Doggy Valentine’s Day Box

Valentine’s Day will be the first holiday I get to celebrate with my new co-workers. This year, we will be decorating boxes and passing out valentines to everyone.  Considering my competitive nature, I did not take this box-decorating lightly.  I am still the new girl in the office, so I had to bring my A-game.  Naturally, I turned to Pinterest for inspiration.  There was one box in particular that caught my attention right away.  It was a dog that appeared to be made out of a mop.  I immediately began drawing up my plans to recreate this adorable pooch.  Here is the adorable creature that forced me to get creative:

via Pinterest

I made a trip to Michael’s craft store to gather some supplies.  I wasn’t sure how the dog’s head was made exactly, so I had to get creative.  Here are the supplies that I used to create the entire dog:

Hot glue gun, yarn, packaging tape, masking tape, toilet paper roll, egg-shaped styrofoam, blue ribbon, googly eyes, red felt, and black pom-poms.

 

I started by taking a strip of masking tape that was equal to the length of each side of the box I was going to use.  I folded the yarn along the tape like the picture above.  I did this for each side of the box and did maybe 4-5 layers total. Then I would cut the center of each loop to give it that “shaggy” appearance as pictured below.

 

Then it was time to start cutting a hole on top of the box and form the frame of the head.  I cut out the hole with a knife after tracing out the desired size.  Then, this is where I had to get creative with the head.  I hot-glued a toilet paper roll to the box to form a neck.  I cut out an oval shape for the styrofoam head to set on with more stablility.  I also had to use some q-tips to pierce the base of the styrofoam head and into the body of the box.  I hot-glued this in place as well for better reinforcement.

 

 

I continued to tape the layers onto the box with packaging tape so it would be less visible on the top of the body.  I used scraps of yarn from trimming the other bits around the body to hot-glue onto the head of the dog. For the ears, I used q-tips and two cardboard cut-outs for the shape, and just hot-glued the strands of yarn to it.  I tied smaller ribbons around each ear for looks.  I also used a thicker ribbon for the collar around the neck.  Then I just added the finishing touches of eyes, ears, and tongue to the head, and the dog was complete!

I don’t think Cooper was a fan of the fake dog on the table, haha

 

 

 

And there you have it!  My Pinterest-inspired Doggy Valentine’s Day Box!  Who knows, maybe next year, I will have another box to create.  I hope you enjoyed my post today.  It was so much fun getting creative for this project.  Have a great rest of your weekend, and Happy early Valentine’s Day!

Love always,

Jillian Wade

 

BarkBox: Two “Paws” Up!

I don’t think I have properly introduced my fur-baby to you all yet, but since this post is primarily based on his spoiled-rotten lifestyle, I feel that it is only appropriate to tell you a little about the second man in my life.  His name is Cooper, and he is a 2 year old European Golden Retriever.

Ever since I was old enough to walk, I have always had a passion for animals.  Dogs in particular.  When I look at old photographs from my childhood, I was always holding a stuffed animal dog, or playing with one of our family dogs in every single picture.  I don’t think I have ever NOT had a dog until I left home to go to college.  I remember begging my parents to let me get a dog when I was away at school, but after several failed attempts to convince them of my dog-ownership potential, they convinced me to wait until after I graduated.  After all, I can (kind of) understand why they said no for so long, since owning a dog costs money, which I personally did not have much of when I was in nursing school.  So when my parents asked me what I wanted as a graduation gift, I chose none other than a puppy to call my own.

Cooper has been one of the best gifts I could have ever hoped for.  Everyday, he brings me so much joy and happiness.  And I think any dog owner could agree with me on this, but the love I have for this dog is unsurpassable.  He is as smart as he is handsome, and brings a smile to anyone he meets.  So, when I heard about a subscription box that is just for dogs, I couldn’t help myself but to shower him with even more love than he already gets.

BarkBox is a monthly subscription box delivered to your door, filled with all sorts of toys and treats that will certainly get your dog’s tail wagging.  A portion of the sales go towards helping animal charities and homeless dogs, which makes me feel even better about using this already awesome service.  So when it finally came in this week, I think I was almost as excited as Cooper to open it up and see what was inside!  So let’s see what Cooper was spoiled with this month…

“I am so excited to open this box, Mom! What’s in it??”

“…almost there!!”

Cooper’s absolute favorite item was the “Cuddle Monster” stuffed animal from the picture above.  The arms of this toy have crinkly plastic inside them, and it sounds like you are trying to open a peppermint (but way louder).  The squeaky of course is his favorite part, which almost sounds like a duck call.  All I could think about was how much fun he was going to have with this toy until he finally gets that “prized stuffing” from inside.  This is precisely why I only buy him toys without the stuffing inside, since he tears through them within hours.  Supposedly, this toy is “double reinforced” to prevent that from happening.  So far, it has lived up to its promise and I am very impressed!  Needless to say, he can’t go anywhere in the house without his new toy between his teeth.

He also got some holistic treats and snacks in the box.  The one I am not too fond about is the Alaskan Salmon Strips.  Cooper LOVES them, but I hate, hate, hate the smell of fish.  They are like Fish Strip “rawhides” and I hate when he eats them in the house (GAGGG!).  But, my husband loves to give them to him, so I can’t fight it.

Cooper brings so much love and joy to our lives, and we have been truly blessed to have such a special dog.  Hunter and I love doing anything we can to give him the happiness and love that he unconditionally brings us every day.  BarkBox allows us to do that for Cooper , and I love seeing his bushy white tail wag frivolously in approval!  Cooper gives it “two paws up” and is anxiously waiting for his next delivery of doggy surprises next month!

Thanks for reading about Cooper’s first BarkBox, and I look forward to sharing more about Cooper with you in future posts!

Love Always,

Jillian Wade