Turtles for the Tails

A couple of months ago I entered a giveaway on Making Lemonade for any item of your choice from Chesapeake Ribbons.  Margie from Chesapeake Ribbons makes belts, headbands, dog collars, key fobs, and more.

And I won!   

I really liked her turtle belt/key fob pattern 

and I was hoping she could make a dog collar with it.

Chesapeake Ribbons

The ribbon has blue, green & pink in it, and since my dogs are such girlie-girls I asked if she could make it with pink webbing behind.  Of course she could!  I also ordered an extra one because Lord knows the pouty faces there would be if only one dog got a new collar. 

In less than two weeks the collars arrived. 

And look how cute they are! 

The dogs were pretty excited. 

Chloe's tail just about flew off, she was wagging so hard. 

To her, collar=I'm going outside!

Sasha just wanted to know what was in the package. 

Tom laughs because I'm always buying new collars for the dogs - long before they wear out - but he had to admit that these were pretty fantastic. 

I like the break-away buckle and how sturdy the construction is.

Not to mention that adorable turtle.

(You've probably noticed that turtles are kind of my thing.)

We had a fashion show right away. 

It was an effort getting Sasha to stay still, not to mention

get her face and the collar in the same shot. 

  

Chloe was our usual perfect (yet bored ) model,

"Hurry up and take the picture, I'm falling asleeee....oh is that a cookie?"

  

And now we have our official Turtles and Tails mascots.

(Get it? Turtles AND Tails.) 

Well, if you want to get technical one mascot is more

a Turtle and Stub, but we won't tell her that.

Thank you so much to Margie at Chesapeake Ribbons for the awesome design and for the excellent customer service, and thank you to Carrie for holding the giveaway and connecting me with Margie. 

I'm thinking maybe matching leashes next. 

Whatta ya say, Margie?

Valentine's-Themed Chocolate Covered Pretzels

I've got to admit that I've never been a big celebrator of Valentine's Day.  I'm all for chocolate, but not the cards and flowers and hearts and pink and whatnot.  I'm just not that girlie I guess.  Case in point: What I want for Valentine's Day? Private obedience training for the little dog. That's how you win my heart.

However, it's a co-worker's birthday this week (Happy Birthday Sue!) and I thought I'd make her a treat that ties in with Valentine's Day.

You only need three ingredients for this - pretzel rods, candy melts, and nonpareils (or any other topping that suits you).  I bought the melts and nonpareils at the bulk store for just a couple of dollars, and the pretzels were about 3 dollars for an entire bag.

You'll start be melting the chocolate in a double-boiler to keep it from burning.  The chocolate stays soft for quite a while so you have lots of time to work with it. I had read about melting it in the microwave but all I ended up with was half blackened, half melted pink discs and a house that smelled like burnt marshmallows. 

Dip a rod into the melted chocolate - about halfway up - and spin it around to get an even coating.  You then should wait a minute or two to let it cool a bit before adding the nonpareils.  You can roll it directly into the nonpareils if you want a heavy coating, but I just held the rod over the bowl and sprinkled them by hand until I got the coverage I was looking for.

Here is my tester.  Looking good!

You will then need to set them down somewhere to cool.  Our solution (thank you Tom) was to hang them over the edge of a dinner plate with a coffee mug sitting on the undipped end to weigh it down.

I ran out of nonpareils with two rods left to go so I improvised with crushed honey-roasted peanuts.  Not as pretty but they still taste good.  I also tried rice krispies (they looked like mini clubs) and chocolate chips (too heavy, wouldn't stick). 

Here are my finished pretzels.  Pretty, hunh?  And the mix of sweet and salty is always a winner.

 

  

I bought some long cellophane gift bags and put two pretzels in each, tied up with some pink and white ribbon. 

  

I'm loving these so much!  Considering how easy they are to make I think I might whip some up the next time I need to bring a snack or a dessert to a get-together.

Did you try out any new Valentine's recipes this weekend?  Try to burn the microwave up melting chocolate?  Was that just me?

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Linking up here this week!

Where have you been?

Don't you hate when real life gets in the way of your crafting-decorating-blogging? I've got projects and plans piling up all around me. It's month-end close at work and that means staying late - at least a few days a week.  Add to that the three-part Photoshop lessons Tom gave me for Christmas, and I haven't been spending much time at home these days.

source

The Photoshop classes were fun (and I learned a lot).  I was absolutely terrified to go though.  I hate not being good at something in front of other people.  Ridiculous, I know.  How else am I going to learn?  The instructor was great and I was the only one who took all three classes in a row so I'm sure I was his favourite. 

The classes were held at Henry's, a Canadian camera store, and I'd recommend them to anyone.  We touched on a little bit of everything that Photoshop Elements can do.  Can't say I'm an expert now, but armed with my notes, I'm hoping my pictures get better. It helped that I've spent so much time working with Picasa and Picnik.

In my spare minutes I've been painting the baseboards and trim in the living room/dining room.  Semi-gloss white straight-out-the-can. One more coat on the second half of the room and it'll be ready to load in.  And then maybe I'll have something to show you!  Thanks for your patience - we're getting there.

This weekend I'll be making something fun for Valentine's Day. I'll share the pictures (edited using my fancy new skills of course) as soon as it's done.  Think sweet, salty, & pink! (And if you're thinking dirty thoughts just stop it.)