This year’s holiday catalog is out and working it’s way across the country to your mailbox!  With this issue we are also launching our on-line catalog.  You can browse the pages, click through to add items to your wishlist or shopping cart and then zip right back to the catalog.  No worries – the print version is not going anywhere!  The online catalog is something many folks have been asking for and we’re happy to offer option.

One of the things that makes the Holiday Catalog different from the others we send throughout the year is the cover.  Rather than showing a model in a garment we get to have a  little fun and create something whimsical and inspiring. 

The first holiday catalog we mailed back in 2006 featured Woolly:

 

Woolly rocked.  Everyone loved Woolly.  He is the bar that all Holiday Covers are measured against.  I will love him forever.

In 2007, this was our cover:

 

I really liked it but it wasn’t quite Woolly.  Still very adorable and fun.

Last year was this:

 

My least favorite.  No comparison.

So, as we started planning for this year’s catalog, the line was drawn in sand.  The cover must be spectacular.  It must measure up to Woolly, if not exceed.  That was my challenge to myself and my team.  We bantered around a lot of ideas and it was Mary in our Marketing Department who came up with this year’s concept – cookies.

I loved the idea, but I will be honest, as we began to move forward with the concept I became nervous.  Skeptical even.  I really wasn’t sure if the cookie idea was going to be able to deliver the same emotion that Woolly did.  I was worried I wouldn’t love it.

Once the cookies were completed and ready to go to photography I was silently panicking.  Our timeline was tight and if I didn’t love the shot it was going to mean I was either going to have to live with it or pull everyone together and come up with something else which would have been nearly impossible.

The only people I said anything too was our designer and photographer.  They have worked a lot of magic for me but I just didn’t think they could take the cookies and create a shot that I loved.

Color me wrong.

They sent me back about 6 or 8 possibilities, all slightly different.  Each of them took my breath away.  Although the team wasn’t in 100% agreement, I made the final decision. 

 

I LOVE the cover.  I cannot possibly find enough adjectives to express how MUCH I love it.  It’s perfect.  It can stand proudly next to Woolly.  My thanks to Mary for the idea and early prototypes, to Kirsten for creating the cookies, to Linda for brainstorming with us and of course to Penny & David who turned all of our hardwork into this beautiful shot. 

Tomorrow I’ll share with you some of the great projects and gift ideas INSIDE the catalog.

Remember, if you haven’t received yours yet, you can check out our NEW on-line catalog here.

Kathy