Little Dog Newsletter | Silver Linings January!

Silver Linings And Where to Find Them

The good news is silver linings are everywhere, literally. They come in all shapes, sizes, shades and strength. The trick is to actively count the small, quiet ones. They build the best foundations. You have to mentally add them to a list as you go through the day and then recall them just before you drift off to sleep. It’s a subtle technique that gets easier with practice. Be prepared to get knocked into the gutter when a dark, stormy drama blocks your path, but trust me, acknowledging those faint, sweet silver linings is good for you and has more power than you can imagine.

Silver linings are usually personal and many of mine are seasonal but I have a feeling that if you are reading this blog then there is a high probability we have a furry silver lining in common! I’m looking across at mine every few moments as I type. He’s curled up on the window seat, happily all sniffed out and super contented from his street walk. I think about my rescue dog a lot, he is definitely my daily silver lining and a trigger for a lot of my design work. If you have ever ploughed through any of my other wafflings, you might recall that my boy is a Romanian rescue dog. Incredibly aloof, regal and a known butter thief, he is passionate about carbs. Toast, croissants, pizza, crumpets. If it’s dough based and oozing with butter he’s happy.

A Moment Of Magic

A few months ago I experienced something I had only ever read about and it was magical. I’m smiling now as I think about it.  Thanks to the personal stories you send me for potential calendar superstars, I’ve read many heartwarming tales of animals tuning into their owners emotions, providing comfort and solace when it’s needed most. One of my favourite stories is about Igor Mouse, a stray cat with bits of ear missing, who turned up on the Nicholas’ doorstep. With no traceable owner they adopted Igor and he settled in quickly. He taught the Nicholas’ that Science Plan should always be replaced with chilli con carnie. Never to turn off the snooker. To keep the bird table fully stocked and always be available for cuddles on demand. Later on, Igor Mouse repaid the Nicholas’ kindness ten-fold when Jackie was recuperating from surgery and cancer treatment. He never left her side, he was Jackie’s purring, emotional rock, ever present during her darkest hours. Igor gave quiet comfort when well intentioned  words were sometimes too loud.

My recent dark moment wasn’t remotely as perilous as Jackie’s but I finally discovered first hand what others have described.

During a bout of insomnia, I gave up waiting for morning and made my way downstairs to the sofa. Out of sight and earshot of family members, I had one of those emotional moments that completely take you by surprise. The type you wouldn’t want anyone to hear, witness or have to explain. It was during this emotional turmoil that the magic happened. My reserved beastie, who is at his happiest when everyone maintains a socially distanced two meters, came to find me. This in itself is not so unusual, he always keeps one eye on me probably because I’m the primary food provider! What is unusual and what has never happened before, is him climbing onto the sofa, pushing his way into my arms and laying with his back to my tummy. When my sobs finally subsided and I was at long last calm, he got up and moved to sit on the other sofa, two meters away!

The moment will stay with me forever. It makes me smile that it took six years, a tough time and the release of emotion to gift me such a huge silver lining. Amazing.

Some Good News And A Thank You

As it’s the first bit of good news we’ve had in a long time, please excuse me for mentioning it once or lots! You may have seen or read that the A Dog’s Life Gift Book created as the centrepiece of our partnership with Dogs Trust has been shortlisted for Gift of the Year 2024 in the charity category. We’ll find out early February how it has faired but what is actually bringing the most joy is the total raised so far from your generosity. At the last count, each donation added by you at the checkout has collectively raised over £1,400 which makes me super giddy, think zoomies level of giddy! Seeing the collective power of lots of people giving just a little, never ceases to be wonderful. We are just short of half way to our 25K fund raising target and the book is selling well with lots of shops placing repeat orders. Please feel free to nudge everyone you know into considering buying a copy for any of their dog lover family or friends. I cheekily ask this because if it does well enough to warrant a second edition we’ve come up with a brilliant idea that I really just wish we’d thought about at the start!

The A Dog’s Life | Dogs Trust Collection

Staying on the fund raising topic, for 2024 we have created the A Dog’s Life | Dogs Trust Collection which means if you purchase any card or gift from this category, we’ll add another 20% from every sale to the fund raising pot. Here is a quick glimpse of some of the new cards added. We’ll keep adding more card and gift lines to the collection as we move into Spring 24 and the new stock arrives. Look out for newness in our Accessories range including new zip purse designs, scarves, greeting cards and stationery goodies.

Storm Isha Meets Glaswegian Warmth

This January we broke with a twenty-five-year tradeshow tradition and decided to forego the joys of Birmingham’s NEC and head north to Glasgow’s SEC instead. The organisers of the Birmingham Spring and Autumn Trade Fairs committed the cardinal sin of treating the exhibitors (their customers) with zero respect. They changed the buying process, ignored feedback and forced all exhibitors to pay a lot of money for a system that everyone knew wasn’t going to work. And low and behold, it didn’t work and for little old us the Autumn Fair was an expensive disaster. So we thought, enough is enough and decided to make our Scottish debut instead. Admittedly 2 storms within 3 days was another stroke of misfortune and it did affect the footfall at the show but everything else was excellent. Top of the charts has to be the warm welcome. In fairness the card and gift sector is a friendly, kind and creative one but everywhere we went, the Glaswegian welcome was friendly and genuine.

Glasgow itself was an unexpected architectural delight with the ornate, quirky and old squidged right up to the shiny and new. Apparently Glasgow doubles up as New York within the film industry. We stayed right in the centre and thoroughly enjoyed the art gallery, Mackintosh house and variety of restaurants and pubs, again the hospitality was so good, lots of young people at the top of their service game. If you are thinking of a city break, definitely add Glasgow to your list. And apparently from Glasgow you can enjoy one of the most scenic rail journeys in the UK. The West Highland Line runs from Glasgow north to Crianlarich. One route then goes west past Loch Awe to Oban or continues north through Rannoch Moor to Fort William and Mallaig. It’s not expensive and takes under 4 hours. We are thinking our next visit could include a day trip, pack lunch, a look at the sea, pub supper and back to Glasgow in time for a wee dram!

Old Dog New Tricks

Another unexpected silver lining arising from Storm Isha creating a quiet trade show, was being able to take advantage of the free business seminars being held at the SEC. On my To-Do list for 2024 was to learn more about Ai and get up to speed with my photography, reel creations, social media and SEO understanding. And to my joy all of those topics were on the list. So while Gavin ( company MD and my big brother) manned the stand, I sat and absorbed. The two Ai seminars were mind-blowing, in a good way and also slightly frightening too. The positives are it can really help small businesses like ours struggling with limited manpower. Used well it is like having a super intelligent personal assistant who lives to please and help you. Used negatively, well yes, that’s the scary bit. There is a lot of fearful talk regarding Ai and the damaging effect on the Arts, including writing, music, design and anything image based and indeed it is worrying. And yet, on the flip side of that I have discovered one artist who is ahead of the game with regards to creating new imagery with Ai. I personally think his work is incredible. If you have time, google Jonas Peterson artist. He’s an American photographer with a lifetime spent in the fashion world and his latest Ai created prints sell out immediately. This collection was called Youth Is Wasted On The Young. The images above are not of real people, they are all born from his imagination and his ability to write or verbalise his thoughts. He directs the Ai (ChatGPT) to create what’s in his mind. Have a google and see what you think.

 But before you do that, here’s my first properly edited reel (mini video clip necessary for social media platforms) featuring my aforementioned big brother. It took me hours to edit it to exactly 11 seconds, the reel time sweet spot apparently. Gavin had a running joke all weekend about donning his People’s Poncho and he is also very camera shy so I have Storm Isha to thank for helping me get this footage. I didn’t have time to add music but hope you enjoy all 11 seconds of it!

Uber for Little Dog Reel | Watch here

Time To Go

It’s almost time to go. Apparently in the digital Ai world, this blog post would have taken a few moments to create, indeed I watched a live demo proving exactly that. In my real Little Dog world it’s taken me hours, way more than I care to admit. Its creation has been interspersed with caring for a poorly child, taking work calls, hoping a large garden centre chain will finally pay us, making brews, grabbing lunch, looking at the dog, walking the dog, editing photos and discovering I’ve made a costly typo error on a newly printed card. The joys have been endless!

By the time I post this blog with the final bit of news that our January winter sale ends at midnight | Shop here  you will only have a few hours to make the most of some genuine special offers and bargains. After today we will pack up our best deals ready for March and the good peoples heading to Crufts. And then life will see a welcome return to my art board as I begin work on 2025 and Autumn 24!

Thank you for reading all the way to the end and hope I distracted you just a little.

Take care, best wishes Anna and the Little Dog team