This One's for the Dogs....

My canine nieces.....to be exact.

My sister has two miniature schnauzers - one being a puppy. I have to be honest here and tell you that it's her schnauzer that actually converted me to liking small dogs. I've always been a big dog lover - labs, retrievers, rottweilers, etc. and thought of smaller dogs as "big dog snacks" until I met Gretchen: 

Gretchen

Total cuteness. 


And now add their puppy Maxine to the family:

Maxine

Oh my word. 

Now for another confession. I've never been a fan of dogs wearing clothes. That is until I found a reason to justify buying the BEAUTIFUL Aloha print fleece that I admire every single time I walk into one of my local fabric stores!

Since we don't have a dog (and Gretchen and Maxine live thousands of miles away) I had to ask my sister to take some measurements for me. Hopefully I did everything right and they will fit! Here are some local models trying on the jackets:

Locals modeling the doggie jackets. Yes, we have white tigers in Hawaii.

 

Hopefully these little fleece jackets will keep the dogs warm this winter! I will upload pictures of the actual dogs (if they fit) when they receive it!

WOOF WOOF!

Tote-able Towel

Been a little crazy-busy around here which is the reason for the lack of blogging! We've been hitting the beach, going to birthday parties and spending time with family. It's been a lot of fun!

For one of the birthday parties we attended I made a "tote-able towel." This kiddo spends a lot of time at the beach so I tried to think of something that might be of use to him. I didn't think the towel bags would be very appealing to him (ha!) (On that note can I just tell you that the towel bag is getting a lot of use and love? Probably one of the smartest things I've made in a long time!)

Anyways.....

I had saved a tutorial that I found a long time ago and decided to put it to use. It's by Anna Marie-Horner and she calls it the "Tote-able Towel." It's a towel that rolls up and has straps attached to it so you can throw it over or across your shoulder. Here's how it turned out:



Here it is all laid out in the sand:



Personalized via appliqued (darn thread kept breaking!)



It was an easy and quick tutorial! Next time I may add a pocket. Go ahead and give it a try! :)

Have you made something lately? Link up with "I Made It!" Blog party Thursday at "Everything Etsy." Click on the picture below and it will take you there!

Towel Bags

We've been spending a lot of time swimming lately which is GREAT. However, who is always lugging all the stuff around? Yeah, that would be me. There really is no reason why my two girls can't contribute to helping with the load so I thought I'd give them a little incentive by making them their own beach bags to carry their towel, goggles, snacks, etc.

I found a simple tutorial to transform a towel into a bag. Simple, quick and inexpensive! One towel has enough fabric to make two bags! And if you find towels on sale even better! (The girls chose their towels from Old Navy at $5.00 a piece....)

I think they took my "Be a model" comment a little too seriously.....