Spring Newsletter | Five and twenty years!

I saw my first peonies last Saturday, I think the buds are as gorgeous as the full flower. It instantly made me feel better about the world. Absolutely zero logic for this burst of happiness but the joy was immediate and I refuse to ruin it with rational thinking. There is currently enough existential gloom and ego crazy dictators of doom to last our lifetime. I jest with a heavy heart and know I shouldn’t binge on the news but I can’t seem to stop. Which is why I now try my hardest to offset my news addiction and world misery by mentally acknowledging the simple, honest pleasures in life, by tipping my hat to the daily little wins.

My latest little win has been the discovery of a cloud appreciation page on Facebook. Yes, super geeky but-oh-so absorbing! A wormhole I love disappearing into. Fellow cloud appreciators ( who, unlike me, all have actual cloud name knowledge ) post the most amazing sunrises and sunsets with incredible cloud formations, from all over the world. And here’s the thing, the clouds from Derbyshire are just as fabulous as the ones in Texas, New Zealand, Sweden or India. It’s another reminder that we share the same skies. If you use Facebook, search for The Cloud Appreciation Society. Honestly, it’s addictive. My teenagers mocked my geekiness but are now secretly looking to take the perfect cloud snap to post on the page!

Little wins everywhere you look

I know I’m preaching to the converted when it comes to the obvious joy of having a dog. I am definitely one of the lucky ones who can have their hound present as they work. It really is pure gold to glance up from my designing and see my handsome beastie curled up in the window seat. Yet, he nearly always has one eye half open, alert for any potential snack breaks. He’s a funny one, a street dog from Romania but with an aloofness that suggests some ancestral blue bloodline. Maybe a royal lineage that befell hard times a century or so back. There are moments, usually during recall, where his aloofness borders on arrogance and he plainly lets you see he is tolerating cuddles and fuss.

However, lately I’ve noticed a small change in his Lordship’s behaviour. We celebrated his sixth birthday recently – we’ve had him for five and a half years. In that time he’s gone from, at best, an annual ‘Okay, today I will actively seek out a cuddle but it will be short and if you breathe it will end immediately’ to standing and eyeballing you intensely. Eventually I realised his stare wasn’t walk or food related but that he was ACTUALLY requesting a sofa snuggle. It made me really laugh because he then curled up at the other end of the sofa! So although he is still as far away from being an affectionate lap dog as is caninely possible, there is a definite thawing and a desire to be fractionally closer. That, in my books, is another joyous daily little win.

A snapshot of my work colleague!

Oops, this is meant to be a newsletter and I’m waffling on about peony buds and clouds. And I’m in real danger of digressing even further into chatting about fairies and Ai.  I’ll share those new artist discoveries in a separate post because, well, they are amazing!

So, what’s the Big news at the Little dog?

Well, two things immediately spring to mind, the first being that this year marks five and twenty years of us. Truly astounding, a moment to celebrate but also, if truth be told, perhaps a bit of a poisoned chalice. In our industry, exciting and new is always a ‘must’. Although we have carved ourselves a small, little dog niche it can also sometimes be a been there, done that pigeon-hole. Like many running small businesses, you become adept at being a ‘Jack of all Trades’ – master of maybe one and okay at some!  As a sibling family business, the last few years have been particularly tough, on a work and personal level. The stuffing hasn’t been fully knocked out of us but Life has had a jolly good go at it!  And yet, here we still are and most importantly, the three of us still love what we do. Another little win?

To celebrate this twenty-five-year milestone I wanted to mark the occasion with a positive. Therefore I am thrilled to say we have joined forces in a partnership with the animal welfare charity Dogs Trust. The collection is called A Dog’s Life and will launch this September.

If you’d like a sneaky peek at the illustrated book featuring Dogs Trust rescues and their stories of survival and happy fur-ever afters, click on the link below. The aim is to raise £25,000, so advance warning, we will be calling on your assistance to spread the word! I’m super excited as I will be visiting Dogs Trust’s Loughborough centre next week and as part of the agreement I am allowed to sit with some puppies. Honestly cannot wait!!!

A Dog’s Life | The story so far

I have learnt so much during this project. Everything from new watercolour skills to the Brinks Mat gold robbery  ( so much podcast bingeing ) to the inner workings of Dogs Trust. But that could fill another two blogs, so on this occasion I will spare you the joy!