I Heart Doggy Style

Over here, we enjoy some good doggy style.  Can you tell?  Like crazy hardcore doggy style - with feathers, studs, fish net, cuffs.... 

Sebastian posing outside of BlogPaws Conference

Unfortunately, if you type "doggy style" into the search engine, you will not find my blog.  In fact, you will not find much of anything having to do with dogs or style.  

Go try it and see for yourself (Sebastian is chuckling right now).

The point of the shirts was to provoke those around us to ask questions about who we were.

Jason was a nervous wreck about wearing these shirts.  I really wasn't sure whether or not he was going to come through for us.  But once we were surrounded by all the BlogPaws madness, he got into the spirit.  Whew!

Sebastian passed out from doggy style overload

Besides, it's so fun to walk around in matching clothes.  Don't you agree?

xoxoxoxoxo,

Erika and Sebastian   

Sebastian Travels "The Loneliest Road in America"

U.S. Route 50 stretches from California to Maryland.  The portion that cuts through the center of Nevada was named The Loneliest Road in America and Sebastian would say it definitely holds up to its name!

We spent most of Monday on this road in Nevada.  Very little civilization and the road is so smooth. But there were a few little surprises along the way, including a "Sand Mountain."  Our pictures do not do justice.  This Sand Mountain is 600 feet high!

Now I could have swore I saw a tree with a bunch of shoes in it as we zoomed down the Loneliest Road (husband was too tired at this point to turn around and check - I'm still not happy about that) so I decided to look it up online and I found this photo!

Photo from http://zdeaconblue.wordpress.com

However, there's a lot of mumbo jumbo on the internet about this tree having been cut down in 2011 so I'm thinking the tree I saw was a "rebirth" of this one.  Either way, Sebastian and I will never know (glares at husband - BOL!).

Speaking of the shoe tree.... We came across a hat tree on Highway 93, which is the road we took to get to the Loneliest Road.  

Cool, right???  If only Sebastian would have known to bring his baseball cap.

Overall, we were pretty lonely on The Loneliest Road in America.  If you decide to travel this road some day, Sebastian recommends you bring a pillow.

XOXOXOXOXO,

Erika and Sebastian

Sebastian Visits The Great Salt Lake

Did you know...Great Salt Lake (in Salt Lake City, Utah) has islands?

We visited Antelope Island, home of 500-700 free range American Bison (Buffalos!!!).

Dogs are allowed on the island (hooray!), but not on the beach so this is as close as we got to this little guy (not that little in person).

Since Sebastian and I are such animal lovers, we got pretty excited when we found out this island is full of wildlife.  My husband drove us around as we wildly searched the area for any moving forms in the distance.  Luckily, we didn't have to look too far.

We went down every road we could find, but it was quite hot and windy too.  101 degrees and 40 mph winds...oh and hundreds of wasps!!!  Forget having a picnic outside of the car.

We spent a few hours sightseeing here.  We spotted a total of 6 Buffalos, so we were pretty excited about that.  Seeing animals outside of the zoo in their natural habitat is pretty exciting if you ask us.

You can camp out on this island too.  Hummmm?  Not sure if we would be up for that.  The wasp situation here is a little scary.  One got into the car and I just about died.  Other than that, we'd go back.

xoxoxoxoxo,

Erika and Sebastian

DIY Splatter Paint Dog Leash

Seriously....how hip does Sebastian look with his splatter paint leash?!  Here's how we did it

What you'll need:

5/8" width white ribbon

3/4" width sturdy black nylon webbing (at craft and hardware stores)

Tulip Fabric Spray Paint

White and black thread

One snap hook for 3/4" width strap

I like that Tulip literally has a "neon" Fabric Spray Paint pack you can buy.  However, black is sold separately.  

I set the ribbon down for random spraying on the grass and made sure I had enough ribbon to make a matching collar or other things.  I sprayed two colors, let them dry, changed up the ribbon a little bit and sprayed two more colors.

Trick: Only push the sprayer half way to get the "splatter" look as opposed to the "spray" look.  Mix it up and have some fun!!!  After all your colors are on, look at the ribbon and apply more paint in bare areas.

Next, it's time to hit up the sewing machine and attach the sprayed ribbon to some sturdy nylon webbing (this makes for a strong leash).  Put white thread in the top and black thread on the bobbin.  Sew close to both sides of outer edge of ribbon while centering it on the black webbing.

Determine how long you want the leash (I just measured the length of one of Sebastian's leashes I like).  Make sure you calculate your handle and snap hook strapping needs before you cut.  

Lightly burn the edges of both ends (seals raw edges) to make sure leash does not unravel. 

Create your handle and sew in place.  Make the loop as big or as small as you'd like.  

Sew the snap hook on the opposite side.

And voila!  You have a new hip leash.

XOXOXOXOXO,

Erika and Sebastian

More Neck Tie Recycling

So here is a dog neck tie tutorial using a recycled human neck tie (you may have seen it in EveryDog Spring Issue 2012!).  I like this one even better than my original upcycled neck tie, but it's a little more complex.

Before photo:

If your dog is small (like Sebastian), you'll want to use the end of the tie.  If your dog is big, you can use the front like the humans do.  Determine the length you want the tie and add a few inches (this is because you'll be wrapping it around their collar).

Fold the "new" top of the tie back (make sure the width is bigger than the collar) and sew it or glue it in place.

Cut a small piece from the remaining tie material (this one is about 2" long) and fold it so that it's about half inch wide.  Stitch or glue both ends of the strip together to keep it from unfolding.  Center the strip on your tie like this:

Bring both sides of the strip in, creating shape to the neck tie like this:

Stitch it in place.

And voila!

But wait, there's more!  No need to throw away the remaining neck tie material.  Check out these matchy girly pieces Sebastian and I made for the ladies in his life.

Bow

Flower

xoxoxoxoxoxo,

Erika and Sebastian

June Already???

May is always a blur over here.

It's that month for us where half the family seems to have birthdays.  And oddly, it seems like every family has that one month where there's an overwhelming amount of birthdays to celebrate.

Not that that's anything to complain about...

Mine, Sebastian's dad, my mom, my father-in-law, my nephew, my aunt, my cousin (just to name a few) all had birthdays this month.  

Well, the truth is...I don't really know when Sebastian's birthday is.  I'm sure this is the case for any dog owner who adopted their dog from the pound.  I hate not knowing his "real" age. 

We went to Cold Stone a few days ago to end the crazy month, oh and because it was MY birthday and I knew I could make my husband do whatever I wanted to do.  Go figure, the birthday girl wants to take more pictures of her dog.

Lots of people walked by and admired the photo shoot scene, but of course that worried Sebastian just a little.

What month is crazy for your family?

XOXOXOXOXOXO,

Erika and Sebastian