90 Fun Gifts For Dog Lovers
Happy New Year to everyone! Christmas was an amazing season for us at Blueberry Cottage Gifts. Our first Christmas in our physical shop (in fact by December we had two)! It was a whirlwind and sometimes when you get so busy it can be hard to remember to listen to what your customers have been saying! This is the part of selling our designs that I love the most though. We love selling online. It is fascinating to see which of our designs catch the imagination of our customers. If I am honest though, there is actual joy to be had in listening to customers looking at your products in person in front of you. Every comment, every “of that’s lovely”, every laugh at something we thought was funny but didn’t know if someone else would; they mean so much. Honestly, my calm, I’m not listening exterior is hiding my internal happy dance!
13 Getliffes Yard Leek ST13 6HU
Occasionally though, you can catch a comment such as “oh, they haven’t got…….”, or “you never see…..” And this is the time to really listen. Of course, we take an opportunity like that to mention that we can create anything they would like. Something missing? No problem! Let us design and print that for you! And very many people took us up on the offer leading up to Christmas. As an example, one lovely lady told me that her daughter loved giraffes and football! Not an obvious pairing but I just love that! Where else would you get a 20oz double-walled stainless-steel tumbler with a metal straw, that has a giraffe towering over a football on a patch of grass against a background of a blue sky with white fluffy clouds. There was no extra charge for the design because I simply love doing it. Knowing that that is a one off and no one else could have it, that is what it is all about as a designer. The whole thing cost them £14. Could we have charged much more? Yes, we could and most do but I really enjoy these special orders and I want them to be available to everyone.
Now giraffes and football are popular. But there was another comment that I just kept hearing and indeed had orders for. The subject of these orders and enquiries were our closest and most loved canine companions. Dogs. We (on the most part) love them, don’t we? I have made designs featuring Bearded Collies to Staffordshire Terriers and Border Collies. And we can’t forget Dachshunds and Labradors! So once the tinsel had settled after Christmas it became my mission to design a range of canine designs to add to our collections.
Our fur babies Pippa (left) Jake (right)
The big question of course is which breeds do you choose? I couldn’t possibly print a mug with EVERY dog breed on it! I confess that this designer had to turn to google. What are the most popular dog breeds in the UK? Do you know? As a very doting owner of a Labrador and a rescue that we really couldn’t put a breed to, I wasn’t surprised to find that most website put the Labrador or Golden Retriever in first place. There were surprises for me though and one of them was that the information was very varied across different sites, In the end though, I decided to settle on the following:
1 Labrador
2 French Bulldog
3 Cocker Spaniel
4 English Bulldog
5 Smooth Haired Dachshund
6 Springer Spaniel
7 Golden Retriever
8 German Shepherd
9 Staffordshire Bull Terrier
10 Pug
Now you may or may not agree with the list, but it was somewhere for me to start designing. You might think this simple enough. There are ten dog breeds, and you want ten designs so get on with it. But that isn’t how it works for me. So off I go and start looking at these different breeds and which digital images I have of them to inspire me. I mean no offence when I say that some did not make it onto a mug! So I looked on to the next ten…..
11 Border Terrier
12 Miniature Schnauzer
13 Whippet (another breed I had a special order for last Christmas)
14 Boxer (my brother has recently got a puppy Boxer that he has named Greg, so he had to make the cut)
15 Hungarian Vizsla
16 Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (my childhood dog breed),
17 Rottweiler
18 Pomeranian
19 German Shorthaired Pointer
20 Bull Terrier
Now if you have read these lists it might surprise you that my first design said, “My Bestie is a Westie”. I couldn’t help it! They are so cute, and it rhymed but honestly, I concentrated on the rest, I really did.
In the end I finished with:
My Bestie is a Westie (can’t help but love a rhyme)
My Pug Mug (see above reason!)
Life Is Better with My Yorkshire Terrier (doesn’t appear on any list but I remember helping my mum to look after one for a friend and it was very cute and affectionate, and the fact that it thought my mums green carpet was an invitation to sprinkle didn’t really worry me at the time).
My Heart Belongs to My Staffy (given that both of our shops are in the Staffordshire Moorlands it would have been rude not to!)
My Silly Sausage (We have a resident Dachshund in Getliffe’s Yard, where our shop is, so this one is for her).
All You Need Is Love and A Labrador (because it’s true, we’ve got one. He is as crazy as a box of frogs but knows when you need a cuddle!)
My Best Friend is a German Shepherd (Had to have one from the list and they are such intelligent animals).
I Herd That (This one features a Border Collie, and I do love a pun).
Life Is Better with Coffee & My Cavalier (It is a little-known fact, especially by my husband that when I manage to get our dog count up to three, I would dearly love it to be with a Cavalier King Charles)
And finally.
My Boxer Thinks I’m Cool (for my brother Steve and the latest addition to his family, Greg the Boxer. So named because on the way home from a lengthy journey to collect him, my brother and his lovely wife stopped to get a Greggs sausage roll for the journey. With the puppy tucked up on his lap Steve tucked into his sausage roll, only to realise the puppy was doing the same on the other end. And so he was named)
A picture of Greg the Boxer
And so our new range was complete. I wish I could do them all but then that is one of the great things about our business model. If you can’t see the breed, you love or live with then you can contact me. Hey Jo, where is the Australian Shepherd dog/ Where are the Golden Retrievers? I can make them for you. And I would love doing it for you.
I talk about them being on mugs and they are. But they are also available on coasters, cushions, tote bags, dog bowls, baby bibs, t-towels, travel mugs, large 40oz tumblers, 20 oz tumblers, hanging signs, key rings, wood slices, chopping boards, slate platters, tins (and even now I am sure I have forgotten something).
Unit 1 Leek Butter Market ST135HH
I love what I do. I love designing for you. And if you see me in the shop, now you know I’m listening.