Monthly Archives: October 2011

Big Little Girl

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Yakira chewing on a big nylabone stuck in the middle of a Goughnut Max

Yakira doesn’t seem to know that she is a tiny puppy. She loves to take on anything no matter what the size. When she is in one of her “I’ve got to beat up on something” mood I pull out the jolly ball and she pounces on it. She will take on the Goughnut Max and even the biggest nylabone that we have, left over from when we were raising Apex. She is a fun loving girl and ready to take on anything.

She hasn’t been perfect on the relieving but she had another dry day on Saturday and we are down to one trip outside each night. Not bad for a 9 and a half week old puppy.

Candy Day 8

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Green and yellow gift box

I didn’t get as much time to work on this project today as I thought I would. Yesterday I started on another box for under the tree. It is bigger than the red box and the pieces take precision to put in place so it is taking awhile to get it done. I’m past the half way point. I really love these little star candies. In between the green stars are yellow tart n’ tiny candies.

Close up of green stars and yellow tart n’ tiny candy

Candy Day 7

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Candy cane with bow

My goal today was to make the candy cane and the mistletoe. The candy cane was easy. I had a bunch of candy canes in my candy stash and I picked on of the traditional sized ones. I really don’t like the proportions of the little ones. They are all hook and almost no staff part. I ended up making two bows. The first one I decided would be better for the mistletoe so I made a second one that was more like a bow on a package. I think it worked better.

Mistletoe

I’ve been thinking about how I would make the mistletoe for several days now. Yesterday I stopped by the store and picked up some more green licorice belts. While there I search to see what else they might have that could help with the mistletoe and I found some licorice whips in red, green blue and yellow. So I used the green whips for the stems and cut and shaped belts for the leaves. The white berries I made out of gum balls with a tiny snip of yellow whip. I was happy with how it turned out.

Red package with blue and red bow

With my goals for this week finished I decided to put some time into the extra packages under the tree. I covered the red package with mini red gummy bears with red and blue licorice belts for the ribbon.

Candy Day 6

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Holly leaves and berries

On the docket for today was a poinsettia and holly. I didn’t find any green candy I wanted to use for the holly leaves so I went with rolled fondant. For berries I selected 3 small red gum balls. The holly didn’t take long to finish. I haven’t decided yet just where the holly will go. It could go on the yule log, a package or on the tree. The poinsettia took a bit longer. I found some gummy lips that I liked the color and texture of so I cut them apart and used them for the red part of the poinsettia. Green Swedish fished became the green part and a few yellow nerds in the center finished things off. Just like the holly, I’m not sure where the poinsettia will end up in the final project.

Poinsettia

First Dry Day

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Yakira on the stairs

Today was Yakira’s first day without an accident! Yahoo. On Monday and even Tuesday morning I was really wondering if we were making any progress on the relieving. She had not had an accident in her kennel at night since Sunday but she was still having accident in her x-pen and it was usually right after we had been out to relieve. No there is a little light at the end of the tunnel. Yakira isn’t sleeping though the night yet but getting up a couple of times isn’t so bad.

Yakira has mastered the stairs. I was amazed at how fast she learned to climb them. It only took a couple of exposures. Down was a little slower but that only took a couple of days. Now she can do them both ways and she is even starting to skip the bottom step and leap off. I had to take this picture because Apex use to sit just like this on the step. Yakira’s legs are so short they barely make it down to the lower step.

15.6 lbs. of Black Lab

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Yakira on puppy truck day

Yakira has had a cough since we got her last week and it seemed to be getting worse and then she added a snotty nose to the mix. So today I took her to the vet to make sure that she was alright. Everything is fine. She just has a bit of a puppy cold. It might be a reaction to the Bortatella vaccine she got a couple of weeks ago. She was a very good girl at the vet and asked if she was always this calm. Our pups get such a good start with the puppy socializers that it really shows up. How many 2 month old puppies can be examined so easily by a vet they have never seen before. Our little miniature  girl was 15.6 lbs. Yakira also got lots of comments on how cute she was, of course.

Thanks to Karen and her connections with breeding we were able to confirm today that Yakira really is a foreign girl. Besides her mom, Anjou, coming from Holland, her dad Pike is actually on loan from Queensland, Australia for 6 months. Now we know why she has such a unique barking style. She just has an accent.

Candy Day 4

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almost finished star

This week I’m focusing on the other ornaments. I’ve decided to let the heads dry a few more days. I’m going to try to get this weeks projects done asap and then go back to catch up last weeks stuff. Today’s goal was the bell and the star. I got the bell painted but that was it. The star is almost done but not quite. It needs some border candies around the edge to finish things off. I also unwrapped a bunch of hard tootsie rolls that I’m going to use on the Yule log.

Good-bye Casey

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Yakira and Casey snuggled together in the back of the car

We got up super early this morning to take Casey to Ogden to put her on the truck. We could have dropped her off last night but I just didn’t see how spending another night on the truck was going to be of any benefit for her. We got there on time (7:00 a.m.) despite the fact that the alarm clock didn’t go off (it was set for p.m. instead of a.m.) and we had to hustle out the door as fast as we could. We had a bit of a wait once we got there because the drivers where still having breakfast. We could hear one of the pups on the truck making a bit of racket as we were waiting. We had Yakira with us in her kennel and I took her out and she relieved like a pro. So then she got to be loose in the back of the car with Casey. They were very cute together and Yakira snuggled up with Casey. Today is Yakira 2 month birthday so I put the birthday bandana on her and I put the celebration bandana on Casey for recall day.

Eventually the drivers came and I took Casey for one last walk. The hotel they stay in has a really nice walking path with a pond and lots of grass. When I was done I was going to put Casey back in the car so we could put her on the truck later after we helped walk dogs but she didn’t want anything to do with getting back in the car. So I was going to wait until Bill got back from walking the first dog he took out. But one of the drivers said it was fine to put Casey on and then we could come back after walking the dogs and say our final good-byes. She was on the upper level of kennels so I let the driver lift her up there.

Panera enjoying her walk

Then it was time for me to help walk dogs. The first dog I noticed was Panera. Her raiser is on a Yahoo list for guide dog users and puppy raisers and others who are associated with Guide Dogs for the Blind. I had told her that I’d try to walk Panera and get photos of her if I could. Panera got on the truck in Colorado on Friday. She is a big black lab at 73 pounds and not fat. And boy was she ready for a walk. I wasn’t completely prepared for her energy and I got a good shoulder yank the first time she ran to the end of the retractable. I kept a close eye on her after that and we did much better. We completed the circuit and did another half circuit to try to burn off a bit more of her energy.

Bill and Casey in her kennel with a wish bone toy

By the time I got back all the dogs were being taken care of so when Bill got back we gave some last loves to Casey. There was a wish bone shaped nylabone in Casey’s kennel, which is her favorite chew toy. Then all the puppies got two bone shaped doggy treats. And they were happily chewing away. I said by to Kasha who was right across the isle from Casey and Radison who was on the same side as Kasha but closer to the front. I gave Yakira another potty break which she did great on. She said high to one of the truck drivers before we got back in the car. He said the Yakira’s sister Yuma was given to a young, first time raiser in Colorado. By the time we were pulling out of the parking lot is was 8:30 a.m. So much for being on time for church this morning. Oh well, I wouldn’t change anything. It was a good morning even though we don’t know when we will see Casey again. There is always the possibility that we won’t get the chance to see her again. Not very likely but it is possible. Tonight she should be sleeping somewhere in the western part of Oregon and will arrive on campus in Boring tomorrow. We probably won’t hear anything about her for about a month.

Candy Day 3

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head and hands for Mary, Angel, Elf,  Kris Kringle, Three Wisemen plus their gifts

manger and baby Jesus
my other try at a manger

With the addition of a new 8 week old puppy into our household not too much has gotten done this week. But with Bill home today I got some stuff done. Not near what I had planned but progress is progress. I made all the heads etc. for all the people and animals. They are made from rolled fondant. I also made the gifts the wisemen will hold to make sure the hands worked with them. So now they need to dry and then I’ll be able to handle them safely to make the rest of the body and attach everything together. I didn’t much like the manger I made earlier so I made another one.

soon to be an ice skatr
reindeer parts and gingerbread man

The green candy came for the tree so I played around a bit and put a little bit around one of the lights. I realized that I’ll need to wrap something around the base of the lights because I didn’t get them sunk into the tree structure far enough for the tree candy to hide them. But I really like the tree candy. I think it is going to look great.

some of the candy on the trre