Don't forget the dog...

...or the cat! These are a couple of super easy, simple and delicious (don't ask) recipes for the pets or pet lovers in your life. I wasn't totally prepared to do this post, hence the lack of presentation, but I was thinking these would be so cute wrapped up in a little dog bowl with a toy. Or a cellophane bag with a cookie cutter. Or... Well you get the idea, use your imagination peeps :) (BTW-They have tons of pet goodies in Target dollar spot.)

Lucy

Cat

These are our two little recipients. I use the word "little" very loosely for the animal on top, but don't tell her that. And yes we do have matching animals...No, we didn't do it on purpose!



OK, first off Dog Treats:

1 c. Flour
1 c. Wheat Flour
1/2 c. Corn Meal (yellow is fine)
1/2 c. Powdered Milk
1 t. Packed Brown Sugar
1t. Garlic Powder
1/4 t. Salt
Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and toss to combine.
Then add:
1 Beaten Egg
1/2 c Cheddar Cheese
1/4 c Parmesan Cheese
1/3 c. Beef or Chicken broth (warmed)

Mix well and knead 8-10 times on a lightly floured surface. Roll out to 1/2in thickness and cut with cookie cutter. Arrange on ungreased baking sheet and bake at 250 for 1 hour. Cool on wire rack. Makes about 2 dozen, depending on size.

Now, if you want to make this even easier and give it to friends or neighbors, you can just mix up all the dry ingredients and put them in a cute cellophane bag and attach the instructions for the rest of the ingredients.

Cat treats:

1/2 c. Canned Tuna (small can)
1 c. Bread Crumbs
1 T. Oil
1 Beaten Egg
1/2 t. Brewer's Yeast

Mix all ingredients and drop by 1/4 teaspoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet; bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Cool to room temperature; store in airtight container. Makes about 4 dozen.

In High School, I volunteered at an animal shelter and made these almost every Saturday to take up there, they were a huge hit! I hope you try these (not literally:) or gift them to the pet lovers in your life! Enjoy!!


Linking to these awesome peeps:

Toddler Turkeys

So, I know the "turkey hands" are everywhere in blog land. However this particular technique was new to me so I thought I would share just in case I'm not the only one out there living under a rock! Have you people ever seen these fabric crayons? All you do is color whatever you want onto a piece of paper, then iron it on to your fabric. I am just amazed! This was the perfect craft for toddlers, and moms who need a couple of quiet minutes:)

I'm not going to give a whole big tutorial on these, but basically you trace your childs hand, let them color it, try to resist the OCD in you to make them color in the lines, and then iron it onto whatever you choose. In our case, we ironed them onto white fabric and then I stitched them onto their t-shirts. (I used embroidery floss and hand stitched everything, but you can use your sewing machine, or if you want to hand stich them, but don't have embroidery floss just double or triple your thread to make it thicker.) Taylor and her cousin Owen had alot of fun "coloring". The only drawback I have found is that you have to hand wash the fabric that you use. So I wouldn't suggest doing this on something your child wears often, unless of course you love to hand wash laundry, I don't. I took a bunch blurry pictures, so hopefully that will help.

 (I am just amazed by the difference in these two hands! I can't figure out if Taylor has little hands, or Jaxon has really big hands. The one on top is a almost three year old, and the bottom one is a four month old!)

 Sorry, I know it's hard to see on the white fabric.

My iron was set to medium-high (5-6) and it takes a while to transfer, so be patient. If you can resist the urge to lift the paper and admire your child's handy work that would be best. But if not, just be careful not to move the paper around.

Cousin Owen colored his hand too!

Here they are on the shirts, obviously Taylors isn't finished, but I wanted to show it to you anyway.

To cute!

So, am I really that far out of the loop, or is this technique new to you to? I hope you try this with the kiddo's, it really was alot of fun!

Happy Friday,

Linking to:

Yarn Snowman

My husband has a rule about not decorating for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. Does anybody else have to live with this non-sense? Don't get me wrong, I love, love, loooove Thanksgiving, but I also love Christmas and I think one month of all those lovely decorations and ornaments is just not enough. But never fear, I found a loop hole, just because I can't decorate until after Thanksgiving doesn't mean I can't make decorations :) I know, sneaky sneaky! So without further ado, allow me to introduce Jack Lionbrand:

Jack enjoys playing in the snow, taking long walks by the evergreens, and relaxing far away from the warm fire. He loves carrots and smiling.. His favorite accessories are his signature top hat and scarf.

Isn't he just the cutest?
Don't you want to make one too? I will tell you what I did, but first let me warn you that I am the worlds WORST tutorial writer/photographer, if you have no problem with that then keep reading.

Supplies:
3 White Styrofoam Balls (different sizes or all the same)
White yarn (1 skien is plenty, I had about half of one and ran out during my last ball.)
Block of wood
Paint
Glue
3/8in Ribbon (1 yard each of green, white, red)
Half of a popcicle stick or anything for the lollipop stick
Buttons for eyes, and body or whatever you want to use
Sticks or pipe cleaners or whatever for arms
Fabric or felt
Embellishments (I used modeling clay for the nose and candy pieces.)

Now, if you can't tell by the list of supplies, this is pretty flexible and super easy to do. I just used what I had around the house which means that little cutie didn't cost me a dime! For the next one I make though, I'm going to use super fluffy white yarn ;)

Step 1:
Paint your wood however you like.

Step 2:
Cover your balls haphazardly with yarn, until you get the look you want. If you have a color other than white styrofoam just paint it before you cover it with yarn. That way if you have blank spaces they won't be as obvious. Then glue them together however you choose. I used hot glue.

Step 3: Make your lollipop. Take your ribon and glue all three ends together. Fold the glued end over and glue again. Then just wrap the ribbon around in a circle gluing every couple of turns or so. Be sure you hold the ribbon tight. Glue your popcicle stick to the back, then cut a piece of felt or foam the size of your lollipop and glue it over the popcicle stick on the back of the lollipop to hold it all together. You can add a bow like I did if you want added cuteness. All the pictures I took of this step were blurry beyond repair, but hopefully your cool like me and can figure it out by looking at the picture :)

Step 4:
Glue your snowman to the wood and embellish.
And that's pretty much it. Super cute, super easy, super flexible. That's what I like to see!

(Disclaimer: The laundry and cartoons in the background are not mine, someone broke into my house and left their laundry during saturday morning cartoons. Investigation pending.)

So, did you get any of that or was I just rambling? I really hope I made a little bit of sense because something this adorable shouldn't get passed up by my ignorance :) Have a blast, and please comment of email me if you have any questions! (You can comment me even if you don't have questions also, it would make my day;)
Linking to:

What do you get when you mix a cat and a dragon?

Two very adorable little trick-or-treaters!

Taylor and I went trick-or-treating and on a hay ride while Daddy and Jaxon stayed home and handed out candy. We didn't get a bunch of candy (fine with me:) because at the last minute Taylor decided she didn't want to be a cat, she wanted to be Iron Man! She went to a few houses, but mostly just enjoyed the hay ride. Guess we will try again next year!

Chelsy

Our {not-so scary} Halloween Mantle

BOO! Did I scare you? No? Hmmm...Then our mantle won't either. I wanted people to know that Halloween had certainly arrived in our house, but not at the expense of frightening the bejezus out of a toddler! Now, before we get to the pictures, let me warn you that there is one scary element to this post which is my photography skills. I hope you don't have nightmares but if you do feel free to call me, I will sit up with you!

Here she is in all her glory. I tried and tried to get rid of that glare and it just wasn't happening! I used the tutorial from Crafts and Sutch for the spider web and the spiders are cut out of black cardstock. The sign is from the dollar store, I cut off the string that was on it and used ribbon instead. My "Spooky" banner is treat bags from Wal-Mart, and green scrapbook paper. I'm kinda ghetto and don't have a printer right now, so I traced the letters right off the computer screen and traced them backwards onto the scrapbook paper and cut them out. Then I just punched holes in the corners and tied it all together with ribbon. And stuck it up, quite literally...yeah... so... I seriously just taped it up there ;) You can't tell though right? Ok, nevermind, I don't want to know.

I call this "Ode to Dollar Tree"

The skeleton in the jar was whole at one time, but I took out some aggresion on him, he said it was ok. I threw in the spanish moss to keep him warm at night. The candles just have scrapbook paper wrapped around them and they are sitting on top of upside down martini glasses.

The blocks are from last year, but you know the drill... cardstock, modge podge, yada, yada, yada. Daddy, Mommy, and Baby mummy are candle holders wrapped in gauze. The candle holders came in a pack of 3 for $1, and the gauze was $1. I glued beady eyes on and pulled some of the gauze over to make them look a little more "mummy-ish"

These happy pumpkins are perched on candle sticks, they light up but there was already enough glare going on in these pictures I figured I should quit while I was ahead. The witch is one of those sun catcher things that I painted when I was in junior high, I tied her to an empty frame and stuck her on top of some books for height.

This sweet little spider is a pom-pom made from leftover yarn I used for the spider web and pipe cleaners, but don't tell her that, she thinks she's a diva! I curled some orange ribbon for her to rest on and stuck her in a martini glass. (I don't know why I have these martini glasses, but I found a box of them when I was cleaning my craft room! Who knows what I was thinking when I bought them ;)

What do you think? Want to see more? Well...okay, since you asked so nicely.

This is the shelf above our tv. Nothing really to explain here, just cuteness!

The candle holder is a glass vase glued onto a candle stick from the dollar store. I added some faux leaves to the bottom and tied a scrap of fabric around it.

Finally the coffee table and end table. Don't you love my orange silk scarf? It was my grandma's and I just can't bear to keep it in the closet, so she moves around alot!

That's about it, Happy Tuesday!

Taylor Funnies

Here are a few conversations Taylor and I have had over the past few days. It's hard to believe that little lady is only two and half sometimes! She's too smart for her own good!

Me: "Taylor, what do you want to be for Halloween?"
T: "I don't know mom."
Me: "How about a princess?"
T: "No, I want to be a black man."
Me: "Batman??"
T: "No Mom, a black man!"
Me: "Ooookaaaayyy?!?!"
(After a few minutes of hysterical laughter, I had a plan :)
Me: "How about a black cat?"
T: "Well....okay....I guess."
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Taylor: "I want some chocolate milk, please."
Me: "We don't have chocolate, Daddy is bringing some home after work."
Taylor: "Can I have pink chocolate?" (strawberry)
Me: "Yes you can."
T: "I want to put the lid on my cup."
Me: "Ok."
(I made her milk, handed her the lid and held her cup down for her.)
Taylor: "Is that pink chocolate milk?"
Me: "Yes."
Taylor: "Oh, isn't that just too precious?"
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Taylor: "Kitty cat, do you have a boo-boo?"
Cat: "Meow"
T: "What happened to your foot, kitty cat?"
Cat: silence
T: "Were you being ugly?"
Cat: more silence
T: "Oh well, your fine. Walk it off kitty cat, your tough."
(She patted him on the back and ran off on her way!)

Oh boy, she is such a nut!

In other Taylor news:

We have been having "Taylor School" the past few weeks. She is really enjoying it and it is great quality time for us to have when Jaxon is napping. We focus on one letter, color, and number each week. I will do a more detailed post about this later, but basically we practice the sounds of the "weekly letter" and words that start with that letter. She practices writing the letter and number. We also do crafts each day, which would work out alot better if the girl wasn't so darn independant! But she has so much fun, and announces to everyone we see what letter she is learning and what sound it makes! And when her Dad gets home from work she always drags him to her latest project and says "Look Dad, look what I made!"

Taylor already knows her ABC's and recognizes the letters. She can count to twenty, and knows her colors. So most of these activities and lessons focus on writing and recognizing that letters make words. As far as colors go, we focus on which ones are primary and secondary. And which colors mix to make other colors. We are having lots of fun, I will try to get some pictures and keep you all updated on our progress!

Lovin' my little big girl,