It's All Fun and Games Until...

Here's Bailey looking cute as can be and oh-so-innocent on our couch.



It's all in fun games until someone pees on the couch. Yes folks, that's right, our little angel peed all over our couch last night.



We were mad, but not too mad...How can you stay mad at a face like that? It's impossible!

I'm Loving This Quilt

Well, here it is...the day I thought would never get here. Mommy fiiiinally finished the pretty baby quilt and I have to say, I've thoroughly been enjoying it.


Wait...WHAT!? What do you mean I have to give it up?



Can't I keep it, mommy...pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease? You wouldn't say no to a face like this, would you?



Oh fine! Just take it! You better have some good treats for me leftover in that stocking, though! I'm just sayin...

Bailey Playing

I know he's not supposed to be on the bed and all...

...but I mistook him for one of my cuddly stuffed animals and he just accidentally ended up here...yeaaaa...that's right...

Worms? No Thanks...I'm a Vegetarian.

I hope everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving had a wonderful one and for everyone else, I hope you had a lovely weekend. I spent Thanksgiving with my fiance's family this year...one of several beautiful family get-togethers I've been fortunate enough to participate in. Don't get me wrong...I love my quiet, simple dinners with my immediate family, but with my mom from the Philippines and my dad from the north, we don't have a lot of "other family" near-by. We used to celebrate with some cousins of ours but haven't been able to connect as of late, but hopefully, we'll all get together soon. Anywho, every once in awhile, (maybe it's just me) but, I look forward to one of those big family celebrations with lots of friends and family everywhere. Very holiday-esque, no? My family has always celebrated traditional American holidays, but the older I get, the more I want to celebrate the holidays. The more I want to decorate, to bake, to cook, to gift wrap. I can't wait till my SO and I get a house so I can really get started decorating and maybe even host a holiday dinner. I'm taking notes from my Martha Stewart library...just in case.


We celebrated a traditional Thanksgiving with Turkey, dressing, gravy, dry dressing (a secret family recipe), macaroni & cheese, green been casserole, mashed potatoes, salad, rolls...am I forgetting anything? I mean, obviously, we had dessert (my fave part of any meal): pumpkin gooey-butter cake, brownies, ice cream, and apple pie. If you can't tell from the photo, I celebrated Thanksgiving with quite a few of my SO's family - his aunt & uncle (the hosts) and their two sons, his mom, his brother & his son, his sister & her husband & their son & daughter.

I had a funny conversation with one of my SO's nephews, Alex, while he was playing with this fish toy that had a worm on a pully that when you pulled made the fish's tail swim while the worm moved closer towards the fish's mouth. The conversation went something like this:

Me: What's that in the fish's mouth?
Alex: A worm.
Me: What's the fish doing with the worm?
Alex: He's eating it.
Me: Do you eat worms?
Alex: NOOOO! I'm a veg-e-TAR-ian! I don't eat meat!

It wasn't the answer I was expecting, but it was really too cute.



The weather was a bit chilly, but beautiful. The fire-colored leaves looked so brilliant against the blue-blue sky.



Bailey is really loving all the leaves. He loves to eat them...or pick them up in his mouth at least...



...even leaves waaaay bigger than his head, which is pretty cute.



Oh yea...and he likes sticks, too.



When we got back home from visiting my SO's family, we had a simple soup...gotta eat healthy after chowing down on all that turkey, right? This is the Chicken Provencal "Stoup" by Rachael Ray (click here for recipe). I thought the recipe was pretty good, but if you try it, be sure to get the olive tapenade. I was hesitant to buy it because I don't like olives, but a teaspoon-full stirred into my soup added a lot of flavor, and it didn't really make the soup taste too much like olives. It just added depth to the flavor overall.

Oh, and did I mention that we also got to celebrate my SO's mom's b-day? Happy birthday, you-know-who!

Happy Turkey Day!

Bailey says...

Happy Thanksgiving, ya'll!

Pretty Puppy Tarts

We took Bailey to a local canine cafe today to get him a special treat. This place has the cutest gourmet doggie sorbets, puppy petit fours, puppy tarts, and more.



Bailey picks his treat out...



...and we take it home so he can enjoy it

We also got some puppy training treats that the cafe bakes on site. They have a bakery downstairs of the shop and bake healthy dog treats with organic goods and other special ingrediants. The puppy training treats are especially healthy b/c they're so tiny, we'll be able to give Bailey lots of them while potty training him and working on other training tricks.

Something tells me we'll be back there soon!

Handmade Doggie Bed

I thought it would be a good idea to make Bailey a dog bed...even though we got one w/ the puppy kit we bought when we picked him up from the pet store. I figured it'd be a cinch...I could do a big square and stuff it with poly fill. No, even better, I could use a foam padding I have and do a poly-filled tube to sew on the padding. Well, my "simple" project kept me up past midnight sometime mid last week and then we decided not to use it that night. What?! Why did I work so hard to complete the project that night? Oh well. He seems to like it pretty well either way.



I started by sewing a rectangle a couple inches larger than the width/height. Then, I stuffed it with a foam piece I had in my stash.



I finished the rectangle part by sewing up the edge.



Next, I made a big tube and stuffed it with polyfill.



Then, I just had to sew the tube part onto the rectangle. I'm sure it looks nice from this not-too-up-close photo, but it's actually a bit of a mess. It was really hard to get the tube part under the sewing foot to be able to sew them together, and I'm sure I could have done something better to get the corners down, but I just kind folded and scrunched it and sewed over it. Hey, it works. lol.



Someone sure seems to be enjoying it and that's all that matters. :)

Bailey Visits the Vet

We took our little trooper to his first vet visit today, and he did great! Luckily, I got a good recommendation on the vet clinic and everyone who worked there was super sweet to Bailey. They definitely did a great job of making him as comfortable as possibly while do his vaccines and other checkups. Thanks guys!



Waiting for the vet



Uh-oh...check-up time! I'm scared!



All done! Yay! Do I get a treat now?

The Good, The Bad, and the...Well, No Ugly Here

Here are a couple videos I took of our new corgi puppy this morning:

The Good

Just walking around - he doesn't like going down curbs just yet, but his legs will get bigger and it will be easier for him to get down. I think it's so cute how he walks with those short little legs of his!

The Bad

Chewing his leash - he doesn't know what "No" means yet, but we're working on it. We're also thinking of putting something on the leash to keep him from chewing it. Someone told me earlier today to soak it in tobasco sauce (not sure about that one) or that there may be a spray you can put on it. Maybe the spray is the same stuff they use to keep kids from sucking their thumb or biting their nails?

Anywho, we may have the good and the bad, but there's no ugly here!


NOTE: Movie image source not known - if you're the owner and object to it's use, please email me at shopaholicd at gmail dot com and I'll take it down.

Me Day? Not So Much...

Ok, so I know I promised that I would take a "Me Day" today since it's a bank holiday so I could work on that quilt kit, but how can you say no to these eyes?



So, yes, to answer the question you may be thinking, we got a Corgi puppy today! He's a Pembroke Welsh Corgi and he's absolutely adorable!

Ok, here's the scoop:
I've been trying to talk my SO into getting a dog for awhile now. My German Shepherd (RIP Teddy) died a couple years ago, but my SO has a dog at home, so it's been a tougher decision for him. Fiiiiiinally, this weekend, he told me that he was thinking about getting me a dog for Christmas. Good thing I'd been researching puppies for a few months now. Since we live in an apartment right now, we have to keep the dog's size under 30 lbs. So, I'd been looking into

Shiba Inus

and Corgis


Both are medium sized dogs that I would feel relatively safe walking around by myself (yea, I'm paranoid...especially about being mugged, and yes...even in my neighborhood). Both are smart and have good temperments. Both have a lot of qualities my SO and I were looking for in a dog. We also considered rescuing or adopting a dog and while it breaks my heart that we didn't get one, we feel like our new puppy sorta picked us. We visited a couple pet stores this weekend and saw a couple puppies we liked, but nothing that jumped out at us. But, today, when we found out there was a pet store 30 minutes away that was selling one puppy of each breed we were interested in, we knew we had to check it out. We were actually planning on visiting a couple shelters today, but they only do adoptions on weekends and we had already missed the Saturday boat. I'm still brainstorming other ways I can help out a pet organiziation, but back to the story...we got to the store this afternoon and immediately looked for the Corgi. He was in a circular bin that had an open top, so I leaned over to get a better look and the little Corgi puppy reached up and kissed my nose....Awww...it was a sign...it had to be, right? We asked to play with the puppy and instantly felt a connection. He was so bubbly and friendly and soft and cuddly...after roughly 20 minutes of play time, we knew he was coming home with us. We even got him on a Veteran's Day sale...who knew they did holiday sales for dogs? Anywho, to make a long story short, we and our new puppy picked each other out today and the rest will be history. Now, we just have to figure out a great name...we're thinking maybe Bailey or Duke, but we're not sure. We looked through a couple Welsh Names web sites, but nothing else has really jumped out at us. I'm sure we'll figure something out soon...can't wait!

NOTE: Shiba Inu and last Corgi photo found on the web - if you're the owner and object to its use, please email me at shopaholicd at gmail dot com and I'll take it down.