DIY Doghouse Photo Prop

This is the type of project that I debate whether or not to share. Not because I don't want to share. I do! I just don't want people to feel like they should be able to make this themselves. (Not that you can't. I'm sure you're very crafty!) You know what I mean, right? This is not the type of easy-peasy kids' craft that I often post here. That said, it really wasn't that hard to make, so it's totally do-able if you are planning a puppy paw-ty of your own.

{Ritzy and I get a turn in the doghouse.}

This photo prop turned out nicely and helped set the theme for Mia's 7th birthday paw-ty. Besides being fairly simple to make, it was virtually free! (My favorite kind of project, in case you didn't know.) All I had to buy was a 59 cent bottle of paint since I ran out after the first coat.

As soon as guests arrived, they received a pair of puppy ears. Once they were ready, I had them pose in the doghouse. The photos will be used in the thank-you cards (more on those later!).


Materials for Making Doghouse:

• large cardboard box
• scissors
• pencil
• ruler
• hot glue gun
• black Sharpie marker
• red acrylic paint
• white acrylic paint
• black acrylic paint

Directions for Making Doghouse:

1. Deconstruct the box and lay it flat. Using a pair of sharp scissors (or a box cutter, if you are more intrepid -- and less accident-prone than myself), cut along a seam so that you now have 2 pieces of cardboard. Each one is two sides of the box. Trim away the smaller flaps from one piece. (In case you are wondering, my cardboard measured 35 1/2" wide by 43" tall at that point.)
2. Using a ruler, find the center point of the piece of cardboard. Mark it with a pencil. Next, use the ruler and pencil to make vertical and horizontal lines, dividing the cardboard into quadrants. (This is not necessary, but I found it helpful). Tip: Make all marks on the "outside" of the cardboard: the part that has printing on it. Then, when you flip it over, you will have a perfectly clean piece of cardboard to work with.
3. This was the point when I decided how the roof line should look. I decided to make a horizontal line about 1/3 from the top, all the way across, because that looked right visually. Then I used my ruler to draw angles from the outside edges of that line, meeting at the top. (Remember, I already had a center line, so this is why it was handy.) I used scissors to cut along the lines and ended up with a triangular point on top of the house.

   

   {The basic shape}

4. Next up, I made the doggie door. I decided the top of the door would be my center point. I didn't want it to be very wide, just enough for kids to pop their heads through, otherwise there might be clutter in the background of the photos. I measured 10" for width, 5" on either side of the vertical center line, and then drew lines. To get the curve at the top, I traced around the rim of a large plastic bowl. Then, I cut it all out with my scissors. Tip: Since I wasn't worried about how the part I was cutting away looked, I was free to cut it into smaller chunks. For some reason, I have found small triangles to be easier to work with rather than one large semi-circle.
5. After getting the basic doghouse shape, I flipped my cardboard over to the "clean" side and laid in on a layer of newspaper. I used a foam paintbrush to apply a coat of red acrylic paint, let it dry, and then added a second coat of paint. 
6. Once the second coat dried, I took a strip of cardboard (one of my discarded pieces), which was the same width as my doghouse and about 2 inches tall and used this as a straight edge to make lines across the entire house with a black Sharpie. This made it look like wooden boards. I added two "nails" per board along the outside edges. These were just small black hand-drawn circles. I also outlined the rest of the doghouse with black Sharpie for a more finished look.

   

   {Adding the "boards"}

7. It didn't look finished, so I took two more strips of cardboard (again about 2 inches wide) and cut each one at a 45 degree angle so that they would meet up to make the roof. These, I painted with black acrylic paint and once they were dry, I adhered them with my hot glue gun. 
8. To personalize the doghouse, I cut an oval out of some scrap cardboard and painted it with white acrylic paint (two coats). After the paint had dried, I outlined it with black Sharpie and then added another oval set about 1/4" in from the outline. Then I typed "Mia" using this free font and printed it out, trimmed it to size, and glued it the the placard. Lastly, I hot glued the oval to the front of the doghouse.

   

   {Finished!}

9. Before displaying the photo prop, I took two extra scraps of rectangular cardboard and hot glued them to the back of the doghouse on either side of the door. I had noticed it was a bit flimsy (likely because I used more then one side of a box to create it), and this served as a necessary reinforcement. To hang it, I used twine which was not elegant, but it fit with the theme just fine. I cut two lengths and used plenty of masking tape to adhere them "stitches" fashion. Then, I taped both lengths of twine to the mantel with clear packaging tape. It had just enough distance between the prop and the fireplace for the kids to kneel behind it for photos. (Note: I had taped a small section of white plastic table cover behind the opening to the doghouse, and I later wished I had covered the whole area the way I did for the Care Bear photo prop from last year. Despite not thinking of that sooner, it looked pretty good.)

Chocolate "Pupcakes" for a Puppy Paw-ty

Once again, I saw a picture of something and thought, I can do that. Too bad mine didn't turn out as nicely as hers but at least I got to try this out for a fairly small family gathering before I attempted to make them for the entire first grade class! (Note: I will not be doing that. I have a simpler game plan in mind for the actual birthday-at-school cupcakes.)

The main problem I faced was that the cake was so wonderfully moist and the frosting was a bit dry, so those two didn't pair as well as I had hoped. While they didn't look as lovely as I had hoped, they were quite delicious! Here's how I made my chocolate "pupcakes."

Dark Chocolate Cake (makes 28 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 cup baking cocoa
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used extra virgin olive instead.)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup boiling water (recipe calls for 2/3 - 1 cup)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Prepare pans. (Recipe says two 9 inch rounds or one 9"x13". I was planning cupcakes, so I lined two muffin tins with brown paper liners that I had found on clearance at Walmart for $1.50.)
3. In a mixing bowl, stir together dry ingredients.
4. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Beat for 2 minutes at medium speed.
5. Stir in boiling water by hand. Batter will be thin.
6. Bake for 18-20 minutes for cupcakes. (Mine were done after 18 minutes, and they were filled about 2/3 full.) For 9 inch rounds, the recipe says to bake for 30-35 minutes, and about 5 minutes longer for a rectangular pan.

No-Cook Fudge Frosting (recipe from my friend Jenifer)

Ingredients:

• 4 3/4 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup boiling water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Mix dry ingredients.
2. Add butter, water, and vanilla. 
3. Beat at low speed until combined and then for an additional minute at medium speed.
4. Allow to cool for 20-30 minutes. (Huh? Okay, I skipped this, so maybe that was why it came out dry? Also, she told me I probably shouldn't have skimped on the sifting. I started this, but gave up part way through... And now I know that if nothing else works, add more liquid.)

Decorating Pupcakes:

For the eyes: I used either brown mini M&M's or brown Reese's Pieces.

For the noses: For the faces with mini M&M eyes, I used a brown Reese's Pieces. For the others, I used a mini Reese's peanut butter cup.

For the ears and mouths: I used large pretzel twists and broke them (easier said than done) to make pointy ears. With the remaining pieces, I did my best to shape them into cute mouths (again, easier said than done. And just now, I notice that the original picture shows different types of puppy faces...)

For the tongues: I used my kitchen scissors to trim strawberry Fruit Roll-Ups into the proper shape.

All around, I had a problem with having decorated these pupcakes the day before they were to be eaten. The Fruit Roll-ups turned kind of melty. The pretzels became stale, oddly enough. And since that frosting was a tad bit dry, the eyes and noses really didn't want to stay in place whatsoever. Not my best cake ever, but probably not my worst either. Oh well, like I said, I have another idea in mind for the next round.

Puppy Paw-ty Balloons

I saw the idea for puppy balloons here and decided it shouldn't be too difficult to make them myself. There were a couple challenges, but I think my version turned out pretty well. The first issue I had is that brown balloons are difficult to find. Granted, I only checked Dollar Tree and two different Walmart stores, but I decided that was enough running around looking for brown balloons. At the second Walmart I found a single package of gold balloons, and I decided that they were good enough! The next issue was that I didn't have a way to inflate the balloons to look like the photo. I solved that problem, however, by just blowing them up with my own steam and making the faces "upside down" -- as opposed to the way they would look if the balloons were filled with helium. Then, I taped them to the dining room chandelier.

The grand total spent on this decoration = 97 cents for a package of 10 balloons. So far, I only have used three of the balloons for the family party. I am secretly (or I guess not so secretly since I am announcing it here) hoping that they will last through this weekend's party with friends, but if not, I know it will be easy to make some more puppy balloons (especially if I just re-use the ears and muzzles).

Materials:

• gold balloons (or brown if you can find them)
• pencil or pen
• black Sharpie marker
• kraft paper cardstock (I used 8 1/2" x 11" size.)
• scissors
• double-sided adhesive
• clear tape (for hanging)

Directions:

1. Inflate your balloons. I used three for this puppy paw-ty decor.
2. Fold a piece of kraft paper cardstock in half, lengthwise. Draw a floppy ear, which is sort of a long skinny bean shape, and cut it out. Use this as a template to trace as many ears as you will need. Cut out all ears. Save the scraps for the next step. (Note: If you don't have kraft paper, you can use brown cardstock or brown construction paper.)
3. On a scrap of the kraft paper, draw a dog's muzzle. This looks a bit like an upside down heart. After the first one, I added a sort of notch at the top for the nose, but you can skip that if you prefer. Cut out your muzzle, and again use it as a template, tracing as many as needed on the other scraps of kraft paper. On each muzzle, use a black Sharpie to fill in the nose, draw a mouth, and make "freckles" on either side (or whatever the correct term is for those spots where the whiskers originate from).
4. Using double-sided adhesive, attach ears and muzzles to each balloon. I used approximately one inch squares, one per ear and two per muzzle.
5. Draw two ovals for eyes with a black Sharpie.
6. Use tape to display the puppy face balloons.

My Kooky Christmas Cookie Story

Remember when I said that the holidays make everyone crazy? Well, this is what happens when I tell my husband to stop photobombing the pics of the kids decorating Christmas cookies. Notice that he did NOT listen to my demand request. Instead, he lifted poor Ritzy up so she could get in on the photobombing action, too. Honestly, this is the greatest picture ever! I can't tell if she is totally freaked out, or if she is really, really hoping that he is helping her get a bit closer to those delectable cookies.

Cookies for Santa? Check. Laughter? Check. I guess I can't complain when I get more than I bargained for. Merry Christmas from my crazy family -- cookie-craving canine, included -- to yours! I hope you will take a little time to recognize all of your blessings, especially the unexpected ones.

{Me want cookie!}

How to Tell If Your Dog May Be Spoiled

Using my pseudo-scientific method, you too, can determine if your dog is spoiled in just three easy steps.

1) Make some popcorn.
Don't worry; even the most sluggish of pooches will soon learn to recognize and respond to the sound of un-popped kernels being poured into the air popper. (The more quickly she emerges from her den, the more likely it is that you have a spoiled dog on your hands.)

2) Observe your dog's behavior while the popcorn is popping.
Does your dog simply watch as pieces of popped corn fly out of the air popper and land on the floor, totally ignoring them while giving you the "you've got to be kidding me" look? (If so, she may be spoiled.)

{Is it just me or does it really look like she's laughing?}

3) To be certain, add melted butter and note how excited your dog becomes. 
For example, my dog suddenly becomes much more lively because this is what she was waiting for! (Yeah, this is the true litmus test for determining whether or not your dog is truly spoiled.)

Now that your suspicions are confirmed, you may as well share your buttered popcorn with your spoiled pet. Before you jump down my throat, our vet says this is an acceptable treat for dogs. Okay, she didn't specifically say to add butter, but as you can see, her royal highness has decided that this is the only way she will eat it! By the way, I should add that step 2b is to clean up any un-buttered popcorn that landed on the floor, because the pampered pooch sure isn't going to take care of it any time soon.

{Oh, really, who could say "no" to this sweet face?}

DIY Snoopy Costume

Sewing is definitely not one of my strongest skills, but I was pleased with how this home-made Snoopy costume for my husband's work party (his department had a Charlie Brown theme) turned out, especially considering that he only gave me a couple days notice that he wanted something like this. It wasn't really difficult so I think anybody can do this. I started with this basic idea for using a white hooded sweatshirt, which I found on clearance at Old Navy for $10.49 and improved upon it. The only other items I purchased were two pieces of black felt which were 23 cents each at Walmart. I was originally thinking that now that it served its purpose, I would dye the sweatshirt whatever color he chooses, but my mom suggested that we keep it for a Halloween costume, so I may wait a bit before deciding what to do. If I had known I might have wanted this to be permanent, I might have used something like Liquid Stitch to save myself some time.

Materials:

• white hooded sweatshirt
• 2 pieces of black felt 
• white felt
• scissors
• needle
• white thread
• black thread
• hot glue gun (optional)
• 16 gauge craft wire (optional)
• wire cutters (only needed if using craft wire)
• 2 black pipe cleaners (optional)

Directions:

1. Cut the first piece of black felt into a large oval shape. It doesn't have to be perfect. Tip: Save your scraps later. Sew this to the back of the sweatshirt using black thread to make Snoopy's big spot on his back. I am not sure of the name of the stitch (running?) that I used but it was just like those lacing cards from when I was younger. I just did big stitches, about 1" long, and spaced them approximately 1" apart. I wasn't worried about how well it would hold up since I thought it would get worn once and then clipped off so that I could dye the sweatshirt.
2. Fold the second piece of black felt in half like a hamburger. Then, cut out a floppy ear shape. These can be simple ovals, again, or if you want they can be more of a kidney bean shape. Either way, you will end up with two identical ears. Position them how you would like onto the hood of the sweatshirt. Use black thread to stitch them onto the hood.
3. Cut a piece of white felt into a triangle shape, making it as long as you would like Snoopy's tail to be. (The website I found directions on said to use black felt, but my husband said that wasn't right. I checked online and sure enough, his tail is white with a small black spot, not black, if you want to be precise.) I used a length of 16 gauge craft wire that I already had at home, which I cut with wire cutters to help give the tail some shape and make it stick out from the back of the sweatshirt. This is optional, but it looks nice (Plus, Brett says his co-workers really liked it when Snoopy wagged his tail after getting a strike. Their party took place at a bowling alley.) I laid the wire on top of the white felt triangle, stuffed it with some of the extra felt that I had cut, rolled it up into a long, narrow, cone shape, and hot glued it. I tried my best to make the seams end up on the underside of the tail. Then, I covered up what was left of the seam with a black felt spot that I cut out and hot glued to the tail. Lastly, I sewed the tail to the back of the sweatshirt using white thread. Tip: If you don't have craft wire, you can use a wire coat hanger instead. 
4. This last step is optional, but I think it completed the look. Make a collar out of two black pipe cleaners. Fit them around the neck of your Snoopy, and twist them together. If needed, you can trim away the excess. (I also sent him with some black ribbon and black yarn, but this was the collar option he went with since it didn't require any tying, glue, tape, staples, or other work.)
5. Another option I gave him was some black face paint so that he could paint on a Snoopy nose. He chose not to do this since we had a Date Night together that evening. I think that was the right choice, but if you don't have anywhere else to be, it would be a nice finishing touch.

{Snoopy was a hit with our girl, Ritzy!}

Wish Fulfillment?

Like all moms, I find myself wishing and praying that my kids will grow up to be good people: kind,  loving, sharing... Sometimes I wonder whether or not I am the right person to prepare them to be the kind of human beings I want to raise. Then there are little glimmers of hope interspersed amongst the craziness that is day-to-day life with young children.

Tonight, as we were eating dinner (or rather the kids were complaining about the crescent mummy dogs I had prepared, which is another story altogether...), I noticed that Logan was handing pieces of mixed vegetables to Ritzy underneath the table. When I tried to stop him by saying, "Please don't feed the dog," he gave me a knowing grin and informed me, "I sharing!" Well played, Little Man, well played. Who am I to complain when my child is willingly sharing when I have asked him to do this very thing so many times before?

Mr. Mischief

{Not normally where I like him to wear his diapers...}

{Good thing he's cute.}

{Who me?}

{Yes, you! Tiny pasta everywhere... Did I mention that he's cute?}

{An all-too familiar scene... but at least he's cute!}

{He can tie knots. Who knew? Poor dog didn't know how to deal with this.}

{Speaking of the poor dog, here he is stealing her food yet again.}

{Yes, I let my child eat dog food. What can I say, other than he's cute!}

{"Me a doggy. Woof woof." He'll outgrow this someday, right?}

A Girl and Her (Very Tolerant) Dog

{Ritzy dressed as Belle}

{And here she is as Snow White.}

{I swear this dog seems to enjoy dressing like a princess!}

How to Throw a Birthday Bash for Your Dog (No, Really)

First let me say that I am not a crazy person. I do not routinely have parties for animals or otherwise treat pets like children. (Well, okay, our old dog did have a small wardrobe, and I may have frequently occasionally signed her name to Christmas cards and the like... but that was during the B.C. era-- before children!) I swear I am now reformed from that sort of behavior.

That said, we celebrated our dog Ritzy's fifth birthday over the weekend. Mia had been asking for months when her birthday was (I had told her "sometime in the summer.") and if we could have a party for her. When I asked Mia what she wanted to do for Ritzy's birthday, she told me we needed to have a cake, streamers, balloons, party hats, a present, and we needed to sing "Happy Birthday." We took the kids to the store and picked out a bone, which I wrapped in doggie covered gift wrap. Next, I pulled out some of my Dollar Tree crepe paper streamers that I keep in the craft supplies and let Mia and her cousin Eric, who was visiting for a few days, decorate the dining room chairs. I twisted red and pink streamers together and hung them in the dining room entry. There were no balloons. I drew the line at balloons.

We did, however, have a cake, and I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. I found the recipe for a Peanut Butter Carrot Cake (that promised to be safe for dogs) on this website. This cake wasn't too huge so it didn't seem very wasteful to make, and as a bonus, it contained ingredients I already had in the house. The cake was a huge hit with Ritzy and her "cousin" Greta, who was also visiting. It looked pretty, smelled good, and didn't taste too bad (not that any of the human party-goers were that keen on eating it). Instead of pureed cottage cheese icing, I used my offset spatula to frost the cake with low fat cream cheese. I decorated the cake with Milk Bones and inserted five cut-up Pup-peroni "candles." We sang "Happy Birthday," attempted to get the dogs to wear party hats (generic Happy Birthday hats from Dollar Tree), and then watched them wolf down their slices of cake (after first looking at us suspiciously to figure out why we were serving them what appeared to be "people food" on regular plates).

In case you are wondering, I pulled off this entire party for under $5. I will warn you, though, that Dollar Tree's party hats are very cheaply made, (Duh! You get 8 for $1.) so the elastic broke on all of them. Anyway, I think it goes without saying that dogs do not like to wear party hats. I couldn't get a picture of Ritzy wearing hers for the millisecond that it stayed on, although I got a couple of "cousin" Greta. All in all, it was the best birthday party I have ever thrown for a dog. (Remember, I have never done this before, I swear!) Would I do it again? Sure. It made the kids happy, and it was even kinda fun for me. I really enjoyed making and decorating that birthday cake for the dog. Add that to the list of things I never thought I would say... until I became a mom.

A Boy and His Dog (are Not So Different)

Some people will tell you that having a dog does not prepare you for having a baby. While kids and dogs are obviously not the same, I tend to disagree. Having a son is very much like having a dog. Here are some things that I've caught Logan doing that mimic our dog, Ritzy's, actions:

• eating dog food (Of course, we don't give this to him!)
• dipping his hand/cup/pacifier in the dog's water dish (and then sucking on it)
• lying in the dog's kennel (He gets in there on his own, and then he refuses to get out. Sometimes he even shuts the door!)
• tracking in dirt
• making a lot of unnecessary noise
• demanding attention
• enjoying time outside
• carrying things around in his mouth
• nipping playfully
• spilling his food
• dribbling his water
• snuggling
• chewing on things (shoes, clothes, toys, the dog's rawhide...)
• eating grass

The main difference between having a son and having a dog is that you can leave the dog home alone!