Introducing Miss Tula!

Long-time readers of my blog might remember a little guy named Clancy.

Clancy was a puppy that we got exactly two years ago this month. Some of you have asked on occasion about Clancy and how he's doing. I never did blog about it, but the truth is that we were forced to give Clancy away shortly after he came to live with us.

You see, when we decided to get a puppy my wife was a stay-at-home mom, which was the ideal situation for training and raising a brand-new puppy. However, shortly after receiving Clancy, Mrs. Quilt Dad fortuitously received a wonderful opportunity to begin her career as a college-level teacher. All of a sudden a full-time worker again, it became clear that it was unfair to our young puppy to leave him locked up all day long by himself. Luckily, we found an older couple with a big farm that had just lost their dog and were looking for a new puppy to spoil. Trust me, Clancy is a VERY lucky dog.

Fast-forward two years, and my wife is transitioning back out of a full-time job to be a student again. With the summer completely off and a much more flexible schedule starting this fall, she and I both felt it was the perfect time to get another dog.

Meet Tula, the newest member of the Quilt Dad family!:

Yes, it's Tula ... as in fabric designer extraordinaire, Tula Pink. What started out as a bit of a Twitter joke really caught on -- my wife and kids all LOVE the name. Plus, there may have been a bit of a bribe by Tula Pink herself for some hard-to-find fabric to make a custom dog collar that may have sealed the deal!

Tula's a golden doodle -- half golden retriever, half poodle -- just like Clancy was. That means no shedding and easy on my allergies. A perfect combination.

She's a real sweetheart -- very smart and very well-behaved. But she is a puppy nontheless, which means lots and lots (and lots) of energy, and a whole lot of work.

So now there won't just be Tula fabric sightings on my blog ... there will be Tula the puppy sightings as well!

Another Sneak Peek: FSQS (and 50th post!!)

And another WIP ... my summer quilt for the Four Seasons Quilt Swap. I'm showing it here in its early stages ... still lots of piecing to do, but I am pretty excited about how it's turning out so far. Think it's summery enough? I'm using a cool pattern (Bay Breeze) from Quilts & More, Summer '08.

I just realized that this is my 50th post! I am definitely going to do a giveaway, but I'll post it under separate cover. No, this isn't a shameless ploy to get you to come back ... it's just that it's Sunday night and I am physically exhausted. I figured this can wait another day or two!

Any good ideas for what to give away? I have some thoughts already, but I am open to suggestions.

I also realize that I've slacked off on posting new pictures of Clancy. I promise to get some pictures of the big guy up soon. As a teaser, he's literally doubled in size since we got him 3 weeks ago, and he's fitting in with the family splendidly.

Last weekend:

This evening:

See what I mean??!

Look Who Arrived!

Yes, Clancy has finally made it home. He was supposed to arrive on Friday, but due to the heat wave we're having here in the Carolinas, he arrived late Wednesday night to avoid traveling in those conditions.


Things are going REEEEALLLY well so far. He is just the sweetest, calmest, smartest, and most well-behaved puppy I've met. We couldn't have asked for more.

Clancy | 5 Weeks Old (and slight change of plans)

If you've been following along, you know that we've decided to get a Golden Doodle and have been deciding between two puppies from the same litter (we'll call them Blue Ribbon and Green Ribbon). There are other puppies in the litter, but we were under the impression that all of the others had been chosen and that we'd get to pick between Blue and Green this weekend.

Well, the people in front of us actually hadn't decided on one of the other puppies, and selected Green Ribbon instead. Which opened the door for us to actually get our first choice all along.

Please allow me to introduce Orange Ribbon ... or, as he will be known from this point on, Clancy!


You can see that he is more orange / brown colored than the other two, which were both much lighter in color.

He should be arriving in about 2 weeks.

Clancy | 4 weeks old

Here are the latest pics, hot off the presses:

For those of you just tuning in, one of the above pups will be our Clancy ... we're just not sure which one yet.

Clancy | 3 weeks old

Here are the most recent pictures of Clancy @ 3 weeks old:

We need some help! What recommendations do you have for things that we should be picking up before he arrives? Several of you have already suggested chew toys (thanks!) ... what else ... ... ...??

Clancy | 2 weeks old

Clancy | 1 week old

We've been talking for months about adding a member to our family -- no, not another baby, but one of the canine variety. We fully explored rescuing an adult dog. We even had a couple come to visit us. But, in the end, anything in the retriever family (our first choice) was just too much for my allergies to handle.

So, we decided to go a different route.

Meet Clancy.




Well, one of these puppies will be Clancy. We decided to get a Goldendoodle, the most hypo-allergenic dog that we could find. (My mom has a goldendoodle -- the sweetest dog EVER -- so I can attest to the fact that my allergies aren't bad at all when I stay with her).

I say one of the little guys will be Clancy because we're not sure yet which one will be ours. Another family has first dibs and will be choosing their puppy (blue or green) at 6 weeks of age. The other will be ours.

We're expecting Clancy to come home sometime in early June. Understandably, we're a bit nervous about getting our first dog ... especially with him being a puppy. But with Quilt Mom* still a stay-at-home mom for now, we figured it's the best time to get him trained and acclimated to life with our family.

Any tips or words of advice as we embark on this adventure?

* Speaking of Quilt Mom, I'm trying to convince her to write a guest post on my blog sometime soon ... !