Pink Peppermint Blogger

There’s a weird thing that happens once a year when I’m about to host a birthday party at our house. It’s typically only in September when we’re prepping for my son’s birthday party. I look around my house, and things that I have lived with for a year (often more) become totally unacceptable. And I have to do something. Right. Now. Scuffed up walls, temporary paper blinds, an empty spot where some furniture should live, lamps? Why do we have no lamps? I could go on.  This year, it’s the Naked Wall.

Here she is. In all her naked glory. I’m not even gonna tidy up because I’m keepin’ it real, and honestly, the playroom looks pretty good right now. She’s a tricky wall. She’s off center from the furniture in our playroom/keeping room. She’s adjacent to our kitchen and both a plastic kitchen and a leather sofa with botanical prints hanging above. She’s been au naturale for over two years since we moved in. We painted her. We looked at her. We didn’t know what to do. She doesn’t have a thing to wear. Play clothes? Fancy threads? I wanted something playful but not juvenile. Something that went with the damn plaid chair. You know. The one I thought was so “fun” back in 2000 when I was just out of grad school and needed furniture for my new big girl apartment. The chair that has dictated the color scheme of the last three houses we’ve had. The one that will some day serve as fuel for a party-related bonfire. Yeah. That one.

A while back, I bought one of those value packs of seven canvases from Michael’s thinking I could figure something out. Then, I saw a cool family rules print at Home Goods. It didn’t match though, and it was totally off scale-wise. It would have been like hanging a spoon on that big naked wall. Nevertheless, it served as some inspiration for a way to tie the pieces together with the wording. I found some cool backgrounds online and altered the colors in PhotoShop to match “the chair.” I printed and tiled them. You can see the seams a little, but it’s the playroom so we’ll deal.

After some trial and error with puckering while adhering them to the canvas (I finally used rubber cement around the edges of both surfaces, let dry and adhered), I’m pleased with the way they turned out. I like that my early reader can read them himself and understand their message. He read them all to me the other day and smiled–especially over the one about the Wii.

I kind of like that we have his party at the house most years. It’s the only thing that lights a fire in me to turn my attention to the house and things that really need to be done. What about you? Do you have naked walls or other party triggers?

I’m sitting here writing this instead of working on the party that’s in less than a month, but surely I’ll get them hung before then. Did I mention I HATE to hang things? H.A.T.E. I’ll be sure to share a finished look–seven prints, 27 holes and one can of spackle later.

The holiday season is right around the corner. Again. Seriously. How does that happen? Next to pictures and presents, cards and cookies, we all know what that means. Parties! Some we have to go to. Some we love to go. Some we’ve never been to but might go to.

In any case, you can bet there is someone {perhaps a whole team} toiling away behind the scenes. Making the guest list. Sending out invitations. Planning a menu. Buying. Cooking. Cleaning. Decorating. Planning. Outfit shopping. And they are busy. We all are, right? Know how I know? Because I am. Too busy to remember to call the tree guy. Too busy to mail that form about my insurance. Too busy to watch any of those back episodes of Grey’s or even eat lunch. Maybe too busy to go to that party, but never too busy to respond and tell them I can’t be there.

Now, I’m not saying that I’ve never forgotten to call and say I couldn’t come. The date snuck up on me, and oh shoot. I need to call and let them know I can’t come to that party that’s next… let’s see… four days ago. Crud. It’s easy to give yourself an out. “I’m sure there were a ton of people invited. What earthly difference does it make if they know that I can’t be there? No one will miss me.” It’s an absolute epidemic.

Do you know what, in my opinion, is the real reason people don’t respond? We hate to make that awkward phone call.  You’re calling someone you may not really know to say that you can’t come to their party. Will they answer? Voice mail! Awesome. Keep cool. Keep it short and sweet. You? No. You just drone on and on trying to make a case for why you can’t come, when all you really need to say is “Wish we could be there. We have other plans.” Or worse. They do answer when you just knew they wouldn’t be there. Then, you’re stammering through your explanation, which requires a little background they care nothing of and you’re still talking. Just stop talking. Can’t. Stop. Talking. Click. Well, that was embarrassing. Two words: email regrets.

True, party plans are often made well in advance, but as circumstances change so can the plans. A dozen fewer cupcakes. One less tier on that cake. Four dozen fewer stuffed mushrooms. One less bartender. Fewer rental tables. Heck if it’s bad enough timing, maybe they’d even reschedule the party. It makes a difference. Hopefully, you’ve never had the misfortune of hosting a party with poor turnout. Or of having been the honoree of a party with poor turnout. Or of having watched a child at a birthday party when only a couple of kids showed. It’s no fun. It’s embarrassing, and it makes everyone feel bad. Boo. That’s not what parties are about!

OK, really she was just sad because the cake service was taking too long, but you get the idea.

This holiday season, and from now on really, I implore you to R.S.V.P. or regret as requested on the invitation. R.S.V.P. Répondez s’il vous plaît. Respond, if you please. Please respond. See? They said please and everything! Wonder what’s French for “Please respond or I’ll be eating cupcakes for a month?”

The holidays will soon be upon us, {sigh} and it’s time for me to start working on a few new card designs for this year! Problem. I need some sweet faces to feature in those holiday cards. For all of you photographers, aspiring photographers or folks with a camera, mostly willing subjects and a good eye, here’s your chance to have your photos featured in card designs in our online store, www.pinkpeppermintpaper.com.

“What’s in it for me?” you ask. Submit your pics for a chance to win a $100 gift certificate to Pink Peppermint Paper. Use it for your own cards or for any of our other paper items–invitations, announcements, custom work. Heck, we might even be sweet-talked into working on a party for you. Here’s the deal:

• Email your high resolution photos to eleanor@pinkpeppermintpaper.com. If you want your real names to be used, please include those as well, just as you would on your own cards, e.g. “…from the Fords–Grant, Sara, Will and Anna”. If you do not include names, we’ll just make some up.
• Each separate usable photo that you submit will get you another entry for a new chance to win. Send in as many photos as you like. Couples, singles, group shots, with our without adults.
• By submitting photos, you are certifying that you have the rights to use/distribute these photos and that you are not infringing on anyone’s copyright to those images. If you’re not sure, PLEASE ask. We don’t like to break the rules.
• Photographers, please include a link to your website or Facebook page, so that we can feature it at the bottom of that card design page on our website. If you submit photos of subjects who are not members of your immediate family, you must also have their permission. If they agree to participate, we’ll also submit their names to enter the drawing–that’s one for you, one for them per picture ’cause we’re just that nice!
• Winner to be drawn randomly on Monday, August 30, 2010. That gives you two weekends to pick through your files!
• If you are a photographer and are interested in offering your clients a discount on Pink Peppermint holiday card orders, please email me at eleanor@pinkpeppermintpaper.com and we’ll get you set up.
• Questions? Don’t be afraid to ask. Email me at eleanor@pinkpeppermintpaper.com or post your query on our Facebook page.

Send this year’s pictures, last year’s, or the year before that! Thanks for participating. Now, go get busy!

I have the unfortunate character flaw of believing that I can do anything. OK. Not anything. Mostly making stuff. I regularly find things for purchase, balk at the price and think to myself (or aloud) “I could TOTALLY do that myself.” and I give it a try. Or I can’t find what I’m looking for anywhere and decide to just make whatever I have need of as was the case with this shower curtain for my guest bathroom.

The list goes on.

Curtains for my son’s room – weird length with super strength to block out the light and heat of a thousand suns streaming in from an oversized window.

Artwork for my son’s room – refusal to pay $30+ a piece for artwork that he’d be over in two years.

Dust ruffle, curtains and paint job in my daughter’s room – meager attempt to repurpose unisex nursery bedding for a girl because I swore to my husband when we overpaid for it that I would use it again for future babies. Drat!

And now that I really think about it, that’s kind of how I started my stationery business. Couldn’t find what I was looking for. Got fed up and decided to make it myself. I’ve pretty well got this stationery thing licked. I think. The problem with the rest is that I have the skills to get by, but much of this stuff requires practice, practice, practice. If I sewed or baked or decorated all the time, I might really start to get somewhere. Oh, if only there were more hours in the day. Sigh.

Other things I think I could be above average at if I did them more than once a year:

Cupcake decorating. Cakes scare me, but I’m itching to try–especially since we’ve now gone into party planning. And fondant. Burning desire to play around with that. I’m pretty sure I have a compulsive eating problem with sweets though, so while I’d love nothing more than to have spare cupcakes lying around my house all the time, I really can’t trust myself. Or would that be like some form of immersion therapy? Hmmm…haven’t looked at it that way before.

Photography. I so need to take a class. Had to have a fancier camera when our first was born–problem being I still use it like a point and click. See photos above. Case in point.

Sewing. I can thread a machine and sew a straight line, but it’s one of those things you just have to keep at to get really good. Plus, I have no problem with leaving an ugly stitch on something that won’t show. Plus, I need my mother to sit there watching me so we can work through the mental logistics of having everything match up, back up and line up as necessary.

Calligraphy. I took an after school enrichment class on this 24 years ago. I dust it off every now and then, but you have to get going again to have it flow without thinking.

I’d love to hear from you! What could you be really fabulous at doing if you only had more opportunities to practice, practice, practice?

I know a lot of Mompreneurs. Whether you rep a kids’ clothing line, sell cosmetics, toys, jewelry or paper goods like me, there are a lot of us out there. And at least a couple of times a year, there are trunk shows or holiday-driven events we want to promote. The way we do that around here is usually a flyer in the kids’ book bags at school or maybe a take one by the sign-in sheet at Mother’s Day Out. You reach lots of people in your target audience for a relatively low cost.

The last time I did a bag stuffer at school, there was another mom stuffing bags with her own flyer on the same colored paper. Yea me. Way to stand out. And there’s an occasional bag that you can guess hasn’t had anything taken out since the beginning of school. With my message competing for attention in a sea of papers, I wondered if there was a better way to stand out. So when I’ve had something really important to say, I think outside of the box. I mean bag.

It’s hard for me to believe, but I launched my online paper store a year ago! For obvious reasons, I was going fast and feverishly to get it up before school let out for summer. One was that there was no way I’d finish it with a then 3- and 1-yr-old home with me every day. The other was that I didn’t want to miss the chance to tell all those moms my news! I was looking for something that would be bright and sweet and that I could quickly and easily attach to the outside of the kiddos’ bags.

I bought multi-colored precut foam flowers, printed a 3-inch circle sticker with my message as the flower’s center, hole punched them and attached them to the bags with beaded keychains. It says, “Look what’s sprouted up online” and has a peppermint swirl flower and my web address.

Now, when I recently launched the party planning arm of my business, I truly felt like doing a flyer would be a snore. “Hey, y’all! Here’s this boring flyer about my business. If you want you can throw straight in the trash without even reading it. Wasn’t that exciting? Don’t you just want to line up to see the fabulously creative party we can throw for you?”

I can’t say why, but we liked the idea of using a toothbrush because it implied that our party ideas were so sweet, you were going to need one. I found some sweet but inexpensive toothbrushes in bulk, spruced them up with coordinating ribbon, printed tags with our information and attached them to the bags with coordinating seamless ponytail holders.

The message read, “For a party so sweet we’ll make your teeth hurt” and included our web address and starting price. At my son’s school, the kids’ bags hang on hooks lining the hallways. They come and go, putting craft projects away, going to wash their hands and so on. I don’t know why it surprised me to see the absolute wonderment over these toothbrushes. NEVER underestimate the power of colored plastic to delight a child! They were SO excited about these! One boy asked whose birthday it was. Awesome.

Buying baby gifts was much more fun before I had kids. I did not see that one coming! Now I know what people really need and more importantly, what they don’t. So even though I see something completely adorable, be it a snuggly blanket, the world’s softest stuffed animal or the tiniest of tiny onesies, I just can’t force myself to gift it. I think subsequent babies are even harder to buy for, especially if they are the second, third or fourth boy (or girl).

What do they have? What do they need? What can I get off of their registry that isn’t totally left over and random? Oh, the pressure…

Well, I am somewhat ashamed to admit that despite the fact that I own a paper business, I didn’t arrive at this idea by myself. A friend asked me to make something special for a baby shower. It’s such a foolproof gift idea though that I have stuck with it religiously and have gotten great feedback from both new moms and moms again!

First up, we have sibling gift enclosures including the older kiddos plus the new baby’s name. This is perfect, because it’s something you can say with almost 100% certainty that they don’t have yet. Plus, it gets used right away for all those birthday parties. There’s no writing in the new one’s name before dashing out the door. Plus, it doesn’t take up any room like all the clothes and baby gear. You can go all girlie, totally boyish or bright and gender-neutral.

Here are a few of my faves:

the Sibling Polka Gift Enclosure

the Sister Stripes Gift Enclosure

the Initial Sibling Gift Enclosure

These all show more than one name, but many of our online examples do not. Be not discouraged! The fact is that most of our gift enclosures work with multiple names. Even if it won’t all fit in the provided fields, you can drop us a line in the comments section of your order and leave special instructions there.

For extra adorability, I like the grosgrain ribbon ties in a sweet coordinating color.

If it’s a first baby, you can do a set of family gift enclosure cards like these Family Name Horizontal Gift Enclosures:

Then I always like to do a little something that’s just for the new baby–maybe some sweet folding note cards to be used for thank yous. Even if they order notes that coordinate with their birth announcements, it’ll be a while before those are on hand. Maybe a couple of bag tags for the baby’s diaper bag and stroller. Or even a set of gift enclosures with just the new baby’s name. The possibilities are just about endless, and folks like to see their baby’s name in print. It just makes everything seem more real. Plus, selecting something personalized shows you put some real thought into your gift.

So if you have someone to buy for and you’re stuck, give us a look. We’ll dish up something candy-coated, gift wrap and ship it for you complete with a personalized gift enclosure and grosgrain ribbon. What could be sweeter?

I do this every year. I saw it coming from a mile away. Just like last year. But it was summertime. My kids were out of school, and I had only the few hours a day they chose to take a nap (or not) to accomplish anything. I told myself it’d just have to wait until school started. By the time I had my wits about me, October was barreling down on us–my son’s birthday. Everything would just have to wait until after the party. Then, BAM. Halloween. November.

November is gonna be the month. I can feel it! I’m already thinking ahead. School fundraiser. Crud, I need a new picture of the kids. What will they wear? Shopping with the kids. Holiday photo session. Adult beverage. Well-managed gift idea list. One that’s really thought-out. One that attempts to manage the toy creep–the exponential explosion that’s taken over the den and is already threatening adjoining spaces. One that takes into account October and December birthdays. Ugh. If I can just make it to Thanksgiving. Early bird card orders. I LOVE YOU. Thanksgiving feast at school. I signed up. November is my month, right? Wonder if the Pilgrims had UncrustablesTM? Thanksgiving. Travel. Overeating. Black Friday. Back to work.

Emails and orders flying. Printing. Shipping. Mailing lists. Festive holiday postage. Baked goods. Classroom treats. I wonder if anyone is allergic? If I can just make it to my order deadline…Wrapping paper. Wishing I had one of those hoses that they use to blow in insulation that spit out red and green candy stripes all over our gifts to conceal their contents. Patent pending.

One more week until the kids are out. Draft twenty-three point list of To Dos before said time. And, hey. Maybe I’ll print some Christmas cards of my own. If I can just make it to Christmas. Wait. What about my poor little December 27th birthday girl? I knew I should’ve applied myself in math. If I can just make it to New Year’s. I hate New Year’s. If I can just get the kids back to school I can recommit to my annual pledge to fitness. Right. If I can just make it to Spring Break….OK I’m giving myself palpitations just writing about it.

So that’s officially half the year I’ve wished away, and it occurs to me that I’m blowing through the sweet spot, the best years with my two kiddos, without soaking it all in like I should. This season, we’re going to get crafty and make things. We’re going to bake and cut and glue things. I may even let them use glitter. OK, who am I kidding. No glitter. But this season, I mean it. I’m going to slow down and really roll around in the holidays.

From time to time, I have a customer who throws an adorably cute party and I get to help! I have a pretty creative bunch of customers, you see. Many are friends from my days in Advertising and Public Relations. Now, I have a business designing invitations and such
–www.pinkpeppermintpaper.com.

There are quite a few ready made options, but I also do custom work, which is great fun and affords me the opportunity to try some new things. Plus, I get to give my customer exactly what s/he is looking for–invitations, favor tags, coordinating thank yous, return address labels, and even some fun ideas for the party!

So my plan is to share photos and details from these great parties or any fantastically brilliant seasonal ideas for classroom goodies. I have two young ones at home in preschool programs and they have quite a few little parties, so I am always keeping an eye out for something new and different.

My name is Eleanor. I am Pink Peppermint Paper–a Southern girl, a wife and mother, a   designer and a paper junkie. I love the little details. I’m not that mom. You know, the one you want to like but can’t bring yourself to because she does everything just a little too perfectly. No, certainly not. I’m the mom who bops around town in yoga pants and tennis shoes with strands of hair hanging in my face. No, I don’t do yoga. They’re comfortable, OK? I don’t exercise regularly, keep an immaculate home or have perfectly dressed children, but I do have one-of-a-kind invitations, sweet classroom goodies with personalized tags and a flair for churning out festive party ideas.