diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 0c9b95d..0016578 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ def read(fname):
 
 setup(
     name = 'python-statsd',
-    version = '1.1',
+    version = '1.2',
     author = 'Rick van Hattem',
     author_email = 'Rick.van.Hattem@Fawo.nl',
     description = '''statsd is a client for Etsy's node-js statsd server. 
diff --git a/statsd/__init__.py b/statsd/__init__.py
index 26c391e..6f2abf7 100644
--- a/statsd/__init__.py
+++ b/statsd/__init__.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 from statsd.connection import Connection
 from statsd.client import Client
 from statsd.timer import Timer
-from statsd.counter import Counter
+from statsd.counter import Counter, increment, decrement
 
-__all__ = ['Client', 'Connection', 'Timer', 'Counter']
+__all__ = ['Client', 'Connection', 'Timer', 'Counter', 'increment', 'decrement']
 
diff --git a/statsd/counter.py b/statsd/counter.py
index 81994fc..8cd8fac 100644
--- a/statsd/counter.py
+++ b/statsd/counter.py
@@ -69,3 +69,9 @@ def __sub__(self, delta):
         self.decrement(delta=delta)
         return self
 
+def increment(key):
+    counter = Counter(key).increment()
+
+def decrement(key):
+    counter = Counter(key).decrement()
+