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! 

"I Did It!" Pinterest Edition

It's no secret, I love Pinterest. However, I feel like I spend way too much time simply browsing through everything. See I have this sickness, I find and pin thousands of awesome projects, and then I never complete them. Or even worse, I pin a project, buy all the supplies I need for it, then never finish the project. Can you say Pinterest fail?

When we were packing for our move I was going through my crafting and sewing supplies and realized just how many unfinished projects I had laying around. It was then and there that I promised myself I would start to actually finish said projects once we settled in our new place!

And thus my series "I Did It!" Pinterest Edition was born!

For my first project I am going to share a cute little sewing project I found a while ago. It is an ADORABLE little fox stuffed animal! Here is the original pin:



This project is a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I always get intimidated with new projects, and this was certainly out of my sewing comfort zone! My seam ripper was close by at all times, as were my printed instructions. Make fun of me all you want, but I like things to be perfect. Especially when this little guy is a present for someone ;)

Here are some pictures from the creative process :)

I always have my helper nearby!

Snuggling the little fox.

I still need to put eyes and a nose on the little guy. I think I am going to use felt but I haven't decided! After I sewed the fox and stuffed him I decided he was too small. I also decided that I wanted the bottom to be flat so he could sit on a shelf (I don't know when I decided the fox was a he, but it is). So I am currently working on enlarging the pattern and tweaking it a bit to better suite my fox stuffed animal needs! When I have modified the pattern I will post a tutorial for you all! 

<div align="center"><a href="http://theupstairscrafter.blogspot.com/" title="The Upstairs Crafter" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag73/speckdoodle/250x250IDidIt_zpsaa6dd261.png" alt="The Upstairs Crafter" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

If you would like to participate and share your Pinterest creations please do so! For now please grab the code and link up below! I would eventually like to make this a weekly linky party, so participation would be amaze-balls! :) If you have any suggestions about making this a linky party (perhaps hosting it every other week instead?) I would LOVE to hear read them! Just leave your ideas in the comments below. Or if you have any advise to offer about hosting your own linky party that would be appreciated as well! Thanks 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 :) 

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