Home Improvement Project - Vintage Suitcase Dog bed...

After seeing a blog entry about making a dog bed out of a vintage suitcase, I was inspired and decided to give it a try. 

(source: www.curbly.com)

I dragged Mr Lim to the Hell's Kitchen flea market in hopes of  finding my own vintage suitcase. Lucky us, we managed to pick one for just USD20. (And it was in green!!) 

Once we got it, I started procrastinating. I read the post sometime last year and bought the suitcase maybe a week later. 8 months later, I finally took the suitcase out, gave it a clean and took a photo of it. 2 months later, I finally started (and COMPLETED) the project.

Sam was curious about what this was for. 

The suitcase was really beat up inside. The fabric lining smelled pretty bad and was falling apart. But the little man liked it anyway. Yikes~

I spent a good half hour giving the outer case a good clean using the Rejuvenate leather & vinyl restoration kit and probably emptied a bottle of febreze inside to kill the smell.

I loved that the suitcase was green in color and I knew immediately that I wanted a yellow stripe fabric to make the pillow case out of. After some online shopping, I found the exact fabric that I was visualizing on fabric.com - the Riley Blake Chervon Yellow fabric. I bought 2 yards of the fabric, but only used about 1 yard for this project. 

As usual, the dog approved.

I hate cutting fabric, thus lazy me simply used an exisiting pillow case and added 2 inches to the width (for seam allowances and zigzag stitches to prevent the raw edges from fraying) and 5 inches to the length to allow me to fold the fabric in. (Hee, a easy tip is to fold the fabric into half and cut, keeping the folded side intact so that there'll be one less side to sew!)

A quick sew and ta-dah, a really basic pillow case was completed!

Sam test-laid and approved (again).

A quick check and it appeared to fit in the suitcase perfectly. 

I thought the sewing was the tedious part and once I was done, we just had to unhinge the suitcase and the dog bed would be completed. Boy was I wrong. The tough part was actually unhinging the suitcase. Damn the suitcase. It was really built to last. 

Mr Lim, the engineer, studying the structure. 

The hinge simply refused to give way and despite constantly hammering, it did not budge. 

After possibly 2 hours, a drill and some internet research, the engineer finally broke the suitcase into two! (HOORAY~) I was so bored waiting that I actually went on and completed yet another project (next entry!!). 

Mr Lim was pretty proud of himself for his hard work.

Look at the amount of tools we attempted to use.

After a more detailed examination, we realized that the inside of the suitcase was far more disgusting than we expected. There were orange residue (probably rust) and dirt under the lining.

Hence, we went ahead and removed the lining and gave the shell a really thorough clean (and disinfecting). 

I thought that the case looked really ugly and decided to add my own lining instead. I found a really cute (and appropriate) dog fabric in my stash - Premier Prints Best Friends Slub Charcoal. After a lot of hot glue, the new lining was added!

Tadah~ Presenting our very own vintage suitcase dog bed! It looked a little deflated due to the pillow. Time to search for a fuller pillow for the dog bed, meanwhile, we made do.

The dog couldn't wait and hopped right on it once we declared it completed!

He did a trial run of tossing and turning and approved (YET again).

We left it at the little corner by the window and went ahead to pack up the mess we created. When we turned back, we found the little man sound asleep on it. Sigh~ what a heart warming feeling to know that he appreciates our hard work and effort. (Okay, I'm reading too much into it.)

My initial plan was to make two beds from each half of the suitcase. Unfortunately, the condition of the upper half was just horrible that we simply tossed it away. While I am really pleased with the end product, I am not too sure if I would want to replicate this project! It was a lot more work than I've expected. But at least it was fun. 

And the little man does like it. 

That makes it all worth it. 

My dog, the monkey..

Sam's new ability - tree climbing..

At this rate, he is going to catch a squirrel pretty soon.

Good job, my little man!

One year and counting.

I am really lousy with dates and anniversaries. (Good for Mr Lim I guess) I actually just realised that I've missed Sammy's first anniversary with us which was supposedly on 28 March!

Well, this first year with the little boy has been a roller coaster ride. From having a little cute puppy to having a handsome but slightly rebellious adolescent. From struggling with separation anxiety, to being able to remain in the crate for several hours while mummy and daddy are out. From sleeping in the crate, to pretty much owning the bed at night. From strictly dog food, to little treats of yummy human food (one of his all-time favourite is cheese). And most importantly, from tons of potty accidents, to, well, not so many accidents. (Yeah, there's still room for improvement.)

I've to say we got pretty lucky. Sam has an absolutely amazing personality for a jack russell terror. He does have his pissy moments (where he gets a little snappy), he does play a little rough (especially when he realizes that the other party is a pushover) and he does have a hell lot of energy. Yet, he is an independent, healthy and happy little guy. I cannot thank him enough for the tons of joy, laughter and pride he brought into our lives (more in mine than in Zim's life I'm pretty sure).

I love you, my silly little boy and of course, Happy one year anniversary.. and many more to come!

1st Night home...

Having a puppy is just like having a baby! It's a challenge understanding what they want and it's equally tough getting them to settle down! LOL. Welcome to 'dog' parenthood.

So Sam finally came home with us today! I was really relieved that we got home in one piece (after the restless drive and thank goodness, no poo-ing). I was initially planning to put Sam in a crate and keep him inside all the way, but he was scratching the door non-stop that I gave in and carried him all the way. (Sigh, you should check out my black coat. It's totally covered in dog fur!)

Nonetheless, Sam is such a darling. He is really really cute and a born charmer (He got woos and ahhs from about 5 people today!)! He is really funny when he slipped and fell when running around. OH OH, and his poo has fur! LOL. On the down side, the little thing seems to be suffering from some anxiety and just would not stop whining when we place him inside the puppy pen. This is quite worrying, especially since he does have full view of us when he is placed inside the pen! We were resisting but gave in eventually when he started crying. (It's really heartbreaking!) When we finally picked him up, he had cried so much that he was hiccuping! (My heart just broke...) Instead, we let the little thing run loose around the house and let him get used to the new environment. Sure enough, he started racing around the house (and we concluded that his favourite spot was the mirror at the front door as it was probably his first time staring at his own reflections!) and was happily wagging his little tail, which was a relief! But I guess I have to try to coax him into his puppy pen again tomorrow.

Anyway, after a couple of hours, we finally coaxed him into entering the crate (he was really resilient about it but I guess removing the door does help) and he gradually fell asleep! (HOORAY~) But he's a real light sleeper. I woke him up a couple of times (When I opened my can drink, when I was washing the dishes) that we decided to shift him into the bedroom instead. So now, the little thing is probably zonking out (with Zim beside him.). He freaks out when he wakes up alone, so we decided to take turns for now.

No wonder they say that a new 'dog' parent would barely have any sleep during the first few nights. And of course this is the hardest part. Oh well, fingers crossed and I sure hope that little Sam will grow to love us and of course, be more independent!

Day one of 'dog parenthood! More to come...