Merry Christmas!

Holiday Collar

If you're looking for a quick and festive look for your pet this season, try these covers for his collar. This project will take you less than 10 minutes and it looks great! My cats are much more tolerant of this than a kerchief or any of my other homemade costumes. And, you can change out the collar cover throughout the year. If you get really ambitious, you can choose a sturdy decorator fabric and embroider your pet's name, nickname, phone number, or address.

If you want to give this project a try, here are the steps I used:

* Start out by measuring your pet's collar length and width. I was able to cover the full length of the collar, minus the buckle, however you may have to shorten the length if you have a lot of tags that can't easily be removed. Measure the widest width (usually the buckle), as you will be sliding the cover over the collar and you want it to be easy to do so.

* Find a fabric with a cute, festive pattern. I recommend using a pattern that is small, especially if you're making a cover for a cat or small dog collar.

* You'll need to cut a piece of the chosen fabric that is 1" longer than the measured length and and 1" wider than twice the measured width of the collar.

* Make clean edges of both short ends of the cut fabrics. Fold over 1/4" and then another 1/4" and sew straight across. Repeat with the other end.

* With right sides together, sew along the length of the fabric.

* Pull fabric through the tube that you've sewn and slide the completed cover over the collar.

The Tree

This year's tree may just be the most boring tree yet! For those of you that know our track record with Christmas trees - this is a good thing!

You might think we're lucky to have a tree farm less than a quarter of a mile down the road, but I would have to disagree. This farm is one of the most pathetic farms I've seen, because the trees are never trimmed! Last year we managed to find a beautiful Blue Spruce, but I made the comment that we wouldn't return the following year because of the poor selection.

Unfortunately, since convincing Zach to go tree chopping is literally like pulling teeth, I make compromises. He's not a big fan of traveling an hour to my favorite tree farm, so I agreed to go to our local farm instead. I'll let you be the judge of this one. I admit that it's growing on me. It certainly is wayyyyyy better than any articial tree that Zach tries to convince me to buy every. single. year.

Cute Onesies

These cute onesies were made for my friend, Anh, and her soon-to-be baby boy! She and her husband are sports fans, so I thought these would be appropriate. They were fun and easy to create! I downloaded some black and white jpeg files for the templates, cut my fabric, used fusible web and zigzagged the edges. They gave this gift a personal touch!

Are You a Fan?

I'm currently running our company's Facebook page and I'd love to put a plug in for it. Please hop on over to Willow Mill's Facebook page. I'd be honored if you become a fan and "Like" our page! When you do, you'll get to see some of the cutest faces of the dogs and cats that I get to see everyday. (I love my job!) Along with pictures, you'll also find pet health information, animal-related news, local events, cute videos and more! Stop on by, leave a comment or share a photo!

A Conversation

After my Saturday morning shift:

Me: "Hi."

Zach: "Aren't you working today?"

Me: "Yes, but I'm done now."

Zach: "But aren't you working all day - dogsitting or housesitting or something?"

Me: "Yes, but that is later this afternoon."

Zach: "Oh" (Obviously disappointed that I intruded on his day home alone.)

I guess we've moved through the newlywed phase!