My Life in Blog Years

We are teaming up with Dachshund Nola to host a Black and White Sunday blog hop. Want to join the hop? Just follow the rules below.

Thinking of adding a new furry friend into your home?  It happens all of the time whether planed or not – say spur of the moment adoption - and a new puppy owner must make certain that safety tips are followed to ensure the pooch will remain healthy and happy in their new environment. It certainly took me some time to figure everything out when I brought Luna into our home five years ago, and things were handled very differently when Penny was added to our family.  So here are some links I found helpful in surviving the new puppy days.

Do you have any tips or advice for bringing a new puppy into the home?  Make sure to hop on over to Newfandhound to see what links they have for you!

Today we are reviewing Mini Bakes, a healthy and delicious miniature dog biscuit from Zuke’s.  I will admit that we have never actually tried Zuke’s treats before, but after testing them out, I now eagerly look forward to incorporating them into our treat jar and exploring all of the other treats they have to offer.

The Mini Bakes come in three different flavors: Chicken n Cherryz, Turkey n’ Taterz, and Peanut Butter n’ Blueberryz; all which are corn and wheat free, and do not contain any by-products or artificial flavors. Each mini baked biscuit is made with ground oats—never wheat or corn—and is enhanced with a protein source plus a nutritious addition like blueberries, potatoes or cherries.

The Mini Bakes are meant to be biscuits or cookies which can either be used as a training treat or just as good old fashion cookie.  They are roughly the size of a vitamin C tablet, and only contain 5 calories each.  These treats do not need to be broken up as they are the perfect size to give to my large and small dog. As a dry treat, I also love that I am able to load a handful of these cookies (whenever we are headed out) into my jeans and I don’t have to worry about them crumbling or making a sticky, greasy mess in my pocket. I also really appreciate the fact they do not smell - I am very picky when it comes to dog treats that smell.

Zuke’s has been around for a long time, and they are very highly talked about among other dog bloggers. It’s nice to be able to experience a great product from a solid company that really cares about making a difference.  I don’t know if it’s the quality and care that goes into their products (that has made me a believer) or that fact that they donate 5% of their sales to Dog & Cat Cancer Fund - which makes a difference as cancer is the #1 cause of demise in our pets.  Anyways, it's nice to see a pet business be so dedicated to our beloved four-legged friends. All in all, Mini Bakes is definitely a treat (and company) worth checking out!  

Zuke's has offered to giveaway Mini Bakes to one luck reader! You can enter to Rafflecopter below using any of the methods you like. The giveaway begins on 8/26/2013 at 12:00 pacific time and ends on 8/31/2013 pacific time. This giveaway is only open to US residents over the age of 18.  The winner will be announced on this blog and notified by email.  Good luck!

Disclaimer: I was provided with Zuke's Mini Bakes from Zuke's for a review, but the thoughts and opinions in this review are 100% my own.

We are teaming up with Dachshund Nola to host a Black and White Sunday blog hop. Want to join the hop? Just follow the rules below.

I was recently asked to take part in a review for a product from Signazon, and as someone who is trying to establish a small online/home business I happily obliged.  I knew exactly what product I wanted to review and selected one of their custom vinyl banners.

Signazon specializes in various types of custom signs (magnetic, yard signs, wall decals, etc), as well as things like canvas banners (like mine), business cards and even postcards.  So for all of you folks who have a small business of your own i.e. Etsy shops, photography businesses,  website design, dog walking services… then Signazon might just have something for you!

Designing my banner was easy as pie, and I went with a pre made design (I tweaked the font and colors) that had the same aesthetics as my jewelry logo. The customer service at Signazon was fantastic, and all of my questions were answered promptly. My order was shipped, packaged well to avoid damage, and was received less than a week after that!

The 24" x 48" size banner that I chose fit nicely with my 6’ table size. All of the vinyl banners automatically come with metal grommets and are ready-to-hang, and the vinyl material itself was strong and did not wrinkle easily. To say that I am happy with my new sign is an understatement.  I am thrilled with the new addition to my home business and feel it adds the perfect professional touch that I needed.

If you are looking for something to add a little sparkle to your business, then hop on over to see what Signazon can offer you – you won’t be disappointed!

Disclaimer: I was provided with a vinyl banner from Signazon for review, but the thoughts and opinions in this review are 100% my own.

Here was my edit workflow for this image:

First off, I used “InstaClean” (from the Everyday Essentials action set). I adjusted the ‘levels bump’ layer up to 90%, and the ‘warming’ layer to 25%. Then I saved my clean edit.  Sometimes the InstaClean action is all I need to use as it does an amazing job all by itself.

I wanted to get a little more artistic with the photo, so I used the “Albany” action from the Coast To Coast action set – also from Everyday Essentials. This action set includes adding a creamy light layer mask, a red color layer mask, a touch of sepia adjustment layer, and a warming filter.  Normally when I apply a creative action like this to a photo, I have to spend time adjusting the opacity on several of the layers - however no adjustments were made to the filters applied. I really liked the way the entire set of layers gave the photo an entirely different feel to it.

Cap off your lunch with some coffee or tea at one of these lovely places –

Today we are reviewing treats from Bow-Wow Barkery, an online store dedicated to making yummy treats on the belief that your furry family members deserve good quality food.

I have been extremely blessed (in my first trimester of pregnancy) to not have any extreme nausea or morning sickness.  What I seem to be suffering from is a complete lack of motivation to do absolutely anything – including everything that has to do with this blog. I can’t tell you how many times I have told my husband that I am going to give up blogging, only to change my mind just a few minutes later.  This is a daily battle
that I am having with myself right now. Having to stop and consider the thought of quitting (after five years of blogging) just doesn't seem that appealing – then sometimes it does. Let’s just blame it on hormones and put those thoughts on the shelf for a while. I have spent ALOT of time lying around the house, and my antsy dogs and rounder thighs are clear signs that I need to get myself moving again.  I am eagerly looking forward to entering into my second trimester (just a mere week away) as I know I will get my energy back and I should start to feel somewhat normal again.  Let’s hope!

We are teaming up with Dachshund Nola to host a Black and White Sunday blog hop. Want to join the hop? Just follow the rules below.

D and I are excited to announce that we will be bringing a new baby into the house – and I don’t mean the canine variety.  Our small one is due in February and I have been bursting at the seams waiting to tell everyone. I’m currently 11 weeks along and I am eagerly waiting to enter into the second trimester – I read that fatigue slowly dissipates and my appetite should start behaving properly.  D has been so sweet and caring to me during these past few weeks (just like he always is) but I can tell that he is excited to be entering into

this new phase of life with me. We are currently discussing different baby name options and having fun playing the the ‘veto’ card on each other (that's a reference to a scene in an episode of 'Friends' for those of you who didn't pick up on it). Lots of change is in the works, but I am excited and I look forward to these next few months!

When it comes to scrapbooking and photo journaling, do you prefer old school scrapbooks or digital ones? Scrapbooking was always a fun project to do when I was younger, and I will admit to hosting scrapbooking parties with friends after school.  I still treasure those thick ruffled books containing very old photos of my life, and often pull them out for a good laugh. If you were to ask me if I still do any type of scrapbooking I would say sure, but it’s all digital.  There are so many wonderful things about making a digital photo book and weather you use software or go through an online vendor; there are numerous resources online to help you out in this endeavor.

Here are a few of my favorite links to help you get started.

The Shabby Shoppe is my favorite digital scrapbooking site featuring high quality, downloadable products for both digi and paper scrappers! They have a wonderful blog with lots of helpful tutorials using different
versions of Photoshop.

Shabby Miss Jenn is another great digital scrapbooking site.  Her papers and elements are adorable and she also has wonderful selection of tutorials and projects to teach.

The Sweet Shoppe is a great site with a talented staff of digital scrapbook designers who bring you the best digital scrapbook kits, elements, templates, fonts, alphabets, and freebies.

If you like the idea of going through an online vendor then Adorama,  Shutterfly, Tinyprints, and Snapfish are all great sites to go through.

Need some DIY inspiration? Head on over to A Beautiful Mess and look at their Book Making Index. They have blog posts ranging from scrapbooking, photo art journaling, instant photo journals and mini albums.