December 19, 2013

Mirth Watch Thursday: Pet Blogger Gift Exchange Edition - Wag N Woof!

It's that most wonderful time of the year! Time for stressing out about gift-buying and menu-planning and trying to scratch things off your mile long to-do list!

But it's also time for the annual Pet Blogger's Gift Exchange - offering a lovely respite from all that stress. Why, you ask? Isn't a gift exchange just another thing to stress out about? No! Not when you do it like Pamela from Something Wagging This Way Comes and AJ from I Still Want More Puppies, the co-hosts for this year's event. These very wise ladies have come up with a "gift" exchange idea that doesn't involve buying anything! It's all about sharing the gift of "encouragement and blog love."

I was very excited when I was paired with Janet from Wag 'N Woof Pets! If you've never visited their blog, you should go there. Now. (I'll wait.)

Are you back? I mean, how freaking cute is their blog header??



And how cute is their whole crew? If you know the hubs and I at all, you know we can't resist a beagle. (My first dog as a child was a beagle, and the hub's first dog was our beagle, Bailey, who we got right around our first wedding anniversary.)

They've got 2 beagles (Kobi and Cricket), 1 Golden (Sheba), and 2 cats (Conrad and Samantha). 

And, of course, there's The Momz - Janet.

Rita and I love Janet and the crew at Wag 'N Woof! {Disclaimer: If asked, Rita will say that she does not in fact love the cats. Sorry, Conrad and Samantha.}

Now, if you already knew that Janet reviewed both my novels on her blog, you might think I love her and her crew just cuz they said nice things about my writing. But you'd be wrong! 

I discovered Wag 'N Woof earlier this year. (Or maybe they discovered Pooch Smooches first, which lead me to their blog?? I forget....) Anyway, this is one of the first posts I remember seeing there, which had pics of their cute puppy crew on Memorial Day. (Sadly, they lost Moses, their other Golden a few weeks later.)
With a good looking crew like that, of course I'm hooked. And they're wearing bandanas. Love. 
 
Even though we live faaaarrrrr away from each other... (We are almost in opposite corners of the country - them in New Hampshire, us in So. Cal.)...


...I still believe it's quite possible that Janet and I are sisters from another mister. (That doesn't work as well as "brothers from another mother" does it?)

After all, we both are an odd mix of word-/number-lovers. You don't often get a word and a number lover in the same bod. (We both love to write, and yet we both have/had careers dealing with math - Janet's a bookkeeper, and I used to be an accountant.)

We both like to smother our dogs with love: (Even if the dogs don't exactly love it. Tough, dogs! Suck it up!)

We both have an affinity for putting cute elf hats on beagles. (Seriously - the same freaking hat. That's Cricket on the left and our Bailey on the right.)

I'm pretty sure neither of us can resist a beagle puppy: (Again, Cricket on the L, B on the R.)

And we both try to stay fit with our pups! We've even both sported pics of ourselves in our SlimDoggy gear with our pups on our blogs. 

And, sadly, we both lost beloved pups to cancer. :(

So, that's why I love her - but you'll love her too. Check out her blog, which is a lovely mix of fun mischief posts (this recent one where Cricket steals the cat's bed is one of my faves. Such a typical beagle!), helpful posts about keeping fit with your pups, and heartfelt posts trying to help shelter dogs find their furever homes!

If that's not enough to entice you to stop on by, Rita recorded a little PSA (Pet Service Announcement) for Wag 'N Woofs, which tells you why you should stop on by. 

(I have to preface this by saying that this is Rita's first time using the Yakit app, and we couldn't figure out a way to get more recording time added, so she had to sing really fast! I've included her lyrics below, so you can follow along...)


Here comes Wag 'N Woof, here comes Wag 'N Woof,
Right down Pet-Blogger Way!
Beagles, a Golden, and 2 cute kitties,
They play and nap all day!
Dogs are stealing beds, cats are sleepy heads,
All is merry and bright!
So head to Wag 'N Woof and read some fun stuff
Cuz Pet Blogger Exchange is tonight!

Merry Christmas to Janet, and Cricket, and Kobi, and Sheba, and Conrad, and Samantha (and the hubby/daddy!). Looking forward to reading more wonderful blog posts from you in 2014!

32 comments:

  1. That is a lovely idea. Have a tremendous Thursday.
    Best wishes Molly

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  2. We will go visit her blog today. Also we wanted to let you know we received your lovely box yesterday. Mom was so excited that after supper she started reading your book! She is loving it! Thank you for everything you put in it. Now MOm wanted me to ask you if the peppermint bark is the same peppermint bark identified in your book...for awhile they were not sure if it was meant for us or them. She is going to wait to open it till Christmas day and share it with all her family. She also thought the book mark was just beautiful!!! Thank you again so much!
    Merry Christmas
    Stella Rose and momma

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    1. Hooray! Glad it arrived! Isn't that bookmark cool? My sis made it. As for the bark, it's not *exactly* the same. The bark mentioned in the book is the "original" William Sonoma peppermint bark (http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/peppermint-bark/) but when I went to buy some at the store, I saw that new "Paws" version and thought that was too cute to pass up! Hope it's tasty! And it's for the peeps! Not the pups! (It's chocolate - sorry, Stella.)

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    2. Your sister did a wonderful job on that bookmark, I had never seen one like it before! I loved all the doggie charms.
      Sella rose's momma

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  3. Oh my gosh, Jackie, thank you SO MUCH!! What a wonderful post. You might find it funny that the theme of my post for you is going to also partly be about how much we have in common (you beat me to it....lol)! I'm not sure how we got separated at birth and ended up on opposite sides of the country.....but I think we did. I LOVE the video of Rita singing! Merry Christmas to all of you too, and I hope I can do nearly as well with my gift for you!

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    1. Why am I not surprised that you had a similar theme for your post?? After all, we were separated at birth! So glad you like the post! :)

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  4. That map is SO precious! I was paired up with Jan last year, and I was so glad because I got to discover all the wonderful things you mentioned in your fabulous post. I can vouch for every single one of them. She's fantastic, and her crew is darling!

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    1. Aren't they great? Lucky you to be paired with them last year.

      The pet blogger exchange is so fun for discovering new blogs! I already knew Janet and her crew, so that made it especially fun! Last year I was paired with AJ from PupLove and, as I'm a huge art lover, it was so fun to get to share her amazing art with everyone.

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  5. OMD, you met your twin! No wonder I like the two of you so much. You're practically the same person. :)

    What a great gift. You really captured the spirit of the idea. So glad you joined the fun.

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    1. I know - the only difference I think is that she likes to garden and I like to kill anything with roots.

      I'm so glad I joined the fun too!

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  6. Love this idea! I happily visited and am a Wag n Woof Fan now!

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    1. Hooray! Hopefully she'll visit you back, since that pic of Coco on your blog header makes me smile every time I visit!

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  7. OMG, the singing dog cracked me up! Thanks for sharing Wag n Woof. I hadn't seen the blog before either. Definitely a new fan too.

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    1. I'm terribly hooked on that Yakit app now! I was playing with the singing Rita video all afternoon yesterday and just cracking myself up. :)

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  8. What a cute post and cool map! We love them and their blog too! Mom wanted me to mention that she is finally over half done reading your book. She loves it but isn't a big reader because she has ants in her pants and can't sit still very long. I have never seen the ants but she tells us they are there...she wants to find out how it ends, so hopefully she will speed up her reading! Reading blog posts fits better because they are short.

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    1. Oh, yay! Thanks for letting me know! I find it hard lately to find time to read as well. I used to love to read, but now I find it hard to just sit and read for a long time like I used to! I blame the interwebs...

      Anyway, Emma, I hope your mom continues to enjoy the book!

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  9. I love Wag n Woof! So glad y'all got paired. What an awesome match!!

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    1. I know - we were a perfect match! (**skips off humming "Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match!"**)

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  10. Oh what a great match up! I love your post that you did for her blog, which I do love also. You guys do have a lot of similarities it would seem. This just might be the best PBGE posts I've seen so far!

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    1. Oooo. Thanks! I love to be the best! Not that I'm super competitive or anything..........

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  11. I love dropping in to visit them, too! And how cute Rita is singing about them! :)

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    1. I had so much fun making that little Rita video. :)

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  12. This is a wonderful gift exchange idea. I wish I had known about it sooner! Thanks for sharing!

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    1. You will definitely have to join next year! It's a lot of fun.

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  13. Good to meet you! I'm visiting from Wag n Woof. I love the gift exchange because it lets me learn about new-to-me blogs!

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  14. I'm a bookkeeper in real life... does that count? (ha ha, get it?)

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  15. What a great post!! I love Wag 'N Woof pets myself. What a beautiful gift you've given her!!

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  16. There is a serious overload of cuteness at Wag N Woof! And you guys were seriously a perfect match - totally meant to be.

    Bonus points for the caroldy, by the way. :)

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  17. Aw, you guys are like blogging sisters! :) Thanks for the great review of Wag N Woofs!

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  18. Great post.Those dogs are really lovely. Thanks for such a lovely sharing.

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