Holidays and dog treat bags

Already October is half done, where did it go? Apparently it is going with a slight heatwave for us (feels like Spring half the time!). But the foliage is just beautiful right now, it smells like Autumn outside. I love the golds, reds and falling leafs.

The view outside our place

With the end of October will come - the rush of the Winter holidays! Might as well start yelling out windows after Thanksgiving "Panic! Shopping has begun! Cut the coupons NOW!" I actually can't stand it, all the chaos and too much spending on store gifts. Last year I made soaps and lip balms as part of my handmade gifts. This year it will be felt ornaments, gnomes and globe types. I already have some of the gnome ones done ~ felt, thread and fabric. I did a freehand pattern which came out really nicely.

Gnome felt ornament, in progress

Feel free to make some of your own from this photo! The hat is a triangle, the body - a teardrop, face - a chubby upside down heart and a 'beard'. I don't have photos of the 'globe' type ornaments yet, but I do have a link. I found this globe felt ornament on Zakka Life and she always has some easy, fun, inexpensive craft tutorials. 

Now I did mention 'dog treat bags' in the title of this post, right? Well that is all about this guy here, our dog named Choji. Please see below adorable photo and commence with the "Awww so cute!" comments. 

Our dog Choji with a foster kitten

Seriously, look at that face! Is it not the cutest boy with the biggest bat ears ever? He is a sweetheart, he gets along & plays with our two grown cats. He was about 1 1/2 years of age when we adopted him - he is now about 6 years of age. He was picked up off the streets by animal control, so he is a rescue dog. He is fairly quiet, likes to snuggle with people and is timid. He has not been formally trained beyond my efforts. I use rewards like treats and his toys and it works. But we do want to take him to be better socialized because there are just so many dogs here! Sometimes we catch him acting 'big' and we don't want that behavior. So he is getting refresher courses (doggie home schooling of sorts) by me starting this week. So I need to sew a treat bag, because the treats get crushed in my pockets. The blog I found. Bits and Pieces, has this simple dog treat bag design. I plan on cutting a plastic sandwich bag to use as a liner for this. And it's made so you can put this through a belt loop or just use a large safety pin. I'll share when I get this made and how it comes out.