There is an etiquette column in the March issue of Good Housekeeping that provides tips for “Saying Thanks”. Good manners never go out of style so I thought I would share some useful information as a reminder of what an appropriate level of “thank you” should look like. In my own life, I don’t practice a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes time to expressing gratitude. We may have busy schedules and it may be easy to take advantage of technology to send a quick text, but depending on the gesture this might not be enough. The list below was taken directly from Good Housekeeping and provides rules for what level of gratitude is most appropriate given a particular situation.

• Send a text or email: appropriate for when a person’s thoughtfulness doesn’t require them to go out of their way. For example, a colleague shares notes from a meeting you couldn’t attend or a friend refers you to their doctor who turns out to be great.
• Call or say it in person: appropriate when a small effort was extended. For example, a neighbor collects your mail while you’re away for a weekend or a fellow parent drives your kids home one day.
• Send a handwritten note: appropriate for when time, energy, expertise, or effort was given. For example, someone gives you a gift for a special occasion, an acquaintance lets you pick their brain over coffee or a colleague covers for you at work. Personally, I love sending and receiving snail mail and I take great pride in purchasing stationery and composing a handwritten note.

We added a new Italian Greyhound puppy to our family several months ago (@orvietotheiggy) who, not surprisingly, has turned out to be quite the spoiled pooch. He has been lavished with gifts from friends and family since we got him and I found a fun way to show our appreciation for their thoughtfulness: I ordered personalized stationery for our dog! After all, good puppy manners are very important! Personalized stationery would also be a fun, unexpected gift for a new pet owner.

Here is our puppy checking out his new order of stationery.

The pets in our family always give each other gifts for special occasions. Here is a thank you note being composed for Bradford, his Greyhound cousin.

Our dog has perfected his paw print “signature”, with a little help from a rubber stamp and my favorite ink pad (StazOn ink).

I might consider buying custom postage stamps in the future that feature a picture of my dog. However, in the meantime, Scooby-Doo will have to do.

Here you can see notes done and ready to be mailed. You can bet that our pup will be accompanying me to the post office to drop off his mail.

Resources: I love supporting small businesses and was looking for something specialized so I first turned to Etsy to purchase both the stationery and rubber stamp.

• Correspondence cards: I purchased my correspondence cards through this vendor who has stationery for specific dog breeds.
• Rubber stamp: You can probably find a paw print rubber stamp at most craft stores. However, I wanted a very small stamp that I was able to find here.