Pupdate

Can you believe how fast Splash is growing? She's up to 14 pounds now and due for her final shot (rabies) next week. What a little lady. She's really a very good girl when she's not getting into mischief . That being said, she has about a million times more energy than the labs had as puppies!

On the Aroo Studio home front I was so pleased that these arrived today! We needed some hang tags in a hurry so I designed these mini business cards as a stand in! I think they will work great for the puppy blankets & toys. In fact, I love the size so much I'm thinking we may want to switch to this style for all our products. Sorry for the grainy photo quality, it's wintry and dark in here! Well, as wintry as it gets here anyway, I have mittens on as I type. Hopefully we'll actually start making some money soon so we can move to a better spot. Fingers crossed on that one, I'd love to have heat in my next place. Sitting inside in a snow jacket, scarf & mittens and putting jackets on the dogs wouldn't be something I would miss!

On Display

It's fun to go into a store and see our collars on display! This is Dogville in San Anselmo, CA. We love this shop and pop in on occasion when we are in the area.

We've been working on a wholesale order for Fetch & Co, a new store in Australia. It's been keeping me from blogging a bit, but we are pleased to be busy sewing collars for our first international location! In other news, Modern Dog Magazine requested a sample of our Ladybird Forest Puppy Blanket for possible inclusion in the magazine. That left me scrambling to find more of the fabric we use for them as it's a limited stock item and I want to make sure we have some on hand if they do appear in the magazine. I did manage to find some, yay! I'm also working on some new patterns for puppy blankets as well and will keep you posted.

Blurred Vision

This week has been a blur. I house sat for a while, then dove into reading the Twilight series to escape from reality a bit. I'm on book 3. Splash is growing so quickly before my eyes and work is taking up most of my time.

Yesterday we woke up to 3 Aroo Studio orders, a new record! One is a huge wholesale order so we will be busy sewing for a couple weeks.

I tried my hand a graphic design on an ad for Aroo Studio and came up with the ad at the top of this post with Elaine's help. It's not as sharp at this small size as the original, but you get the idea.

Splash is posing on the Blueberry Buck-Aroo Fabric with one of our new stuffed bone toys, I haven't had the chance to get them ready for the website yet but will be doing that eventually. In the meantime we are prepping for the Renegade Craft Fair and will be making bones for that!

Pumpkin Hunting

We had a fabulous time getting pumpkins this year! Cora and Splash came along with their Halloween costumes. It was perfect socilization for miss Splash. We took a hay ride and saw goats, horses, llamas, chickens, and rabbits. There were so many people there to pet her and the kids especially loved saying hi to Splash.

Splash's favorite thing about pumpkins is the chewable stem!

Yep, she is a skunk. What can I say, she has skunk breath so it seemed right!

Cora is a the cutest little bat I've ever seen! Love this costume, simple, easy, and Cora didn't mind wearing it in the least.

Does this Mean we are Renegades?

We got into the Renegade Craft Fair! Hooray! It's been a long time since we applied to be a vendor, and since you have to be selected to participate it's been a long wait with baited breath. I am thrilled we get to be included.

A little about the fair from Renegade's web site:

"The Renegade Craft Fair is a unique DIY event held annually in Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles & San Francisco. RCF has gained a reputation over the last six years as being the biggest, best and the most well-known of all the DIY craft fairs out there. Each individual fair draws hundreds of applicants and tens of thousands of shoppers from all over the country and abroad! At RCF you’ll find all sorts of cool handmade stuff – including plush items, jewelry, posters + prints, craft kits, clothing, stationery + more."

I know where I'll be doing my holiday shopping, this is when having 2 people to run the booth comes in handy, one of us can still shop!

Please mark your calendars and come see us, we will be having an awesome sale at the show!

Details:
Renegade Craft Holiday Sale in SAN FRANCISCO!
December 19 + 20 from 11am – 7pm at the Fort Mason Center Herbst Pavilion
Reasonable parking pricing in the lot too-$8 max for all day

Frustration...

is more than pulling up a chair and taking a seat. It's ringing the doorbell and barging in with a months worth of luggage. Recent adoption beagle Cora has been having potty accidents in the house on occasion ever since we've had her. The past 2 days she's pooped in the house twice, peed once in the living room and once in Elaine's new van. When cleaning up the urine in the living room we moved the sofa and found old dried urine under there...ew! Did I mention last week she ruined the living room rug? Anyway, the smell was awful and doesn't seem normal. I'm making a vet appointment for her to rule out any medical cause. I fear my bank account is headed into the depths of negativity. She seemed to be making so much progress this past week; I'm a bit baffled by the setback. After all, she does know how to ask to be let out to potty and can be quite insistent at times when I'm busy that I let her out, it's odd that sometimes she'll just go in the house. Part of me hopes it is a medical issue that is minor and can be resolved easily, since house training both a puppy (Splash) and adult dog in tandem is a bit more on my plate than my stomach can handle. I dread a more serious medical issue, so am trying not to think about that at this point. I'm sure it's a problem that time and patience will fix, after all, she lives with 2 very attentive dog trainers.

Cora

Cora did some modeling for me today of the holiday collar. She was very excited and did really well "Aroo-ing" for me. She's doing better every day, and still settling in to her new routine and new family here. She's been less shy and less vocal, and doesn't scavenge relentlessly for food in the evenings anymore. She's lost more weight and seems to be more energetic because of it.

I was delighted when I found Cora playing with Hopi & Splash today, she hasn't really played with the other dogs at the house much at all. She used to run away into her crate if Hopi tried to play, so this is a great development. I did get a video of them playing and once I figure out how to get the movie onto the computer and hopefully edit it (any recommendations for PC video editing software?) I'll share it with you all!

It's been a new experience for me rescuing an adult dog-Hopi was a puppy when we found him alongside the highway in the desert, and warmed up to us right away. Cora on the other hand is taking her sweet time, after all, she has had 3 other homes before coming to us. So it's understandable. One of the members at our beagle meet up said it took about a year or so for her rescue beagle to be 100% comfortable in her new home, but now her dog is doing great.

Holiday Collars!

Holiday collars are here! I LOVE them! I'm going to attempt a photo shoot with miss Splash wearing one tomorrow (we'll see how that goes without Elaine around to help me, she's pet sitting). I still can't believe it's already getting close to the holidays. Seeing pumpkins around makes me smile. I bought a Halloween costume for Splash too (she'll only be a puppy once, right?). I'll keep her costume a surprise for now...it's really quite adorable!

Holiday Handmade {for dogs}

It's officially October and I am smitten! I love Fall! This morning I could see my breath, no common feat here in coastal Northern California. I'm thinking ahead to the holiday season, there's not much time to prepare handmade gifts before all craziness erupts around me.

Here are a few projects I found that would make perfect gifts for dogs or dog owners:

Dog Bone Toy made from recycled sweaters (shown above)

Recycled Dog Sweater

Fleece Tug Toy

Drawstring Doggie Bag

Dog Bone Bed

Felt Dog Key Chain

Happy crafting!

Giveaway Winner! Aroo!

Thanks to everyone who entered our biscuit collar giveaway! Our winner is Kalin, she'll be getting her very own biscuit collar. Keep checking back on the blog for more giveaways, there will be more!