A kitchen table, a stranger's order, then nine thousand more.
Daydream W.Me is one woman in Fairfield, New Jersey — Maria Oliva — and a workshop that smells like fresh-cut foamboard and sandalwood candles. Six years, 9,300 orders, and not one of them made by a machine.
Hand-painting a wood sign · Fairfield, NJ studio
It started because I couldn't find what I wanted.
In the spring of 2020 my cousin's daughter was turning one. I went looking for a balloon mosaic letter — the giant foamboard kind you fill with balloons and put behind the cake. Nothing online was the right color, the right size, the right anything. So I cut one out of foamboard at my kitchen table.
I posted a picture of the finished party. A stranger in Pennsylvania saw it and asked if I'd make her one. That was order #1. By the end of that summer I'd made forty more. By the end of 2021 I had filed an LLC, named after the way my husband always teased me — "you and your daydreams."
Six years, in five chapters.
The kitchen table.
First mosaic cut for my cousin's daughter's first birthday. First Etsy sale to a stranger in Pennsylvania three weeks later. By December: forty pieces shipped from my kitchen, foam dust everywhere, husband no longer pretending it's just a hobby.
The LLC, the name, the workshop.
Daydream w. me LLC files in February. The kitchen table moves into a real workshop in Fairfield. First Etsy Best Seller badge by summer. First installation booked — a baby shower in Hoboken — the first time I left the house with foamboard, balloons, and a ladder all at once.
The wood, the macramé, the wedding signs.
The catalog grew sideways. Custom hand-painted wood name signs for nurseries. Macramé rainbows. Wedding welcome boards. By the end of 2023 the shop counted 21 distinct products and 4,000 orders served — almost all with five-star reviews.
Brands started calling.
A Dunkin' regional manager saw a Newark first-birthday post on Instagram and asked if we did storefronts. We did, then. We installed for stores across NJ, then for boutiques, salons, pop-ups. The shop became maybe forty percent of revenue. The installations became the part I love most.
This site. Same hands.
9,300 orders. 939 reviews. Six straight years of Etsy Best Seller. A workshop, a husband who still teases me about daydreams, and finally — a website that doesn't look like every other Etsy storefront. Made by hand, the same way the mosaics are.
What you're actually getting.
Made by my hands. Not a print shop.
Every mosaic is cut, sanded, and packed in a single workshop in Fairfield. I am the one painting your daughter's name on the wood sign. There is no "team" doing the work for me — the team is me, plus a small crew on the days that need lifting.
A free mockup before you commit.
Every event inquiry gets a digital rendering of your venue with the install in place — before any contract or deposit. You see exactly what you're paying for. No "trust me, it'll look great" energy.
Real prices. No upsell theatre.
Most NJ event decorators quote a "starting at" number and triple it once they see the venue. We give a flat all-in number from the start. Setup, teardown, drive time, balloons, props — included. The number on your contract is the number you pay.
If it's wrong, we fix it.
In six years we have remade exactly four orders — for free, no questions, overnight shipped. If the color is wrong, the size is wrong, the box arrived crushed: we make it right. Of 9,300 orders, 939 of them have stopped to leave a five-star review. That's the bar.
The day belongs to you.
My job ends when you walk in and gasp. After that I'm invisible — I tear down quietly after the cake is cut, sweep the venue, and you never see me leave. The photos are about you and the people you love. Not about the decorator.
● Mardi Gras tablescape · 2025
A few real questions we get.
Do you only work with women-led parties? +
No — we do every event. The portfolio leans toward first birthdays and baby showers because that's what brought us here, but we install for sweet sixteens, weddings, retirements, anniversaries, brand pop-ups, gender reveals, gallery openings. If there is a moment worth photographing, it is worth designing.
How far do you travel for installations? +
Anywhere within a 90-minute drive of Fairfield, NJ at our standard rates — that covers all of North & Central Jersey, NYC (all five boroughs), Rockland and Westchester, and the Lehigh Valley/Philadelphia corridor. Outside of that, we add travel as a line item but happily go — we have installed in Bucks County, the Hamptons, and the Poconos.
What's the difference between buying from your shop vs. booking an install? +
The shop pieces are foamboard cutouts — you receive a flat-packed mosaic frame, you supply the balloons (or buy our matching kit), you assemble it in your kitchen with hot glue. About 20 minutes of setup. Perfect for at-home parties. An install is the whole production: I bring the inflatables, the ladders, the steam, the props, set it up at your venue, and pack it out after. You don't lift a balloon.
How far in advance should I book an install? +
Six to eight weeks is the sweet spot for weekend dates. We can do less — and have done a lot of less — but Saturday weddings in spring and fall fill up fastest. Mid-week dates are usually open with a couple weeks notice. For corporate / brand activations we will move heaven and earth on a tight timeline; the record is a 72-hour storefront install.
Can you match a specific Pinterest board / theme / cake? +
Yes — this is most of what we do. Send the inspiration in the inquiry form and we will color-match exactly. We have built mosaics to match a swatch from an Anthropologie pillow, a single ribbon from a baby blanket, a Pantone code from a brand deck. The mockup we send back will show your colors, not generic ones.
Do you offer monthly installs for retailers? +
Yes — this is a fast-growing part of the business. NJ boutiques, salons, and food spots have us in monthly to refresh their storefront window: new color story, new theme, new photographable moment for their Instagram. Pricing is per-window and meaningfully cheaper than building a single one-off.
Ready when you are.
Send a quick inquiry and you'll have a mockup of your venue, a real price, and an availability check in the next 48 hours. Free. No commitment.