Do Me a Favour!

6 months ago I agreed to make wedding favours for my good friends, Chris & Anna, who are getting married next week. After discussion with the couple, we decided I would fill 4 oz hexagonal glass jars with an assortment of homemade jams, jellies & chutneys, made predominantly with fruits gathered from local hedgerows, with one for each of their 144 guests.

Back in June I posted about the Gooseberry & Elderflower Preserve I made, which filled the first dozen or so jars. Since then, I have been gathering fruits as they ripen, & slowly but surely all 144 jars have been filled with a mixture of the following 7 preserves:

• Gooseberry & Elderflower Preserve
• Pear, Apricot & Ginger Chutney
• Raspberry & Bramble Jam
• Spiced Apple Chutney
• Apple Jelly
• Hawthorn Jelly
• Plum & Ginger Chutney

Once all the jars were filled, I set about decorating each one with pretty ribbon in the couples’ wedding colours & cute little custom stickers, which were made by fellow Etsyian, Alyssa of Alyssa Art & say ‘Spread the Love’ along with the couples’ names & the date of their wedding.

I think the jars look really cool when all stacked together & especially like the way the jellies look when light shines through them.

Chris & Anna love the end result, & hopefully the guests at their wedding next week will do too. Here’s to the happy couple!

You can see more pictures of the favours, taken by my partner (who is to be official photographer at Chris & Annas’ wedding) here.

Dogs, Dragons and Lagomorphs

The Dog House meets Dragon House (of Yuen)

A fortnight ago I purchased a birthday card for my Dad from Etsy shop Dragon House of Yuen. Usually I have to wait (impatiently!) for my Etsy purchases to arrive via the post, but this one arrived on my doorstep along with its creator! Meeting a fellow Etsy seller in person was a first for me, but it was so lovely to meet Annette & share a cup of tea & a chin-wag.

Annette & her lagomorphs

Annette lives in nearby Edinburgh with her fiance & 2 rescue rabbits, Arabella & Wesley. Her rabbits are the inspiration behind many of her creations, which include cards, watercolours, bags, soft sculptures & ACEOs. Everything is her own design & handmade with great love and attention to detail.

Arabella, Annette’s beautiful rescue doe – from Little Critterz Rescue Sanctuary in Perthshire, Scotland

Wesley, Annette’s very handsome rescue buck – from the Rabbit & Guinea Pig Welfare Rescue Centre in Rugby, England

An avid supporter of various charities including WSPA, the BUAV, Rabbit & Guinea Pig Welfare and the Buckeye House Rabbit Society, Annette donates a percentage of some of her sales to these charities, as well as donating some of her hand-crafted items to be raffled.

2 of Annette’s amazing handmade bags – the one on the left is modelled on Arabella & the one on the right on Wesley!

Some of Annette’s unique soft sculptures – baby hare, baby rabbit & baby feline

Annette paints beautiful watercolour pet portraits. She accepts commissions &, if your pet is a rescue animal,  will gladly donate 20% of the total cost of the painting to your animal rescue centre or charity.

A portrait Annette painted of her special rescue rabbit, Zai, who sadly is no longer with her

Annette is a fellow member of both the Etsy For Animals & McEtsy teams, which is how I came to ‘meet’ her online. Her sunny personality shines through in her active participation of these teams & she has a unique talent of pulling together the work of fellow artists to create beautiful treasuries, often with poignant messages relating to her love of nature & animals.

One of Annette’s many curations . This one’s entitled ‘Soul Shaker’ & is part of a trilogy of treasuries with fellow Etsyians Pey & Pat

So many grey hares

Like everything Annette sells, the custom birthday card I had ordered arrived beautifully packaged. Annette had also included a generous selection of samples of her other work, including a puffin image which I am particularly fond of!

The card featured decades of little grey hares, in fact one white cut-out baby hare with added fur detailing in pencil for every year of my Dad’s life (& that’s quite a lot of hares!). Annette had printed then cut-out each individual hare and adhered them onto the A6 card, which opened accordion-style.

The message, which is revealed line by line as you open the card, read:

“It’s that time again!!!

Happy Birthday

Uh – Oh!

So many

Grey Hares!!

Whew!!”

A creative & unique card, Annette can custom make this card for the ‘oldie’ (Sorry Dad!) in your life by tailoring the number of grey hares. I just love it, & so did my Dad!

Dining on kale

The kale which we sowed in our garden earlier this year – we now have a bumper crop & don’t know what to do with it all!

I sent Annette home with a bag full of kale from our garden, which she informs me is a favourite of Arabella & Wesleys’. Although Annette was very taken with both Max & Molly, we decided it was probably best if those two never got to meet her lagomorphs in person! Although, I hope that I may have the privilege of doing so some day soon…

Arabella & Wesley tuck into some kale

You can read Annette’s blog post about our meeting here.

Building Business With Our Hands

My dog walking business, Let The Dogs Out has been up & running for over 3 months now & I’m pleased to say that the service seems to be a success! I am currently walking dogs of all shapes & sizes across Midlothian, East Lothian & the South of Edinburgh. My feet are well travelled & glad to get a rest at the end of each day, but I’m loving every minute of it!

Thanks to a talented bunch of people I have met through Etsy, I have been able to build my business the handmade way, reflecting my own personal style…

Remember Wynn

All  my clients  receive a complementary identity tag for each of their dogs. The tags are engraved with my mobile number & should be worn whenever dogs are in my care. They fasten easily onto any dog’s collar & can be removed in between times if you wish.  Thank you to Angie of Remember Wynn for creating these custom tags for me.

Christina Kosinki Designs

You can  spot me transporting clients’ dogs to & from walks with my rear windscreen decal! Special thanks to Christina of Christina Kosinki Designs for making this custom decal for me.

Woof Purr Creations

The dogs love to play with these fabulous recycled tennis ball / fleece loop tug toys while on their walks. They are not only safer than most pet-shop bought toys but also earth friendly. Thanks to Kim of Woof Purr Creations, who handmade & customised these toys for me.

The Dog House

I put my own  skills to work designing & hand printing myself a colourful collection of dog walking apparel. So you can spot me out & about dog walking in my handmade Let The Dogs Out hoodies & T’s!

The Dog House has also designed & printed custom T-shirts for several other small businesses, including other pet-sitters.

Turning 28

Tomorrow I turn 28 (scary, I know!) However, I’ve been celebrating a little prematurely over the past week!

Things kicked off last Monday night, when my sister bought my partner & I tickets to The Axis of Awesome’s Edinburgh Festival gig, Infinity Rock Explosion. The Australian trio were hilarious, with their ‘4 chords song’ being particularly memorable! Definitely the best show I’ve seen at the Fringe this year.

Later in the week, my best friend, Jo, came through from Dundee to visit. Together with my sister, Hellen, we had a ‘girls night’ on Friday, involving Chinese take-out, back to back chick flicks & copious amounts of Ben & Jerrys!

Copious amounts of cheese were consumed in the form of a fondue

the amazing cake that Lea made for me

Saturday was spent mostly preparing food, not only for the semi-70s-themed(!) party my partner had organised for me that evening but also for Gracehounds‘ end of month get-together at Vogrie Country Park the next morning…

The dogs loved the liver & yoghurt cake (with special peanut butter icing!) I made for them in honour of my birthday!

Then of course there were the presents, of which I received many! My wonderful partner had a beautiful button pendant custom made for me by Etsy seller, brookberrys, to match my all time favourite ring by the same designer.

My lovely button pendant

I also received a beginners linocut set, which I can’t wait to get started experimenting with! I hope to create prints of some of my existing screen printing designs, as well as wedding invitations for my friends who are getting married next year. I will, of course, be sharing the resulting prints with you on my blog!

Lastly, in celebration of my birthday, I am offering free shipping on all orders from my Etsy shop, The Dog House, placed during the week 31st August – 6th September! Why not have a look at what I have in store right now & take advantage of this offer while it lasts

Happy Birthday to me!

You can see more pictures from my birthday weekend here.

A Fun Run for The Dog Aid Society

Yesterday I took part in the Big Fun Run in Dundee. Together with my Mum & my greyhound Molly, I ran the 5K course around Camperdown Park in order to raise money for the Dog Aid Society of Scotland (DASS). Between the 3 of us we raised over £150 in sponsorship for the Edinburgh-based charity, whose objectives are:

• to defend dogs against injustice & cruelty of every kind
• to find homes for dogs who cannot be maintained in their present homes & who might otherwise be euthanased
• to give information on every aspect of dog ownership
• to provide veterinary help for those in need
• to help reduce the number of unwanted dogs by providing a low cost neutering scheme
• to make awards not only to persons who gallantly rescue dogs but to dogs themselves for bravery & sagacity

Mum, Molly & I make our way round the course

Mum & I tackled the run at a leisurely pace, with Molly trotting along side us with ease.  Although I often take my dogs running with me, I’ve been so busy with fostering & getting my dog walking business off the ground lately we haven’t had the chance to go for too many runs together.

some of the other dogs taking part in the Fun Run

Molly seemed to thoroughly enjoy the Fun Run, & she was in good company, with several other dogs also accompanying their owners round the course.  My other greyhound Max joined us for the last 500m as well. (I didn’t want him to run the whole course on account of his recent toe amputation!)

Molly looking very pleased with herself at the finish

Thanks to everyone who sponsored us to complete the run. There is another Big Fun Run being held in Edinburgh on 3rd October, which some more DASS volunteers are taking part in. I wish them the best of luck & hope that together we contribute to the charity’s continued support of dogs across Scotland.

with the dogs at the finish

You can see more pictures from the event here.

Most Beautiful Bitch!

Yesterday I spent the day at the foot of Edinburgh’s magnificent Arthur’s Seat helping to man the Gracehounds charity stall at  the annual Holyrood Park Fun Dog Show. A fun, if rather wet, day was had by all!

the volunteers take shelter under the Gracehounds gazebo!

There was an agility course, lure coursing for whippets & deer hounds &, of course, the dog show itself. All events were free to enter & ‘just for fun’, with many entrants choosing to donate to one or both of the two charities supporting the event: PDSA, for pets in need of vets, & Gracehounds, finding better lives & permanent homes for greyhounds & lurchers.

Torres with Lois (Gracehounds’ founder)

Although not participating in the lure coursing, all the Gracehounds dogs were dutifully entered into the various dog show classes. Our foster dog, Torres, picked up 3rd place in the ‘Most Dashing Dog’ category, & I was chuffed to bits when my own dog Molly won the ‘Most Beautiful Bitch’ category & then went on to win ‘Reserve Champion’ of the whole show!

Martin & I will Max, Molly & Torres

A huge thank you to the Holyrood Park Rangers, who organised the whole event in this beautiful setting, & in the middle of Edinburgh Fringe season as well! Hopefully both PDSA & Gracehounds have raised not only money but awareness through their participation.

You can see more pictures of the event here.

Adding Life to an Old Suitcase

At a customer’s suggestion, I have decided to try printing my designs onto leather & faux leather items. So, this Saturday I popped into Edinburgh for a rummage through Morningside’s vast array of charity shops to see if I could pick up some goods to begin experimenting with. I found some nice bags & a lovely leather journal, but my favourite item is an old Globe-Trotter suitcase which I unearthed in a Shelter charity shop.

This beautiful original navy suitcase is a bit worn at the edges & is missing a key, but is fabulous none-the-less: Perfect for printing onto, as well as storing / transporting my stock in! & it didn’t take long before the dogs discovered another use for my new purchase…

Max makes himself comfortable in my suitcase!

I can’t wait for my new screen printing ink to arrive in the post so that I can get started with some prints. I’ll be sure to post the results as soon as I do!