Eight paws up for Brown Dog Boutique!

A couple weeks ago I stumbled on the blog of Brown Dog Boutique through Etsy's forums. The blog is great and being a dog owner, I had to go check out the shop for myself! I ordered a Brady's Hand-Dipped Biscuits Treat Kit. I've never made dog biscuits before, but it sounded pretty simple and I do love giving our pups wholesome treats. 

The kit was as cute as could be when it arrived! Inside was a bone-shaped cookie cutter, a cute recipe card, peanut butter chips, personalized bags and a nice note from Katie, the owner of Brown Dog Boutique. I chose the small cookie cutter, the silhouette of a sporting breed and peanut butter chips. Peanut butter is like the ultimate treat around here. As soon as I opened the package, the dogs were circling like vultures to try to get those chips! 

There are only a few ingredients needed to make the dough and it was very easy to mix up and then eventually knead by hand. I just rolled it out on wax paper on my kitchen table, cut out the bone shapes, popped them in the oven for 45 minutes or so and they were done. Easy! I threw the whole cookie sheet into the fridge overnight and then this morning melted the chips in a double boiler and dipped one end of each bone into it.

As you can see from the action shot, Connie (orange, blurry one nabbing the treat!) just couldn't "leave it" any longer!

This was a fun little project that I'm positive any dog-lover would enjoy. And the finished treats make great gifts to friends in the personalized bags! Along with a variety of awesome treat kits, Brown Dog also has a fun line of personalized stationery. Please stop by Brown Dog Boutique and check out all the neat doggie things they have to offer. Tell them Connie and Caesar sent you... Woof!

Springtime around the yard

Well, it's hard to beat a day like today. The sky is the perfect color of blue, it's sunny and it's about 66º right now. Now, I will always take it a bit warmer given the choice, but I can't complain about a day like this. I thought I'd go out and snap a couple pictures around our yard while I had the dogs out this afternoon. They always appreciate the company, or audience depending on how you look at it.

There are lots of things popping up lately around here, which is a sure sign of winter's retreat – finally! This first image is a tiny bright violet color primrose that appeared just in the last day or so in one of my front flower beds. Just a punch of color out of nowhere. I posted the hellebores (or lenten rose) a few entries ago, you might have seen it – they're always first to appear and I love them for that. This little guy is in close proximity to it. It's nice to see some color out there. My mom and I spent the better part of a day last week clearing out all of fall's spent blooms and foliage. I think I had 9 full yard waste bags! At least everything in them was dried and light weight, so the trash collectors couldn't get too upset at the volume. At least not after they lifted one. Only one bed left to do...

Along with a few flowers coming up, the trees have been blooming like crazy. Unfortunately for me, it was rainy for days after my magnolia blossoms opened. The flowers aren't very pretty when they start to turn brown, so I'll spare you pics of those! We do have a Cleveland pear tree in our back yard that is an explosion of white blooms right now. It's pictured to the right.

And of course, a warm sunny day around here always brings out the crazy in our dogs. They were out for a nice spring romp. Connie has the upper hand on Caesar in this pic, but it gets traded back and forth all day long. Seriously, all day long. They don't usually stop rough-housing until around 9 pm. And that's because they've worn themselves out and are ready to recharge for their next match. They just love each other. And if nothing else, they are entertaining!

We will be making treats (Brady's Biscuits) for them in the next couple days using the adorable kit that I bought from Brown Dog Boutique on Etsy. I will have an entire post devoted to that, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, do check out her shop!