Friday, April 12, 2013

A little off topic - An Old Dog CAN Learn New Tricks

I know I haven't posted much lately.  But as some of you may know I got engaged back in February and the BF and I are planning a June 14, 2014 wedding.  I am making a ton of recycled projects for our big day, but I don't want to share them as I'm hoping for them all to be a surprise.  Anyways, my flea market trips have continued as i search for more little lovelies to include at our wedding.  I will continue to post on items I find, but decor posts will be limited.

I do however want to share progress on Bubba's training.  As anyone with any type of terrier knows they LOVE to bark.  Bubba is my silky terrier, that I got when he was just under a year old.  Bubba had very little training before he came to us.  Like all terriers, he is high strung and I'm pretty sure he has ADD.  He has trouble focusing and loves to bark (all the time).  He loves to bark at the television which is becoming a particular annoyance.  I think his favorite shows are Duck Dynasty and Bone Collector, but just about any hunting show or anything on animal planet will do.  I have tried loud noises, high pitched beepers, the Thundershirt, and unfortunately our next step was a shock collar but I just didn't have the heart.  All of the above things worked briefly, but he got use to them so not a long term solution.



With the BF and I now talking about children in our future, I knew we were going to have to do something with Bubba.  I had reached out to a few local training clubs, but was told he would not do well in a group session since he is an adult dog and would need individual training, which has been hard to find in Northern NY.  On one of my flea market trips, while walking back to my car I saw the sign on a car door for 4 Paws Training.  I found her contact info on Facebook and called that day!  Maureen is owner of 4 Paws and we setup a consultation at my home so she could meet bubba in his environment.  Everything went great at our consultation, I was so impressed when Maureen was able to get Bubba to sit within a couple tries, something the BF and I have tried many times before.   Basic training seems to be the key to getting Bubba to stop barking, learning how to sit will eventually work towards him sitting on a mat/bed and staying until I release him, so if he is barking I will send him to his mat.

The best part is this is also training me, to be what Bubba needs.   I successfully for the first time ever got Bubba to sit this morning 6 times, with only a little assistance.  That is only with 2 days of training.  I have been trying to work with him for 5-10 mins explicitly on training morning and night every day.  Then I try little things in between, in his normal routine.  Having such quick results has really inspired me that the barking will end!

Also Bubba doesn't really enjoy playing fetch must and some of his barking may be due to boredom.  Bubba will play for maybe 5 throws if that and doesn't want to anymore, but I never know what he really wants from me.  He wants to play but not fetch!  I knew that silky terriers were bread for hunting mice, rats, squirrels and other small vermin.  Which makes sense after he brought a dead squirrel onto our bed one night this winter!  I ordered Bubba some squirrel scent and I am going to start hiding his toys for him to find, instead of fetch.  I think he will love this!  The scent should be here next week so I will give it a try and let you know how it works!!

For all the terrier owners, there is HOPE that your dog can stop barking too and professional training is so worth the money!

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Collapsible Pinwheels For Sale in my Etsy Shop!!!

I just listed my first creation in a long time for sale in my Etsy shop!

I have started to make my collapsible book page pinwheels/rosettes in many different patterns!  They are about 14 inches in diameter when opened and only 7 inches long and 1/2 inch thick when folded up.  This allows for easy, safe storage when they are not on display!!


Check them out!!

Friday, January 4, 2013

My Queso Chicken

Yesterday I had gotten chicken out in the morning to do something with for dinner.  I looked through my recipes and with it barely being above zero degrees here yesterday, most of them required me to go to the grocery store to get something, which was out of the question.  On the ride home, I thought well what can I stuff it with that would be easy and tasty.  Salsa came to mind and normally I like to put laughing cow in my chicken, but we are out of laughing cow :(.

Anyways, here is the recipe: 

2 chicken breasts (approx 4 oz each - of course the BF's portion was more like 8 oz)
2 pieces of American Cheese (the yucky yellow kind - add another slice if your chicken is big)
Salsa
Panko

Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Beat the chicken until it is between 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick. 
  3. Place a piece of cheese and enough salsa to cover the cheese/chicken evenly.  
  4. Roll up your chicken and stick with a toothpick, the salsa will kind of squish out so don't roll it up too tight. 
  5. Sprinkle with Panko (I crunched up a few doritos and sprinkled them too since we had them)
  6. Bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until chicken is done. 
If I calculated it correctly it is 6 WW points plus.

It doesn't look so tasty, but it is delicious! Enjoy!









Thursday, January 3, 2013

Flea Market Find: Vintage Jelly Jars & Bed Springs

With nothing better to do on lunch yesterday I ventured down to one of my favorite local shops, North Country Neighbors.  Not really searching for anything in particular, I had been on the look out for vintage jelly jars for at least a year and I finally found a set.  I got a set of 4 for $3.00.  I had seen them on Etsy, but the cheapest was $8 for a set of 4 with normally $10 shipping.  It just didn't seem worth it to me and I knew they would pop up somewhere eventually.

The reason I wanted them so bad, is they fit perfectly inside a bedspring!

 The uses are endless!

A cute vase....


or an interesting candle holder...



I am hoping to post more and more, so be prepared.  I think I am back in recycling mode :)

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Remote Control Outlets

So this post was going to be about my christmas decorations, but my digital camera's battery won't take a charge AGAIN and my iPad camera just won't cut it for the pictures I want.  So while I wait for Amazon to ship my new battery, I will share about this great little invention I stumbled upon while at Lowes looking for replacement C9 bulbs.  I am always sick of climbing under the tree to plug it in.  We had a button that you stepped on at one point to turn it on and that broke or is now MIA.  For $20, I got 3 outlet adapters that you just plug in to your regular outlet.  Each adapter has 2 plug-ins and you get 1 remote control to turn on/off all 3!  Right now I have our tree and our front candle lights plugged into one and I will have my kitchen lights plugged in to the other 2.  Now I can easily turn the lights on and off with the remote!  It is so nice and super easy, no timers to figure out either or that don't work right!

Just a preview of my christmas decorations:

My silver chalkboard platter: (pardon the quality it was an iPad shot)


Wednesday, October 31, 2012

A Thrift Store Find: C9 Christmas Lights - Thank You Best Friends!

Yes I know I have been really slacking on the blog posts but I hope to remedy that soon with some new exciting posts. To start with today I got a wonderful bargain on a box of C9 colored Christmas lights from Best Friend's thrift store in Potsdam. Those of you that don't know about this store, it is to benefit the Potsdam Animal Shelter. they do get some really interesting stuff too! Be sure to visit and like their Facebook page to receive updates on sales, free items and interesting new items. Anyways back to my bargain, without knowing how many were in the box or even if they worked I paid $3.00 for them all.




Upon going through the box initially expecting a huge mess of knotted up lights, I was pleasantly surprised. There were 14 strands varying length and all but 1 set worked. Now don't worry safety people I'm going to do a thorough check of all the strands before l use them for any projects. The one not working set may only need a new fuse. I really only wanted the lights for the stringers as a new c9 stringer runs anywhere from $12 - $15. Quite a few of the bulbs were out on some strands, but plan to replace the bulbs with clear c9 bulbs, possibly round ones and make something like this:


I found this wonderful tutorial on the Ruffled Wedding Blog for Vintage Marquee Lights! It seems easy enough and a could be a total upcycled project. Watch for my upcycled version of this tutorial using cardboard and cereal boxes!

I also got another great deal on 6 sets of plain white regular Christmas mini lights for a dollar and all of those sets worked. The BF even said I got a good deal! The c9 lights updated with clear bulbs and the mini lights will be gorgeous for a wedding and all for $4!

Friday, June 29, 2012

Pinterest Success: Recycled Star Jar Candleholder

Another Pinterest find that I just had to try.  I had several small metal candle holders I had gotten probably over 10 years ago that have star cut outs that I just love.  I had been trying to figure out a way to create my own and had a duh moment when I saw a pin that you just used the cheap foil star stickers on a jar (I used a pickle jar) and then spray paint over it.  This is exactly what I did, I just used gold paint!




I just tied a piece of twine around the top for added decoration!  If you are really a recycler like me, you can keep the star stickers after peeling them off and reuse them on your next jar!

Next time I may try to do a gold mercury glass feel!