Okayyyyyy! We've officially made it to the midway point of this terrible, awful, no good, very bad year. The optimist in me wants to be all "SURELY things will get better from here." But the realist in me is much much much bigger and is telling me to give it another 6 months.
And then the flat out pessimist in me is saying this. 😂
Oh dear. We shall see, right?
Anyway, we're trying to keep things as normal as we possibly can around here and Charlie has been the greatest distraction from pretty much everything this week.
We've had this dog for not even two weeks now and we already feel like he's been part of our family for years. He has settled on in and has made himself right at home. He's even gotten used to Craig after being pretty afraid of him in the beginning. Now they are big buddies. (But I'm still Charlie's favorite. Just call me #packleader. 😉)
Charlie's personality gets bigger and bigger every day (as do his mischievous little ways) but he has brought such a great energy into our home. We are completely taken with this cute baby!
(You can read all about Charlie and how I surprised the boys with him HERE.)
I had actually planned on publishing a post about our adoption experience yesterday but tragedy struck, y'all! (I use the word "tragedy" loosely here. 😜) I spent 3 hours on Wednesday afternoon working on the post and when I was about 90% finished, I decided to take a break and finish it up before I went to bed so I could have it set to publish on Thursday morning. And when I went to finish the last 10% that night--my whole post was GONE. Nothing saved. Not a single word. Normally everything autosaves every few seconds but for some reason, it just didn't and so now I have to start all over. (Insert me screaming in frustration, slamming my head onto my desk and/or throwing my computer across the room. 😂 #kidding #oramI?)
I just couldn't get myself motivated to start ALL over again just yet, so I'll try to plan for it again next week. #firstworldproblems
Anyway, since our world has revolved around Charlie lately, I thought I'd share some favorites of his today. (If you are not a dog lover, I do have a few of my own personal faves at the bottom of the post if you want to just scroll down to that.)
This pup is supposedly 2 years old but he definitely has a lot of puppy in him. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a little younger but we'll never really know. He loves to chew though so we made sure to get him a few things that will keep him occupied and out of trouble. (So far he's only chewed up one set of wired earbuds, eaten parts of my houseplant which I have since moved out of his reach, and destroyed a styrofoam airplane. I've found odd things in his bed too but they haven't been chewed up so I feel like he's more of a hoarder than a destroyer.)
This pup is supposedly 2 years old but he definitely has a lot of puppy in him. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a little younger but we'll never really know. He loves to chew though so we made sure to get him a few things that will keep him occupied and out of trouble. (So far he's only chewed up one set of wired earbuds, eaten parts of my houseplant which I have since moved out of his reach, and destroyed a styrofoam airplane. I've found odd things in his bed too but they haven't been chewed up so I feel like he's more of a hoarder than a destroyer.)
This little pineapple chew toy is one of his absolute favorites.
You can stuff it with a few little treats to keep them interested and it also smells like pineapple! I think he likes the texture of this one a lot. They come in several sizes too (we got the small) but he went nuts over this thing immediately. He also loves his Kong filled with treats or peanut butter. My friend told me to put the PB and then freeze it so that it lasts longer and I need to remember to do that next time!
Another of his favorites was recommended by one of you guys on Instagram the other day! Thank you!! You suggested this plush squeaky popcorn toy and he lovvvvvvveeeess it. For starters, he loves any kind of ball. Fetch is his favorite activity with "chase" being a close second. (He loves to chase the boys around the backyard at full speed!) So the popcorn balls are perfect for him to chew on (they have a squeaky thing inside too) as well as to chase. You can stuff them inside the popcorn box when you're done.
They also come in some other funny "themes" like a bucket of chicken, coffee and donuts, blueberries and pancakes and cute things like that.
One of MY favorite things is this little dog food storage container. When we had our other two dogs, we bought dog food in bigger bags since there were two of them and kept it in a cute 20 gallon(ish) aluminum trash can with a lid that was made for dog food. Now that it's just one little guy, I needed an easy way to store his food so I got on Amazon and found this.
It was super cheap (like 8 bucks), holds a 5lb bag of food, the lid is on a hinge and snaps on and closed easily but very securely and it keeps the food fresh and airtight. I use a scoop that I'm pretty sure is actually a beach toy. #whateverworks
I wanted it to fit on the shelf in my pantry so it was in easy reach for everyone (except Charlie). We keep a little wicker basket full of his snacks right next to it.
I'm going to make a cute little "Charlie" decal for the front too because that's what happens when you make personalized stuff for a living. ;)
Speaking of personalized, I ordered this adorable little dog collar from here and it's so cute! The company that makes them is a small business (#shopsmall), has a great variety, even better prices and they ship quick!
The other side has my phone number on it. He doesn't wear a collar most of the time when he's just hanging around with us at home but every dog needs a collar! I had to make it cute! ;)
For our walks, he's got this harness (comes in lots of great color options!). We are still working on our leash skills over here. Our walk the other day lasted all of 12 minutes before I decided to try again later. He gets scared of anyone he sees walking toward us--man, woman, and child--and will refuse to go any further. It's a work in progress.
(My shoes are the comfiest EVER and are on major sale right now! And my absolute favorite capri leggings are finally back in stock in this pretty blue!)
Charlie also got his first bath yesterday and while he wasn't happy about it, he didn't fight me on it either. I picked up this dog shampoo and conditioner at PetSmart because it was one of the most natural ones and it smells like mangos. Yum.
It left him all soft and fluffy and even cuter than ever!
(This was the only picture I had of him post-bath. But trust me. Super soft and fluffy. 😂 And yes, there are TWO Christmas blankets in this picture if you look close. Why do the Christmas ones have to be the softest?! We keep them out year-round because we just can't quit 'em. 🤷♀️)
I'm also coming back to add these dental treats because I put a video of Charlie tossing this thing around this morning in my Instastories and realized I didn't talk about them here! My girlfriend told me to get these and they are his favorite! He gets one every morning and usually plays with it for a few minutes before he settles down to eat it.
So that's just a few of Charlie's favorite things. Again, we're not even two weeks into this adoption so I'm sure we'll find new things he loves but y'all's suggestions have helped so much! Our two old pups weren't into toys or chewing during the second half of their lives so a lot of this is new to me even though we are experienced dog owners. Every dog is so different!
And finally, in case you have no use for Charlie's favorite things, here are some of mine from this past week!
Amazon is having a buy 2 get 1 50% off sale on a bunch of great beauty and household products this week and I decided to grab some sunscreen (because we are always out of sunscreen) and also some new (inexpensive) makeup to wear on the days I want to go pretty natural and don't want to waste my expensive foundation. I've been wanting to try some sort of cream foundation or stick lately so I decided to try this concealer and this contour stick since I could get 1 50% with the sale. (I got "medium" in both. Not all colors are part of the sale.)
I swipe the concealer on under my eyes, around my nose, on my chin, and forehead and then use my damp beauty blender to blend it all. The contour stick is great to draw on under my cheekbones, over my temples, and towards my hairline. I use the highlighter side to add a few stripes on my upper cheeks and down the middle of my nose and then blend blend blend! It all blends SO EASILY and gives a really natural look while covering up any redness or blemishes. The best part is that each one is under $9 and you can get 1 of those half off with this little deal! Score!
And I wanted a 4th item in order to take advantage of the "Buy 2 get 1 50% deal" so when I saw this Revlon Lip Balm for $3.49 I scooped it up. I've heard people talk about how delicious it smells and it also gives a really pretty, natural color to your lips while keeping them all soft and hydrated. I chose the Strawberry color/flavor and its so good!!! And so cheap. Grab 2 and you'll get 1 half off! I actually went back and got the Berry and Cherry ones too!
That's it for today, friends! I hope you all have a great weekend! Stay safe and stay healthy!!
Linking up with Erika and Andrea for Friday Favorites, High 5 for Friday, Nancy, Simply Sweet Home, Friday at the Firehouse, and Create with Joy.
That Independence Day shot... oh so true! Who knows what July will bring?
ReplyDeleteI'm scared to wake up every morning! haha
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