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I found this locket on Etsy today, and I feel like I need it:

Yes, that is a labrador! And, just as cool (assuming you even think the labrador on the locket is cool), is that this necklace is made from vintage materials! In fact, all the jewelry in the silk purse, sow’s ear Etsy shop is made from “vintage and re-vamped” items.

Several of the pieces in the shop include animals. For example, if you love French Poodles, how about this kitschy vintage French Poodle locket:

Okay, so that piece may be a little over-the-top kitschy, but I think it is pretty darn cool – and talk about unique. Conversation piece? Perhaps. Man-repeller? Most definitely.

In fact, your search for “dog jewelry” on Etsy will return everything from dog tags (for your dog), to jewelry for your dog, to jewelry for you with dogs on it (some good, some bad, some scary).

So what do you think of the labrador locket? Good, bad, scary, somewhere in between?

Read about the world’s tallest dog here!

He is  7ft long, afraid of chihuahuas and water, and sleeps on his own queen-sized mattress!

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Mocha and I both love Bocce’s Bakery’s biscuits (I love them because they are organic and healthy – Mocha loves them because they taste so good)… and we are excited about the new flavor that Bocce’s Bakery announced today:

And, for a limited time, Bocce’s Bakery is offering free shipping on all biscuit orders!

How cute is the new set of Girlie Dogs notecards from Rifle Paper Co.???

I smell a MOCHIE-ROO giveaway coming up!

I have been noticeably absent from the blog lately, so instead of prolonging the silence I wanted to report that I will be taking somewhat of a blog staycation. I will still post, but with less frequency than previously and my posts will be smaller (quick little snippets of design, pet, products I love, etc…). So things may look and feel a little different!

Congratulations to my puppy niece, Lucy! She graduated from her puppy training class with flying colors; and is on her way to a good citizen certificate!

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I love cookbooks. I have more than I need; and I also score pretty food blogs for even more recipes. Between the cookbooks I have, the recipes I have printed and bookmarked I have way more recipes than I could possibly hope to make in my lifetime. However, that doesn’t stop me from finding more cookbooks and recipes and food blogs.

I just got Alicia Silverstone’s cookbook, The Kind Diet, which is Alicia’s approach to a vegan lifestyle. I am not a vegan, but I can appreciate the healthy recipes in Alicia’s book nonetheless. Some of the recipes I marked in the book are Barley Casserole, Hearty Pinto Bean Stew, Peach Crumble, Clean, Mean Burritos, and Quinoa with Basil and Pine Nuts. Alicia uses brown rice syrup as the sweetener in many of her recipes, and as I am trying to diversify from agave (I will still use it, but I want to vary my healthy sweeteners more) I am looking forward to trying brow rice syrup. Most recently, I have been using dates, date sugar, and stevia as switch ups  for agave; I like all three of these sweeteners so far, but am willing to add yet another.

On Saturday, John was jonesing for chocolate, so I decided to whip up some chocolate cupcakes for him. I used Elana’s recipe for chocolate cupcakes that are make from coconut flour, and since I had just received and finished reviewing The Kid Diet, I made the chocolate frosting from the book – Fudge Frosting is what Alicia calls it. The cupcakes turned out absolutely delicious! Here is the recipe for the Fudge Frosting so you can make it yourself:

1/2 cup Earth Balance (I use the soy-free one)
1/2 cup agave
2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup soy milk powder (I didn’t have any so I just left this out)

Use a mixer to cream the butter together with the agave in a mixing bowl until very smooth.  Add the vanilla and half the cocoa, mix on a low speed to combine. Then add remaining cocoa powder and beat on a medium-high setting until fluffy. If it is runny, refrigerate the frosting until it sets up.

Alicia also has a website companion for the book, thekindlife.com, which is basically Alicia’s blog that covers food, health, house, style, and environment in relation to her lifestyle philosophy. I have not checked out he website in detail yet, so I cannot tell you much more.

I mentioned dog food in the title of this post because Alicia dog address it in her book! She points out the fact that “Conventional pet food is basically junk food, only worse: It’s chockfull of animal byproducts (intestines, bones, brains, and other lovelies), preservatives, chemicals, and fillers. Is it any wonder pets these days routinely die of nasty conditions like cancer and kidney failure?” (Silverstone 118) Sound familiar?

Alicia’s solution is to feed her pack Dr. Harvey’s organic dog food, along with L-carnitine and taurine supplements (because Dr. Harvey’s food doesn’t have them) and she also feeds her pack her leftovers. With Dr. Harvey’s dog food and the leftovers, her pups get a plant-based diet filled with healthy, organic grains, beans, and vegetables. Now I will admit that Alicia’s approach may not work for everyone; but I for one plan to try to incorporate my leftovers into Mocha’s diet more often: not all the time, mind you, just occasionally.

By the way, you can find all of Alicia’s posts on the kindlife.com regarding animals here.

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I always love hearing from you all …. What is your favorite cookbook? Do you have The Kind Diet book? How do you like it? Where are you at with your dog’s diet and how/what you feed them?

Today’s that day – Take Your Dog to Work Day …

Zuke’s did a get blog post about the do’s & don’ts of bringing your dog into the office. Instead of me reinventing (or in this case, rewriting) the wheel, I suggest you check out their post.

Did you bring your pup to work with you today?

This Friday is June 24th is Take Your Dog to Work Day. For information on the day, tips for taking your dog to work, and some fun galleries visit the Take Your Dog to Work Day site sponsored by Pet Sitters International.

Last week I finished up the above portrait of the cutest little couple – Bentley & Bailee. I found myself calling them B&B and their adorable little pose on the sofa in the photo I worked from was just perfect for a couple’s portrait! And, as you’ll hear about below, these pups truly are a couple, even soul mates, as they just had puppies together in February!

Usually, after I finish a portrait, I have the portrait subject’s family email me some information about their pup. Then, I write my post based upon that information. Well, B&B’s mama, Layne, provided me with her pups’ individual and shared stories, so I just going to let her tell it and so I am re-posting her word-for-word below.

Bentley came to live with me on Christmas day of 2009. He was 10 weeks old and very shy and sweet. He was one of 9 puppies and the runt of the litter. Once he came home he started to perk up and wanted to play. He was my first dog that I had bought.

I felt so bad that Bentley was all by himself during the day while I was gone at work that I decided it was time he had a friend in his life. Three months later, in March, Bailee was brought home at the VERY young age of only 5 weeks old. Though she was small she was a fiesty little thing and immediately showed Bentley who was boss! The two of them are now virtually inseperatable and love eachother very very much. They both have so much fun playing with their toys and running as fast as they can in the back yard.

Bailee always is carrying around her pink dragon where ever she goes. She also thinks she is a hunting dog and the second she is let out she sprints to chase every bird in the yard. A few times she has succeeded and has caught a few in mid flight. She loves to go on walks and play with kids.

Bentley on the other hand is a bit more reserved. He loves to fetch a ball or a frisbee in the yard. He would much rather be riding in the car though; his favorite spot to sit is on the center counsel where he balences through every turn and stop. Bentley loves to just follow me around the house watching my every move. He tends to have bad anxiety though every time I’m out of his sight. He is definately a “momma’s boy”.

Both Bailee and Bentley love to cuddle up and snuggle with anyone and everyone. There is not a person that they dont like.

In December of 2010 at a very young age, Bailee got pregnant purely by accident. Bentley had just come home from being neutered that day and I had let the two of them out to go to the bathroom. I had only let them out for about 10 minutes, and when I came back out to check on them they had “locked up”. I thought nothing of it really because Bentley had just been neutered. If anything I was more impressed that he had the engery and was feeling up to it after all he had been through that day. Well the weeks went on and Bailee started acting funny and her nipples seemed to be getting larger. I thought no way could she be pregnant, it just wasn’t possible. Then in the middle of January after she started to look like she was really gaining some weight I decided maybe I should take her to the vet just to be sure. Ultrasound came back showing a small puppy in her womb. I was shocked and excited and scared all at the same time. I had no idea how to deliver puppies; although it had always been a dream of mine to go through this process. I asked the vet how it was possible that she got pregnant and he told me that the male is still fertile up to 30 days after being neutered. So that explained everything. But even our vet was impressed that he got her pregnant on his first and probably only shot. Well 58 days later from the time she had mated with Bentley she started going into labor. It was February 5, 2011, fourteen days shy of Bailee’s first birthday. Babies having babies. She didnt want to leave her kennel and was panting very heavily. She started nesting and burrying food in her blankets. It was at about 9 am when it started and by 12:35pm she gave birth to her first puppy. It was a 5 oz little girl. Bailee did a wonderful job and knew exactly what to do. The puppy latched on right away and began nursing. It was a very proud and emotional momemt for me. Then about an hour later the second puppy started to come out. Immediately I could tell something was wrong. After she pushed it out I took the puppy away and peeled it out of its brownish green sac. The puppy was blue and not moving. I tried everything I could to get him to come to life but it was too late. The puppy never got to take his first breath. After his death I was very optimistic that if there were anymore puppies in there that they would be alive. But after an hour and a half here came the 3rd puppy. I was thrilled when it came out and had a nice and pink sac. Bailee took care of it and puppy number 3 was a healthly 5 oz little girl. Only twenty minutes later the next pup came shooting out! It was a healthy 6 oz little boy. I thought for sure that was going to be the last pup because Bailee was sooooo tiny there was no way she could fit FIVE puppies in her… but sure enough only 15 minutes later, out came another healthy 4oz little girl. Bailee was exhausted and Bentley was just watching her wondering what the heck was going on. I couldnt believe that she had five puppies. I was very excited that 4 of them made it out alive.

The next few weeks were amazing. Watching the little ones grow and open their eyes and take their first real steps was great. I was so proud of Bailee for being such a great mom. Bentley absolutely loved the puppies and when they were old enough to play around he had a blast with them and they loved him too. Bailee was so over them after they started getting teeth at 4 weeks old. So the pups started to eat puppy food and occasionally nurse. By the time the pups were 8 weeks old they went to their new families. They all went to my friends and so Bentley and Bailee still get to see them. Two of the puppies got to go home together which made me very happy. They puppies were named Jade, Daisy, Oliver and Ruby. Ruby and Jade now live together and Oliver lives just down the street from them. Daisy lives a bit further so we dont see her as much. Bentley and Bailee are now back to their old selves playing and running and having a great time. They sleep side by side and hug and kiss eachother every day. They are truly soul mates and the loves of my life. They are always making me laugh and smile. I couldn’t have asked for two better dogs.

Here are a few more photos of these adorable pups: