How a shirt led to a conversation & PIFing news

We bought our home 9 years ago, when the house was 5 years old. In the past 9 years, we've had to replace LOTS of things...things you wouldn't expect to have to replace in such a "young" home. The latest in the long string of replacements (windows, french doors, furnace, hot water tank...) is our front porch. It was made from cedar, but it's rotting after 14 years.

So, I'm talking with the man who's doing the work (Pierre) and he asks me about the shirt I'm wearing. No, he's not interested in fashion. I was wearing one of my many "Barking Biscuit" shirts....a golf shirt embroidered with my company logo.

This led to a lengthy discussion. It seems that Pierre and his wife have bought my biscuits, and have been at agility events where they use my biscuits as prizes (they are both judges for agility). What a small world!

For all you budding entrepreneurs, my advice to you is to have your logo digitized so that you can have your logo put on the clothes you wear. It's not expensive (my logo costs $5 to embroider on anything I want), and it's one of the best marketing tools you can invest in. I can't tell you the number of times that people have asked me about my business just because I'm wearing a shirt with my logo stitched on. I'm my own walking advertisement!

Speaking of stitching...a bit from my personal life...

I recently joined a Pay It Forward (PIF). Sometime in the next 10 months or so I'll be receiving a little something from Joy. In return, I promised to PIF to three people. Well, I've sent my little somethings to Angelique and to Linda. I had lovely emails from them both, who loved what I sent. Here is Angelique's gift:

For some better photos, you can check out her blog entry here. The flowers represent Angelique and her husband. I revived my rusty embroidery skills for these projects.

And here is Linda's gift:

The colours aren't quite right in these photos...I was lazy and used my scanner instead of taking photos of them. My scanner dulls down the colours, and I'm not sure how to change the settings. There are 3 flowers around Linda's L...two flowers to represent Linda and her husband, and one orange flower that represents their daughter.

I have one PIF left...Corline, I'm working on it!

Frank is back & Meet Cypris

Back in April, I was hoping to obtain a spot in one of the largest Ottawa Christmas Gift Shows. I was really disappointed (but not surprised) that I didn't get a spot. It turns out that everything happens for a reason. I have a couple of big things going on that I'm quite excited about. It's a little early yet, but I'll share them with you soon.

Guess what! Frank is back. He's not a goner like we thought. Here he is, up to his old tricks, hanging out on the outside of our living room window at night.

Time to share a photo sent to me a few days ago. Meet Cypris...sent to us by Suzanne of Mountain Dog Lodge in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Cypris is a real sweetheart, adores all people & kids, goes to "work" (their doggie daycare) every day, and she's a rescue to boot!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Go Bananas Pawty Cake

Here's a cake recipe for you...well, actually for your four legged friends. Yes, a cake for dogs. What can I tell you? It's a crazy world out there. I have baked this cake on several television shows. Usually the host of the show will try it out. It's a little bland for the human palate, but dogs love it.

Barking Biscuit Go Bananas Pawty Cake

2 cups water
1/4 cup mashed banana
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 tablespoons honey
3 cups whole wheat flour (you can substitute rice flour, but you'll have to reduce the water)
1 cup dried bananas
1/2 tbsp baking powder

Frosting:
250 grams low fat cream cheese
3 teaspoons carob powder (not chocolate!)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a bowl, mix together water, bananas, vanilla, egg and honey.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, dried bananas and baking powder. Mix thoroughly.
Add wet ingredients to dry and mix well. The dough will be thicker than regular cake mix.
Pour into an 8 inch greased cake pan and bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. The cake will be quite dense...definitely not light and fluffy.

To make the frosting, beat ingredients together in a small bowl until smooth. Spread over the cake and decorate it with pieces of dried banana.

Store in an airtight container and refrigerate. Let your four legged friends enjoy!

One day you relax, the next you don't

Yesterday lots of parents sent their children off to the first day of school. Our son is in Toronto (about 4 hours from here) trying to find his first permanent home. Where did the time go? Seems like just yesterday we were putting him on the bus for school.

It seems fitting that we spent yesterday babysitting John's grandson. Mr. J is a joy to have around. We had a fun day with lots of adventures. The great thing about a two year old is that everything is a big adventure.

Playing with cars. Did you know that some float...and some don't? Amazing to a 2 year old.

Going for a walk with Baba (and Bama busy taking photos)
Watching the local machinery busy at work. And watching. And watching. Want to go home Mr. J? No! We didn't go home until the digger stopped for the day. Good thing we waited until the afternoon nap was over before we went for a walk to look at the machines!

So, yesterday was relaxing and fun. Today, not so relaxing.

Package an order and go to the post office. Go to the bank to deposit the cheques that came in last week (yay!). Go to the natural food store to purchase ingredients for the dog cake (yes, a cake for dogs) that I'm going to bake. Package 5 orders for delivery into Ottawa tomorrow. Process and print invoices for the orders. Bake a cake for a dog birthday party. John picked up the biscuits from our bakery to bring back to our workshop for packaging. When he arrives, we unload 500 pounds of dog biscuits out of the CRV and into the workshop. Whew! And it's not over yet...

Going To The Dogs Dinner & Race Night

I'm excited to be part of the 2nd annual Going To The Dogs Dinner & Race Night.

This unique & fun fundraiser is scheduled for Friday, September 21st starting at 6:30 p.m. It's held at the Rideau Carleton Raceway in Ottawa, and promises to be a fun-filled evening with live horse racing, fabulous food, door prizes, 50/50 draw and silent auction.

Price of admission includes valet parking, coat check, all-you-can-eat buffet, complimentary race program and your first $2 wager. Price per person is $40. All proceeds from the evening go to 3 great dog groups...Aussie Rescue Placement Helpline, Canines with a Cause and National Capital Coalition for People and Dogs (soon to be Responsible Dog Owners of Canada).

For tickets contact Julie at morejulie@hotmail.com.
For more information contact Cathy at going2thedogs@gmail.com

I've seen some of the items for the silent auction...they look great!

We went last year, and it was lots of fun. Hope to see you there this year.

Article: The Power of Blogs

Our Paws for Charity project was featured in a recent article about the power of blogs. A big thank you to Sherri Garrity of Make It Count Communications for including us in her article.

HIGH TECH, HIGH TOUCH - THE POWER OF BLOGS by Sherri Garrity:
If you're looking for a way to engage your audiences, reach thousands of people, promote your vision in an interactive way, and do so quickly and inexpensively, the blog is an incredibly powerful communications tool. Non-profit organizations and individuals are beginning to use them for mission driven and philanthropic pursuits.

Sara Harley of The Barking Biscuit and three entrepreneurial friends in Ontario joined talent and forces to form the PAWS for Charity project to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society. Their blog launched earlier this year complements promotions in their own businesses (check out the Pink Ribbon Chilly Dog Sweater from Chilly Dogs shown here as an example). Like many who blog, Sara had no prior experience and underestimated the reach it would have. The last 100 visitors to the site were from North America, UK, Europe and as far away as the United Arab Emirates. The success of the blog prompted her to start one for her own business.

As more and more people link to their site, news of their efforts has spread. The project was recently highlighted in the grassroots Women Can Do Anything blog, another testament to using technology to unite people of common interests. The WCDA motto of Dream. Believe. Achieve. is a great motto for us all.

To read the full article click here.

Weekend Snapshots

It was a long weekend for us here in Canada, and I think for our U.S. friends as well. How did you spend your long weekend? Here's a few little snapshots from our weekend.

Bath time for everyone. We have a hose from Lee Valley Tools that is perfect for outside baths. We attach it to an indoor tap (the small bathroom on our main floor). It's a coiled hose that stretches to 50 feet. Since it's attached to an indoor tap, we can adjust the water to a warmer temperature than the freezing water that comes from our well on the outdoor tap. The theory is that the crew will like having a bath better if it's not with freezing water. I don't think the theory works. All in all, the 3 of them "tolerate" their clean up time but not one of them really enjoys it. Strangely enough, our cat Phantom likes it best!

Next was a ride in the Miata for John & me. Despite the dire warnings of greenhouse gases, one of our favourite things is still to "go for a ride". It was a perfect day for it...sunny, but not too hot.

Remember my Horace Bear WIP? Well, I finally started putting my poor Horace together. Now that I've started, I'm hoping to have him/her finished by the end of the week. I enjoy knitting, but I really dislike putting everything together. (as you can probably tell, since I am sadly behind in my target completion date of July 15th!)

On Sunday, we had visitors for a barbeque. Two friends drove up from Kingston to see us...and brought the food with them! We had an unbelievable meal BBQ'd by John on our Big Green Egg...the biggest steaks I've ever seen, salmon, grilled mushrooms, onions, and peppers, olive sour dough bread, potatoes, carrots, and home made baklava. Mmm Mmm Great.

Today we were off to a baseball game in Ottawa...the very last (ever) game of the Ottawa Lynx. We were there for the opening game on April 17, 1993 (a very cold evening) and were seasons tickets holders for a few years. We sort of stopped going to ball games once we moved from Ottawa. Anyway, the team is moving away so we thought we should go to their last game. It was a perfect afternoon for a ball game...sunny & hot (30 C or 85 F...however you measure it) Perfect for hot dogs & beer. (but they lost!)

Hope you had a good weekend!