Sunday, January 31, 2010

One More Sleep - Back to School!

There is a tinge of excitement here at The Cupcake Wrapper HQ as we get ready for the school & kinder year.
And that excitement is not just from our 4 girls who head back to 
Grade 2 and 3 Year old kinder.
It is also from us!
Yippee!!

We get the HQ back to ourselves again!
Well that is not to say we haven't enjoyed the holidays.
We have and they have too.
But...6 weeks is a looooonnnnggggg time!

As we speak, the contact is out covering books, labels are being curled around pencils, textas & glue sticks, lunch boxes found in the plastics cupboard , and school bags being cleaned out of last years junk (couldn't be bothered doing it  when school broke up).
Oh and not forgetting pencil grips.
Some sort of grip phenomenon has taken over our Grade 2-ers.
There seems to be a black market in the class room for grips.
There are undercover swaps happening, grips seem to go missing at playtime and turn up surreptitiously in someomes pencil case and we have to case out every newsagent we come across for new designs and colors.

Anyway there are lots of Mums and Dads farewelling their little munchkin as they head off to school or kinder.
I have to say I was dreading the day my daughter started Prep.
I knew there would be tears (from me) so I packed the handy pack of tissues and wore my dark sunnies to hide the blotchy eyes.

Low and behold there was nothing...no tears, no snuffling, no snivelling.
Just a cheery "Bye, have fun! Love you" and that was it.
I think I actually shed a tear when I picked her up that day and saw her coming out of the corridor with her bag & hat on.
So proud!!

So I do really feel for all the school & kinder newbies.
Here is a book that may help to ease the pain.

Leigh Hobbs book
Fiona The Pig's Big Day





Our friend Shelley at Femme De Montmartre raves about Leighs' work too and we have to agree with her.
This book takes a look at Fiona's first day from the molly-coddling, apprehensive parents point of view.
I'm sure you will appreciate it.
It certainly cracks us up!

Another oldie but a goodie is a Golden Book
We Like Kindergarten


I picked this one up from an op shop, but I even remember it from 
when I was little.
It's a very cute, simple story about going to Kinder.

Have fun heading back to school & kinder over the next week.
xx



Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Blog Love!

As well as our newspaper spots we have also been featured on a
few blogs lately too.

We are like little children we see our cupcake wrappers have been featured on a blog!
We squeal and jump all around!
It is still all very surreal to us that people actually like our concept and want to write about it.

Have a look at these lovely posts about our wrappers.




A big thrill was also seeing our cupcake wrappers inadvertantly featured on...
Amy from Eat Drink Chic did a pitch featuring our wrappers that was published on this legendary site.
Hope Paul Smith liked them!




If you would like to see Natalie and I squeal and dance a jig
just feature us on your blog!
Seriously...if you want images to use for your blog just send us an email - we have heaps available or can even take a photo based around a theme you are doing.

hello@thecupcakewrapperco.com.au




Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

Our PR department (us!) has been super busy lately securing a few key spots in local newspapers.
We have to thank all our friends at these publications as they have been very supportive of The Cupcake Wrapper Co!

Lots of people have asked us
"How do you get so much publicity?"

Well all we do is contact newspapers and magazines ourselves with our photos and product info.
There are also a few fantastic resources we use to help us to do our own PR.
The first 3 sites are Aussies and are all excellent, and free!

The Herald Sun Home magazine
Saturday 23 January 2010

We were so excited to get this article printed last weekend!
Thank you to everyone who has left us comments on Twitter & Facebook or sent us an email.
Your support is very much appreciated.

A little note to clarify from the article.
On the design side - we do have our graphic designer Prue from Gigi&Lulu who does all the artwork and techy stuff for our wrappers too.




We were also lucky enough to be featured in the Melbourne Weekly too just prior to Christmas.




Fingers crossed there will be more to come!

xx

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Winners!

Winners!

Congratulations to our lovely Australia Day competition winners!

MJ
Kym - again!
GiggleberryAmy

Thank you to everyone who entered.
We loved having you visit our blog.

And in the spirit of the competition here are a few things we love about Australia
(in no particular order)

Big clean beaches, lamingtons, wide blue skies that go on forever, Kylie, pavlova, lyrebirds, Janz or Chandon Bubbles, Tim Tams, the amazing cultural diversity, Zimmerman, ALF footy, Uluru, Hughsey, magpies warbling, Melbourne Cup, Bill Granger & Kylie Kwong, everyones generosity in the face of adversity, VEGEMITE, Byron Bay, netball, wombats, Mem Fox books, clear twinkling starry nights, Leona Edmiston, Chaddy, Play School, Powderfinger, Muriels Wedding, Camberwell Sunday market, Violet Crumbles, gum trees, Sydney Harbour, rhyming slang, Dame Edna...there are so many many more, we could go on forever!







xx

Monday, January 11, 2010

Let's Celebrate! Australia Day!

What are you up to for Australia Day this year?

It used to be a quiet unassuming public holiday day for us.
We could have a lazy sleep in, read the Australia Day honours list, take the dog for a walk, watch the cricket, have a general sloth around.
But..that was before we had kids.

Our kids are so patriotic!
They LOVE Australia!
Now its Aussie flags, Australia tattoos, hats and zinc and head down the beach.
In fact as I get older the more I actually want a lovely old flagpole in our front garden with an Australian flag flying high in that hot northerly wind.
(However I am yet to convince hubby on this one)

For the last few years we have been at Rosebud foreshore
(Or North Portsea as we like to call it;) )
to particpate in their Australia Day celebrations.
We watch the Dromana Fun Run runners shuffle across the finish line.
There is a free hot breaky and heaps of free rides for the kids.
The Australia Day Ambassador overseas the awards for the runners and sometimes there is even a 'talent' show for the locals.
Its all a bit daggy, but we love it and wouldn't miss it this year!

Check out the great Australia Day site to see what is happening in your area.

Giveaway!
To help you celebrate this wonderful place we live in, 
we are giving away some packs of our Red & Decorate Me! cupcake wrappers.





All you need to do is:
1) Tell us what you love so much about living in Australia.
If you don't live in Australia - tell us what you love about our country.

2) If you haven't joined our Facebook Fan page - please do
(Dont worry if you are not on Facebook - you can still enter)
Become a Cupcake Wrapper Co Facebook Fan


The top 3 comments will win 1 pack of red cupcake wrappers and 1 pack of our blank Decorate me! cupcake wrappers.




By the way...I do support Australia becoming a republic, but I do love the royals so I just had to use this cute little vintage cup celebrating 
the Queens' coronation.


xx

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Holiday Fun!


Summer holidays are in full swing here in Melbourne.

January is one of my favorite times of the year.
It just feels like everyone is in what I call 'Byron-mode'.
It's all a bit more relaxed that the usual hustle & bustle.
January in Melbourne is filled with things like the Australian Open tennis, the cricket, Moonlight cinema, lots of BBQ's, kids playing outside til late, cicada's, bats flying overhead each night, hot hot days followed by a cracking thunderstorm, mangoes, not so much traffic on the roads, frustrating summer word puzzles in The Age
and not forgetting a nice old beer or vino.

Luckily the weather has been fantastic so far - beautiful sunny days, with the occassional scorcher - perfect for heading to our local pool.
With so many days to fill I've written a list things to try to do with my girls.
I have to say even though they got a Wii for Christmas they havent been too fussed about playing it too much.

A few of things on our holiday list are:
1. Visit the penguins at The Aquarium
2. Have a picnic & explore the gardens at Heide Museum
3. Have a Treasure Hunt at home
4. Have a sleepover in our tent in the backyard
. 5. Visit Uncle Pete and all his wonderful goodies at The Melbourne Museum

If all else fails we can always make cupcakes and use our new
Decorate Me! wrappers.
The kids have had a play with them already and they love them!
Only $10 for a pack of 12 blank wrappers
Email us to order: hello@thecupcakewrapperco.com.au







Happy Holidays!
xx

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

New Year...New Cupcake Wrappers

So here we are in 2010 already...where did the last 10 years go since the millenium and all that pallaver about a 'bug'?
And yes even though 2010 sounds so spaceage,
we are yet to cruise around the skies in our Jetson type cars.

Anyway...enough with all that....

Here is some exciting news!
We have 4 new designs of our cupcake wrappers.

Here is a sneak peak
And before you say anything...yes these are very rough samples that I have hand cut, so they do look a bit dodgy.
But I can confirm that they look fantastic,
and when they are printed they will look even better.
These will be available from February.
That is only a measily 3 weeks away - not too long to wait!

We are sooo excited about these new designs.




We have been developing these designs for a few months now.
Our lovely blog readers also contributed to our
cowboy design too, so thank you!
It is important to us to really stay on trend with our designs, thus the happy birthday wrapper in the cute fonts and the new Chinoirserie inspired pattern wrapper were developed after reading countless home design mags from here and abroad.
We love the new designs and we hope you do too.

So if you want to buy them - contact us or visit a stockist(see list).
And if you want to stock them in your shop - email us:
 hello@thecupcakewrapperco.com.au











Let us know what you think!

xxx