Kiss Me, I'm Irish

Okay, so you don't have to kiss me, but I am Irish. ;-) In honor of the upcoming March holiday, I've created and posted a St. Pattie's Day themed tablescape at my site. Feel free to peek your head into my shop for more photos and explanations on how to achieve this St. Patrick's Day centerpiece look yourself. Or, for a full slide show, without my annoying comments, click here.
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As always you can always visit all of my past tablescapes either here at my blog or here at my shop.
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Enjoy! It's not too long until Corned Beef and Cabbage time. Yum.

Creations in Bloom

With the official start of spring only about a month away (yay!), I've been busy, busy, busy creating springish items for my shop.

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Last weekend, a client of mine asked if I was able to make larger pinwheels. I had never attempted larger ones as I thought they would have difficulty spinning. I decided to give the larger pinwheels a try - this time on 12" handles instead of 8". It turns out I had been wrong all along - the pinwheels above actually spin easier than the pinwheels on 8" handles. Who knew? And, I'm still not sure why. I was so giddy with delight. (Just ask Roger I get so excited about all things pinwheels. Yep, I'm weird.) So, in addition to the custom order that I prepared for the client I also made a few more sets for my website. They measure around 15" tall and I now heart them more than any of my other sizes!

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My other big project ...

I've just completed my spring line of pinwheel papers! So pretty. I'm so happy to be working with pastel colors again. Yippee. There are over 35 paper designs available here. Haven't had time to create pinwheels using these papers YET but I hope to do so soon. Who knows - I may also create another spring tablescape utilizing them.

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Speaking of tablescapes. I plan on putting together a March themed table this weekend. Anyone have a guess on the theme?

February Centerpiece Party

With the most Romantical Day of the year soon approaching I thought I'd get into the holiday spirit by participating in Cindy's February Centerpiece Party. She's kind of a big deal in blog land, but for those of you who haven't heard of or visited her blog in the past, please be sure to stop by her blog, My Romantic Home, for lots of other great centerpiece ideas. I'm sure you'll also become hooked on her blog and visit/stalk it on an almost daily basis - just as I do. :)

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Our Valentine's Day table is all set for the most romantic day of the year. To view pictures of our 2009 Valentine's Day Table and Centerpiece, click here. For those who missed out on our 2008 heart themed table and centerpiece, click here.

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Enjoy!

I can't wait to browse all of the other lovely centerpieces.

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Pinwheels Featured

My, it's been some time since I've posted. The Snow Day got me started on a business project that has left me swamped since. (Give me a 'day off' and I'll be sure to give myself some additional work. I think I'm a workaholic - or as Roger says, I just don't like to sit still.) I guess I also forgot to post that the wind dance did not work so I was back to my real job bright and early on Thursday morning - boo! Good news: We got all the way up to 43 degrees yesterday which means the mounds of snow are about half their original height. Bad news: We are supposed to get more snow tomorrow. Only an inch, but still. I'm so ready for April. :)

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Anyhoo, after days of work, I've finally added a "Do It Yourself" portion to my website - perfect for those do it yourselfers who want to know hot to make pinwheels. As well as having a Pinwheel Instruction Guide, I'm also selling all of the products do it yourselfers will need to assemble pinwheels. These products are the exact products I use to assemble my pinwheels, so I personally know they work - which is a biggie. (When I first attempted to make pinwheels, so many sites provided pinwheel instructions that either didn't work or were too complicated. ) In addition to selling pre-drilled handles, I'm also selling the glue, pins, and beads that I've found work best in the assembly process. Decorative scissors, hand punches, craft knives, and the perfect sized hammer are also available. Now anyone with the time and patience can assemble their perfect party pinwheels themselves.

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Over the weekend, I also learned that my Valentine's Day Pinwheels are also featured in two online publications - just in time for Valentine's Day. Excitement!

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Our Valentine's Day Pinwhirls are featured on the Thoughtfully Simple site. The feature highlights creative Valentine's Day table top decor. To check out the feature, plus search for more thoughtful yet simple ideas for your everyday, click here.

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Our Valentine's Day Pinwhirls were featured in v4 issue 26: Hearts Galore (February 1, 2009) issue of Tot Trends Weekly Magazine. To browse this issue click here. Or check out the blog issue as well here.

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Great Finds

Last week, Tori, the hostess from Thoughtfully Simple contacted me about one of my 2008 Valentine's Day tablescape. Not only was I giddy because of this contact (as she simply has great taste) but I was also delighted, because through her site I ran across all sorts of other very cool entertaining related web stores and blogs.
The little window shoppe was the first I visited. Such cute stuff. Emily's blog also features daily finds. She also has a sweet shoppes area where shop owners can feature their own little shops - either for free, if you link back to her site, or for a $10 fee, if you prefer not to link. I jumped right on the $10 deal and am currently featured in the parties and events area of her sweet shoppes. So excited.

Then I ran across the polka dot market and more cutesy items. This site really makes me wish that I had kids to buy all of these way too fun dotted items for. Sally even has a Polka Dot Birthday blog which features, you guessed it, polka dotted birthday items. All are way too darling.

Through the sweet shoppes at little window shoppe, I ran across the above site , pinkfrosting. Wow! They are an Australian based event planning site which features pages and pages and pages of great party and event planning ideas - for all of life's celebrations, as they put it. Picture the event planning portions of marthastewart.com on fun and playful - yet harmless - steroids. I've only had time to briefly browse this site and blog but I so immediately marked it as one of my favorites.
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For those out there who have a birthday party or event in the near future, after visiting the above sites you'll be sure to find a handful - or two - or three - of great ideas!
Enjoy!

Romantical Holiday Table

Our Valentine's Day table is all set for the most romantical day of the year. To view pictures of our 2009 Valentine's Day Tablescape, click here. For those who missed out on our 2008 heart themed tablescapes, click here. Similar pinwheels are available for purchase at our pinwhirls site. We've even launched some festively fabulous Valentine's Day themed papers and are able to totally customize pinwheels for your upcoming Valentine's Day parties.

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Speaking of Valentine's get-togethers, we are procrastinating on our plans this year. It's not a very good year to be procrastinating since the big holiday falls on a Saturday night. Not sure I'm up for going to an overcrowded restaurant. The church is once again having a Spaghetti dinner for couples on Vtines day. We went last year - with my older sister and her hubby - (in addition to White Castles and the Opera) and I must tell you, I was pleasantly surprised, but being in a gym is not very romantic - even with candles. I've been thinking that maybe we should just fondue it at home. And maybe invite the same sister and her hubby over as well and have a couple's fondue night. We shall see.

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Anyone else have any big plans or ideas for Vtines Day?

You are cordially invited ...

You are cordially invited to ...

stop into our new shops. Yep, that's right, I did indeed say shops. :-)

Several months ago it became apparent that I needed to do something with my personalized pinwheels. They had begun taking over almost every facet of my Crossroads Cottage site which in turn created a huge organizational challenge. So, after many months of debating and postponing I made the decision to run two separate, but related, sister shops. Actually the decision was mostly made for me - I accidentally deleted party of my old shop, couldn't recover it and instead of crying my eyes out I took it as a sign that this was indeed the time to move forward with the change.

My Crossroads Cottage shop will continue to sell our home accessories (until they run out) and eventually, if my plans progress as hoped, evolve into a shop selling party accessories only. That is, when I find the time to actually create some unique and fun products.

My new pinwhirls site will sell my personalized party pinwheels only. Anything pinwheel related, including our newly created pinwheel party hats and pinwheel party invites, will also be sold from this site.

Feel free to pop into both shops. They do have the same feel - not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing and I may need to look at changing at least their color schemes in the future. Also, there are a few things that are annoying me at the moment. First off, I'm not sure that I totally love the header - I like the pinwheel and I do agree that a divider is needed but I'm not sure that I love the stick/leaf divider below the header text. And visually on the footer, the stick on the pinwheel is too long - either that or the actual pinwheel is too small. These are both things that I may need to work on. I also plan to make the home page photos rotate/change so my shops are more animated and capturing upon visiting. I think that will be my Holiday project. Anyhoo - I'd appreciate any honest opinions as I don't know if I'm just being too picky at this point. (Roger says that both look just great but he's my husband after all and I think he may just be saying that so I don't drive myself crazy with any more work/changes.) Thoughts, suggestions ....