Homemade dog treats

Louie was very excited to make his blogging debut yesterday.  Thanks for welcoming him!

As promised, I wanted to share the recipe for the homemade dog treats I whipped up for the birthday boy.  These are the Pupcakes version, but you could easily put these into a cake mold rather than individual bites. 

I also used the mini muffin tin (since Lou is just a little guy) but again--feel free to use different molds as suits you or your furbaby.

I found the recipe here and it works great!  Since Louie has lots of doggie friends I doubled the recipe.  You can also make a large batch and freeze these.

The pups ate them right up, and they're safe for humans too, although may be a little bland for our palates.

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup honey (optional)
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1 cup whole wheat or white flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease mold.
2. Combine the egg, peanut butter, oil, vanilla, and honey, if desired, in a large bowl; blend well. Stir in the carrots and mix thoroughly. Sift together the flour and baking soda and fold into the carrot mixture. Spoon cake batter into prepared pan.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes; then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Since presentation is key, I also made little gift boxes for each dog.  I used a gift tag paper punch, and some letter print stickers I had and tied them to a store bought box with some brown twine.  Personalized doggy favors--easy!! 

Now you can all go chuckle to yourselves about the crazy dog lady--hey, at least I'm self aware!

Louie's Journal: Birthday!

My mom wasn't totally convinced that I should write this post, but my cuteness overcame her so here I am!

I had a great birthday this past weekend.  All of my friends came to play!  We went down to the Schuylkill River Dog Run to run around before the rain hit. 

This is my girlfriend, Lola

My birthday suit!

Allie keeping watch

Grady--he's shy most of the time so I was glad he came to play



There was even dancing after playing


Dancing and running, and some new special toys made for a great day!  If it hadn't started pouring on the walk home it would have been perfect. 

My mom even made treats for me and all my friends!  She'll be sharing the recipe with you all tomorrow.

Thanks for having me!

-Louie

Birthday preview

Louie decided he wanted to be the one to tell you all about his birthday this past weekend--but with paws it's WAY more difficult to type so it's taking a bit longer than expected. He'll be posting this afternoon about the festivities with a recipe for homemade dog treats as well. And no, he didn't make the treats--he doesn't have thumbs, people! But he was here for moral support.

The Lou man is just bursting with anticipation for his blog posting debut...can't you tell?!


I also wanted to thank those of you who commented or emailed me about the new blog layout and artwork! It was great getting such lovely feedback, and I'm so glad you all like the new design! I am working on an interview with the artist post since Stephanie has agreed to give us some insight into her and her work. Updates to come!

Happy Wednesday!

New Look!

As you can tell, the blog is brand spankin' new!  I've been working with the lovely and talented Stephanie Fizer who is responsible for all the new artwork. She has a great etsy shop and has been a joy to work with. 

I have some new buttons on the side, with one more in the works so feel free to grab one!  I also have a "featured on" button for all the folks I talk about on this little blog.  PLUS...The Scarlet Cardinal is now on FB!!  Like my page to get the latest updates.

Ultimately, my goal is to make the blog look more like my style, while making it cheerful and easy to read for all my lovely readers!  So with that-- I would LOVE some feedback!  Tell me what you love and what you hate about the new look in the comments section. 

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

Please bear with me as I redesign the blog this weekend.  If things look wonky that means I'm trying to get it right!

Excited for new look!

Friday Ramblings

Woohoo it's FRIDAY!!!  Now, I am clearly late to this party but my boss just showed me this video yesterday.  CAUTION: You WILL lose brain cells by watching!

It's sadly catchy.  And also ridiculously horrible.  All the makings of a hit single!

This Saturday is Louie's Birthday!  Our little puppy is growing up.  There will be pictures of all the festivities and a tutorial for homemade dog treats next week.

Next week will be the blog redesign. I can't wait to see what you all think!

We are officially signing up for scuba this weekend!  So excited to make my #1 Goal for 2011 a reality.  YAY!  The classes are in May so there are definitely embarrasing wet suit pictures to come.  Hopefully that will be motivation to work on #8 so I don't look quite AS pudgy in the wet suit.

One of the shirts I've been jonesing after was on the FRONT page of Etsy today!  This same seller has her shirts in some Philly stores and I just haven't ponied up the cash yet.  Maybe it's fate?



MaryInk

 This week has steamrolled me a bit, and so I'm looking forward to a night at home with the hubs tonight since he's working Saturday and I'm working Sunday.  Hopefully we'll be able to steal an hour or two for some quality time over the weekend. 

Hope yours is lovely!

Decorating

As many of you know, I am a live-in Resident Director which means that I live in a Residence Hall. 
No, I don't share a bathroom with a bunch of beer chugging, all-nighter pulling, fist-pumping first-year students.  Sorry to disappoint you. 

We have our own 2-bedroom apartment with an outside entrance which gives us a good amount of privacy.  The building we live in is only 3 years old and quite modern which means that our apartment feels rather cold and unwelcoming without any personal touches.  I've been working on making the apartment feel more home-y since we moved in, and finished up a project this past weekend.

As a non-homeowner, there is no painting that can be done (luckily Facilities painted in nice colors before we moved in).  So no painting, and limited changes are allowed.  So wall decals have been my saving grace.  They are easy, relatively inexpensive, and add a HUGE design punch when used correctly. 

I recently bought decals from etsy's Wordy Bird Studios and couldn't be more pleased with how they turned out.  I totally did a happy dance when I was done!

First you tape the paper up with the grid side facing the wall

I taped all my decals up to make sure I had the design right

Our giant tv--clearly Sean's idea

Peel the bottom (grid side) of the paper off so that the decal is still taped up to the wall.  The tape acts as a hinge.

Then using a credit card, smooth the decal onto the wall getting rid of any air bubbles.

When you're pretty sure it's stuck on well, start peeling the paper away.  Go SLOOOOOOWLY and if the decal sticks to the paper just rub it back on the wall and peel again.

TADA!  A beautiful decal that looks painted on the wall. 

It took me a total of about 2 hours to tape all the decals up, rearrange, and then stick them to the wall.  Pretty quick for a total wall transformation, and now our apartment is a bit more cozy and welcoming with some added visual interest in the living room!

A fire alarm--the joys of Res Hall Living!

See the cardinal?! A must have