Mad Cow , Lap Dog and More Painting

For the last two afternoons I have come home to this site in the living room. Our hounds normally do not destroy and shred toys, but the last two days they must have gone crazy while we were at work.They must have been saving us from this.....
They did a number on him. This happened on Thursday. By Friday, they had completed the job and now the "mad cow" is resting in peace over the rainbow bridge with his other stuffie friends.
They also took their frustration out on our flip flops. Of course they only chewed one shoe for each pair.
Our pups hardly ever act crazy and chew up toys while we are gone. Most of the time, they are angels with their stuffies. That is why we have more than 50 of them. Well at least, there is no evidence to let us know otherwise. Our shoes on the other hand....well....we have learned if we leave them out, then the above is likely to happen. I just wish they would chew and destroy the stuffies and leave our shoes alone. Maybe we need to buy them shoe stuffies? ;-)


For those who don't know, Pippi is a lap dog. I just have not been able to snap a picture of the proof because she is usually snugling with me. She has been this way since we brought her home in February. She has her moments where she just can't get enough petting and love. She was this way this morning and was being very snugly and kissy. We snuggled for about an hour before we had to head out for a GH meet and greet in Richmond.
And the rare shot of our cat Misty. She will be 10 in a few months. She was on guard at the entry of the foyer last weekend while I painted. She was a good little helper. =)
Below is the before. I know what you are thinking. What is up with that column? Yes, I asked myself the same thing. I used Tatouage about 7 years ago and did this and the flower design around the front door. I don't know what I was thinking. Don't ask. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I guess back then, I was spending too much time watching QVC and HSN.



And the after. I got this done in a few hours. I used the new product by Behr that has the primer and paint all in one. It works folks!! I only had to do 2 coats over the parts of the wall with the tattouage and for cutting in. SWEET!! The paint is a bit hefty in price, but it is worth it in the amount of time you will save.


We are doing a lot of painting around the house. Neutralizing the color of paint in almost every room in the house. That mustard yellow living room and bright yellow hallway will be changing soon too.

In the meantime, we are staying busy with GH events. We are headed to another GH meet and greet tomorrow too. I will try to be better about taking my camera. We always have a good turnout at the Newport News Petsmart. Have a greyt week everyone!

Happy Birthday Booyah and Cueball!

The boys are both turning six this year. Booyah's birthday was the end of June (6/30) and Cueball's birthday is the middle of July (7/16). We celebrated both this weekend. Cueball went with me to the Glen Allen MG on Saturday. He is such a happy boy and loves to see his friends, meet all the other dogs and get scritches from all the folks. He had a good time! Afterwards, we took a car ride over to drop off some donations to the Goodwill in Mechanicsville and then rode over to shop at the Petsmart in Mechanicsville. The boys got new toys. Here is Cueball with the blue lamb. This is Booyah's favorite toy, but he happily shares with his brother.Booyah had a relaxing day with his sisters at home. Here he is with the football. All the kids love this toy. We had one months ago when we fostered Lion, but he loved that toy so much that I gave it to his new mom to take home with him on adoption day.
All the kids got to enjoy a nice rawhide in the afternoon.

And for the yummies, I baked the kids a Carob Chip Bundt Cake. Here it is fresh out of the oven.
I tried to put icing on the cake. I used plain yogurt and then swirled melted carob chips. Needless to say I should have stopped at the yogurt, as the melted carob became a little messy and a little hard to handle. Ahh well...the kids loved it anyway and don't know the difference.

Since I was baking the kids the cake, Mitch decided we needed a cake too.....just because. ;-)The boys do a taste test.
5 minutes later, no cake was left. I think it was a hit. We may do this for all the kids celebrations. The cake was so simple to make.



The boys had a wonderful birthday weekend! I can't believe they are 6 already. Happy birthday boys, we love you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And, some other random pics of our plant life around the home. We did a small in pot garden this year. I used to do a big garden with about 15-20 tomato plants, pepper plants, squash, watermelon, and cucumbers. I gave it up years ago. It takes a lot of time and devotion to care for a large garden and right now in my life....I don't have either. It takes all I have to keep up with weeding the 4 large flower beds we have. :) This year we have 1 bell pepper plant, 2 tomato plants and 1 banana pepper plant.

Our first pickins from the the banana pepper plant and our second pick from the tomato plant. We got two for one deal with this tomato....LOL!
This is the first year we have grown banana peppers. I did not realize they grow straight up. Weird.
Bell peppers. Yum! I pick these, wash them and eat them just as they are.
And we have Basil out the wazoo. Anyone local want any?? We have plenty to share. :)

In case you are wondering, no I did not plant them in the rocks. Here is the story. A couple of years ago a friend of my mom's was moving to Norfolk and gave me a couple of plants she had. One of which was a basil plant in a pot. I placed the pot at the end of the flower bed near our front porch and let it do its thing all summer. I removed the pot at the end of the season and did not think anymore of it until the following year when I was weeding the flower bed and pulled what I thought was a weed but turned out to be basil. Ever since then the basil has come back each year. Now it has spread across the sidewalk and is growing in the rocks.

More basil.
I just love the day lilies when they are blooming. They are so pretty.

I have one little elephant's ear that popped up this year. I hope more come in. They are awesome when they get huge. Their stalks are incredibly strong.
Nature is pretty amazing!

Have a greyt week everyone. =)