Sisters Marie: Dogs in Christmas Sweaters

I am really happy with our Tiny Prints Christmas card this year - Truly, I think it's adorable. It makes me smile and feel proud of my tiny Family. BUT -- The best part about it is the story of how we got here...

One beautiful Fall morning in Wisconsin, I decided it would be the perfect time to take an updated Family photo. The ground was covered in leaves, it was a great time of day with natural lighting and it was cold but not the good kind where you can get away with just a sweater -- and speaking of sweaters, let's rewind: I had seen a fair isle dog sweater at Target in the dollar section (which at Christmas time, ends up becoming the $15 section because I want it all). I vowed I would never be "that" person who dresses up their dog but standing there staring at this animal clothing with tiny holes for his head and paws, I could NOT pass it up. All the way home, I imagined the disgusted reaction my husband would have which was very accurate because I came home to..."You didn't seriously spend money on that, did you? He's a DOG. That is ridiculous."
Fast forward back to picture day when I announce it's time to take the photo. My first mistake was trying to organize during the Bears game...but begrudgingly, my husband threw on his "blue shirt" I asked him to bring which mind you, was a HOODIE. Not exactly the vibe I was going for...so irritation #2, is me asking him if he has anything else. "Nope - You said something blue." So here we go, me, Mike, the dog and my Mom, off to the my chosen location in the woods.

A few minutes into the process, my vision became a lot more hilarious. I was having a hard time getting the sweater on Fitz so I asked Mike to help and I kid you not, he spent the next 10 minutes trying to get his paws through those damn holes. Twice, he got it all the way on and realized it was on backwards - TWICE. So off it comes and third times a charm, right? Not really. Fitz is a medium size dog but his head is rather large...turns out, TOO large to stretch the sweater all the way over after we got his paws in. Fitz was so patient the entire time, such a sweet boy...all the while my Mom and I are almost peeing ourselves witnessing this situation, in tears from laughing. It absolutely WAS ridiculous, just like Mike said from the start. But wow, I love how hard everybody tried to humor me in order to make my idea come to life. In the end, we got the sweater half way on, Mike wore his BLUE winter jacket and the light was still just perfect...and so are they. These are the stories that make the holidays so memorable :)

Here is our 2016 Holiday Card:

I always have fun assembling them and putting the finishing touches on before they go out. I had no trouble selecting the card design…I really do love their foil cards, but I was more drawn to a more rustic, craft paper style because I thought it was the perfect fit for a photo shot in the woods. Plus, it has equally cute envelopes to match and this year, I decided to make it easy on myself by uploading my address book to have Tiny Prints take care of the printing. I do enjoy the art of handwritten notes but during the holiday season, there’s no extra time, especially to address 40+ envelopes, so I like to be resourceful where I can. I also ordered the evergreen print envelope liners which are adhesive and super easy to slip in. I know everyone throws the envelope away, but I think it really adds something to the overall presentation and who doesn't love opening a cute piece of mail?

I also had a cute little helper by my side who actually snored most of the time I was hard at work... If only we all had a dog's life!

And let's not forget a few of the cute card outtakes... I love Fitz in this first one, he looks like (the most adorable) statue.

Towards the end of our journey into the woods, we stumbled upon a very old wooden boat which looks to have been deserted for years. It was such a cool find and this would have been a great setting for the card but to be honest, the dog had lost his patience by this point and all 3 of us were ready to get back for lunch and more fireplace sitting. Priorities, guys...