Goodies from Tomboy Trades

Today was a day of ringing doorbells. First, it was CanPar delivering some racks I had ordered. The racks were supposed to be for displaying my biscuits at last Sunday's BARK picnic, but they didn't arrive in time. Oh well, I have them now and in lots of time for my next day of sales fundraising for greyhounds in October.

Then, the doorbell rang again. This time it was FedEx delivering my box of goodies from Tomboy Trades.

I won a draw on the website Women Can Do Anything and look at the goodies I won!

A hard hat, embroidered tshirt, blue safety glasses and a fantastic blue suede tool belt. Now that I'm all geared up, maybe I'll tackle my workshop. It's in desperate need of some glamming up.

If you don't know the story about Tomboy Trades, click here to read an article that was published recently.

And...if you need workboots, check these out. Tomboy Trades offers the first ever CSA approved pink, blue, green and red work boots women exclusively at Home Depot. Forget about safety, I think these would make a great fashion statement.

Women really can do anything!

BARK Picnic - Final Installment

Meet some of our special friends from the BARK picnic on Sunday.
Chelsea and Sabrina are long time customers...they are sisters. I bake them a cake every year for their birthday celebration..."Go Bananas Pawty Cake". I originally met Chelsea at a weekend training session many, many years ago. Mulligan was with me...she was only a puppy and she's 8 now!

We met Luna, a miniature schnauzer, for the first time on Sunday. If you've been reading this blog, you know we have a soft spot for Schnauzers. Our Cinder is a Giant Schnauzer, but I have had two minis in my life. My family brought a mini home when I was 17. I named him Sam. I was supposed to be studying for an exam. I didn't study that day, but was saved by nature. There was a huge snow storm and school was cancelled the next day. This meant my grade 13 Spanish exam was cancelled too. I never did have to write that exam.

The second mini in my life was Mac. My first husband and I bought him from a breeder when we lived in Edmonton, Alberta. Mac moved with us from Edmonton, to Toronto, and then to Ottawa. He was a great dog.

This is Allie and Tyler. Allie is a very lucky dog to have such a devoted friend. Tyler spent all his allowance on Allie that day!

It was great meeting everyone on Sunday. I always get a little nervous before an event but it always runs smoothly. Some funny tidbits from the day:

After giving my little speech about our dog biscuits being hand made with all natural, human quality ingredients, someone asked "human quality, does that mean they're made with humans?" Ha. Funny guy.

We pack all our dog biscuit bags into large rubbermaid bins to transport them to and from a show. I put the bins at the back of our booth after I set up the table. Someone let their dog come and pee all over one of the bins. No apologies were offered.

We sell one inch button pins as fundraisers...I donate $1 to charity for every button pin sold. There is a medium sized sign right beside the bowl with the price marked, and the fact that we donate some of the money raised. A boy walked up, put his hand in the bowl, and grabbed a hand full of pins while his dad watched. He started walking away with all the pins. I didn't know what to do, but John saw it happening and chimed in "those pins are $2 each". He brought them back.

I haven't heard the final results for the fundraiser, but I'll let you know as soon as I hear.

Next booth: Greyhound Planet Day, October 27th, Ottawa. More info later!

BARK Picnic #4 - Lots of dogs

More dog photos from the BARK picnic last Sunday.









Next: some special customers

BARK Picnic #3 - Huskies

John (my official photographer for the day & better half for life) has a huge...I mean HUGE....soft spot for Huskies. Our first dog was Bailey, a Siberian Husky. She passed away unexpectedly 2 years ago and we still miss her a lot. There were quite a few Huskies at the BARK picnic, and John spent a lot of time taking their photos.

It made me think that going back to being a 3 dog family might be in our near future. But, we've also been talking about adopting another Giant Schnauzer so maybe we'll be a four dog family! No, never that.
Anyway, here are some huskies from the BARK picnic. Notice the different coloured eyes of the Husky in the first photo.

BARK Picnic #2 - Small Dogs

Here are some of the wee cuties from the BARK picnic on Sunday.

BARK Picnic #1

Yesterday's BARK Picnic was lots of fun. I haven't heard yet how much money was raised for BARK, but there were hundreds of dogs and people there. Here is a photo of me setting up The Barking Biscuit booth.

Now, a couple of photos after the people arrived. Quite a change!

Here's a few photos from one of the games....Musical Dogs. This game took quite a while...there must have been about 50 dogs to start:The dogs had to walk around in a circle while the music was playing. As soon as the music stopped, they had to sit. Last one sitting was eliminated.

Sorry...you'll have to guess who won. We didn't get a photo of the winner!

Next was the obstacle race. There were 3 teams of 10 dogs. All the dogs had to jump over the low bar,

go around a pilon, bypass a tub of treats, go around another pilon and run back to the start. If the amount of cheering was anything to go by, everyone had lots of fun.

It was a great day, perfect weather, and a fun way to raise money for a deserving charity.

Next: some of the dogs we met at the picnic

Joys of Collaborating

Collaborating with different business people is one of my favourite things in my work life. I always learn something, and it's just plain fun to meet different people and learn about their businesses.

One amazing lady is Sue Bird...The Urban Dog Photog. She is one of the "Paws For Charity" women and looks after designing our promotional postcards as well as the photo shoots for my Crunch for a Cure dog biscuits.

As the Urban Dog Photog, Sue produces fantastic coffee table books of people's dogs after doing a photo shoot in the dog's home (or park, or whatever location the owner wants).

And now, when Sue delivers her finished coffee table books to her customers they will also receive a bag of Barking Biscuits! I have put together little packages of our biscuits using some of Sue's dog photos. Don't they look great?

I think this is a win/win situation. Sue's customers will get a little something they're not expecting, and The Barking Biscuit will get some extra exposure with dog lovers.

Remembering Gigi

In memory of our friend Gigi

Our condolences to Julie (Chilly Dogs) and family

The Power of Pumpkins

This photo is not our Mulligan....but it sure looks a lot like her! I received the photo last year from Jennifer. This is Sammy.

Do you have a photo of your dog with pumpkins? If you do...please email it to me! Maybe we'll use it on our new & improved pumpkin biscuits. If you don't have a photo, what are you waiting for? Get creative! (remember, we change the photos to black & white to use on our tags and we need a minimum of 300 dpi)

A very dear friend of mine has a dog battling bone cancer. Molly can no longer eat any grains. I have been experimenting with a couple of recipes and have decided to bring back our pumpkin biscuits. (our friend & customer Erin will be happy to hear this....she was so disappointed when I dropped pumpkin from our biscuit line)

I've modified our previous recipe and have eliminated the oats. The new recipe is currently being tested and if all goes well it will be hitting the shelves in October. The new list of ingredients in our pumpkin biscuits will be: pumpkin, brown rice flour, unsalted sunflower seeds, water, egg, corn oil, baking soda, and allspice.

Pumpkin and allspice are very good for the digestive system. These biscuits are packed with healthy goodness and boy do they smell good!

Our Wild Life

Did I say Wild Life? Ha. I mean wildlife.

Remember my post about our Strange Visitor in the Night? If not, read it here.He came so often that we named him. Frank. Frank visited us every night for over one month. (well, he missed 3 nights during that time). We had family visiting for a week during that time and Frank entertained us all. We had dinner guests a few times and Frank entertained them. Funny how a little frog can amaze so many people.

Frogs can apparently really give some people the willies too. We had one dinner guest who was okay about looking at him (well, let's say she tolerated it) only because he was on the other side of the window. It turns out that she has a real aversion for frogs. She told us about a nightmare of a story (nightmare for her)....she was in staying in a home in Africa...they had a terrible rainstorm....and the home was invaded (inside the home) with hundreds of frogs.

I have to say, I might not be too big a frog fan in that situation!

Anyway, Frank is gone. He has been gone for about a week now. We discovered two molted snake skins in our garden. Methinks Frank has met an untimely end.

Speaking of untimely ends... Meet our two pond fish. Yes, we named them too. Lance (with the black arrow shape on his back) and Sugarlips (all orange, with a white ring around his lips).

Lance and Sugarlips joined us in May. We installed a pond and decided to put a couple of fish in it. We used to have a smaller pond, but we had to replace it after I dropped a rather large rock in it and put a hole in the bottom.

Sugarlips is gone! It's just not safe to be wildlife at our place. We talked to the pond lady. She told us a snake could be the culprit....or maybe a large bird. Poor Lance looks lonely and hides behind a rock almost constantly. Maybe we've traumatized him. Before Sugarlips went missing, the 2 fish swam around, up and down. The funniest thing to watch was when our Cinder went to get a drink from the pond.

You can't see the fish very well, but I've marked the 2 of them with red arrows. They used to swim up and get right into her beard.

Yikes, do you think Cinder swallowed Sugarlips? Stranger things have happened around here.

Barking Biscuit Specials at the BARK Picnic

Those of you who are regular readers know that Mulligan is a rescue dog from B.A.R.K.

B.A.R.K. is hosting it's first annual Dog & Family Picnic this coming Sunday August 26th in Ottawa at the Arboretum from 12 to 4.

We'll be there selling our Barking Biscuits at very special prices.

200 Gram Bags - $5.00 (including taxes) - regular price $5.65

Buy 6 bags - $25.00 (including taxes) - regular price $33.85

5 inch bones - $1.00 (yes, including taxes) - regular price $1.54

WOW

Come out and see us. It'll be lots of fun!

Mulligan's Garden - Part 2

Remember my post in May about Mulligan's garden? If not, click here.

As promised, here are a couple of photos of the outcome. I left everything natural throughout the summer....no watering, no thinning....and here is Mulligan displaying the result:

There's something about sunflowers that just make me feel good.

Hope you have a feel good day!

Dags & Willow

Meet Dagny (a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever) and Willow (a Collie/Shepherd cross).Dags & Willow Fine Cheese and Gourmet Shop (named after Dagny & Willow) is in Collingwood, Ontario and is the most recent store added to our Barking Biscuit Retail Stores list.

Dags & Willow boasts the largest collection of cheese in the Collingwood area, offering over 100 varieties of cheese at any given time & a try-before-you-buy policy that goes beyond just their superb collection of cheeses. Don't these products look fabulous? Yum. And now Dags & Willow customers will be able to spoil their pooches with Barking Biscuits!

The Happy Dance

What makes you do the happy dance?


Here are some of my happy dance moments:

:: Fresh Tomatoes ::
from our garden


:: Interesting photos ::
don't you just love the colours of these marigolds after the rain?


:: Being creative ::
Here's a hint for my PIFs. I have Angelique's PIF finished and will start working on Linda's PIF soon. I'll show the completed projects after they receive them in the mail. (wouldn't want to spoil the surprise!)
:: Good music ::
I don't know how to give you just the tune to listen to, but here is a You Tube video of one of my current favourites...Hey There Delilah by The Plain White T's. Nothing like a good love song.


Go find something that makes you do the happy dance!

Dog and Family Picnic - meet us there!

Join us at the first annual Dog and Family Picnic...a great fundraiser for B.A.R.K. I'm going to be there with a vendor's table selling our biscuits and button pins. As well as my vendor's fee, I'll be donating $1 to B.A.R.K. from each pin sold.

When: Sunday August 26, 2007 12 noon - 4 pm
Where: Arboretum (Central Experimental Farm), Ottawa
What: Picnic for your family and the dogs
Cost: $20 gate fee per family - this entitles you to one free hamburger, one free hotdog and a drink. Veggie burgers and dogs are also available.
Additional tickets can be purchased on site - hamburgers $1.00, hotdogs $1.00, drinks $1.00.


B.A.R.K. promises that all dogs will win something...if not a first, second or third prize then they get a BIG cookie and a fancy neck piece. Five hundred dollar gas cards are also up for grabs, and they're using a rating system.
First Prize - worth 3 points
Second prize - worth 2 points
Third Prize - worth 1 point
At the end of the day the five dogs with the most points win the gas cards

Here are the fun games they are planning:
Musical Dogs
Owners and dogs form a circle(can be two circles if there are too many dogs) music starts they all walk around in a circle, when the music stops the dog must sit, the owner can say the word "sit" but cannot use a treat and cannot touch the dog. Last dog sitting is out. There will be a First, Second, and Third Prize for this game. All dogs get a treat.

Obstacle Course
Course consists of: small jump/run around orange cone/run by cookies on a stand/small jump/finish
Form two to three teams depending on number of dogs entered. Dogs and handlers must navigate a short obstacle course from A to B. The first team that finishes wins. All dogs on the winning team get a prize equivalent to a First Prize Win. All dogs get a treat.

Weiner Race
All participants must run their dogs from A to B. The dog will be carrying a weiner in it's mouth. The first three dogs to reach the finish line with an intact weiner win. All dogs get a treat.

Recall Race
In the recall race, all the dogs are taken to one end of a flat area. Owners stand at the other end and call their dogs. The first three dogs to reach their owners win. All dogs get a treat.

Contests
All contest winners are equivalent to first prize points
Best Trick - there is a one minute limit for trying to get your dog to do a trick
Best Tail Wagger - you can only use the names of fruits and vegetables to egg your dog on
Dog Owner Look Alike
Smallest
Biggest
Biggest Ears
Best Singer
Most Colorful

Sounds like a ton of fun! Hope to see you there.