Fetch Fido A Flight- A Life Saving Dog Rescue Flight

I had the privilege of witnessing a life saving flight for 49 dogs who needed to be rescued from death row. Oklahoma has a tremendous problem with pet overpopulation and because of that, we have too many incredible dogs and companion animals being euthanized every day.

Thankfully, we have people like Vikki Smith who have taken on the crisis and decided to do something about it. She organized Fetch Fido A Flight which works with Wings of Rescue to fly at risk dogs out of Oklahoma to more adoptable places in the United States. Many of these places are in the Northwest and they literally have waiting lists of people wanting to adopt dogs. I can't imagine!

When I started Treat Dreams, I wanted to be able to help in some way. It took me a few years in business to get things figured out and I realized  if I was able to create more profit in my items I sold, I could give a percentage to different rescues throughout the country and get to be a part of some amazing work that people are doing.

So, that is how I got to be a part of Fetch Fido A Flight and see the flight actually take place. We gave 10% of our sales from Treat Dreams to Fetch Fido A Flight for the months of April and May.

Here are some pictures that I took from that day. The flight has to be loaded and take off early so we can avoid this horrid Oklahoma heat. So we started at 5:30! Eek!!

 

My Favorite Cruelty Free Products Right Now

So I have recently been educated on the inner workings of animal testing and just how unnecessary and outdated the process is. Then became aware the very common practice of testing on beagles! Beagles!!!!

Change is hard....
Now, if you are like me, there are cases you want to get behind, but it can make life inconvenient or it isn't convenient to find another alternative!
Beagle Freedom Project has made is SUPER easy to find out if your most beloved beauty, cleaning and other supplies are cruelty free/tested on animals or not. Just download the app and use it's barcode scanner to scan your makeup/toothpaste/cleaner's barcode and find out if it is cruelty free or not.

Bad news....
Now beware, most of your products are not going to be cruelty free. So get ready for change. BUT, the good news is that SOOOO many products are available, they are great and they are cruelty free!

My favs right now...

My Favorite Cruelty Free Body Lotion:

Pro: This is one I scanned and was so excited when it said it was cruelty free! The scent is perfectly light and feminine. It is also rich and thick, not watery. Korres Body Butter, Jasmine.

Con: This lotion is expensive, so I only ask for it for my birthday and Christmas.

Great similar cruelty free brands that can be found at Target and Drug Stores: Yes To, SheaMoisture, Pacifica, Burts Bees

My Favorite Cruelty Free Cleaner:

Pro: LOVE METHOD! We were big Clorox people around my house. With four dogs, we practically bought stock in the brand. But once we saw Clorox is NOT cruelty free, we made the switch and I love Method products. They smell SO GOOD! Which also is helpful when one has four dogs. It is important to note, I chose this one because it is also ANTIBACTERIAL which is important to me.

Con: Expensive for cleaner. Same as Clorox Everywhere but when you use it as much as we do, it adds up. 

My Favorite Cruelty Free Sunless Tanner:

I hate summer. Because it exposed my whiteness. In the winter, I can do a pretty good job covering it up and making you think it doesn't exist. I can pull my hair forward to cover most of my neck and apply a nice amount of make up and feel pretty great. But summer exposes it....and it's terrible. If you want to know about the circulatory system, you an see it working through my arms and legs. Anyway, I found this on Instagram of all places and I ordered it and I really like it.

Pro: I hate standing in front of a fan drying and of course hate streaks. I find this dries easily and you can actually see it when you put it on, therefore you can see if you will have streaks or not and.......it's cruelty free! Loving Tan.

Now this is NOT on the app, but the bottle says it is not tested on animals, so it's still a WIN!

Con: It is pretty dramatic for white people. If you just put it one place and not all over, it definitely looks like you just put tanner on your legs and nowhere else. I would really like to have an even lighter option for us really really pale people. #palepeopleproblems

 Favorite Cruelty Free Lip Balms:

Sugar is expensive, I'll admit it. Another birthday/Christmas gift. I also love a local company called Bumble and Pine. I bought some of their lip balm at a fair last year and I just love it.

Sugar Pro: But it lasts me for 6 months until I need it again and it is heavenly. There is a reason it is expensive. fresh is a great brand committed to the elimination of animal testing.

Sugar Con: Expensive, that's all I got, otherwise it's amazing.

Bumble and Pine Pro: Natural as natural can be. Literally made by the people who sell it. Some lip balm deteriorates or gets clumpy after awhile, this does not. So fresh!

Bumble and Pine Con: I didn't buy enough last time, looking forward to the next craft fair to get more.

I am trying out more and more cruelty free products all the time! I will be posting as often as I can telling the pros and cons of everything I try!

Let me know what you are trying and loving!!!

Dog Shirts For People Who Love Dogs :)

We have so many varieties of shirts in the shop right now! There are so many ways to wear them!

Memorial Day Sale All Weekend! Enjoy 15% Off!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

If you are like me you have a TON planned to do! Part of that is taking part in all the AWESOME SALES everyone is having! I didn't want to be left out, so enjoy 15% ALL WEEKEND!

USE CODE: MEMORIAL

We have some new stuff in and some stuff on SALE! 

Ready.....set....SHOP!

www.treatdreamsthedogbakery.com

Wedding Chalkboard Photo Backdrop

My best friend got married last weekend and she had asked me to help her create a chalkboard photo backdrop for her guests to take pictures in front of and enjoy! Of course I said YES!

I can now pride myself on being a pretty phenomenal "chalker". I have completed the wall in my shop as you can see here.....

...and now I will tackle a chalk photo-booth. *I should also mention, another incentive for me doing this board is that I get to keep it after the wedding!*

Her dad put the board together which I think would be the hardest part! He painted it with chalkboard paint and that is all I know about how it came to be :)

Once I had it, Kara (the bride) had to decide what she wanted it to say. She had found a post on Pinterest that used a chalkboard photo booth and decided she liked it enough to try to replicate it as best we could. Thanks Averie Lane!

Create the Files

I think this is super super easy and oh so fun! I started by using either Microsoft Word or Pages and created the files of the "phrases" in the fonts that we liked and wanted to use. Then I printed them out.

As you can see, they are just printed on normal paper. I just picked fonts, and then placed them appropriately on the paper.

If you want some fun font options, check out dafont.com and go to town!! Try not to get carried away!

Enlarge the Files

Kara and I used a tape measure and decided how far apart we wanted each "phrase" and how many could fit on each board. We decided that each "phrase" would be about 2 inches apart. So that allowed for us to have each phrase enlarged to be 14" tall. The length could be however wide your board is. Ours was 2.5 feet. So we took approximately 12 pieces of paper into Office Depot and asked them to enlarge each to be 14" tall and 2.5 feet long. It does not matter that this is disproportionate or will be blurry when printed because you won't be using it in that way.

Trace the Files

This is when the real fun begins! Kara and I turned up the music and traced all day long! All you do is take your giant piece of paper, turn it over and cover it with chalk (well only the part you will trace, i.e. the words). Scribble away! Chalk that baby up!!!

Then measure and tape! Measure on the board where you want it to be placed, and use some tape to keep it in place.

Then take a pencil and trace the words! You don't even have to press hard. Just easily trace all the way around every letter. Just to make sure, you can lift of your paper and peek underneath and there it is, perfectly chalked letters!

Chalk It In

Since this was for a wedding and it would be carried and touched and moved and transported, I didn't want to actually use chalk to color in my words. So I picked up 4 chalk markers at Hobby Lobby. I used two big fat ones and two normal ones.

The only tricky thing about this step is you want to make sure you match your font. If it is a bold font, you will want to color in your bold letters. If it is a thin font, then you won't. 

This font required small lines throughout each letter. Lots of work but looks SO good when you are done!

To help make this look as perfect as possible. I pretty much used a ruler for everything that had a straight edge. It helped me outline everything to be as straight as possible. I didn't use it for one of the phrases and it BUGGED me to death because it didn't look as straight as all the ones I had used the ruler with.

And don't worry! If you mess up, all you have to do is erase with a wet rag. Just know that if you erase everything you will have to start from scratch again my covering the paper with chalk and re-stenciling.

Finishing Touches

To make it not look so bare, I drew in some "squigglies" around the borders to help make it more fun!

Now I get to start all over and make it work for Treat Dreams! I think I will take it to shows and fairs with me. It will make a great background don't you think?