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.