I needed a gift for a male friend. Since men seem to like farts, I made him a Farting Poodle.
The original pattern comes from the Tacky Living website and you can get the pattern here. However, I could not find any air freshener with a flat top, so I went with Lysol. The PDF below has been modified to fit a Lysol can.
Farting Poodle on Scribd
When my husband and I were first married, we adopted a kitten from the neighbors across the street. A cat had arrived at their home and had her litter in their shed. It was a cute little guy - part siamese and who knows what else. I prepared a box for it to sleep in with a thick warm blanket and a wind-up clock to mimic mama's heartbeat.
Well, the kitten wouldn't have any of it and we spent our nights with him climbing up onto the bed and promptly putting him back in the box. One night, he managed to evade our grasp as we were both asleep and he curled up on the pillow above my husband's head.
I was startled awake by my husband jumping up out of bed. He was yelling and flapping his arms around screaming that the kitten had peed on his head. He didn't feel it until he tried to bury it in his hair. I was afraid for the kitten so I scooped it up to protect it. I told my husband to stop flailing around and go take a shower.
So, there's the setup.
We're now a few months down the road and the holidays are here. I spent a week making goodies - cookies, fudge, cakes. I had a heckuva time keeping my husband away from it all as most of the goodies were intended to be gifts. Not that I was all that successful, mind you.
The cat also has a name now - Spartacus. He was a bit of a fraidy-cat so the name was definitely a joke. We gave up on Spartacus sleeping in his box and resigned to having him sleep with us. He would sleep between us just to let us know he was in charge of the bed.
One morning, I wake up and throw back the covers to find something flat and brown on the sheet between us. I panicked as I immediately thought the cat had pooped in the bed. I'm trying to be quiet as I get up so I don't wake up my husband. I was in no mood for yelling. I did not succeed in my attempt and my husband woke up. I resigned myself to having a rough morning and tell him to not move as there's something in the bed that I need to clean up.
And then...
He looks down, sees the flat brown poop, peels it up from the sheet and PUTS IT IN HIS MOUTH! While I'm gagging up last night's dinner, he starts to laugh. He had snuck into the goodies and had brought some fudge to bed to munch on. Obviously, he fell asleep and dropped the fudge and evidently, someone rolled over on it to flatten it out.
This woman is beyond inspirational. She's not afraid to tackle anything and she's got the skills to back it up. If this video impresses you, do yourself a favor and watch others on her channel. She's amazing!
Yeah, I know its early, but if you're going to make things for a specific day, you have to make it ahead of time, right?
Most of the kids I know now are basically adults, or at least too old for an Easter Basket. But there are still two young kids that I can make baskets for. I looked all of the typical stores looking for baskets, but they all looked cheesy to me for the prices they were asking. And all definitely throw-aways. So, I decided to make them myself.
I think most of us have seen the paint stick baskets on Pinterest. They all instruct you to use embroidery hoops for the rings. I wasn't overly fond of having the screw brackets as I'd never use that portion of the hoop for anything else, plus I couldn't find them in the sizes needed. So I went searching and found both the large and small wood rings without them. I also purchased a package of wood rounds to use for the bottom. Most of the instructions I found on Pinterest either used foam core board or had no bottom at all. I opted to stick with wood. Should I make these again, I'd use a slightly larger wood round though, and just not have it placed all the way at the bottom. I added wood cubes - one every other slat - to the inside so the round had something to sit on. These I already had as they were left over from another project.
I used hot glue to glue the slats to the smaller hoop and applied wood glue afterward. I stapled the slats to the larger hoop near the top and also applied wood glue afterward. Wood glue. again, to attach the round to the cubes.
That's pretty much it. It took 16 (sixteen) 1-gallon paint stir sticks to make it around the hoops. I added a jute rope handle and dangled a couple of carrots with some jute twine - all obtained from the Dollar Tree - and used some gold metallic heavyweight scrapbook paper I had on hand to wrap around the rope join to finish it off. Added 3 bags of green shred, some candy, and done!
I like these a whole lot better as mom can use the baskets afterward to put fruit in once the candy is gone.
Once upon a time, I lived in the perfect place. It was in the hills surrounded by a ton of oak trees with a creek running through the property. Various critters would come down and drink from the creek and you never quite knew what you'd see when you walked out the door. I had a huge covered patio that I would sit in to drink my morning coffee and I'd listen to the world wake up. Without fail, there was a family of quail that would walk by and over the footbridge that took me to my neighbor's house. I had a huge country kitchen where I learned how to can and bake all kinds of goodies. I sure miss that place!
I was married to a construction worker at the time and came to know a lot of single men as a result. One year, my neighbor and I decided to host a Thanksgiving dinner for all of them as most had nowhere to go for the holidays.
Most of the men were well-behaved. Well, except for one. Bob. He was pretty much a jerk and would always drink until he fell down, but since he was a friend of the others, we decided to tolerate him for the day. Since the weather was particularly nice, we decided to hold dinner outside on my patio. It was large enough for everyone and it would keep the house from being turned upside down.
So as we were finishing the food prep, everyone else was outside yapping and having a good time. Bob was pounding down the beer as usual. We have a great dinner and then Bob gets up as he has to use the bathroom.
Now there were steps leading up to the back door and you had to step up over the threshold to get through the door and into the service porch. That is where I kept cleaning stuff like the vacuum cleaner, brooms, mops and so on. It's also where I kept the cat box.
As Bob staggered up the steps, he evidently didn't notice that he had to step up and over the threshold. He tripped and landed face-down in the cat box. And yes, the cat had used it. Needless to say, we laughed hysterically and from that day on, he was known as Catshit Bob. The nickname suited him well.
And that is the Catshit Bob story.
Here's a quick-to-work up stocking for the critters in your life. Sized to fit a small toy and some treats.
I'm a little late in getting the shopping done this year. It's finally all done and now I'm just waiting for everything that I ordered online to arrive. But I can start wrapping a few things while I wait.
I know, I know, another Hot Chocolate gift. But this one doesn't utilize the standard instant hot chocolate gift configuration. I like giving real chocolate.
Here's what I used:
Here's another wood ring project for you since I had some left over from the teether project. I wouldn't use regular wax tea lights as this candle holder is wood and has the potential for catching on fire. That wouldn't be good... No, precious. Not good at all.
We have a local charity that provides baby items to unwed mothers, so I thought I'd spend my time not only in a productive manner, but one that would actually benefit others on a more practical scale. I found some cute teethers on Pinterest that were made with natural wood beads and decided those would be both cute and useful. There's not much for instruction here, so this post will basically cover the specific beads I used and where to buy them.
