Doggie Style

We got Steele (February 20, 2012) who was born on January 17, 2007

He is house trained and an amazing loveable dog, is fully house broken and the best brother Toby could have.

On Saturday, February 25th, Toby came to live with us.  

He was born December 6th, 2011, had to spent his first few weeks in the hospital but has recovered fully since. He got his second shot past saturday and is doing really well. He is still a little underweight (16pounds instead of 22) and therefore gets almost the same amount of food as his big brother.

Since nobody trained him before we got him, we had to get him used to his collar, leash and of course the biggest challenge - he is not house broken. We taught him already sit and stay and it is already working when putting out his food. He learned pretty quickly. Unfortunately the "peeing only outside" takes a little longer to learn. He doesn't understand the pee pads and is completely confused when he gets picked up (when squatting down on the carpet) and put down on a pee pad. He stopps peeing, chews on the pee pad and wants to get back on the carpet to finish his business. We try to take him outside as often as we can, praise him and give him treats but still there are several accidents happening each day. We will be patient and teach him (hopefully sooner than later) to only go outside.

We can already see him grow up and learn new things each day!

                       Walking Stairs up and down all by himself! :)

       

Getting used to each other and even sleeping next to each other in front of the stove

 

Digging in the mud at the dog park (while no other dogs are around at 7am on a Saturday morning)

Steele's running full speed, ears flying...

while Toby is exploring the area

Chasing and playing with each other

before crashing on the carpet, taking a nap with their daddy

and cuddling together on the pillow

 

 

Dog Beds

Now that we have 2 little dogs at home, we were in need of some dog beds. Have you ever bought a dog bed? They are expensive. I wanted to have two in our bedroom, two downstairs in the living room and I already bought one pillow for the living room, as well as one bed for each crate. After checking out all those prices I decided on buying foam instead of finished beds and used some leftover waterproof fabric for the covers. Way cheaper with some coupons. 

I got a mattress foam from JoAnns for 40% off, as well as a 2 yard 3" thick 

foam. I cut them in half to have two similar sized mattresses.  

Left over fabric from my recoverd wing chair for one bed and the other fabric from the swing cushion (which I now notice, haven't even posted)

I wrapped the fabric around the foam, pinned and then sewed three sides together.


                               


                                 

For the fourth side (long side) I used velcro tape and sewed it on to become easily removable. 

Now Toby and Steele have a nice place to lay on during the evening (before Toby has to be crated) Just a couple more weeks and hopefully he is house broken and can stay out of his crate most of the time. Fingers are crossed!!

Brown Window Seat Cushion

My friend Miraya asked me to sew her a window seat cover. She ordered a 3' foam mattress and had some brown curtains she didnt need anymore. I cut the fabric to size, added about 3' on each side.

Sewing a seam

and trying it on along the way

I cut one piece as bottom, one for the top and one for each side.

 

and then somebody decided I need a break from this hard work! :)

 and took a nap

Letting me know it is very comfy to lay on.

Finally I attached adhesive velco straps to the side to easly remove the seat cover. (and totally forgot to take pictures of it) Oh well...

Now relaxing evenings can come to read a book on the new window seat.

Vanilla Strawberry Cakepops

                               

Have you read my post about my first cupcake debacle?

Sometimes you are just not so lucky to only have one baking failure.

I had two in a row.

This time I made the same recipe for the vanilla cupcakes but left the berries out. Wondering if they had too much fluid. I instead put some orea cookies in. Again baked at 350F for 18min.

And exactly the same thing happend:

I cut off the sides and put them back into the cup, put them back in the oven and hoped for the best.

I ended up crumbling them into a bowl.

Mixed strawberry frosting under and this time rolled balls out of them.

I placed them in the freezer for a couple days 

shaped them as little cupcakes and put a lollipop stick in it.

Vanilla frosting, decorater tube and some golden sprinkels and here you have it.. DON KING POPS
(thats what Brian called them)