"My Favorite Things" Dog Edition: My Top 10 Dog Christmas Gifts for 2013

I have spent a lot of time gathering information and products for this doggie gift guide. I tried to compile items that actually have a use and a purpose and items that dogs would actually enjoy, as well as their humans. Many times I think giving gifts to dogs has more to do with how it makes humans feel rather than the dog!

I would give every single one of these to my dogs and I truly believe they would enjoy every single one as well.

So here they are, just in time for the Christmas shopping season (can't believe we are a week away from Black Friday and Cyber Monday!!!).

"My Favorite Things" Dog Edition: My Top 10 Dog Christmas Gifts for 2013

Hyperdog Ball Launcher Christmas Dog Gifts: I immediately thought of my dogs because they could run ALL day and love chasing tennis balls. Instead of 20 short throws, I could maybe do 10 long throws! Plus I just wanna shoot it cause it looks cool!

Self Warming Lounge Sleeper: Dog Christmas Gift: I saw this a lot when looking for great Christmas dog gifts and I think it's genius! They have dog beds that are electric, like an electric blanket, but many times that isn't feasible, so this somehow just reflects and traps the dog's body heat and helps warm the bed with it. Great idea!

Leopard Dog Play Balls: I had never heard of "Harry Barker" but apparently they are a great company! Take some time to look on their website! It's fun! And these are fun too!

Soggy Doggy Slopmats: This may be more for humans!? But I just couldn't NOT post it because it would solve so many problems at my house. I am convinced I will be put in the hospital after slipping on dog drool.

Holiday Lambswool Tuffut Toy: My dogs love these kind of toys. They are mostly just material instead of fluff, which is good for me since Molly loves to throw the fluff all over the house! 

Plush Dog Toy - Huge Wooly Bone : I know, I know, I just said I hate fluff, BUT think how cute this would look under the tree with a giant red bow on it??????

Gourmet Christmas Dog Treats:  Then of course, I HAVE to include the best dog treats of all time in my list.  Treats are the perfect Christmas gift because they are sure to love them and these are so adorably packaged, they come ready to be opened and devoured!

P.L.A.Y Snuggle Bed: I wish these came in bigger sizes because this is exactly what I try to create every night with my dogs. They LOVE being bundled in a cave! Genius idea!

Christmas Dog Collar: This may need to be given before Christmas! But I like it because I think it can be worn all winter long and not just at Christmas time.

DOOG Sticks: I saw these posted as one of the top toys found at the global pet expo and I am so curious about them! They are all natural and are apparently supposed to replicate and replace real sticks that dogs chew on. My dogs secretly bring sticks into the house all the time, and it's a mess so I would love to know how these work! 

And there you have it! "My Favorite Things" Dog Edition for 2013. Check out my Pinterest Board for other dog gift ideas I have found.

 I am not sure what else they will get, but I can assure you dog treats will be in abundance on Christmas day for my dogs :) 

I have so many variations of dog treats and would love to make something special for your Christmas pup!!! Head over to www.treatdreamsthedogbakery.com to see for yourself!

Have a wonderful Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays!!

Christmas Dog Treat Packaging!

After much, much, much deliberation…I have finally decided on my Christmas packaging for all of my Christmas dog treats this year! :) I know as a consume and a shop owner, packaging is very important and I wanted it to convey the spirit of the shop, and fit with the look of the treats too!

So here it is!

The down low is this: if you purchase 2+ items, the packaging will look like this, my favorite! :)

A take-out box filled to the brim with delicious morsels waiting to be devoured by a hungry doggie, perfectly and delicately wrapped in two kinds of Christmas ribbon (which I must admit, I had too much fun picking out). 

Then of course, topped off with my new Christmas treat labels! 

I love the take-out box because it looks ready to sit by the tree and to be opened on Christmas day! It needs no more decoration or prep, it's ready to be given as a gift!

On the other side, if only 1 item is purchased, the packaging will be in a polka dot treat bag! Which I do love, and is very similar to what I normally package with, I just wanted something totally different for Christmas, however because the small priority rate USPS box is so long and skinny, this is my only option for one item. I still love it, and think it's perfect to give as a gift, I am just a little biased toward my take-out box :)

My labels turned out great!!!! I am so excited about them! 

I have updated all my items in my Etsy shop to include pics of the packaging so head on over and check it out!!!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/TreatDreams

Personalized Wedding Dog Treat Favors

I received a request a few weeks ago and I just have to share it with you because I thought it was a genius idea!

A couple was getting married and they wanted to somehow incorporate their dogs into their wedding so they reached out to me to make them some personalized dog treats with their names and their wedding date in them.

I made them 200 personalized all natural dog treats that they gave away as their wedding guest favors. They included a note saying "From our dogs, to your dogs, enjoy!"

I used my all natural, grain-free pumpkin recipe and these bones are about 3.5 inches big so they are the perfect size! 

Check out my listing on my website!

I thought this was a great idea! It makes your wedding so incredibly unique and I wish I could be at this wedding to hear all the reactions to these favors!

All of my friends and family had nothing but wonderful things to say about this idea!

One thing I love about this business is the ability for the customer to customize the treats to be whatever they need them to be. I originally had the idea to make a business pumpkin bone for businesses to put their names on the bones, but this is a new idea to me and I just love it!

I'd love to hear any or all of your ideas! I love customizing anything!

Be sure to look at all my Christmas treats for the season and get your order in before it's too late!

www.treatdreamsthedogbakery.com

All Natural Peanut Butter Dog Bones: FEATURED!

For the first time, we have been featured in a magazine! I am just really excited about this, so I had to share!

Our All Natural Peanut Butter Dog Treat Bones are shown in Snowed In Magazine

Not only am I wanting to promote the fact we are featured, I am wanting to promote the blog and magazine because through all of this, I have found I love this site!!

They have great DIY projects and especially for the holidays, they have some great ideas for preparing, decorating, cooking and gift giving!

Be sure to take a look at it and follow her!

And then of course take a look at my Peanut Butter Dog Treats which are great for Christmas gifts. What pup doesn't love peanut butter??

We grind our own wheat berries to make these bones with the freshest whole wheat possible. A mixture of peanut butter, warm fresh flour and honey make these a delicious decision your pup will thank you for!!

Check them out on my website!

It's TIME! Christmas Dog Treats are here!!

I am particularly and, probably excessively, excited about opening up my shop for the Christmas season!
It was so different not thinking as a consumer this year and thinking as a shop owner. I found myself many times thinking "it's not time for Christmas though, we have to wait until after Thanksgiving!" because that is what my family does, we do not pull out the tree, candles or 50 year old porcelain angels from Grandma until AFTER Thanksgiving. But this year, I had to get on the ball early so I could have everything ready for whenever it was wanted. I have to admit though....I secretly loved it! :)

Christmas is my favorite holiday and I had too much fun thinking and planning for my Christmas dog treat collection.

So ......here they are!!!!!

2013 Christmas Dog Treat Collection at Treat Dreams Gourmet Dog Bakery

As always, these are handmade dog treats, made by myself and my mom, and they are homemade dog treats, made in my family kitchen. I make all treats made to order and have specifically researched and chosen my ingredients to provide the best nutrition. They are made specifically, personally and uniquely made with love for each dog. And I do mean made with love because I truly truly love making them. I can think of no better job than to have my loyal canine companions by my side, baking treats for very special and unique dogs while humming away to Jack Johnson, Frank Sinatra, Norah Jones, The Civil Wars.....you get it,,,,I like soothing music :)

This is my first year in business, my first Christmas season and I am beyond blessed and excited to have it!


All Natural Christmas Dog Treats
After I started looking around, thinking about what treats I was going to design for Christmas, I realized that many all natural dog treats weren't specified for Christmas! I realize decorated treats are fun, but many dogs aren't able to have them because of health reasons, and I wanted them to have some fun options that are specific to Christmas and winter time. 

These are all natural grain-free pumpkin stars with our all natural yogurt frosting powder. These are perfectly bite-sized and honestly, can you get anything more festive than these? They are my background on my computer because they get me in such a cheery mood :)

I am really really proud of these! I wanted one of my all natural treat recipes to make sense combining it with a Christmas shape and this is the absolute perfect combination! All natural cranberry candy cane dog treats! I put in a little more cranberry in these to make them extra colorful :)

I know I say this a lot, I kinda really really love these a lot. Sometimes it's the simple things that are the best and the case is true with these. This is our most popular recipe, it is our blueberry low fat dog treat recipe that I have shaped into snowflakes. Now you can have a low fat Christmas dog treat that is also festive! Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

Decorated Gourmet Christmas Dog Treats

Now to some fun! I believe these are some of the best and most fun Christmas dog treats out there! I already have some orders for them and it makes me so happy to share them with everyone! I am working on buying packaging that will make them perfect for doggie Christmas gifts for your own pup for to send or give as a gift! They all use my grain-free pumpkin recipe and are decorated with yogurt based frosting and artificial coloring.

Naughty or Nice? Santa Claus is coming to town!! I had to keep my friends and family from eating these Santa dog treats they look so delicious! Every pup deserve a gift from Santa and you can't get more perfect than these.

I don't know about your dog, but mine LOVE the snow!!! Unfortunately we do not get much of it. My pups gladly take these snowman dog treats as compensation :)

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree! Sometimes just the simplest things put you in the Christmas mood, and these Christmas tree dog treats do that for me, and of course, my doggies agree!

I do believe these win the cuteness award! I can't wait to send these gingerbread man dog treats as doggie Christmas gifts to many friends and family. 

These candy cane dog treats are a great way to put "candy" in your dog's stocking this year! Everyone loves candy in their stocking, right?

Speaking of stockings......why not give them a stocking they will actually get some use out of? I am even able to put names on these Christmas stocking dog treats to make them personalized dog treats!

I decided to offer this variety because I had someone who just simply couldn't choose between them all!! I thought that was easily fixable...so, voila! Now I have an assortment of Christmas dog treats so that your pup can enjoy every kind of Christmas treat.

Finally, my Christmas paw print dog treats! I love paw print treats and I needed one more war to incorporate red and green together. A collection of these make a perfect gift, love it!

Well I hope you like them and I hope your doggie's get to enjoy them! I love customizing orders so if you would like something changed or have an idea, feel free to email me at info@treatdreamsthedogbakery.com 

I have a lot of other great non-Christmas related treats that can be personalized to make unique gifts as well at www.treatdreamsthedogbakery.com

I will post the packaging they come in soon! They will look super cute and be ready to give as presents!

I will also be posting my "favorite things" for Christmas dog related gifts soon so be looking for that!

Circus Themed Baby Shower

So several weeks ago I had the absolute pleasure of helping to put on a baby shower for some great friends and it was so much fun!

I LOVE planning parties and decorations and invitations and organization and food! I have never been involved in planning or decorating a baby shower and I kinda just took over this shower because I was so excited to get everything together on this one!

I decided that a circus themed baby shower was possibly the cutest idea anyone has ever come up with! Thank you Pinterest for so many ideas!

So I wanted to share with you the pictures from the shower because it turned out soooooo cute! And you know me, I did everything as cheaply as possible! So I shall share some of my finds and ideas with you as well :)

FOOD TABLE

Most of the items are from the Dollar Store: Pop Corn bags, small glass jars, candy, styrofoam boxes..

These paper cones were so fun! I wrapped a styrofoam box with wrapping paper, then stuck BBQ grilling sticks in them with a paper cone around each stick, then filled the cone with taffy! The cones are just paper wrapped and taped into a cone. SUPER EASY!

I found some peanuts at a local ranch and feed store and filled glass vases I had around the house for decoration. I also found some tickets at Wal-Mart and filled vases with tickets for decoration as well!

The full view of the table! I found out what all the hostesses had as far as cake platters or dishes that would all work (glass) and used them for the food.

I made all these flags and they were easy and cheap. Michaels was having a sale on their 12x12 paper so I went crazy and picked out some fun patterns! Then it's simply tracing and cutting. I cut BBQ grilling sticks I had laying around down to size and taped the flags on. They were a CUTE addition to the cakes and cupcakes.

ANIMAL CRACKERS! We wanted enough of these to go on the tables for each person (also kind of a take home gift for each person) but they are hard to find. Wal-Mart had perhaps 5-7 each time we went and we could not go back 10 times and we bought them out each time. So we just used them as decoration.

Again, I wrapped boxes. These are USPS Priority Mail boxes that I wrapped in tissue paper, wrapping paper and then sometimes put some ribbon on. It was great to give some height to the table.

This was so easy to do! I found it on Pinterest. Check it out here. We printed out the letters and backed it with some red paper we bought at Michaels. Clothes pins are from the dollar store.

SEATING TABLES

These glass jars are from the dollar store, as well as the pop corn bags. We popped tons of popcorn to fill these bags and it was great because people snacked on it all night and even took some bags home with them. They served as decoration and food!

Every table had some balloons, popcorn and peanuts!

FRONT SIGN

We were able to track down a chalk board to welcome the guests!

This was just a really fun shower, it ended up being not too expensive and everything worked well together. I am already preparing for another shower and will post pics of that when it happens! So fun!