Jazz Up Their Neck Contest

Thank you all for your participation in the Jazz Up Their Neck Contest.  Your photo captions were hilarious and kept us laughing.  This contest has now ended.  Stay tune for more contests soon....


 Holy shmoly!  Now here is a super sweet contest for both cat and dog lovers!

The What:  
Enter to win a gorgeous new collar of your choice for your dog from Sweet & Sassy Sewing 
or a stylish new collar of your choice for your cat from Sweet Pickles Designs
 ...OR enter to win both!  Gotta love these collars!


The How:  
Take a look at the two photos that Fugly Friends has posted on our facebook page in the Jazz Up Their Neck photo album and come up with the best caption.  To be entered for the Sweet & Sassy Sewing dog collar please post a caption under the dog photo.  To be entered for the Sweet Pickles Designs cat collar please post a caption under the cat photo.  You are welcome to post a caption under both the dog and cat photo.  Our judges will be voting on their favorite caption based on both originality and humor.  Be creative and have fun!  You have from now until Monday, May 30th at 8:00 pm EST to enter!  Fugly Friends will post the winners the following day.


The Who:  
We briefly hung out with both shops and here are some of the cool things they had to say...


Fugly Friends (Fugly): What is your shop?
Sweet & Sassy Sewing (Sweet&Sassy):  At Sweet & Sassy Sewing our goal is to provide high quality, unique and affordable gifts for any occasion. We have recently expanded our product line to include Sweet & Sassy dog collars that any furry friend and owner alike will surely love.

Sweet Pickles Designs (Pickles):  Sweet Pickles Designs, whimsical handmade designer cat collars. 


Fugly:  How did you get started?
Pickles:  Well, we have 3 dogs: Lola the lab, Roky the Katrina rescue and Blue a rescue from Belize. We were driving down I5, a major freeway on the west coast and saw a litter of kittens on the side of the road in the middle of "no-where Oregon", one of the kittens was Pickles. We brought her home to get her healthy and figured, since we had 3 dogs over 65 lbs, a cat would never be happy at our house, so we'd find her a good home. Within a couple days, we came home and Pickles was laying on the couch with the 3 dogs....she was a perfect fit. Once we figured out she was staying for good, we went to get her a beautiful cat collar, collars have always been my thing...I’ve spent a small fortune over the years clothing our lab in all the newest cutting edge collars. I was in complete shock after going to multiple pet stores, with Pickles being my first cat; I didn't realize how limited the cat collar market was. I went home, watched some you tube and learned how to sew. I was on a one woman mission to revolutionize the world cat couture. One thing lead to another and Sweet Pickles was formed.
Sweet&Sassy:  My family was relocated from Louisiana to Texas after my husband finished graduate school. I took a break off from my job as a Registered Nurse to get the family settled in our new locale. After everything was unpacked and stashed away, I bought a sewing machine and took a couple of classes so that I could make curtains for my new home. Once that project was complete, I needed something to occupy my time and so I took to creating..... hence Sweet & Sassy Sewing was born! :o)


Fugly:  What are your inspirations?

Sweet&Sassy:  I love all things tropical, hence a lot of my work is inspired along these lines. I also find inspiration at local shows that I do. When customers ask for something specific - horse keyfob, purple keyfobs, etc, I take note of this and get busy to create it. I LOVE custom orders! Lastly, I am inspired by anything that promotes the positive in life. I purchased a "Wish Bracelet" from a local store here in town and decided I would like to share this wonderful find! So, I started making these bracelets for my shop. I have not been without a Wish Bracelet ever since. To me they are more about being a constant reminder of positive thoughts.
Pickles: Pickles, everyday life and fashion magazines

Fugly:  What are your favorite materials to use and work with?
Sweet&Sassy: I love to pretty much create with anything and everything.

Pickles:  Ribbon

Fugly:  Do you sell anywhere besides Etsy?
Pickles:  We are in several boutiques worldwide. 3 in Portland, 1 in Brooklyn, NY, 1 in Canada, 2 in Australia, 1 boutique in Sweden
Sweet&Sassy:  We do local shows here in our area. 



Fugly:  What's your best selling item and why?
Sweet&Sassy:  Currently it is the Wish Bracelets. I have doing a lot of custom orders for weddings.

Pickles:  We have several, but I think our all time best seller is the Manager Cat Collar. Why? I'm not sure, but it is a pretty awesome one and looks like a tie.

Fugly:  What does homemade mean to you?

Pickles:  Made from the heart
Sweet&Sassy:  Homemade means to me...... a product created with quality & care born of ideas that should be shared with others.

Fugly:  Why is your shop different from other shops with similar items?
Sweet&Sassy:  I would say that it would be my packaging. I package every item sold ready to be given as a gift because even if you are buying it for yourself, it is still a gift for you! :o)

Pickles:  Well, I first of all, have Pickles as my CEO. We are also focused on only cat collars and revolutionizing cat couture.

Fugly:  How do you get out of your creative ruts?
Pickles:  Take a break and play fetch with pickles
Sweet&Sassy:  I sleep on it and usually that resolves the issue! :o)



Fugly:  Thank you kindly to both shops for their participation in the contest and their beautiful handmade work.  You may find Sweet Pickles online Etsy shop by clicking here or their facebook page here.  You may find Sweet & Sassy Sewing online Etsy shop by clicking here or their facebook page here.


You may also find Fugly Friends online Etsy shop by clicking here or our facebook page by clicking here



We hope you all have a fabulous day!

Mamas Day Giveaway

Happy Mothers Day!!!  There were so many adorable photos which made it tough for our judges to select just one.  After a lot of contemplating and discussion they selected this photo of mama Macy and her puppy, Booger as the winning photo!  Congratulations Mama Macy for being the winner of Ciao Hounds delicious sweet potato treats and a special Fugly Friends toy....





And a very close second is the photo of Daisy in the hand.  Fugly Friends has decided to send a second place prize, a Lil Mini Fugly to our runner up!  Thank you all for your absolutely adorable photo submissions.  What a great addition to Mothers Day.  


Fugly Friends is making plans to host a giveaway contest during the first week of each month.  Stay tuned.... 

The How:
Dig through your photo collection and find your favorite photo of your dog as a puppy, your dog while pregnant, your dog with her puppies, or your dog with its' mama  (in other words, pretty much anything baby and MOM related) and send the photo on over to fuglyfriends@gmail.com.  You can submit up to four photos.  We will post photos in an album on the Fugly Friends facebook page for all to see and oogle over.  You have from now until Saturday, May 7th at 11:00 a.m. CST to submit your photos.  There are three judges that will vote on their favorite photo and we will announce the winner Sunday morning-Mothers Day!!!


The What:
The first prize is a 6 oz package of delicious and natural Sweet Potato Pie treats from Ciao Hound.  Yum! Yum!  (Read below to hear all about Shari and her wonderful Ciao Hound shop that is full of "homemade specialy treats for your best friend".) 


 And the second prize is the first ever pregnant mama stuffing free Fugly Friends toy.  Super radical!




Meet Ciao Hound. My shop is called CiaoHound and I make homemade treats for dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rabbits and sometimes other animals as requests come in. I have some that are soft for young or old dogs who have trouble with hard treats; I have allergen free treats and I do custom orders/requests.

How did you get started? My daughter started an etsy shop and wanted everyone in the family to make something to post there. I didn't have a hobby at the time, so I checked out several books from the library on crafts, and one book about dogs. I read through the dog book first because I was more interested in dogs than crafts and there were some recipes in there to make treats, They only had 2 or 3 ingredients, so I thought I would try them. Velvet went nuts! It made my heart smile to see her so captivated by these treats. I decided to take a bite and see what all the fuss was about (they're made with human food ingredients), and thought they were kind of bland, so I added my own ingredients to the mixture and experimented and tweeked until I liked them, too. My first customer on Etsy wrote this:

by SassySashadoxie
"I gave Sasha some more of the treats today, and put the empty wrapper in the outside garbage can. She not only climbed two chairs, a table, but fell head first into a large garbage can. I heard a rustly, and went outside. When I pulled her out, she was still grasping the bag with Velvet's picture on it. Just thought you might want to know. Slightly, addictive to my dog I think."

After a testimonial like that, I was hooked. I love baking treats and I love hearing back from customers that my treats made their furbabies so happy.

What are your inspirations?  Most of the time, I get inspired while I'm eating. I think how can I make this for pets?

Who is your pet? I have a 9 year old beagle named Velvet. She is the original chow hound. As with most beagles, food is her number one priority. She eats, sleeps, drinks and lives for food. She is a master begger and an artful scammer who will do anything to get something to eat.

What are your favorite ingredients to use?  I like making things with honey, white chocolate and carob because I feel like it makes the treats extra special.

What's your best selling item and why?  The pumpking bread is definitely my most popular. The dogs go crazy for it.

What's your favorite product and why?  I think its the carob cakes. They look wonderful and the dogs go crazy for them. I was thinking carrot cake, then thought of carob cake, so I kind of liked that transition. Plus, they're really cute little mini muffins.

What's the hardest part of running your own business?  Finding time to promote the way I need to.

What does homemade mean to you?  Made from scratch and not mass produced. All of my treats are made fresh as they are ordered.

Who do you admire professionally?  My teammates on Pets Jubilee. They really work very hard at their craft and have become very successful selling on Etsy.

How do you get out of your creative ruts?  I look through (human recipe) cookbooks.



You can contact Shari at ciaohound@live.com 

You can shop Ciao Hound at ciaohound.etsy.com
You can follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ciaohound
You can become a Ciao Hound facebook fan at  www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=1530937381&ref=profile

You can contact Fugly Friends at fuglyfriends@gmail.com
You can shop Fugly Friends at http://www.fuglyfriend.etsy.com/
You can become a Fugly Friends facebook fan at www.facebook.com/pages/Fugly-Friends/116104781794184