The funflector team is wishing everyone a fantastic and safe Independence Day!
This year, we are sending our 4th of July greetings from Paris, France, one of many stops during our very inspirational travels this summer. We have been collecting ideas for future safety reflector designs and of course taken the opportunity to shoot some fun photos.
The funflector team
Happy 4th of July! Read More »
Has 2015 set off in the right direction for you?
Our first order for the year, submitted when 2015 was just a couple of minutes old, was for shamrocks, ladybugs and stars. We take that as a sign that this will be a lucky and stellar year and wish you the same.
Happy New Year!
The funflector team
We wish all our readers, customers, partners and friends a wonderful ending to 2014.
Whether you celebrate Hanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa or nothing at all,
may you find peace in your heart to help bring Peace on Earth.
The funflector team
Happy Thanksgiving everyone from one small family business!
We will take time off to hang out with family and friends, contemplating our blessings – of which YOU are part! – and enjoy life. We hope you get a chance to do the same and that you can schedule your weekend around people you love instead of around door-busters. To help, the funflector sale is going on for Thanksgiving+Black Friday+Small-Business-Saturday+Cyber Monday so YOU can CHOOSE when to get your great deals on reflectors! Get the details in our webshop>
Eat well and be seen!
The funflector team via Elisabeth 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving Read More »
We will be at a couple of festivals and fairs this fall. If you are in the Chicagoland area, please stop by, get some safety reflectors, learn something new and say hello!
September 7th, Vasa Park in South Elgin, 10am – 6pm
Celebrate your Scandinavian heritage or just enjoy good food, entertainment and Scandinavian gifts anyway. Get in touch with Scandinavian organizations in the Chicago area and shop unique goods and Scandinavian foods from over 50 vendors from across the U.S.A. The festival features Scandinavian entertainment from folk music and dance to ABBA, pony rides and face painting and hopefully as much sunshine as previous years.
September 14, Lake View High School, Chicago, 10am-4pm
September 27, Evanston, 9am-3pm
The Evanston Green Living Festival is an annual community event presented by the Evanston Environmental Association (EEA) and the City of Evanston. The festival is held at the Evanston Ecology Center and provides a venue where local organizations can present their green products, services and ideas to attendees who are looking for ways to lower their personal carbon footprint. This will be our first time exhibiting and we are excited to be part of it.
Warren High School Band Booster in Gurnee organizes a huge craft fair early November each year. Not only was it a good show last year, students also provided a phenomenal service and wheeled all our reflectors and displays to our booth. We are excited to be returning as the Band Booster celebrates its 20th fair!
The Julmarknad (Christmas Market) is our “holiday trip to Sweden” or as close as it gets. Swedish Lucia, music, food (meatball open face sandwiches!), baked goods (lussekatter & Princess Cake!) and Swedish related merchandize and hand made items. Don’t miss this weekend!
Come and Say Hello! Read More »
The long Scandinavian twilight summer nights peak today, June 21st. Swedish Midsummer Eve always falls on a Friday close to the old Midsummer Eve on June 24th. After long winters and slow springs, Midsummer is when Swedes head out to their summer cottages, invite friends over, eat herring, small fresh potatoes and strawberries, drink and dance all night long. If you are a tourist in Sweden, make sure you understand how closed down everything is and I mean EVERYTHING. Restaurants, coffee shops, stores, currency exchanges, and pretty much everything else. I got married on Midsummer day. One of the foreign guests had to borrow money for a taxi since they had not managed to get Swedish crowns. “I didn’t think it would be THAT closed”. Well, it was. Watch this if you don’t believe me!
This summer, I have the fortune to be working and blogging from Europe. Early summer is a lovely time when nature erupts with leaves, flowers and sweet scent of lilac and “hägg” (prunus padus).
Last week, I had the pleasure to to show my kids what a Swedish high school graduation looks like. The white caps “The Student Caps” originated among college students in the 1840’s to mark the affinity to their universities. At that time they were used daily, today they are rarely used outside of graduations and college ceremonies.
Happy Midsummer!
Elisabeth
Christkind is to German kids what Santa is to American. Christkind visits on Christmas day to put presents around the tree. Kids are kept away with closed doors to the living room until a little bell is heard. That means Christkind has finished its mission and the family can be let in to marvel at the pile under the tree. Christkind (“Christ Child”) has long golden hair and angelic wings and is a central part of opening ceremonies at many German Christmas markets, which are often called “Christkindlmarkt”.
Here is a glimpse of the Nürnberg Christkindlesmarkt
Chicago has its own Christkindlmarket with tight ties to the Nürnberg one on which it is modeled. The opening ceremony (Nov 20, 2012, 4:30pm) often gets visits from the Nürnberg mayor and the previous Nürnberg Christkindl. This year, you can meet & greet the Christkindl on November 22, 11:00am, right after the Chicago Christmas parade.
Being brought up with a mix of Swedish and German Christmas traditions, I love to go to the Christkindlmarket for some real German Bratvurst, Kartoffelpuffers and to look at the handcrafted ornaments that look just like those my grandmother had. Except for skyscrapers instead of small half-timbered houses surrounding the market, it does take me back to Germany for a little while. German vendors come all the way here just for this, which gives it an authentic flair.
This year, there is a new section at the NE corner of the plaza. That is where you will find the booth of the Swedish Amercian Museum, filled with Swedish ornaments, handcrafted collectible tomten (Santas), Angel Chime rotary brass candle holders, wonderful wood toys for children, funflector® safety reflectors in fun shapes for kids and adults, and a wide assortment of Scandanavian books.
Here are some pics from previous years:
Elisabeth
Chicago Christkindlmarket Read More »
Le bonhomme du neige – the good man of snow – is the french expression for snowman. And who does not like snowmen? Shoveling snow might not be our favorite pastime, but making snowmen is fun, creative and brings us outside. After the snowman has been adorned with a broom, stick arms, a carrot nose, a scarf and a hat, we dry our mittens and enjoy some hot cocoa or cider while we let our rosy cheeks fade away.
The Good Man of Snow Read More »
Easter is approaching rapidly and it’s time to get this year’s Easter egg stuffers. As all my kids have their birthdays in the fall, I use Easter to surprise them with some gifts from the Easter Bunny. The big cardboard eggs, common in Northern Europe, are perfect for jump ropes, juggling balls, sunglasses and even flip flops or baseball gloves. I went on a quest for some more of those eggs at the Swedish American Museum in Chicago and at the World Market. Needless to say, that I found a lot more neat stuff than planned.
A teeny-tiny cardboard egg with contemporary Swedish egg and chick design from the museum store is ideal for hiding a few funflector tags. The baseball and soccer ball reflectors as well as the shamrock are perfect spring replacement of my family’s basketballs and footballs. Love & Peace is popular all year around and a few more are needed when one winter jacket is replaced by a couple of fleece sweaters.
The large egg, found at the World Market, can hold quite a few Easter egg stuffers. It has a old fashion design with bunnies in a vintage car and chicks in the grass. Its white trim has the traditional wavy edge that I remember from my childhood. I was surprised by its sturdiness until I realized it was actually made in Germany. Lindt chocolate was a staple while I lived in Switzerland, so the two golden bunnies had to follow me home along with some hazelnut-chocolate carrots. Can’t wait for Easter…
Cute Easter pasta from the World MarketColorful Italian Easter Pasta will be perfect with our Swedish meatballs. By the way, did you see the Trib article about meatballs? I firmly believe that IKEA wouldn’t sell nearly as many meatballs without my kids and their friends around 😉 It seems harder to find a good lamb roast for Easter than Swedish meatballs and herring…
Along with the new cardboard eggs, we reuse the ones from previous years. We fill the smaller ones with candy and the larger ones with “stuff.” The Easter bunny hides them during the night before Easter Eve (!) and the kids get to search for them behind curtains, under couch pillows and in other more unexpected places. The older they get, the trickier it is to find good hiding spots. A couple of years back, one of the eggs seemed to be completely lost. A year and a half later we found it when we cleared out the wood basket by the fireplace. The pair of new socks were already outgrown, so the bunny now leaves us forgetful parents with a list…
When the gifts are too big to fit in an egg, no matter how big, the Easter bunny needs to be creative. One year, the eggs contained clues on where to find the next egg. Eventually the kids ended up in the garage next to a brand new basketball hoop!
We use a few vintage eggs for decoration only. Especially the silver one with distinctive 60’s design is far too cool to let the kids handle.
When homework is done today, we’ll continue digging through our Easter boxes and pull out our favorites. Collected over time, the ornaments carry so many memories from all over and I’m curious about the memories the kids are creating from year to year.
Elisabeth
p.s. The combination of a pretty cookie tin and delicious Nyåkers Pepparkakor (Swedish ginger snaps) made a purchase completely irresistible. From the World Market. I still have a few minutes left for a coffee before the kids will be home…
Easter Egg Stuffers & Other European Easter Goodies Read More »
A very exciting year in my life has come to an end. It’s not the first time I’ve done a one-of-a-kind job without a given path. However, launching a business and a new line of stylish safety reflectors on the American market has certainly been (and still is) more challenging than any endeavor I’ve taken on before.
I’d like to send a huge thank you to everyone supporting this project of launching a business!!! Without customers, we would already have closed our doors, so thanks to both individuals and store owners for buying our funflector™ tags! Thanks also to Village Green Montessori and the Red Rose Childen’s Choir of Lake County, who gave us the privilege of organizing very successful funflector™ fundraisers. It has been a pleasure to work with our sales representatives and we are looking forward to expanding that cooperation in 2011. Our blog readers, facebook fans and twitter followers mean a lot to us, so thanks for staying tuned. The factory in Sweden is a great partner, patiently answering all our questions and discussing our ideas. Thanks also very much to family and friends for promoting our fun safety reflectors and giving a helping hand when needed. THANKS!
While the Champagne is cooling, we are busy shipping some new funflector tags to our sales reps. The basketballs arrived yesterday along with shamrocks and hearts. What better way is there to tell your loved ones that you love them and want them to stay safe than with a funflector™ heart for Valentine’s Day?
The new funflector® safety reflectors will be available in our web shop next week. If you want them immediately, just contact us and we’ll ship them on Monday.
Happy New Year Everyone!
Elisabeth
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Read More
| Name | Domain | Purpose | Expiry | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| lp_eu_agree | funflector.com | LegalPages EU cookie | 7 days | HTTP |
| wpl_user_preference | funflector.com | WP GDPR Cookie Consent Preferences | 1 year | HTTP |
| tsrce | paypal.com | PayPal tracking cookie | 3 days | HTTP |
| ts_c | paypal.com | PayPal tracking cookie | 3 years | HTTP |
| ts | paypal.com | PayPal tracking cookie | 3 years | HTTP |
| akavpau_ppsd | www.paypal.com | PayPal tracking cookie | 52 years | HTTP |
| YSC | youtube.com | YouTube session cookie. | 52 years | HTTP |
| Name | Domain | Purpose | Expiry | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | youtube.com | YouTube cookie. | 6 months | HTTP |
| Name | Domain | Purpose | Expiry | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IDE | doubleclick.net | Google advertising cookie used for user tracking and ad targeting purposes. | 2 years | HTTP |
| Name | Domain | Purpose | Expiry | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| l7_az | paypal.com | --- | Session | --- |
| x-cdn | paypal.com | --- | 52 years | --- |
