Thursday, December 31, 2009

A New Year is Unfolding ...

A New Year is Unfolding
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like a blossom with petals curled tightly
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concealing the beauty within.
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The unfolding year of 2010 is bound to bring many changes to my personal and professional life and I cannot wait to see the beauty unveil.
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In my personal life
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Roger and I will be welcoming a little one (our first)
in early April of 2010.
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In my professional life
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the birth of little baby Dreher this Spring will allow me to stay home to raise him/her and also put more effort into my pinwhirls business. Something I've been wanting to do for over 2 years.
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In the early part of this year I also plan to unveil quite a few exciting new products and product enhancements including
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1. More DIY Pinwheel Kit Options
2. Pinwheels with 'Dressed Up' Handles
3. Another Place Card Flag Option
3. Traditional Wooden Pinwheels
4. Customizable Party Cones
5. More varieties and sizes of Party Hats
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We invite you to 'Follow Us' at the link to the right so you to can keep updated as the petals unfold.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Introducing ...

INTRODUCING
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our Pinwhirl Peonies Pinwheels!
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The newest design in our pinwheel collection.
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They resemble the foil pinwheels we all remember from our childhood
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only less gawdy
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and these babies are way too long in the making.
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It was my original intention to release similar designs about a year ago - late 2008.
I started the design process and into it realized that the actual reproduction
of double pinwheels would be way too time consuming.
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I would either have to charge way too much for these precious pinwheels meaning that very few people would purchase them
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OR
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I would have to practically give them away meanwhile not making a profit after my time invested in tracing my designs and cutting them by hand.
So
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I took several months to think about it
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business got busy with my traditional personalized pinwheels
leaving me no time to ponder
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then business slowed down later this summer into early this fall
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and I finally had the time to investigate more creative options for replicating these pinwheels.
And I ran across some very exciting options which did not involve me having to
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hand trace and hand cut
every ... single ... intricate ... detail ... of these pinwheels.
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What I found means that I can finally offer these lovelies to my customers at reasonable prices.
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They still cost more than my traditional four quadrant pinwheels as double the paper is involved
(plus there was quite a hefty investment in equipment)
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AND
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they are also more complicated and thus more time consuming to assemble
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but they are still more readily affordable to most.
And the Best News Of All
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We now offer
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DIY Pinwheel Peony Kits for these both these newly released pinwheels
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plus our Traditional Pinwhirls.
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These complete kits include instructions, all items needed to assemble pinwheels, and yes even the pre-cut pinwheel heads
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All papers from this link are available
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Anyone with the time and love for crafting can now create our Pinwhirls on a shoe string budget!
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Or, if you are not a crafty crafter, we still offer pre-assembled pinwheels
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to browse all of our current Pinwheel Peonies and traditional Pinwheel offerings just click here.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Where I Live ...

Okay, I don't really live in this room, but sometimes it feels like I spend the majority of my at-home-time in this office. This little ol' room is where I run the majority of the pinwhirls/crossroads cottage business including responding to messages, web updates, printing papers, etc. (And yes, it's decorated for Xmas in these photos - since I spend so much time in here I thought it needed some Christmas spirit too!)
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This room used to look quite different (to see a couple of photos click here) until I decided mid-summer that the old set-up just wasn't working. So, I invested in ...

some more furniture with lots of storage. The piece pictured in the above and below photos is actually intended for use as a media center - i.e. there is supposed to be a fancy flat screen television in the center. But, it houses my two printers perfectly.
In addition to lots of cubbies that house baskets to store bags, shipping supplies, inks, etc. it also has the perfect amount of closed door space to hide away my stores of papers, pinwheel handles, etc. etc. You know all of that stuff that one just needs to run a business, but is just horribly ugly to have out and in the open.

The room is now quite cramped and not as elegantly cozy as it used to be, but it is so much better organized and a much better work set-up for me and the business.

I also purchased the above table to house our scanner, cutting machine (that it about to be replaced with a much better alternative), and scale for weighing all of my shipments.

And here is the desk. Still kind of messy - sadly it's the cleanest it's been in months. This is where I spend the majority of my time - right in front of this computer. Even though I invested in a laptop last year (and Roger purchased this new PC), the machines have actually reversed. I spend 99% of my time on his computer and he spends 99% of his time on my laptop. Funny how that works.
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I just realized that I forgot to take photos of the office closet although you probably aren't missing out on much. It contains two filing cabinets to file all of my orders and business paperwork and way too many plastic tubs to house all of the pre-assembled pinwheels we have in stock. It's a tight space. Almost like a puzzle trying to get everything back in it's correct spot after an order is placed.
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This room is still a bit tiny for assembling the pinwheels so most of the assembly work is done in our sun room. Maybe one day, I'll have my own large studio, but for now the above works just fine and dandy. :)
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Hope you enjoyed the tour...

Kelly & Liam: Beautiful Blue Beach Wedding

Just as this past summer was nearing an end, I was contacted by Eclatante Design to provide pinwheels for Kelly & Liam's (pictured above) September beach wedding. Their colors - blue (very close to tiffany), tan, and white - just perfect for a beach wedding.

Seating cards were attached to the pinwheels which were appropriately propped into beach sand - love those clear class containers! To view a close-up of the pinwheels, please click here.
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To view more beautiful photos from this beach wedding please visit Eclatante's blog entries here and here.
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Above photos courtesy of Amy Deputy Photography.