When I signed up to go to a three-day letterboxing event last fall, I cringed when I saw there was going to be a masquerade ball. I’m not one of those people who can create amazing, award-winning costumes with things in my closet. So I put it off and put it off until I only had a few weeks left and realized I had to figure out something. Turning to Google for ideas, I found this website: http://www.coolest-homemade-costumes.com/ As I…
When I was young, all the pet stores sold baby red eared slider turtles, about the size of a quarter. So we got one. Let me interject one thing before I go on–turtles are the WORST pet in the world to get a child. Do NOT buy your kid a turtle. The reason I say this, from experience, is for one reason only: turtles live to be about 50 years old. We got Turtley when I was in first grade,…
This is just a quick post to capture some of the things I learned when helping my friend set up a website for a rescue group, in this case Maine Sheltie Rescue. We did the basics in a way that I would do my own site: Register a domain. I like to use 1&1 for that but really any company would be fine. Buy hosting. I always recommend Hostgator because they’re pretty cheap, they’re fast, and they hardly ever go…
My husband and I have our own online business (dog playgroups. Oh, so much fun!) which means that every year, we purchase TurboTax Home and Office so we can do our schedule Cs on our tax returns. In the past, I’ve always purchased the CD for around $75 – 80. This is the first time I bought the download, which is supposedly the same thing. It costs around the same price BUT… I found a website where it costs about…
I’m in the dog care profession and we always recommend Easy Walk Harnesses for our clients who have dogs that are big pullers. Recently I bought one myself for a client from Amazon. As soon as I took it out of the box, I could tell something was wrong. It felt about half the weight it should be. The buckles were really cheap feeling when I clipped and unclipped them. But the thing that really clued me in was that…
My husband had been experimenting with Photoshop, taking images and using filters, etc. to make them look like paintings. He did one of our dog Kelly at our favorite vacation place, a friend’s cabin in Maine. It came out so well that he had it printed on canvas by Canvas Press as a surprise anniversary present. Here’s a funny story–I knew he was working on this image (it wasn’t a secret), and I thought I had a great idea: why…
My husband gave me a really great gift for our anniversary. He had taken a picture of one of our dogs and Photoshopped it to look like a painting, then had it printed on canvas by Canvas Press (they’re a company that will print anything you upload onto canvas. Pretty Cool). (I won’t mention the fact that I gave him exactly the same gift! I knew that he had made this great image and thought it would be so cool…
Ever since I’ve lived in a house instead of an apartment, I’ve had dogs, usually two or three. We’ve almost always gotten them from owners who had to rehome them; friends, neighbors of friends, co-workers. This is my first experience adopting a truly stray dog. We sadly found ourselves with just one dog. When you’re used to multiples, the house is just too quiet with one. But this time we did something different. I googled ‘high kill shelter’ which eventually…
I read on the mouse forums that mice like their tank jam-packed with clutter. In fact, the biggest uncluttered space needs to be able to fit all the mice curled up together. I got a 10 gallon tank from Craigslist for free. But how to jam it full? A lot of people on the forums create furniture and platforms from popsicle sticks (you can buy a big bag from Jo-Ann’s Fabrics and Crafts) and white glue (like Elmer’s). But I…
As of this weekend, I’m the proud owner of pet mice. Never had them before. The rat rescue group I adopt from found themselves with oodles of mice from a hoarding situation. Decided to take a few to help them clear space from the foster home. So I’m the proud owner of Lola, Macy, and Hope. They’re all females and had been in the same cage in their foster house. There are tons of mice forums out there. I learned…