We got our first taste of fall late last week, and Friday night was cool enough that Mom and Dad decided to have a fire—the first hot-dog roast of the season.
Pippin Pix & Gifs
As you might imagine, Pippin has taken up a lot of our spare time this month. He’s already visibly growing, learning, and settling into his home—but of course he’s still very much a puppy with a long way to go.
Prepare for a lot of gifs and photos in this section!
Upside-down Pippin puppen…
He fits in a heavy-duty dishpan! (Or at least he did when I took this photo…)
Snoozy puppy taking a siesta in his crate…
More schnoozing…
Here he is with his favorite stuffed squeaky toy (that he chose himself at the store during one of his “socialization outings”). He loves his soft toys, but so far we only trust him with them under direct supervision.
The ubiquitous puppy “kill shake”. (I’d use a bug-eyed emoji here, except my blog displays them in giant mode on mobile devices, so… just imagine it for yourself.)
So cute; so terrifying. ;o)
Just a little cutie (with needle-sharp teeth).
Pippin loves to pounce on toys!
Playing with an ice cube… That little head tilt!
We’ve already confirmed his tendency toward nighttime “zoomies”. He’s worked out the confines of his temporary “toilet pen” with pin-point precision for tight, last-second turns.
(The toilet pen is just an area we’ve fenced off, within the fenced yard, so he can run around safely without getting into trouble. He’s still never allowed outside on his own, at this age.)
He knows his name, “come”, “sit” and “down”. We think he also understands “outside” and “inside”, as well, and probably some other words I’m forgetting.
Puppy mischief!
Pippin has developed an interest in fetching after all. ;o) All it took was the right type of ball (one that’s easier to grab and carry).
He’s also showing real promise as a digger…
(Good thing he’s a cutie to make up for the mess!)
Most of our dogs have never seemed to react much to the TV. Either they couldn’t see what was happening on it or they simply didn’t care. (One time Molly barked at a scary “monster” on TV—the Green Goblin, I think?—but that was about it.)
Pippin, on the other hand, does seem to notice the TV and watch it briefly from time to time. He’s even barked once or twice. I think this was the most excited I’ve seen him about the TV, so far—watching a YouTube channel, Harmony Hounds, devoted to dog-walking videos for dogs.
Luna’s doing great, too. :o)
Here’s an appropriate photo of her for “Tongue-Out Tuesday”. ;o)
Crocheting After a Long Break
It had been a long, long time since I’d crocheted much of anything, but I started again in the last couple of months. Nothing fancy, just some simple dish scrubbers of the type that I prefer.
The red ones are 100% cotton, which I prefer for most dishwashing. The ones in black and neon yarn are acrylic, which is good when you need something scrubbier but less absorbent.
I prefer linked hdc for the squares. The round ones are just dc, if I remember correctly.
It didn’t take long to get back into the flow of crocheting again, but I’m not sure when/if/what I’ll feel like crocheting again, specifically…
More Gluebooking
I had another little booklet that I made at the same time as the other two—using the same types of papers. That means most of it’s no good for watercolor, so more appropriate for collage or a gluebook.
This time, I wanted to use “dogs” as my theme, but I’m not in any hurry to fill it up. I’ll just do a page or two when I feel like it. As before, this is an extremely low-demand, low-expectations project. It’ll probably look pretty bad, to be honest, but so what? It’s just for fun, and if I learn something along the way, that’s a welcome bonus.
Inside cover and a gel print on the first page. I may just leave this page as-is.
I started by making a simple collage of a dog, then gluing in a couple of dog-themed bits and pieces from my pile of fodder, including a pearlescent stenciled dog and an “ugly doodle” of some dogs.
The glue stick in the photo above is a very old one that had long since dried out. I followed the instructions in this video and rejuvenated it. Seems to have worked! I can’t vouch for how well the glue works after this, but it’s working well enough for me, at the moment. I have a few more from the same box that I intend to rejuvenate and use up, too.
Translucent paper (tracing paper) and another gel print…
I had fun cutting tiny bones and balls out of small scraps of paper for this one…
Adding in a couple of cute stamps, as well as some scraps of used security envelopes…
This dog collage… I was having fun, but then at the end it just looks weird! Oh well! It’s all just for fun, and weird is okay in the world of “naive” art and collage.
Souvenir Doodle
This one feels like a souvenir of our trip to get Pippin, because I doodled it on the drive home, when I needed something to do with my hands to keep myself awake. (I’d been sleeping far too little for days beforehand, and Pippin was in his travel crate for safety, so doodling helped keep me from dozing off.)
Weeks later, I added some watercolor to finish it up.
Mixed Media Floral Doodles
I watched this video by OneToothMoose, which starts with painting a watercolor background, followed by floral doodles on top, using mostly crayons (Neocolors). I liked the way hers turned out so decided to try it, too.
I divided a page into quarters and painted each one a different color, with the idea of trying multiple color schemes, doodle types, media, etc.
For the first try, I went for crayons, like the original did, but I wasn’t crazy about how it turned out. I think maybe this paper is more textured (as a lot of watercolor paper is), which doesn’t always work as well with things like crayons and color pencils. (She may have been using a somewhat larger piece of paper, too, which is helpful when working with something like a crayon.)
Speaking of color pencils, I added some of that, too, as well as a few touches of acrylic marker. I don’t hate it, but it’s not quite how I’d wanted it to turn out.
For the next one, I used gouache for the first layer on top of the watercolor background, then I added some details in brown ink. I was much happier with this one, though I didn’t love all my choices (like the line of darker leaves at the bottom of the page). Still, an improvement over the crayon, in my opinion.
On the third quarter, I went for Inktense pencils, which are kind of like a watercolor pencil. (I need to use these more often…)
This one turned out more simplified/stylized. More of a graphic design type style. I think it’s okay. Not my usual style, but still nice.
And for the fourth and final quarter page, I doodled first in brown waterproof ink, then added more color with another layer of watercolor (though slightly more opaque watercolor, since I added white). I stuck to a very limited analogous palette.
I think my favorites would be the last one and the one with gouache (the green one).
It was fun to play around with a few different ideas and see what happened.
Another Dollhouse Doodle
After enjoying my first dollhouse doodle, I thought I’d try a second one. This time I started with one of the fude nib pens and a purple-grey ink.
I tried to change up the rooms and layouts a bit, though some of the contents are fairly similar to the first house.
Some of the elements of the house (particularly contents) turned out a little wonky or “off”, but I don’t think you notice it as much when you’re just a casual observer—especially in a doodle with so much going on. Letting things be intentionally jumbled and slightly off-kilter helps the mistakes blend in better, too.
I didn’t want to get too fussy when it came time to paint this one, so I kept each room a single color, with a quick, messy wash over the whole thing, followed by slightly darker touches of the same color here and there.
I like the effect!
This was another fun doodle, so I imagine I’ll be drawing dollhouses again, at some point.
Elixirs, Potions & Concoctions
I wanted something easy and fun that I could “paint first and doodle later”. I think I’ve done something similar before, but I saw a video of Andrea Nelson demonstrating a witch’s potions sketchbook page using the “paint first” method, and it inspired me to try it again.
That said, now that I watch her video again, I see that her style was very different from mine. No problem there! However, I might do this again with less teensy-scaled bottles and more “wet-in-wet” effect on the potions, to make them look more magical. I could also include some of the magical stars and some swirls to emphasize that they are actually supposed to be potions and not just “bottles of stuff”.
I always enjoy this type of doodle! Easy and fun, and it ends up looking better and harder (in my opinion) than it really is.
