Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The popcorn issue.

I love popcorn. It's one of my favorite snacks.

I use to buy my popcorn in bulk from Costco.
They had a big 12 lb. container that lasted forever.
But like all things at Costco....things come and go and
you can't count on products staying around there.

So one day when I was almost out of popcorn 
I bought the one on the right in the picture at
Meijer. I just grabbed it and put it in my cart.
I have to say I didn't even look at the price.
Some things I just need in my life...popcorn is one of them.
Boy did I get ripped off. It was $5.99.

The much larger one on the left 
was only $3.98 at Walmart.

 I didn't even notice until I had
them both in my cupboard at the same time and 
then I was appalled....and annoyed.

Even if they were the same size and the
Walmart one was cheaper that would have
been bad enough. But the smaller one from
Meijer was $2 more??

What a big difference on a small item.

My trips to Meijer have been almost
non-existant since the popcorn issue.

Sorry Meijer...you lost a customer
over popcorn.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Sweet Shoppe Ideas for my Friends out there

UPDATE: October 2011
Here's  a cute new one we recently did.
I like the words "Sweet Escape" but 
"Sweet Shoppe" or "Sweet Shop" works for me too.

If you'd like to see even MORE variations,







Sweet Shoppe Ideas from Marlyss Hollyer on Vimeo



 We make a bunch of different styles of 
Sweet Shoppe signs for candy buffets.

Candy Buffets 
 are so popular these days.

And no wonder. 
Who doesn't love candy...both
to eat right there at the party and
to take home too.

No gooey cakes to take home that
you might drop and have an
ucky mess.

As with everything though:
There are rules.
Can't always dig right into
the candy buffet before you
eat your veggies...hence we
had someone order this
"Candy Buffet Closed"
sign from us. 
I was playing around with my iphoto slideshow
application to see how it works and 
I made the quirky little video at the top of the page.

I hope it works but just in case it doesn't...
here's one of my favorite Candy Buffet signs we
made for Laura at Mitzvahlicious.
Laura designed it and we made it and we loved it.






Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Party Decorations: DRUM SETS and BASS DRUMS

We've had fun this year making some new drum
related party decor. Here's one we especially loved 
with this cool logo that the family sent us to use
in the center of the bass drum. It was from their invitation.

On the same track, here's a bass drum that sat on a 
Placecard Table with one of our amp boxes and
a guitar for a musical collage of three. 
We love that rule of 3.  
Now this drum might look 3D but it is actually one dimensional foamcore.

It's very similar to our guitar centerpieces.
Here's a side view.

We've also made centerpieces with
 a different drum look.
These were on a 12" square base and
the banners were the table designations.

We also can make a drum set
Sign In Board featuring your
favorite photo of your hot drummer.
Or....maybe just a fun Welcome Sign to
sit on the table with your place cards?

Or a Memory Book? We do those also and
they cost about 1/2 of what a Sign In Board costs.

It does seem like we've done a lot in blue, black
and silver. But we're open to using other 
colors. It just hasn't happened yet.

Maybe we'll find a girl drummer who
has a set of purple or pink drums.
Wow....that would be wild. 
I'd like that. I'll post an update here
if that happens.




Sunday, June 5, 2011

Survivor Redemption Island BUFF I WON!

I don't win many contests. But then I don't enter many. 

But I do watch Survivor and it's one of my most favorite shows. I watch it upstairs in my bedroom.

I followed Jeff Probst's live tweets while the show was playing.
 Except for the week my granddaughter Haley had the 24 hour flu and threw up on my bed just as it was starting. That week I was glad I was taping it so I could watch the rerun but I missed the live tweets because I was...well...you can imagine what I doing instead.

They had a contest to show your "living room" and how you watched Survivor and send over a tweet.

I snapped this picture and sent this Tweet.
I had my ipad set up and my tv on.

Now this isn't the best picture ever and certainly not award winning. But I won a Survivor Buff autographed by Jeff Probst for it. I think I won because it was different than the kind that most people posted. Most people showed a brightly lit living room with kids eating popcorn on the floor. That type of picture. Mine was just different. Maybe it stuck out for that. Whatever the reason, I won a buff!

I had to wait 6 weeks for it but it came just the very next day after I had wondered out loud if I really had won a buff and I wondered where it was. I was an impatient winner.
It's a long stretchy tube of a thing. 
You can wear it around your head like a headband...which is
how I'll probably wear it....or as a neck scarf. I'll probably do that too when the weather here in Michigan isn't hot and humid.

But here's my survivor Haley who survived the flu 
and got to wear it first to our Memorial Day parade 
where it was hot and humid and she was giving away lemonade.

She could wear it as a top. That would never fly with me. 
No way is it THAT stretchy.

But I got a major kick out of WINNING!