DIY Dog Training Bell

Tifa is now almost 9 months old.. So crazy to think about. These past few months she has been challenging to say the least. Within the first month of us being in our new apartment she had chewed a hole in our carpet, the molding around the bathroom door, countless socks from our laundry basket, and a whole roll of toilet paper. We also discovered she can jump over baby gates! :/ Boo.  

I think it is safe to say she is finally coming out of this rebellion stage (knock on wood). She is turning out to be a great dog though. One thing I absolutely love about her is her willingness to learn new tricks. She is hands down the smartest dog I have ever met! In about 10 minutes Tom taught her how to roll over. Pretty awesome if your ask me, but then again I am a little biased. 

I have always wanted a dog who told me when they needed to "go outside". So after doing some initial research, I decided it was time to make her a bell and get started! If you want to learn how to train your dog to use a bell, {this} was my favorite article I found! 

And now without further interruption, here is how you can make your own dog training bell! 

Supplies:

- Bell 

- Wire Edged Ribbon 

- Scissors

- Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks

Directions:

1. First things first, you want to make sure your pooch can reach the bell so she can tell you she has to go outside! Once you have your dog handy, measure the length of ribbon you will need and then cut. 

2. If your ribbon is too wide to fit around the door handle like mine, fold the middle of your ribbon in half "hot dog style". Then take your hot glue gun and glue the halves together so they stay folded and will fit nicely over your handle.

3. Bring the ends of your ribbon together so you can attach your bell. I used a bell from a bird toy I found at the pet store. It was way cheaper than an actual "dog training bell", $6 as opposed to $30. Yay for being cheap! Hot glue the ends together and hook on the bell. 

4. Next you will want to make a pretty bow. Cut an appropriate length of ribbon and tie away. I had to fiddle with the knot for a few minutes so it wasn't twisted up. Then I cut triangles to make the bow a little more fancy. 

5. Hot glue your bow over the bell hook. If you want you can sew in a couple of stitches for extra support. I will say I only used hot glue and after two months of being up it is still very secure! The choice is up to you! Hang your bell over the door and you're done! 

I am super happy with the way my bell turned out! For me, burlap was the perfect choice as it is durable and will go with any decor for any occasion. The best part about this project was after only two short weeks Tifa was ringing the bell to let us know she had to go outside!

This picture was taken a couple weeks before Christmas, so she is a little bigger now and bulked up a little bit. Send me pictures of your finished dog bells with your furbabies, I would love to see them! You can find my email address under the "say hi" section of the blog. Or tag me on Instagram or Twitter using @upstairscrafter :)

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

Christmas is less than one week away! Yikes! Can you believe it? I am not even close to having all of my Christmas shopping done.. I am a procrastinator this year. However, our apartment is looking very festive and we are all in the Christmas spirit! Here is a little peek into our winder wonderland. Enjoy! :)

The two of us decorating the tree.

Our ornaments from Disneyland last year :)

My favorite ornament of all time. 

Last year I made these Harry Potter ornaments. Love them!

And finally.. the star! 

A little photo opp.

Our animals even get into the Christmas spirit! Thomas loves his elf shirt. He is so cute! :)

Tifa wasn't sure about the hat..

Or the shirt.. 

Want to make your own snowflakes? Check out the tutorial {here}.

The bookshelves are even festive. 

Special "kids" section :)

I have always wanted to  make one of these over the dining room table, and I finally did this year! :)

Remember, this is a season to enjoy and be grateful for the people we have in our lives.. not a time to be stressed and depressed. Spend some quality time with your loved ones and snuggle up in front of your tree with some hot cocoa! I hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season as much as I am. I'm off to have a fun night out on the town with Tom! Have a great weekend everyone! 

Thanksgiving and New Home

Oh hey, December how are you?

Christmas is here!! Yay! So excited to get our decorations up and make some sugar cookies. Yummy. But first I would like to share a little snip bit of our life in our new home and our Thanksgiving festivities! 

I guess I should clarify that our new home is actually an apartment. I'm sure most of you know this already, but our move in date was actually supposed to be December 12th. However, a miracle happened and we were able to move in last week. Super exciting stuff. This is by far the nicest place we have ever lived (outside of our parents homes) and we could not be happier. It is a great size for the two of us and is in a good location for commuting to work and visiting family and friends. 

Unpacking is coming along quite nicely! The kitchen is done.. Hallelujah. I truly missed having my own kitchen. Our dining room and the living room are both done, they just have some boxes hanging out in them for now. Thanks to my stud muffin, our desks are put together in the office and we are planning on getting that unpacked and organized this week. Bathroom has the essentials out with the boxes tucked away and out of sight until I get some shelves for under the sink storage. As for our bedroom.. well it kind of looks like a war zone. That door definitely gets shut when guests are over right now. But with everything that has been going on I feel like we have done a lot of work around here, so I am pleased. 

Over the past couple of weeks Tom and I have both been fighting off colds. I also found out I have an eye infection in my left eye which is not only very painful but also requires eye drops that make my vision very blurry. With the fight to stay healthy, our move, and our new jobs we were both very tuckered out when Thanksgiving showed up on our front step, so we decide to stay home and celebrate Thanksgiving just the two of us. It was a bummer we didn't get to see his family, but we are planning a weekend to go out and see them before Christmas :) 

I braved the crowds on Wednesday night to grab the Thanksgiving essentials for our feast! I do not recommend going out the day before Thanksgiving for your food.. It was a total zoo at the grocery store. But I got everything we needed and drove home to start getting everything ready. 

As far as cooking goes, preparing our meal was a breeze compared to last year. I did have more utensils and tools this time which was really nice, but everything turned out perfectly and I had it ready around 4 o'clock (which according to Tom is apparently the right time to have Thanksgiving dinner). We started our meal with a salad, followed by turkey, garlic red pepper mashed potatoes, green beans with red onion, garlic, and bacon, dinner biscuits, and had pumpkin pie and cookies for dessert. Here are some pics of our yummy meal:

Sorry I didn't take any pictures of us on Thanksgiving.. But I did manage to get one of Tifa and Thomas! :)

My fur babies are so cute! I can not believe how big Tifa is getting, remember when she was smaller than Thomas? Anyway, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! 

Final Moving Update

This will be the last Moving Update for a while (yay!). Yesterday we found out we were approved for the apartment we wanted and today we put our deposit down! Yippee! Unfortunately we will have to wait until the beginning of December to move in, but it's worth it considering this is the place we both really wanted to live. December seems like such a long ways away right now, but it will be here before we know it. 

I will say it feels really great knowing we now will have a place of our own again soon! I miss having our fridge.. But I am very grateful that we both have awesome parents who are letting us store our things (and ourselves) at their houses until our place is ready. Yay parents, we owe you! 

Our animals are adjusting really well. Thomas is super stoked to be back on his "turf", seeing as this is the house he spent almost all of his life in. It is adorable seeing him in such a happy mood because he is "home again". I'm sure it helps that he has his window perches back to watch the birdies :) Tifa is also adjusting well. She LOVES having our families and all the new animal friends around. 

Overall things are good. The first days back in Oregon were very stressful, but I think we are finally over that now.. Especially since we found a place to live! My only complaint is the weather, I miss the warm, 75 degree days! But who wouldn't right? 

On the Road Again

As most of you know, last Saturday was the big moving day. Thankfully packing and loading the truck was a breeze this time! Our friends were really a huge help and made everything so much easier! Big thank you to you both!! It also helped that it was only 80 degrees on moving day, as opposed to 115 ;)

Once everything was packed up, I finished some last minute cleaning. We did our final walk through and we were on our way by 2:30 PM!

Within the first two hours of driving Tom and I decided we could drive right through and not stop at a hotel. Kind of crazy in hindsight, but we wanted to get it done. 

Our animals were AMAZING on the car ride! Tifa was a little angel! She played with her toys some, but she mostly just wanted to sit on your lap and snuggle :) Thomas was also an angel! For this car ride we decided to use Tifa's kennel for transporting. Best decision ever. Tifa's kennel is just a metal cage whereas Thomas' kennel is plastic and he really can't see out of it. He had plenty of room in Tifa's to stretch out and move around. The metal holes were large enough that we could stick our hands in and give him attention. He was so happy. He was purring for a lot of the trip. 

We drove through the whole night and at about 7:00 AM we decided to pull over for a nap. I couldn't fall back asleep so I took Tifa out for a much needed walk/run to get some energy out of her. Then the animals got some breakfast, I got some coffee, and we were on our way again. 

The morning and afternoon were very uneventful. We drove over The Siskiyous and stopped for some lunch near Crater Lake. While doing a quick trailer check (we were towing the car behind us) we noticed a bolt was missing. We decided to call Penske's Roadside Assistance just to make sure we were good to go which turned out to be the best decision we ever made.

Even though we called about a very minor thing, everything regarding the trailer hook up was wrong. The Penske worker who helped us at our pick up location offered to hook the trailer up for us so of course we said yes. After all, he works for the company and does this all the time right? He royally messed up. 

Honestly I do not want to get into the details, but let's just say the guy who hooked the trailer up messed up so bad it's a miracle nothing happened. This isn't even exaggerated. It's a miracle no one was hurt. We brought it to Penske's attention and supposedly they sent a regional manager out to the location we picked everything up from, but we intend to go as high as possible with this issue. We should have never been put in the situation we were in, and the guy who hooked us up should (obviously) not have been doing so because he wasn't trained properly. 

Rant over. 

Once everything was PROPERLY hooked up we kept on trucking. At this point we were about 4 hours away from home, and just wanted to be done. 

We finally pulled up to my parents house around 9:45 PM. We were welcomed with a home cooked meal, happy dogs, happy people, and best of all a shower. 

Since then we have had no time to rest. It has been go, go, go with no end in sight until this morning. We still have a few small things to take care of, but nothing crazy. We really just need to spend time with family, spend time with each other, and get some sleep. 

On that note I am going to make some breakfast and lounge around for a while. Have a great day everyone! :)

One Grand Adventure

One great bonus of having to move around a lot is being able to explore different parts of the country that you probably wouldn't get to see otherwise. So this past weekend we decided to take a mini vacation to go explore some of the wonderful places around us. We decided to check out the Grand Canyon and stay in Flagstaff for the weekend.

Both of us had been to the Grand Canyon before when we were little, but we were still really excited to see it again. I personally felt like I would appreciate its beauty more now that I was older. Last time I visited, I remember being impressed for about 10 minutes then just bored because it was the same "hole in the ground" for the rest of the day. 

So we booked our hotel, packed an overnight bag for ourselves and Tifa (did I mention this was also our first vacation with her??) and off we went! 

She was very excited for our adventure! 

Family all ready to go! 

On the way there we passed signs for Montezuma's Castle. I had remembered my Grandma mentioning it was a cool landmark to see, plus Tifa needed to let off some steam, so we decided to stop there as opposed to at a rest stop. If you are ever down in Arizona (and/or just a huge history buff like myself), Montezuma's Castle is definitely worth seeing. Here is a link to the National Park Service's website so you can read more about the castle and it's history if you are interested :)

Such an amazing sight to see. 

Wish they still allowed people to go up into the castle! :(

Modeling.

Tifa wanted to be included in the photos. 

Essentially that is Montezuma's Castle. There are other, smaller caves carved into the hill that were used for storage and spiritual activities, but that's about it. It is a quick little walk around, all paved with spots to sit and enjoy the view. There is also an area where you can sit and interact with a ranger to learn more about the castle and the people that lived in it. 

Or you can just press a button and have a recording tell you all about it ;)

Anyway, if you are driving through the area I would strongly recommend stopping here for a rest stop and a chance to stretch your legs. That way you can take care of yourself, get a quick history lesson, and some awesome pictures! 

After our quick pit stop we hit the road again to continue on our way to the Grand Canyon. As we got closer we realized we were driving into a rain storm. According to the weather forecast there was a chance of thunderstorms, but oh my goodness were there thunderstorms!! 

Driving to the Grand Canyon.. AKA right into the storm!

So when we finally got to the canyon we arrived right in the middle of a HUGE storm, complete with lightening, thunder, and hail! We hid in the car for a while then just had to take sweet Tifa out to go potty. After she did her thing (TMI?) we ran in the visitors center to wait out the rest of the rain. While inside we met an adorable couple from Holland, they were doing a month long trip along the west coast of the US. They were so sweet, and made waiting for the storm to pass so much fun! 

So then the rain stopped and we dashed outside to enjoy the beautiful view!! The Grand Canyon is so much more beautiful that I remembered it being. The pictures we took do not do it justice. For whatever reason we could not drive around the whole canyon, so we walked some of the way and just enjoyed the parts we got to see. We also learned that Tifa LOVES jumping and playing in puddles. Can you say cute?? I'm thinking she was made to be an Oregon dog ;) Hopefully she will get to play in more puddles soon.. but I digress! 

We stayed at the canyon until it started getting dark, then made our way to Flagstaff. The next day it was raining again in town so we didn't do much exploring, but maybe another time! We would prefer to go back once we have some bikes anyway! :) Then we started on the journey home, only to get stuck driving in crazy intense thunderstorms and traffic. But we made it home safe and sound, then enjoyed a relaxing Sunday together. 

All in all it was an awesome trip. Tifa was the ultimate dream puppy, and we enjoyed our time together exploring nature! Plus Thomas was SUPER snuggly when we got home :P That always helps! Here are some pictures of our time at the canyon, and some cute puppy shots as well! :)

First picture :)

Such a beautiful view.

I was so scared in this picture... 

Our fearless fur ball. 

Cute :)

Puddle lover.. Wish we would have recorded her playing in them. 

On the drive to our hotel. She was so sleepy from her day of fun! 

Thomas and Tifa

I get a lot of questions about how Thomas and Tifa feel about each other. Seeing as Thomas is used to being an only child and spoiled rotten, he is adjusting.

When we first brought Tifa home she was very scared of Thomas. She stayed away from him for the first few days and then got really curious about him. She would cautiously go up and sniff him, but of course Thomas would hiss and run away. Well, then Tifa grew. She started trying to play with Thomas, and being the lazy cat that Thomas is, he did nothing about it except complain. It was so annoying! 

I tried saving him the first few times, and then I just let him figure out he needed to fend for himself. Well eventually he figured that part out. Now he eggs her on and actually starts about half of the play time sessions. But he continues to whine and hiss like he is being horribly attacked, even if Tifa is just kissing his ear. 

We know he loves dogs and we know he is actually kind of enjoying her. But I know Thomas loved being a spoiled, only child. I will say one nice thing about having Tifa around is Thomas spends more time on the couch with us ;) 

So there it is. Thomas and Tifa are in no means best of friends. But they tolerate each other and are getting better with each other as time passes :) 

My babies <3 font="">

Changes

Hi everybody! Today I am going to talk about some changes that have taken place in my life. If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter you most likely know all the cool things I am going to share with you. But do you have the "dirty deets", so you speak? No, I didn't think so.... Read on! ;)

For starters, we moved!! No more icky Southern California. The area we were living in really was not fun for us. If we were 70 and on vacation I could see it being a nice area to vacation, but we are in our 20's so... Needless to say, I am super happy for the change of scenery! 

The whole moving experience was very stressful on our little family. In the beginning, we were given 6 days notice that Tom's company was relocating him. 6 days people!!!!! So obviously I began packing right away. We had our whole moving plan in place and on schedule, when Tom's company told him not to move.. 2 days before said move.. What?!?! That was pretty frustrating to say the least.

After 3 days of packing. This was 2 days before we were told to stay in Southern California. 

Tom came home that weekend so we could spend time together before he had to go back to Arizona for the week. We were both pretty bummed, as we were really looking forward to the move! But our weekend got REALLY exciting very fast!!

We got a puppy :)

Not just any puppy, a corgi! We had been looking for one for months, but had not been going well. We started looking for older ones to adopt and had no luck. We contacted breeders, and let's just say had no luck with them either. Then while randomly browsing on Craigslist, we found some puppies!! The next day we went to pick out our baby and we brought her home ! :)

Then Tom had to go back to work :( This left me at home with a baby puppy, which is essentially a human child with fur and no diapers. Haha ;) Needless to say, I did not get much unpacking done. Which turned out to be a really good thing, seeing as that week (Thursday night actually) Tom was told to move to Arizona.

Pretty crazy right?!?! Together we finished packing the apartment, loaded our stuff up, drove to Arizona, and moved everything into our new apartment in 3 days! All with a new puppy and overweight kitty! We are pretty awesome!

So there it is. My life has changed dramatically in the past month and I am loving every minute of it. New puppy, new apartment, new town, new JOB! Yeah, I am one happy camper.. :)

Now as promised, here are some adorable pictures of our baby girl. For more recent pictures and updates, be sure to follow me on Instagram :)

Tifa on her first day home :) 10 weeks old.

I love how she has little "gloves". 11 weeks old. 

12 weeks old, with the cutest face ever. 

13 weeks old, in love with her Daddy <3 font="">

She also loves her Mommy :) 14 weeks, after her first trip to the vet!

P.S. I am still in love with my kitty, and he is my favorite :) BUT get used to "Puppy Updates"! :) Thanks for reading everyone! Comments are encouraged ;)