Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Sunny and Rosy hope everyone has a great Halloween with lots of treats! And they want to remind everyone that while your dog can't have any chocolate, there are lots of other kinds of treats you can give them (their current favorites are Primal Pet Food's liver treats that BarkBox introduced to us recently). Who says only humans should get treats today???

This is the drawing for October in my new 2014 calendar (link here).

I didn't get costumes for the girls, but I did whoop out Sunny's old koala hat!

They both hated wearing it. I managed to get them to sit still for a couple seconds and then they would start rubbing their head to pull it off. When I put it on Sunny, Rosy got crazy excited and wouldn't stop harassing her. But then it was Rosy's turn haha!

Happy Halloween!

Poop Strike

For those wondering what a poop strike looks like, it pretty much looks just like this but without the signs.

Sunny hunches over and looks super sad (sometimes she stares directly into my eyes as though trying to telepathically will me to take them inside) and Rosy keeps looking up at me hopefully and prances in whatever direction she thinks I want to go to but still refuses to poop.

I've been having a crappy week. Monday - Sunny pooped in my apartment; Tuesday - Rosy stepped in Sunny's poop outside; Wednesday - 30 minute poop strike by Sunny finished with the amazing feat of accidentally tying the poop bag around the loop at the end of my umbrella. I had to tear apart the bag outside and then use scissors inside to get the remaining knot out (I tie my poop bags super tight apparently). Can't wait to see what the rest of the week holds in store for me.

Autumn Dance

The girls and I love fall! It's cool and crisp, without being so cold that your bones are shivering. And fall means holidays coming up, warm comforting foods to eat, and cozy days and nights with two chub chub warm pugs. See how happy they are?  Look at them dance!

This is one of the new drawings I did for my 2014 calendar.  This is for the month of November, which is just around the corner!  You can buy the Bah Humpug 2014 calendar *here* and if you use the code 2014CALENDAR you can get 30% off through October 31st.

Bah Humpug 2014 Calendar

I did my first calendar for my Zazzle store (Bah Humpug Zazzle Store)! The 2014 calendar has all new drawings, except for the cover and back which are my Hoodie Pugs and Pug Bundles/Burritos drawings. You can see the Bah Humpug 2014 calendar by clicking the link *here* and below are a few of the months' drawings.

April - all this rain makes for very sad pugs.

June - These bathing beauties are ready for swimsuit season.

July - It's very important for pugs to stay cool during the hot summer days.

September - Back to school pugs!

The calendar is generally non-denominational. I'm also updating the store to include some of these monthly drawings on other items.  And if you use the code 2014CALENDAR you can get 30% off all calendars through October 31, 2013!

Pug Bundles (aka Pug Burritos)

Brrrrr! I don't know about where you live but here in the DC area it's super cold today! I'm all for fall weather but this feels more like winter. And I refuse to wear my winter coat because it is still fall! So now I'm freezing. Of course that didn't stop me from getting ice cream at the cookie truck this afternoon (the special flavor was pumpkin!).

If it's cold where you are I hope you are staying warm like these lil pug bundles (or pug burritos, if you prefer)!

Entangled

My two pugs are terrible on walks. They're constantly running around each other and then behind and around me so their leashes get nice and tangled. And if there's a lamp post in our path, you can be sure that they'll want to go in different directions around it. Sunny's also a fan of just planting her bottom when she doesn't want to move and Rosy loves to lunge towards things she loves/hates. Sigh.

But my walks with them are still some of my favorite moments of the day! (Except during Hurricane Sandy - that was no fun for any of us.)

P.S. The eyes are a bit wonky here because my pen decided to die on me and the nib disappeared into the pen. Time for new art supplies!

The Little Things in Life

 Sometimes it's good to remind yourself to appreciate the little things in life like enjoying the feel of the wind in your hair/fur/ears.

Or, in my case, catching a glimpse of my pug's happy lil gremlin face in my rear view mirror! Rosy loves car rides so much and every time I see her with her muzzle tilted just over the window with her eyes closed I can't help but smile. She's now figured out how to open the windows so when I want to keep them closed I have to lock them!

Sunny usually just quietly sits or sleeps during our car drives but I had to add her to my drawing, even if she is just in the background!

Ready For Fall Weather?

Sunny and Rosy are! Though they may not be happy about it.

Well at least Rosy looks happy in her hoodie.

Halloween Cards

It's a little early for Halloween drawings, but I did a few for cards in my Zazzle store and so wanted to do a post about them. 

The first one below is a play on the black cat with the arched back image. I wish I could do more black pug drawings but I need color to do it properly (e.g., markers, paint) and usually I just have my moleskine and pen with me. 

You can find a card with this image here at Trick and Treat CardBlack Pug Halloween Card.

I did a drawing of this trio a while ago ("Scary" Monster Pugs) but the drawing wasn't the best quality and so I wanted to update it this year. Below we have a werepug, a ghost pug, and a vampug!

You can find a card with this image here at Halloween Pug Monsters Card.

And last, I did a more unconventional type of card with some pug specific humor. Pugs will do anything for food but if they can do it with minimal effort they will!  The first image is on the front and the second image is inside.

You can find a card with these images here at Trick and Treat Pug Card.

I'll add more Halloween cards for next year, but I probably won't have time to add more before this year's Halloween. I plan on adding more holiday specific stuff in the next month or two so keep an eye out at my Zazzle store, Bah Humpug!

Vacation Cycle for a Crazy Pug Lady

This past weekend I went to New York to visit a friend. Another friend lives in New Jersey so I was able to see both of them and we had a great time! I was sad to say bye to Sunny and Rosy, but I knew my parents would take great care of them. I find that I go through the same cycle where I plan a trip and get excited, but right before and in the beginning I worry about the girls. Then I have a great time (it is nice being free from constant pug fur and dog-related obligations) and tell myself I should take more trips until near the end when I miss the girls and stare at photos of them in my phone. And once I'm reunited I don't want to travel again and just want to lounge with the girls. I wish I could bring the girls with me everywhere I go!

This trip I ended up latching onto my friend's cat. I felt like Elmyra from Tiny Toons, constantly following her around and trying to pet her. She's much friendlier than most cats, but I'm so used to my two pugs who are total velcro dogs so I'm sure Fat Baby thought I was a crazy needy freak. Anyways, I'm excited for my next trip but for now I'm just enjoying being back home with the girls.

Here's some photos of my trip from the moment I left the girls with my parents to the night I picked them up. I'll try to do a more detailed post on my regular blog, Lil Smug Pug (I know I've been totally neglecting that one and my food blog!) on my NY visit. In case you couldn't tell from the photos below, my friends and I take food very seriously.

REUNITED!

Six Stages of Watching The Breaking Bad Finale (Warning: Spoilers!!)

This post and the illustration below will be about the series finale of Breaking Bad that aired last night.  While I didn't include full and detailed spoilers, if you haven't watched the finale yet and don't want to get spoiled, stop reading right now!!
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Last night I watched the series finale of Breaking Bad and loved every minute of it. It's so rare for a great show to consistently get better over its seasons and finish with an amazing finale that ties up almost all loose ends and bring various character arcs to a satisfying conclusion. While a show can't show the future of every single character (well I guess they kinda did that with Six Feet Under), what the creators and actors of Breaking Bad did was to flesh out each of the characters so well that you can kind of predict what the likely paths are for these amazingly real and complex characters. There was a lot of closure in this episode but without any cheesiness like you see sometimes in other shows.  I'm really going to miss this series because this is drama (on TV or in the theater) at its best.

I wanted to do a drawing of the different stages I went through in watching the finale. I've mentioned before that I think of Breaking Bad as like a Greek or Shakespearean tragedy where you go through such an extreme emotional roller coaster. Because this was a larger illustration than what I normally do I had to use a different paper and this paper sucked so much with my pens!  I almost didn't finish this or post it since I know not everyone watches this show but by the time I had finished the pencil sketches and was going over it with ink, I didn't want to scrap the drawing and start over. So I continued on but it was like tugging the pen nib along the paper and now my wrist is killing me and I'm having to ice it. Stupid tendonitis. Ok if you've made it this far through the post then I assume you are willing to see my drawing. I'll post a censored version first so as to not spoil anyone who might have my blog post link set to show thumbnail images and below that is the uncensored version.

Censored verison

Uncensored version:

While I Was Sleeping 2

And then some mornings I wake up like this. Sometimes I end up in weird positions after a night of contortions around my sleepy pug lumps.

I don't know if you can tell but in this drawing I tried to show me as hot and sweating from getting trapped between two warm pugs with my comforter tucked in at my sides. During the summer I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night because I'm so hot from my pug barnacles. And the pillow on the left has become the pug pillow as I usually sleep on the right so notice the increased amount of pug fur.

While I Was Sleeping

This is the position I woke up in this morning. It's a pretty common one.

If the comforter ever folds over or bunches in a spot you can be sure that Sunny and/or Rosy will plop on top of it making it impossible to gain back that comforter space. By the morning I'm usually huddled over trying to find warmth by sliding parts of my body under the areas of the comforter I can move, with my legs stuck in a position by a pug's heavy head. And let's not forget the joy of waking up to a stinky pug butt in my face.

Ideally, in this situation, I'd reposition diagonally on my bed and squeeze under the covers. Sometimes that happens. And sometimes I get fed up and yank on the comforter to budge a sleeping pug lump and move my legs (Sunny and Rosy HATE it when I do that). But today I didn't do either and I woke up like this.

Still, I can't imagine not having them with me in the big bed!

Breaking Pug

Congratulations to Breaking Bad on their Emmy win tonight, but I'm hoping that next year they sweep the awards show because this second half of the fifth (and last!) season is amazing!

Breaking Bad is one of the best television shows I've ever watched.  If you're not watching it go catch up on Netflix and be prepared to watch an incredibly emotional, gripping, and, at times, painful to watch television show that manages to balance an incredibly dark character-driven drama with a slight touch of humor.  All of the actors in this how are fantastic even if I hate the characters they play.  Watching each episode (and the arc of the entire series) is like watching a Shakespearean or Greek tragedy, with extreme catharsis.

In honor of the show's last season and the upcoming series finale, here's a pug version of the transformation of Walter White into Heisenberg. Of course I had to add pug fur on the clothes because that's just a part of pug life.

P.S. Between this show and Malcolm in the Middle, I've seen Bryan Cranston in his tighty whities way too many times.

Sick

So last week I was hit by a stomach bug, got better, ran a 10 mile race on Sunday, and now I'm battling a head cold. I don't know if this is all related or if it's because of the temperature drop and other people at work being sick. Either way, I feel blah. I've taken cold medicine (the good stuff behind the counter) but it only helps with the symptoms so much. And because I was just out last week I feel like I need to drag my butt to work. So here's a drawing of some sick pugs because they look way cuter than if I were to draw my snotty, coughing, bloodshot eyed self.

P.S. I may add this as a get better card to my shop.

Play Fight

After a particularly snarly morning of play fighting between Sunny and Rosy, I started this drawing earlier today and then halfway through realized I had already done a post on their fighting maneuvers!  (Post: Let's Get Ready To Pug Ruuumbbble!)  Ah well, I decided to finish the drawing and post it anyways.

And here's a video of the morning ruckus:

As Relaxed as a Pug and Her Stuffy

So I spent all lunch doing a new drawing of Sunny and Rosy playing/fighting and then realized I've already done a similar drawing several months ago! I'll still post it later but I'll have to clean it up first. In the meantime here's a simple drawing of Sunny nursing on her beloved stuffy. Sometimes she falls asleep like this.

Rosy doesn't nurse on her stuffies; she likes to gnaw on them and then kill them.

Pug Totem

It's been a long time since I've done a drawing for Illustration Friday but as soon as I saw the topic "totem," I immediately wanted to do a pug version!

Hope everyone has a happy Friday the 13th and a great weekend!

No Shame

I haven't done one of these multi-image drawings in a while!  I was worried that I didn't have anything more to say about pugs.  Oddly enough I finally got my inspiration for this topic by Sunny's NSFW pose this morning.  I had to censor the image for safe viewing (see below).

I don't normally censor the girls' photos, but this pose just was asking for it, and when I used an app to tap on that star sticker (just doing that made me chuckle), I couldn't resist posting it.  Somehow adding the star makes this photo look dirtier - it draws attention to Sunny's lady parts.

One of the things that always cracks me up about my pugs is how they have no shame and they do whatever they want.  They don't care how they look, sound, or smell.  If they want to toot, they toot.  If they want to lick, they lick.  If they have to poop, why yes they'll just pop a squat right next to you and make uncomfortable eye contact as they make little grunting noises.  But their lack of self consciousness is also what makes them so great.  When they're excited to see you they show it with their entire wriggly bodies.  Who cares if you're on a conference call, they want to give you slurpy kisses!  Sunny and Rosy always make me smile and laugh no matter how bad a day I'm having - and this is why my pugs make me so happy.

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