green puppy

eric has an employee whose young son is pretty sick.  because he has so many hospital visits, i really wanted to make him something soft that he could bring for comfort, company, and familiarity.  i haven't made fleece jackets and pants for my parents in a couple years (although i'm due to make dad a new set, as his green one, with the pocket zippers, is so dilapidated!), and thus i didn't have any scrap fleece lying around like usual from those projects.  however, then i remembered this fleece robe that mom got for me a while back which was far too big for me, but had the nicest fleece, actually even better quality than the fleece blankets i used!  sorry, mom!  this is a much better use for the fleece!  (i plan to use the rest to make myself a new fleece zip-up since mine melted while i was in iceland.)

i love when eric joins projects.  we make a great design team together.  he wanted to add soft lambskin accents to the puppy, so, he selected his softest bright blue skin and designed a little nose.  as the son of a dog breeder, he was adamant that the nose be anatomically accurate, hehe.  he did quite a bit of online research on nose shapes!

usually i embroider a nose on the puppies, but i much prefer the look of an actual nosey.  the nose was whip-stitched on.

then we had some decisions to make.  what kind of ears should we include?  2 up ears, chihuahua-style?

one up ear and one tucked ear?

2 tucked ears?

they were all really darn cute, but we settled on one up ear and one tucked ear because it looked the most playful.  we also switched which ear was tucked so that the one with the best piece of leather was more exposed.

so. darn. cute.

check out that nose!  the eyes were a pair of vintage buttons from that former coworker of mine.  the mom loved the puppy!!

on the home front:  our garden is totally out of control and cucumbers, kale, tomatoes, and peppers are ripening like crazy, faster than we can eat them.  the collards are all down now and in the freezer, but we had SO many cukes.  eric made spicy dill pickles!

 

we probably have over 30 cayenne peppers.  i threaded them with fishing wire and strung them up to dry.  of course, we then used these strings as decoration in the kitchen, hehe.

tonight, we're making tomato sauce!!