The Second and Third Gifts Were DOGtastic

The first gift was DINOmyte.  The second and the third gifts were DOGtastic, which isn't an actual word but sounded much better than BARKvelous (marvelous) or PUPational (sensational).  What am I talking about?  The gifts that I brought to a first birthday party.

I'll give a brief history of the first birthday party of which I'm referring:

1) Here, I pondered over what gift to bring.
2) Here, I pondered over what food to bring.
3) Here, I revealed the first gift that I brought.
4) TODAY, I'm revealing the second and third gifts.

Now that you're caught up, the second and the third gifts were from The Black Dog.  The Black Dog is a tavern that has become exceptionally successful at marketing it's apparel.  So much so that there are entire stores, separate and apart from the tavern itself, that sell The Black Dog sweatshirts and hats and dog collars.  I can't explain why the tavern is so great or why the apparel is so trendy because I don't know.  What I do know, is that it's indigenous to Martha's Vineyard where I recently visited.  A-ha!  Now all this rambling is making sense, sort of.

I like getting gifts for people while I'm on vacation.  Not I-brought-you-something-back-from-my-vacation gifts.  Though sometimes cool and unique, those type gifts are more often cheap and lame (for example, a t-shirt that reads "My mom went to Las Vegas and all I got was this crappy t-shirt").  I like getting real gifts (birthday, wedding, house warming, etc.) while on vacation.  Real gifts offer a bigger budget and vacation gifts offer one-of-a-kind status - a dogtastic fantastic combination.

Hence, while on my vacation to Martha's Vineyard, I bought a couple gifts from The Black Dog for my upcoming first birthday party - a sweatshirt and a stuffed animal.  I'll concede that The Black Dog products aren't quite one-of-a-kind, but certainly unusual enough for a 1-year-old from Brooklyn.  And, the stuff is so cute and comfy, perfect for fall.  I had been inspired by this jacket (below) from The Nutmeg Tree to give a gift of warm clothing.

by The Nutmeg Tree and 15% off
with the coupon code TATORTOT

Here is a cute sweater from The Black Dog.  This isn't what I got, but it's the only large image I could find for your viewing pleasure.  My purchase was the traditional sweatshirt, in pink.  Of course.

via The Black Dog

And, at last, I couldn't leave The Black Dog store without purchasing a black dog (stuffed not live, fake not real).  Head to The Black Dog website (here) to check out all the great stuff, including some stuffed, fake dogs.