It’s been a really great experience redesigning CushionsAndUmbrellas.com from the ground up.   It was time for us to take a look at what we wanted to accomplish with our site and how we wanted to improve our customers experience.  I think on of the achieved some of our most important goals.

1. Completely redesigned the site using the Magento E-commerce engine.  A great choice and a great set tools for our customers.  Now we have a much simpler checkout and sign up process, and we now accept PayPal and are working on accepting Google Checkout soon.
2. Our shopping guides, help and answers (FAQ) and this blog with our own customization of the Wordpress using the Thesis Theme.
3. Expanded our fabric offering.  We now carry 60 outdoor fabrics for cushions and 40 Sunbrella fabrics for our patio umbrellas.

We hope you enjoy the new design and a new era for CushionsAndUmbrellas.

As reported in the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

The Home Depot is recalling some large patio umbrellas because they may tip over and strike consumers, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday.

According to the CPSC, the patio umbrella and its pole could tip over and strike consumers if the umbrella’s collar or sleeve is not removed prior to closing the umbrella, posing a risk of impact injury to consumers. Home Depot received one report of a recalled patio umbrella tipping over and breaking, but no injuries were reported.

For more information, contact The Home Depot at (866) 403-5504. Home Depot has a dozen Milwaukee-area locations.

You can read the entire story here: http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2009/05/25/daily52.html

We want to assure all of our customers that our patio umbrellas have been thouroughly tested and do not pose this threat.   The offset patio umbrellas that are concerned where ill designed for their weight.  Our offsets have been top balanced for this purpose

Sunbrella, which is our flagship fabric line, and one of the most known outdoor fabrics in the US, has announced a fantastic new program for recycling used Sunbrella fabrics.   Here is a quote from the blog.

The new program, “Recycle My Sunbrella,” operates through a new website – www.recyclemysunbrella.com. Anyone interested in submitting Sunbrella fabrics for recycling should visit the site for additional details on the return process.

Randy Blackston, vice president of operations, said on the post that

“This program is part of our decades-long commitment to environmental stewardship.”

He further elaborated on the program.

“Sunbrella fabric has a service life far surpassing conventional fabrics, and we want to extend that life even further by ensuring it has a home outside the landfill,” Blackston said. “We will accept any pre-consumer and post-consumer Sunbrella fabrics including awning covers, boat covers and upholstery.”

CushionsAndUmbrellas has long been a enthusiastic endorser of  Sunbrella fabric, offering a wide range of Sunbrella umbrellas and Sunbrella cushions in our product offerings, and we’d like to contribute to the recycling program.  If you are a CushionsAndUmbrellas customer interested in recylcing your old Sunbrella based product, please do not hesitate to contact us.

CushionsAndUmbrellas is proud to announce that the winner of the 5 Big Tall Wishes to Change The World contest is  Brian Mark.  His entry really inspired us and was exactly what we where hoping for.

Even though only three people took part in the contest, we are happy that at least we where able to inspire some with a Christmas Wish.  We are sincerely gratefull to Melissa Michaels for her mention of our giveaway.

We’ve decided to give Dana Mark and Lauren some great discounts to round out the offer.   Thank you so much for taking part!

I want to do something special for Christmas, something that is a little out of the ordinary, but something that would bring us, all of us, you, me, our neighbors, a little closer, and help to remember that there is some magic in this world.  The magic of wishes, the magic of prayer, the magic of love, and the magic of community.  This magic is always around us, except it’s sometimes hard for a grown-up to remember that it’s there.

Christmas was always magical to me when I was a kid. I’m sure it was to a lot of people when they where children.  Every year, I remember that feeling.  The feeling that if at any time during our lives, Christmas was the time to make the big things happen; the good you wanted in the world, the people you wanted to help, the happiness you wanted for yourself and your family.

Now that I think about it, it reminds me of one of my favorite episode of the Twilight Zone, called “The Big Tall Wish“  about a washed up Boxer named Bolie, who miraculously wins a fight he was about to loose.  Unable to understand what exactly happens, Henry, his neighbors’ son, tells him how he won. Henry made “the biggest, tallest wish” he can make for Bolie, and it came true.  That was the power of wishes when I was a kid.  Wishes can come true, if only we believe in them enough to do something that will make them true.

So I thought that maybe, what we need are some of the those big tall wishes.  And not just mine, everbodies.  But getting everybody to join in might be a little tough, unless I could motivate them.

Ok, one bit of motivating coming right up.

We made a beautiful, one of a kind, 9′ Teak Wood Market Umbrella with a thick, sturdy 2 inch pole for one of our customers.  It has stainless steel hardware, riveted pockets, a gorgeus royal blue, dual wind vent Sunbrella fabric canopy, and a super deluxe cord and stainless steel pin.  We loved making it!  However, due to unfortunate circumstances, our customer couldn’t take it.  So here we are with this gorgeaus umbrella.  What to do?

Umbrella Comes In Navy Blue. This is a sample image.

I know, Let’s give it away in a very special Christmas Contest. But the contest just can’t be any old contest.  This should not be a raffle.

OK, let’s have a contest that gives us wishes, magic, and the true meaning of Christmas.

The Contest:  This is a blog tag contest.  The winner of this contest will receive the One Of A Kind Teak Market Umbrella.  Also, We will Donate $100.00 Dollars to the Charity of Their Choice in their name.  The first runner up will win a 15% Discount Coupon for any purchase of from CushionsAndUmbrellas.com, and the Second Runner Up will recieve a 10% Coupon.   All for making 5 Big Tall Wishes.

The Rules: (cause, there has to be some)

1. Create a post on your blog, or on a forum, with your 5 Big Tall Christmas Wishes to Change The World. The wishes can be anything you want, personal or social, but it must have at least one wish that will make an impact on the world around you and us.
2. The post must include a link back to this post, so that others can join in.
3. You must “tag” at least 1 other blogger to participate in the contest.
4. You must comment on this post, and enter the url of the blog post in the website field, so that we know where to read the wishes. You must also leave an email so that we may contact you.
5. The contest ends on Friday, December 5th at 12 Midnight, EST.
6. We will award the post with the 5 best wishes the Grand Prize.
7. The winner, and runners up will be announced on this blog on Monday, December 8th at 9PM.

Make the wishes BIG.  Whether you win or loose, the power of a wish and a prayer can make anything happen!