We don’t follow trends, we start them

Came across this post on Chris Brogan’s blog and learned that Urban Outfitters has started selling the 3 Wolf Moon tee (for a whopping $24… in the Men’s apparel section!).

Typically, when Urban Outfitters sells something, that means it’s become trendy (hipster, if you will). In fact, I was just shopping around in there the other day with my friend and I said to her how funny it is that a store like that just has the power to decide what is “cool” and we all listen (even me sometimes!).

So,  I would just like to state loud and clear that Andrew and I happen to be AHEAD of this trend, having purchased our 3WM tees back in June for my birthday. We recently wore them on our trip to Maine, which allowed us to win a ziplining race AND numerous games of foosball.

post-zipline. Yes,  I am standing on my toes. Unfortunately, 3WM does not make me any taller.

On the upside, now that 3WM has been declared “trendy,” perhaps more of my friends will jump on the bandwagon so I can finally host that 3WM party I’ve been dying to have.

Oh–and nothing against UO, but make sure if you DO purchase a 3WM, you do so from Amazon… where the phenomenom started.

Favorite Things Friday! – Ra Ra Riot

I’ve always been a huge fan of local music, and one of the very first local bands I heard back when I started at Syracuse was Ra Ra Riot. At the time, the band’s following was small enough that I could go see them for free in some of the underground venues. Nowadays, they’re touring with Death Cab for Cutie and Andrew Bird, being reviewed in Rolling Stone and appearing on late night TV.  But even though they’re going big so fast, I still hadn’t heard much of them in town, except from other fans and their appearance earlier this year at The Westcott in Syracuse.

But things are looking up! I went to the Bug Jar’s Thursday Night Shakedown a few weeks ago and a remix of Ra Ra’s “Dying is Fine” came over the speakers and I got so excited I started jumping up and down and yelling, “OMG this is Ra Ra Riot!!! They’re from Syracuse!!!” And while no one shared quite this amount of excitement with me, they DID smile and say, “That’s great!” and went back to their booty-shaking. Then, I was sitting in a Pita Pit (of all places) last week and heard Ra Ra come over the radio. Once again, I exclaimed “OMG Ra Ra Riot!!!” to my friend, who also happened to be an SU alum, and shared a least a bit of enthusiasm with me.

In any case, these two random samplings of Ra Ra’s music were enough to get the song stuck in my head. Now, I’m on such a kick that I can’t stop listening to them! And when I’m not listening to them, I’m singing their songs in my head.

So today, I’m sharing with you my latest favorite local (but not so local anymore… this is a good thing!) band. They’re catchy and unique and really great performers. Get your hands on a copy of Ra Ra’s latest CD, “The Rhumb Line” and spread the love to all of your friends. Pretty soon EVERYONE will be able to share the same excitement I felt when I heard them on the radio for the first time!

Things to Do Tuesday! – Try natural foods

I’m always looking for fun, local shops around town, and after driving past this place so many times on my way to Wegmans, I decided to stop in.

Lori’s Natural Foods Center is located at 900 Jefferson Road, in the Regional Market shopping area. The outside is painted all sorts of pretty with huge sunflowers and murals, so you can’t miss it!

Inside Lori’s is a HUGE selection of everything organic, local and delicious. It kind of made me think of the co-op, but doubled in size and selection. They have a really great array of local dairy, meat and produce, as well as vitamins and herbal remedies, and a whole bunch of funky cooking ingredients I’ve never heard of (but definitely want to find an excuse to try out!). I was especially drawn to Lori’s selection of homemade granola and trail mix.

As can be expected, prices are a bit higher than the natural foods section at Wegmans, so I probably won’t be buying my Kashi crackers or Annie’s mac and cheese from Lori’s (who wants to buy processed natural foods from a real natural foods store, anyway?), but I will DEFINITELY be back to pick up some homemade snacks for my nine-hour road trip this weekend. 

I would recommend stopping in to Lori’s and exploring your natural food options. Maybe you’ll be inspired to adopt a more natural lifestyle, or test out a new way of cooking!

Coffee talk – fun bits to get the conversation going

Today’s fun finds via Google Reader:

Top 10 foods for healthy skin

Seventeen-year-old sails his way around the globe

Do you really think you can text while driving? Try this test. (Bottom line: don’t do it!)

Amazon remotely deletes copies of 1984 and Animal Farm from Kindles; Consumers are NOT happy

A look back at Woodstock ‘99, from the Utica Observer-Dispatch

New hipster trend: Making old dumpsters into swimming pools

FedEx launches hilarious new Web ad campaign, ‘Get Infotained’, featuring Fred Willard

Top ten most dangerous foods to eat while driving

Make frozen yogurt pops for a unique summer dessert

Pretty cupcake collages – I totally want to make one of these now!

Happy Monday, everyone!

weekend project – craft cabinet

I came across this cabinet the other day for $8 while browsing in the thrift store and knew it would make the perfect little craft cabinet for our craft room.

I picked up some slate gray paint at Home Depot and some light yellow acrylic paint at A.C. Moore.

The finished product! I’m really happy with how it turned out. The colors are slightly darker than what you see in the photo.

I painted the little fly-aways across the whole right side of the cabinet.

This project took me probably two and a half hours total, and I did this for just under $20!

What do you think?

and the mommy blogger saga continues…

PR Week just posted an interesting follow up article to the issue I posted about below.

The organizer of the “PR Blackout” has corrected herself, saying that she didn’t mean to appear anti-PR, but instead wanted to take a stand against bloggers receiving irrelevant pitches. On the opposing side is Paul Rand, president and CEO of the Zolcalo Group (a subsidary of Ketchum), who said that mommy bloggers are starting to take on the same attitude that traditional media does (in that they’re fed up with the oversaturation of pitches), but that they DO have the option to “define clearly” whether they want to be pitched to or not. Going further, he said that PR, advertising, social media and marketing are all fighting for the same space and that if you looked closer at where these pitches are coming from, you’d see that it’s not JUST PR folk who are guilty of doing this.

I think this is opening up an interesting dialogue, and I will continue to follow this as more develops with the FTC guidelines.

IMO: A “PR Blackout” does not equal “getting back to basics”

PR Week this morning had a bit about the proposed “PR Blackout” that a group of “mommy bloggers” are pushing for—a week without any giveaways, promotions, reviews, etc. Getting “back to basics,” as they’re calling it.

(edited) The blackout comes on the heels of a recent FTC proposal to update its “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising” so they are more relatable to the current digital age. According to this article in PR Week, the proposal includes requiring bloggers to disclose payments/compensation within posts and that marketers themselves would be “subject to liability for false or unsubstantiated statements made through the blogger’s endorsement.” In other words, if a blogger simply regurgitates a claim made by a marketer or advertiser, and the claim happens to be false or misleading, the marketer is at fault. While these suggestions may seem a bit extreme, they are still only guidelines, so there aren’t any civil penalties for not following the “rules” (the PR Week article compared it to speed limits).

Still, many marketers and PR practitioners are frustrated with the FTC’s proposal because the guidelines impose a bigger burden on companies, and some feel it’s an issue of free speech. What would happen to word-of-mouth marketing?

My thoughts? As both a blogger and a PR practitioner, I can see both sides of this. But I think more than anything it’s an issue of transparency. I’m not saying that all bloggers don’t inform their readers about endorsements, but if you’re among the groups of bloggers and marketers who feel threatened by this whole situation, perhaps you should step back and re-evaluate how honest you’re being with your publics. What are you trying to hide?

If a blogger wants to get “back to basics,” I don’t think a “PR Blackout” is the answer. Just don’t turn your blog into a commercial space! Write about products because you actually like them, not because you’re being paid to say something about them. Isn’t that the basis of word-of-mouth marketing in general? Both marketers and bloggers are at fault here—marketers are always going to try to push their product or company and some will do whatever it takes to get a mention. But as a blogger, it’s important to have a filter on what kind of information comes in and what you put back out there for your readers. I personally don’t even subscribe to blogs that are just pushing products, giveaways and promotions 24/7—it’s just not compelling. Even as a young PR professional, I already understand the importance of identifying specific targets for engagement and then going even further to personalize each communication. Marketers and PR practitioners who just develop a generalized pitch and “spray and pray,” if you will, are not going to succeed in the long-term, even if they get some bites up front. The Internet and social media make it easier than ever to expose flaws.

So my advice? Both marketers AND bloggers should do it “basic” from the beginning… be real, be honest, be transparent, and people will listen.

I’m such a proud mom

The lovely folks over at Lollypop Farm contacted me this morning and asked to feature Boulder on their Flickr page! Click below to check out her modeling debut. Next step: get Boulder featured on icanhascheezburger.

Boulder on flickr

Things to do Tuesday – Get a library card

I’ve had the same library card since kindergarten, messy signature and all. I haven’t attempted to get a new one in any of the other various cities I’ve inhabited in the last four years because I didn’t anticipate a long-term stay, and while at Syracuse I simply didn’t have a lot of time for leisurely reading.  However, even with uncertain future plans, I couldn’t resist Rochester’s huge, beautiful Central Library.

(photo found on flickr.com)

Located smack on the edge of downtown on South Ave, the Central Library actually takes up two buildings, chock full of books to suit anyone’s fancy. And as someone who appreciates the little things, I was especially excited to find the underground tunnel connecting the two buildings, which was built into the abandoned Rochester subway (which has a fascinating story behind it in itself).  To add to my delight, there is no limit on how many books you can take out at a time (!!! I was used to the 10-book limit at my hometown library) AND you can take out DVDs, free of charge (they cost $1 at my home library). Recently, they added GPS devices into the mix (yes, you can check out a GPS at the library to take on your road trip)… call it a sign of the times. If you need a break from browsing, you can hop into the library’s branch of Simply Crepes for some scrumptious eats. How can a girl go wrong with this set up?

But there’s more. After an afternoon spent in the library, I went home to gush to my roommate about how excited I was to have discovered this Rochester gem. And then she told me the library has a secret room.

A SECRET ROOM?!?

(Can I just tell you—one of my fantasies as a little girl was to discover a secret room in a building and spend hours in it reading books and playing with dolls. I even used to write stories about it…thankfully my grandmother has these stashed away where no one can read them.)

So, you mean to tell me that not only can I go to the library, eat crepes, check out as many books as I want AND run back and forth in an underground tunnel, but I can fulfill one of my childhood dreams too?

I’m going back this afternoon.

Coffee Talk – fun bits to get the conversation going!

a round-up of fun, random bits from my Google Reader:

TRex = XL Chicken?  from Wired: Discovery of a Tyrannosaurus  Rex’s femur has sparked significant debate in the science world over whether or not birds and chickens are an evolutionary relative of this giant dinosaur. Since I am such a science  buff now, I already knew about this, thanks to Radiolab!

Recipe for creamy cucumber salad, via The Observer-Dispatch … haven’t made this yet, but it sounds delicious.

Fall 2009 Fashion trends to sew, at Blisstree. Now if I could only figure out how to use my sewing machine…

Monkeys recognize bad grammar, from the BBC. Excellent! Non-human members of the grammar police!

First kindle knock off found in China - from Gizmodo

Top 10 farmers markets in the US, via Huffington Post. My additions: Burlington, VT and Saratoga, NY … both of which I’ve stumbled upon while traveling and delighted in delicious local goodies!

Happy Monday, everyone!