Suzanne's Blog

360 Celebration in Disney and A Garden Makeover

 

We've been very busy here at Fiskars in the last few weeks. We had a huge 360 birthday celebration in Orlando with some of our biggest fans (see the custom orange ears). We also caught up with some of your favorite designers and taped the second half of Season 4 for FiskarsTV. Last week our team travelled to Baltimore to complete our 3rd community garden makeover of the year, and we transformed a desolate piece of land into a lush, thriving garden in just a day! What else has happened this year? To stay in closer touch with you this year, we launched Fiskars Facebook and Twitter. You  got to see the world's number 1 scissors cut down the net at the NCAA tournament back during March Madness, you've seen Dwight and Michael use them on The Office, and now you are probably seeing our orange-handled cuties helping with fashion efforts on the new season of Project Runway. Wow, like I said, we've been busy! Now we're working on our consumer shows, events, and plans for 2010, and we'd love to hear YOUR thoughts. What should Fiskars do in 2010 that would surprise and delight you?

Fiskars Team is in Atlanta!

I'm so proud to work for a company that believes in giving back. By teaming up with Home Depot and community members, tomorrow we will transform a dreary space into a beautiful garden that will be shared by surrounding apartments, a school, and a senior center. Local horticulturists will also use the space for ongoing training. The best part is that even our president will be working beside us in the dirt!

Gingher Glory

 

We have done some major remodeling in our building, and I found a few pairs of these beautiful Gingher scissors. I also have the matching embroidery scissors. Tell me about your next sewing project, and I'll choose a couple random winners to receive new scissors for the job!

Making a Castle (again)

 

I still get lots of hits on the blog post about the castle my son made for his social studies project, and now it is two years later, so we have my daughter's version. She was quite excited to start this project in our craft room, and she was thrilled to have access to all my Fiskars tools. You probably recognize the Greek Key border punch that she used to create the decorative edge along the tops. She also used the Banners 2 Shape Template and Ultra ShapeXpress to cut out the flags she embossed with the stamp press and silver embossing powder. The whole castle is constructed out of foam core she cut to size with the craft knife and sponge painted with the gray blocks. Of course, no castle would be complete without a few squeeze punched flowers. We love projects!

Fiskars Garden in Toronto...

 

Here are a few pictures from our Toronto garden. It POURED on us the whole time, but what a great experience! The community members, the city of Toronto officials, and Canadian Tire folks were all just wonderful and worked so hard. We planted several vegetables and herbs in raised beds as well as trees along the path and beautiful perennials on the side that faced the street. Canadian Tire even donated benches for the center courtyard. Truly an amazing transformation in a day!

Fiskars Garden Makeover in Canada

 

Have you heard of Project Orange Thumb? We awarded garden grants to 20 gardeners across the country to help them with their garden projects. In addition, we select 3-5 sites across the Americas to do our own version of Extreme Home Makeover--but with a community garden instead of a house! It's awesome because we don't just give money and tools, we actually leave the office and go to the site to work along side the community members to create a spectacular transformation in a day. We'll be tweeting and facebooking from the site, so you can keep an eye on all the action Wednesday.

A Rockin' Birthday

 

Walker's 14th birthday party was this weekend. We did a rock theme. The invitations were CD's, and his band performed a live poolside concert. The cake was this full size electric guitar. To make it, we traced his real guitar on freezer paper and then cut it from three 9x13 sheet cakes. I decorated it with various candies--Tic Tacs, Good n Plenty, Reeses, M&M's, Kit Kats and Dentine Ice on toothpicks. My daughter said it was like Willie Wonka's guitar. It was a big hit with the teens! Winners from the Fiskars birthday challenge are Maryanne Hoekman, Sandyh50, and Maxine Hodges. Email your shipping address (suzanne@fiskars.com) with "birthday winner" in the subject line. Gardening winners are Toni, Julie and Patti W. Please email with "gardening winner" in the subject line.

Gardening with Fiskars

 

Hooray, there were fresh cut tulips from our yard on my breakfast table this morning! Mother's Day weekend is my traditional kick-off to the quest for the perfect garden--okay, so it's not really perfect, but it's filled with beautiful colors and delightful aromas. I LOVE being outside in the summer to enjoy the yard. I know lots of you use Fiskars crafting tools, but have you ever tried Fiskars garden tools? They are truly incredible and really make gardening a joy! Innovative, ergonomically-designed, and always sharp, Fiskars garden tools are the best. If you've tried them, leave a comment here and let me know which is your favorite. I'll give a gardening prize to two random posters...which reminds me...the winners of the Earth Day post are Lisa Simpson and Jennifer English. Please email suzanne@fiskars.com and put "Earth Day Winner" in the subject line. So....what were you all saying about Fiskars garden tools? 

Happy Earth Day!

Make sure to check out our rainwater harvesting system. Better for your garden and better for the environment. http://www.rain-barrel.com/ Let me know what you think, and 1 random poster will receive a free gardening tool.

Auction for the Special Olympics

 

 Go to NCAA.com to win a piece of sports history and help the Special Olympics!Next week the NCAA is auctioning the featured “net cutting” scissors from the winning Final Four men’s and women’s championship games. Each pair of custom orange-handled Fiskars® scissors has been autographed by the winning coaches, and the gold titanium blades are etched with the NCAA 2009 logo. The best part is that all the proceeds go to help the athletes of the Special Olympics!

Check the auction for your chance to win an incredible piece of sports history and to support the Special Olympics.