Our grocery totes are finally available and in our first fabulous boutique/gourmet lunch spot,  Star Provisions, in Atlanta. I cannot think of a better retailer to be first to sell our grocery totes  featuring illustrations I created five years ago for a children’s book I wrote about life in NYC  with my Lab, Tubby.

Once again, Blueblood’s continuous love affair with canines & cuisine makes its way into our  latest offering: an ideal mix of stylish, green and affordable.  But most importantly, our new grocery totes capture a very special part of my life when I lived in New York City with the first dog I raised on my own.

Tubby was a special dog indeed who left a lasting impression on everyone lucky enough to  cross his path. Not unlike the famous “Marley” or my friends’ Labs, “Mosely”, or  ”Sadie”, Tubby was OBSESSED with food. For those of you who own a Lab, you understand that they love food on an  entirely different level than most breeds. Also not unlike many Labs, Tubby was the perfect  mix of charming and manipulative. He mastered the art of pretending not to notice food and  just as you turned your back, devouring it in a matter of seconds. It is most appropriate that Tubby appears on the face of a bag intended to store your favorite goodies!

However Tubby was in many ways a “one of a kind”. He ate most of the contents of my one bedroom apartment on 74th and 1st Avenue. He first discovered his love for swimming after jumping in the fountain of a fancy, Upper East Side, high rise apartment and stole water bottles right out of strangers’ hands by his favorite fountain in Central Park. While Tubby certainly upset people from time to time, even his naughtiest shinanigans usually elicited roaring laughter.  He preferred sleeping on hardwood floors, upside down like a dead bug to hoping in bed with us and God knows, I would never have dreamt of buying him a fancy dog bed or a beautiful leash as it would have been shredded in seconds.

I decided that Tubby was a character who needed to be remembered, for he was full of life, adventure and tons of mischief.  He was a true comedian and one of the friendliest dogs you’d ever met who made friends with everyone from the butcher to his motley crew of doggie friends. He loved everyone in the diverse melting pot that is New York City and thus began my idea for a children’s book.  I spent the better part of a year writing and editing the book which morphed from prose to verse, long to short, young adult to picture book. I decided I would only want to publish the book if I too were the illustrator. I had been in love with drawing for as long as I’d been passionate about dogs, so who else I thought could bring my imagination to life?

A year later I met Tina and Blueblood was born. Originating as a luxury brand of dog accessories our ultimate goal was to expand Blueblood  to create a lifestyle brand of stylish, functional personal and home accessories.  In addition to adding new products to our existing lines this year, we will be introducing new ones that  include linens, throw pillows and storage bins. Our other focus in 2010 is to incorporate my illustrations and custom prints into every aspect of our line from the leads and collars to fabrics for the beds, totes, napkins and tea towels. It is inevitable to be compared to other brands but for Tina and myself, it is most rewarding when one of our designs are spotted and we hear, “isn’t that a Blueblood?”