foam with part of Andy's old fleece blanket and secured it with safety pins underneath because I didn't have the patience to sew it into a zipper cover.  Took out the door magnets.  The front was retrofitted with a hook latch between the handles, and it was finished.

Andy hasn't seen it yet.  I hope she likes it when she gets home from doggie daycare.  Johanna was intrigued by the whole process.

Now that we have a spare moment . . .

Now that her highness is in bed, I can finally get a spare moment on the computer.  I do so miss my laptop these days.  Little JoJo has become the clingy koala bear who doesn't like to play independently for more than five minutes.  This picture was only possible after she accidentally fell asleep after screaming to be picked up while I was busy making lunch.  Thanks for small miracles.

She is now five months old and sixteen pounds.  Her new skills include laughing and sitting up in the bath.  She's mastered all the toys on her jumperoo already, so we'll have to use some ingenuity to keep it interesting.  She's broken her winning streak of sleeping through the night, and now calls for assistance regularly around 2 and 5AM.

In other news, I've finally decided to walk the walk when it comes to plastics and an ecologically conscious household.  The first steps include reusable lady pads, which I discover are called "mom cloth."  I sprung for the organic cotton ones from Etsy rather than the polyester from Amazon because of the plastics issue.  They haven't arrived yet, so I can't comment on their performance.  It was a very short leap there from JoJo's cotton diapers.  I was also finally brave enough to buy a man razor, which I'm finally getting the hang of after some trepidation.  I can't continue to rant against single-use plastics without being willing to make some changes.  That also means a win for Smuckers natural peanut butter over the other brands because of the glass jar.  I've been saving them so we can eventually get rid of all our plasticware food storage.

Stay tuned for many more posts about the crafting projects that have been going on.  The felt food got bogged down in the green beans, since they need to be sewn by hand and free time is in short supply.  I still have to post pictures of the busy book I finished before she was born, and I managed to bang out a growth chart and a rewards jar.  One other extremely forward-looking activity which has captured my interest is printing out handwriting worksheets from an online generator, both printing and cursive.  Seems you can find an online generator for anything.  Little JoJo will have plenty of practice for her penmanship, and the extra busy work will let her earn marbles for the aforementioned rewards jar.

Baby Progress Report

For about five minutes, I imagined little premature JoJo would be a petite, underdeveloped baby.  Now three months old, Princess Chunk is closing in on 15 pounds and wearing clothes sized for a 12 month-old.  No problems catching up to the average here.  I am also extremely gratified to report that she has figured out how to deal with a normal breastfeeding routine, and we have been able to put away the pump.  Hooray for many fewer bottle washings.

Her current interests include morning stroller walks and lounging on the porch with the dog.  She's reached that awkward phase when she's awake more often and completely bored by the activities she's capable of.  Hopefully that will spur her on to more manual dexterity and we can break out some of the cool toys.

Most fabulous of all, she's consistently sleeping through the night in her own bed in her own room, generally from 9:30 PM to 6 AM, with no diaper overflow.  I feel like we've won the parental lottery.

My every spare baby-free moment is spent on a new all-consuming project - a deluxe kitchen and felt toy food set for her future use.  We've finished making hamburgers, lettuce, spinach, tomato slices, onion rings, mushrooms, avocados, bacon, fried eggs, cheese slices, condiments, cookies, sandwich bread, luncheon meat, linguine and farfalle pasta, two kinds of cereal, and pancakes with all the toppings.  Currently in progress are kiwi, banana, strawberry and peach fruit slices, ravioli, breakfast sausage, and more cookies.  Getting some little green pom poms for peas, and considering making green beans.  Loads of fun, but very time consuming.  Someday we'll have our dining room table back.

Uncharted Territory

We have finally made it past 24.5 weeks, which is as far as we've ever been.  Everything still seems to be going well so long as I show up for my progesterone shot each week.  I've actually been brave enough to decorate what will hopefully be the nursery with a coat of paint and some wall hangings.  I was able to use a lot of stuff we had already and some basic supplies from the craft hoard, so the whole room was done over for just an additional $47.  Johanna will be a thrift store baby, for sure, but that doesn't mean she can't have nice things.

 

A good Christmas was had by all, but unfortunately the most outstanding gift we received was a rear-ender fender bender on Christmas Eve from a woman who doesn't believe in stopping before a right on red.  We're hoping to get Dave in a rental before work starts next week.  That poor little car has had its butt crunched too many times.

No Love For the Blog

Poor blog, dying the slow death.  Let's see if we can resuscitate it.   I don't even remember what was happening when the posts dried up.  Let's see . . .

Oh, yes.  Personal make-overs, projects, and fan art.  Now for some quick updates.

(1)    The personal makeover is still in effect, though I've gone through several different tattoo designs by now and ended up hating them all.  Nothing is really wrong with them, but I can't decide where I would put them.  So now the focus is just working out and losing twenty pounds.  Seems feasible.  Unfortunately we weren't able to move to the better apartment with gym facilities, so getting to the gym on base requires setting aside at least a three-hour chunk of time, which the little poodle doesn't appreciate.  It basically burns all the crate time for the day, making errand-running hard to schedule.  After about a month of putting in these gym trips, I lost five pounds, but gained four back over the Easter weekend.  This resulted in a personal ban on milk chocolate.  Currently down two pounds of the four, for a total of three pounds lost.

(2)    Projects!  There are too many of them.  I find myself trying to prepare jewelry and stockings for both private commissions and craft shows, as well as using up lots of hoarded papercrafting supplies for personal projects and special requests.  At some point, I also decided to experiment with a hideous old piece of furniture my family knows as "the Elliot table."  Rather than chucking it in the dumpster, I decided to sand it down and see if I liked it any better naked.  I had no idea how long it would take to sand down a little side table and how many freaking sanding blocks I would burn through.  Fortunately I found said sanding blocks for $0.49/each at the salvage store.  Now I'm that crazy person who spends hours on the patio making horrible scraping sounds.

(3)    Took a time-out day yesterday to unwind and write fanfiction.  I have several stories running, two in various stages of publication, but I actually managed to churn out a whole page of new text for the one my husband is collaborating on.  First chapters are always hardest for me.  I'd rather get on to the good stuff.

(4)    Health updates.  After lots of drama and phone tag and scheduling snafus, I managed to get in for a hysterosonogram ordered by my OBGYN.  They didn't find anything incredibly interesting, but saw enough to determine that I do not in fact have a true bicornuate uterus, but only a partial septate uterus.  The plan now is to burn (or scrape?) the septum out in the hopes that it plus a progesterone treatment will increase the odds of a successful pregnancy.  I don't really have a lot of hope for it, but I'm willing to give it a try.  Frankly, they could destroy my uterus, and I would probably thank them.  The only thing that gives me the jeebies is their plan to put a camera through my bellybutton.  Yikes.

(5)    Doggie updates.  Andy continues to be nervous and anti-social around other dogs, but we keep taking her to Puppy Playtime at PetCo twice a week, hoping for a different result.  If the trainers just let me into the enclosure with her, we seem to see some results.  Despite being only nine pounds, she has no time for little dogs, but has perked up for a Great Dane and a Rottweiler named Valkyrie.

(6)     Debt report.  Ever since we committed to a puppy (who is now one year old and a Big Doggie at heart), overpaying the debt has been almost impossible.  The financial drain was quick and incredible.  However, after six months of minimum payments, I think we've made at least the beginning of a healthy recovery, especially since the little princess doesn't have vet appointments every two weeks.  We may even start overpaying again, except that now the older car is having a diva day for it's 60,000 mile check-up, and we expect at least a $1,300 bill.  Maybe next month.  Here's where we stand now.

This represents 61% paid, which is based on the number we started with when I started making all these silly pie charts.  However, if I use the original total of this loan, not taking into account the paid-off car loan, it looks more like this.

81% paid.  Booyah.

(7)    Work report.  Dave re-enlisted and, as of this morning, passed his weigh-in!  Yay!  Next time around it won't be quite so stressful, because one of his previous failures (one of which was not official and should not have even counted against him) will no longer be relevant, and his entire career won't be on the line.  However, since this is the year of personal make-overs, next year won't be a problem at all.

(8)    Also, I have a bra that fits!!!  It has been a personal revelation.  I've never paid $75 for a bra before, but Nordstrom is the only place I can find the appropriate range of sizes for purposes of trying on.  I had been attempting to fit into a standard 36 or 38 C, D, or DD for YEARS.  It was a daily battle of strap-slippage, cup-spilliage, and awkward manual adjustments, finally resulting in a personal routine of wearing a sports bra over the underwire one just to provide some staying power.  I now have a 34F (in British sizing) and it is FABULOUS!  Now I want to evangelize everyone.

Finish ALL the Projects!

Apparently we still have at least a year before we'll be moving, but I'm still taking advantage of the interim to use up all the hoarded craft supplies that are clogging up the spare bedroom.  I'm finally finishing all the decoupage canvases I'd planned, and continuing the shift in the master bedroom color scheme from red to blue.  As part of that plan, the idea came to me to use Dave's old uniform blouses to re-cover two boring pillows that came with the comforter and add a personal touch.

These would also be a great idea for kids with deploying parents.

Needlework Zombie

Need sleep.  I've been making custom Christmas stockings for several years now, but each year they seem to get more elaborate and eat up more of my Advent with desperate late nights and entire days spent with needle in hand.  I stayed up until 3:30 AM this morning, powered by Rockstar, and now the tips of my right thumb and index finger feel like I've bruised the bone squeezing the tiny beading needle all night and all day yesterday . . . and all the day before, etc.

Here are some of the finished results for this year.  These were for some cousins in Montana, made to match one I made for their son two years ago.  These are all just craft felt on denim, cut by hand, assembled by hand, painted by hand, and sewn down along every edge by hand.  Even the letters are cut by hand from printed templates and hand beaded.

I'm starting to feel like it's giving me carpal tunnel issues.  I wouldn't recommend this kind of minute hand-stitching to anyone who has a life.  These were actually finished a few weeks ago, but I had a hard time getting decent pictures with the lighting around here.  Now I'm frantically working on two more which are even more elaborate, each with several celtic knots.  Imagine sewing all along the borders of a celtic knot.  

Yeah, it takes about 12-24 man-hours each.  We haven't quite figured out when during the course of all this the housework is supposed to get done.  The dog feels neglected.

It's not that I mind doing it, but deadlines are a killer.  Sometimes I would just rather do something else for a while.

Decoration Renovation - Tealight Centerpieces

I've always liked candles on the table.  When our table has actually been clear enough to use, we've had little glass candlesticks.  Here's the new idea.

• 1 large thrifted glass, $0.90
• 2 small thrifted glasses, $0.80
• jute twine, preexisting
• craft twine, preexisting
• 1 bag crushed shells, $5.00
• 3 tealights, preexisting
• craft glue, preexisting

Retail cost:  $6.70

Total cost to me:  $5.70

Decoration Renovation - Flower Vases

We have a side table sorely in need of a few accent pieces.  So, here's where we start.

I found the tall glass vase/carafe at the thrift store.  The other one was sitting around already being generally useless.  I don't remember how much I paid for it, but it dates from back in the penniless days so it's can't have been much.  The rest of the supplies were acquired at my workplace, Joann Fabric and Crafts.  The fabric paint, brush, and adhesive stencils were leftover from previous projects, and all this is laid out on my "craft mat," a repurposed swatch of discontinued upholstery vinyl.

The supplies:

• thrifted glass carafe, $0.90
• inexpensive glass vase, preexisting
• 1 pound skein of jute twine, $5.00
• 1 yard of woven brown ribbon, $3.00
• 6 long-stemmed burlap roses, $30.00
• 5 small burlap roses, $20.00
• adhesive stencils, preexisting
• black fabric paint, preexisting
• paint brush, preexisting
• 1 discontinued swatch of upholstery vinyl, $2.00
• 1 bottle of glue, $7.50.
• 1 bag brown excelsior, $3.00

Retail cost:  $71.40

You know I didn't pay full price for any of this stuff.  Fortunately I clip coupons and can combine my employee discount to sale prices.

Total cost to me:  $38.05

Decoration Renovation

I am officially changing the theme of this apartment.  Through the collection of various odds and ends from here and there, we've been heading in a classic stuffy European direction, which was fine for a while.  I've been feeling the call to a more rustic, craftsy theme for a while now; seeing it come together at Meredith's wedding just sealed it.

So, I'll be trying for less of this:

And more of this:

The greater part of this renovation will involve retouching and repurposing a lot of the things already collecting dust around here, so I expect to be buying a lot of paint and decoupage paper.   Hopefully any new things I need can be repurposed from the thrift store.  Whenever possible, I want to make things from scratch.  I'm cooking up an idea for a new bedspread which, unlike garments, I think my sewing machine and I will be able to handle.

I will be heading out to work tomorrow armed with coupons and my employee discount.  Before and after pictures will be forthcoming.

In the meantime, here's the first major project already completed.  This wall used to feature a flimsy poster frame with a cheap poster print of Raphael's School of Athens.  I replaced it with a nine-panel display of John 1:1-5 decoupaged onto the pages of an antique (1907) Latin commentary on St. Thomas Aquinas.

Creative Precautions

Here's my latest project:

1.  Ugly thrift store mirror.  $4.95

2.  Halfway through makeover!  Classing it up with some Shakespeare clippings.

3.  Add some adhesive chalkboard (who knew?) and some scrapbook paper embellishments, and we now have a place near the door to jot down where we're going and when just in case of mishap.

(Remember, if something happens while you're "running errands," and no one knows exactly what that entails, the police may have nowhere to start the investigation.  Seriously, leave a note.  It takes two seconds.)

I really wanted to try the chalkboard paint, but it doesn't adhere to glass.  We'll just have to save that for another day.