When people ask me why I do what I do, the answer is always pretty easy: I love the Internet. The constantly fluid state keeps me on my toes and I never get bored. Three things really stood out to me this week, so grab a cup of coffee and enjoy this internet snack attack.
David Cameron sparks a meme with a single photo
Ever wonder how a meme is born? See above. His team probably thought this was an innocuous yet impactful look into how UK Prime Minister David Cameron has been dealing with the situation in Ukraine. The people of the internet saw it as an opportunity. Have I mentioned I love Twitter? I really do. It’s the only social platform where this kind of quick, organic conversation can blow up and be joined so rapidly.
Mentorship made easy with Ten Thousand Coffees
Yesterday, I was asked to join Ten Thousand Coffees as an expert. The premise? It’s easy to have a coffee with someone and just chat about your career, but it can be hard for new grads to meet (or even identify) the people who can really make a difference for them. With Ten Thousand Coffees, you don’t need to “know” someone to get an introduction to leaders in your industry – you just need to create an account on the site and find the expert you want to sit down with. I’ve only had a profile for a day, but I’ve already received two coffee requests from incredibly impressive individuals. I can’t wait to sit down for coffee with the next generation for social media & communications professionals. Want to get coffee? Send me a request & see my profile here.
Oscar Meyer’s Wake Up & Smell the Bacon
OK, smell-o-vision hasn’t happened yet…but you can wake up to the sweet sweet smell of bacon thanks to Oscar Meyer. This kitschy campaign will award up to 4,700 lucky winners with their very own bacon scent alarm clock. It hooks up to your iPhone and looks magical. Get more information here. If you win, I demand to test it out.
I’ll cut to the chase: I was in a (minor) car accident on Friday. I’d had a great morning meeting with potential wedding vendors and was driving along St. Clair approaching Yonge to begin my hunt for vintage teacups (more on that later) when I was hit from behind at a red light.
I walked away with a busted bumper and back pain, but the woman in the middle car wasn’t as lucky – she had head trauma & bleeding. Almost immediately after impact, numerous people rushed across the busy street to our aid. I’ll be honest – I wasn’t expecting it. It’s really easy to keep walking, but so many people did the opposite. While I was on the phone with 911 ordering an ambulance for the elderly woman who had been injured in the middle vehicle, the man who had rushed over applied pressure to her bleeding head and kept her calm. He’d taken photos of the incident as well and handed me his card as he left the scene. Over the evening, I thought shooting him an email to say thank you but realized I could do one better.
Starbucks Tweet-A-Coffee allows for instant gifting using Twitter. It’s incredibly simple – once you set up your account, you can begin tweeting $5 coffees immediately! This wasn’t my first time at the Tweet-A-Coffee rodeo – I’ve previously sent congratulatory and birthday Tweet-A-Coffees – but this was the first time I really saw the value vs. the novelty of it. I sent the coffee from my hair appointment the next morning while my mom watched – she thought it was the coolest thing ever and spent the rest of the day telling people about my “internet coffee gift”.
Check out the video below to see how it’s done:
I’m so glad I was able to say thank you to at least one of the people who came to help us in a tangible way. I’m also super-grateful that we were all able to walk away from the incident for the most part. It could have been far worse than it was. If you’re ever in a position to help, please offer to do so. Even offering to call 911 can make a huge difference.
With a year and 100 days to go (as of yesterday!) until our big day, we’re in wedding mode. Everything seems to be happening at once – I’m gearing up to ask my bridesmaids, booking consults with wedding planners and attended my first wedding show since being engaged this past weekend. The Wedding Room, presented by Hudson’s Bay at The Arcadian Court, promised to be a one-stop-shop for wedding inspiration and vendors and 100% delivered.
I attended with fellow bride-to-be Brigid and my mom and can honestly say we had the best day. We left with so many ideas! Brigid and I also had way too much fun exclaiming “We are!” whenever a vendor asked which one of us was the bride.
Yes, they thought we were marrying one another. We’re more than OK with that. Brigid and I are having completely different weddings yet have similar aesthetics, so it was great to experience the show with her. If you weren’t able to attend the show, here’s what caught my eye.
Sky-high flowers
From arches and cakes to a full-on canopy, floral design has been elevated in a big way. Flowers have always been a standard part of wedding decor, but I’ve seen more and more brides use them in luxurious ways that don’t end at arrangements. I fell in love with the idea of a roof of flowers after seeing photos of an installation at the WedLuxe show and all of the inspiration I encountered over the weekend is not making that yearning go away.
This canopy from Forget Me Not Flowers is what dreams are made of. The vendor suggested it would make a great chuppah or even head/sweet table decor. Sign me up!
Gold touches
It’s no secret around here that I love all things gold. It’s going to be one of my wedding colours, so I’ve been looking for fun ways to incorporate it into the day. I loved this entire tablescape from Bits & Blooms, but the gold flatware and acrylic nameplates really caught my eye. I’d love to have these made for the head table – what a great keepsake! And yes…my fiance’s name being the one they were featuring did make it way easier to envision this at our wedding.
Intricate sweets & treats
I don’t really have an idea of what I want our cake to look like, but I loved the look of this sky-high lacy cake from The Wedding Cake Shoppe. After having such an amazing experience with them during our engagement parties, I was so excited to see what Bobbette & Belle would whip up for the show. I wasn’t disappointed.
The mint & pink sweet table dotted with florals and ribbons was exactly what I think of when I dream of the perfect wedding sweet table. I love the dipped cake pops and the tiny personal cakes on pedestals to add dimension to the table. Consider this inspiration central!
Fluffy dresses
Heavenly, right? Kleinfeld Canada doesn’t officially open until May, but 40 lucky brides-to-be were able to get an appointment to try on Pnina Tornai dresses at The Wedding Room. If this selection is any indication of what shopping at Kleinfeld will be like, I can’t wait! I got to chat with one of the consultants and she got me extremely excited for my June 1 appointment.
There is a dress I’m pretty much ready to say yes to, though – the adorable flower girl dress we spotted! How cute is this tulle number? I can’t wait to dress up the little girls in frothy confections of dresses.
Thanks to The Wedding Room, I was able to find invitations I loved, meet with a potential wedding planner I’d had my eye on for awhile and find a great photo-booth vendor. I can’t wait to attend next year’s show.
Today, Facebook introduced a newsfeed change that will allow for additional exposure in posts where brands tag other brands. With this change, page posts where brands tag other brands (see example below) will appear in the timelines of users who follow both pages.
For example, in the post above fans of both LEOPARD is a NEUTRAL and Lise Watier would see the page post, whereas only fans of LEOPARD is a NEUTRAL would have seen the post previously.
This change is another that allows brands to act more like individual users on Facebook – the platform has always allowed for this functionality between users (ie. when you tag a photo of a friend, both you and your friend’s followers can see it). It’s also a huge opportunity for brands to co-brand and leverage the followings of their partners/other brands. This change will also be effective for bloggers: using this feature will allow for your content about a brand to be delivered to some fans of the brand. Ideal!
Image via Facebook
As with all changes, this one is a bit of a double-edged sword. While it’s a plus that page followers will be able to see more organic, related content about the brands and pages they like, it’s also a potential issue for brands that are not officially partnered. This change allows for brands to leverage the audience of other brands, a potentially contentious issue during a time when building a fanbase is incredibly tough (and expensive).
For brands/public figures that are not friendly with one another, this feature also allows for one brand to “page-jack” another. Consider an activist group tagging a major brand or politicians commenting on one another’s platform points/flaws.
As with all Facebook changes, I’m very curious to see how this one will play out.
Do you think this change is positive?
See Facebook’s official comment about the release.
No offense to Wiarton Willie, but I’m just about ready for spring. It seems a lot of you are in the same boat – my Instagram feed has been flooded with bunches of tulips and aspirational spring shopping for the last few weeks! While I’m all for flowers and springy dresses, I’ve got my eye on a wear-it-now prize: spring beauty collections.
Spring beauty will always be about the balance of soft, romantic pastels and punchy brights for me. Lise Watier’s Spring 2014 collection, Imagine, straddles both areas beautifully. While the collection includes an eyeshadow quartet with vibrant blue and romantic rose to stretch your creativity, it also contains a gorgeous quartet of pastel matte shadows. The whole collection is inherently wearable and the compact design alone gives me hope for warmer temps.
Stunning, right? The watercolour cotton candy clouds are a welcome reminder of hazy dreams laying in a patch of sunshine. After the moodiness of winter, popping open the compact to find the punchy shades of the Quatuor Imagine Eyeshadow Quartet ($36) was like spotting that first valiant green stem breaking through the earth in your front yard after the final frost.
They’re completely wearable, too. Smooth and blendable, the shades work well as a quartet and also play well with others – imagine a pop of blue over your usual cat-eye or in place of your favourite dark shadow. I can’t wait to give the official Imagine collection look a try! It’s ethereal and oh-so-pretty.
The mosaic Imagine blush ($32) is one swirl away from brightening your entire complexion. The blush is highly pigmented but blends beautifully – it’s become one of my go-tos for every day.
A girl can never have enough mattes, and the Quatuor Eyeshadow Quartet in Les Mats ($33) is no exception. You’ll see more in the look below, but these shades blend beautifully and go on like a dream. The shadows can be used wet or dry for different effects and will easily become the ones you grab each morning.
A gorgeous lipstick, charcoal waterproof eyeliner, clear gloss with a fun light-up applicator and a “Magic Lip Colour Enhancer” ($22) that uses your skin’s pH to create a unique pink shade just for you. I’ve always been skeptical of this kind of product, but I’m pretty obsessed with the perfect pink it creates on me.
Get the look: Les Mats
I’m planning to give the look above a try, but knew that I’d get the most use of the matte shadow quartet in this collection for day-to-day use. I don’t usually apply shadow or liner on my lower lashline, but I’m loving how beautifully the grey shades smoke out my look. It’s a bit sultrier than what I’d usually wear to the office, but it’s definitely a look I’d be comfortable sporting.
Products used: It Cosmetics Eyebrow Pencil, Lise Watier Quatuor Eyeshadow Quartet in Les Mats , NARS Creamy Radiant Concealer, Lise Watier Imagine Blush, Lise Watier Magic Lip Colour Enhancer, Lise Watier Waterproof Eye Pencil in Smokey Grey, Lancome Butterfly Mascara
Get the look:
This look will only take a few minutes to attain, but looks like you’ve spent far more time on your makeup.
Apply the white shadow from the Les Mats quartet all over your lid and up to the browbone. Brush the rose gold shade from lash to crease across the whole lid. Contour in the crease with the light grey shade. Define the outer corners with the dark grey shade in a V-shape. Apply foundation & concealer, if required. Line the upper lashline with the waterproof eye pencil in smokey grey, then press the dark grey shadow into the bottom lashline. Highlight your inner corners with the white shadow. Apply mascara.
Swirl your blush brush in the Imagine blush, then sweep across the apples of cheeks and into the hairline. Apply Magic Lip Colour Enhancing Gloss and smile.
Which item are you coveting from this collection?
Products in this post were sent for editorial consideration and review. As always, I’m sharing them with you because I love them and think you will, too.
