[ All wrapped up ]

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Dec 17, 2002 by Matt Moline Capital-Journal

All wrapped up

Council Grove entrepreneur Rosie Solt's hassle-free gift-wrapping product is available in packages of 30 peel-off, self-sticking bows, available in five foil-printed colors: red, green, blue, silver and gold.

Three bow sizes are included in each package, ranging in width from 2 inches to 6 1/2 inches.

- Price: $6.99 per package.

- Available at: Rosie's Diner, downtown Council Grove; (620) 767- 6205; or by e-mail at rosie@cablerocket.com

MATT MOLINE/Special to The Capital-Journal

Rosie Solt, of Council Grove, is marketing peel-and-stick flat bows for gifts. Solt also operates Rosie's Diner in Council Grove.

By Matt Moline

Special to The Capital-Journal

COUNCIL GROVE --- Traditional entrepreneurial wisdom teaches us necessity is the mother of invention.

But in the world of businesswoman Rosie Solt, necessity has a proper name: Misty the Cat.

Solt credits the 5-year-old feline with helping to invent a new Christmas gift-wrapping accessory this year: smash-proof flat bows that offer a practical, damage-proof alternative to conventional package ties.

Solt sells the new product as Rosie's Peel 'N' Stick Flat Bows in packages containing 30 stickers each, in three sizes and five colors: green, red, blue, silver and gold.

"Now you can wrap early in the season, stack your packages in the corner and they won't get ruined," Solt said this week. "So when you get ready to go to grandmother's house, you can put them in the trunk and the bows won't get knocked off or smashed."

Solt said she got the idea after Misty tore off all of the bows from last year's stash of family Christmas gifts, threatening to put a quick end to the holiday season --- much like the more famous Grinch in the Dr. Seuss tale.

"When we finally had the family Christmas, I said 'I'm going to invent a bow next year that can't be pulled off,' " Solt said. "They all laughed at me, of course. So I just thought this thing up in my mind: a big bow like a sticker --- that would work."

Not long after last year's family Christmas wrappings had vanished like so many ghosts of yuletides past, Solt designed the prototype of the decorative bowknot she had in mind for future gift-wrapping labors.

Solt, who owns Rosie's Diner in Council Grove, also searched the Internet for similar products that might already be on the market.

"My daughter was home at the time, and we looked and looked under any kind of bow you could imagine, and couldn't find anything," she said. "Nobody does anything like this that I know of."

Solt found a manufacturing firm in Pennsylvania that delivered the first batch of die-cut, foil-print bows in August. The bows range in width from 2 inches to 6 1/2 inches.

Because the flat bows are un-smashable --- as well as cat-proof -- - Solt's self-sticking adornments won't fall off packages, solving once and for all the gift-giver's frustrating problem: disappearing bows.

If the bow product line is successful, Solt plans to introduce a series of bows in pastel colors in the spring.

"I'll do some lavenders, pinks, the lighter colors that would be appropriate for shower gifts, baby gifts, Easter," Solt said.

As for the future of Misty, the playful cat, she remains firmly in command in the Solt home. Solt said Misty holds dual citizenship: a calico-and-siamese lineage has provided a hardy bloodline for the former orphaned feline, perhaps the reason for the cat's rambunctious nature.

"I got Misty when she was days old, along with four other kittens in the litter," Solt said. "I'd feed them with an eyedropper every four hours. It was 'round the clock for three weeks, but I saved every one of them."

Matt Moline is a freelance writer living in Manhattan.

He can be reached at moline@networksplus.net.