Emmitt's Wordless Wednesday

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

xoxoxo

Melissa and Emmitt

Lion Squares for Charity

I had so much fun crocheting elephant and lion squares for the Knit-A-Square charity this month.

The August Challenge was to make our squares in a African Theme. I made 10 elephant squares and 6 lion squares in lots of bright colors.

Elephant Squares

Lion Squares

I love the 3-D effect that the elephant ears and trunks & the lion manes give to the squares.

I think they will look so cute sewn into blankets with everyone else's squares that come from all over the world.

The Knit-A-Square Charity is truly amazing for all the work they do to keep the children in South Africa warm.

Many of the children have HIV or AIDS and often sleep outdoors or in very cold conditions.

They often have just one set of clothes that they wear all week and then have barely anything on the day they do laundry. The blankets, vests, sweaters and hats that are created really provide alot of warmth and comfort for them.

I am so impressed with the connections Knit-A Square creates all over the world.

Not only do they work tirelessly to create these blankets from our indiviual squares and get them into the communities, but they also have an online forum for people from all over the world to communicate and share their ideas, squares and friendship.

If you remember, the July Challenge was to make blankets and hats for the newborns and toddlers.

The new September Challenge is to create "Go-Over" sweaters for the bigger children to wear over their all of their existing clothes like a wearable blanket. One of the KAS members developed and shared her free pattern made out of the squares we already make. We just sew them together in panels and fold longer ones in tubes for arms and it is complete.

Two examples of "Go-Over" Sweaters

I am so excited to start my first one. I read about the pattern last night before I went to sleep and woke up with a design idea for mine. I hope to make at least 2 by the end of September.

I will definitely keep you posted on my progress. :)

Marketing Idea - Bookmarks

(Front - watermark not on actual bookmark)

I had a new marketing idea last week that I wanted to share with you.

One of my wonderful customers emailed me to see if I could make bookmarks for her to buy and handout to children when she and her pug read to them through their therapy work.

I thought what a wonderful idea and did a little research. My favorite online printer, VistaPrint, where I get all of my business cards and postcards made does not make bookmarks. So, I found another online printer, Overnight Prints, that I never knew about. Their prices are great and the ordering process was easy.

I asked my customer if I could put my company information on the back and send her a large quantity for free to hand out. She was thrilled and so am I because now I have a new marketing piece to handout that is fun and functional!

(Bookmark - back)

I love getting emails and suggestions from all of you! They all open so many wonderful doors to new exciting ideas and products.

Please contact me anytime with any suggestions, ideas, pug photos for the newsletter, or just to say Hi! Emmitt and I would love to hear from you!

I could not do any of this without you!

Have a super Monday everyone!

Friday Funnies... Emmitt wants cookies!

May I have cooooookie?

Pleeeeez!

I really am a good boy!!

Yummy!

WOWie! Look what I found on the floor a whole pile of cupcakes, donuts and goodies!

See! Sugar doesn't affect your smile!

Mine is perfect!

Happy Friday everyone!

Have a great weekend!

xoxoxoxo

Emmitt

Quilt Magic ~ No Sewing!

I love quilts and quilting! It is an art form that has unending possibilities, and one day I will learn how to sew well enough to even attempt it. :)

A few years ago, Melanie and I were in a neat shop in Estes Park that had these wonderful 3-D quilts that had the words No Sew on them. Well we both scurried right over to the display and found these wonderful kits!

The company is called Quilt Magic and they are so much fun! All you do is cut out the fabric pieces in the kit and use a butter knife to push the fabric into the lazer cut patterns in the special foam forms.

Melanie and I bought the kits and even substituted some of the fabrics with our own from our stash of vintage scraps.

The patterns are wonderful! You can find everything from tradtional quilt patterns to mountain and holiday scenes. You name it, they have it!

I had so much fun making all of them. The whole process is relaxing and rewarding. It would be a fun activity to do with kids too.

Please let me know if you try one. I would love to see!

Emmitt LOVES his Painting!

Hi Everyone!

Emmitt here!

See how my tail is blurry in the photo? It is because it is wildly wagging with joy!

I am so excited! My birthday present from Auntie Nancy just arrived!

My momma was so excited that she ripped open the box and framed the picture before I could blink! :)

(She was a picture framer for 15 years and has never felt so much joy while framing a picture!)

We hung it in our hallway with all of our family pictures!

Although I love my momma more than anything, I had to put my paw down.

Momma, this is MY painting!

... but I will share it with you. :)

Thank you Auntie Nancy!

We will cherish it forever!

xoxoxoxo

Emmitt and Melissa

New Fun Finds for Cleaning & Organizing!

I have to show you the great new things I found last week!

Cleaning, organizing and bright colors are three things that really make me happy and smile! So you can imagine how I felt when I saw these things in my http://www.solutions.com/ catalog!

Not only are the things I am about to show you fun and functional, one of them was 1/2 price!

In the picture above you will see the set of 5 microwave bowls that have vented lids to cook and then store your food in the fridge. I love the colors and sizes. The little handles also make it easy to carry them to the table and serve right out of them. Then the left-overs can be put straight in the fridge. How fun is that?

The next set of containers I purchased in two different places. :)

This is a funny story. For Fred's birthday, I got him the onion and avocado storage containers from Tupperware. They are his two favorite foods and he eats them everyday for lunch and dinner - no matter what the recipe. :) So I thought it would be fun to get him the little storage boxes that help to keep them fresh in the fridge. Well, he liked them so much that I wanted to get him more. So I found the garlic, lemon and pepper boxes at solutions.com in my shopping frenzy for containers and now we have the whole set. :) Poor Fred. A little positive feedback and look what happens! Heeee!

The next thing I added to my shopping cart was so exciting!

We were just at Lowe's looking for the next thing I will show you, and I started looking at shelves to put in my closet to put my inventory of pug dolls. I could not find the right thing so I decided to wait and I am so glad I did!

In the Solutions.com Outlet section, I found this wonderful closet organizer for 1/2 off! It is just perfect! Can you believe it was only $11.99?

The last thing I got in my "favorite things" shopping spree was a new vacuum cleaner I found at Lowe's.

Vacuuming is one of my favorite things to do and last weekend my 8 year old Eureka bagged vacuum finally pooped out. I loved that thing. It was not too heavy, too tall or too expensive and it sucked up all of the pug hair. :)

I was so excited to find this Hoover that was under $100, is light and works great! It even has a retractable cord. But I think what sold me was the bright red plastic housing with bright yellow buttons! Isn't it fun!

As you can tell, I had so much fun cleaning and organizing all weekend. I do not know what Emmitt thinks of all of this, but he likes anything that has to do with food storage and the kitchen. :)

Have you found any fun finds lately? Please leave a comment and let me know. I would love to see!

Have a wonderful day!

Lion and Elephant Squares

Happy Monday everyone!

I am having so much fun creating African Themed Squares for the Knit-A-Square charity this month.

This weekend I finished crocheting the 10 Elephant Squares and then made my first Lion Square.

I made up the lion pattern by adapting the sun square into a background color with a yellow circle and then chained 10 and slip stitched the chain to form a loop. I did this in two rows in the front and back loops of the last circle row and then embroidered the face.

I am having so much fun making them and will show you more of the lions as I finish them!

What did you do this weekend? I would love to hear all about it!

Funny Friday ~ Emmitt's Tail

Hi everyone!

Emmitt here!

I have two short movies for you that cracked my pawrents up!

Watch my tail unwind...

and wind back up again!

It's magic I tell ya!

Have a wonderful weekend!

xoxoxoxo

Emmitt

Treasury Thursday :)

Please visit Aunt Bucky

Please visit iheartpugs


I am so honored to be included in two treasuries last week on Etsy.


Thank you to Aunt Bucky and iheartpugs.

You made our day!

I love seeing all of the wonderful treasuries on Etsy that people so creatively put together. I am really honored to be included with all of these fabuolus works of art!

Elephant Squares

A herd of Elephant Squares is coming!

I am having a wonderful time crocheting Elephant Squares for the Knit-A-Square Charity in South Africa.

Last month I made two baby blankets and and two matching hats for the July Challenge.

The August challenge is for the squares to have an African theme. I thought it would be fun to make an animal square, so I searched the web and found this great elephant pattern .

I am having so much fun creating a whole herd of them in bright colors.

I will keep you posted on my progress. What projects are you working on this month? I would love to hear all about them!

Why Am I Special?

Thank you again everyone for making Emmitt's 13th birthday so special!

Your wonderful comments, photos and emails to Emmitt mean more to us than I can tell you.

In celebration of this very special pug who has inspired all of my art, I want to share a book with you that is very close to my heart.

I wrote and illustrated it in 2006, and it is inspired by an important life lesson Emmitt has taught me.

Why Am I Special? is the story of Emmitt's journey to find out what makes him special.

In his quest, he travels to a dog park and meets over 60 dogs to find his answer...

and through many adventures and questions...

He finds his answer!

In conjunction with the story, I also wrote an Activity book that teaches reading comprehension, math and games.

The story is written for children ages 2 - 8 and the Activity book has fun lessons for children grades 1 - 3.

Both books are a wonderful way for me to share the important life lesson that Emmitt has taught me...

We do not need to look long and hard to find our purpose, why we are here, why we are special.

The answer is unique to each of us because we are all special in who we are and what we have to show the world.

Be yourself. Appreciate who you are because it is a gift to the world that inspires others around you more than you will ever know.

You all inspire me everyday, and I am so lucky to be a part of such a wonderful community of friends.

xoxoxox

Melissa