Ivy Valentine's Day Treats

I am a sucker for themes and anything that requires gift making!  So of course I love Valentine's Day who doesn't want to spoil a special someone, friend or their pet!  Valentine's Day gives us the perfect excuse to make something fun and tasty!

After some testing, perfecting and sampling by Ivy we bring you:  Ivy's Heart of Peanut Butter

This is such a simple recipe with ingredients you most likely have in your own house.  No one likes to make extra trips to the grocery store!

Ingredients:

- 2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
- 1/3 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup to 1 cup apple sauce (we started with 1/2 and increased as needed)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- dried cranberries (if desired)

Combine all ingredients into a large mixing bowl.

At this time preheat oven to 350 degrees 

Be aware once you start making these treats friendly visitors will stop by to see if you dropped anything.

Mix all ingredients together - we started with 1/2 cup of applesauce and added until all dry ingredients were combined.  If your dough is still too wet feel free to add more flour.

Once combined sprinkle whole wheat flour onto a flat surface.  Roll dough into a ball and use a rolling pin to flatten out the dough.  You can make the dough as thin or as thick as your pup would prefer.  

We made some of the treats with dried cranberries and some without.  You can also combine the dried cranberries into the dough so they are throughout the treat.  

Once the oven is preheated bake the treats for 25-30 minutes.  Let them cool on a cooling rack until cool to touch and then they are ready to be served! 

This batch will make you 20+ treats (depending on the size cookie cutter you use) definitely enough to send to friends! 

Your pup's are sure to love it!  Hope you enjoy!

Puppy Bath

How often do you give your Frenchie a bath?  We bathed Ivy much more frequently when she was a puppy as she would sometimes have accidents or make a bigger mess when she was younger.  We now bring her to the groomer once a month and give her baths as needed (as we don't want her skin to dry out).  One thing I have struggled to find is a good brush/comb for brushing her between baths and grooming appointments.  Have any of you found a good brush that works well to pull out the dead hairs? The one I am using doesn't seem to be doing the job. 

Ivy always thinks she likes baths until she is actually in it... 

Everything is a little pink hued due to the 1950's pink tiled bathroom! 

A love for local - Dogwood Barkery

We are big fans of local shops and home grown businesses. One of Ivy's favorites places to go is Dogwood Barkery located in Grandville, MI.  This is where We take Ivy for her spa days (they take care of anal glands agh something we are thankful for)  and she absolutely loves it!  They do a fantastic job and have very reasonable prices and the owners are just the sweetest.  Not only do they have a great grooming service they also have the most adorable treats in their bakery.  You should definitely check them out!  I mean how cute is this heart treat! Stay tuned for some upcoming Valentine's Day treat recipes we are dying to share.

They are also very involved and supportive of the local shelters.  Throughout the year they have adoption events.  Ivy and I always like to stop by and are tempted when Dad is on work trips... surprise new pet?! :) 

We also get Ivy's dog food here.  We struggled to find the right diet for Ivy but Dr. Gary's grain free salmon has been ideal!  We looked and you can order it online as well -worth trying if none of your local vendors sell it.  So far we have been happy with it, Ivy has better skin and less gas!  Hopefully she can stay on this for quite some time.  We often read that Frenchie diets/allergies can change, we are just thankful we have found something that works well!

Golden Globes 2015

Hope you all had a faboosh weekend!  We celebrated the Golden Globes by eating peanut butter and crashing at Granny's to watch some fashion!  Let's just say I (Ivy) found a winner.

 Heating up the carpet with our plunging necklines.  (oh my gursh my arrow is getting squished!)

Friday

It's Friday!  What are all of you up to this weekend?!  We had a massive snow storm come through last night so we will be most likely stuck inside.  Ivy is hoping to get some extra heater time and maybe we will build her a maze in the backyard... seriously there is enough snow for that!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

Winter Paws

Hello friends!

Winter has hit hard here and the windchill has been too low for us to go on our walks.  Last year we purchased rubber booties for our walks which have worked well but we were wondering what all of you wear (if anything)?  Is there a brand or style you would recommend?

Thanks for all your help and stay warm!

Ivy

Staying Toasty

Congratulations you made it through Monday!  Ivy made it through Monday by laying by the heater and beating her potty break record due to the freezing temperatures, snow, and the hawk she saw fly past her mid squat (no worries it was small and wouldn't pose a threat).  I mean seriously she was back inside within seconds I didn't even need to bribe her by calling out "peanut butter" which means "come" in Ivy's mind.... we will work on that before the second puppy arrives we promise.

(what all of us want to do on a Monday)

Since it is so cold out we haven't been able to take Ivy for her walks outside (even with a sweater and boots it's too cold).  We did a good run around the yard and that was about it.  So the days have been filled with back scratches and sipping coffee out of this little gem!

(this came in my stocking)

I'll continue to drink copious amounts of coffee while Ivy scouts squirrels from within our toasty warm house! Have a great Tuesday everyone!

             And yes that is still our Christmas Tree I can't bear to take it down yet...