Shana Dreher *Pinwhirls*'s Page

I'm Shana - wife, mother and party supply shop owner. My sister, Erin, and I work together closely to whirl whimsical party supplies including our most popular personalized party pinwheeels. Over 23,000 have been sold in both our online and etsy shops since 2008. Unlike many shops we design and print all of our papers in house on our professional printers which means that our pinwheels, invites, banners, cupcake wrappers, etc. are truly custom and can be personalized based on our client's needs.
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I work most days in my home office with my son, Gabriel Cooper, at my side - or shall I say I say at my knee, as that's where he loves to hang out the most. Gabe, as we call him, turned one in April. He's quickly picking up on the pinwhirl trade. My sister, Erin, is our Master Pinwhirler. She can whirl our products in her sleep, and probably needs to as she does most of her whirling and twirling after her 4 kiddos (ages 2-10) are in dreamland.
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I'm amazed everyday that this dream of mine that started 4 years ago has actually turned into a reality. I estimate that I've sold over 23,000 pinwheels since the summer of 2008. (Just call me a master pinwhirler!) It's been A LOT of hard work - first trying to juggle a full time job and more recently trying to juggle this dream and my little guy. But, somehow all of the struggles and long hours have been worth it!

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How my dream became a reality:
October 2007: launched my own website (crossroadscottage.biz) selling home decor items
January 2008: began selling personalized party products on my site, including pinwheel cupcake toppers
March 2008: joined etsy and was soon asked to create all sorts of personalized pinwheels
August 2008: my first large order for pinwheels - pinwheel favors for theknot.com philly event
December 2008: my personalized pinwheels began to take up too much space on my initial site so pinwhirls.com was launched
February 2009: business began to boom - hired my first employee to help with pinwhirling
April 2010: had my first child on April 3 - Gabriel Cooper - this allowed me to transition from having a full time job to becoming a work-at-home mommy
August 2010: our pinwhirls were featured in the fall/winter the knot.com wedding magazine - see page 56

October 2010: paid myself my first official paycheck (before this all money was reinvested into business inventory and equipment) three years to the date of opening our online doors. yay!
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What the future holds:
- new paper lines and products to coordinate with pinwheel invites
- hiring new employees
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My background:
Bachelor of Science with High Distinction from Indiana University, Bloomington
Special Events Coordinator, Indiana Universitiy School of Medicine, 5 years
Meeting Planner, National Asssn. for Charitable Gift Planners, 6 years
Owner, CrossroadsCottage.biz and Pinwhirls.com, 3 years
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