Personalize your Smooch!

Personalize your lip balm: Lip Balm Labz

I am addicted to chap stick / lip balm / lip gloss / plain ol’ Vaseline!

Not because I am vain (altho I DO have my moments). Rather, because I have incredibly dry chapped lips. First revealed during childhood, and forever captured by a particularly bad school photo one year (yikes!)

So needless to say, I can NOT leave home without my lip protection. It’s right there along with my money, ID & granola bar.

That’s why I was so excited to stumble upon Lip Balm Labz at my neighbourhood mall.  You can create & personalize your very own lip balm around different flavours & colours. Choose from yummy flavs like: Butterscotch, Chocolate Mousse or Rum.

So cool, that the idea was picked up by Springwise, the global trend spotter report.

So lip-luscious! :)

A SMART way to DRIVE Sales!

A Smart Car for a Smart Toy!

Being a mompreneur (yes, that’s Mom + Entrepreneur :) really brings out the BEST possible marketing ideas.  That’s because you have NO time & NO extra money — but need to raise your kids AND your small business, like…NOW!

One really ingenious mompreneur is Christy Cook.  As a new mom, she was searching for fun yet educational learning tools for her son. Not finding anything, Christy created Teach My Toddler, the award-winning learning kit for toddlers.

With her PR-background, Christy knows the heavy price tag of doing a traditional media buy. But she also understands the importance of generating REAL buzz and editorial coverage. So guess what Christy did?

For just a few hundred dollars a month, she got a nifty lil’ Smart car (Smart Toy, Smart Car – geddit? :) & applied brand decals to it.  So now she is her own traveling billboard, able to chauffeur her son across the city, while getting invaluable exposure  and a few media write ups (including a plug by the Globe and Mail).

The results? Christy’s web traffic has increased immensely right before the crucial Holiday season. More importantly, as Christy herself says:

It is really fun to drive and I love showing off the brand! Every little bit helps!

That’s a SMART mompreneur!

Cool Stuff. Cool for the Holidays

 

Mini Me's personalized book with photos, Sandbox spread

 

If you’re like me (even a little bit), finding cool stuff for gift-giving is a challenge at the best of times. Holiday are even harder — you have to really up the ante, right?

Well, this dreary recession still has people reluctant to spend (again, like me).  This year, I am only buying REALLY unique, keepsake gifts that have sentimental or philanthropic value.

For example, my hubbie & I already decided to make a donation to charity in each other’s name.  Hmmm, a goat from World Vision? The gift that keeps in milking, right?! :)

So based on the new values of “less is more”, “family matters most” and “make it memorable” — it was pretty awesome to see our personalized book, Mini Me’s Books, chosen by Oh Baby! Magazine as “Cool Stuff for the Holidays”.

It’s sentimental, memorable, promotes family bonding AND encourages your child to read.  Sounds pretty timeless, no matter the economy!

Pick up your November issue of Oh Baby! Magazine at Sears, Rexall pharma or Dr’s offices across Canada.

Happy Halloween (underwater)!

 

Halloween card from Mini Me's photo-personalized products

I LOVE Halloween. Even more than Easter, and I also LOVE Easter!  (hey – free candy AND dress up? That beats cute baby chicks, fluffy bunnies & choc. Easter eggs – anyday :)

 

So it’s pretty exciting that this is Layla’s “first” memorable Halloween.  For the last 2 years she was a pumpkin (“Thanks, Uncle Jeff”) but this year she helped choose her own outfit: an adorable ladybug.

For the past 2 weeks, she has been playing dress up: she puts on her ladybug costume and antenna-hat after coming home from daycare. Then she runs and prances around the house.  And for some weird reason, she also likes to put on her rain boots — I guess it seems like part of the costume?!

Anyway, I figure a lady bug costume is easier than an octopus-inspired costume (aka the characters of Mini Me’s Books).

Just imagine having to wear 4 pairs of rubber boots with an octopus costume! :)

 

Mini Me’s Kewl Uncle Jeff

Mini Me & her Uncle Jeff

Every kid needs a kewl uncle or aunt who horses around with them, takes them to interesting places, and of course, buys them unique and wacky stuff.

Uncle Jeff qualifies!

He has surprised his neiece (my Mini Me) with crazy electric gifts such as:

• the Pumpkin costume (last Halloween),
• the lobster slippers (from a vacay in Boston) 
• hand-made Elmo-embroidered moccasions from a Native Canadian women (shhh…don’t tell the Trademark police!).

The most recent gift was equally kewl: GIANTmicrobes! 

E-coli, from GIANTmicrobes

We LOVED these funny & furry lil’ beasts! 

Head lice, flu germs, common cold & E.coli.  Brilliant!!! 

Thanks, Uncle Jeff! :)

ER, for REal

Scary karma.

Just 1 week after I write a (somewhat ‘witty’) post comparing the painful work of generating PR for my photo-personalized storybook to the pain of being in the ER, what happens?

My own darling daughter is admitted to ER!!!

F-E-A-R is waking up to a wheezing two-year old who is burning up with a fever; crying out in the dark.

Did I also mention that we were away from home when this happened? In a strange hotel.  In Washington, DC?!  (umm,…one of the violence capitals of America!).

As Canadians who happily benefit from our ’socialist health care system’, we were extremely relieved that we had medical coverage.  Even more relieved that our daughter was fine and ‘only’ had croup (aka ’seal bark’ coughing fits).  It was a scary Sunday night/Monday morning that lasted 4 hrs, involved 3 drs, 2 nurses, triage & our vomiting baby in the waiting room.

All made well by a steroid shot, a puffer & some meds. Thanks to the kind staff at George Washington Hospital.

I will never inadvertently trivialize the seriousness of being in ER again.

PR, not ER

Achieving ‘real’ PR for Mini Me’s Books (you know, the kind you don’t “pay for” ) is so much harder than I anticipated.  And I have 10+ years experience doing marketing for Blue Chip brands! YIKES!!

Why does drumming up PR feel like an exhausting stint in the ER? (no disrespect to anyone actually in ER – I don’t mean to be insensitive. Or to George Clooney, whom I would willingly enter ER for! ;)

Anyway, drumming up PR is enough to make you:

…sigh in frustration

…sign a crazy contract and have someone else do it for you (I did. It was an abysmal failure & a collosal waste of money. ouch!)

…hope that Google Adwords will magically solve all of your web traffic woes

Of course none of these options is the miracle ‘cure’.  But one can still believe in miracles, right?

Well, just like mom would say: “roll up your sleeves & do it yourself!”  So it is slower, and there is a longer learning curve, but I can definitely say that doing PR for myself – by myself – has proven more fruitful than the over-priced, smooth-talking PR agency.  No band-aid required!

Eco-Friendly Moms at NBC during Ad Week ‘09

Mini Me’s was short-listed by Ask Melissa for an NBC event, Eco-Friendly Moms’ “Win The Table” Giveaway at Advertising Week 2009!!   Our photo-personalized book is one of the few children’s books published on eco-friendly paper in Canada (not mass produced overseas using who-knows-what-practices?!?).

So basically, our books are printed on paper that meets the environmental and social standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the most acclaimed global standard for responsible forestry.  Isn’t your child – and the planet – worth it…?

My Two Mini Me’s

My Mini Me (baby) isn’t so small any more…She is now a toddler, embracing the Terrible Two’s with all the strength that her little arms will carry…

My Mini Me (e-comm biz) isn’t so small any more, either.  She is now a toddler, stretching my patience & my line of credit to the max. Again. And Again.

I love both my babies. Sometimes I wish they would stay small forever – these early days are so innocent and fun. Yet they are also frustrating & numbing tiring.  Both of my mini me’s are so needy, yet they also try hard to be independent. 

I always thought that twins would be scary – too much work, not enough time.  Although I got a different ’set’ of twins, it does feel like two young  responsibilities.  And I wouldn’t change a thing!

Summer goes Bye-Bye!

One of the unfortunate side effects of becoming a new parent (beyond loss of sleep, peace ‘n quiet & thousands of dirty diapers :) is the ‘baby-talk’ that follows. Example:

“Mommy said ‘No’! Mommy is not very happy right now!”

“Look, a birdie? Isn’t that a pretty, pretty birdie? Say ‘Hello’ to the birdie”

“Wave to the choo-choo. Wave ‘Hi’ to the choo-choo!”

So, it is in this context that Mommy (umm,…I mean “I”) say Bye-Bye (er, “farewell”) to summer.

Summer was a real Diva this year: she arrived late, left early &  dumped on everyone most weekends. Such a drama queen!  But I miss her all the same…

ps – most fittingly, this gorgeous painting is by Monet: Wheatstacks, End of Summer (1890-91)