Thursday, January 29, 2009

Sister Act?

You know how they say that old married couples begin to resemble one another? If this is true, I’ve always thought it had something to do with the fact that we all get wrinkly, gray and smaller as we age. Then there’s the Fido campaign, where dog owners and their dogs share similar traits… But can you start to look like your best friend if you hang out long enough?

Amy and I have been hanging out in a fairly exclusive club of two for the past 19 years – exactly half our lives, in fact. We’ve noticed that ever increasingly, people are starting to think we look alike. For years at craft shows people have asked if we are sisters, and even twins a couple of times! This may not sound unusual to you – but perhaps if you saw us you’d know why this is funny. Amy is a petite brunette with straight hair. She’s 5’ 2” and 100 pounds soaking wet. I’m a 5’ 8” curly-haired redhead who is – ahem – more than 100 pounds bone dry. So how could it be that we are beginning to look alike? Even our kids are weirdly interchangeable in appearance. Amy’s oldest and my youngest could easily pass for sisters much more easily than they could with their actual siblings. Same for my oldest and Amy’s middle child.

We certainly do sound alike, who wouldn’t after a 19 year-long conversation? But it appears to be more than voice and mannerisms. At a recent social gathering a new friend walked into a room full of women, most of whom she didn’t know – paused, and looked at Amy saying, ‘you must be Danielle’s sister’. It’s definitely a strange phenomenon…I wonder if we’ll be identical twins in another 19 years?

Admiral Road has been making personalized blankets since 2002.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Pet Names a.k.a The Dog Blog

We're not all about babies at Admiral Road. Admiral Road fans include kids, adults and .... well... see for yourself!

I grew up with dogs starting when I was 5 years old. My dad and brother came to pick me up at summer camp, and my brother tortured me (as he often did) with the surprise that was awaiting me at home. Much to my delight, my much older brother had gone to work one day at the gas station and come home with a dog! Several years later we added a second dog to the family. Needless to say that I love dogs. But I never loved my dogs enough to buy them a present more expensive than a $3 chew toy. Luckily for us, our customers feel differently.


Earlier this year we had a customer call from Vancouver to tell us that her dog LOVED the blanket that she bought for him last Christmas and now she needed a blanket for her new dog so dog #2 wouldn't feel left out.

Ethel's owner finally gave in and bought her this blanket as a Christmas present at the One of a Kind show this year. This blanket is roomy enough for Ethel and her little friend!


We were a little confused when we opened this picture that was submitted for our photo gallery contest. Lots of times pets make their way into pictures of new babies - it's usually quite endearing. And we do get some great pictures of dogs on our dog-themed blanket. But this pup is on a baby monkey blanket.... that says Ethan. His owner got this blanket as a part of one of our recent Facebook group giveaways where we give away free or marked down items that are taking up too much room in our warehouse. As it turns out, there is no baby and there is no Ethan. This dog is Benji and he apparently sleeps with this blanket every night. Good thing he can't read.

Admiral Road has been making personalized blankets since 2002.


Thursday, January 15, 2009

Welcome to our blog

Technologically speaking, we’re not exactly early-adopters over here at Admiral Road. It took one of us (I’m not naming names) a heck of a lot of effort to convince the other of us that we really did need a web site way back when we first started. Granted, it was 2002 and it was far from the case that every company had a web site, let alone a functioning e-commerce web site, but the writing was certainly on the wall. Thank goodness we got admiralroad.com up and running – it’s been our beloved ‘store’ for the past seven years.

In the spirit of self-improvement we’ve been working on our technological know-how. Several months ago we retired our dinosaur of a desktop computer in favour of laptops. We’ve synched up our hard-drives and, with the help of Lizz, our 23-year-old computer whiz employee, are moving, sluggishly, into the new millennium – better late than never. We’ve read with interest for some time the blogs of other companies and individuals we admire, and we thought it was high time we threw our literary hats into the ring.

Blanket Statements (cute name, don’t you think?) is a blog about balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship. (We’ve got five kids between us, aged six and under.) It’s also a forum for us to tell you about products and companies we like as well as a little about some of our amazing customers. Finally, we’ll keep you posted on what’s happening at your favourite source for personalized blankets and other great gifts. We hope you enjoy reading our blog and let us know what you think. Who knows? If this works out, Blackberries might even be in our future….

Admiral Road has been making personalized blankets since 2002.