Snuggle Time For Us

I made this bed for the pups last week.  Sewed it all by myself!

I think Tibby approves.  Isn't she the prettiest dog?  I'm not sure if it's her cute little nose or the way her marking are shaped, but she is cute!

"Yawn!"

"Sniff, sniff, pee-you!"

Dhali with Tibby's nose in his mouth.  He does this a lot.

And she does this a lot.  Lick, lick, lick.

Lovies.  They are so jealous of each other.  If Dhali is sitting on my lap, which he likes to do all the time.  Tibby will look at him, sit and wait.  Then if he doesn't get down, she will go pick up a toy or bully stick and of course, Dhali will jump down to take it away from her.  Only Dhali is allowed to have toys or bully sticks - apparently!  Then she jumps up into my lap and snuggles in like a rock.  No one is moving her!  Then Dhali sits and barks at her.  Then, eventually, I have 2 dogs in my lap and finally the cat will come and sit on top of the whole pile.  I feel loved - LOL!

On The Beach

The frozen beach!  I thought he looked really handsome with the white and blue background.

One of my favorite pictures. 

Yay!

Have A Ball

After the race last Sat. we went to my Mom's house for breakfast.  Dhali found this fun ball to play with.  It makes a funny sound.  I bought it for Tibby a long, long time ago and we left it at my Mom's house.

Dhali's pretty good at playing fetch now.  He thinks it is a fun game to play when he's bored and there isn't anything to do.

He likes this big chair.  Tibby likes this chair too, so it will be interesting to see what happens when they are there at the same time.

Looks like he has a crown - Prince Dhali!

Worst Of Winter

We are working our way through the worst of winter.  -25F and windy.  Too cold for me outside, but the pups seem to still like sitting out on the deck.  Even at night, when it is REALLY cold.  Dhali doesn't have a very thick coat, but he will go outside at 5am and lay in the dog bed on the deck.  The frozen dog bed.

Last Sat., before the temp. dropped to depressing levels, we went with my Mom to a race.  She got first place in her age group!  Again ;)  While they were running the race Dhali and I hung out on the beach and walked on the lake.  It was still pretty chilly, so we also waited in the car to warm up.

Dhali was very suspicious of the small boy wearing a spiky hat with a tail, goggles and carrying a round sled. Also, yelling, "Puppy!  Puppy!"

We walked the other direction on the lake away from that kid!

This is a castle that they build out of ice chunks from the lake.  It has a big sledding hill built into it.  Down the hill and out on to the ice.  It looked like fun!

Another suspicious child with strange ears......

I Wanna Hold Your Paw

"Shhhh, gotta sneak up on the prey."

"Gotcha!"

"I wanna hold your paw!"    "Nooo ewwww cooties!"

"Gotcha!"

Tibetan Terrier Shirt

Look what I made!

It's a Tibetan Terrier sweatshirt!  

You can see it in my Etsy store - Khyi-Kiyi.

Brag Stick - Craft Tutorial With Mod Podge

We are now the 2 Little Cavalier's crafter's for 2013 - check out our post here at 2 Little Cavalier's .

You can see our picture if you scroll all the way to the bottom.

We will be doing LOTS of pet crafts in 2013!!!  Yay!

Brag Sticks!  Photo Key Chains with your pet’s picture.  This is a fun little craft that is easy to make and upcycles old credit cards. 

Materials:

Mod Podge Hard Coat - $7

Old credit cards – free

Scrapbook paper – 15 cents to $1.50

Preview photo page from  an order of pictures or

Print out pictures on your printer – a few cents or free

Scissors

Hole punch

Paint brush

Key chain ring – price varies (could be free)

Extra: different shaped paper hole punches

Directions:

Cut your old credit cards in half, either two long strips or two rectangles.  I found that the strips were easier to make and looked better on a key chain.

Next using your hole punch, punch out a hole near the top of your credit card strip.  Not too close to the edge! Or your brag stick might break and fall off of your key chain.

Next cut a piece of scrapbook paper that is big enough to wrap around your credit card strip.  Make sure your paper is big enough to completely wrap your plastic card.  Paste your paper to the card, using the Mod Podge.  Mark the location of your punch hole or even punch a hole through the paper, before you Mod Podge it onto the plastic.

Let your paper dry onto the plastic.

After your paper is dry and stuck to the plastic, you can now add your first coat to the outside of your brag stick.  You have not added any pictures or embellishments!  This first coat is just to seal the paper and make a nice smooth canvas for your photos.  I used my fingers to smoosh the Mod Podge onto the paper, but you can also use a brush.  Smooth the edges of the paper and firmly press them onto the plastic card as you spread the Mod Podge.

Let your paper dry until it is no longer white – 20-30 mins.

Now the fun begins!  Add your pictures and embellishments!  You will want to do this is layers – see pictures.  First add photos, then words and finally decorations like paper cutouts or even gems.   I added my name and contact information to one side.  If I lose my keys, hopefully someone will return them!

Each layer will need: Use Mod Podge to glue embellishment to brag stick, then cover with a layer of Mod Podge, finally let dry until no longer white.   Do this with every layer of embellishments.

After you have added all your embellishments you can begin your protective layer coats.  There should be at least three of these coats for the best durability.  Spread Mod Podge over both sides of your brag stick and let dry.  I used a chop stick to hang the sticks up, so they could dry without smudging.  Repeat three times. 

After the final coat, let your sticks dry at least 24 hours or 72 hours for the best protection of your project.

Attach your stick to a key ring .

Project done!

I love these sticks, because they are so cute and easy to personalize.  They could be used for gift tags or luggage tags as well.  They are perfect for showing off your little babies – most people have their keys with them all the time.  I just showed mine off at the dentist’s office!  Everyone thought they were so cute and wanted one of their own! 

Have fun making your brag stick!

Now You Owe Me....

Mandatory cute puppy pictures!

Now on to the real story.  Dhali is going through a HUGE GINORMOUS EXTREME chewing phase.  He has chewed up so, so, so many toys.  A mountain of toys.  The toy box is getting emptied.  I would not be able to fit all the destroyed toys into one picture.  Right now he is really into squeaky plastic/rubber toys.  He ate the feet off of a bad cuz.  I did not know that it was possible to kill a cuz with too much squeaking.  He haz killed a cuz.  2 hollee rollers, pear ball, ice cream squeaky, green pepper squeaky, 2 wooly dog tugs, green frog's eyes, big blue and orange ball, orange 8 tug, sheep skin tug (expensive piece of junk, ripped apart when we were tugging), his bear baby blanket and more.

However the most expensive thing he has destroyed!!!

This Chris Christensen wooden pin brush. Thirty-five dollars.  $35.  Yes, for a dog brush.  Yes, for a dog brush made out of WOOD.  It works worked so well and I loved it.  Now I have to buy a new one. 

In other news, I have been doing some thinking since last week's puppy class.  Thanks for all the great encouraging comments!  I really appreciated it!  I'm not going to give up.  I realized that I had been lazy with Dhali's training for a few weeks.  I have a hard time choosing what I want to teach him.  There seem to be SO many things that I want him to learn, that I just end up not doing anything, because I can't decided on what we should start with.  I decided to make a dry erase chart with some things I want him to learn.  There are 1000 other things I would like to add to the list, but we have to start somewhere.  It also keeps me honest with how much we have actually trained.  Some times I think we have done so much training, but really we haven't.  Now I have a check list!  

My goal isn't to work on every single thing every single day.  But now I know what we have worked on and when we have worked on it.  We are still doing lots of playing and running around and other tricks.  But now Dhali is back to working for his dinner and I hope we can work on his ADD-ness.  Just a stage, but seriously little guy!  The puppy that wanted to work for an hour, now can only do 3 seconds, before he is running off to do something else.  He can't even concentrate on a kong stuffed with Primal Raw nuggets for more than 30 seconds, before he's off annoying the cat, wanting to go outside or tearing apart another toy.

He still is a little sweet heart though.  He will slow down long enough for a belly rub and petting.  He likes to follow me into the bathroom in the morning and sleep snuggled up next to the shower, while I get ready for work.

Cute little bugger.

I printed out a chart from Word and ran it through the $16 laminater (word? machine for lamination) that I bought on Amazon.