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 ....

Blog Browsing ...

While blog browsing last night, I stopped into my favorite event planning blog, Lemiga Events. My frequent followers have heard me mention Michelle's site and blog before as I am a huge fan of her work - her attention to detail is amazing. Because of the aforementioned, I wasn't surprised to learn that she was included not once but twice in the Atlantan Brides 1st Anniversary issue. I was however a bit surprised and excited to see that the blurp about her August Open House Soiree featured a photo of her wheatgrass cupcake display - and not because this display wasn't just darling but because some of my items also made an appearance.

As you can see from the photo above, my cupcake topper pinwheels were actually featured in the right photo. Although my business name was not mentioned this did not curtail my excitement; after all, someone out there must have thought the display, and quite possibly the pinwheels, were cute enough to be featured in this magazine. And how could they not considering the darling way Michelle propped the cupcakes into wheatgrass and integrated cupcake towers - she deserves all of the credit, as usual her details can make something ordinary look extrordinary.

So, that's been my excitement for the week. Now it's almost time for the weekend. Yippee!

Gobble Gobble

It's almost turkey day - yay! This year my older sister is hosting Thanksgiving at her house while each of us will supply a few side dishes. Roger and I will bringing over Butternut Squash Casserole, Cranberry Sauce (both fresh and canned at the request of my youngest sister), and 2 homemade Pumpkin Pies with Cool Whip. My stomach is growling away already.



Below is a sneak peek into our recipes. All of which we've made before and loved.

Recipes courtesy of AllRecipes.com - our favorite recipe site.



Butternut Squash Casserole

PREP TIME
15 Min
COOK TIME
1 Hr
READY IN
1 Hr 15 Min

INGREDIENTS
1 butternut squash
1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1/4 cup margarine, melted
TOPPING
1/2 (16 ounce) package vanilla wafers, crushed
1/2 cup margarine, melted
1 cup brown sugar

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
Put butternut squash in the microwave and cook on high, until soft, 2 to 3 minutes. Cut in half, scoop out seeds and cube. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add squash and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and mash.
In a 9x13 inch casserole dish combine 3 cups mashed butternut squash, white sugar, milk, vanilla extract, salt, flour, eggs and 1/4 cup melted margarine.
Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until set.
In a medium bowl combine crushed vanilla wafers, 1/2 cup melted margarine and brown sugar. Crumble over top of cooked casserole and return to oven to brown.



Cranberry Sauce

INGREDIENTS
12 ounces cranberries
1 cup white sugar
1 cup orange juice

DIRECTIONS
In a medium sized saucepan over medium heat, dissolve the sugar in the orange juice. Stir in the cranberries and cook until the cranberries start to pop (about 10 minutes). Remove from heat and place sauce in a bowl. Cranberry sauce will thicken as it cools.



Perfect Pumpkin Pie


PREP TIME
15 Min
COOK TIME
55 Min
READY IN
1 Hr 10 Min
Original recipe yield 1 - 9 inch pie


INGREDIENTS
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
1 (14 ounce) can EAGLE BRAND® Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust


DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Whisk pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, spices and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Pour into crust. Bake 15 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue baking 35 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted 1 inch from crust comes out clean. Cool. Garnish as desired. Store leftovers covered in refrigerator.

Candy Cane Dreams

Christmas has arrived a bit early at the Dreher household this year.

While I was dreaming candy cane dreams last evening, I could have sworn that I heard some bells ringing in the distance. When I awoke this morning, guess what I found in my living room! A fully decorated Christmas tree complete with my favorite thing - pinwheels! And not only are those little elves great at creating creative toys, they even got super creative and made pinwheels into ornaments! Talk about thinking outside the Christmas box. And my those elves must have been busy bees working until the wee hours of the morn' as I know how long it takes to assemble pinwheels and Santa's right hand boys and girls assembled enough to fully cover an entire Christmas tree. And my are they good - they even coordinated the pinwheels with my living room colors perfectly. Santa must have been watching me closely this year and I'm supposing from the loot that he also feels I've been a good little girl this year!

They also inserted several of these gigantic candy canes into the whimsically decorated tree. These things probably weigh more than the elves themselves. I better start licking now or I'll never have this deliciousness finished before Santa slides down our chimney once again.

I've been thinking, that since I was given such a bounty of pinwheel ornaments that I should share them. Wouldn't want to be spoiled and keep these unique Christmas ornaments just to myself.

So, for a limited time, if you'd like to also fill your tree with candy cane dreams this holiday season, just visit my site and use the voucher 'elf' for 10% off your entire order. Now through November 30th only. This discount applies at my Crossroads Cottage site only. Discount not available at my Etsy shop.

Besides these pinwheels, we also have an abundance of other holiday decor and gift items on sale - most at wholesale prices!

To view more photos of the goodies the elves left last evening, please see below! And for more information on these candy cane themed ornaments, just click here.

Jackie O. Lantern

Say Hello to Miss Jackie O. Lantern, our 2008 pumpkin.

Just look at her - isn't she puuuurrrtttyyy?! (HaHa.) I realize that she's a bit amateurish and she could have been prettied up a bit (I debated adding eye lashes, etc.) but we just plain ran out of time (which seems to be how my life is running lately) as her not so aesthetically appealing face was carved less than half-an-hour before she needed to greet the trick-or-treaters at our door. On the other hand, she does pair well with our 2007 pumpkin, Curtis Weatherford. (Click here for photos.) If only they hadn't been created a year a part; I think they would have gotten along wonderfully!

As I also hadn't gotten around to purchasing candy, Roger stopped on the way home from work on Halloween. Thankfully he didn't get lots of chocolate candies - he went the purely sugar route of jolly ranchers, smarties, dum, dums, etc. I could give or take these candies so I had no problem getting rid of every last drop of them before we turned off our light for the evening. (Although you notice the bag of M&Ms above - I did kidnap them before they made the way to our basket! Don't tell anyone!!!)

Yum. Yum. Talk about a sugar rush. :)

And this is what $28 worth of candy looks like.

It was a wonderfully warm day in Indiana (highs in the low 70s) we decided to sit on our porch and hand out candy this year. Last year we stayed inside and ended up getting up to answer the door like every 30 seconds so this was way more relaxing. :) Even though I like handing out candy (we never got to do it when I was growing up as we lived in the country and never had even one trick-or-treater), I'm seriously debating not doing it next year. I've debated it since I've lived in this house (5 years) as every year I'm perturbed by the number of kids who don't dress up in my neighborhood (It's a revitalized downtown neighborhood). Probably 30% really attempt it, another 20% half-way attempt it by wearing jeans with jerseys, and another 50% just don't dress up at all. No kidding - teenagers walk around in their jeans and t-shirts and just expect you to give them candy. As if they are entitled to it. (And it's even more annoying when the Moms/Grandmas go around as well and put out their own bag for candy - like what is up with that? I can't even imagine doing that!!!) So I got back the older, non-dressed up teenagers by giving them the dum dums (as I know that they so don't want a tiny little sucker) while the little kids, who actually attempted to dress up, got the good candy. So, who knows about next year. I'll probably cave again. Either that or I'm seriously putting a sign on the door that says 'No Costume, No Candy'!

Here she is on Halloween night. (I actually put her out on Sat. and Sunday night as well as I just love the glow of Pumpkins!) I'm actually sad to see this Holiday go, as I do love pumpkins, and leaves, and the crisp (but not too cold air).

Above is the custom project I was working on last week. I designed custom paper and pinwheels for WishWrap, which is an online site which sells a gift for every wish. Their logo/icon is a dandelion so the pinwheels were made to resemble a dandelion.

I designed some of our mini pinwheels along with some larger pinwheels. Each also had a wish printed in a quadrant of the pinwheel. I thought they turned out pretty fabulous and hopefully they will love them too. :)

I also worked on another client for a birthday party order. This mom was so fun and clever to work with. Her daughter's third birthday is going to be bubble and pinwheel themed. So, we integrated dots into her pinwheel designs. She wanted everything from the party invites to party hats to be pinwheel themed so I had a blast designing her items.

Above is one of my pinwheel party hat kits, that was also sent off to her. The pinwheel toppers come fully assembled and the party hats are all cut-out and ready to be assembled when received. The kit also comes with elastic (for the chin straps) and of course complete assembly instructions. (The hats utilize a notch system so they are super easy to assemble - no messy gluing or stapling, etc.) We offer these pinwheel party hat in both kit format or pre-assembled, for a higher fee. We also offer custom party hat kits, without the pinwheel toppers.

And above is her custom pinwheel party invites. She was going to hand deliver the invites so I was able to clip on mini clothespin pinwheels - too cute. (For those who are mailing, I can also attach flattened pinwheels to the invite, although they would not spin, the general theme would still be achieved.)

I'm looking forward to seeing photos of the above mentioned birthday party. (It's going to be an outdoor garden party so I'm hoping they get great weather as after all this work, the Mom certainly deserves a great day for her daughter's party!).

After completing these projects I took a breather and spent some time with my Mom shopping on Saturday. Although I was good and didn't spend much. I did purchase flannel sheets for my bed and boy are they snugly warm - in fact just a tad bit too snugly since we've been in the 70's all week. I've had to sleep with my window open each night just to let some cooler air in. But, I'm not complaining. I'm loving this weather and hoping it will last a wee bit longer.

On Sunday, I woke up with this feeling that our house needed a major cleaning and since I didn't have time for an official spring cleaning last spring, it now needs a fall cleaning badly. During the past few weeks I've begun noticing dust on all of my picture frames and even worse dust bunnies on the top of my curtains and the look of all of the dirtiness has begun to drive me crazy! We normally keep our house picked-up, swept, etc. but with me being as busy as I've been with the real job and the pinwheel side business, I totally admit that I've slacked on the little cleaning details for the past year. And I really don't want to go into the holidays with a dirty and grimy house (especially when we will be having family and friends over). So, on Sunday Roger and I attempted to tackle some of this grossness. While he thoroughly dusted and windexed our bedroom, spare bedroom, and hallway, I tackled the washing of curtains, filing of bills, and re-organization of closets. We also intended to tackle the thorough cleaning of our office (which is bad because of all of the books that need to be dusted), the laundry room, and bathroom (which is just disgusting!) but then got side tracked with a bit of a shopping trip - looking for the perfect picture for our sunroom, which we did not find. So, this weekend is going to be extra full of cleaning that wasn't done this past weekend and must get done as the following weekend we have to decorate for Christmas! Now that I enjoy and it must be done early this year as Roger's mom is coming into town (his family lives in Atlanta) the weekend before Thanksgiving and as she's never seen our house decorated for the holiday, we want to be sure to have it all set.

Speaking of cleaning, while re-organizing some items I ran across some material I bought last fall to make curtains for our downstairs bathroom and a tablecloth and napkins for our kitchen. Now, I don't mind sewing once I get started but as I've got to drag all of the sewing stuff out, I normally put off any sewing as long as possible. I figured that if I don't tackle this sewing now, I'll just put it off for another year, so I'm forcing myself to do it this week. Last night I cut out all of the material and tonight I'll attempt to sew part of the projects. We'll see - hopefully I don't have to stand in line to long to vote 'cause I have A LOT to do if I'm going to stay on schedule. :)

I'll post photos whenever I'm complete. :)