A recent press release

Waukesha County "Lawn Greeting" Company First in Area to Offer Buzzards & 3D Bears

Special-Delivery 4 U LLC in Muskego, today announced it's two newest displays. The buzzard as well as 3D bears. The buzzard is a vinyl print attached to coroplast. The bears were manufactured, and distributed by Union Products, Inc. of Leominster, MA, which closed its doors in November 2006.

Sheri Haupenthal, President of Special-Delivery 4 U LLC says that both displays are a great addition to the companies' rental inventory. "We have had the buzzards on our website for about a month or so and they have already been rented a few times." Haupenthal stated.

Special-Delivery 4 U LLC offers storks for baby showers/birth announcements and a wide variety of 2D characters or "critters" as they are also known as in the industry. These include buzzards, penguins, snowmen, cows, smiley faces, graduation caps, stars, balloons, traffic signs, crowns and 3D collection of bears, hearts, flamingos and dinosaurs.

Haupenthal is planning to add more children's themed characters as well as an old man and old woman yard cards in the near future.

"We help customers celebrate all of life's milestones. Be it a birth, birthday, graduation, welcoming home a soldier, an anniversary or a marriage proposal we have something for everyone." Haupenthal says.

Special-Delivery 4 U delivers in the metro Milwaukee area. Delivery is free within 20 miles of the Special-Delivery 4 U warehouse. Anything past 20 miles is charged a delivery fee based on milage. "We have delivered as far north as Port Washington, south to Kenosha and east to Oconomowoc." Haupenthal stated.

Another new addition

A company on the east coast was selling these cute bears and we had to add them to our displays.

New Addition

We recently had a request for something "less frilly" for a 40th birthday. Because of that, we started looking for some new critters to add to the ones we already have. Fortunately we were able to buy some already made from another company. Here is our latest addition. Buzzards!!!

Freeze!! Police!!

Sheri had some problems finding the house that she was scheduled to set up a few nights ago. This house is on a court in a quiet little neighborhood. First she circled the court a few times trying to determine which house it was. Then she called me to see if I could help her out using Google Maps street view. That didn't work out to well so she decided to call the customer to get some more information.....like any vehicles in the driveway or distinguishing things about the yard or house.

The customer was able to give her some help. To make sure she had the correct house she went right up to the front of the house to double check the address (that was not lit up). Since it was the right place she started setting everything up. When she had just a few more critters to put in the ground a police officer shows up.

The police officer lit her up with the spot light and had the red and blue lights going. Fortunately Sheri did not park right in front of the home she was setting up. Sheri gave the officer a business card, showed her the order for the display and asked the officer if they could go around the corner to do this so that the recipient doesn't see what is going on (and ruin the surprise).

After taking her license the officer agreed to go around the corner with Sheri. Once they were there, Sheri explained what had happened and told the officer that she was almost done. The police officer checked her license and let her get on with the display. During the time that Sheri was on the side of the road 2 more police cars drove by. It must have been a quiet night in town. LOL

Flamingos migrate to Iraq

On February 24, Chris from Chris in Iraq posted about Kix & Dunn as well as a lawn update. At the end of his lawn update he mentioned that he was looking for a pink flamingo lawn ornament. Michelle Reed, President of the Lawn Greeting Association read this post and e-mailed Chris. After talking with Chris via e-mail and over the phone she mentioned it on the Lawn Greetings Business Owners Forum. Michelle asked the members of the forum to donate a Flamingo to send to Chris for the lawn.

Eleven different lawn greetings companies responded to Michelle's plea and sent her at least one flamingo lawn ornament. The Leominster Flamingo Company (the makers of the pink flamingos) donated 2 flamingos signed by creator Don Featherstone. The Lawn Greetings Association also donated some items as well. Here is a picture of the items before they started their migration to Iraq.

Firefighting Flamingo

Actually the flamingo is the mascot for Engine 10 in Manchester, New Hampshire. The firefighters still do the firefighting. This is a picture of the decal that used to be on their equipment. I found this interesting article about it. Apparently they used to have a bunch of pink flamingos on the front yard of the station as well but a Captain (the person in charge of a single firehouse) decided he did not want them displayed anymore.

According to the article the station recently got a new Captain and he is considering letting the flamingos return. I have been around firefighting and fire trucks for almost 30 years and this is the first time I ever seen a flamingo as a station mascot.

I would love to see a picture of the flamingos in front of this station too. If anyone out there has a picture of it please email it to me and I will post it for all to see.

World's Largest Flamingo

As you travel on Highway 12 through the city of Wisconsin Dells you will see the world's largest flamingo. This thing is 26 feet tall. Of course it is not a living flamingo but a statue outside the Flamingo Hotel. This is a picture that I took of it on Sunday March 30, 2008.

The flamingo was made right here in Sparta, Wisconsin. At the workshops of Fiberglass Animals, Shapes & Trademarks Corp., or just FAST. They make a lot of different things. All of them are very interesting.

I found another picture of it with some people in it to give you another view. Apparently the frog in this picture was also made by FAST.

I wish we had something that eye catching for our displays. Although I am not exactly sure how we would transport it or set it up without the recipient hearing us. ;)