Grandparents Love

Grandparents.
What do you call yours? Nana and Papa? Grandma and Grandpa? Gramma and Grampa? Nonna and Poppa? Lola and Lolo?
Whatever you call your grandparents, we have the T-shirts, buttons, cards, stickers, tote bags, magnets, and a lot of other products with that special name! If we don't have the name you are looking for, send us an email and we'll add it to our new Grandparents Love store.
As a grandma, I can honestly say I love my grandkids every bit as much as my children. They mean the world to me. Some of my most treasured belongings include an eyeglass case that reads "World's Best Grandma" all over it that my grandson bought for me at his school's gift shop right before Christmas this year, an angel given to me by my grandson when he was just a baby, and of course, the countless hand made cards, notes, and pictures my grandson and granddaughter have given me.
Whether you are a first time grandma or a grandma of 30, we have T-shirts, buttons, bags, mugs, and other grandparent items you're sure to wear and own with pride. If you are a mom to be, consider telling your parents they are about to become grandparents by surprising them with a Grandma and Grandpa T-shirt, or as your case may be, a Nana and Papa T-shirt, Gram and Gramps T-shirt, or any of the other names you use.
Here's just a small sample of the many apparel and gift items we have for grandparents!



Also check out our Family Members store for even more gifts for grandmas and grandpas!

Using Pinterest as a marketing tool

I admit to being far, far from an expert on anything related to promotion and marketing, however, I do believe that people who are familiar with your name and brand are more likely to trust you than trust a name they have never heard of. It is for that reason I use Pinterest as a marketing tool.
There are many ways to market your products...squidoo lenses, twitter, facebook, and other social networking sites, and of course, the pay for ads both online and offline, business cards, word of mouth, blog posts, and well, you get the picture.
I fell in love with Pinterest the very first time I tried it out. You can find amazing recipes, awesome DIY craft projects for kids and adults, gardening tips, vacation ideas, photos of beautiful waterfalls, babies, and animals. You can get ideas for birthday cakes, teachers can get ideas for projects and classroom activities, the list goes on and on. I have hundreds of recipes saved in my "boards" on pinterest and I hope someday to actually be able to be less busy so I can try some of them out! I have also pinned hundreds of birthday cakes for kids, most of them theme cakes, some with instructions on how to, some that are just photos. Awesome cakes for baby's first birthday through teen years. Circus cakes, clown cakes, Star Wars cakes, dinosaur cakes, Mickey and Minnie Mouse cakes, Sesame Street cakes, you name it, it's probably to be found on one of my three Unique Kids Birthday Cakes boards.
Some people have said that affiliate codes get stripped out of pinterest links, so they don't find Pinterest as being a good marketing tool for them. To that I say...it does not matter to me! I'm addicted to Pinterest and so I will continue to use it, and I also think that it's a wonderful marketing tool despite that. I have hundreds of people, thousands perhaps, who have repinned my pins, I have hundreds of followers on various boards, and every person who looks at something I pinned sees my name and my website URL. I'm hoping at least some of them click through to my site, and I am even more hoping that for those who don't...they are subconsciously, or consciously, remembering the name peacockcards.com. So in the future sometime if they do indeed find a product of mine through google or yahoo or the cafepress.com or zazzle.com marketplace they will remember my name and know the type of person I am (from my pinterest interests) and trust the name.
Of course, I also have pinned a number of my own products including kids birthday T-shirts and invitations which incidentally match a lot of the themes of the birthday cakes I have pinned.
And so for me, Pinterest is a great match with something I enjoy and also find to be a good marketing tool.
If you love recipes, parties, kids birthday cakes, DIY projects for kids and adults alike, and gardening you might consider following my boards. I think they are pretty awesome and hope you will too!
My pinterest profile is:

http://pinterest.com/michigal/

Happy pinning! And if you get addicted, welcome to the club!

Kids Birthday Invitations

Kids birthday parties have become, in my opinion, a lot more lavish over the years. I remember as a child most children in my neighborhood only had one "big" party during their childhood. By one big party, I mean one party where they invited classmates and friends and an ample amount of money was spent on food and balloons and crepe paper streamers. Even the "big" parties back then were nothing compared to parties children have now. My 5th birthday was my big party. I remember having a lot of friends there and getting lots of gifts. I remember having cake and ice cream and potato chips, and I remember there was balloons. Other than that, my birthday was usually celebrated with just my closest family members and perhaps one best friend. And that was pretty much the norm for all of my friends and classmates.
Invitations were a phone call or perhaps a hand made invitation on construction paper using crayons or a dark pen. Parties then certainly didn't have themes, at least not that I can recall. Nobody had a cartoon character birthday party or a princess party or cowboy party. It was just cake, pop, ice cream, chips, and balloons and streamers for the most part. I don't recall treat bags to take home or entertainment like face painting, clowns, balloon animals, or puppet shows taking place during the party. Still, they were such fun! And perhaps it's partly why I have come to love birthday parties, especially for children.
When my own kids were little, I put quite a bit of effort into their birthday parties. Although money was tight I admit to having spent a bit on the parties, and making do with hand creating the things I couldn't afford to purchase, such as pinatas and decorations. The lead up to the party was such fun...days and days of making decorations and food in preparation for their special day. And they loved their birthday parties so much it was always well worth the effort, although I have to admit to loving it so much it wasn't even what I can call "effort".
My daughter has put on some pretty nice parties for her own children, my grandkids. I have posted several pictures from several of those parties in my previous blog posts. I am in the process now of ordering my granddaughter's birthday party invitations and in doing so, stopped to write this blog post so I can pass along some of the cute party invites I've recently created.
All of my kids birthday invitations are easy to customize with your child's birthday party specifics, and many of them are photo ready as well. I've designed several hundred birthday invitations in various themes including princess, firefighter, cowboy, cowgirl, birthday sleepover, movie night, spa party, pizza party, puppy dog, owl, circus, carnival, golf outing birthday, amusement park, rock climbing, dinosaur, and so many more! And I'm not done yet. I plan to continue to create them because I love doing it! Most of my invitations right now are the square invites but I do have a few of the 5x7" invites as well and plan to create more in the 5x7" size.
If you are having a birthday party and don't see the theme you are looking for, drop me an email and I'll see if I can create it for you!
Enjoy these birthday invitations and check back again soon for even more!