Send a Public Display of Affection on Their Lawn at Dawn!

The weather's fine for sleeping with the windows open!

Oh, no!

It's that time of year again. The weather's just right (at least for a few days in a row, it was) for sleeping with the windows open and getting a nice, cool breeze.

See the windows cranked out on the second floor?

While that feels really great and lots of folks love to sleep that way, it can wreak havoc in the lives of professional flockers.

Our victim's home was less than 10 minutes from ours, in one of the most beautiful, well-known neighborhoods in the area (the victim's, not ours -- ha!). This home was just a couple of blocks from one of the lakes in this neighborhood. Nice area, nice lawns, and I don't ever worry about theft or vandalism when I set up here.

It was about 5:45 a.m. when we got there and I was looking forward to a quick setup and getting back home to sleep in a little more on a Saturday morning.

There were several windows cranked open along the front of the house.

Oh, no! Last time we delivered to a house with windows open, the victim was either already awake or we woke her up. I'm not exactly sure, but I think she may have been up already because her teenaged son came out and got in his car to leave for band practice while we were setting up.

We set the tombstones and yard card up as quickly and as quietly as possible, tip-toeing all the while.

Didn't want to risk waking everyone up by taking a photo, so I came back later in the day while I was running errands. Actually, I came back by twice because it was a straigth shot from my house to the grocery store and I was so darn curious. The first time I drove by, neighbors were outside and cars were slowing down to take a look.

I always get such a kick out of that!

So I came back by a little later and people were still taking a look.

Fun, fun, fun!

That's the best part of this business. Making people happy.

Duckies, Bass Pro Shops, Brad Pitt and Flockings, oh my!

A mom recently hired us to set up in front of her son's place of business for his 40th birthday.

It was to be near one of the busiest intersections in town, just across the road from the world-famous original Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World. Yup, that's my town's claim to fame -- Bass Pro Shops. Oh, and we can't forget Brad Pitt. He grew up here, ya know. His family is still here. We hear of Brad-sightings once in a while, but not so much lately.(But don't get me started on Brad or Brangelina. Jennifer Aniston and I are now joined by the bond of men who did us wrong... Hey, Jenn. Ring my digits, girrrrrrl. We'll meet at Starbucks 'cuz I'll be there for you when the rain starts to pour...)

Back to the details of this flocking.

Actually, the business itself sits just off the busy intersection, with the east side of its parking lot facing the intersection and its entrance (to the north) opens to a less-busy street that runs behind. Kind of confusing to explain, but both the east and north sides of this business' parking lot are highly visible, even though they're not directly on the corner of one of the busiest intersections in town.

The building is bright yellow, so when the mom requested our giant yellow rubber duckies, I was concerned that they wouldn't show up too well against the backdrop of a yellow building.

As with setting up in front of any business, we run a greater risk of theft or vandalism, so we didn't do our usual sneaking-around-in-the-wee-hours bit. We set up about 7 a.m., so it was already light outside and the birthday boy was already there. Picked the display up about 6 p.m., but we had already been the victim of a theft. We lost yet another of our precious giant yellow rubber duckies. (Have you heard the story of our first heartbreaking duckie theft? If not, here's a link to read it in an e-newsletter. Once you get there, scroll down until you see the headline, "Ab-DUCK-ted.")

We took advantage of the fact that we were setting up near this busy intersection and put out two yard cards (at no extra charge -- see how flocking nice we can be?) instead of our usual one yard card. Plus it was easier to break it up and do, essentially, two displays on this job because we didn't have a nice, wide grassy area to do our usual duckie placement.

Another concern was the only grassy areas available were actually the city's right-of-way, and we didn't want to risk putting our display far enough into the grass that we might block drivers' vision. So that's why the duckies are planted as close to the inner curbing as possible. I didn't want to get any calls from the city teling me to pick it all up NOW, or go back to pick it up in the evening to discover it had all been yanked out and put through a wood chipper or something.

Here are a few photos of the dual duckie display for Darrell's 40th bday.

See that traffic light at the intersection (in the photo above)? Look past it and to the right. You'll see the (fuzzy) Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World sign, and some treetops at the massive Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World complex. I avoid BPS as much as possible except for an occasional trip to its fabulous restaurant, Hemingway's. And I know the nearly-Bubba-free way to get in there.

We're in the Springfield daily newspaper!

AGreetingYard.com was featured in the May 2, 2006, business section of the Springfield News-Leader. Wanna read it? Just click the previous sentence, where it says "Springfield News-Leader."

Pretty good translation of the interview. Only a few minor errors, and it's stuff that I always discuss with my customers when they're ordering anyway. So there won't be any surprises. For example, the story states that we rent the displays for a 24-hour period. Well, we DO rent them for a full 24 hours for an extra fee, but our normal, basic, everyday, most popular service is for the display to be in your victim's yard from dawn until dark.

In other words (and to accomodate all of our deliveries, and to accomodate folks who might be early risers, etc.), we usually make our deliveries between midnight and about 6 a.m., and we pick up after dark.

So, no biggie.

We're just excited to finally have some coverage, and it's really boosted our web site visitors in the last few days.

My son has had a bit of teasing at school, however. It seems that a few of the kids have said the lawn greetings business is a stupid idea. Apparently these kids need to learn a little bit about being an entrepreneur.

Stupid idea?

Well, if it's THAT stupid, why does AGreetingYard.com rank high in the search engines?

And if it's THAT stupid, why are there similar, profitable businesses not only across the United States, but also in several countries?

Oh, well. Sticks and stones.

Be sure to read the story from the News-Leader!

P.S. The boy genius is now a published photographer. He took the photo that ran with the story. Love ya, boy genius!

The Flamingess in the news

One of our friends in the industry (and a fellow board member of the International Lawn Greetings Association) Kerry (alias the Flamingess) is featured in her local newspaper.

It's a fabulous, fun article and the reporter did a great job capturing the essence of Kerry's business, Flamingo Surprise in Oakland, CA.

Click here if you'd like to read the story. It's a kick!

Know what else is a kick? Reading Kerry's blog. She keeps up with her blogging duties way better than I do. Shame on me. From surprise sprinklers going off mid-flamingo to drunken drivers plowing into the Flamingomobile, Kerry shares it all.

(Drunk dudes? Hitting Flamingomobiles? And you thought flocking was easy work???)

So if you need a giggle, visit Flamingoing in the Bay Area. And if you live in Kerry's neck of the woods, be sure to call her next time one of your loved ones is having a special occasion.

Neighbor mows two offensive letters in yard

Here's a very, um, different sort of lawn greeting.

It seems that folks in Vancouer, Washington, were ticked off at a neighbor, who rented the house but neglected the yard.

The neighbors said trash was piling up in the yard and the grass kept getting longer and longer, yet the renter didn't take care of it.

Finally, one neighbor got his mower and took action. But he didn't mow the entire yard. No, sirree. Instead, he mowed two letters into the yard to let the renter know how the neighbors felt.

Ha! Anyone wanna guess which two letters he probably mowed?

Possibly the same initials that would stand for Frilly Underwear or Florida University???

Wanna see the video on CNN's web site? Just click: http://www.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=viewThis&etMailToID=1029711878

Ready to send a message on someone's yard?

Let's hope it's not two letters that express anger. We specialize in lawn greetings that make people feel GOOD!

If there's a message you'd like to place in the yard of someone you care about, please don't do it with a lawnmower. Just visit us at http://www.AGreetingYard.com or call us at (417) 823-3915 and we'll be delighted to turn someone's yard into a giant greeting card.

And if you're not in the Springfield, Missouri, area -- don't worry! We can probably find someone near you to do the same thing. Just visit the International Lawn Greetings directory at http://www.flamingoed.com/flamingo, click on the state where you'd like to send the lawn greeting, and you'll find some fabulous flockers just waiting for your call.

Tacky Yard Art

Once in a while I run across someone who doesn't understand the appeal of yard art. Not that I would set out yard art and leave it permanently, but whatever floats your boat, right?

I prefer the portable, temporary kind of yard art because it doesn't make your neighbors hate you and also because it puts money in my pocket!

Found an amusing web site from 2001 with a tacky yard art contest going on. There was a place to click and view the entries.

So in case you get a flocking of flamingos or one of our other styles of critters and you're thinking YOU'VE got it bad, dig this:

http://suite101.com/files/topics/75/files/2001tacky.html

Here's our Christmas card -- er -- Christmas YARD!

Yup, I'm a procrastinator.

Didn't get my Christmas cards in the mail. Haven't made cookies or fudge. Still not finished Christmas shopping. Pretty pathetic, right?

I had the best of intentions, though.

When the teddy bears, cows and frogs started telling me they wanted to be a part of our Christmas card, I listened to them. They're vital to our business, of course, since it's all about them sitting in yards for hours on end to make special occasions even more fabulous. They wanted to wish you "Merry Christmas" in their own, three-dimensional, tacky lawn art way.

So we hired the hottest, most artsy-fartsy photographer in all of southwest Missouri. Um, OK, we didn't really do that. We conned my dad into taking the picture for us. You can probably see his reflection in the windows. (At least it's not as scary as the reflections of ugly naked guys taking pictures of stuff they auctioned on eBay, but that's a little too risque for our family friendly blog...)

Forget the post office. Why not use technology to wish everyone Merry Christmas?

Or, in this case, our critters insisted we wish you a Beary Moo-y Christmas and a Hoppy Moo Year!

Here we are...

Boy Genius, my brilliant son who is now taller than his mom. He's in 8th grade in the Middle Years Scholars Program at his high school. It's a fabulous program, with about 125 kids participating. He's an amazing kid and my best friend. (Ah, Mom! That's not cool!!!)

And there's my youngest baby, Fletcher the neurotic Pomeranian. He's six years old now, and we're lucky he's still around. Last February, the pit bull of a neighbor's son jumped the fence and had Fletcher's entire head in his mouth, ready to chomp, when I screamed. Turns out the idiot had a court order telling him never to bring the dog inside the city limits again, and the dog had a history of violence against many neighbors. The dog was executed.

It's been a great 2005. We've met lots of new friends, visited lots of yards to set up our "Public Displays of Affection," made some online friends, and helped start the International Lawn Greetings Association.

And my fabulous parents just celebrated their 50th anniversary!

Please forgive us for not getting our Christmas cards (that's right, Christmas -- not "holiday" or "seasonal") out on time. It doesn't mean we've forgotten our family members, friends and clients.

Here's to a fabulous 2006!

Jill
Chief Executive Flockologist at AGreetingYard.com

Walk Like an Egypitian

These photos of the display to celebrate the naturalization of a local radio show host made me laugh. I suppose Vince Jericho is posing like one of the flamingos that he discovered outside of KSGF 104.1 FM's studio, but I kept hearing the Bangles' "Walk Line an Egyptian" in my head.

In the photos with Vince is Kortni, his producer/call screener/right-hand woman.

We set up the display Dec. 8, 2005, which was actually the day before Vince got his citizenship. KSGF had a reception for him that evening right next door to the station, at the Knights of Columbus hall. We had a time conflict here in Flamingoland, so we had to make a snap decision -- do we set up the display so he could see it in the morning and drivers could see it all day, or do we set up the display in front of the hall so it would be seen that evening? Well, our little time conflict solved the dilemma for us, and we went with putting it up the night before so passersby could view it all day.

This was the first time we had an opportunity to use American flags in a display, which made it even more exciting. Some lawn greetings businesses across the country use American flag displays to welcome military folks home, and now that we have a bunch of flags, we think it would be a great thing to do as a show of support for our men and women in uniform.

Congrats again to Vincent David Jericho and family on their naturalization.

"Lawn Greeting" term is now recognized by Wikipedia!

The term "lawn greeting" is now recognized by Wikipedia.

The definition:

Lawn greeting
A lawn greeting is a prank display set up in the lawn of an unwary recipient, most often done under the cover of night.

The most popular form of lawn greeting is a flock of plastic flamingos, the classic symbol of tackiness in suburban America. Many lawn greetings companies are themed on delivering pink flamingos along with a personalized sign, usually with a humorous saying for the recipient.

The popularity of lawn greetings has expanded to include groupings of a wide array of critters and symbols, including but not limited to pigs, cows, chickens, frogs, large rubber ducks, tombstones, hearts, swans, fish and many more themes. The decorations may be flat signs, three-dimensional, or larger than life inflatables.

Baby announcement storks are also included in the lawn greetings industry. These giant storks are often 6-8 feet tall and typically include a personalized "baby bundle" with the baby's name and vital stats. This is often left as a keepsake for the parents.

Lawn greetings are typically ordered by friends and family to surprise the recipient for an occasion such as a retirement, birthday, graduation, or even wedding proposals. They are often set up by loved ones although many companies specializing in these displays can be found worldwide.

"Flockings" are often done by groups trying to raise funds. They leave a flock of pink flamingos on the lawn of an unwary recipient. That homeowner then pays the flockers to move the flamingos to someone else's yard.

And at the end of the definition is a link to the International Lawn Greetings Association, a little group I'm quite proud of because I serve as vice president and PR chair.

Celebrating USA citizenship for a local talk radio show host

It's not every day you hear of someone becoming a naturalized citizen, and KSGF 104.1 FM's morning talk show host Vincent David Jericho is becoming a citizen of the USA today. Congrats, Vince and family!

AGreetingYard.com set up a fun Public Display of Affection in front of the radio station on West Grand in Springfield, with flamingos (just because they're eye-catching and fun) and American flags.

Vince mentioned us on the radio this morning. From his perch inside the studio it was a little difficult for him to see the display, but he did notice cars slowing down as they drove by. Finally, at about 7:45 a.m., he mentioned on the air that he'd been flamingoed.

Flamingos Speak da Lingo

Here's a little something fun to share, just because it makes me laugh.

Ever wonder how two flamingos might fit the Beatles into a conversation? Well, here's your chance to find out.

I guess I have a twisted sense of humor becuase this makes me chuckle.

Christmas open house for WAHMs

Our "Public Displays of Affection" (a.k.a. lawn greetings displays) aren't just for birthdays, new babies, or anniversaries. Today we set up a fun display to help attract attention at Christmas open house. Here's a photo of that display.

Several WAHMs (work-at-home moms) held this open house for their customers.

I learned about the even through one of the WAHMs participating in the event. Kristi V. in Springfield runs two businesses from home -- Friendship Bears and Southern Style Gourmet. Be sure to click on those links to visit her sites.

Christmas lights at this house are choreographed to music

How crazy is this!

From Snopes.com (which is a great source to check on urban legends before you forward them to your entire address book and embarrass yourself):

Carson Williams of Mason, Ohio, who spent about three hours sequencing the 88 Light-O-Rama channels that control the 16,000 Christmas lights in his 2004 holiday lighting spectacular. The musical accompaniment is broadcast over a low-power radio station so that it is only audible to visitors tuned in to the correct frquency and doesn't disturb the neighbors.

Yard cards are catching on across the country for Christmas

How fun is this? Some communities are latching on to the concept of yard cards and yard art, and using them to help celebrate the season.

In Bloomington, Ill., the Northwest Neighborhood Association is continuing a tradition that began in 2000. Neighbors are creating their own yard art. Prizes will be awarded Dec. 20.

Twila Braden, the association's program chairwoman, was quoted in the Pentagraph newspaper:

"I just thought it was such a neat idea," Braden said. "What a more wonderful way to give neighbors a greeting."

The Robertscon County Times in Tennessee tells of a group of firemen who have been creating yard art as a fundraiser for Toys for Tots for about 15 years.

Kudos to these firefighters for their efforts. One firefighter cuts the yard art out of plywood with a jigsaw and the other firefighters paint them as time allows, according to the Robertson County Times.

And in Northwest Indiana, residents set up at Southgate Plaza in Homewood, Ind., to paint yard cards, a tradition for seven years in this community. Painters pay $95 to participate.

However, as an artist and a business owner, I'm concerned about a couple of quotes from these news stories.

From the firemen, regarding how they got started creating yard art:

Back then Yates saw a man selling similar items on the side of the road. He said he bought a reindeer, just to get the pattern.

And from the artists who paint their yard cards in the Indiana mall:

Artists chose Christmas cards with a picture they liked and had transparencies made of them. The transparencies were then put on an overhead projector and the images traced on to the large boards. The boards were then painted and will be illuminated with spotlights.

For all I know, the guy at the side of the road may have given the firefighters permission to use his designs, but here's the part that alarms me. Over and over again, I've witness people do exactly this -- buy someone's yard art (or any other creative product, for that matter) and use it as their own pattern to reproduce it.

And the artists in Indiana may have some sort of special arrangement worked out with the greeting card companies that allows them to shine the card designs with a projector and recreate them.

But without permission from the owner of the copyright, it becomes copyright violation, folks, and that's not cool.

It's a frequent topic of conversation for the International Lawn Greetings Association, where we try to mentor newbies to the industry and help everyone (newbies and old-timers) understand so they don't cross that line and steal someone else's intellectual property.

A lot of people simply don't understand the concept. So many people have told me, "Well, I saw it on the Internet so it's free, right?"

Ignorance isn't bliss. Reproducing someone else's artwork (or another form of intellectual property) is the same as walking into a store and shoplifting.

ACLU Gets Involved with Flamingos & Nativity Scenes at City Hall in Cranston, Rhode Island

In December of 2003, the mayor of Cranston, R.I., decided to allow individual religious groups to place displays on the lawn of city hall. Resident Scott Bonelli decied to place pink flamingos all over the lawn as well.

Bonelli ended up getting quite a bit of press over this, which is all documented with plenty of photos on his web site.

Some say Bonelli and his "Church of the Pink Flamingo" made a mockery of the religious groups who were erecting nativity scenes and menorrah. Others say it was covered by his right to free speech.

A few flamingos did get stolen, as well as Baby Jesus.

Then, lo and behold, some duckies arrived to hang out with the flamingos!



As of Nov. 27, 2005, Bonelli isn't sure if the flamingos will make an appearance at Cranston's city hall. But it sure is fun seeing them in action, along with all of the controversy they stirred up.

Photos copyright Scott Bonelli and used in this blog with his written permission. It is illegal to copy these images without written permission of the owner.

Flamingos Top Turkeys in N.H. Town

Good to know that flamingos are making headlines in the world in spite of it being the season of the turkey.

Newsday reports that in Kingston, New Hampshire, eight plastic flamingos were stolen from the yard of Debbie Barber two weeks ago.

Barber, who dresses up her flock for the holidays and even takes a pair on vacation with her, thought she'd never get them back.

Two flamingos were found on the side of the road, eight were dropped off at the police station, a woman drove 55 miles to bring Barber more flamingos, and two more were left on her porch.

She says it's going to be a full-time job to make costumes for the new additions, which she plans to dress as reindeer and elves for Christmas.

An Inflated View of the Holidays

The Washington Post is reporting something that we already knew to be true -- Inflatables are big this year.

Here at AGreetingYard.com, not only do we rent our fabulous, fun displays for yards, we also sell these great inflatables online.

Snowglobes are very popular this year. You've probably seen them set up in yards and in front of discount stores. Before you lug one home from that big box store, compare the prices from our supplier. You might get a better deal, including shipping costs. And be sure to check back after the holidays because you might find some great clearance prices.

Right now, there are some great deals on Halloween items, perfect for stocking up and sticking in storage for a howlin' good time next October.

Group buying power and the invasion of the T-Rex army

Here's one of our most popular "Public Displays of Affection" -- our two-foot-tall dinosaurs.  They've been requested for 50th birthday celebrations, over-the-hill birthday parties, to tell a hot 35-year-old mom that she's still "dino-mite," and they've brought smiles to little boys who awakened on their birthdays to find a yard full of tiny T-Rexes.


The cool thing about these dinosaurs, from a business owner's perspective, is the fact that they are no longer manufactured, yet I was able to order a ton of them from the factory. 

How? 

Why, it's the power of a large group of people banding together for a cause.  Back in the infant stages of the International Lawn Greetings Association, a bunch of us wanted to order dinosaurs but discovered the factory no longer produced them.

One of our awesome members spoke to the factory and worked out a deal. We had to order a certain amount of dinosaurs to make it worth their while. Within a few weeks, we had commitments from enough lawn greetings business owners and the molds were taken out of storage.  Not long after that, I received my adorable dinos. 


As our association grows, we hope to be able to offer our members even more benefits such as the group buying power that made it possible for many of us to add dinosaurs to our inventory and continue to help make our customers' celebrations even more special.

Flamingos included as part of Baltimore's "Miracle on 34th Street"

Neighbors in the Hampden area of Baltimore made the news with their tradition of Christmas yard art, which they've dubbed their annual "Miracle on 34th Street."

Both Newsday and The Baltimore Sun report that this neighborhood of rowhouses has gone all out for decorations for the past 20 years. There are even a few photos with the article.

Yard decorations on 34th Street this year include "armies of glowing plastic elves, rooftop Santas, pink flamingos, train sets and porches buried in teddy bears."

"The old people enjoy it as much as the children," said Sharon Burke, who climbed up on roofs yesterday with her husband, Donald, to hang lights. "When you come down here, it takes you out of the world's troubles, and you go into a fantasy land."

This neighborhood's festive mood doesn't end with Christmas. Oh, no!

On New Year's Eve, Hosier and his neighbors lower a lighted plastic foam ball from the top of a telephone pole. In a spectacle they compare to the festivities in Times Square, Hosier runs out onto 34th Street wearing a giant diaper (dressed as baby New Year) and pops a bottle of champagne.

"New York don't have nothin' on Hampden," Rodgers said.

Hamsome! 

Dr. Phil and MomsTown

How can you pass up the chance to be mentioned on Dr. Phil's web site?

We've been busy over at the International Lawn Greetings Association message forum, where I'm one of three administrators.

We found out there was sort of a contest going on at the MomsTown web site, where Mary and Heather (that's their photo) are always discovering great resources for work-at-home moms. They launched their blog on Oct. 14, 2005, and asked moms to send in votes for their favorite mom sites.

The mom sites with the most votes were being compiled to create a list on Dr. Phil's web site. We didn't find out about the contest until right before it was over, but we gave it a shot anyway. It was pretty disappointing not to make it onto the list on Dr. Phil's site.

While our site isn't totally devoted to moms, the majority of our members are moms who are running their businesses from home. So we figured we might as well take advantage of this opportunity to let more moms (and dads) know about our quickly growing industry.

Hope this doesn't sound like sour grapes, but I know there are work-at-home mom sites out there with far more members, far more visitors, and far more legitemate, useful information than a few of the sites that did make it onto the list.

But my frown turned to a smile when I saw the results of the poll at MomsTown. We're included in this mighty long list of web sites. It's in alphabetical order and -- there we are -- lawn-greetings.com!

Udder Chaos 2005: Annual Cow Auction in Ohio

Since 2000, Young's Dairy Farm in Yellow Springs, Ohio, has hosted "Udder Chaos," a fundraising "art exhibit using cows as the medium and the imagination of local artists for the inspiration."

About 30 plastic cows are decorated by artists and then placed on the farm for about 1 million visitors to see over a couple of months.

The cows are then auctioned to the highest bidder, with the money raised from each cow going to individual charities.

Lots of fun photos of past years' herds may be seen by clicking here and then clicking on the year you'd like to view.

HomeBasedWorking Moms

I love stopping by message forums all over the Internet to see what's going on. It's a great way to "meet" the neatest people and learn about fun businesses.

And it's a kick to hear from those folks. Here's an email I received after posting a message at HomeBasedWorkingMoms. It's from another Jill -- Jill Caren at Expressions Photo Design & Boutique. She makes the coolest pop art and collages using her clients' photos. Very unique.

Subject: Love This Idea!!!!
Date: Expressions PhtoDesn
Hi Jill,

I just saw your post on Mompreneursonline.com and just had to tell you that I love this concept!!!!! Is this your idea or a franchise?

I would love to include a link in my newsletter to you with a blurb about a great p/t biz if they are interested….we are in NJ and I do not

think I have seen anything like this here….can someone in NJ become an affiliate with you—or how would it work for them to start a biz here like this?!?!

Oh, and if you do not know about it, another great networking group is http://www.hbwm.com is an awesome group of women who really try to help each other out!!!!

Welcome and good luck with the business-it is really a GREAT idea!!!!

Jill Caren
Expressions Photo Design & Boutique
http://www.expressionspd.com
ph: 800.304.5002
Creating art & gifts from personal photographs...

Be sure to stop by Jill's site. She's very talented and her creations would be wonderful gifts. She's been getting a lot of recognition lately, too.
Jill was featured in the April 2005 issue of Woman’s Day Magazine in the article, “Turning Passions Into Profits.” Her layouts have been included in the popular national scrapbooking magazines Memory Makers and Paperkuts.

Stuff A Friend Workshop

We just added something new to what we offer at AGreetingYard.com Lawn Greetings Rental Service, and it's sure to be a big hit.

It's our Stuff A Friend Workshop online store, and we have the most adorable "friends" to choose from. They're available for purchase as individual kits, or you can order enough to have ready to go when the kids arrive for the party.

There are lots of adorable animals to choose from and they arrive unstuffed (but with the stuffing) -- lion, bear, cat, penguin, zebra, bunny, leopard, dog. You can even order little outfits and little accessories, depending on how fancy you want to get.

If you'd like details on how to plan a party with Stuff A Friend as the kids' activity, send me an email at info@AGreetingYard.com and we can get the ball rollin'.

Flamingo Flocking Raises $3,000 for the Arts in Fayetteville, Arkansas

Flamingo flocking as a fundraiser is catching on across the country.

Here's a story from the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, which states that 150 yards were victims of the migration.

A party was held at the home of the former director of Arts Live Theatre, the group benefiting from the funraiser, to celebrate the success of the migration. Dubbed "Meet the Flockers," the party's flamingo theme was carried out with pink flamingo centerpieces and pink table linens. Guests were served wine, hors d’oeuvres and a barbecue dinner.

Arts Live Theatre was founded 23 years ago and provides educational programs and performance opportunities for young actors in Northwest Arkansas.

The Great Flamingo Robbery of the University of California-San Diego

One of the few unfortunate side effects of being in the lawn greetings business is the fact that you're going to lose critters once in a while to theft and vandalism while the displays are set up in yards.

It seems that critter-napping occurs in the hallowed halls of academia -- well, just outside of those hallowed halls -- as well as residential areas.

Flamingos were repeatedly stolen from outside of the San Diego Super Computer Center, so an alarm system was installed.

Even with an alarm system, the flamingos were still a target for theft. The next time a thief made off with the pink birds, the alarm went off and a student went after him, resulting in an award being presented to the student.

We Were Profiled at One of Our Favorite Mom-Business Sites!

What a fun surprise for us at AGreetingYard!

We were featured at a web site that's known for being one of the most active, most informative, and most helpful sites for female entrepreneurs. These short features are third anniversary profiles to help celebrate the longevity of MyMommyBiz, one of my favorite web sites.

How time flies. Can't believe I've been visiting the message board for so long.

Jen has established an amazing site for women who are in business or interested in going into business for themselves. Her main web site has tons of articles and links to resources for moms in business, and her message forums are active all the time.

If you're thinking of starting a business from home, whether it's for a little extra money or a full-time endeavor, visit Jen's site and sign up for her e-newsletter. You'll be impressed with her site, her newsletter and especially the message boards. So many message boards out there are full of spammers and scammers, so it's always nice to find an online community where folks help each other out and get to know each other.

Yard Sign Search

We're participating in a new online directory called YardSignSearch.

Our listing appears on the Missouri page.

Directories like this are so important to the lawn greetings industry. Even thought this industry has been around for a while (at least 20 years, maybe more), there are still a lot of folks who have no idea what type of service we provide. And there are plenty of cities out there that don't have any lawn greetings businesses to choose from.

Most of my customers find me through online directories or by using search engines.

Stone Statues Sinful, Say Stodgy Statutes

White River Truck Repair and Yard Art has been ordered by Bartholomew County (Indiana) officials to move cement copies of classical statues out of public view because they are obscene under Indiana law.

"It's not fair to point out our business, and personally, I don't find them offensive," Ginger Streeval, a co-owner of White River Truck Repair and Yard Art, said in an Associated Press story posted on the Fox News web site.

Frank Butler, the county's zoning inspector, said, of the statues, "They have nudity ... and that should not be in the view of a minor."

Oh, dear. Nudity! But that's not the worst part of it. It seems that authorities cracked down on this business after a mere two complaints. Two? They're going to such extremes over two complaints? This is as bad as the time the school board took "Harry Potter" off the shelves in the school library because one grandmother said she didn't want her grandchild reading it. So, because of one narrow-minded person, everyone had to suffer and give in to her views.

Back to the statues...

The sheriff's department and zoning officials cracked down on the business about 25 miles south of Indianapolis after receiving two complaints about the statues.

But Ken Falk, legal director for the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, said nudity has been part of art for hundreds of years and that using nudity to define obscenity could raise serious constitutional questions.

"Just because something is nude doesn't mean it's obscene," he said. "If that were the case, most Renaissance art would have to be put into back rooms or hidden."

Plastic Penguin Christmas display is a Tradition in Milwaukee

Each year on the day after Thanksgiving, the plastic penguins that live in the garage of the Brennan family in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, begin migrating to the front lawn.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote a cute story about the Brennans' penguins.

It's a Christmas card to the whole neighborhood and countless passers-by that is both anticipated and appreciated every year. ... Most passers-by slow down and take a look at the latest development, and quite a few stop by with cards and thanks and cookies and compliments every year.

How fun to see distant cousins of our flamingos having fun, but it's sad that they only get to see the light of day from the day after Thanksgiving through the holidays.

Our penguins get out and about all the time, waddling from yard to yard, helping folks in the Ozarks celebrate birthdays, graduations, telling people to "chill out" or how cool they are.

If you'd like our penguins to visit someone you love for their birthday or other special occasion, just contact AGreetingYard.com by emailing us at info@agreetingyard.com or calling 417-823-3915.

Would Jesus Use This Much Electricity?

In Woodstock, Illinois, about 60 miles north of Chicago, Christmas lawn ornament displays set up by homeowners in their own yards are subject to a certain amount of theft and vandalism each year, as are displays put out by businesses like AGreetingYard.com across the country. It's a fact of life that we often discuss at the International Lawn Greetings Association.

But in December of 2004, the police department in Woodstock, Ill., said that it seemed vandalism was higher than usual.

The Popovits family found a homemade sign planted in their illuminated plastic nativity scene. The sign a play on the recently popular "What Would Jesus Do?" trend, asked, "Would Jesus use this much electricity?"

From the Dec. 22, 2004, issue of The Washington Post:

"There will always be some young people who are drinking who would smash a menorah or a Nativity scene, whatever is there," said William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, which places a Nativity scene in Central Park and has received several dozen reports of stolen Christ figures from around the country. "But this is happening so much this year, I can only see it as part of the trend of Christian-bashing and trying to stamp out Christmas. It started with the criticism of the Mel Gibson movie ["The Passion of the Christ"] earlier this year. The culture wars are at their height right now, and this is part of it."

But Omar M. McRoberts, a University of Chicago assistant professor of sociology whose book about religion in poor neighborhoods was published last year, thinks the thefts have more to do with economics.

"It's a function of the commodification of this holiday, of the fact that people are competing to have more and more elaborate displays outside their houses and these are things you could get a good price for on eBay," he said. "It's ironic that a holiday which is essentially about poor people having a baby in an animal's food trough is represented with these expensive ornaments."

Second flamingo vanishes from Massachusetts lawn

Debbie Barber of Kingston, Mass., has been the victim of a second flamingo-napping. Each month Barber dresses the flamingos in her yard in a different theme, and August was luau month with the flamingos wearing Hawaiian attire. But one of those little partiers has disappaeared.

The Barbers received postcards and photos of a flamingo on vacation, and believed the flamingo to be one of theirs stolen in December 2003.

A recent e-mail was sent to the newspaper claiming to be written by "Felix P. Flamingo."

... the e-mail insists that the mailings to the Barbers came from Felix P. Flamingo – a "relative" of the Kingston flock. According to the e-mail, Felix wasn't abducted from the Barbers, but instead was "adopted" by a family who purchased him at a store in Plaistow.

The e-mail was sent on Aug. 10 after a story was published in The Rockingham News July 30 about the Barbers' stolen flamingo.

"Apparently, as reported in your story, some relatives of mine, in Kingston N.H., have experienced a flamingo-napping, and that I may be the flamingo who was abducted from the lawn where they reside. I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news for them, but, I, in fact, migrated here from southern Florida last summer, and due to an unfortunate set of circumstances wound up in a discount store in Plaistow, N.H.," the e-mail said. "That is where a nice family found me and adopted me. Please let me assure you that all of the proper adoption fees were paid and it was a completely legal adoption. I was very sorry to hear about the abduction of my Kingston cousin, but I, fortunately for me, am not the victim of this crime."

The e-mail also included attached photos of the flamingo attending a parade, playing foosball and watching fireworks.

"Flamingo a Friend for a Child" hopes to raise $5,000 for treatment of abused children in Arkansas

Volunteers for the Children’s Safety Center in Springdale have organized "Flamingo a Friend for a Child" to raise money for treatment of abused children, according to the Northwest Arkansas Times.

The houses are chosen through a referral process. Whomever gets "flamingo’d" is asked to make a donation of $25 or $50, then refer a friend or family member for the birds to be relocated.

The center’s Action Team members have been placing the flamingos in yards from Rogers to Fayetteville all week and are scheduled to keep it up through June 11, or for as long as the community is willing to help, said Kris Hesson, development director of the center. "As concerned volunteers, we wanted a fun, childlike way to raise money for the center... that embodies the childfocused spirit of the center and allows us to reach out to the community through friends referring friends," Action Team Chairman Whitney Myers said.

This is the second year of using flamingos to raise funds for the non-profit organization. The center has helped more than 125 children this year and more than 1,600 since it opened its doors in 1997.

Yard art: Lawn won't be a yawn if you plant a hippo or two

Found a fun newspaper story about yard art, and it refers to yard art as, "To some, a blight on the landscape, to others, beauty."

The article appeared in Blethen Maine Newspapers, and features information from artist Bryce Muir.

"Everybody decorates their yard," Muir says. "I suspect that Cro-Magnon man took colored rocks and put them in front of the cave. There seems to be an impulse to decorate. The same impulse that drives people to use symbols in art," says Muir, "drives people to put these (lawn ornaments) out on the lawn."

Muir and his wife, Margaret Muir, wrote "Lawn Wars," a brief look at items that can be considerd yard art.

We're featured at MomsNetwork.Com!

We're featured in the business profiles at MomsNetwork.com! Here's a link to their main site and here are more home business profiles as well.

It's short and sweet, and we're excited to be there with so many other great moms in business.

Flamingo a Go-Go: The divine secrets of early-morning lawn flocking

Yard Deco in Santa Rosa, Calif., also known as "The Flamingo Sisters," was featured in the North Bay Bohemian.

It's a fun little story about a business that offers services very much like what we offer here at AGreetingYard.com.

The Flamingo Sisters may have the world's best part-time job. Bus drivers by day, clandestine "flocking engineers" by night, these anonymous ladies are the brains and stealth behind Yard Deco, a "lawn greeting" operation. Modeled after similar services (such as the Oakland-based Flamingo Surprise), Yard Deco provides the kind of service that the word "unique" was pretty much invented for.

The History of the Pink Flamingo

A brief history of the plastic pink flamingo, published at the Useless Information site, states:

Some compare a lawn without any ornaments to be like a coffee table that is totally empty.

At AGreetingYard.com, we agree to a certain extent. An empty yard when there's a special occasion going on is definitely a sad, sad yard.

We help make celebrations even more special by filling those yards with our yard card and critters.

One of our most popular criters is, of course, the legendary plastic pink flamingo.

We adopt them from the manufacturing company that is now owned by the man who first designed the plastic pink flamingo years ago, starting the trend that just won't die, Don Featherstone.

Here's an interview with Don Featherstone.

Mississippi State University: Pink Flamingoes Add Unique Yard Touches

From the Mississippi State University Horticulturist Central Mississippi Research & Extension Center:

You awake one morning thinking all is well, you walk out to get the newspaper, and there they are in your yard, a dozen pink plastic flamingoes.

The author, MSU Horticulturist Norman Winter, spoke of how great it was to see "a pink-looking, low cloud moving on the distant horizon" during a trip to the southern Caribbean island of Bonaire. The pink cloud was "a spectacular sight of thousands of pink flamingoes making their late afternoon trek to South America."

He then spoke of the popularity of plastic pink flamingos being used in pranks such as fundraisers.

They were put there because some fund-raising organization deemed them to be ugly and an embarrassment. If you want to get rid of them you have to pay to a worthy cause and perhaps have your best friend blighted with the birds the next night. This is a great fund-raiser. Some of the residents show their moxy. They pay to the cause, but make wonderful use of the birds as temporary yard art. Others feel the shame and can't wait to be rid of them.

We offer a great fundraisers too! Just contact us at AGreetingYard.com Lawn Greetings Rental Service to learn about ways to send a "pink-looking, low cloud" of flamingos, or a yellow-looking low cloud of giant rubber duckies, or a green-looking low cloud of frogs, or a black-and-white-looking cloud of penguins, or a...