Handmade Christmas

This wonderful illustration is available for you to use for Christmas cards courtesy of Julia at Lineanongrata. Go to her blog to check out the details or her etsy shop to check out her wonderful illustrations and bags. Truly original and inspiring. Now, if you are part of my family and live on the "right coast"...please stop reading right now.

For the rest of you, I want to share part of my handmade Christmas....for our lovely Miss M.

Back in the summer, I blogged about an auction we went to. I purchased 2 wooden silverware cases For $1 that I planned to revitalize and turn into treasure boxes for our 2 grandchildren. That didn't go as planned. Some things just don't work out I guess. The boxes were the perfect size. I took out the old velvet linings, but no matter what I tried I couldn't get rid of a terrible musty smell. Yuck. I abandoned my plans. But I did come up with an alternative for Miss M....a wooden mini chest of drawers that I bought and painted. Here is the finished project:

I filled some of the drawers with wrapped presents. Her Beebee Mod shirt...some "jewels" to make her own jewelry...some rhinestone flowers with sticky backs...some sticky foam letters and flowers...Purple is her favourite colour. I hope she likes it.

Shades of Gray

This is what we woke up to today. It looked like a black and white world.

But every day has some colour to it.

The glass window is hanging in one of our trees. I love working with glass, and used an old wooden window frame when I created this piece. It's quite large...about 1 1/2 feet wide by 4 feet tall.

Hope you have lots of colour in your day today!

Timing is everything

How cute is this photo? Take a close look at the pumpkin...it's a carved look-a-like of Hudson!

The photo was sent to me by Marie-Piere. She is an awesome woman who has helped out our Paws for Charity cause again this year. She held a fundraiser in September and raised $50 on our behalf. We'll be donating her cheque to breast cancer research together with cheques from the 4 Paws for Charity businesses in December. Thanks Marie-Piere!

For those of you who were reading this blog back in April...an update on my application to the Ottawa Christmas Craft Show. I was devastated to be turned down back then...it was such a big goal for me to not obtain. I was put on a waiting list. Yah, right. Turns out it was true! They phoned me today to say they had some last minute cancellations and would I like to attend?

I spent several hours today trying to make it happen. But. Timing is everything. I would have loved the chance to do this back in April. Lots has changed since then. And there are only 9 days to prepare for a 5 day show (5 days...2 days at 11 hours, 1 day at 8 hours, 1 day at 5 hours, and 1 day at 7 hours) I just can't do it. This was really difficult to say no to. But you'll see why I had to say no in time. (can't tell you yet!)

My regular customer in England has just ordered again. Thanks Sooty! You make me feel so special when you order your biscuits all the way from Canada.

As promised, here is a little look at a PIF I sent out a few weeks ago. And that ends my PIF obligations! Yay.

It has been scanned in a little crooked, but you get the idea. C for Corline...she said she likes pinks, cream, and olive green. The C is made from cream material with small pink flowers, stitched in a blanket stitch with olive green. I think I'm going to try out some stitchery next year. Stitchery seems to be a lot bigger in Australia. If you like stitchery check out Cinderberry Stitches. I just love her patterns! Gonna get some soon.

Happy Hallowe'en everyone!

Today is a gift. Do something good!

Run For The Cure & Introducing Kville Horace

This weekend is the CIBC Run For The Cure throughout Canada. We've been very fortunate, because we've had quite a few orders for our Crunch for a Cure biscuits over the last couple of weeks. Some of the participants will be giving our biscuits as thank you's to some of their sponsors. Fantastic!

On a personal note, I'd like to share the final results of my Horace knitting project. After spending the spring and summer a broken man (knit but not yet pieced together), Kville Horace finally pulled himself together and is ready to face the world. Nothing but blue skies ahead for him.

You can view Kville Horace and other Horace Bears from around the world on the Horace Gallery at Bears United. (yes, such a thing exists)
You can buy a pattern from Amanda Hone's Etsy Shop here. (oh, and did I mention that Amanda does absolutely amazing abstract art?)

I'm not sure where Kville Horace's adventures will lead him. If he is feeling independent and in need of an adventure, he may just end up in my etsy shop.

Today is a gift. Do something good.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Pumpkin Contest Update & Photos For Sale

We're off to the races tonight...Going To The Dogs Dinner & Race Night. It promises to be lots of fun. Can't wait to see all those great silent auction items. Hey, who knows, maybe John will even pick a winner tonight (stranger things have happened). We'll be sitting with Julie from Chilly Dogs and Sue, the URBAN Dog Photog....2 of the other Paws For Charity members...and their husbands too. Should be lots of fun!

Pumpkin Contest update:
I've received some more suggestions for our new Pumpkin biscuits. Remember, you have until September 30th to send me your ideas. Don't forget to vote! I have a very long list of possibilities, but not too many people have sent me their favourites yet. Here are some more names to add to the list:
Pup-kins (we also already had The Great Pupkin)
Boo-tiful Pumkin
Hauntfull Pumkin
Pumpkilicious (we also have Pumpkinlicious)
Howlin' Prowlin' Punkin
Jumpin' Pumpkin (someone suggested we stick with our former name)

I've added a few photo placques to my little Etsy store. These are photos professionally mounted onto a wooden board (plaque mounted). If you want to see them in the Etsy shop, click here. Or just send me an email if you're interested in buying them. I'll be adding a few photos from our Newfoundland trip sometime soon. Here are the low resolution versions of the photos. The colours in the mounted photos are very vibrant...they really pop. I love these photos...they are extreme close ups of marigolds after the rain. They look like modern art to me.
Enjoy! Have a great weekend.

Eye Candy - BIG and small

As promised, here are some photos of an art piece I purchased at a silent auction to raise funds for our local Youth Centre. It's a BIG piece of art! The artwork was a collaborative effort of 2 painters and a potter. Here is a close up of a pottery dragonfly:

Can you see the little pottery frog under the flower? Reminds me of our Frank.

And now for some small eye candy. Have you heard of Moo cards? They are very small biz type cards made from your Flickr photos. Cute as a button and memorable because they aren't the standard business card size. Here are some Moo cards from Fluffy Flowers.

Felicia makes handmade loveable creatures in Georgia. Many of her creatures are made from recycled clothes...saving the planet one creature at a time. Too cute for words.

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!

The Happy Dance

What makes you do the happy dance?


Here are some of my happy dance moments:

:: Fresh Tomatoes ::
from our garden


:: Interesting photos ::
don't you just love the colours of these marigolds after the rain?


:: Being creative ::
Here's a hint for my PIFs. I have Angelique's PIF finished and will start working on Linda's PIF soon. I'll show the completed projects after they receive them in the mail. (wouldn't want to spoil the surprise!)
:: Good music ::
I don't know how to give you just the tune to listen to, but here is a You Tube video of one of my current favourites...Hey There Delilah by The Plain White T's. Nothing like a good love song.


Go find something that makes you do the happy dance!

New Biz Cards & Watercolours Sold

Here are my new business cards...yet to be printed. The photo on the left is the front of the card, and the photo below is the back. That's our Mulligan:) Our Giant Schnauzer Cinder just shows up as a big black blob in photos (might be my photography skills) They're a little blurry here because of the low resolution, but I think they'll look great printed in high gloss.

The design work was done by Monster Pilot. They have designed all my tags for my dog biscuits, as well as my promotional postcards. I just love working with Brian and his partner. They have so many great ideas, it's really difficult to choose. They also did our logo for my PAWS for Charity project. You can see all the work they've done for me under their "Archive" section.

On the personal front, I sold 2 of my little paintings on Etsy yesterday. Thanks Angelique!
I am quite honored that Angelique bought them...she is such an artistic person. You must check out her photographs as well as her Snow Angel Designs.

Going once, going twice, sold!

Have you ever been to an auction? Let me tell you, the first time I actually bid on something at an auction my heart was racing so hard that I almost couldn't breathe by the time the bidding was over.

I go to auctions now and then. I love the country farm auctions the best...especially in the summer and fall when the weather is nice.

I like old stuff. Even if I don't have anything in mind to bid on, I enjoy watching the people and wondering where all that stuff has been and where it's going to end up.

Yesterday was a beautiful day here, so John and I played hookie from work (a bonus of being self employed) and headed out to a country auction. Look what I bought!

These are old wooden silverware boxes. (I got a third one as well but it wasn't as nice) $2!

They look pretty dingy here, but I've already cleaned them up and removed the old material from the inside. The plan for these is to paint them a solid colour and add some painted embellishments to the outside and put new fabric on the inside. The old silverware boxes will do a transformation into new treasure boxes for our grandchildren for Christmas. I'm very excited about this! I'll post pictures when the project is complete (likely sometime in September)

My second purchase...lots and lots of tinware...$5! (Mulligan is inspecting them). The 3 round tubs all have lids. One is now holding birdseed, one is a dog poop container (the lid even has air vents at the top....perfect for this purpose!), and one is going to hold outdoor toys for the grandkids. There's a tall container...that's now storing charcoal (we use a Big Green Egg bbq, which uses charcoal not propane). And there's a rectangular container that will likely get spray painted and put on my desk. What else? Oh yes, there are 3 cannisters (Flour, Coffee, Spices) that someone painted yellow. The paint is peeling badly so I'm going to try to remove the paint and take them back to their original silver colour. There's a few other odds & ends too.

And...my happiest buy of the day:

This cabinet for $5!!...already refinished and repainted in one of my favourite colours (it doesn't show well here but it's a lovely sage green). It's 3 1/2 feet high by 4 feet wide and has a nice walnut stain on the three top pieces. I haven't decided on the new home for this cabinet...it might go into my office or it might go into my new craft/hobby room after Cody leaves us for good this September.

It was definitely a good day at the auction. $12 spent, and the CRV was absolutely packed.

For the birds

Meet our purple finch. He visits us from time to time, but not nearly as often as I'd like to see him. I love his colouring, and feel fortunate whenever he decides to visit our feeders.

So, I was pleasantly surprised to find some wonderful fabric on Etsy supplied by Beebee Mod.

I have a "vintage" dining room set that I really don't like very much but I can't bear to part with. My parents bought the set second hand when they were young and it was in our family home for over 25 years. After my mom passed away, my dad downsized his home and gave the set to me. I've had it for 20 years. So you see, I really can't part with it.

But it was time to funk it up a bit, and this bird seed fabric was just the thing! Here's how it looks on one of the chairs now:

I love it! My son thinks I'm crazy. Well, it definitely makes a statement!

Saying no is hard to do

I am constantly asked for product donations for various charities and fund raisers. How do I decide who to donate to? It's so difficult, because there are just so many deserving groups and obviously a small business can't donate to everyone.

I hate saying no.

However, the fact is that I am a small business and I can't always say yes. Here's how I handle it:
- I have a few key charities that I donate to each year
- I created PAWS for Charity with 3 other like minded business women and raise funds for breast cancer research
- I participate in events, and donate part of my sales to charity
- I donate part of the proceeds from some of my dog biscuits to charity
- I donate items to some groups that hold a personal interest to me

And when all else fails, and I run out of donation budget, I do something like this:

These are 2 watercolours that I painted and sent to the Maritime Greyhound Adoption Program in New Brunswick. One of the organizers is a customer of mine, so I wanted to help out in some small way. These paintings will be auctioned off at their Annual Picnic & Auction to raise money for special needs greyhounds that would otherwise be euthanized. This year the auction will take place on July 29th, and I really hope someone bids on my little paintings!

Guessing Games, Projects, and Life

I just posted (and then removed!) the answer to the "Guess how many dog biscuits are in the cookie jar contest". After I posted the answer, I checked out the Canines with a Cause web site. It seems they are holding a 2nd garage & bake sale...this time in west end Ottawa on June 16th. The cookie jar contest is still going on, so I can't post the correct answer now. You'll just have to wait until I return from vacation (June 27th) to know the right answer. So...it's not too late to guess! Leave a comment, or send an email to join in.

Guess what? My umbrella project is done! Not perfect, but I'm very proud of it just the same.
I didn't make a pattern, but here is what I based my project on (don't laugh)

I measured and cut one piece. Then I used the first piece to cut out the remaining 7 pieces. (this would horify you seamstresses, but I didn't pin anything...just laid the first piece down and started cutting)

This is the "before" photo: (not a good one, but you can see the hem is down and frayed. Not shown are the several tears around the sides of the umbrella)

And now, the "After":

I managed to match the stripes at the seams. The flap on the top is a little dorky looking...I think I attached the flap to high on the seams (no, I am NOT going to re-do it!) The pockets for the wooden umbrella arms are a little bulky. The biggest challenge with the whole project was to get my 50 year old sewing machine to slog through the canvas. I've never worked with such thick material (and I never will again...once is enough for me!). All in all, not bad I think?

The weekend started not too well, with a bit of bad news I received on Friday ...I did not make it into the big Christmas Gift Show I was hoping for. I am on the waiting list, so there is still some hope (if only a little).

However, the weekend improved with a day of babysitting John's grandson:

Nothing like a two year old to make you look at the world with a new set of eyes. Everything is a discovery and a joy for them.

Tomorrow will be a long day. Cody is graduating from College. Of course, I want to be there. This requires a 6 hour drive to London, sitting in an auditorium for 4 hours, a 2 hour dinner with the Theatre Students & families, then another 6 hour drive home. I get tired just thinking about it. Home for 24 hours, then leaving at 3 in the morning for our VACATION! (the first day will be 15 hours of driving!)

The Good The Bad & The Ugly

Before I get started, just a reminder to please participate in my current guessing game if you haven't already. Winner of a little something (no, not dog biscuits) will be announced on Sunday or Monday. Read about it here.

Now, for today's topic. One of my all time favourite movies...The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly...a good old spaghetti western from 1964 starring Clint Eastwood.

I think maybe it's one of my favourites because the first time I saw it was the first time I was allowed to stay up past my bed time to watch it on tv on the late night show. I seem to have passed this love of GBU on to my son (poor guy), who also lists it as one of his favs. It's such a sickness that I even have the soundtrack on CD. You have to hear the soundtrack to know just how weird I am.

Anyway, today's theme is Good, Bad, & Ugly. We'll start with the GOOD:

A while ago, I was fortunate enough to have my business featured in the newsletter put out by The National Capital Coalition for People & Dogs (NCCPD). I was reluctant to post about it, being modest and all, but every now and then you just have to toot your own horn. So today it's my turn to toot. You can read the article called "Mrs. Harley, You Make Good Cookies...And You're a Good Woman Too" in the Spring 2007 issue of The Dog Guardian by clicking here.

And now the BAD:

There are some frustrating things about being in business for yourself, and supplying your product wholesale to other stores. One of those things is that stores sometimes go out of business. There seems to be an epidemic of this, because 5 of the stores I supply have gone out of business in the last few months. This is a bummer (well, probably more of a bummer for them but still). One of the stores that has closed it's doors was one of my biggest customers. Thankfully, only one of the five stores owes me money. Not a big amount ($150) but I would have liked those dollars in my pocket instead of theirs. They have declared bankruptcy, so it's not likely I'll see that money anytime in the future. Sigh.

And now the UGLY:

Living with dogs sometimes has drawbacks. This last week has been a time of carnage and devastation. It seems that my darling Mulligan (our 8 year old mixed breed) has decided she is in charge of keeping the yard free of rodents. Well, most people call them rodents but I call them cute. For years, I've been waiting to have wild life in our yard (when we moved here 9 years ago we had no trees). Finally, this year we have squirrels and chipmunks. They are the ground feeders under a bird feeder we have. Last week, Mulligan treed a squirrel. Keep in mind that the trees we planted are still only about 10 or 12 feet tall. I watched from the living room window as Mulligan stood up on her hind legs and shook the tree.
Me: "oh, isn't she smart! I can't believe she's doing that".
Mulligan ran around the tree, stood up on her hind legs again and shook the tree.
Me: "I really can't believe she's doing that".
Squirrel: "I better get outta here" and jumps from the tree onto the ground.
Me: (Screaming and running for the door) "Mulligan NO! OFF! OFF! OFF!"
(off is her command for not touching something or letting something go) In this case, it was for letting something go because she caught the squirrel. She did let go but it was...
Too late. I cried as I carried him (her?) away.

Flash forward to this week. Yesterday I was taking a shower and heard John yell at the top of his voice "MULLIGAN. NO! OFF!". Oh no. I won't go into gory details but this time a poor little chippy decided to try to outrun Mulligan and lost. The biggest surprise of this event was that John carried poor little chippy away. (usually, clean up of anything bigger than a fly is my job) Thank you John.

Now we check the feeder for rodent activity before we let Mulligan out. Here's hoping for no more ugliness. (let's leave that to Eli Wallace in GBU)

Let's go back to something good, shall we. Here are a couple of photos from my recent obsession with taking close up shots.

Have a wonderful weekend.

More Preparations & WIPs

Everything is falling into place for our upcoming vacation. I don't know why I get so stressed before closing down for a couple of weeks...things always fall into place nicely. All the stores have their Barking Biscuit supplies now. All I need to do is fill some web orders, and then post updates on the website. Whew!

Thank you for all your comments about one blog or two (personal & biz). One blog it is! I tried to respond to your comments individually, but my replies all bounced back to me. Something I'm doing wrong?

You may wonder why I'm so excited about a little vacation. Yes, we get away every year. Usually we visit relatives. This time, we're visiting relatives for 3 days (John's son, daughter in law, and granddaughter in Halifax) But...then we're going away...just the two of us...no kids, no dogs, no relatives....for 10 days! Woo Hoo! To top it all off, we're going to tour Newfoundland...something I've wanted to do for years & years. John has been there before on business, many years ago, and only visited St. John's. So, this will be a first for him too. We're both very excited. In preparation for our trip:

New hiking shoes, hiking socks, long underwear, rain pants, rain coat. I get cold very, very easily. (apparently, there are still ice bergs in the water in Newfoundland in June!) When I get cold, I get miserable. These new supplies are John's self preservation purchases. He knows if I'm happy, he'll be happy. Smart man.

And now for some work in progress photos. This is my way of making sure I actually finish these projects. I tend to start things, and then move on to something else, so my projects sometimes languish for a while. I figure if I let all of you know about them, I'll be making a committment to actually finish them off.

(Umbrella photos coming soon)

WIP #1: Umbrella cover for our picnic table umbrella
Started: June 2nd
Completion Date: June 11 (if I don't do it right away, I'll never do it!)

WIP #2: Horace the Bear (pattern by Amanda Hone, Etsy pattern available here )
Started: March 28
Restarted (new yarn): April 14
Restarted (new yarn...I'll get this right eventually!): April 18
Want to finish by: July 15

WIP #3: Sweater for me. I've knit all the pieces, and now must piece them together (I strongly dislike this stage!!) before I can knit the button band and collar to finish it off.
Started: January
Want to finish by: August

Friendly Frogs & Happy News

Aren't these the cutest little frogs? These are my new stitch markers from Purple Daisy. I am a self taught knitter, and until 2 weeks ago I didn't even know stitch markers existed. Up until now, I've only made sweaters...12 sweaters in the past 13 years. Last year was my busiest year when I made 4 sweaters...for our 2 grandchildren and their moms.
I always used a pin to mark my stitches but have been reading a couple of knitter's blogs and found out about stitch markers. These are just too cute for words!
Now if I can only find someone to teach me how to knit some socks.

I had great news on Friday. I have applied to sell Barking Biscuits at a Christmas craft show...one of the biggest shows in Ottawa. On Friday I found out that I've made it through the first approval phase! Yay! I now have to make a presentation in front of a jury on Thurs May 17th. This will be my first large scale show. I told my husband I don't know whether to be worried that I won't be accepted...or that I will be! The challenge is to show the jurors that dog biscuits belong in this exclusive show. (300 vendors, and they only accept between 15 - 30 new vendors each year) Please keep your fingers crossed for me!

Guessing game & we're going batty!

First of all...a mini challenge for you. Do you know what the photo above is? If you think you know, leave a comment or send me an email. All answers (right or wrong) received by May 1st will be put into a draw, and one lucky person will receive a little something in the mail from me. (I'll contact you for your mailing address if you're the winner...don't worry, I don't share confidential info)


Late last fall we were at a country auction and we bought a bat house. If anyone had told me in my prior "city girl" life that I would be encouraging bats to come around, I would have laughed! But I'm a true country girl now I guess. According to my internet searches, bat houses should be at least 12 feet in the air (yes, that's 12 feet) and should be in an open clearing. So we mounted our bat house in our "meadow". Our property is only 1 1/2 acres, but we have named several zones. (we have "the meadow", "the forest", "the bench", "Dori's garden", etc) If you look very, very closely you can see a bench in the background (there are 2 naked trees...one with a cement face mounted on it, and the bench is between the 2 trees). This is where we walk to at the end of every day (well, sometimes in the middle of winter I skip the tradition). It helps me decompress after the bad days (I have them now and then) or just be happy on the good days. The dogs follow us out to the bench and run around. When they get tired of playing, we head back to the house and start thinking about dinner. Very uncomplicated and comforting routine.