Puppy breath and big paws!

What a week this has been!!! 

WE GOT A PUPPY! We had been looking for about a year and finally the right litter at the right time caught our attention, we went to see him at 4 weeks and now at 8 weeks, he is in our home terrorizing our other animal children and being a big PITA but he's so cute and so sweet, it's hard to stay mad at him. We named him Koda since he'll probably be as big as a bear. Lol! He is St. Bernard, Rottweiler and Bull Mastiff.

Those are some big paws to grow into, eh... Well, my week has been trying to teach him the rules of the house and show him I'm the boss here. Not so easy, he is SO STUBBORN! We have been following the training methods of Jan Fennell, she's written a really great book called "The Dog Listener" (link here to her website). It's all about learning to "speak" to the dog through the dog's own language, mainly body language. It's a really great method because there is no violence involved. However, being consistent is super important for it to work -- and it takes time. We're pulling our hair out a bit with this puppy. He's just so spirited... and loud! Our neighbors surely hate us by now. Oh well, he'll be such an awesome dog once we get some manners into his head! =)

I'm sure it comes as no surprise when I say that my next project that I started a couple of days ago is.... A DOG SWEATER! Lol! I'm trying to make a masculine one with the yarns I have in abundance. Therefore, it's a green, navy blue and brown striped sweater. I've been trying to figure out how I can rig it to be different sizes, as I am sure that it will not fit him for long seeing as I am making it according to his current measurements. We'll see what I end up doing with it. If I decide to just make it the size he is now, I can always send it to the sister-in-law who has two small boy dogs. 

This is the top part of the sweater. I am going to do another brown and another green stripe, thinner ones though. By then I should have the needed 14 inches in length. 

My Tuesday was consumed with taking Koda on the bus for the first time (it went surprisingly well) and going to my parents' house where he met my their dogs for the first time. It was my mom's last day before her trip to the states. She'll be gone for 3 whole months. I am gonna miss having her around sooooo much but I know my brother and sister and their boys will be so happy to have her. Anywho, I ended up finally having to finish all my projects and my oh my, it took me all day. I soooooo hate finishing projects. I hate hand stitching all the bits together and them going on crooked or uneven. It's so annoying to spend hours crocheting beautifully and counting rows etc to just make it look very unusual with your sewing. Grr!!! Oh well, the main point is that everyone got something handmade by me with love. I hope they like their gifts! I took pictures with my dad's camera when they were all done but the pictures are still on my dad's camera. I'll try to post the pictures when I go there on Sunday or Monday. Stay tuned!

I still have yet to share my Thanksgiving pictures! Here they are! Hope you don't get too hungry looking at them, hahaha! 

Our table setting created by the lovely hubby-to-be! I love our Iittala glassware. It's so precious to me, it's all been handed down from my mom. 

 

 

 

 

 

On the left is the apple-cornbread stuffing and the right is of course green bean casserole. They were both big hits!

The sweet potatoes that were meant to be baked but ended up becoming boiled because time was of the essence. They were good anyway. 

My green chicken, lol! It was really tender but not the most appetizing to look at. It tasted delicious and the seasoning was spot on. I marinaded chicken breast with onion, garlic and oil and lemon juice. Then I "dusted" them with a herb seasoning containing just about every herb known to man plus garlic. At the end of baking, I added cream to the dish and let it bake a few minutes longer. I think I will make this again sometime when we have company over. I think next time though I'll put a little more effort into presentation, lol!

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Last but certainly not least, was my first gluten-free pumpkin pie. It was scrumptious! I am going to make another one for Finland's Independence day which is December 6th, Monday. I still have half of the pie crust in the freezer so it's probably best to use it up sooner rather than later. There wasn't much of the pie left the next day, so we ate the leftovers for breakfast with our coffee. Gotta love the holidays! 

That's all I have for today, I'll try to get a chance to post the pictures of all my projects along with the links to make them on Sunday or Monday. We'll see what happens! Thanks for reading, have a great weekend!