Etsy Weekends - Wood Burned Photography

Ok, so originally, I added this guy's shop to my favorites, because he has items listed as "five year anniversary gifts" and I really like the idea of burning a wedding photo onto a piece of wood in (checks planner) 3 years, when we've been married for five. Then....I came across this listing, and realized it was the one I had to share with all of you. I adore it!!

Dog Photo on Wood by OT Workshop

Double the Pleasure, Double the Cats!

Some kitties love a companion. These cats make it look good for a camera :) Except of course Gizmo and Bentley, who actually do like each other!

Gizmo and Bentley

Lela and Norman

Spike and Ginger

Spike and Bruce the Dog!

Etsy Weekends - Hiding Spots for a Dog and a Cat

We have a kitty who loves to hide, so I always love when I come across little houses for cats and dogs. Today I give you one for each, both in a very mod style...and both super cute!  

Dog House from jumahl

Cat House from Modern Mews 

Drop by next week when we share even more Etsy Finds!

Lucy

Lucy wonders when the snow will go away. We do too.

The Evolution of the Dog Toy

Back in 2006 Mom and I came across some nifty german wool that felted down like crazy! We decided it would be perfect for dog toys and knit up a stuffed kitty that we felted down similar to how we knit and felt the mice. It ended up being a bust. The toy took forever to knit and stuff, and didn't stand up as well against doggies as they do against cats. Plus it took so much yarn that no one wanted to pay the price of the toy! It was still a lot of fun, and I would probably make one again!

Next, in 2009, we used scraps of overfelted sweaters (sometimes Mom gets excited and felts a sweater down so that it is too thick to stitch into Recycled Sweater Mittens) and I needle felted them to say fun things. I made the shapes based on what I could cut out of the sweaters and what I thought would be fun to write! My favorite was the Bite Me! Lucy's favorite is fetch! On a side note, Lucy is an adopted dog who was a breeder before she came to Pam and Randy's. Before, she never played with toys...but now look at her! I think it was the fetch toy that really turned her on to toys...but I might be biased. :)

Then, living in Montana with no access (and no money to buy access) to needle felting materials, and an overabundance of scrap denim...I made the denim Bite Me! toys. They are good for non-chewer dogs who love a good squeak toy, but since I can't guarantee them against tough teeth, I have yet to sell them on the internet. I still have them at my craft show booths though, and people seem to dig them!

Maybe someday I'll have the next generation of dog toys to show you (and sell you!) but until then, I'll keep playing with the cat toys!

Walk?

For a dog who would sit down and refuse to move another inch halfway through our 4 mile walk, she sure loved going to her walks! Sheila the Blue Merle Australian Shepherd 2001-2012

Dog Cuddles

I'm a sucker for cute pictures of critters laying together. Here are a few good ones of our late Bruce and Sheila.

Knitting for Animals

We love making cute things for the critters, but ours didn't always like the modeling. They sure were cute though hey??

Etsy Weekends - For the Critters

I love seeing all of the nifty things people make for their pets on Etsy. Some of the items I think I could make work in our house, and others I dream of some day incorporating into our dream home. Here are a few of my latest finds on Etsy!

Ramp from Hampton Bay Pet Steps

Hardwood Cat Shelves from Kitty Overlords 

Cat Bed from Incredible Cat

That's all we've got for you this week, come back next week to see what else we have found!

Silly Sheila

There are too many silly pictures of Sheila to share, but I found a few really great ones. :)

Serious Sheila

In part two of the Sheila picture show, I'll show off her more serious side! Sheila left us last year, but through pictures I can always remember what a sweet and cute dog she was.

Sheila

Sheila was an Australian Shepherd dog that was found with several litter mates left to die on concrete in a cold WI winter. At the time we only had Rikki the Dalmation, as her lifelong friend Lucy the Black Lab had left us earlier in the year. We ended up bringing home Sheila, and she was just about the goofiest dog anyone could ask for. I'm feeling a little sentimental and missing my sweet and sassy girl, and thought I would share a few series of Sheila pictures over the next few Friday posts. Here to start it off are some Sheila the Puppy pictures :)

Sheila and Rikki

Sheila Pooped after destroying a napkin

Sheila by the Garage

Sheila and her first Baby, a sheep that she carried everywhere.

Sheila growing out of the puppy stage

Family Visit

The grand kids came up to Wisconsin this past week, and they had all kinds of fun:

First at the Boscobel Civil War Reenactment, they got to pet horses and watch a Civil War Battle!

 Then they got to help Great Grandpa pick vegetables at "The Farm". (BTW, can you believe this man is 93 years old and still works in his garden every day?)

They also got to help Grandma Sheep feed the sheep and llama!

All in all, a great trip to Wisconsin!

Lucy and General Fancy Pants agree!

WoofStock

So today was the annual fundraiser for the Heart of the Valley Animal Shelter in Bozeman, MT. Matt and I have been excited to go ever since we heard about it! Of course we spent all of our money this week on the move across town, so we weren't able to buy anything we wanted (which might not be a bad thing after all, we saw all kinds of stuff we wanted!) but we got some business cards and plan on donating once we get paid again. We watched the puppies do their dock diving (lots of fun!!) and some herding, and we were planning on watching the cat talent show, but found out that all the talented cats had been adopted! I snapped a few pictures while we were there, everyone had adorable dogs and I could have taken pictures all day!

Biggest Great Dane I've ever seen! His head came up to my chest!

Herding!

Some dogs didn't quite jump, this one walked down the plank!

We also talked to the nicest gentleman from Helena, who only sells cat toys that have met his cats approval (which I think is a great idea!) Matt, ever the businessman, mentioned my cat toys and we will be sending some to the man in charge of Cool Cyber Cats and Cool Cat Pics for his approval! Wish us luck!

Have a cat-tastic weekend everyone! :)

Lela and Norman behaving for once!