This is probably the easiest dog stuff I ever made for Shantee

The pillow itself is made of scrap cloth enclosed in a “cloth bag.” The gold textile I used for the pillow case is basically the same as the one my mom gave me for the gold trimmings of Shantee’s Christmas dog dress.

Shantee loves sleeping on her golden bed. I rather think she feels like a real princess on it! Hehe

But look here, Shantee has a new purple girly dog dress!

Would you believe I made that? Really, I did. I honestly couldn’t believe I could come up with a dog dress like that myself. But yes, this dog dress was made by hand and with love! (Unfortunately, my mom’s sewing machine needed to undergo major repairs)

I was actually planning to make a Santa-type of dress for Shantee using some red velvet cloth I had lying around. But I wasn’t feeling too confident about my measuring and sewing skills, so I made use of some cheap purple clothe to practice on first. Turns out, it wasn’t too hard—except for the sewing part, it would have been way easier and less time-consuming if I had a sewing machine.

I made use of the pattern I saw in the HGTV website which featured step-by-step instructions on how to make a dog dress, but modified it a bit. Give it a try—it definitely beats having to buy expensive dog clothes any day!

Shantee’s actually wearing this on her picture on this post, it’s just not noticeable from that angle. And yep, the dog necklace is made of Swarovski crystals—a dog necklace which used to be my bracelet

I added the chain so it would be easy to adjust, and Shantee won’t get choke on it if it’s too tight. That’s actually the nice thing about having a small dog—they’re so little you can just convert a bracelet into a fashionable necklace for them. Since Shantee’s a miniature version of a Shih Tzu (tiny teacup Shih Tzu or “Princess type” Shih Tzu), there’s still a chance that she won’t outgrow her necklace that much—a little adjustment might just do the trick. If she gets too big for it though, I can always just get her a collar or ask my cousin to make a custom dog necklace for her.

If you’re into making beaded necklaces or that sort of thing, creating one for your dog is way way cheaper than buying those in pet shops. Try it! Your dog fashionista will surely love it

Marc, my husband, and I are still deciding on the perfect gravestone for Sheero, so for now, a hand-made one will do. Besides, my family has plans of moving—it might not be a good idea to have a gravestone made and delivered at the moment just in case we had to transfer already. This is what I came up with:

I found the ceramic plate in our garden, and I painted it with Sheero’s name and stuff. Albeit temporary, I still wanted it to be at least a bit glitzy, so I added a few faux diamond studs on the cross. Being the fashionista that she is, I’m pretty sure Sheero liked it

The dog house I have in mind is not the ordinary type that you can dump in your garden. Sheero is an “inside the house” dog, and I really don’t want to let her sleep outside (she looks like a dirty rag when kept outside the house too long). But Marc didn’t want her dog house clashing with our planned Modern Mexican decor motif. So our best choice: get a customized dog house.

I searched Google for “custom dog house” in order to have an idea of how much it would cost. Well, let’s just say… Forget it. Haha. The cost of luxury dog houses is more than triple the cost of our planned house renovation. We’ll just make the dog house by ourselves.

In my unsuccessful search, I did stumble upon sites that show the incredible lengths rich people will go for their dogs. Here’s a screenshot of the site (La Petite Maison Playhouses):

The details of their dog houses are just incredible. I think these types of dog houses are way beyond my crafty skills, but I might be able to come up with something less luxurious. Probably a mini version of a Philippine nipa hut (bahay kubo).

But for now, it’s back to the drawing board…