Best Bully Sticks: Basil's Two Thumbs (paws?) Up

When Best Bully Sticks, a local dog treat producer specializing in all natural dog treats contacted us about sending some bully sticks especially for Basil to review, we (and Basil) jumped at the chance. The amazing folks behind Best Bully Sticks are also offering up a chance for one lucky reader to win an entire 25 pack of odorless bully sticks, so check back here on the blog tomorrow for the giveaway.

To give you a little background, Best Bully Sticks is an all-natural dog treat company based out of Richmond, Virginia (yay for local!). While they have an extensive line of all sorts of dog products, they're known best for their specialty in all natural bully sticks made with 100% beef of free range, grass fed bulls (also inspected and approved by USDA/FDA and national food inspection authorities). Since we're picky about the quality of what we give basil to eat and chew on, we were impressed with the company's mission of producing a natural chew (with no added chemicals or preservatives) and were excited to see just how Basil might take to them.

Here's how the bully sticks looked straight from the packaging:

When we were about to give Basil his first bully stick, he sat so curiously and nicely, knowing this was something new and something he wanted:

We even tried out a little balancing act, which he passed with flying colors:

Then it was time to dig in:

When we first let him have the bully stick, he sat there like this, in a sort of disbelief that this huge chew treat was actually his:

He then began what we like to refer to as "the good treat anxiety." This kind of anxiety is the type where Basil will begin to frantically pace all over the house, whining and crying at the same time while holding the chew in his mouth. He'll run up and down the stairs and all over trying to find a corner or cranny where he can dig and burry his new treat. Only with his most prized treats will he try to hide them. We knew these ranked high among his "special treats" given the level of pacing and whining he initially did after realizing it was his.

Given Basil's tough chewing nature and abilities (as evidenced here and here) we thought if we got 20 minutes out of this bully stick we could call it a true success. Well let me tell you — 20 minutes went by and the bully stick had barely changed after heavy gnawing. He actively chewed and worked down the bully stick for a solid 2 1/2 hours before we took away the small nub remaining (we sometimes worry he might choke on the small pieces of chews since he likes to tilt his head back while chewing it with the back part of his teeth).

This was the first time we've found a chew treat that's lasted this long and one that he's actively worked on for over an hour (not to mention 2 1/2). We can only imagine it was good for his dental hygiene. He actually ingested the entire chew other than the little piece left we took away. This is where we were cautiously waiting to see if he might get sick in the middle of the night, even though Best Bully Sticks claims the chews are 100% digestible. To our pleasant surprise, we didn't have a single unpleasant surprise in the middle of the night or the next day at all.

Given the all natural quality of the bully sticks, the length of time it took Basil to chew through one and the ease of digestion, we simply can't say enough good things about these chews and can't wait to try more.

We'll let Basil show you how he felt about them. You could say there were hug-worthy:

This is the look of one satisfied puppy:

Find the full collection of dog treat offerings from Best Bully Sticks (they have much more than bully stick chews) in their online dog supply shop. Keep up with new products, natural recipes, news and promotions by following their blog, Facebook and Twitter pages.

What treats do your pets go crazy for?

This review post was sponsored by Best Bully Sticks — all opinions (both human and canine) were ours! Look out for the giveaway post for a 25 pack of Best Bully Sticks coming here on the blog tomorrow!

How To: DIY Dipped Gold Jar Vases

Today we wanted to share a fun and easy DIY project we tackled over the weekend for our wedding. We created the look of gold dipped mason jars to use as flower vases and pretty storage scattered around the wedding reception.

I've been really into the look and feel of gilded or gold-dipped looking pieces and it seems to be a trend popping up everywhere these days. Here's a little collage of inspiration shots I found across Pinterest to give you an idea of the look we were going for:

Image sources: champagne flutes | console | candle holders | milk bottles

While the look is pretty stellar, the idea of the actual "dipping part" seems pretty messy and wasteful of excess paint. So we decided to take a couple shortcuts on the process with the help of painter's tape and a can of spray paint to try and achieve the same look with less mess and excess paint.

Supplies:

• Glass jars of your choosing (we went with 12oz quilted crystal Ball jelly jars). 
• Painter's Tape (like this, any brand will do).
• Spray paint (we went with "champagne nouveau" by Krylon in the satin finish, but any metallic finish will work).
• Paper or other protective covering to protect surfaces while spraying.
• Protective mask and gloves (optional for protection while spray painting).

Oh, and the prettiest bunch of peonies or your own favorite flowers to display in the jars once you're finished:

Let's get started! Remove lid from jar and make sure the surface and inside of the jar is clean and free from oils and debris:

Wrap painter's tape around the top of the jar where you want the look of the "dipped" portion to end and the clear glass to begin. You can make a uniform line or create an off centered curved line to get more of that "dipped at an angle" look.

Cover the remaining top portion and mouth of jar completely with tape to protect it from any spray paint particles. Make sure the edge of tape touching the glass is flush without any loose bubbles or openings — this will ensure an even spray line without any overspray.

Now we're ready to spray!

Flip your jar upside down over the protective paper, shake your spray paint can well and begin to spray in very thin and even coats, allowing each coat to fully dry for a few minutes before spraying the next layer on:

It took about 3 coats and a few shots of spot coverage to achieve that full coverage metallic look we were hoping for:

Once you've achieved the coverage you're going for, allow the paint to dry for about 5 minutes, then very gently pick it up (only touching the tape side), and gently begin to peel back the painter's tape to reveal your perfectly "dipped" looking line:

Tip: Peeling the painter's tape back before the spray has fully dried helps get that clean line without any of the streaks or leakage you might get if you allow it to fully cure before peeling back.

Once peeled back, here's what your newly painted jar should look like:

It looks like it was dipped in paint, right? Our secret!

You can now flip it back over on the mouth of the jar to let it fully cure and dry overnight. If you have a party, event or wedding (like us) where you'll be making more than one — go ahead and set up the full assembly line:

It's that simple! The most time consuming part of this little project was getting the tape lined up and fully covering each jar.

Once fully dried, bring them inside and they're ready to use:

We'll be using them for mini floral arrangements around the reception site for our wedding. I love how the metallic champagne finish came out a little more muted than the typical brassier gold options out there.

I'm such a sucker for peonies:

Since I made 12 of them, we have a few extras that will work perfectly to house some other fun details we've been planning to have at the wedding — gold striped straws and heart shaped sparklers:

It's fun seeing all the little elements we've been squirreling away start to come together. For anyone wondering or also currently on the hunt for gold straws and heart sparklers, I found the gold striped straws on Etsy and the heart sparklers on Sparklers in Cyberspace (funny name for a website, yes?).

Right now we've got a few these beautiful new gold dipped vases hanging out around the house and each day as the peonies inside open up wider and fuller, we get more excited about seeing them at the reception.

We're excited to use them after the big day too — these jars really are so versatile. They could be used on a desk for pens and pencils or in a studio for paint brushes or as pretty storage for other odds and ends. It's up to you!

You can see how easy it could be to translate the process to anything you might want to get that gold dipped look onto. It kinda makes me want to run around the house with painters tape and a spray can to "dip" everything in gold.

Discover More:

More DIY Projects | All DIY Projects

Weekend Basics

This weekend we tried to spoil our Mother's over the Mother's Day weekend — we enjoyed brunch with my parents on Saturday and got to spend time with Jinx, Mary's mom, on Sunday. I sure am lucky to have such amazing women in my life.

Speaking of ladies I love, Stephanie (my daughter) officially moved in for the summer last week! Mary and I keep telling ourselves how nice it feels to pass by her room upstairs and see it looking all "lived in."

To kick start the weekend (and pick up some big floral bouquets for our mothers), we headed out to the South of the James Farmer's Market for the first time this season:

 

It officially opened last weekend, but we were in Georgia, so we enjoyed getting back to the market this weekend. We always like to head down to the bottom of the hill first for a cup of Blanchard's coffee, then slowly walk the market to see what's new.

Here's one of my favorite market tips — we save up egg cartons and get my parents to bring us their egg cartons in order to give them to the farmers that sell eggs at the markets. It makes their lives much easier and allows us to feel good about recycling our cartons. We'd been saving up a winter's load of egg cartons so were very excited to bring them along this trip:

Basil was excited about our trip to the market as well. He got to meet (ahem, sniff) other weimaraners:

And even said hello to some sheep:

We were excited to see lots of new vendors and food trucks at the market — especially Pickled Silly:

You all know how I am about hunting down the perfect Bloody Mary — I've been eager to try their small batch spicy Bloody Mary mix since I heard of this new company.

We've also been eager to get by Origins Farm since newly taking part in their CSA program:

In the end, here is the bulk of our first market haul of the season:

Fresh eggs, colorful swiss chard and fresh carrots from Origins Farm and some Bloody Mary mix and spicy picked okra from Pickled Silly.

On the crafty front, we pulled out the growing collection of wine corks for a fun project I've got up my sleeves and Mary took care of another wedding related flower project:

Look for these later in the week!

On the cooking front, these brie-stuffed turkey burgers with avocado and greens were the star of the weekend:

Find the full recipe in my latest guest post for Relay Foods.

Did you enjoy the weekend — were you also able to celebrate with or honor mom in some way?

P.S. Thanks so much for all your kind words on our engagement shoot preview — it's hard to believe we're just under 3 weeks away now!

Our Engagement Shoot: Sneak Peek

This past December we were excited to nail down a photographer for our wedding — Tori Watson of Marvelous Things Photography.

Well, we were even more excited to get a chance to snap some casual shots with her in a photo session Thursday evening here around Richmond. Here's a sneak peek from the photo-shoot when Tori found a beautiful ray of sun glowing through the tree branches down at the Wetlands near our old house:

Images by Tori Watson of Marvelous Things Photography, originally posted on Facebook.

We had so much fun with Tori and shot photos in a few different locations in and around Richmond. She had such an effortless way of making us laugh and interact naturally in front of the camera.

Here's a little behind-the-scenes shot while everyone was in action:

We haven't seen any of the other photos from the shoot other than the sneak peek Tori posted on Facebook above — we'll be sure to keep you posted once we get a first look and share more here on the blog! We can tell you that Basil made a cameo near the end of the shoot and both pairs of our muck boots also made an appearance. 

After meeting up for this preliminary shoot, we're getting more and more excited for the big day. In the meantime, you can get a feel for Tori's style from the past weddings she's shot and keep up with her new work over on her Marvelous Things Photography Facebook page and lifestyle blog.

Keep up with 17Apart's Wedding:

Real Wedding Board | Our Wedding Posts

Weekend Basics: Macon, Georgia Edition

If you follow along with us on Facebook, you might know we made a quick trip down to Macon, Georgia to celebrate my cousin, Kyle's, wedding last weekend.

We flew into Atlanta on Friday and drove the rest of the way into Macon. I swore I'd never be one of those people who takes photos of their hotel room, but this was the first time Tim or I had ever stayed in a room with hardwood floors and a fancy sink:

It was a Holiday Inn if anyone is wondering. So as you can see, I've now joined the club of folks who take and post photos of their hotel room. Weird or totally acceptable? I'll let you be the judge of that, ha.

We were surprised at how rainy and cold it was down South over the weekend — we would have thought it'd be much warmer the first May weekend in Georgia. Despite the rain, we had a great time exploring Macon and getting a chance to see Kyle and Courtney become husband and wife. It was also such a treat to get to go be a guest at someone else's wedding, instead of getting caught up in our own wedding plans!

Not to mention, just being a city filled with street names like Cotton Avenue and Cherry Street Lane:

Friday night we ate out with my sister and her husband at a restaurant called the Downtown Grill in one of the cutest brick buildings we've seen:

It wasn't until Saturday, though, that we really dug into more of the Macon, Georgia food scene. On the recommendation of our friend Melonie over on Facebook, we set out to find H&H Restaurant — the renowned soul food sweet spot Oprah visited during her trip to Macon:

We ordered two of the breakfast specials and let me tell you — I've never had cheese grits like these and bacon that snaps when you bite into it like it did here. This was the perfect warm brunch to start off a rainy day of exploring:

Next, we hit up Nu-Way Weiners — another famous stop from Oprah's trip to Macon:

Tim went with two chili slaw dogs and I went with a single slaw dog and a mini malt:

We also kept a lookout for an authentic peach milkshake while in town, but never came across one. Unless we make it back down to Georgia this summer (any recommendations for where to find a good one welcome), we'll have to settle for a batch of our own homemade peach ice cream instead.

After our food stint, we headed back to the hotel to slip into a food coma before getting ready for the wedding that evening. It was such a beautiful ceremony and reception, despite the rain and kind of a surreal feeling getting to see my cousin getting married — he's always been my sister my younger cousin, Kyle and maybe the closest thing I've had to knowing what having a younger sibling is like, so it was a proud moment all around.

Here's a sneak peek at a couple photos from the wedding we found in a post over on their photographer's blog:

 Image by Jenny Evelyn

Image by Jenny Evelyn

Love these two!

Sunday morning we hopped in the rental car and headed back to the Atlanta airport, making it safely back to RVA late afternoon. Basil was waiting and wagging to greet us when we picked him up and we had fun telling him about all of our Georgia adventures.

We hope everyone enjoys the weekend ahead and here's a big shout out to all the moms out there celebrating Mother's Day!