October Fall Tablescape

Just in time for the first day of Fall, it's our October Tablescape! It features the wonderful colors of fall and of course ...

our very own pinwheels (available at both our etsy shop and web shop) - in a fall theme!

And our pretty fall pinwheels that serve as both a party favor and a place card.

We are now offering place card flag attachments that can easily be slid on and off the pinwheel stick which makes for easy calligraphing (pinwheel won't get in the way) and also more fun since the pinwheel is just a pinwheel after the card is slid off after the event.

One of my favorite fall pieces - wheat tied together with a pretty ribbon and stuck into a chocolate colored urn filled with coffee beans. A pinwheel has also been neatly tucked into the ribbon for an extra-special touch of fun.

The above is a great way of propping pinwheels in a table centerpiece. Just take a ball jar, fill with coffee beans and voila the pinwheel sticks will stay perfectly upright. For a bit more fun just tie a bit of ribbon around the jars.

It's kind of hard to tell from this picture but the above is a pumpkin propped into a pretty fall basket and encircled with fall garland. And once again I couldn't help but add a couple of pinwheel accents. (Yes, I'm addicted.)

I usually have a candle propped into this super mini pitcher but for this display I've filled with coffee beans, once again, and stuck in some of my mini cupcake topper sized pinwheels - one with a leaf pattern the other with fall colored stripes.

This tablescape would be perfect for an event that has both adult and children attendees - the actual centerpiece is adult oriented but with the addition of fun pinwheel embellishments the kids will also enjoy!

September Tablescape

Yep - I realize that September is well over half-way over but I'm just now getting around to creating and posting my September Tablescape. (Don't tell anyone but I still haven't posted my August tablescape yet - although I am going to pat myself on the back because I was out this morning creating not one, not two, but three tablescapes. I even completed October already! And yet another pat because I was doing this with a head cold and sore throat. Not sure where I got this this sickness because I know absolutely no one who is sick - I swear Roger is a carrier as he works around high school kids all day and brings their illnesses back to me - although he doesn't seem to get sick himself!:))

Anyway, I digress. My September tablescape features hydrangeas, a rustic lantern, and basket and some pretty creative place cards.


I adore the above lantern and it's rustic appearance. It's actually a left-over from my brother-in-laws rehearsal dinner in July. Charlotte, my mom-in-law, was nice enough to let me take one home. (She actually offered more - I think she has 8 or 9- but I had to decline - not because I wouldn't like a ton more but because I have no space as it is. )

This lovely piece has semi-permanently made it's home on my dining room table for the late summer and fall.

And can you believe it? These hydrangeas are out of my very own garden! Freshly picked today. I heart how the blooms turn a greenish brown burgundy color during the autumn. These blooms are now 'drying' out on my dining room table. I've never tried to dry hydrangeas before so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they don't just shrivel and die and look all pathetic. :-)

And the above is one of my newest event products available at my esty shop and web shop. Chalkboard stake place cards. I have some similar stakes that I use in my herb garden (bought them years ago but the company stopped making them a couple of years ago). I shed a few tears when I learned that I could no longer buy them but I've recently started making my own. They are available in the above style with the plant marker area completely covered in chalkboard paint. Or the below ...

with a more ornate design. Both plant markers are on a stake that can be perfectly stuck into a spray of flowers or small potted plant in either the center of a place setting (as a placecard) or into plants, etc. on the seating card or escort table. (Martha did a feature several years ago where similar stakes were placed into wheat grass on the escort tables. It looked way too cool!)

These would also make clever party favors as guests can just wipe off the chalk after an event and stick these into their very own garden. (Hint: They now make paint pens that are just the coolest things - I use these in my garden to write on the plant name so that when the rain comes down the chalk isn't washed off - and the best part, you can't even tell that you've not written in chalk!)

That's it - I know, very basic but sometimes I think the more basic the better.

I'll have to keep everyone informed of how the hydrangea drying progresses. :)

Whimsical Flowers

Now how cute is the above? Tracy Park from Affordable Elegance, a Michigan Floral Designer, recently utilized my pinwheels in some of her floral designs. (She is great to work with as she literally likes to work outside the box - and even with a box sometimes!) She attached some of my mini pinwheels to her floral blume boxes and what a great accent they made. I think these boxes are too darn cute to begin with but the pinwheels made these boxes even more fun and festive and turned out to be unexpected accents to her already beauty-ess arrangement. I'll have to certainly keep this idea in mind for future uses. :)

And Tracy even stuck one of my handheld pinwheels into the actual arrangement itself - just look at the cute little thing peaking out of the top! Didn't she do a great job of matching the florals to the pinwheels colors?

Above is another of her arrangements. This time she integrated both the mini and handheld pinwheels. Once again - adorable.

Now I do realize that pinwheels shouldn't be utilized in all flower arrangements but I'm thinking that they would be perfect for any whimsical event or party - especially spring or summer outdoor arrangements. I'd also love to see a bride utilize them in her floral bouquet someday. (One can dream, can't they?)

I also can't wait to work with Tracy on future projects - including an upcoming wedding where she is putting together a candy buffet (we both agree that pinwheels and candy buffets go together nicely!) and future floral shows.
For those of you interested in viewing some very cool bouquets, please pop by her blog. And if you are in the Battle Creek Michigan area (sadly I'm not) she is now booking her 2009 events!

Whimsical Flowers

Now how cute is the above? Tracy Park from Affordable Elegance, a Michigan Floral Designer, recently utilized my pinwheels in some of her floral designs. (She is great to work with as she literally likes to work outside the box - and even with a box sometimes!) She attached some of my mini pinwheels to her floral blume boxes and what a great accent they made. I think these boxes are too darn cute to begin with but the pinwheels made these boxes even more fun and festive and turned out to be unexpected accents to her already beauty-ess arrangement. I'll have to certainly keep this idea in mind for future uses. :)

And Tracy even stuck one of my handheld pinwheels into the actual arrangement itself - just look at the cute little thing peaking out of the top! Didn't she do a great job of matching the florals to the pinwheels colors?

Above is another of her arrangements. This time she integrated both the mini and handheld pinwheels. Once again - adorable.

Now I do realize that pinwheels shouldn't be utilized in all flower arrangements but I'm thinking that they would be perfect for any whimsical event or party - especially spring or summer outdoor arrangements. I'd also love to see a bride utilize them in her floral bouquet someday. (One can dream, can't they?)

I also can't wait to work with Tracy on future projects - including an upcoming wedding where she is putting together a candy buffet (we both agree that pinwheels and candy buffets go together nicely!) and future floral shows.
For those of you interested in viewing some very cool bouquets, please pop by her blog. And if you are in the Battle Creek Michigan area (sadly I'm not) she is now booking her 2009 events!

Pretty Pinwheel Pictures

Many of my regular visitors will remember my blog about Lemiga Event's Soiree from several weeks ago. I'm excited to announce that the pictures from that event are now complete. Michelle is posting the best of the best shots on our blog all week. Today's feature was the Catering Room from her event, where my pinwheel cupcake toppers were also featured. Above is a sneak peek of one of the pretty pinwheel photos that was snapped. Michelle always has the most brilliant ideas - she topped wheat grass flats with scattered cupcake towers. Very, very cute. For more photos of this room, and others please visit her blog. My personal favorite item from her event thus far were chocolates topped with her logo. Too fun.

I also fell in love with the above photo from the event. Love the shadowed foreground mixed with the blurred sunshine background. Altmix Photography provided the photography services for the event and they did such a wonderful job. Some photographers are great at capturing the 'people' details of the event and not so great at capturing the actual event details but they seems to do an awesome job at both! And if you visit their blog, you'll find out what a cute and fun couple they are!

That's about it for now ... I'm in the process of adding some new event related products to my site including chalkboard stake seating cards and bird ornament seating cards. Feel free to check-out these today as well as other new additions later.

Pretty Penned Pinwheels

I just can't hold in my excitement over the photos featured in this blog. (Believe it or not, I just received them literally minutes ago and here I am already blogging about them!) I recently connected with Lisa from Pen & Ink Calligraphy through Etsy. She was looking for clever ways to feature her beautiful calligraphy on her website and I've been looking for a recommended calligrapher so the match was perfect.

I recently sent her some samples of my pinwheel work so she could use them as a photo op for her site. Her site is really beautiful so I knew that she'd do a terrific job, but I'll have to admit that I was blown away by the final photos she sent my way. Amazing!!! Yes, I almost cried (and I'm not even hormonal this week)! Taking photos of my products has never been something I've excelled at - I'm usually rushing around at the last minute so the results are always a bit off par, and sometimes just plain terrible. In most instances, I don't think they do my products justice. But these photos - wow! They really make me want to buy these pretty pinwheels, especially seeing them with the hand calligraphied cards. What I've always imagined in my head is now a complete package and I have Lisa to thank for making my vision a reality for everyone else to see.

I love how she inked the seating card attachments in the perfect pink from the pinwheel.

And what beautiful lettering - this is her Laura style.

And I adore how she hung her calligraphied seating cards from these clothespin pinwheels. I can just picture these pinwheels hanging from a clothesline at an outdoor garden wedding. (Makes me want to get married all over again just so I can have my guests exclaming over these cards.)

Many of the brides who've purchased these seating card pinwheels in the past have placed my cupcake topper sized pinwheels in wheat grass on their seating card tables, but Lisa came up with her own creative idea. How cute do these pinwheels look placed into mini tin watering cans?! Once again these would look too cute at an eclectic bride's wedding.

Not only does Lisa do a wonderful job, she is even more wonderful to work with. Please hop on over to her site and blog for more wonderful sites and even more calligraphy lettering styles. And for those brides who are looking to utilize some of the ideas above, I will work with you on creating your own custom pinwheels and I'll even send the seating cards along to Lisa for you so she can do her magic.

After seeing these photos, it really makes me want to do a major overhaul on my present website. If only I had about 10 more hours in the day. :-)

Busy Bee

So, the above is where I've spent the majority of my 'free' time the past three weeks. In our sunroom which I've unofficially renamed my pinwheel studio. It was originally added on last year as a potential play room for when we have kids, but with the way the pinwheels are going, we may need to get going on another addition for the so far nonexistent children. After spending so much time here, I now don't want to give up this room. With all the windows, it practically feels like I'm outdoors. While working away like a queen bee, I've been imagining what I can do the space to officially turn it into my studio. Although I've also been envisioning turning our upstairs office into a studio as well as that is the perfect winter studio - only two windows and it stays pretty warm and cozy during the winter. Perhaps I need a summer and winter work space - leave it to me to make my life even more complicated. :)

For the past several orders I've really begun working on my packaging. The above is the calligraphy packet which is now sent with all of my seating card pinwheel orders. It includes the seating card attachments, instructions for the calligrapher and an extra pinwheel so he/she can get an idea of how to best calligrapher the cards.

I've also started shipping all of my items in re-closable zipper bags. In the past I shipped in fold-over or tie bags and I always had this fear that they would somehow get water damaged. (Yes, I'm a worry wart.) You just never know how long a box is going to sit on someones door step in a torrential downpour. So, hopefully I'll have one less thing to worry about now. :)

I've also started using my new pinwheel logo on labels which have been adhered to the bag. I looked and looked and looked at every office store for oval labels. Finally found them online. I love them!

I'd eventually like to have bags pre-printed with my business information but for now this works just fine and dandy.

I've also started enclosing little pinwheel FAQ sheets with all of my orders.

And above is one of my orders all set to be shipped out. A couple of months ago I purchased a scale and figured out the whole click-n-ship process. My is this process super easy plus I can give exact quotes for shipping. I'm loving it. :)

And ta-da, below are some of the orders I've recently shipped out ...

Custom Seating Card Pinwheels for a wedding in October.

I love the paper the bride chose. So fun and vibrant. A calligrapher is going to hand calligraphy each of the names of the guests on the seating card attachments. Very fun.

Above and below is a large order of pinwheel party favors for an event taking place in early September. I worked with the event planner on designing custom paper for this event. It's an eco-friendly event so the design was printed on recycled paper. Since the event is green friendly, of course the color green was utilized and so were butterflies (an idea pulled off the event invite).

One side of the pinwheels featured the sponsor's logo, repeated. The other side featured differing sizes of butterflies - some filled with varying shades of green and others once again filled with the repeated logo.

The above ended up too cool. I've recently purchased a printer that specializes in printing 12x12 scrapbook paper so hopefully I'll be able to easily print more custom papers in the future.

The above and below were for a smaller rush custom order for a 1st birthday party. I thought they turned out really fun, so why not feature them?

I adore the circle and dot patterns together.

While talking with the client we brainstormed on a fun idea for a party hat - see above. Considering the amount of pinwheels I've made lately Roger has joked with me that pretty soon everything I touch will have a pinwheel plastered on it. He even joked that I should stick one in the top of a party hat. I laughed it off then and said I would give it a try someday. This client gave me the perfect opportunity to try it out. The pinwheel on top actually spins and we even made it so the pinwheel could be removed from the hat after the party - it's still attached to a stick, it's just hidden away in the hat. I enjoy working with people who like thinking out of the box - it's fun to push creativity sometimes. Sometimes being too creative can flop and this was definitely borderline in the beginning but I still think it's too cute, especially for young age groups. :)

The pinwheels above were just mailed out today - all 175 of them. They are the mini cupcake topper sized pinwheels. The bride also wanted seating cards attached. (All of these seating cards slide on and off so they are super easy for the calligrapher and after the event they can be removed!) I can't wait to see photos of this bride's wedding - it's definitely going to be one fun and festive event. :)

Okey dokey - guess I've rambled enough for one day.

Time to get back to some actual work!