Dog food is one of the many things that we buy in bulk. We always have a steady supply of food on hand for our little dogs and we save a lot of money buying it in such large quantities. But, as I’m sure many of you have realized, a huge bag of dog food is never a good design choice.
So here’s our quick fix.
We keep a steady supply of dog food out on the counter in a cute glass jar and we hide the rest of it in plastic bags under the counter. We reuse the plastic bags every time we buy new dog food, but you could always use other canisters for a more eco-friendly option. It’s not genius but it definitely makes a world of differnce.
Where do you store your pet’s food? Do you repackage it like we do or do you just leave the bag?
Last night we drove to Lockhart, Texas and back all because of a little ad on Craigslist. It started when I got bored at work and read this article about a mom and daughter design team. The two were talking about decorating the daughter’s first apartment and how so many pieces were found at thrift stores and then fixed up. I asked myself, ‘Why don’t I ever find anything on Craigslist?’ (Yes, I’m weird like that.) And I decided that the answer was that I don’t frequent thrift stores and Craigslist enough. So, I turned on some happy music and started flipping through the tens of pages of furniture that was posted today. And that’s when I saw this fainting couch for only $30. At first I dismissed it thinking, “Oh, we don’t really need that,” but I sent the picture to Peter anyway. Then I decided to email her, just in case but my email turned into telling her that we wanted it. Then I realized that she left a phone number and probably wanted us to call, so I called Peter and asked him to call her–I was at work after-all. Time ticked by and I hadn’t heard anything from him. I started searching for other fainting couches and the prices were popping up at $600, $1000, $3000. After a slight panic attack, I realized that I was already attached. Peter had no luck calling, but the moment we stepped off the elevator to get into the car, I made contact! After driving awhile into a somewhat dreadful neighborhood we found it. The girl was so sweet and even helped us load it into the car. To be clear we drove for about an hour like this, except imagine the rope slightly more secured.
But when we got it home, we decided it was definitely worth the $30. (Yes, sorry we’re normal people and our house is a bit of a mess.) Let me shut up for a second so that you can get the full effect.
Of course the dogs checked it out for us to make sure that it was OK.
The last picture gives you an idea of just how ugly the fabric really is. It has some slight wear. Plus, let’s be honest, it was never an attractive fabric to begin with. Luckily, I was able to look at the ad and see past the ugly fabric and see potential in the great legs and beautiful tufts. I honestly don’t think I would have done that a year ago when I wasn’t so home blog obsessed. The best quote of the night was when Peter and I were driving home trying to maneuver that car around (very safely, of course Mom!!) and he said to me, “It’s never a dull moment with you, is it?”
$30 later a brand new project is born. I’ve never upholstered anything before, but I have some ideas. This may be a tough project to start with but I have a few books on upholstering things upstairs and I feel like we did so well with the price that even if I mess up a couple of times, it’ll be alright. Maybe I should recover the little cushion on our dining room chairs just to build some confidence. What do you guys think? Is this the totally amazing find that I think it is or should we have passed it up? And for those of you who actually have upholstered something before, do you have any advice? I’m all ears right now.
People who make dog beds must not own dogs. We love our puppies but if they’ve taught us anything, it’s that dogs are gross. Our little Pomeranians have sensitive stomachs and like to eat just about everything they can get their tiny little mouths on. Tearing up their bedding and getting sick from eating things like their bedding have dissuaded us from buying them a fluffy dog bed. Instead, we’ve decorated their crate with aesthetically unappealing, half-eaten old towels. I know they want something more comfortable because every morning, after they go out, they run inside and throw themselves on a pillow. The problem is that we need something water-proof and, well, dog-proof. This weekend, while strolling through Tuesday Morning, we found a really inexpensive dog bed.
Here it is sitting against the wall. (Please forgive the image quality. A digital camera will be our next big step since ours is obviously on its way out.)
It didn’t come with a water-proof liner but we knew that with a little work we could puppy-proof it ourselves. Here are the step by step instructions. If you’d like to do this at home, you will need the following items:
- One dog bed
- One plastic drop cloth or other type of large plastic sheeting
- One stapler
- One sheet that you are comfortable donating to your dogs
- Blankets that dogs have already sleep with
First we removed any tags that could be harmful to the dogs if they managed to get to them. We then covered the dog bed with a plastic drop cloth in the same way that you would wrap a present.
Here I am folding the edges like I would wrap a present. This doesn’t need to be perfect since you will not see it in the end result.
Staple as you go to secure the plastic. With our dogs, the fewer stray bits they have to chew on, the more likely it is that the product will stay together.
After you’ve wrapped the dog bed, flip it over so that any staples are on the bottom of the bed–far away from your sleeping little ones.
Now, take your sheet and wrap it around the bed. We chose to use a fitted sheet so that it would be more difficult for the dogs to dig up the loose ends and chew on them. Here is Théo, our youngest, checking out his new bed.
Finally, put the dog bed into the crate and cover it with their old blankets. Since the dogs have already been sleeping with the blankets, they will recognize the familiarity of their scent and perceive it to be a safe place. Here is our end result, minus the dogs’ familiar blankets, since (as I mentioned before) they’re pretty gross.
What do you think? The whole project only takes a few minutes and now we know that when they get sick in their crate, we’ll be able to clean it up without throwing the bed away. Now, if only we could get not to chew on their blankets…
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