Keli's Korner ~ The Westie and The Wauzer

.... time for us Westies to get a nice short haircut! It was about 80 degrees around here over the weekend and we were panting like -- well, like dogs. No matter where we tried to rest, Penny and I just couldn't get comfortable. So we asked for haircuts. Actually, we had a little bit of a trim about a month ago, but it mostly grew back already. Here's some before and after pictures ~ first, look at Penny: Isn't she a fuzzy beast? What a chub-o. And here she is afterwards, looking quite svelte: I don't look too bad before; mostly my ears are long and my neck looks fat: We both look much cleaner now, and we haven't even had a bath yet: We'll probably both need some more trimming after out baths;we have a few stray bits of hair in the wrong places. I hope it stays warm out so we can sit outside and dry off in the sun. I love to lay out on the deck. Update: Nov-14-2018 Replace SewAmazin Flickr photos, uploaded to Blogger ...

Pink Snow?????? It doesn't feel squishy ... But it is covering EVERYTHING!!!! update: Nov-14-2018 Replace SewAmazin Flickr photos, uploaded to Blogger

Here is a pair of new Westie cupcakes I decorated at Easter. They are similar to the Valentine's Day Westie cupcakes , except the ears are made with a paler pink sugar and I added tongues made from Starburst candies. The bodies are chocolate cupcakes but the heads are made of white mini cupcakes. And since I mentioned Easter, here's a peek at the cupcakes we made then: The green grass cupcakes with Hershey eggs were my favorites.  The Chicks and Bunnies are a bit less polished, but I learned that I need to keep a lot more bits and pieces of candies on hand for molding ears, noses, etc.  I ended up using sugared fruit chews from Trader Joe's, cut and manipulated into shapes for the bunny ears and chick beaks. Next time, I need to make cupcakes that Keli and Penny can eat; they're not happy they missed out on these. update: Nov-14-2018 Replace SewAmazin Flickr photos, uploaded to Blogger

Today is so warm and sunny, it's a little hard to believe that only a few short weeks ago, we had almost two feet of snow on the ground. What do you do with that much snow and two fickle terriers who want to go out to sniff and explore, but who don't want to get snowballs stuck on their legs and bellies? Plow a snow maze for them: ^ It's not quite an Olympic bobsled track, but they like it The day after the big February storm, both Keli and Penny could barely contain themselves and could not wait to go out and romp and roll around in the new snow. But after they came back inside covered with snow balls stuck all over their legs and bellies, they refused to go back out. again. After most snowstorms (even the little ones) we usually clear a small area for them to take care of business; after a few days they usually get bored with this small area and try to walk on top of the frozen crust of the deeper snow. We were all starting to get on each other'...

Well, both Valentine's and St. Patrick's days have come and gone and I'm finally getting around to posting photos of our experiment with cupcakes. In my previous blog entry , I had just purchased the book, Hello, Cupcake, and was anxious to give the Westie cupcakes a try. I have to admit, I wasn't able to find a suitable reusable replacement for Ziploc bags, and in the end I purchased a small Wilton cake decorating kit with a couple of decorating tips and plastic icing bags. The kit also had icing food coloring which came in quite handy. Below is the whole pack of Westie Valentine cupcakes; some of them are wearing pink ruffles: And here is the very first cupcake, not a masterpiece at all! I tried to use miniature M&M's for the eyes, but they're much too large for this face: Here are two of the best finished cupcakes. The eyes and nose are mini chocolate morsels and the scale is much better:   The cupcake Westies with the pink ruffles a...

While I was out shopping this week, I spotted this book: Hello Cupcake! Of course I was drawn to it because of the cover. The fact that I had a coupon for 40% off helped seal the deal, and it ended up coming home with me. As I read the table of contents, I was delighted to see an entire entry devoted to Westies, although the authors seem to be as confused as most other people about the difference between Scotties, Westies and Cairn terriers, since they include black and multi-colored "Westies" in their instructions. Regardless, they are really cute and look delicious! There is another set of instructions for Pupcakes, featuring many other breeds, Schnauzers included. I've read most of the instructions, and they seem pretty clear and simple to follow. The only drawback is that for most of the piping and decorating, the authors use a *lot* of Ziploc freezer bags. This may be an easy to find and inexpensive tool, but it seems to be unnecessary plastic ending up ...