Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Harley's 11 Week Update

Saturday marked three weeks since bringing Harley home. Which also marks three weeks since I have had a solid night sleep! Since bringing Harley home, we were a bit reluctant on starting the crate training. He had been introduced to the crate, it sits in our living room/kitchen for him to walk in freely. We started out with keeping him in there for very short periods of time and slowly started to increase the length of time. The longest he has stayed in there is two hours. Daniel and I both work full time so we are gone from the house 8-9 hours a day, Monday to Friday. While some people have said it would be fine to leave him in a crate for this long, I feel differently about it. In my eyes, he is still a baby. Holding his bladder for that long is not possible at 11 weeks old and I don’t agree with letting him soil his crate as it defeats the purpose. So where does he stay you ask? We decided to leave him in our en-suite bathroom. We put a baby gate up so that he can’t wander into our room and laid out news paper and pee pads on one side of the bathroom and on the other side is his bed, toys, water and food. He has become very comfortable in this space and leaving him for such a long period of time gives us comfort knowing he is okay. However, when we bring him downstairs for free time, we have him only explore the kitchen area so that we don’t have accidents in the living room. Since we have been reluctant on the crate training for sleeping, he also stays in our bathroom at night. Before you say, so how is he learning to control his bladder? He's just figuring it out I guess..we have had a few pee pee accidents in the kitchen but nothing major. We take him outside after any activity (sleeping, eating, drinking, playing) he has started to get the hang of it. We make sure we reward him when ‘releasing’ outside. We do have to constantly watch him whenever he isn’t sleeping which has also made it very difficult to do anything around the house. Which is why we have now started with crate training for short periods of time, so that I was able to get back to some sort of normality for myself.

The one thing I find even more difficult than potty training is the CONSTANT nipping/biting at my feet, ankles, calves. I will say wearing socks is a MUST! I have even had to start wearing old bootie style slippers to cover and protect me from his razor sharp teeth. That is definitely something I cannot wait for him to grow out of. I also feel like a broken record saying NO! a million times a day. It is hard to not lose your patience at times but then you have to remember he is just a puppy, they all do it. If anyone knows a special way to stop puppies from doing this, please let me know!

He has gone for a few walks although we don’t go very far. The first time I took him on a walk, he kept stopping and looking at me and I swear it was like he was saying ‘why in the hell are you keeping me constrained like this!’ He is doing pretty well but he definitely needs to be taken for walks regularly to get used to it.

Harley out on his first walk. (picture is quite blurry as I had to zoom on my Iphone quite a bit but you get the point)

Since Daniel plans on being in town for a while, we decided starting him in puppy training classes would be a good idea. (More of like new puppy parents training so we know what we are doing) We have enrolled him in the PetsMart 6 week puppy training course and start on March 12th, I am so excited! We are also taking him for his first puppy bath this Saturday, I hope he does okay and doesn't get too freaked out by the whole process.

A few more recent pictures of Harley!

Rachel xo

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Thursday, February 13, 2014

Valentine's Day Date Outfit

Valentines Outfit

Valentine's Day is tomorrow and while the gents are planning the perfect date for their sweetheart, most ladies are picking out their outfit! Today's post is a date night outfit inspiration. All of the items are at great price points except the fabulous gold clutch from Tory Burch is a splurge.

Since Daniel is away again for work this week, we won't be celebrating until next weekend. Which doesn't really bother me as Valentine's Day has never been a big thing for us but I do love finding any occasion to get dressed up! For those of you that are celebrating tomorrow, I hope it is a great day filled with love!

Happy Valentine's Day

Rachel xo

River Island retro dress
$74 - riverisland.com

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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Product Review - The Regimen

Today’s post is about a product I have been using for 3 weeks now. This is also a sensitive subject for me as dealing with the ‘A’ word has not been easy on me. Yes…I’m talking about dreadful acne. Since going through this horrible breakout, I have got a lot of information from Bloggers, YouTube and Google on different ‘remedies’ to help cure acne. I thought that posting about something I have been using could be helpful for someone else. Now, before I start with this product review. I will say first, what might work on me, may not work on you. This is also not my first attempt at curing this beast (as I like to call it). Since beginning this battle a year ago, I have tried just about everything from prescriptions, over the counter, home remedies and natural products (including food). Anything that seemed like it was starting to help would just disappoint me a few weeks later. I will also add that a drugstore foundation I was using was also making it worse and once I switched to a better foundation I noticed improvement as well.

So lets get into it..

I discovered The Regimen from watching a makeup tutorial on YouTube. The Regimen review was actually a suggested video to watch and that’s how I came about to know it. I often think, jeez if I wasn’t wasting time laying in bed watching someone else put make-up on I would of never found this product! Anyway… I was slightly skeptical of purchasing yet another product to try and clear this up. However, at the same time I thought, maybe this will be the last trial and error I go through. I read a lot of peoples reviews, looked at before and after pictures and more YouTube reviews when I finally decided, okay lets do this! I couldn’t wait for the package to come in the mail so that I could start this new product. The Regimen contains a Cleanser, Treatment and Moisturizer. The cleanser is amazing! Before starting I was worried that I would have to first take my make-up off with another product and then wash my face with the cleanser but nope! This stuff does it all. The two important factor’s to this regimen are: washing your face twice a day and being very gentle while washing, treating and moisturizing. The treatment contains 2.5% benzoyl peroxide to kill and dry those suckers out. After reading numerous reviews and how-to instructions on this product, I knew that my skin was going to get dry. I started out slow with the amount of ‘pumps’ of the treatment at the beginning. For the first few days I did ½ a pump, once a day. I then bumped that up to ½ a pump, twice a day. Then I went to a full pump, twice a day. I am now on two pumps, twice a day. Lets just say the drying is intense, like skin flaking intense. After the treatment has completely dried, I put on the moisturizer. Using lots of moisturizer is a must! You can put moisturizer on more than twice per day if you feel really dry. I also sometimes add jojoba oil into the mix to really help with the dryness. They recommend not to wear any make-up while going through the treatment. But really? Let’s be honest, I can’t go without make-up everyday especially going to work. Plus, if you have ever gone through a bad acne breakout, you know that it can leave some pretty bad marks which take forever to lighten. I will say, I skipped wearing foundation everyday about a week into the regimen once the dryness became bad. It wasn’t a nice look, foundation and flaky skin so now I just wear a mineral loose powder for everyday wear unless I am going somewhere that I want a more finished look. I would like to eventually show before and after pictures but it takes a lot of courage to display a bare skin face with acne to the world and I am just not ready for that yet. I will say that I have noticed drastic improvements already and it is just 3 weeks into it. I still get a pimple here and there but it dries out so fast and starts to heal right away.

So there you have it.. I have finally found something to clear this beast! Yippieeee! Believe me when I say, I feel for anyone having to go through this at whatever point in their life they go through it. It’s not easy.. AT ALL. It can have a major effect on your self esteem and make you feel depressed. Especially when nothing seems to work. I would recommend this product to anyone who goes through breakouts however minor or major it is. I will also add that this is not a sponsored post. I paid for the kit and decided to try it on my own.

I apologize for this ridiculously long post but I wanted to get as much information out as possible. I hope that this information can help you or someone you know going through an acne breakout and just remember you are not alone!

Rachel xo

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Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Welcome Harley

After many discussions between Daniel and I about getting a puppy, we finally decided now would be a good time to start a ‘family’.

While Daniel was out of town for work, I found the cutest most perfect puppy (in my opinion, of course) We always said if we get a puppy one day, it has to be a girl. Well of course that all changed once I saw this little boy. I sent Daniel a picture to show him how adorable he was and told him he was the last in his litter and that other families were going to see him. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read his text back saying ‘Go and see him and if you still really like him, bring him home.’ I was smiling ear to ear! Before going to possibly pick him up, I wanted to have the house ready for a puppy to arrive. Saturday morning could not come quick enough. I was so excited the night before that I woke up at 6:00am bright eyed and bushy tailed. Since Daniel was away, I of course wanted to have someone with me so I asked my mom to come for a ride. As soon as I saw him, I instantly fell in love. I sent Daniel a picture of him in the car and said ‘We have a puppy!!!!’ We went back and forth over a name. Most of the names I picked, Daniel didn’t like and vice versa. Except for…Harley. I was sold on the name but Daniel was still on the fence about it. I still think that Daniel didn’t want to agree on the name until he actually saw him. Daniel came home on Monday morning around 2:00am, we were sitting on the floor with him when we decided Harley fit perfectly. It was a very cute moment that I won’t forget.

Harley was 8 weeks old when we brought him home. He is a Chocolate Lab, Golden Retriever, German Shepherd mix. He has such a great temperament, even on the first day of bringing him home he only cried a little when I had to leave him a lone for a short period. Putting him to bed was a breeze as well on the first night.

I am so happy we decided to get a puppy. I can’t wait to see what challenges and memories this little (for now) guy brings. I will keep updating as our Harley adventures continue.

Rachel xo

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