A Little Bit of Baking...

This week I came across a recipe for pumpkin puppy treats and since I had all the ingredients in my kitchen I decided I'd bake some healthy, all natural 'cookies' for Yoshi and Wafer. I can't believe the price of dog treats, especially the healthier 'natural' varieties, so discovering how easy these were to make was a great bonus and the puppies just love them!



I found the recipe on Facebook. It had been shared from John Hammer's page by a friend. Here it is if you're interested in trying it.

DOG TREATS

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1/2 cup canned pumpkin (pure pumpkin...not the sweetened pie filling!)
2 tbsp dry milk
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 1/2 cups brown rice flour*
1 tsp dried parsley (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350ºF
In large bowl, whisk together eggs and pumpkin until smooth. Stir in dry milk, salt and parsley. Add brown rice flour gradually, combining with your hands to form a stiff, dry dough. Turn out onto lightly floured surface (use brown rice flour) and if dough is still rough, briefly knead and press to combine.

Roll dough between 1/4 - 1/2" thick, depending on your preference and use cookie cutter to cut out bone shapes, gathering and re-rolling scraps as you go.

Place cookies on a cookie sheet (no greasing or paper is necessary). If desired, press a fork pattern on biscuits before baking.

The puppies happily sit pretty
to earn a cookie reward!

Bake for 20 minutes, then remove from oven and carefully turn them over. Bake an additional 20 minutes on this side. Allow to cook completely before storing in an airtight container or letting your dog sample them.

*Brown rice flour gives the cookies a nice crunch and promotes better digestion, especially for dogs who do not tolerate wheat well.

Makes about 75 small biscuits or 50 medium biscuits. I ended up with about 120 using the little bone cookie cutter I have and these are a perfect size for training treats (broken in half for Wafer). 

Yoshi's Beach Vacation...

Yoshi has been exploring the east coast of the US from Cape Cod south to the Outer Banks in North Carolina and she's now seriously considering becoming a beach bum instead of a service dog (LOL).  She has been really enjoying playing on the beach and all of the interesting (and stinky) things she's finding!

Hopefully I'll be back to some fibre art soon, but until then I thought you might enjoy a puppy fix!

"My mean Mom wouldn't let me keep any of these great treasures, but I did find a tennis ball and she did let me keep it." sigh, Yoshi

Yoshi's new friends...

I seem to be in a bit of a dry spell right now as it relates to my art, but I'm having a lot of fun with Yoshi, our current Future Dog Guide puppy.

I just had to share a video with you.  My husband and I often hand feed the chipmunks at our cottage, so the chipmunks in this video are very used to us, but surprisingly they were okay meeting Yoshi, only 8 weeks old in these shots!

Click here to see video.

Playtime...

Yup, I just had to play with captions this week.  Needless to say, Casey and Dime are really enjoying one another!  And when the play is done they catch a few zzz's together too!

Casey and Dime...

The day I took the above shot, I thought it was so funny.  Dime had discovered he could sit inside the ring at the bottom of the kitchen stool, and he sat there for the longest time.  If I had put him there I'm sure he would have jumped right out...but since it was his idea he just sat there like that for about 10 minutes!  Too funny!!!

Some days Dime seems like he's getting so big, and other times he still seems like a little puppy, but when I look back over the weeks, I can see him maturing so fast! It seems especially evident in his adorable little face!

And he and Casey are never far apart.  When Dime and I go out, Bill tells me Casey looks around the house for him, and when we return the two of them always have a wonderful reunion!

Here they are...both 13...Dime at 13 wks. and Casey at 13 yrs.!

The Last of the Fall Colour...

On the weekend, while out in the garden, I shot these images of the last bit of colour left in the yard.  Although most of the leaves have fallen, and those still clinging to the trees are mostly a sad brown, there is still a bit of pretty colour to be found in a couple of spots in the garden.  I took these rather quickly, with my iPhone, and unfortunately the focus is not the best.  I do love those wonderful berries on the euonymus .  The colour and shape is so interesting.  The wine/green leaves are from my fragrant snowball bush...it smells divine when it's in bloom in the spring!  And the barberry bush is rapidly loosing it's leaves, but those still on the bush are a wonderful variegated pink/burgundy colour.

I thought you might enjoy an update on Dime too.  He's doing great and he's never too far from Casey!  He is such a clever little fellow, learning so much everyday. Happily, at 12 wks he's reliably housebroken (actually was a week ago already!) and we haven't had an accident in the house since his second week with us.

"Here are some of the commands I know...okay, I'm just kidding about that last one, but a puppy can dream can't he?"

Linking up with Texture Tuesday.

Oh Look...A Distraction!

We've got a new little fellow in our lives.  I've become a foster 'mom' for a future dog guide puppy.  His name is Dime and he's 8 wks old.  He's very clever and is adjusting well to our home.  I do laugh at him when outside because he's very easily distracted by every leaf he sees, thus the title of the post.  Needless to say, being fall there are a lot of distractions outside. LOL

Casey seems to like him and they've already had a few great play sessions.  It's really hard to believe she's 13 yrs. old when you see her romping and wrestling with Dime!

Although he's crate training, and therefore sleeps in his crate, sometime after playing he does snooze with Casey for a bit before going into his crate for nap time.

Linking up with Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday.

Puppy Love...

Last spring, our neigbours got Buddy, a Shih Tze puppy.  From the first day they got him, as they tried to walk past our back yard (we're on a corner lot), Buddy saw Casey and just walk in through our fence to visit with her.  It was love at first sight for all of us!  Casey was about to turn 12, a senior for a dog her size, and here was this tiny puppy that just wanted to jump up on her and give her kisses...so adorable!

As you can see in the top left image, Casey was quick to get in on the pouncing fun.  Although we certainly see signs of her age at times, when Buddy's around Casey just becomes like an over grown puppy herself.  It's so fun to watch them wrestle and play and I really think he helps to keep her young.  However, notice the very centre image...that's Casey's way of imposing a short break to get a little rest.  Has she captured an adorable little sleep toy or what!

These days its a bit of a tight squeeze for Buddy to get through the fence, but they still play regularly, and right now they are loving the snow!

This photo collage was creating using the print module in Lightroom 4.  I then exported it to  PSE 11 where I added a subtle soft texture called Cora, by Kim Klassen, at a soft light blend mode and lowered the opacity.  I put a layer of the digital scrapbook paper with the musical notes over the lower part only, and again lowered the opacity to allow the text to show through.  The final step was to use a variety of heart brushes to stamp on the little hearts on the last image as well as over the text area.  Love is in the air...

Linking up with Our World Tuesday, Texture Tuesday, Sweet Shot Tuesday and Photo Art Friday.