Apollo on the Catwalk

Apollo is the BEST DOG EVER! When we first picked Apollo up, I had to agree that Apollo would not play dress up; Jake however, agreed bandanas were okay.

So, last year in 2011 Apollo got his first outfit- a halloween costume from Jake's mom! He was baaaad dog, dressed in black and white stripes. And, he was adorable... and absolutely loved putting his costume on and walking around. 

So, this year as we were getting ready to travel up North to my parents, the weather turned very cold and blizzardly. This was going to be Apollo's first actual full exposure to snow and bitter wind chilling days, so I thought he just had to have a jacket, sweater, something! Little did I know when I got to PetSmart that all dog attire would be 50% off! Yes, that's right- 50% off. So, naturally I picked up more than one...

The first is his fleece. It has pockets! He wore this mainly when he was outside playing in the snow...

This next sweater was his Christmas outfit. He wore it while he opening his presents and to Grandma's for Christmas dinner!

What can I say, I have a little diva who loves to dress up! There is a third sweater, I will try and upload a picture soon. Jake and I agree not to get each other presents since we travel so much at the holidays. However, I found an ugly Christmas sweater of one of his favorite bands, The Chariot, and a matching puppy sweater. I just had to- like father like son!

Here is one more in the argyle- laser eyes on his Christmas pillow!

ChocoFlan

What did you do for New Years? This year Jake and I kept pretty low key. Our friends recently moved into their new home so they combined New Years with a housewarming party. The theme- Fajita Bar!

So, naturally we wanted to bring something that was not only delicious but also theme-related. Jake gets all of the credit for finding the recipe, which you can find here.

The recipe was actually very easy. We could not find any cajeta so we made our own, which basically you just cook sugar and add some sweetened condensed milk. I don't have a recipe for that since that was Jake's realm. But, if you would like it, I can get that for you!

Tip: follow the directions exactly as they are written. We were somewhat confused because of the order you put everything into the pan, but the ingredients shift when baking- so follow the directions! Also, when you are done baking and ready to serve don't try to flip the cake out of the pan. As you can see from my below picture, half of it went flying on to the counter. As Jake suggested, put a plate or serving tray over the cake and then turn. 

The flan turned out great and tasted just as amazing! I will definitely be making this recipe again. We ended up only being able to take half of the cake; see paragraph above about me losing half. However that was plenty. The flan is very sweet, so most people can't eat much at a time... unless you are like me and have to pull yourself away!

Enjoy!

Meow Shirt

Another delayed holiday post, but I just had to share the one thing Jake asked for...

Jake is the type of guy that rarely ever asks for anything. He doesn't even make a list for the holidays; I usually have to pry and pry until I get something out of him. So, you can imagine my astonishment when he sends me a link to this one night while he is at work...

http://www.tshirtvortex.net/space-cat/

I had to ask more than once if he was serious... and serious he was. See for yourself. I think it suits him perfectly! 

Best Co-pilot

Apollo = Best Co-pilot/ Car Companion ever!

For the holiday Jake and I drove up North to spend the festivities with my family and of course we drove so Apollo could join us. He loves the car. To him car equals trip, which means we are going somewhere. He gets excited if we are crossing the street to go to the pet store! Here are some of my favorite images from the trip!

The little guy wanted to badly to be in the front seat where all of the action was...

... however, he just couldn't keep his eyes open!

 So, when he couldn't stand it any longer he just went on top of the suitcase to really get some rest!

I love this little guy! Side note- Apollo celebrated his second birthday over the holiday! Hard to believe this little fur ball is already 2! Enjoy the pictures- he is sure photogenic so I am sure this won't be the last time you see him!

Welcome to 2013

Happy New Year...er belated? Can you believe it is already January 20?! I have so many posts to get up, but the start to this new year has been B U S Y ! Jake has been working a ton with crunch, but he says that should be over soon (fingers crossed!); I miss him! 

I did have to share before I start uploading how wonderful these past few weeks has been! My sister came to visit right after the holiday- it was such a wonderful time. I am hoping she decides to move here. Maybe I will get a post up here with all of the reasons she should move...

January has been a busy month full of birthdays. We have been downtown a few times to celebrate, which means that much more time with my boy! This morning they got to to go into the office a little later than usual. We woke up and took Apollo with us to breakfast- Coffee and Crepes- as always was delicious! Apollo is snoozing now and I am getting ready to craft. The weather had been absolutely gorgeous, so I do see a nice afternoon walk happening! 

Posting soon. Happy New Year :)

Pure Bliss and Happiness

Somehow you know everything will always be okay. Maybe I am getting sappy and watching big time tear jerkers because I am spending so much time away from my hunny (he is working long hours for crunch right now)! But tonight is just pure bliss and happiness. Cuddling with Apollo and drinking a blueberry lager. 

What makes you smile and gives you the good goosebumps all inside?!

Festive Holiday Centerpiece

My last post was about a pinterest fail; I am glad to share this is a success.... with a lesson learned. I am sure you have come across at least one site that tells you all of the fun crafts you can do with a wine bottle. I absolutely love it- now not only can I drink the wine, but I can reuse the bottle too! It's like the settlers how they tried to use every last bit of the animal or plant- let nothing go to waste. Okay, maybe that was a bad analogy. But, I just love the idea of reusing bottles- plus they have such a nice look to them already. 

I decided for the holidays I would make a centerpiece for my dining room table. I don't have many spots for centerpieces or decor in my apartment- I don't have a mantle, I don't have many shelves that aren't used already, so my dining room table was the perfect spot. I wanted my centerpiece to be different heights so I mixed two different size wine bottles and added three red stripe bottles...and wah la! 

I started with my plain bottles and added a base primer. As you can see I left the labels on. I recommend take the extra time to remove the labels. It's not awful and not that noticeable, but would make it that much better. I guess leaving the labels on was my signature touch!


After the primer, I decided to paint the wine bottles black. I put about 3 coats on each bottle. If you remove the label, you probably wouldn't need that many, but again I left the labels on thus having to try and cover it. 

 The black went on very smooth and looks great! For the Christmas holiday (or maybe even New Years) I want to add some glitter. Love me some SPARKLE!!

Finally, here is the final project! I bought the leaves at Michaels for about $1, so in total the whole project cost be $1. Of course, I already had the paint, primer and wine on hand! 


Now, for the lesson learned. So besides make a centerpiece I wanted to make a place to store all of my corks. Because any good pinner knows you need lots of corks for all of your DIY projects! I had an extra apple sauce jar on hand, so I thought this would be perfect. I thought I would do the same type of thing with the paint, except I could add stripes to give it some color.

Again, I began by putting a base of primer. Well, first I actually took the time to remove the label, then added the primer. I liked the look of the sand and thought it would go perfect on display. So, like the Red Stripe, I painted the jar a sandy color. 

Because I love pink, I decided to add a few stripes of pink. Here is where the lesson is learned. For all you newbie DIYer's, when you use painters tape you MUST remove the tape while the paint is still wet. No one ever told me and I decided to dive right in instead of researching. I mean, who thought you would need to do some reading before painting?! Well, when you leave painters tape on paint and let it dry, when you go to pull it up...you run the possibility of losing half of your paint. Let's just say my applesauce jar is now covered in colored hemp :)

Share your paint tips in the comments below!