Ode to a Stinkem Pete

I usually like to put upbeat, funny or handy posts on here...but this one will have to be in remembrance of our wonderful Stinky Pete. His given name was Spartacus but over the years he became Sparky, Stinky Pete, Stinkems, Tink tink, and so on. He loved his people so much and his people loved him. He did everything with us. And now that he's gone, it's just so very hard to put into words how very much we miss him and wish he were with us still.

He was the best dog one could have. He was our best friend and he knew us better than anyone. He kept all of our secrets safe and still loved us despite of all of our flaws. It's so hard to lose a pet, especially when you don't even think of them as a pet. We loved him as if he were Jaxen's brother. We often told Jaxen that Stinky was his older brother...a much furrier brother. I won't drag this on too long because frankly, it's too hard and tears are welling up as I type.

We just hope that Stinky knew how much he was loved and how dearly he will be missed. There is a hole in our hearts and despite today being our less furry son's 2nd birthday, we are a little gloomy. A lot gloomy.


And in honor of Stink, I'd like to share some very special things that we used to do together that will be oh so hard to do now without him.


1. Eat breakfast or any other meal.
He used to finish my milk for me and it became kind of a ritual. He'd eat Jaxen's left overs and devour any crumbs in Jaxen's high chair. He was our furry vacuum cleaner.

2. Go to bed or wake up.
He would fall asleep in his tiny little bed right next to ours every night. But some time in the middle of the night...he'd bounce up on to our bed (unbeknownst to us) and make his way under the covers. He'd curl up right in the crook of my knee and growl if Jeff tried to move him. And in the mornings, as I sat on the side of the bed or at breakfast...he'd come and push on my feet for his morning back rub.

3. Watch TV.
No Pete didn't watch, but he kept us company and curled up as tight as tight could be in my lap and stay with us until the end.

4. Bike rides with Jaxen.
Jaxen would carry Stink's ball and Stinky would run with us for 5 miles or more. He loved bike rides because he could run as fast as he could and take periodic dips in the ponds around the neighborhood.

5. Play ball or tug.
This dog was crazy about balls. If you even said the word ball...he was on 'go.' He loved to play and never got tired. He kept us in shape! And Jaxen loved playing with him too. It kept Jaxen busy!

6. Coming home.
Stinkems would always very excitedly greet us at the door and jump, jump, jump. He loved greeting his daddy at the car door and playing in the yard before dinner. He'd give us kisses all night and hugs galore. He loved us so much and we loved him just as much.

Stinky Pete...we love you. We hope you are somewhere that makes you happy and you have lots of balls and lots of open space to run until you need a cool dip. We love you. We miss you. We will always miss you.

It's Decorate Your Door Time!

Yeah so I promised this post before 4th of July...but hey, things happen! Better late than never. I made this wreath to serve as my 'spring' wreath. I couldn't make it too springy or Jeff would be embarrassed to come home. So I chose a nice blue and cream color scheme.


Here's what you need:
14" Plastifoam Wreath
2 yds Felt (one color)
1 yd Felt (another color)
Ink Pad
Jar Lid (for stamping)
Straight pins
Ribbon

Here's what you do:

Get you a large amount of felt that you will spend hours cutting circles out of. Just kidding! Ok..I'm not kidding. I think I bought about 2 yards of blue and 1 yard of cream felt. I didn't end up using it all, but I wanted to be sure to have enough. I took a lid from my salsa jar to use as my guide. I happened to have this blue ink pad already so it kind of just worked out! I took the lid and stamped blue circles as close together as possible all across the blue felt. I recommend an ink color close to the color of your felt so you don't see the ink on the edges if you don't cut exactly right. Then I started to cut the circles out. I cut and cut and cut and cut. I think I cut around 300 - 350 circles out of the blue felt.

I didn't have a guide for the cream felt, but I just folded it in half and cut out some circles a little larger than the blue circles. This did take me a couple of hours all together...but it isn't as bad as it seams. Just cut on a movie (one you've already seen is probably recommended so you don't miss anything!) and just start cutting. I don't recommend having snacks all around you either. You'll find that you've eaten the whole jar of M&M's by the time you get done cutting if you aren't careful. I'm not saying that's what I did....I'm just sayin'. So I cut out my hundreds of blue felt circles and my handful of cream felt circles a little larger than the blue. I thought I'd make a section that sticks out a little further than the blue and popped, hence the cream!

Once you've got a substantial amount of felt circles cut out...start pinning them onto the wreath! I got a 14" plastifoam wreath from Michael's. They are usually about $5.99...but I always use a 40% off coupon. So now what you do is take the felt circle and fold it in half...and then in half again. Stick a straight pin through the folded corner and pop that bad boy right into the wreath. I pinned them all pretty close together to make sure it looked full. I didn't want to see any of the green wreath between my ruffles. And repeat this until you run out of felt circles or until your wreath is full, which ever happens first. If you run out of circles before your wreath is full...you guessed it, you must cut out more circles! I recommend pinning your larger circles of a different color on first so then you can fill in the rest all around it and complete the rest of your wreath.

After I pinned them all in and ruffled it up a bit, it was a masterpiece! I decided it needed a little something extra so I decided to add a bow beneath my cream circle and I used that same ribbon to hang the wreath. I folded the end of the ribbon and pinned it onto the back of the wreath.

Hang that puppy up and BAM! You are the envy of all your neighbors! Sidenote: After removing my spring wreath after hanging outside for several months...I noticed that it was a hotbed for tiny little pests. Mainly spiders. Yuck! Most of them were dead no doubt from the horrible Florida heat...but still. I don't even want to touch dead spiders. I didn't want to store the wreath with dead bugs on it though. So I took my handy vacuum cleaner and sucked all the yuck off of my beautimus wreath and voila! Brand new again. Just be careful to not suck up one of your felt circles in the vacuum cleaner. I mean, they are only pinned on...not cemented!















I decided to do this same 'motif' for my 4th of July wreath but with regular fabric and squares this time. So I hopped over to Joann's and bought 1/2 yard of red, white & blue fabric (each)....1.5 yards total. I cut 3" squares out of all the colors and did the same routine as above....pinned on fabric in random order until I was tired of pinning. And poof! You have a firework of beautiful patriotic colors bursting from your front door!