The Joplin Japhet Couture Cat Collar Collection!

Hello Everyone! It's been a while! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

So I've been keeping myself busy with a very special project. The Bay Area Humane Society has their formal fundaiser, Fur Ball, this New Year's Eve at the SC Grand. This is a cause that is near and dear to my heart (having been homeless myself once), so I created a special item for the silent auction portion of the evening.

Presenting...(drum roll please)...the Joplin Japhet Couture Cat Collar Collection!

A custom collection of four collars, one for each season. Being a fashionable feline myself, I have realized that there just aren't enough high fashion options available to us. It's always all about the dogs! So, I created my own collection!

Not only am I the designer, I am the model as well!

Spring Blossoms...featuring sky blue hydrangea accented with sunny yellow daffodils.

Summer Butterflies...a green gingham collar featuring paw print ribbon and whimsical butterflies.

Autumn Feathers...pheasant feathers in rich shades of brown. I apologize that my fluffy fur is obscuring this one a bit-but it really is lovely!

Holiday Sparkle...beautiful red poinsettias centered with rhinestone sparkle. I do love the sparkle!

I watch the ladies here design all day long, so it was nice to get my chance! I'm sure I'll have another collection in the works shortly. Having given this one away, I really need to create one for myself! Hopefully these collars will find a good home with a fellow fashionable feline, and do some good for those animals in need at the shelter!

SALE!!!

I can't believe how long it's been! I also can't believe Christmas has come and gone :(

I wish it were Christmas year round but I know it wouldn't be nearly as special then.

There is one plus and that is Petal Pusher's After Christmas Sale!!!
Come on in for 1/2 off all Christmas Merchandise!!!

We spent the holidays with my family up north and had a great time!
Watched all my Christmas favorites, It's a Wonderful Life, Christmas in Connecticut, White Christmas, and of course National Lampoons Christmas and A Christmas Story.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and I wish you a Happy New Year!

Lambeau Winter Wedding

This last week-end we had a wedding at the Lambeau Field Atrium. Pillar, swagged fabric and arrangements of alstromeria and roses lined the aisle.

Bouquets of roses, winter greens, and ginestra.

There was also beaded gold leaf accents throughout.

The centerpieces atop lovely scarlet linens. The centerpieces had winter greens, stock, hydrangea, alstromeria, roses and other accents.

Bridal Blogs!

It's a good thing that I didn't have this list before I got married because I don't think I ever would have made a decision!!! Way too many great ideas.
But for those of you planning your wedding and in need of a bit of inspiration- these blogs have it!

I took this list from the Brides January 2010 issue.

100 Layer Cake (100layercake.com/blog)
The photos are stunning- this is by far my favorite on the list!
(I'm sorry but I can't get this link to work!)

Always a Blogsmaid (alwaysablogsmaid.com)
Stories and pictures from real weddings, great site with a lot of personality.

Bridal Buzz (bridalbuzz.blogspot.com)
A great place to get started gathering ideas.

Classic Bride (classicbride.blogspot.com)
I had my doubts about classic- but they had me at the vintage cameras!

Earth Friendly Weddings (earthfriendlywedding.blogspot.com)
Check out the wedding tree- so cool!!! Reminds me of the "Thumb book"

IDIY (i-do-it-yourself.com)
I was totally bamboozled by the name but once I got that- I could spend hours on the site. Such great ideas!

Once Wed (oncewed.com)
Took a long time to load (lots of pictures) but well worth the wait!

Snippet and Ink (snippetandink.blogspot.com)
Great source for color inspiration- I love the pops of red in the current stories photos.


I'm still all about every woman getting to have a wedding for every season. I'm going to use these blogs to start planning my "Spring Wedding"!
Enjoy!

Movie Review

Every year for Christmas, Brian takes me to see a Christmas movie at the theater. It's a pretty big deal for us as going to the movies is a "waste of money" to my tight wad husband. ;)

This year I really wanted to go see a Christmas Carol in 3-D. This was pushing it because 3-D movies are even more expensive than the regular shows. He cracked and took me to the matinee yesterday.

Even the previews were in 3-D so cool!

The movie was amazing. I had my huge 3-D glasses on over my normal glasses with my mouth permanently open because I was just amazed at the graphics. I probably don't need to tell you much about the story as we're all familiar.

{Meet crabby Scrooge}

There were parts where it felt like you could reach out and touch the snow. I would not recommend the movie for little kids though, there were some pretty scary scenes.

Overall- great movie!

Winter Wedding

It was so much fun to get to do a truly winter wedding. The bride carried roses, callas and sweet peas accented with cedar and ostrich feathers. She even had beads strung on gold and silver bouillon.

Mixed evergreens used as pew decor.

The unity candle arrangement with roses, callas and sweet peas.

Centerpieces of floating candles with Christmas ornaments. I love this look! So high end and romantic feeling. The reception was held at Oneida Country Club which is already so beautiful for the holidays.

Although we didn't have any snow for this wedding we are slated to get 8-12" by Wednesday!!!
I can't wait!!!

Happy Monday!

Home for the Holidays

As expressed in earlier posts I am a holiday fanatic! It's a good thing I work in retail because if I didn't I would probably go around begging people to let me put their trees up!
In my dining room I hung these sweet little retro pipe cleaner trees from the light fixture.

This is our pseudo fireplace...ahhh nothing like a crackling fire for the holidays or a rotating bulb and blower with heat...

I love paperwhites, I know some people that think they stink but I think they are wonderful! We have them at the shop from our local grower for $5 a bulb. I can't wait for them to open!

The tree, sure the picture is a little crooked, but you get the idea. It's a champagne tinsel tree with lots of metallic bulbs and our family ornaments. The topper is purposefully not pictured because there isn't one yet. I want to do a polka dot ribbon but am having trouble finding such item.

Now onto the good stuff- it's not the holidays without treats! The year I moved to Green Bay my grandmother passed away at Thanksgiving. Grandma Curly was super cool, she had more energy in her 80's than I do now!
The woman baked- a lot. One of my favorites was her caramel popcorn. As the first Christmas without her neared closer all I wanted was her popcorn. I called my mom and asked if she had any idea how to make it. She started laughing and said it's on the back of the bag!!!
No way- Grandma's famous popcorn was on the back of the bag?!?!?

Indeed it is- so pick yourself up a bag of Old Dutch puffcorn and get cracking!

1 bag Old Dutch puffcorn
1 cup butter (not margarine)
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1 Tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 250 degrees

Combine butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup in a 2 QT sauce pan, cook on medium heat until mixture is melted. Once mixture has melted add the baking soda. It will foam!!!

Pour Old Dutch puffcorn into a large roaster pan. Pour caramel mixture over puffcorn and stir till coated.

Place in oven at 250 degrees for 45 minutes. Stirring every 10-15 minutes.

Remove from oven and carefully pour onto wax paper. Break apart and let cool.

EAT!!!

SALE!!!

Just in time for the Holidays!!!
Robert Rothschild Farms gourmet foods are 25% off!!!

I highly recommend the pepper jellies, mustards and dirty martini dip...oh my!

Heritage Hill Wedding

This was one of those classically simple weddings that was a joy to create . It was such a lovely and sophisticated fall color scheme.
The altar arrangements were antique hydrangea, fall mums and caramel spider mums.

The bouquets were antique hydrangea and sahara roses. I love the bits of rose foliage peaking through.

Sweet!

Yum... In case you haven't figured it out by now...flowers and cake are two of most favorite things in the world! The fact that I have stuffed my self for the last 3 days does not in anyway deter me from finding this cake delectable! mmmmm

And these? Don't even get me started on these babies! There's nothing like a vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting...
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! My husband and I were able to get away to Minneapolis to spend it with his family which was great. On the way home, however, we missed an exit and took a lovely tour of farmland for a good two hours! It was rather picturesque- lots of horses and buggies and the most amazing pink sky that can only be enjoyed by rolling hills. It was all my fault because I was blabbering away and was supposed to be the navigator! ;)
I'm sensing a GPS for Christmas for one lucky guy this year!

Holiday Open House

Petal Pusher's Holiday Open House

Friday, November 20th 5-9
Saturday, November 21st 9-6

Join us for sips, sweets and treats!

Click here for a link to the mailer (there's a coupon!)

Bemis Center Party!

This was a lovely autumn party that was hosted at the Bemis center on St. Norbert's campus.
Above we have elegant submerged mango callas with gourds and votives surrounding the base.

Heirloom pumpkins from a local grower filled with pepper berry, liquid amber, mums, roses, and kale.

The Bemis center is such a pretty space for any event, with the large windows and sophisticated color scheme.

The buffet waiting for food!

Autumn Wedding

Gorgeous autumn colors combine to make these pretty bouquets. They feature antique hydrangea, gerbera daisies, dahlias, wax flower and seeded eucalyptus.

The bridal bouquets featured the same flowers with the addition of deep burgundy calla lilies.

Adorable pew bouquets of antique hydrangea in silver cones grace the pews of Heritage Hill.

A full and lush altar arrangement of lilies, seeded eucalyptus, wax flowers, liquid amber, roses, rover mums and gorgeous pepper berry!

Shop Kitty in Residence

Hello All! And Happy Holidays!

Yes, the holidays have arrived at Petal Pusher. Come enjoy the sparkle and a cup of cider (and visit me, of course!) Anyhow-it occurred to me that people may wonder what the duties of "shop kitty in residence" entail (no pun intended).

Supervisory Duties-focused on quality control of the arrangements that the ladies make everyday. They really do lovely work, but somebody has to keep an eye on them.

Tech Support-I just trouble shoot for this one. It is hard to operate a keyboard and mouse when you lack opposable thumbs. After diagnosing the issue, I hand it over to "that guy" (aka Shawn-Nichole's husband). He stops in from time to time to deal with IT issues and visit me (of course).

Security-One just can't be too careful these days. I'm pretty sure this chipmunk was headed straight for us, but thought twice after seeing my ominous presence. Situation averted.

And lastly, I wanted to let everybody know about two very important upcoming events...Brewfest and Furball! Brewfest is this upcoming Friday, November 13th at the KI Convention Center and Furball is New Year's Eve at the SC Grand. Both benefit a cause near and dear to my heart-the Bay Area Humane Society. I was a homeless kitty once and am so thankful BAHS exists to help animals in need! Please visit www.bayareahumanesociety.com for more info and consider supporting a very worthy cause!

Welcome Back!!!

She's back!!! With open arms we welcome back Little Orange Kitchen!!! She brought in a gorgeous selection of wallets, upcycled wallets, and checkbook covers.

All of her pieces are the perfect gift for any lady on your list. I myself have gifted alot of people with her loveliness and they have all been so proud to carry something so unique!

You can follow Laura on her blog!

Adorableness

Meet the "Zubels" soooo cute! Zubels are 100% cotton and handknit in Peru using fair trade practices. They are also smart. "Sweet Tooth Al" (the alligator) loves to brush his teeth! Way to go Al! The rest of the Zubel family should be here shortly and they are all equally adorable!

We also have "Dragon Toes" Hats with histories... Handmade locally by dragontoes mama. These hats are so special because they each have a story of how they came to be.

It's about time!

My prayers have been answered!!! There is finally a reality show about a floral designer. It's just an added perk that he is drop dead sexy!

Tune into Flowers Uncut on TLC
Premiers November 4th at 9:00pm central





Here's what TLC has to say about the show:

"Follow the amazing artistry of one of the world's most renowned event designers: Jeff Leatham. A former male model who grew up in the States and has been dubbed "The Rock n' Roll Florist" for his style and pizzazz, Jeff will show the audience why he has earned his reputation as "the best florist in the world" by using an empty space as his canvas, and utilizing flowers as his paint to transform the otherwise ordinary area into an extraordinary experience. Utilizing a bold and innovative vision and approach to flowers as a work of art, Jeff's mantra consists of three things: "Keep it clean, keep it simple and keep it chic." And in doing just that, we will watch the end result: a jaw-dropping display of floral majesty that keeps his million dollar clients begging him for more. From Madonna to Mariah Carey, billionaire businessmen to snooty socialites, Bill Clinton to Eva Longoria, we get to see that Jeff is the man the elite turn to when they throw a big event and want to create an exceptional and unbelievable feel their guests will never forget."

I have never been more thankful for DVR because Wednesday nights also happen to be Modern Family which is hilarious on ABC and Top chef on Bravo! What's a girl to do?!? DVR

Deck the Halls

We have some really great new products in for the holidays. These Aunt Sadies candles smell absolutely amazing! The "Famous Pine" is by far the best pine scented candle available. They also burn clean and last forever!

A bevy of fused glass ornaments, felted snowmen, santas and little lambs and my favorite mini mercury glass ornaments!

The mantle with knitted stockings, ball garland and little mitten ornaments. I love red and white for the holidays.

Ahhh...the holidays! I'll tell you I wasn't all that in the mood for Christmas decorating but once I cued up Pandora with Swingin' Christmas I was a goner- singing, dancing, humming and amazingly enjoying myself while decorating trees on October 23rd. I may actaully decorate at home this Sunday-maybe-we'll see.

Happy Monday all!

Baubles!!!

We feature jewelry from a local artist Deb Meyer, she has joined forces with her sister Mary Callas for Kremer Sister's Jewelry.
Above is a very cool piece with gorgeous yellow crystals, and an antique silver spoon,

This brass necklace has shades of blues, green and purples.

Another antique sterling silver spoon on a simple silver chain.

I LOVE THIS PIECE! I really love it- a lot! An awesome brass door piece, key and antique beaded drawer pull.

All of Deb's pieces combine sheer talent with an eye for reusing in the best possible ways. Most of her pieces have been refashioned from vintage or antique items.

Deb restocks often and there's always something totally unexpected!

Seeing PINK!

Pink Stargazers, seeded eucalyptus and silver curly willow fill these very cool hammered aluminum vases that lined the aisle.

Bouquet featuring celosia, altstromeria, hypericum and callas accented with silver bullion.

The unity arrangement with stock, alstro, lilies and hypericum.

SALE!!!!

Stop in this week for 25% off storewide!!!

Sale exclude plants, fresh and consignment items!!!

Lots of additional items on clearance at 40% off too!!!

Homecoming Corsages!

Here are some corsages that we have done thus far for area homecomings. The above one features yellow spray roses, white dendrobium orchids and crystal accents.

I loved this one- it felt very Moulin Rouge...red ranunculus and sparkle pop off this black and sequined number!

A classic corsage of fragrant freesia and calcynia on a dark crystal band.

Gorgeous fuchsia dendrobium orchids, orange hypericum berry, and sparkle!