New Pug Notes Holiday Cards and Calendars for 2009

I am excited to announce a new Holiday Card Line for Pug Notes.

You can check out the new designs here and order them here.

We have also just released our new Pug Art and Dog Art Calendars for 2009.

I am very proud of all of the new designs and products.

Please leave a comment if you wish. I am excited to hear what you think.

Two Thumbs Up - Favorite Beauty Items

We thought it would be fun to share our favorite beauty products today.

You know, the ones that have pretty bottles, smell good are fun to play Spa Day at home.

We find these to be pretty affordable and to work well:

Emmitt:

Shampoo - Castor & Pollux All Natural Head to Tail Pet Shampoo, Aloe Oatmeal

Tooth Care - Wysong DentaTreat

Bone and Joint Health - Zuke's Hip Action Treats

Melissa:

Shampoo: Egg Creme Shampoo

Deep Conditioner: Phytonectar Ultra Nourishing Oil Treatment

Facial wash/peel: Olay Regenerist - Thermal Mini Peel

Please leave a comment... What are your favorite beauty products? Inquiring minds want to know :)

** No puggy was scrubbed or overly beautified in this blog entry. :)

Friday Fun - A Teddy and a Tag!

Look at this wonderful mohair and wool bear my sister, Melanie just completed!

She is an extremely talented teddy bear artist. She felted the wool body from a sweater we got at the thrift store and hand sewed the whole thing. He is about 10" tall, full jointed and even has jingle bells on his toes! I love the details she includes like a handmade hat and wooden buttons on his sweater. This teddy is not for sale, but you can own one of her other bears in her Etsy Shop.

I have been tagged by my very talented friend, Fannie. Her blog Imagine, Create, Inspire
is the most wonderful place to visit everyday. She is always creating something new and amazing and inspires me everyday!

The Tag is to list 6 unimportant things about myself :

1. I love to ride my road bike for hours. I ride outside when it is nice out and inside on my trainer when it is cold or rainy. I don't ride everyday, but it is always fun when I get to go.
2. I love coffee! Even just the smell makes me happy, happy!
3. I am allergic to cats, but I think they are cool critters.
4. I have had a pet bird since I was 10. I have had 3 parakeets, a love bird and now a parrotlet named Gilbert.
5. I majored in psychology at the University of Michigan, but my favorite classes were Art History. HMMMM - What was I trying to tell myself back then? :)
6. I was a picture framer for 15 years with a mobile shop of my own for 7 of those years.

I extend an open invitation to anyone who wants to play too. Please let me know if you make a list so I can come and read it too!

Have a great weekend!

Learning CSS

One of the things I love to do is design, create and maintain my website. I have a basic knowledge of HTML and work in FrontPage 2003.

The new trend is to use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in your code to quickly make a change in one place and have it change throughout your site instead of opening each page and making the change 100 times. :)

I am currently taking an online Intro CSS class taught by Debbie Miller at Eclectic Academy. I am having a great time! We are in week 3 and I thought it would be fun to show you my progress.

In the first week she started to show us how to write code that creates styles that you define and then place that definition in your body of code where you want it to appear.

Here is a link to Week 1 where I inserted my Artist Statement and manipulated the header to center my name in green. :)

Week 2: I created a polka dot background, changed the colors in the header and navigation bar and added my pugs. Now it is starting to look more like my style of art and color.

Week 3: We learned about external style sheets, text, border, margin and picture controls to space and place things with precision.

We still have 3 more weeks of class so I will keep you updated on my progress. Microsoft has stopped writing updates to FrontPage and has created a new web designer called Expression Web which supports CSS and many other things that FrontPage had trouble with.

I have just enrolled in the July session of Eclectic Academy to learn Expression Web. I am very excited to dive in and learn new things to take my website, http://www.pugnotes.com/
to the next level.

Meet our Newest Pug Friends and an Award

Meet our new friend, Clover.

She is a very smart puggy who lives in Canada. She has a wonderful blog called Clover's Adventures that shows us all the new things she is learning and doing everyday.

Like learning to swim!

Clover was so sweet to honor us with this blog award!

Emmitt and I are so excited that we would like to share it with our friend...

Howard Pug Pee Pants from Texas!

His mom, Nancy Medina is an extremely talented artist. She has a new blog called Outside the Lines where she shares her art, pug stories of her famous pugs, Howie, Annie and Java and their special angel pug sister, Winnie.

and wonderful rescue stories of the pugs she has met over the years and seen go to wonderful forever homes.

Here is a picture of their friend, Killer, learning to swim at a pool pawty!

Look at that face!

Please welcome Nancy to the blogosphere. She would love to meet you!

Emmitt says, he does not know how to swim, but this is what he would do if he knew how and had a pool!

Have a great day!

New Black Pug Tape Measure

I had lots of fun making new art this weekend. I just completed a matching black pug crocheted tape measure to the fawn pug already for sale in my etsy shop.

Just like her fawn brother, her ear pulls out to reveal the measuring tape and you push her nose to retract it.

Aren't they cute together!

My finger puppets and tape measures are having a pawty!

They would love to go home with you!

Have a Wonderful Holiday!

Emmitt and I wish you a very happy and safe Memorial Day!

Today we plan to enjoy the great Colorado weather with playtime in the park, gardening with Fred and a bike ride. Emmitt wishes he could go on the ride, but he understands that he needs to stay home to supervise Fred in the vegetable garden. Hunting for vegetables is Emmitt's favorite activity.

Please leave a comment and tell us how you spent your day off. :)

A New Batch - One of a Kind - Pug Pendants

I have just added six one of a kind decoupaged pug pendants in my Etsy Store.The silver plated heart pendant is beautifully detailed on the front and the back.

Each one is hand crafted by me using beautiful papers, a silver plated heart charm, my pugs and decoupage medium.

Enjoy! They are now available in my Etsy Store.

Netting 101

We had the best time last night! Melanie met me after work and we spent the time before class shopping at our 3 favorite stores, PetSmart, TJ Maxx, and Michaels! We got great stuff for the animals, new gym shorts for $12 and craft supplies before heading to the YARN Store. Our Favorite!

We spent the evening learning how to net, which is basically making a fisherman's net or knots into a bag. It was sooooo fun and relaxing. I compare it to crochet with a shuttle instead of a hook. It reminding me of the weaving class we took last fall.

The history of this art is amazing. We could have had just a class on that all night. We really had fun, and we get to go to another class next Thursday night. Before then, I plan to have this bag complete and a new one started from scratch.

Here is what the bags look like finished. These are small, but we can make them any size. I see some great shopping bags in my future.

Here is the bag with the first few rounds complete. You net with tension on the piece so our teacher, Margaret, had them suspended from upside down table legs. Pretty clever!

Here is my bag so far with the shuttle hanging from my kitchen cabinet for tension. :)

It is really a fast project and nets up quickly.

I bought lots more cotton yarn for more bags! I will keep you posted on my progress!

Have a safe and happy Holiday Weekend!

Pug Notes Quarterly Newsletter - Summer 2008

I am very excited to announce that the Pug Notes Quarterly Newsletter - Summer 2008 is now available for your enjoyment!

It is packed with 20 "Meet the Pugs" photos and stories from all over the world, A New Recipe Section, New Pug Notes Products, Dozens of Fun 2008 Event Photos and A Sneek Peek as to what is coming for the Fall Issue.

I want to thank all of you because I could not have created it without you!

Please e-mail me anytime if you would like to receive the Fall Issue in your inbox - October 2008.

One of a Kind Pug Pendants...

I have just added four one of a kind decoupaged pug pendants in my Etsy Store.

The silver plated heart pendant is beautifully detailed on the front and the back.

Each one is hand crafted by me using beautiful papers, my pugs and decoupage medium.

I really enjoyed making them!

A Walk to the Park

We have a wonderful park in our neighborhood that we walk Emmitt to everyday. It is his favorite place to go hunting for popcorn, crackers, left over sandwiches and pizza.

Emmitt has found all of these things there and pulls us there everyday hoping always to find another morsel.

We had perfect weather here in Colorado this weekend. I brought my camera to show you Emmitt's stomping grounds...

Come on ... food is awaiting for me!

Wait! I smell something! It could be pizza!

Nope, it is not pizza, but whatever it is... I want to take it home with me!

Let's keep moving! I know I will find something!

Pleeeeeaze... Can I have a cookie?

I love going to the park!

What a great day!

and the best part is it is lunchtime when we get home!

Love, Emmitt