Kat wasn’t there, so I made myself comfortable at her desk. (Hi, Kat!)

Because I’m super lady-like, Stella (digital communications coordinator extraordinaire) encouraged me to jump on a Springfree Trampoline in my brand new Kate Spade dress.

See that look of pure glee? Thanks to multiple trampoline spring-induced bloody ankles and bruised knees of my youth, I’ve been more than a little cautious about hopping onto any old trampoline in my old age. Add that fear to a disc injury that left me bedridden for 3 months and turned me into a nervous Nelly and you’ve got a recipe for “trampoline terror”.  Knowing my fears (and having experienced the same crappy-trampoline-causing injuries as a kid) Stella reassured me the Springfree trampoline is a “softer” bounce than other trampolines (see: no unnecessary high-impact and no ricocheting off the tramp) and that I wouldn’t encounter any springs. Duh, it’s called a Springfree Trampoline!

I’m so glad I did! I’ve been on many trampolines in my day, and the Springfree was an entirely new experience. The bounce really was soft! Seeing as this was my first time back on the horse in many years, I was also really appreciative of the safety features Springfree offers, namely the lack of springs (no more ouch!) and the zip-up net without dangerous steel poles to hold it up (I’ve totally catapulted myself off a trampoline before).

I loved every minute on the Springfree. Stella, Kat, Britt…watch out! Your office is dangerously close to my house and you may have a new office pet willing to keep the trampolines warm (me). That, or my neighbours will soon find unsolicited visitors (me, again) in their backyard.

Want a Springfree Trampoline of your very own? Check out the website here.

Want to play with Springfree? Connect with the brand on Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook (and check out their awesome YouTube videos)!

The lineup just got EVEN better. Yes, apparently it’s possible to improve upon a lineup featuring Tim McGraw, Kid Rock and Carrie Underwood. The festival just announced that they’ve added Sheryl Crow, Phil Vassar, Crystal Shawanda, Shane Yellowbird, Charlie Major, JT Hodges, Derek Miller & Kira Isabella!

I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely picking up passes to this event. While the early bird tickets are already sold out, you can still buy 3-day passes ($209.99) and single day tickets ($114.99). Camping permits are also available and start at $70.99. Buy yours at http://www.bootsandhearts.com/.

The dedicated board implores fans to repin, setting a threshold of a certain amount of pins necessary for the link to the new song to go live. The links appear to be unlisted, meaning that the only way this content can be reached is through Pinterest or sharing.

Beyond repins, each new milestone (released song) unlocked gives way to another song with an even larger repin target. Combining a hot new platform like Pinterest with a concept involving gamification is an effective and fun way to not only increase engagement and visibility but also condition fans to the brand’s call to action.

Kudos to the Glee team for their fantastic work on this campaign.

What are your favourite innovative uses of social media?

On Friday morning, I got an email from someone named Mike, purporting to be a member of OWN TV’s social media team. After a few emails back and forth, I agreed to give him my phone number. As someone in PR and social media, I thought it was a bit weird that they’d want to phone me without explaining what they were going to say/offer, but curiosity got the best of me.

Imagine my surprise when I got a phone call from an Illinois number while out for lunch with coworkers (the SM team works out of NYC). Yes, the call was from Harpo Studios.

Having read my blog post after being alerted to it by the social media team, Harpo Studio’s Director of Audience Services reached out to me directly to apologize for my bad experience. As she explained, Harpo Studios wasn’t the direct event planner - the event was actually run by a group called The Power of Women. According to her, my experience would have been incredibly different had I been able to make the show in NYC. As things go with events like these, certain requests made by the Oprah/Harpo team were not recognized by the sponsor and the event was not run as the Harpo team would have liked. She also told me that the suggestions I made were taken to heart and were things they always abide by during regular tapings with Oprah and OWN.

The crowd at Oprah's Lifeclass in Toronto (via Oprah on Facebook)

I really appreciated the clarification, but, at the end of the day, the Oprah brand is something that should have been protected more fiercely. The brand experiences I and the other attendees had were with Oprah and not the Power of Women. The brand experience I will share was, at its roots, with Oprah. While I definitely understand Harpo Studio’s desire to separate themselves from the event and how it was organized – and really appreciate the phone call – I can’t absolve them from all blame. I definitely think they learned from this experience and from the ensuing backlash, though, and hope that future partnerships are more carefully considered and managed.

As for crisis management, the phone call left me feeling a little bit better about my experiences. It was nice to know that someone involved had heard my complaints and was acting upon them. From start to finish, my interaction with the social media team and Harpo lasted a couple of hours. For such a large organization, that’s really impressive. Kudos to VaynerMedia, the social media agency for OWN TV + the Harpo Studios team for a relatively quick response – it definitely didn’t go unnoticed.

Some suggestions from the Kony 2012 website:

1. Posters and yard signs: start with the posters from your kit (or download them here). While you’re doing your service project get permission from local businesses, organizations, and neighbors to put them in their windows and on their lawns.
2. Magazine Inserts: download them, print them out, and slip them into magazines and newspapers.
3. Murals: You don’t have to be an amazing artist. Ask a local business to donate a wall for your team to paint. You can even offer to paint over it in a few weeks
4. Reverse Graffiti: that’s when you clean a message into a dirty wall. Brilliant.
5. Astonish Us: We’re talking billboards, crop circles, sky writing, lasers, blimps, and building banners.

Now, this is all well and good. In fact, I’d even argue that the momentum and motivation sparked by the original video might have actually incensed people to participate and “cover the night” (whether or not that would have made a difference). However, it’s been a month and a half. I was actually surprised to see the event reminder on Facebook this week, since I thought it had already happened!The Kony 2012 campaign is no longer just up against critics – it’s up against time, apathy and crisis.

It’s been a month and a half since the campaign debuted. While the initial campaign and video spread like wildfire online, it’s been weeks since the campaign was in the media or since newsfeeds were plastered with the video. The call to action was strong, but, in the weeks since, attention has waned.

What’s more, the campaign capitalized on the uninformed – those who had never heard of Kony, those who were enamoured with the idea of saving the world, even casual Sunday slacktivists. While the gloss and glam of participating in a worldwide campaign to stop a hated war criminal attracted participants like moths to a flame, the fire burning has been squelched during the long wait. Without daily reminders, many of these first-time activists likely forgot all about the cause.

During the video’s break from the spotlight, criticisms against the campaign, Invisible Children and co-founder Jason Russell mounted. Showings of the Kony 2012 video in Uganda sparked outrage from participants, citing lack of actual context. Russell’s meltdown made headlines. The 33-year-old was found nude and masturbating in public, as well as vandalizing cars and appearing to be under the influence. Instead of building momentum towards the night of action weeks away, supporters were instead focused on damage control. For the mostly uninformed volunteer base, these crises likely inspired a change of heart.

So – what will happen on Friday? Will Invisible Children supporters indeed cover the night? My prediction is that the event will be small, if at all attended. Those who participate will be those who deeply believe in the cause and would defend it to the death on researched reason, not the casual, uninformed “activists” initially targeted.Of course, you’ll also see participation from those individuals who jumped on the bandwagon so whole-heartedly that they now need to prove themselves to skeptics.

We’ll have to see what remains when the dust settles on Saturday morning.

Hanging out with your cat? Catching a flick? Barhopping?

Rethink your plans.

For the 10th year, pretty young things will be flocking to Rethink Breast Cancer’s Red & White Ball. The plan? Sipping on Yellow Tail from the open wine bar, shimmying to DJ Slim Signal’s picks and leaving the Courthouse with some sweet swag (and likely a few new Facebook friends). This is anything but your parent’s charity event.

Tickets are nearly sold out, so head over to www.redandwhitetoronto.com to buy yours now for $60!

Want to read more? Check out coverage of Red & White Ball in the Toronto Standard.

What does that even mean? Well, I’m that girl who sleeps with her makeup on to avoid washing her face (but enjoys the perfect smoky eye the next AM). That girl who does two Whitestrips in a row because she can’t commit to a two-week stint. That girl who layers on a bunch of serums once very couple of weeks because she can’t remember to do it daily.

That’s why I’m all about products that let me multitask, especially when it comes to daily routines.

Colgate Optic White

This superhero toothpaste whitens and brightens like a strip, but does so gently. I saw results in a week, with a serious change in 3-4 (I’m told this is typical), thanks to the same whitening ingredient found in strips. I’m a whitening fiend, so trust me when I say this stuff works. With a summer of bright lips ahead of us, there’s no better way to prep than using a whitening toothpaste daily. Squeaky clean teeth, cavity protection and extra-pearly whites? Count me in!

Bonus: exfoliate lips with an old toothbrush or a washcloth before bed each night then layer on the Vaseline. Totally kissable!

Vichy ProEVEN Daily Dark Spot Corrector

Summer typically means less makeup, so I’m all for a product that moisturises, helps to erase dark spots and gives your skin an instant radiance. Vichy ProEVEN helps to even out your skin without ever being harsh – you can use it all over your face! Along with the longterm brightening benefits of daily use, it also instantly makes your skin glow thanks to light-diffusing particles. Instant gratification? I can get behind that.

YES to Cucumbers Hypoallergenic Facial Towelettes

I discovered these little wonders at Natural Product Expo West in California and was instantly smitten. Seriously – I picked up a bulk pack as well as dozens of single-use packs. Safe for sensitive skin, these wipes remove dirt, oil, makeup and sweat in seconds – perfect for lazy girls who “forget” to take off their makeup after a long night or are just plain lazy at bedtime. Even better – thanks to the green superfoods they’re made with, these all-natural, biodegradable towelettes exfoliate, detoxify and rejuvenate your skin all at once.

All products are available at Shoppers Drug Mart.

What are your favourite multi-taskers?

** Disclosure: Products from Colgate and VICHY were provided to me by their respective PR companies for my honest review. **

That said, when my mom first got lucky in the NYC ticket lottery, I was completely onboard to visit NYC and see Oprah’s Lifeclass (for free!) at Radio City  Music Hall. Unfortunately, she ended up fracturing her foot and we were unable to make the trip to NYC for the weekend. Luckily, or so we thought, tickets had just gone onsale for Oprah’s Lifeclass in Toronto! Although the Emerald and Executive tickets had sold out (~$300-$500), we were happy to pay ~$200/each for “General” tickets. In what would become hugely ironic, my mom said, “There are only two small sections in front of us – I’m sure the seats will still be great!”.

Here’s how my Oprah experience played out:

Top 3 things wrong with Oprah’s Lifeclass in Toronto:

1. Lack of crowd control, logistics and organizationWhere were the volunteers and security telling us what was going on? Where was the designated line-up? Better yet, why was there such a large line-up at all? It amazes me that, with all the other acts that come to Toronto, it was only Oprah who couldn’t find a way to get everyone into the venue on time and without huge lineups. Line-cutting was also rampant and there were reports of fights breaking out in the indoor holding areas.
   Next time: If the lineup is inevitable, find a way to control the crowd
2. Venue choiceMTCC is not set up for shows like Oprah. Only those at the very front, paying about $500 and those at the very back paying $50 got their money’s worth. They got what they paid for (proximity and, I’d assume, the experience of being in the same room as Oprah). For the rest of us, we may as well have been watching at home, since we had to rely solely on the large screens to see anything at all.
   Next time: try someplace like the ACC or even the Rogers Centre. Even if you’re far away, being able to see the stage somehow makes that suck less.
3. Lack of ticket price graduation
   To hear that tickets ranged from $500-$50, one would assume a larger difference between the seats for someone who paid $200 and someone who paid $50. This wasn’t the case.
   Next time: have more ticket levels. Although my seats were terrible, I probably would have felt less terrible about them if I’d paid less. Instead, I knew that the person incredibly close to the front paid the same as me, way at the back.

Overall, my experience was really tainted by both the line-up process and my eventual location in the venue. I wish that the Oprah team had thought about the experience of the show rather than the potential for revenue when planning it. Although other venues in Toronto might have resulted in lower ticket sales due to less seating, I’m sure that fans would have had an overall better experience.

PS. If you’re going to encourage people to use the “Free Wifi” to tweet and Facebook about the show, it might be a good idea to make sure it actually works. Back in the “cheap seats”, we had extremely spotty access to data coverage and the Lifeclass wifi didn’t work at all.

UPDATE: Oprah’s team got in touch. Find out what happened here.

Too often, this question is answered flippantly and without giving thought to what our mood actually is that day. Worse, we might be afraid to share how we’re really feeling for fear of discrimination, scrutiny or pity.

This April, the Not Myself Today campaign is working to mobilize Canadians to pledge their support for mental health and adopt a transformed understanding of what it is like to live with and seek treatment for mental health problems or illness.

“All Canadians have had days when they didn’t feel like themselves – maybe they have felt anxious, stressed or even depressed – paying attention to these feelings is part of taking care of one’s own mental health,” says Partners for Mental Health President Jeff Moat. “It is our hope that Canadians will begin to think about their own and others’ mental health, to learn about the serious gaps that exist today in treatment, support services, research, funding and public understanding, and rally together to show compassion and solidarity for those living with mental illness.”

How can you help?

Visit NotMyselfToday.ca to sign the online pledge for mental health and pin your mood to the mood map. Feel like sharing even more? Join the conversation about mental health by posting videos, audio recordings or short essays online about your own personal experiences with mental health.

So, how am I feeling today? On edge & anxious. You might know the feeling – weird flutters, tight chest, fight or flight. I couldn’t tell you why, but I can tell you it’s unsettling and something I experience on an on-and-off basis. Sometimes it lasts for an hour, sometimes for a week. Sometimes I go weeks without it. What I do know is that it helps to talk about it. Acknowledging the feeling is, for me, the first step in making it go away. I’m not myself today.

How are you feeling today?

This weekend, I had the pleasure of brunching with some of Toronto’s best and brightest lady-bloggers. Organized by  Valerie Stachurski of I’m Charming You along with Nicki from View The Vibe, we braved the rain to check out La Societe.

After salivating over the menu, we all decided on variations of the same thing – Eggs Benedict (some with salmon, some with lobster, some Florentine). Perfectly poached eggs, buttery Hollandaise, garlicky spinach and spongey brioche with a side of crispy potato hash made for the perfect brunch.

Of course, no brunch is complete without a mimosa (courtesy of Ink Events).

There really isn’t a better way to spend a rainy Saturday morning than with some of the bubbliest and brightest bloggers in Toronto.

Don’t forget to show some love to the ladies in attendance:

• Nicki from View the Vibe
• Val from I’m Charming You
• Caron Court
• Wendy & Lisa from Hip Urban Girl
• Tiffany from She’s So Savvy