Dog Mom's Best Friend

So, totally of my own volition, I wanted to share something awesome with all my dog-mom friends. I have tried just about everything to make our house smell pet-free. I love my dogs, and I love having dogs. I don't however, love how much my very rowdy boys smell after rolling around in the dirt all day and laying in the sun. I've tried all natural sprays, I've tried herbal sprays, candles, incense, febreeze, fresh flowers, etc. Nothing really, really gets the pet smell out of the house.

I usually just get Febreeze, which isn't bad, but doesn't last and it's expensive. It usually disappears after an hour or so. But the other day, I was at Target, and found this! It must be new, I haven't seen it before. It's made by Glade. I'm not really a plug-in/spray fragrance kind of girl, I like fresh flowers, clean laundry and open windows, so I don't normally buy Glade products, but it was on sale and I thought I would give it a shot.

Anyways, I spent all day cleaning and watching reality TV on Netflix today. And when I had everything clean and organized, I sprayed the closet, bed and dog beds and crates with it. Oh man, it was awesome. It didn't smell like a spray, it just got rid of doggy smells. I was super stoked, and not that I am a huge reviewer. I don't ever yelp (although sometimes I think I should) and I don't really hype up products, but I was so excited that it didn't smell like someone just dumped a bottle of bad perfume all over our stuff (like the fragrance sprays) and 4 hours later, the room still smells like nothing. That's exactly what I want it to smell like, nothing!

Anyways, if you have pets and don't like your house smelling like the pet store, this is the best stuff I've used. It's not "all natural" or "Organic" but it works, and that's works for me!!

Also, check out the kitty's new favorite spot!

xo,

Bec

Rainy Day Blues

I think I have been kind of personally absent from this blog lately. I mean I have been consistently posting, but not anything that has a smidgen of my voice to it. I have been really distracted with focusing on my home (ie, reorganizing, cleaning, putting new bed together, not doing laundry, spending money we don't have, you get the picture..) and honestly, I have been feeling kind of down. I think it's the weather, because everything else in my life is incredible. I was hired yesterday as the pastry chef at the deli, which is such an incredible feat and I am really proud of my persistence and hard work to get it. I have a great boyfriend who does everything for me, and loves me more than words can express, my dogs are awesome, our shop is rad. I just feel bummed.

In order to get myself out of this mood, I straightened up my little work space.

It didn't really work, but this is where I work.

We got our business cards in the mail from Moo and I am in love. They are so pretty, and I am so glad we went with the recycled paper. I love the way it looks and the way it feels.

I got this really pretty southwestern fabric from the thrift store this morning and made a little envelope bag to see how I would like it. It's prefect. I want to make little bags for bows and arrows merchandise. I also got new eyelets at the leather shop this morning, and they're too big for my hand press. I am frustrated with that, but don't want to get a new hand press. Everything seems more stressful and frustrating than it really is.

Our old roommate from Tucson Shawn in visiting us this weekend and it's really good to see him. It was fun living with him in Tucson. We always ate chicken wings and watched TV marathons. It was a good last few months in the pueblo.

Speaking of Tucson, my friend Isaiah put out a new video and it's really rad. I like the song, and the imagery and the editing. I can't say enough about it.

I am training some new people at work tonight and tomorrow who have been hired to replace me. I hope that I can get through this weekend. I also hope that it stops raining. I swear that is what is making me so depressed. I am cold, and everything is soggy and damp. It's depressing. I could never live in the northwest.

I am going to get my hands busy making dog collars! Whaaat!? Yep. I'm going to give it a go. Let's see how they come out. There is a little sneak peek at how the first one looks above.

xo,

Beca

Getting Motivated

I am so jealous of everyone who gets to work at home, all the time. I can't wait to have that. Because right now, when I do have days off from my day job, all I want to do is lounge around and relax and do NOTHING! It took me all day today to get motivated to work on our shop, and clean the house, and play with the dogs. I really just wanted to watch TV and eat junk food (I resisted.)

Now that I have only an hour until I need to leave to pick Doug up from work, I don't have enough time to do everything I planned on doing. At all. On a plus note, I dyed my hair today and at first, I thought it came out too dark, but when it dried, it ended up being perfect. I think I finally discovered the perfect blend of dark and light.

Maybe tomorrow I will be more productive. I did get a few new treasures in the shop.

I still have some more cleaning up to do. It seems like my house won't stay clean for more than 10 minutes before it needs to be swept and picked up.

xo,

Beca

What I Wore and Doug's New Work Space

We have a pretty tiny house. Honestly, I think half of our rent is paying just for the yard, which is worth it's weight in gold. For having 3 dogs, the fenced private yard with grass and plenty of room to play is worth it, to me, BUT, we don't have a lot of room to work inside, so it usually just happens on the living room floor, or the kitchen counter, or wherever we can find the space. (But, I'm sure if the weather keeps up, I will be spending a lot of time working in the yard, and on the yard...garden season is quickly approaching.)

Doug helped me last week put everything for the shop into the laundry room (since the washing machine and dryer were both broken when we moved in, we opted for the space rather than try to fix them.) That means I have a space to take photos for the shop, a space to keep my stuff (albeit not organized, yet...still working on that.) I told you it was tiny!

So today, I started putting together a place for Doug to work on his leather projects, like bike seats and rings. It is still a work in progress, as our roommate brought home this leather armchair that doesn't really fit anywhere, so it's kind of in the way, and we need to put in some shelves or something for the rest of his tools that are stored in random places.

I won't leave the candles there, I just forgot that I took photos with candles on his table. I was also cleaning on top of the entertainment center (which is where I keep all my candles...mmm...I love apple cinnamon candles so MUCH!)

Oh, and I guess I'll do a What I Wore post today too, since I LOVE my new blouse. It makes me super happy. I got it at the African League Thrift Store on Monday for $1.50. Stooooooked! If you know me, you know I HATE spending money on clothes, so I wear the same few things until they disintegrate and then I buy something else, very similar. But if I find a deal like this, i can't pass it us. (And yes, it is so beautiful outside I can keep the door open all day loooong!!)

Doug made me this skull necklace. He carved it from a damaged deer antler. I haven't taken it off in years. My buddy Alita gave me the peacock necklace for my 25th birthday and then she and the twins took me to eat french toast and go dress shopping. I miss them, a lot.
My hair is fading into a really pretty reddish color, I like it.

And my favorite thing that I did today, painted my nails, a very festive red and gold flake. I LOVE gold nail polish, and I always have, and I am totally going to claim stake on that, even though everyone in the blog world is stoked on gold polish right now. Girls, welcome to my world.

Back to cleaning this house. It is pretty overwhelming, but it was refreshing to read Rubyellen's blog post about her messy house. I don't feel all alone. I also don't have three young children, but I do have two grown men and four dogs to clean up after, and that is pretty much the same?!?? I'm going to go ahead and say that it is! Two more hours until I need to be at work, two more hours of cleaning. Maybe some hummus and garlic toast and some reading in the middle.

xo,

Bec