Pimp Pup Pillow DIY

Since Harry enjoys his bed so much, I decided that he might appreciate something fluffy under his rear when he stays in his crate while his Mom & Dad are at work.  The crate can be a hard place, and Harry simply loves snuggling.  So I set myself on making a flat crate cushion for Harry to lounge on all day.

I bought a yard of fleece on Etsy for $4 (made me holla) in this pimpin tiger print and I used my leftover polyfill from making Harry's bed to stuff it.  In hindsight, I could have bought interfacing and just sewn the whole thing together, but I figured I'd just use the items I had on hand.

My first step was measuring the width and length of the crate.  I didn't want it to take up the entire space, so I cut the fabric in a square.  I added an inch on each side for seam allowance, and an inch on each side to allow for "puff room" - you'll notice when you stuff your pillow will become shorter in width/length.  Going back I'd definitely add another inch to my sides since his pillow puffed up a decent amount.

After cutting my fabric, I put the right sides in and sewed straight along 3 1/2 sides, leaving me some room to stuff.  Then I turned it right side out and stuffed.  

Once stuffed, I sewed my stuff hole shut and then measured 3 inches in from all corners, pinning in each corner.  I wanted to create a tufted effect for pimp style, which would have been much easier by using interfacing.  Since I stuffed with poly-fil, I jammed my pillow under my sewing machine and forced it through, sewing from pin to pin whilst pulling them out as I passed.  It's not perfect, but it did the trick.

Harry's pimp pillow looks so good in his crate, especially in his room where my fancy vintage chair is sitting (that chair makes everything look good).  

The pillow lasted all of a day and half...when Harry spent about two hours in his crate completely shredding one of the corners.  Right now I'm trying to figure out how to fix it, or if it's worth it.  Thankfully the materials were cheap!

Hunting with Harry

One of my favorite things to do is creep around the flea markets of Philadelphia, hunting for treasure.  A couple of weeks ago they came to Fairmount and set themselves up around Eastern State Penitentiary.  Since it was an outdoor event, I figured it would be a perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.  I shop, Harry walks.  I think I got more of a workout than he did.

I attempted to bring Harry to the flea market once before, when it was on Spring Garden in a warehouse right before 5th street.  Unfortunately, a surprise snowstorm hit and prevented a lot of the peddlers from driving into Philly.  Even though this is an indoor event, it's dog friendly.  Just make sure your dog is behaved.  

Harry drools with excitement at the flea market

Harry really enjoyed himself.  Not only was he surrounded by people paying attention to him, he was consumed by the smells of all the old things from strange homes.  It was a struggle to keep him under wraps, especially around glassware and strollers.  I was surprised by how appreciated he was by the sellers...I assumed they'd be annoyed by having a mutt sniffing their wares.  Sellers came out and greeted him and they even had water bowls set up for the occasion.  

Most exciting to me are my finds.  Usually when I attend flea market events I go with something in mind so that I can browse with purpose.  My intent in going to the Fairmount flea was to find vintage planters, or things I could use as pots for the roof deck garden.  I ended up with other things obviously...

For example, this martini shaker.  I definitely won't be planting something in it, but I may possibly be making an Old Spanish for my TV boyfriend Don Draper.  It's clean, it works, and it was $4.  Plus I have the recipes for all the groovy drinks from back in the day right at my fingertips.  I plan to pair these with a bunch of Mad Men-esque tumblers if I ever find cheap ones and then spend my evenings vomiting as I can barely handle beer.

Next up is this cast iron wall hook that looks exactly like Harry.  Notice his "zoinks!?" expression above.  The lady who sold it to me was pretty batty, and I paid $5 which in comparison to the swanky cocktail shaker may not be a deal.  But I'm a sucker for things that remind me of Harry.  I'm hoping to use this in our wall that acts as a foyer to hold Harry's leash.  We haven't named him yet, but I'm edging towards Larry, since they're almost twins.

It was at the Spring Garden Flea Market that I found a guy selling tons of vintage post cards.  Some were written on, some were blank.  He had them categorized so you could browse by city, country, or subject.  I picked up a few of places the boo and I have traveled, some of Philadelphia, and I checked out the dog category obviously.

The one above is from 1902, and although I have no clue what the post card says, I like the script and the sprinting dog reminds me of Harry's wild man running in the dog park.  I mounted it with double stick tape on some poster board and framed it.

This one really spoke to me.  The dog looks nothing like Harry, but the handwritten message completely spooked me.  It was only the day prior that Harry had eaten our IKEA chair cushion.  Of course I giddily had to tell everyone around me the entire story and the man selling post cards told me about a guard dog in a museum in Graceland that ate all of Elvis's teddy bears.  I thought he was crazy, but apparently it's true. Those post cards ran me about 50 cents each.  Deals yo!

Our most recent acquisition was done online via Craigslist.  I had been searching for a wingback chair to possibly reupholster (if I could figure it out) and stumbled upon one for sale only a couple of miles away.  I immediately pounced on it, and we brought it home on Monday.  It now sits in Harry's room so now he can have some company when he's in his crate.  Best part is, I'm obsessed with the color and it's not too worn out.  No reupholstering for me!

The treasure hunting is going to have to take a break for the time being.  We only have so much square footage.  But I think what we've found so far is pretty great.  I think Harry feels that the new chair adds sophistication to his boudoir...let's just cross our fingers that he doesn't give it the same homecoming as he did our IKEA chair.

Harry's Green Thumb

Remember when I said I'd be better at blogging this year?  Ugh, sorry.  The weeks and weekends have taken their toll and the projects I've wanted to complete have taken much longer than expected due to car failure, late nights at work, race weekends, and a dirty dog.  I thought I'd share a project I've been working on for over a month now, which is getting my roof deck spruced up for summer.

This year I'm hoping to borrow my sister's green thumb in my quest for an urban roof deck vegetable garden.  The major project in this endeavor was finding cheap planter boxes that were big enough for veggies but not so big that they'd leave me without deck real estate.  No such thing exists.  So I opted to build my own by modifying a tutorial I saw on one of my favorite "girl power" blogs, Shanty2Chic.

My first step was to buy and cut a lot of wood.  Luckily, I made a friend in the wood department of Lowes and he cut all my wood for free.  Did you know they're starting to charge per cut?  Where am I supposed to keep power tools in our bitty place?  My purchase consisted of six or so 1x3 furring strips and a 2x2.

I modified the Shanty2Chic tutorial so that my length and width were bigger to accommodate the deck.  I also added another furring strip to the top, which increased the length of my inside pieces.  Essentially I cut 10 pieces at 36" for the sides and 10 pieces at 20" for the ends.  I needed more room for roots, and adding the extra strip got me right to 12" depth.  My 2x2 was cut to be 12" each instead of the 9.5" recommended in the tutorial.

My process began by making the shorter ends, stacking the furring strips and screwing them into my inner strips.  I used some wood glue but I lack the patience and the clamps to let it dry in place, and screwed on top of the glue.  Once I had two ends, I attached the longer sides in the same manner.  Harry was not a fan of the drill, and watched cautiously from afar, either on the couch or in the middle of the staircase.

The plywood base wasn't bought until after I had the rectangles put together.  I wasn't sure of what my measurements would be so I measured the length and width of my boxes after they were built and visited my woodcutter friend at Lowes with my measurements.   I used wood glue around the entire perimeter of the base and then screwed it into the four corners into the 2x2s.  Then I kept it out to dry overnight.

Here we are with our finished boxes ready to be stained, Harry rocking a hoodie to cope with the windy weather that comes with a roofdeck in March (like I said this was a long project).  My goal was to stain the boxes and paint some garden/flower related song lyrics over the stain.  I needed it to be water proof so that the boxes wouldn't rot after one planting season.  My solution was an all in one exterior wood stain & sealant.

The boxes only required one coat of stain, so I had plenty of stain for two boxes and then some.  I stained both the inside and the outside, so that my inner box would be water resistant to sustain daily watering.  I thought about using some wood filler in-between the slats, but decided that the landscape fabric was enough to keep the boxes tidy.

Then for a while, I spent a good amount of time painting the outside of the boxes with my lyrical quotations.  I whipped out the acrylics from college and some leftover paint from the second bedroom paint job.  My lyrical choices were from Everclear's "I Will Buy You a New Life" and Alice in Wonderland's "Golden Afternoon"....I thought they were appropriate for gardening.

After everything was dry I drilled some drainage holes in the bottom of each box (you can see above).  I also drilled holes on the sides about 6-7 inches apart to create rope handles for transporting the boxes just in case we need to move them around for deck gatherings.  Had I the patience and skill I would have put casters on the bottoms so I could roll them around the deck.  Maybe next year.

The bottom of the boxes I filled with gravel, to allow for another level of drainage.  I covered this with landscaping fabric before I filled my box with potting soil.  It took me another week or so to even purchase my plants, and even after that I was nervous to plant them for fear that I would do it wrong or kill them immediately.

Once I got it together, I planted two tomato plants, two crookneck squash, 2 red peppers, 2 green peppers, and 2 eggplants.  The rest of my gardening endeavors are via container/pot and I started my own version of a vertical garden using an IKEA shelf I got for $20 and spray painted with rust preventative clear spray paint.  Time will tell if I have green thumb skills, but hopefully all this effort reaps plentiful rewards.  Regardless, Harry thoroughly enjoyed his time on the deck as you can see by his huge cheesing smile.

Bad Dog II

About a month ago, we went through a "trustworthy" phase with Harry.  He was given free reign in the house after his lunchtime walk.  Figuring he'd be occupied by his puzzle treat dispensing ball he got for his birthday, we thought that Harry would entertain himself into a sleepy stupor.  That was not the case.

Above is our one week old IKEA Tullsta chair that we bought specifically to increase seating capacity for my annual Oscars gathering.  Harry thought it'd be a good time to completely eat the foam cushion and tear apart the cushion cover.  He thought it especially a good idea to do this on a Friday night, when his Mom and Dad just wrapped up a long week at work.

Unfortunately, IKEA doesn't sell replacement cushions and I didn't want to spend another $100 on a chair when the remaining parts of the IKEA chair were in perfect condition.  Harry's engagement was primarily with the cushion.  For somebody to cut foam to size and  create a cushion was going to cost at least as much as the chair itself.  So I decided I'd attempt to do it myself and went on every foam site I could find online.

It just so happens that as I was taking Harry on an evening walk before trash day that I spotted an old Victorian-esque type chair out on the sidewalk with a handwritten sheet of paper attached saying "FREE".  Although a funky chair would've been a sweet addition to our living room, I was really only interested in its foam cushion that was the exact same shape and size as our IKEA chair.  So I got our cushion for free...after a very intense smell check (we're good).

The tricky part now was how do I cover this thing?  I've never sewn something close to this shape, and I don't know how to attach zippers to things so making a removable cushion was out of my skill range.  It was after googling a bunch of how to's that I came across the perfect no sew option on e-how.  Wrap your item you wish to be upholstered, and pin it in place.  It doesn't have to be perfect, because the top is the only part that matters.

After picking up a so non-matching fabric (because I was afraid my attempt at matching would result in failure) in Fabric Row, I laid the fabric on my kitchen floor, place the foam in the middle, wrapped and pinned in place using safety pins.

It works for me, although the fabric can get bunched and rumpled after being sat on for a while.  But it required little to no effort and cost me only the price of the fabric...which is too expense on Fabric Row, but I digress.  Harry better keep his distance.

DIY Doggy Bed

You may remember when Harry ripped his bed to shreds.  That nice orange chevron print donut bed that he cherished, he ripped open and tossed its entrails all over our living room.  Despite the inner area of the donut being deflated, we continued to let Harry use his flat bed until we replaced it with something better.  Then, Harry went to town on the outer section of his bed.  And then Harry no longer had a bed to sleep in.  

It was a confusing period of time for Harry.  The bed was his observation deck; the spot from which he watched TV and watched me cook dinner simultaneously.  Early mornings, Harry would awkwardly sit with his butt pressed against the wall because his bed used to be there.  He even took to squeezing his entire body onto the doormat just to get off the floor.  

Long ago, before Harry had received his first bed, I had vowed to make one.  Buying his first as a groupon offer was an easy solution.  Once shredded, it was up to me to make him something with (hopefully) staying power.  Recently, one of my favorite blogs, Design Sponge, posted a tutorial for a dog bed that seemed as if it were designed for the most beginner of beginner sewers, me!  

Since I didn't want to recreate the wheel, I didn't post my step by step process here.  However, check out the tutorial at Design Sponge for theirs - it's super easy to follow.  I bought a yard of upholstery fabric from Adler's fabrics on Fabric Row in South Philly.  Fabric Row is interesting.  Since I wanted my fabric immediately, I took the drive, but I'd much rather buy my fabric on Etsy since it's cheaper, and you can't tell if the business is run by hoarders.  1 yard of this fabric cost me $24 - cheaper than a bed online, but still.

The tutorial on Design Sponge features a leather strap section that I left out.  Basically Harry's bed is one big couch cushion.  Half of a 5lb box of poly-fil (deceivingly small box fyi) was shoved into the cushion while Harry watched pointedly.  I think Harry thinks poly-fil is cotton candy.  Between cutting and sewing, the project probably took me a total of two hours.  It's basic straight sewing and then flipping it right-side out, stuffing, and sewing up the stuff hole.  

Once complete, I tossed Harry's bed on the ground and told him I made it and that it was his, but he couldn't chew on it.  He looked at it, sniffed it, and went back to his ball.  Then when I laid on it and showed him how to use his bed (yes this stuff happens in our house) he figured it out.

Words can't describe the feeling I got when Harry pranced onto his new homemade bed, turned around in a circle approximately 30 times, and laid down.  It was stomach filling, chest pumping, cheek tingling, and so super satisfying.

The three of us spent the rest of our Friday night with eyes glued to Homeland, until Harry dozed off. 

The satisfaction of seeing Harry's appreciation was completely worth the effort.  Plus the bed ties in with our decor, and I feel like I gained some sewing skills.  I'm applying the same tutorial on a smaller scale to make chair cushions for my roof deck.  Thanks to Design Sponge for posting such an easy to follow tutorial!

Hoppy Easter Harry!

Sunday started with a 10 mile training run pre-Easter brunch.  Harry had been showing signs of fatigue, so I ran with a human buddy.  When I came home, Harry was already dressed up in his Easter best ready to go to Mee-Mom and Pee-Pop's house.  The outfit (you can find similar here) was all the boo's idea, but of course I was completely giddy over it, and forced Harry to pose with my Fairmount Bunny Hop ears.

After 45 minutes in the car, we arrived and Harry spent the morning romping around his grandparents' backyard while we ate brunch.  The Easter Bunny had already hidden eggs that were yet to be found, mainly because the hunt hadn't started.  Harry didn't get the memo and proceeded to find plastic eggs and sprint around the yard with them in his mouth.  Had Harry been able to truly participate in the hunt I think he would've won.  Unfortunately we had to tell the kids there were minus 2 eggs to find, because Harry had eaten them.

Harry has been around for one Easter pre-adoption, but I'm not sure if they actually celebrate in dog shelters like they do in family homes.  The egg finding thrill was new to Harry and he was ecstatic over it, as you can see by his ridiculously long tongue and big smile.  It's the boo's family tradition (at least for the past 5 years) to receive a visit from the Easter Bunny himself.  Most of the kids were a little freaked out during their first Easter Bunny experience (he is pretty creepy) but not Harry.  I suppose he had some prep by meeting the Phillie Phanatic last week.  

As I watched Harry race around in the backyard in his blue pastel polo, I realized that the boo and I have officially turned into those crazy dog people.  We may have also turned his family into crazy dog people too, or at least Harry has.  We don't have a child to cart around to family events, we bring our dog.  And we fuss over him as much as a parent over a teething baby.  The boo's family embraces our obsession and even goes as far as including him in family pictures, which I find extremely amusing.  It seems everyone smiles just a bit bigger when a full grown dog in a preppy polo shirt is being held up in the family photo.

Harry thoroughly enjoyed his Easter, and then enjoyed it some more at my sister's home where he got to visit with his fur-cousin, Jager.  Despite Harry's fear of cars, he loves spending time with his extended family and was completely exhausted when we got home.

Harry Paints the Town Red

Schuylkill Banks Dog Park has become a weekly stop for us.  It's the easiest way for us to completely exhaust Harry without exhausting ourselves.  Last week we made a bonus stop on Thursday, and Harry frolicked and sprinted with a brindle pit mix named Bella and a teenage boxer named Logan.  While we were there, I noticed a flyer posted to the dog park fence for a Phillies Pup Rally on Sunday as part of the Phillies "Paint the Town Red" week.  On a whim at the end of the baseball season last year, I picked up a Phillies jersey for Harry at our favorite stop Fairmount Pet Shoppe.  We decided since we were bringing Harry to the park on Sunday anyway, we might as well dress for the occasion.  As you'll notice, it's a little snug.  Harry has grown.

Harry burst into the park with endless energy.  Sprinting like crazy in his jersey, he managed to get the top button undone, showing off his manly heavage.  Only one other dog in the park had Phillies gear on, so I immediately assumed we would win the costume contest at the end of the parade.

Around 1:00 we made our way over to the playground next to the dog park where a crowd was forming.  Upon our arrival, there were plenty of pooches donning Phillies gear to the extreme.  Not only were there jerseys just like Harry's, but there were t-shirts, homemade costumes, dogs wearing socks, even a dog painted green (not that I condone painting your dog).  My only hope was that Harry's whiskers and in your face personality would win over the judges.

I signed us up by filling out a waiver and getting our sticker that the judges would use to score us.  Then what seemed like endless waiting ensued.  Having not had the chance to exude all his pent up energy in the park, Harry was psychotically pouncing, jumping, and pulling toward every dog in costume.  Perhaps it was a tactic to ruin their outfits and increase our advantage, but I think he was just being overly outgoing.  If the judges were witnessing this, then surely we weren't going to win for good behavior either.

Being the dog freak I am, I circled the competition and took pics of my favorites asking strangers if I could take pictures of their dogs.  These were my kind of people, as they were happy to oblige and even returned the favor by snapping some shots of Harry.  Then the crowd shifted as the red Phanatic made his way into the parade.  More people were snapping photos of their dog with the phanatic than of their child with the phanatic.  Again, my kind of people.  I swooped Harry up into my arms (swooped is actually making that process sound easy...it's more of a squat, adjusting his arms onto my shoulders, wrapping my arms under his bum, and using my legs to lift myself up.  Then I support all of Harry's 45+ pounds on my lower back) and waited patiently in the crowd for our turn to snap a pic with the Phanatic.  

In a dramatic turn of events, Harry abruptly squirmed which threw my grasp off balance causing me to DROP him in front of everyone.  And he didn't fall gracefully like a cat, he fell like a clumsy dog right on his back.  Of course he flipped over, was fine, and attempted to get in everyone's face again.  I on the other hand, was mortified and convinced that everyone thought I was a bad mom.  Shamefaced with hot eyes, I escaped from the crowd to the back of the parade line and proceeded to make Harry sit in my meanest mom voice.  The boo pointed out that most of the dogs were much better behaved than Harry and we didn't have to do this parade, but I was set on competing with Harry even though our chances were pretty slim given that 8 other dogs were wearing the same thing as Harry except behaving like heavenly gentle therapy-like dogs.  

Eventually, the parade began.  We all lined up behind the Phillies ball girls and in slow progression, made a tiny loop around the Phanatic.  And then we all stood there not knowing where to go.  My grip on Harry's leash was fierce, but somehow the boo captured me looking quite calm cool and collected.  The entire process was completely worth the struggle when Harry and Phanatic met.  The Phanatic squatted down on the ground and Harry crept towards him with ears perked in curiosity.  Then Harry danced forwards and backwards, not sure if this beast was A. a dog, B. a toy, or C. a monster.  Surprisingly, he didn't crash to the ground in his fear pose which he does when we pass the statue in front of the old GlaxoSmithKline building.  The whole moment was captured by Comcast SportsNet cameras, so I'm obviously stalking them to see if they'll post a video of my baby.

After the touching moment, the event announcers determined the winners over the loudspeakers.  First place went to a bulldog dressed as a $1 Dog Phillies hot dog.  His parents made his costume, and he looked happy to wear it.  2nd Place went to a Phillies eye patch wearing beagle (see pic 5 in link).  His parents made his costume as well....and apparently the dog did need an eye patch which makes me sad.  And third place doesn't ring a bell, because in the words of Ricky Bobby, "If you ain't first, you're last".  Harry came in last.  We'll be back next year, hopefully with better manners, and definitely with a serious costume.