What The Well Dressed Pug is Wearing (Cafe Press Shirts)

Weasley Here:

Mom has written before about how much she LOVES Cafe Press dog t-shirts.   Whatever your obscure interests you can get a comfortable dog shirt that declares them to the world.  Mom has ordered us Star Trek shirts, X Files Shirts, Twin Peaks shirts, PG Wodehouse shirts, Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy shirts and so on.  Oone of the best things about Cafe Press is when you order from them they send you discount coupons, sometimes for as much as 50% off!, so its easy to get a massive t-shirt wardrobe on a budget.  Plus cafe press shirts fit pugs wide necks very well and come in a big range of sizes, the x large fits our bulldog brother Bob at 65 lbs very generously.  

Yesterday, I rocked a Cafe Press shirt that read Deep 13, a reference to Mystery Science Theatre 3000, one of mom and dad's all time favorite shows.   I looked so cool and ready to attract the attention of fellow in the know fans, MST3K is number 19 on Entertainment Weekly's 25 Best Cult Shows of All Time. They said it made "being a geek a communal experience" no wonder mom loves it (a bunch of mom's other favorite shows are on the list too: Buffy, X Files, Supernatural, and Twin Peaks, in fact mom doesn't really like any TV that isn't cult).  Anyway here are the picture of me in my shirt, I rocked it with a wrist  band from Ruff Ruff And Meow, very 80s cool and only 99 cents.   I also think the concrete car port in our back yard adds to the gritty urban reality of my photo shoot.

Here is one of our family's favorite MST3K clips (mom particularly loves the t-shirt on Frank and cafe press makes one of those for dogs too!)

(Note: The title of this post is a tribute to one of our other favorite cult figures, Bertie Wooster from the Jeeves and Wooster stories by PG Wodehouse, and the name sake of our blogger friend Bouncing Bertie, who authored the article What The Well Dressed Man is Wearing for his Aunt Dahlia's magazine).

Monday Mischief-Product Review, Fetching Pet Tags

Take a look at Weasley's new tag:

It says: "Mischief Managed" and it is from Fetching Tags.  They can make custom tags with a phrase as unique as your dog.   Ping and Norbert already have tags with phrases that are special to me so Weasley was clearly next in line.

Weasley's tag references the Harry Potter books that feature his name sake, Ron Weasley.   The phrase "mischief managed" is used to conceal the Marauder's Map 

a magical document that reveals the location of everyone inside the Hogwart's school grounds.

Of course Mischief Managed is also good phrase to describe a mischievous young pug as well.  After all, Weasley manages plenty of Mischief!  

We really like our Fetching Tags.  Our communication with the company has always been great and the tags are sturdy and beautiful.  Sure they cost a bit more then other tags, but a unique pet tag is a fun way to celebrate your dog's individuality.

Monday Mischief-Sweater Time

The pugs at Urban Hounds have impressive wardrobes for sure....coats, PJs, t-shirts, but  there is one clothing  item they, (or really mom reaches for again and again) Sweater Vests!  Specifically the adorable sweater vests from Life is Art blogger Melissa and her adorable pug Archie.  They sell their vests at their Etsy shop Pug Notes.  Tubby and Ping already have 3 vests apiece and the late, lamented Dr. Z had several as well.  Obviously, Weasley had some catching up to do.  So I ordered him two vests about a month ago and the weather has finally turned crisp enough for him to wear them. 

You can see that Weasley was very eager to try on his vests

Plus they came wrapped in his favorite thing...a plastic bag (see this post).

I even made a video of Weasley unwrapping the sweaters (please excuse production quality as I am no film maker)

The sweaters sure look great on Weasley and they compliment his hats from All You Need is Pug perfectly.  One sweater is a pretty dark and light brown with a black collar.  Its like a chocolate chip cookie and it goes very nicely with Weasley's black cat hat.  Now Weasley can look like his favorite animal, the cat.   See he loves our cats Baby, Scooter, and Ernie but the feeling is not mutual.

Now perhaps the cats will enjoy playing with me.

The other sweater is a lovely Burgandy Red and Gold sweater the colors of Gryffindor house, just like Weasley's fictional name sake!  

and it matches his Gryffindor Hat.

  Now our Weasley is totally ready to play Quidditch on the house team(if only he had a flying broom). 

See Weasley would fit right in that empty seat on left, next to the real Ron.

The sweater really must have made Weasley feel pretty magical because as soon as he put it on and I gave him my Ron Weasley wand, a thoughtful gift from my friend Pat who visited the Harry Potter amusement park (because even I would not spend  my money on a wand, that money is for pug clothes), he took off around the yard.  Perhaps on the look out for dark wizards?

We know Weasley is going to be enjoying his sweaters for years to come.  If you have a pug or other small dog get them a sweater vest, you won't be disappointed.

Friday Fun-Weasley's Silly Buddy Collar

Remember when we first brought Weasley home and he looked like this:

A tiny baby.

Well he is a big boy now:

and ready for a big boy collar, courtesy of super cool Etsy shop Silly Buddy.

It arrived wrapped in a cool package and nicely labeled with Weasley's name:

We choose the vintage toys print:

Look how handsome!

Monday Mischief-Graduation!

Weasley here:  On Sunday I passed a big puppy mile stone.   I graduated from Basic Obedience at It's Your Dog in Sussex, NJ.

For the past three months every Sunday I  have been making the hour and half trip there and back first to attend puppy pre-school play group and then Basic Obedience and finally today was the big day!   I got my diploma (and they even gave me a big bone biscuit!).

I got lots of claps and cheers, mom and dad where both so proud of me.  After graduation they took me shopping at the doggie boutique next store Maxwell and Molly's Closet.

 


I got a pair of yellow duck PJs and a squeaky bulldog toy.

Thanks to class I can  now lay down patiently while Mom takes my photo (provided she remembers my treat.)

 

This bulldog toy is awesome!

Dad got something too on the way home we stopped at a farm stand and bought a Peach and Blueberry Pie a reward for all those long drives he made and how patient he was waiting for me and mom to finish classes.

Mom hung my Diploma on the refrigerator:

It was a busy day and by early evening I was all ready for bed time in my new jammies.

Sci Fi Saturday

Norbert's Star Trek Inspired ID: Live Long and Prosper Tag from Fetching Tags.

Our mom is a big giant nerd.  Now thanks to cafe press  we all can all be nerds too, or at least we can have nerdy t-shirts.  On August 19 mom dressed us up for a Star Trek party in honor of Star Trek creator's Gene Roddenberry's birthday.   August 19th is also coincidentally an important day in real world space exploration history, it is the anniversary of Belka's and Strelka's flight, they were Russian dogs who became some of the first creatures to survive orbital space flight.  We did a post on their adventure last year: link.   

Here are some pictures of us this year in our Star Trek t-shirts from cafe press, playing with our insignia and Tribble toys from Pugs In the Kitchen, and of course watching Some Star Trek on TV.  If your parents have on obsession of any kind like our mom does they can get you cool t-shirts from Cafe Press.  Warning, though, it is very addictive because they send you  TONS of coupons and discounts one you start ordering.

 

Tasty Tuesday-Hippie Dippie and Blogger Break

We are feeling a little hippie-ish here at the moment.  It could be because we have wearing our tye died tees,

or maybe its because the anniversary of the famous Woodstock Festival is this Wednesday, or maybe its that mom and dad watched the movie Across The Universe this weekend and all that 60's Beatle's music is stuck in our heads.

Anyway, in keeping with the Hippie mood mom decided to make some flower child friendly treats for today's Tasty Tuesday post.  The first is a recipe for dog friendly Granola, now mom has never giving us Granola even though she likes to make it for herself and dad and  she has posted her recipe on the blog before (recipe link).    To make us granola mom adapted a recipe from the super cute dog cookbook Throw Me a Bone.

Grrrnola (adapted from Throw Me A Bone by Susan Orlean and Sally Sampson)

1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup almond slivers (optional)
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup bran flakes
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp fish or coconut oil
1/2 cup dried blueberries
1/2 cup dried banana chips
1/2 cup carob chips

Heat a skillet over medium heat and add the oats and almond slivers and stirring constantly toast until golden, about five minutes.   Lower the heat to low and add the wheat germ, sunflower seeds, and bran flakes and stirring constantly cook for five to ten minutes more until golden.  Off the heat stir in the honey and the fish or coconut oil.  Cool.

Once cool stir in the dried blueberries, banana chips, and carob chips or substitute any dried fruits your dog likes.   Serve sparingly (as it is pretty sweet) as a kibble topper with a little yogurt.

Super sweet, just like me!

Norbert licked the bowl clean

Now for the humans....cookies.   Our grandma used to make a lot of recipes from of hippie friendly 60s cook books like, Diet for a Small Planet.   Mom's favorite treat where these cookies, which come buy their unusual name because they have so many ingredients, you know everything but the Kitchen Sink.

Kitchen Sink Cookies adapted from Diet for a Small Planet

They look ugly, but trust us they taste delish!

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
 1 1/3 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup unsweet flaked coconut
1/4 cup milk powder (1/3 cup instant)

¼ c cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
2/3 cup raisins
2/3 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup oil or melted butter
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs, beaten

milk, 1-2 tbsp, if cookie mixture is too dry

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl until well combined.

Mix liquid ingredients in a smaller bowl then pour into the dry mixture and stir well.  The batter will be quite thick if it is too dry add a little milk, not more then 1-2 tbsp.

Use a spoon to scoop out about 2 tbsp of dough and form into a ball, flatten a bit, and place on the parchment lined cookie sheets.

Bake at 350 degrees 10-12 minutes.

Tomorrow marks the first day of mom's three week summer staycation.   So we will be having a lot of fun hanging out with her and dad and we will be taking a blogger break until September.   We hope everyone has a wonderful time for the rest of August and we will be back blogging soon!