On celebrating the little things.

Sometimes, I forget just how far we've come with the dogs. I often take their hard work for granted, focusing more on their naughty or annoying behaviors rather than celebrating their successes.  I get frustrated with the lack of forward progress, when in reality it's entirely my fault for not providing them with the time, attention, and direction they require. How can they ever know what's expected of them if nobody tells them what to do, or what's appropriate? How can they control themselves in an excitable situation if they've never had the chance to practice in a calm scenario first?  I often curse (in my head) their wild barking at dogs passing by, only to berate myself for it afterwards. "Your dog isn't stupid, stupid. You just haven't been giving them the time to figure stuff out!"


Tonight I had my foot soaking in a bowl of essential oils, epsom salt, & water in order to draw out a splinter. Maggie walks up to sniff the bowl, and I'd rather not have her trying to drink that concoction. I give her a gentle "leave it" and she immediately turns away, opting to lie down by my feet instead.

Shortly after, Kira walks over to the window and starts to snortle/huff - a clear indication she sees something exciting and is about to react. Before she has the chance to lose her marbles, I ask her to "leave it" as well, and she immediately turns to me for an ear rub.  Unremarkable, to the average viewer, sure. In reality, those two moments were HUGE victories, and years in the making.

Maggie is an independent, curious, active old gal with nearly a decade-old habit of doing whatever the hell she wants to. This is the dog that, when learning how to walk on a leash, reportedly turned back to the handler, excitedly grabbing the leash and barking wildly. This is the dog that would intercept water-bottle squirts on behalf of the family cat, catching the stream in her mouth. The dog that can open cabinets and trash cans and bedroom doors (really). The dog that uses her front dew-claws as thumbs. She's extremely intelligent, but more motivated by doing what she wants to do than by food. Getting her to turn away from a bowl of interesting smelling-stuffs and lie down on her own accord is monumental. It took a moment to register exactly what had happened- Maggie opted for a cuddle over pursuing the good smells. She listened. She listened, happily. It wasn't a fight. It wasn't frustrating. It was...smooth. Easy. Automatic!

Kira is our high maintenance darling. She was bounced around a few homes, the shelter, foster homes. Adopted & returned. Highly anxious, highly active, and highly reactive, we were told Kira could never be in a home with other dogs. We were told she was highly aggressive with small dogs. We were told she was a handful. She chewed through her metal crate the first full day she was left alone. She whined and paced and panted for weeks after adopting her.  She bonded with R right away, but it took nearly three months before she'd even settle on her side. Longer, before we could try rubbing her belly for just a moment. Here we are, a three dog house, and she's thriving. Her best bud is our little terrier mix. Her leash-reactivity has gone from "Kujo on leash" to an alert, but in control darling. She happily offers her belly up for rubbings, and no longer loses her mind when passing another dog. When a super-exciting pair of dogs walked by the house with their people, she eagerly turned to me for lovin'.

My point is, focus on those little things. Celebrate those baby-steps forward. Rejoice in those small, seemingly insignificant victories. They're the foundation to those ultimate-triumphs, after all.

My girls

Love that unruly toe hair. 

Must.boop.nose.

Wiped

I'm still utterly exhausted from this whole wedding-fiasco in September, (yay! I'm a Mrs. now!), the holidaze, and the moving (yup, we're moving! In just a couple days!). So the gooshy wedding post and awesome photos will come later. Much later. When I don't feel like giving the stink eye when someone asks me "how was the wedding?" Cuz, right now, I just want to scream and run off to the coast for a nap. The West coast, of course. I refuse to accept Texas as having anything but some gravely sand and dirty bath water. A gulf is not a proper ocean, people!

That said, here's a LONG overdue, rambling update on a project. 

The chair from hell.

This took over a year. Mostly, because I have a short fuse and little patience for obstinate furniture. Which this was. Stubborn. Uncooperative. Horrible, even. 

See? It even looks like a jerk. 

I picked this baby up on good ol' craigslist for $10. I had wanted two of them, but someone got to its mate before I did. In the end, it really was for the best. I loathed  this project. It was horrible. 

To start, this thing smelled like old-lady perfume. It was bad I tell you. My car stunk for days after bringing this home. The bright side of having horrible dry weather in Texas, is the option to leave car windows open for a week, with no worries. In my garage, of course. I'm no fool. 

Also, I stuck this sucker in the middle of our yard for a couple of weeks to "air out." I thought if anything could help remove the funk, it would be the 110 degree heat and the merciless Texas sun. It worked. sorta. 

Now, the plan here was to strip the fabric, sand down the wood (the stain was coming off, like, everywhere and I am not a fan of the beat-to-hell look), and re-cover. In some sort of awesome fabric. 

First problem: 

Removing the bottom cover was a pain. There was bleeding involved, and a whoooole lot of cussing. 

Why? 

Industrial staples. A bazillion of them. Everywhere I looked, industrial staples. 

Staples in places that didn't even make sense. Like, randomly in the chair leg, where no fabric had ever been. 

The entire chair was covered in staples like this. Two-three extra rows of staples. Staples in non sensical places. The extra-super-duper fun part about these staples? They break. In half. Every.Single.Time. The best method to attempt removal was to shimmy a thin flat head screwdriver underneath the head of a staple, wiggle it around to raise the staple from the wood, and yank it out with pliers. This was the most successful approach, at a success rate of 50/50. Most of my time was spent desperately trying to pull out staple nubs. A lot of them we ended up pounding back into the wood. 

I loathed this chair. I was tempted to set in on fire, several times. Then I remembered how bad it smelled when I picked it up, and decided sending those toxic fumes in the air would just be cruel. 

This project scarred me. Scarred. A couple of times I thought I would need stitches for the gaping wounds that the random pokey edges of broken staples gave me. Good thing I'm solid on my tetanus shot. R is definitely worse for wear-that boy is a bleeder. 

So, yes. This bastard of a chair took over a year to just rip off the fabric. I'm scarred. R is scarred. We both HATE hate hate this chair. Or, at least we did. When we finally removed the last piece of fabric, there was much celebration. Then we hid the beast in the storage room for a few months. What? We had better things to do...

Fast forward to me complaining about the chair not being done- we hit up Home Depot for some stain, and got to work sanding this bad-boy down. 

I love nudey furniture pics. 

As a purely cheap-skate move, we kept the original batting and foam. Due to the depressing lack of crafty-fabricy supply stores nearby, the cost vs reward was too high ($50 for replacing that wee amount of goods, if you were wondering). 

Also, it was all in pretty good shape. Other than lingering perfumey smells, that is. I ended up spritzing (soaking) the foam & batting with a vinegar/water mix, then a hydrogen peroxide/water mix. Let sit out it oppressive Texas heat to dry. Called it good 'nuff. 

Next step was to stain this sucker, which I forgot to photograph. R helped, which was awesome, because I love working on projects with him. I doubt he has the same feeling about me. 

We stained, we wiped, we suck at this process. We sanded for a light "distressed" look, then decided we didn't like the distressed look, and re-stained. It's still not the right color we were goin' for, but, we've had it up-to-here with this chair, so, it's good enough for now.  Once we move, we'll tackle the whole staining-and-sealing the legs again. Let's be honest, movers will probably screw it up, and I just don't have it in me to finish it off. Right now the legs are "Walnut," which is what we thought we wanted. Maybe it'll look better after a coat of poly on top. Maybe? At least the wood is actual hard-wood, and not some mdf crap. 

Recovering this bad boy, fortunately, was pretty easy. Not that I took pictures of the process... 

Keeping the original fabric as a template, I cut out the new stuff (that R picked out from a selection of options I pulled up), and pinned 'em together. A better idea would have been to mark the original pieces with a sharpie, clearly explaining where they go and in what order, THEN pinning the new fabric to it. Lesson learned. 

Once we finally had the patience to tackle the reupholstering, it was a pretty quick process. I remembered, vaguely, in what order the pieces came off. So, ya know, reverse that and put 'em on. My handy-dandy staple gun (with lots of extra staples on hand!) and R tugging/holding fabric in place was all I needed to finish this sucka off. 

And now, the before, to refresh your memory: 

annnnd the after:

I know, I know, the lighting is horrible and the photo is fuzzy. Send me a photographer if you want better. It's not an exciting fabric. It's earthy-greenish, microsuede. Microsuede, to match the couch. And so my sumptuous thighs do not stick to the chair during the summer. I hate vinyl seating, btw. Worst idea for desert-type areas ever. Ever. 

Says the chick in exercise shorts sitting on a giant yoga ball right now. Sticky sticky. 

We have curtains stashed somewhere that match the chair. Microsuedey and everything. FYI. Wasn't planned, I swear. 

R is not overly adventurous in decorating choices, and our current living room set is very...manly. Which I'm cool with. I like neutral. I like earthy. Our coffee table is wood with stone set into the top. It lifts up into a cocktail table. It's awesome, and looking for a photo example was unsuccessful for something even close. I'd post a photo, but my house is packed up and on a moving truck right now. 

I digress. It's a man-cave in here, but a classy one. So, simple neutral chair fabric it was. Besides, I can get wild with throw pillows later. Right? Riiiight?

What would I do differently with recovering? Well, for one, get the dogs out of the house before using a staple gun. Seriously, they freaked. There was shaking, whimpering, and massive drooling during this project. It was pretty pathetic. Also, I'll never ever touch a "hotel chair" again. I wanted to cry trying to remove staples. It was the worst project ever. After that, though, things went well. 

I would probably change my mind about replacing the foam, too. For some reason, sitting in it now isn't as plush as before the re-do. That could be because I didn't spend much time sitting on it in the first place, but whatever. My big tush sinks in more than I would prefer, so I'll banish skinny guests to the chair. 

Which look fantastic dressed up with that throw pillow I made way-back when. Huzzah for scrap fabric, and hoarding tendencies! 

Thus ends the year-long saga of the chair-makeover (for now). A mite extra seating, and a whole lot of toil. I still can't decide if the effort was worth it, versus buying a similar chair at Ross for $250. 

Who am I kidding? I'll never spend  that much money on a single chair! 

I'm off to move far, far away from Texas. Yeehaw! 

All quiet

It's been radio-silent here for quite awhile, but for good reason! My life has been totally consumed with planning a wedding, preparing to move three dogs n two people to a new state, and for both humans to start new jobs, go back to school, and re-adjust to civilian and college life. Oh, and lots of shameless doggie glomping, ear nomming, and cooking crazy good food!

Right now the house is overrun with crafty-ness, and starting next week it's only going to get crazier. Friends & family will start arriving from all over the place, and our house will play host to dinner parties, extended guests, and even more dogs! My wedding dress will be fitted just a few days before the wedding (a little nervous about that, I won't lie), and I'm sure I'll lose the dining room to the amazing friend & seamstress making my dress. Several people have pulled out of attending/helping, so I'm scrambling to find back-ups for the back-ups that cancelled, and some last-minute changes to the plans (our venue currently has no sound system, at all!) have left me uneasy.

I'm definitely going through phases of "We got this," to "shit shit shit." I'm not panicking, but I am a wee bit more stressed than I would like to be at this phase. My original plan was to have everything wrapped up two weeks ahead of time, so I could focus on the little extra details. Hah! Having been involved in wedding planning before, I should have known better!

Thankfully, R has a truly incredible sister that has been busting butt to help us out. Seriously, she's been kicking ass on several key projects, and is even coming down a week ahead of time, to make sure we have extra hands, and stay as de-stressed as possible. My best gal is flying in a week early, AND her parents (my 'adopted' fam) are coming out to stay the week, just to help us wrap up whatever we have left. I'm a little overwhelmed with how much people want to help-which is probably the only thing keeping me somewhat calm at the moment!

I'm looking forward to sharing all the awesome projects, foods, and photos here when it's over n done with. For now, I'm off to bake my third batch of chocolate mint cookies!

Salmon & Strawberries

I stumbled across the Inspired Edibles blog recently, and lemme tell you...I'm in yum! It's so good, I get all cheesy and lame sounding (since grunting doesn't translate well over the webz, anyway).

 I recently gave one of the recipes a whirl, and it was so stinkin' easy and so incredibly delicious, it's going on my "I'm too lazy to cook, and too lazy to drive to food" list. This round was the "Roasted salmon in a strawberry balsamic reduction," and you can find the original Inspired Edibles recipe & blog post here.

I won't bother going in to detail, because Kelly did all the work for me. I will post some food porn, though:

               

I made some adjustments to the recipe, based on what was around, and my apparent inability to properly follow a recipe, ever.  Since decent produce is pretty difficult to find in this town, I used frozen strawberries instead of fresh. I keep warehouse-club sized bags of  fruit in the freezer at all times, to make life easy and slightly less depressing out here.  Let's pretend I behaved and used 1 cup (probably was more like triple that, but, I'm a big strawberry fan so, yay for leftovers). 

Drizzle in some balsamic vinegar (okay, really, I "glurged" it around a few times). I have some pomegranate  vinaigrette that I think would be amazing in this recipe, so I'll try that next time. I also threw in the honey at the same time, because I was too impatient to wait, and trying to check my email while making dinner. Multi-tasking, probably not a good idea when hot things are involved....

Since the salmon fillets (from pre-frozen package) were pretty small, I popped them in the oven right before putting the sauce together, and it all finished cooking about the same time. About 30 minutes before starting this fiasco, I threw some butternut squash (halved, seeded, plopped face down in a dish) in a 350 (f) before taking one of the beasts for a walk;  tossing the salmon in the oven when I got back. Eaaaasy. 

After the sauce reached a hardy boil, (actually pay attention to the sauce, so you don't have to clean up an overflowing mess like I *nearly* had), I reduced the heat and added some rosemary sprigs I had just snipped from the garden. I felt a perfumed flavor would lend nicely to the sweet-tangy smell of the dish. So glad I did, since it balanced it out nicely. The nose knows, you know?

At this point I took the squash out of the oven, sprinkled on some fresh herbs (lemon thyme, oregano, shopped scallions), some sliced parmesan, and popped back in the oven to get all melty and amazing like. 

Since the strawberries had been frozen, they broke down in the pan pretty quickly, making the puree/mashing part unnecessary. Laaazy bones, right here. I let the sauce cool a couple of minutes before spooning it out on plates (time enough to achieve squash & melty-cheese goodness). 

Served just as Kelly suggests, spooned onto plates, topped with salmon, topped with more sauce. Apparently my plate had more liquid than R's, which featured a better example of a "reduction" but, being me, I was too impatient to photgraph his too. I wanted to eat it ASAP, and let me tell you...

It.was.GLORIOUS. 

Since the fillets were tiny, as were the squash halves, we supplemented dinner with the last of a baby watermelon, some homemade salsa, and our favorite paleo-cheat snack, Stacy's Pita chips. Fantastic. Easy. Friggin' delicious. There's a healthy amount of leftover strawberry lovlieness that I'll be swirling into yogurt tomorrow morning...or maybe just eating by the spoonful. 

So, go thank Kelly over at Inspired Edibles for this fantastic recipe. I have a feeling I'll be posting more success stories from her site, soon! 

Surgery Pt 2

I recently had my one-year check-up following my clavicle surgery (which you can read a bit about, here) and was told that the bones have knit better than expected, and I can get the plate taken out any time. Usually the plate can be left in, but since I do love a good backpacking/hike, and routinely participate in activities that put pressure on the area, it would be more beneficial to have the plate removed. Hooray for increased comfort & function! 

Since this will be simple removal of hardware, it should be a fairly quick healing time. Other than having to take it easy for a couple of months following, while the holes in the clavicle (left from the screws) fill back in, I should be up and around the next day. I'm anxiously awaiting approval from the insurance company (fingers crossed!), and may very well be in for the surgery within a couple of weeks. Plenty of time to heal up before the summer fun begins! 

On Dogs & Progress!

I need to gush for a moment. This is my fluffer, Kira:

She's a giant ball of fuzz & worry. 

Cute, if not a bit pouty.

R & I adopted her about two years ago, and she has been making steady progress ever since. Kira's  biggest issue was reactivity with other dogs. Not all dogs, but, a lot of them. Especially the napoleonic chihuahua's  that shake constantly. Whether it was her prey drive kicking in, or just those tiny terrors and their smug sense self importance (can you tell I'm not a fan?),  our poor darling would freak the hell out and try to eat them. Even a previous neighbor's awesome, wiggly bulldog pup wasn't immune to her mood swings. At least when she let go when he squealed...

The problem was so severe, we couldn't even park near a dog park. Kira would throw herself, snarling and barking, at the window trying to go after the dogs. We attempted a couple of dog park runs, with very few dogs around, and well...it's fortunate that nobody but me got the pointy end of her teeth (at least it was an accidental grazing).  Walks were tense when another dog came into the picture, regardless of the distance between them & her. Kujo comes to mind in this instance.

At home, she was our gentle caramel ball of love, and got along especially well with the little man, barely 20lbs of snark and gas. I mean, they even sleep together for cryin' out loud! 

So, obviously, the problem wasn't "all little dogs" or all dogs in general, just, those that weren't her "family." Unfortunately, we don't live in an area where we can consistently expose her to other dogs, to help alleviate the behavior. Most folks have "purse" dogs around here, and those that don't are rarely seen walking their dogs. Let's be honest, Texas is not a place people often go outside, especially in this town, where sidewalks do not exist outside of neighborhoods. Seriously, the sidewalk literally ends and the last house in our area. Then it's your choice of tall grass which you know is harboring rattlesnakes & fire ants, or the road. Considering how Texans drive, I think the grass is safer. 

Anyway, getting her to calm down around dogs has been a sloooooow process. Consistent walks, hoping to catch a glance of another doggie. Lot's of attempts at refocusing her attention (which rarely work). Lots of comforting tones. Crazy mad praise when she doesn't totally spaz out. Other than passing dogs-behind-fences (which, next to chihuahua's, are her mortal enemy), she has been doing exceptionally well. Recently we started walking with our next door neighbor & her weenie dogs, which has been going wonderfully. We even run into escapee dogs (strays, or dumb ass people who "walk" their dogs off leash), and most of the time I'm used as a human shield. Ever see a 90lb dog cower in fear behind someone? It's kind of hilarious. Good to know not to trust her for help if I'm ever attacked by a yorkie. 

The point to this rambling, run-on of a post, is that I adore her, neurosis and all. I resigned myself to the fact that she just wasn't a "Dog Park" dog. Which is ok. I can respect her need for space. My little oreo of a dog is a fantastic dog park dog, and he plays beautifully with big dogs at that (he too is afraid of the little shakers). So, one out of three isn't bad. I just don't trust our other girl to ever come back, if let off leash. She can easily scale a several-foot-fence from a sitting position. 

This face is nothing but trouble.

Anyway, something awesome happened recently. A park opened up about 20 minutes away. Why is this exciting? Parks don't exist in this town. Seriously. Other than playgrounds at schools and a couple outdoor  "recreation" areas about 40 minutes away, we have not seen not heard of any outdoor play areas, in the two years we've been here. So, there being a park, in general, was VERY exciting. Then I find out it also has two dog park areas (one for small dogs 30lbs & under, one for dogs 30 lbs & over). 

With fluffy-butt's progress, R & I decided to at the least, walk her around this new park and get nearish the dog areas, to gauge her reaction. 

Let me tell you, she.was.AMAZING!

We started on meandering path around the park, running into the occasional walker, and she would just sniff the air as they passed by. A couple of tyrant chihuahua's rattled her a bit, but in all fairness, they were lungung at the ends of their leashes snarling at her. All my girl did was pull a bit and huff. Thatta girl!

Then came more pedestrians. A couple of bikers. She sat pretty and just watched as they went by. A couple of gorgeous huskies & their people came towards us, and my darling sat nicely as they passed. She continued to sit nicely as we chatted with the husky-people a moment, then after us asking permission for her to "say hello," she politely introduced herself by walking past the dogs, showing them her side, and going behind for a proper sniff. It was incredible!!!

I was so proud of my girl in that moment! All of her previous anxieties seemed to disappear, and she was suddenly this happy, friendly, well adjusted pooch just out for a stroll. I actually had to stop myself from crying, I was so happy! Shortly after that encounter, a walker came up from behind us (something that would have seriously spooked her in the past), and Kira politely moved to the side with a tug of her leash. More bikes whizzed by, and she tucked in close to us. Another pair of large dogs passed by, and again, she sat nicely while they walked on by. Then came the dog park areas. Lots of big & small goofballs running around, being silly. She noticed, but kept walking. A few even ran up to the fence to get a better look, and still, no reaction. She saw them, she looked back at us, she kept walking. 

Did you read that? A bunch of strange dogs, being rowdy, near her, and not.a.peep. 

WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

I'm still thrilled (if you couldn't tell) about the whole experience. I thought about taking her into the dog park, but the number of dogs (over a dozen) might have been a bit too much for her, so we figured we'd end the day on a high note and head home. I'm so proud of her progress, and so excited to take another trip to see how she does in an off-leash setting, with just a couple of dogs around. This is me, doing a happy dance. Seeing how far Kira's come has definitely strengthened my resolve to work with dogs that have "behavior problems." There's really nothing like seeing how much progress a dog can make!

Kira, letting her buddy "win" the game.