To New Adventures…

Hello Again!! Its been a good week and half since I have come to visit my blog ( I always like to post an update every three or four days) and its literally because I’ve been tied to my sewing machine! A few posts ago I shared that I was starting to make reusable totes, and the coolest thing has happened.. I’ve had the opportunity to sell them at my favorite pet supply store, For Other Living Things.

It all started about three weeks ago when I saw that they had stopped giving out plastic bags at that store and I mentioned that I had started to make a tote bag project. Interested, their sales rep asked me to make a few to bring them by so that she could check them out. Being that it was Mother’s Day weekend and allergy season was in high gear, there were plenty of distractions and cold/allergy symptoms to push back the project. As I came in a second time to replenish Capone’s trachea chew treats, I was reminded again to have the bags be brought in so off to the fabric store I went.

I decided to get a variety of colors and prints but focused on pet themes. I wanted to make at least 15 in two different sizes as well.

These are just a couple of examples of the pet themed fabrics I was going for.

I also knew I was going to be working in my kitchen a whole lot so I invested in another baby gate ( I had since taken down the other permanent one because Capone was very good at not crossing into the kitchen) however, Logan was going to be a problem since there would be a plethora of pins, needles, bobbins, thread that I knew he would love to get his little chubby hands on. I did want a gate that could be “pushed” out-of-the-way if need be so I got this really great deal on a pet gate that is an accordion swing out style that expands when I need it and tucks away nice and neat when Logan is either napping or has gone to bed for the night.  But also keeps Capone at bay in case he wants to succumb to temptation and go rummaging in the trash can like I caught him doing one night! 10 more minutes of trash digging and this is what I would have encountered…

Hee hee.. so the baby gates work for both “boys” to have them obey the rule at least until they get a bit older 🙂

Mother’s Day had just passed and Josh had bought me this really beautiful bird bath that he promised to put in our front lawn. The backyard is more for Capone so I wouldn’t dare put anything back there that is fragile or could possibly get knocked over or chewed.  So while I was doing this…

Josh was  busy all weekend putting up my new bird bath and planting some beautiful plants 🙂

Cant wait for all the plants to grow bigger and bloom!

While all this activity was going on Capone was happy to stretch out in the hallway (his new favorite spot) and snooze the day away. The kids were at my parents house so he was happy to have an empty house and the whirring of my sewing machine to lull him to sleep 🙂

I finally finished early Sunday afternoon and boy was I happy that all the hard work paid off! I was really pleased with how they all come out. Here are some of the bags..

The scorpion themed bag was my favorite!

Here is the entire lot 🙂

I even created a little tag for the merchandise. I put Valbagz as a temporary name, I am currently trying to figure out a nice catchy logo to name my project. Any suggestions are welcome!

Its nothing fancy but at least it tells people that it was handmade and that I am a pet lover 🙂

So my appointment was on Monday and it couldn’t have gone any better! To make the long story short.. before the meeting was done, shelf space was made and voila.. it was already displayed!!

Woohoo!

I was so happy! I couldn’t stop smiling 🙂 Forgive the tired look.. I was literally running on 4 hours of sleep because I was up tossing and turning the night before! I really WAS very excited. Sure I’ve made other things in the past for people, costumes, cakes, diaper cakes, baby blankets (I’m a little too crafty for my own good) but this is the first time any of my stuff has been in an actual store. I so appreciate the gals at FOTL for taking a chance and being open to my creativity! Like I’ve said before, def go check this store out, they are amazing and now there’s another reason.. to go buy my bags!!!

With all the excitement I almost had forgotten that Capone was about to turn 8 months old today!! Its my Dad’s 65th birthday today too (Happy Birthday Dad!) so everything got a little hectic for me over the past few days. This morning I did remember and let Capone snooze a little in our room before the kids got up as a special treat. Remember how we have a baby gate in the hallway blocking our side of the house to his side of the house? Well he usually presses up as far as he can to the babygate before we get up or else he’ll come torture Pepsi who sleeps in our room. But since it was his 8 month birthday I let it slide!

Happy 8 months Capone!!

Uh oh.. he spotted Pepsi

but only came up for a good morning sniff hello 🙂

For being such a good boy with Pepsi, I gave him his present right away! I bought him the biggest rope toy I could find. Boy was it heavy!

He LOVED it!! He also got the clue that he could play tug of war with it, which we haven’t really let him play at all since we wanted to teach him to “drop” an item without being too possessive, but since he has the drop command pretty down, I thought it would be fun for us (not to mention a good bicep workout) to let him play tug of war once in a while with his new toy. My daughter Lily, really wanted to join in the fun and after a few warnings of possible failure on her part, she bravely tried to play with Capone.. here’s how it unfolded..

She went down hard!! Completely hysterical with laughter though, and sweet Capone dropped the rope and came over to sniff if she was okay.

And then came over to me to let me know that he didn’t mean to push down his little human 🙂

It was certainly good exercise for him especially since he slept through his usual daily walk routine 🙂

Hope everyone has a good rest of their week!

Until next time…