Our friends at Yard Card Surprise in Lorain County, Ohio, were featured in a news story last night about two neighbors and their long-standing, friendly rivalry over their football teams.

Yard Card Surprise supplied the lawn letters and footballs in the neighbors’ yards, which you’ll see in this video from their local NBC affiliate, WKYC in Cleveland.

To see the video, click on this link:

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Hey everyone!

Thanks for stopping by. I apologize for the emptiness of this blog. I’m working on migrating the previous blog from Blogger to WordPress and hope to have some interesting things posted here soon.

Meanwhile, have you seen our new video? Be sure to stop by AGreetingYard.com to take a look.

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.

Are you ready to make someone happy on their birthday or other special occasion? We’re ready to help! Just send us an email at info@agreetingyard.com or call us at (417) 823-3915 to schedule a Public Display of Affection to mysteriously appear in the yard of your loved one.

Need a few ideas for inspiration first? Take a look at the short video on the home page of our web site at AGreetingYard.com.

A mom recently hired us to set up in front of her son’s place of business, Loftis Jewelry & Pawnbrokers in Springfield, Missouri, 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 fabulous 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, click here to read it in an e-newsletter. Once you get there, scroll down about half-way 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 at Loftis Jewelry & Pawnbrokers in Springfield, Missouri.

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.

AGreetingYard.com was featured in the May 2, 2006, business section of the Springfield News-Leader. (Sorry — The story is no longer up on their web site.)

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 acommodate 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.

One of our friends in the industry (and a fellow board member of the Lawn Greetings Association) Kerry (alias the Flamingess) is featured in her local newspaper. (Sorry — The story is no longer available on the newspaper site.)

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.

Know what is a real 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.

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 want to 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.cnn.com/video/#/video/offbeat/2006/04/22/freitas.wa.offensive.message.lawn.affl

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 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 Lawn Greetings directory at http://www.flamingoed.com, 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.

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. Really, I did.

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.

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 Lawn Greetings Rental Service!

This display was to celebrate the naturalization of a local radio show host here in Springfield, Missouri.

I suppose Vincent David 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 Williams, 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 at the Knights of Columbus hall here in Springfield, MO.

We had a time conflict here at AGreetingYard.com, 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!

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. Just click here!

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