Helpful Household Hints – Floss for Fixing Pet Toys

Everyone has their own household tips and tricks that they’ve picked up over the years. Well, I have a few tricks up my sleeve too and I’m continuing my little series of Helpful Household Hints to share them with you.

Helpful Household Hint #3: Floss for Fixing Pet Toys

Even with a pup as calm as mine, pet toys only last so long. Carrying your beloved toys around in your sharp little teeth and the occasional games of tug, eventually will cause a bit of wear and tear.

Instead of going out and buying a whole new batch of toys, try salvaging what you have. I’m sure your pup will be thankful to have his/her favorite toy around as long as possible.

First, sift through that toy bucket and determine what is salvageable and what is not. Some toys may just have too many holes.

To fix that beloved stuffed animal you will need to know how to do a basic hidden stitch (here’s a YouTube video I found if you need some extra sewing help). Next, you will need some sewing utensils: a needle with a fairly big hole on the end and floss.

Now you might be wondering, “floss?!?!” The reason I use floss is the reason for today’s helpful hint. Floss lasts a lot longer when it comes to fixing stuffed animals. Personally, I’d rather mend my dog’s toys less often, wouldn’t you?

To get started, I cut off a long length of floss (probably about double the length of my arm) and thread it through the needle. Pull it through only to the halfway point of the floss. Then take both ends of the floss, hold them evenly and tie them in a thick knot. Now not only do you have the thickness of floss, but you have DOUBLE the thickness of floss.

Find one end of the hole you want to fix and thread the needle up towards you through the inside of the stuffed animal. Your knot should hold on the inside and be hidden. Continue the stitch throughout the length of the hole. I usually go back up the length of the stitched hole again for added reinforcement.

Wha-lah! Fixing your pet’s toys is as easy as that.

Feel free to send me any questions that you might have about this helpful hint. As I was writing, I was starting to feel like a video almost would be necessary to fully explain the process. But if you are an expert sewer, just the idea of using floss should be enough for you.

Credit: Photo taken and edited by me. Video via expertvillage on YouTube.

{Roundup}: Some Lovelies for the Day

Brighten your Thursday with some pretty things!

Credit: (1) At Your Beak and Call Media Case in Penguin via ModCloth, (2) Pink colored diamond in a rose gold setting via TLC Weddings, (3) From fallen tree to end table via apartment therapy, (4) Great table arrangement via elizabeth anne designs, (5) Old San Juan, Puerto Rico via White on Rice Couple, (6) Adorable collar on Dexter the Miniature Australian Shepherd via Daily Puppy, (7) Gluten Free Cinnamon Cream Cheese Rolls via Our Best Bites, (8) Vintage 50s/60s Travel Trailer Bird House by BirdhousesByGlenn via Etsy, (9) Dior eyeliner patches via Lash Card

Enjoy!

What We Did This Weekend.

We finally made it down to Huntington Dog Beach over the Labor day weekend. I’ve been really wanting to go, but the weather didn’t cooperate with our schedule…until now.

So we packed up a bunch of beach towels, sunscreen, water, and Madison’s toys and headed over to Dog Beach. The weather was a tad overcast, but it was perfect for our little dog who is very sensitive and gets hot really easily.

Madison is a people-watcher, so she seemed to enjoy the beach, the sand, and all the activity around her.

As you can see in the photos, she seems pretty happy to be outside at the beach. After all, she IS a California dog.

Now if we could only get her to like the water. I wish I would have caught a photo of how upset Madison was after we attempted to get her in the water…she was NOT a happy camper.

Credit: All photos taken by me.

Maddy’s chompers.

My blogging is pretty random, just like my brain. Hope you don’t mind.

Right now, a priority in our household is our dog’s teeth. We got Madison from a shelter, so her health history and background is a mystery to us. That being said, we couldn’t have gotten luckier in finding her. She is pretty much the best dog you could ever ask for and we love her.

(top: Madison’s big brown eyes, bottom: a shaggy haired Madison wearing one of her daddy’s ties)

Back to the topic at hand though…Madison’s teeth. This miniature poodle has some bad chompers. Plaque. Chipped. One “dead” tooth. It’s not good. We wonder if she was abused by her prior owners or if she was just on the streets too long on her own.

You can see just how bad her teeth are in the pictures below. In fact, in the photo on the right you can even see her chipped tooth. My poor baby.

In dogs, dental disease is a big deal. Tartar can build up on the teeth and cause a serious gum infection. This infection can spread to the heart valves and kidneys causing organ failure.

That is why Madison’s teeth worry us so much. Her veterinarian can clean them, but I worry about her being put under anesthesia with her being such a little dog. So, before taking that step, we are trying other things (i.e. brushing her teeth, special dental dog food, and dental treats).

(I took these photos to compare how her teeth improve)

We were recommended Greenie’s dental chews by a neighbor. They use these daily and their dog has sparkling perfect teeth (note: this is NOT a sponsored post). Let me point out though, that their dog was not a rescue and never had the build-up Madison does.

Regardless, we are hoping they work for Madison. So far, she is actually eating them, so that’s a good start. Hopefully I’ll have some nice “after” photos to show in the future.

Credit (from top to bottom): The first photo was taken by me, the second, third, and fourth were taken by my love with his cell phone camera, the fifth and sixth were taken by me, and the seventh is a photo from Greenies own website of one of their dental chews.

Let Them Eat Cupcakes!

I took a theme of "Let Them Eat Cupcakes" for February and ran with it. From my brainstorming came 2 different designs revolving around yummy yummy cupcakes. Let's be honest, cupcakes are a much cuter version of cake, and therefore, perfect for a birthday card theme.

My first "Let Them Eat Cupcakes" birthday card was made on 1/22/2010 for my mom. I made it early and it was burning a hole in my pocket holding on to it, so I couldn't resist on throwing it in the mail a tad early...unfortunately it made it to Wisconsin about a week too early...oops! This card took me FOR-EV-ER, let me tell you. It may not look it, but there are a ton of little pieces that had to be measured AND cut AND glued down using a tweezers. Definitely not as tedious as my "Many Thanks" octopus thank you card of a few months back that I vow to never make again, but still very tedious.

My second "Let Them Eat Cupcakes" birthday card was made on 2/1/2010 for my boyfriend Chris's mom's birthday. In the case of this card, I could think of no better combination than cupcakes and dogs, so I made a puppy leaving a bakery carrying a birthday cupcake home to its owner. More little pieces on this card (like usual), but for some reason it didn't take nearly as long. Maybe I was a little more focused...or perhaps growing more accustomed to the new glue I recently purchased (and am still hating by the way).

I think these are the only birthday cards for February, which means I can now fully focus my attention to Valentine's Day cards!!! And upcoming March birthdays too if I really get ahead of schedule (but we'll see about that).