The Best Dogs In The Universe

I tell my dogs daily that I am very lucky because when I went looking to adopt a dog, I got the best dogs in the Universe. Okay, so I tell little white lies occasionally but you have to understand that their "universe" is rather small.
When we lost our Boarder Collie mix Cassie, my husband was lobbying for two dogs. We work all day and he felt that they could keep each other company. Great in theory but you've heard the expression "two can live as cheaply as one" well, "raising two dogs is as easy as raising one" is just as true. Also, I knew that I would be the one who would be doing 90% of the work, taking them to obedience classes, buying the food, visiting the vet, etc., etc., etc.
I have had a dog companion since I was in college. I've been lucky in that they have all been healthy and had long lives. Each of those four dogs has come from a shelter. So, we called F.A.C.E.S., Inc. in West Springfield, Ma. and arranged to see a litter of puppies they had. The home where the puppies were being cared for (F.A.C.E.S., Inc. is an all volunteer rescue and adoption service so the animals are kept in private homes) was about an hours drive from our house.

As soon as we entered the yard, a little black puppy came up to us. She was so beautiful and so cute, we both knew immediately that she was the dog for us. As I started making arrangements to sign the paperwork and write the check, my husband said, "Look over there. You have to see this other dog. The shy little guy in the corner." Somehow I just knew that if I looked, we would be signing paperwork for two dogs. Now I ask you, could you resist that face? I couldn't.

Two dogs rode home in the cabin of a pick up truck with us that day. Ten years later we are still one big happy family. Our cute little puppies have grown into two beautiful dogs and I've never regretted looking at the shy little guy in the corner and agreeing that we really did need two dogs.

Because we adopted our "best dogs in the Universe" from F.A.C.E.S., Inc. our company, Laurel Mountain Basket Company, donates a portion from the sale of every dog gift basket and dog gift to that organization. Please visit our site, and know that if you purchase one of our beautiful gift baskets, you will not only be giving a favorite pet or pet owner a great gift, you will be helping a wonderful organization.

Where Does The Time Go?

I like to get to the Studio early. The uninterrupted quiet time before my fellow shop keepers and the pubic arrive is great for getting lots of work done. The other day I arrived at the Studio at 6:00 a.m. and worked until 3:00 p.m. On my way home, I was reviewing my day and felt that I hadn't done much in all that time. I realized that a huge chunk of my time was taken up with one simple project, getting my monthly e-mail ready to send to my clients. I couldn't believe that one simple e-mail could take hours to prepare.

I love using e-mail to communicate with my clients and the technology allows me to do so many things. I can link to other sites or link to specific pages on my own site including the pages containing the gift baskets we are featuring that month and our on line newsletter. I can add photos of our gift baskets and other graphics.

In the olden days (eight or ten years ago) this part of my marketing campaign consisted of sending out a monthly newsletter. Done in a simple format, the newsletter was a single page and the graphics consisted of a piece of clip art or two. The cost of sending a newsletter with photos of our actual gift baskets was far too expensive for our young company so we settled for black and white clip art of something related to whatever we were talking about in the newsletter.

Once the newsletter was completed I would take it to the copy center, have it copied on colored paper and folded. We handled the mailing list ourselves until the client list got too large to easily manage in house, then we hired a mailing service.

You would think that using a computer and e-mail would be much easier and more efficient than hand mailing a couple of thousand newsletter. Not so. It all has to do with choices. When we were using black and white clip art, our choices were limited. With e-mail we have full color options and can use photo images. We can now use actual photos of our gift baskets and the web is full of beautiful images that we use to illustrate and add to the topic of the newsletter. I love www.iStockphoto.com but there are several good sites where you can purchase great images very reasonably and not have to deal with copyright issues. The problem is that there are so many great images you can spend hours searching for the "perfect" one.

I fact check as much as possible and depending on the content of the message, this can take some time. I also include a quote that pertains to the message so I need to do a search for an appropriate one. Reading quotes can be fun so this part of the project can take even more time.

Before you know it, hours have flown by but I think it is well worth it.

If you'd like to be added to our e-mail list and receive our fun and informative monthly e-mail including discounts and other web only offers, just go to our website at www.laurelmtbasket.com and sign up right on the home page. It's getting late, got to get back to work. Hey, thanks for your time!

Super Heros

Become a Super Hero!

A headline in the local paper caught my attention, it said " At Area Shelters, Discarded Pets a Sign of the Times". At Laurel Mountain Basket Company, we are pet friendly. Proceeds from our Cat Napping cat nip pillows and Spoiled Rotten Dog Gift Baskets benefit local rescue services. I've decided that until the end of this year, we will donate 10% from the sale of any of our pet products to area shelters. Check out our selection gifts for pets and the people who love and become a Super Hero!