Wordless Wednesday

Halloween Outing

My dad is part of a car club here in town and two of the couples' church has a little trick-or-treating thing for kids. The car club along with other townies park their cars at the church and the kids went from car to car collecting candy. I brought Olivia dressed as a bat and the kids loved it! (I'm saving my favorite picture for Wordless Wednesday).

Olivia and I posing on the parked hay ride wagon

Olivia sized pumpkins!

A Plan in The Works

So I'm a member of South Carolina Writer's Workshop, which is an organization for people who write. It meets monthly and we critique each other's work. There are different chapters throughout the state.

Today was the annual conference. Apparently, it's usually a 2.5 day affair at Myrtle Beach, but due to funds, this year it was 1 day symposium in Columbia. I think for my first time it was more than enough, I think 2.5 days would have been an overwhelming amount of information.

So. You may be wondering what this has to do with Olivia. Well, I'm going to write a book- memoir style (sorta)- about my adventures with the little monster. So basically my blog posts but longer and with other stuff in between.

This is something I've wanted to work on since I read the book You Tell Your Dog First by Alison Pace. She wrote a memoir in which the memories and essays she chose were all centered around dogs and usually, more specifically, her dog Carly. I thought it was really well done and not one of those books about someone's pet that makes you cringe.

Anyways, hopefully I'll have something in book form to share with all of you in the coming future! I mean, who wouldn't want to read something that starred this adorable girl?

Wordless Wednesday: The Snood

I knitted Olivia a snood! She looks so cute in it.

Halloween Pawty!

So Olivia and I dressed up and attended the Petsmart Halloween Party this morning :) Yes. I dressed up in costume too. We received and goodie bag and a big stuffed animal with a squeaky (Olivia loves it even though it's sorta bigger than her). My parents came with their dog Fern and she received goodies too! Olivia is doing so much better from her spaying but it is hard to keep her under wraps... she's not supposed to be too active yet, but she is one excited little girl!

Snow White and the Queen of Hearts

Fern, me, and Olivia

Olivia's First Pumpkin

This past weekend I got a pumpkin that I'll carve closer to Halloween so it doesn't cave in and shrivel up before the holiday. Olivia was very interested in what that big orange thing was, she'd never seen one before!

Olivia and Friends Go to the Horse Show

So I've been super busy but I'm finally getting to post this!

Olivia and I got up at 5am this past saturday, and went with my riding instructor to a horse show that she was competing at. We drove in her sedan with her, her Golden Retriever, her large Carolina Ditch Dog (mutt), and her Boston. It felt like a clown car. Haha. Not even sure how we all fit!

Olivia's favorite part of the day was playing in the water jumps with her buddies, which I was really proud of her for. Since her horrific incident of terror (falling in my pool at about 9-10 weeks old and sinking like a stone) she has had an understandable aversion to water. But on Saturday she hopped right in with the rest of them for the first time! What a brave puppy! The water was dyed blue and I was worried I'd have a blue Boston, it didn't stain her but she definitely got a bath when we got home!

my phone cam was in panorama mode... so Olivia looks like she has 2 heads!

Cooling off

Walking 2 Bostons at once. Princess (left) and Olivia (right)

Bostons playing (Olivia is the one in pink)

exhausted Princess

"maybe water isn't soo bad after all..."

Hudson with his stick he retrieved from the water

swimming Princess

Pup Pup cooling off

a dog sized boardwalk!

Princess likes to sit on the console of the car

Hudson was exhausted from the day out

She Lives!

So Olivia got spayed yesterday and I don't know who was more traumatized by the whole thing... me or Olivia, She came home pretty groggy. And kept looking at me like she hated me :( Even though I got her spayed out of love and because I'm a responsible pet owner, I felt so guilty for putting her through that. She just looked so miserable. She was also trembling and shaking. The vet said maybe her stomach hurt, so we gave her a 10 mg Pepcid and covered her in blankets. I slept on a cot in the kitchen next to that dog bed because she was finally comfy and I couldn't bear to move her.

Today, she got up happy and starving, thank goodness. I was one worried mommy!

Wordless Wednesday: Olivia Meets the Hose

Olivia & The Hose, Part 1

Olivia & The Hose, Part 2

More of Proto 2

Here in Proto Olivia 2 almost complete!

Wordless Wednesday: Fall Morning- Barn Chores

parent's dog Fern

Proto 2

I'm a day late but here is a photo of the original Proto Olivia (wearing one of real Olivia's dresses she grew out of) with all the pieces of Proto 2!

Heel means... what?

Last thursday at the first session of Olivia's Intermediate class at Petsmart we did "sit with distractions" and step 1 of "heel". Everyone did well with the "sit" but no one quite got the "heel". In Puppy class the dogs were taught to sit in front of us. So naturally every time I would stop walking, Olivia would shoot out in front of me and sit. I would guide her back to my side, have her sit, and take off again telling her "heel". Then the next time I stop, same thing. It was frustrating. She was confused. I was glad when it was time to go home.

So I haven't practiced until today with it because I was dreading it. But it didn't go so badly as we tromped around the kitchen island. This time I kept the treats next to my thigh to keep her next to me instead of out in front. This helped keep her there when I stopped too. Definitely need more practice, for both of us.

The Making of an Olivia

So practically since we've brought Olivia home all those weeks ago, my mom and I have wanted to create an Olivia doll. Yup. You read that right. A plush doll based off my lovely little dog. I finally got hit with some inspiration about how it should look and because I'm a college grad and have no job still I decided I could make these dolls en masse and sell them on ETSY. And thus, the project began. 

First we (I) traced Olivia's face and head shape onto paper to make a head pattern. Then my mom and I drew out a body and legs. We made separate pattern pieces for the blaze on her face so it could be sewn in white onto a black head, and the same for the socks on her back legs. This first doll was to be our prototype so we just used some cotton fabric my mom had in stock instead of the nice black and white micro fiber we bought for the final products.

some of the pattern pieces
Left to right: back legs cut out, body pattern, blaze pattern,
front legs cut out, and socks cut out

more pattern pieces

head pattern and the head and blaze cut out

face almost done

final product
it's more attractive in person... I swear

from the back. can you see her little
nub tail? it has wire to make it bend

I bet most will be relieved to know that this is not what the final Olivia will look like. Proto(type) Olivia didn't turn out quite how we envisioned, although we both like her and think she's cute non-the-less. The finished Proto has a little fabric heart in her chest that says Proto Olivia October 6, 2013. Ever since I was little, and before Build-a-Bear made it part of their thing, my mom and I always put a heart with the date the stuffed animal was made, when we made one together. I couldn't help but do it today too.

Proto 2 is in the process of being put together. I'll take some pictures tomorrow and post them so you can watch The Olivia Doll evolve (if you're interested).

I have to say that this woman helped to inspire us in the making of The Olivia Doll. My mom found an article in a magazine about her and cut it out. While her dolls are a little pricey at $98 they look really well made and probably worth every penny for the amount of labor and love she puts into them: Walnut Animal Society