BarkBox

BarkBox is a new service for dog owners that was launched this month. You sign up and specify your dog's size and then pay a monthly fee of $25 (this includes shipping and a donation of $3 to a local dog shelter), and each month a box arrives with goodies for your dog.

Our first box arrived today :)

This month's box contained:

2 rolls of poop bags - which are always an essential for any dog owner.

A blue owl and a pink lamb organic plush toy from SimplyFido. I will be putting these in the dog's stockings for them.

Three dog wipes from Herbal Essentials. Which will come in very handy for keeping in my bag for when I'm out walking the dogs.

Two chicken/vegetable and two peanut butter SmartBones, I let my two have a peanut butter one each and they love them. They are a healthier alternative to rawhide.

We also received a bag of snowflake dog cookies from Bag of Bones Barkery. They are vanilla flavor and are suited for dog's with allergies. My two tried them and loved them.

I'm already looking forward to receiving my January BarkBox

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays

There seems to be a lot of heated discussions about the whole Christmas/Holiday thing this year.  I've not noticed this in previous years, but I guess this is a sign of the multicultural world we really do live in.

I remember growing up and going to a C of E school, we sang Christmas carols at school, sent Christmas cards to our fellow pupils, and ALWAYS did the Christmas Nativity each year. Nowadays schools are unable to do things like this through fear of excluding or promoting certain religious beliefs.

I volunteer at a preschool and in my class only 3 of the children celebrate Christmas, so we haven't done anything Christmasy with them. I wonder how schools in England deal with this nowadays, and if they are openly able to celebrate Christmas, and also how schools in other parts of the US do things at this time of year.

Living in San Francisco, there are so many cultures and religions, and I find it interesting learning about them all. I was in my late 20's before I met anyone who wasn't Christian or Catholic, now I know people from a variety of religions. I did have Religious Education lessons at school, which touched briefly on different religions, but it wasn't really a big thing, I think it is good that children learn about so many different things at such an early age now, and feel that this will hopefully make the future generations a lot less racist and more accepting of others beliefs.

So to all my blog readers I wish you a very Merry Christmas and if you don't celebrate Christmas - Happy Holidays.

Also for those of you who didn't already know this is my favorite Christmas song
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXQViqx6GMY

Christmas Shopping

I always love Christmas shopping, and can easily get carried away with buying gifts. Since moving to the US, I don't really buy gifts for friends and family back homeany longer as it costs far too much to ship from here :( However I do like to go online and buy a few bits from UK websites to ship to friends and family.

Whilst browsing online this year I discovered two really cool websites, I have made a purchase from the first one and am thinking of making a purchase from the second one. They have some great gifts for Ex Pats and some cute things to send to friends and family back home.

The first one is  http://www.snow-home.co.uk/ and they have lots of different things to choose from and also ship internationally. I had never heard of them until Sarah G blogged and mentioned them, and I have purchased and had delivered a Map of the British Isles. It was a bit of a nightmare finding a frame, but eventually I found one at Ikea, I haven't hung the map yet, but plan to put it in our hallway and Im sure it will make a nice talking point for visitors.

The second site I have found is http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/ they also have so many cute things, and also ship internationally, although you do need to double check items as they don't all ship internationally.

I was asked to put together a list of things I would buy from this site for my family and myself, so here goes.

For my Mum I would buy her the framed record of the number one from her birthday, as I know how much she used to enjoy playing records, and how much she likes listening to Cliff Richard

For my sister I would buy her a Sterling Silver keyring, complete with our names so every time she looks at her keys she thinks of me :)

For my brother I would buy him a ransom mug and a chocolate pizza.

Then he can enjoy a cup of tea and some chocolate.

For my two westies I think they would look very fetching in these matching collars

Last but not least, my fabulous husband - who is the hardest to buy for!! I would probably buy him something for his office, like this movie lines print and also a chocolate pizza!

and of course I should buy something for myself - I would love this cute doggie doorstop 

Plus so many other things on this site.

Let me know what you think of this fab site, and what cool things you would like to purchase :) There is so much to choose from.