Shoes For a Cause: An Internet Success Story
The shoe manufacturer, Toms has run a campaign to donate a pair of shoes to a child in need for every shoe that a paying customer buys. During their first year of operation, they sold 10,000 pair of shoes, and donated 10,000. Not too shabby! However with good, search engine optimization, including a robust Twitter presence and other social media management, Tom’s donated one MILLION pairs of shoes to children in 23 countries. Similar success was repeated by One Hope Wine.
Via: Wpromote
Its amazing what can be done with just one shoe purchase or the click of the “Like” button. It seems that internet campaigns are replacing the old fashioned act of going door to door to neighbors to collect funds for a cause. It seems so much easier to raise funds for a cause when the individual would purchase the clothing anyway, but might choose to buy sooner for the cause. What do you think about promoting a cause with your wares
One might say that Tom’s is a large operation and “my little shop needs to be known as the ‘best kept secret.’ I could never handle it.” Well, it is all relative. If you did just a little to increase your linkage and presence, a little shop that sells 3 items a month could sell even 10 items a month…you never know!
modern fashion, shoes and hoofwear | Comment (0)Jacket
Thanks for the article from Isaiah Gaines
I have been looking for a fleece jacket for my son. He had a blue one that I got on clearance at the end of last winter season and he loved it. However, when I put it on him today, he cried and kept saying that he wanted me to pull his sleeves down. Only then did I realize that it is too small for him.
This afternoon I have been using our Clear Allen internet to find a replacement for his jacket and have found some really good deals on kids clothing, but I have not been able to find the exact jacket I am looking for. My mom works part-time at a department store, so I may ask her to see if she can find him a similar jacket where she works. It is not that it matters that much what his jacket looks like, but I like the weight of the jacket because it is warm enough for cool weather but light enough for a warmer day.
I do not care about name brands. Our son is two years old, so it is not like the other kids at the preschool are going to be talking about what brands of clothing they wear. I guess I am going to just have to take the best deal I can find on whatever similar jacket I can find.
Uncategorized | Comment (0)There’s No Snow…But I Can See Christmas in Your Eyes
As you are donning your top coat and your driving gloves to hail the hansom cab to Grandmother’s house, or your eccentric uncle’s step-back-in-time bungalow, take comfort in the demise of the trend of flashing battery-powered Christmas ties. My dear Jewish friends, you were mercilessly spared, as I have yet to see LED menorah neck wear. You poor things. And menorahs seemed to be the perfect inspiration for glow in the dark novelty items and backlit and illuminated ties, footwear, and of course, hats and crowns.
Despite this obvious gap in the holiday tack, nothing delights your Uncle Mike or Aunt Gert like cheap eyeglasses, apparently with Santa Claus, reindeer or snowflakes on them. They are slightly less subtle than an Ugly Christmas Sweater as you have to be in close proximity, such as in the next seat on the zeppelin. Merely the eyeglass arms contain the highly nuanced scene — as highly nuances of banging out “Chestnuts on an Open Fire” on Aunt Tillie’s Hammond with a pipe wrench. If that’s your thing.
A true barometer of this trend is the annual family gathering of the VintageGent’s, Gent-ettes, and the not-so-vintage Modern Tots at the grandparent’s home. The family has gotten so large and stylish over the years that the only thing given are chocolate dinosaurs, prayers and well wishes of holiday cheer and reverence for the birth of Our Lord and a heavy dose of irony. However, the irony of giving tinsel and cans of snow are lost on the tots who never saw it all the first time. If my astute eyes pick out any of these jewels from the faces of the crowd, it is a sign that we are on the cusp of the biggest trend in eyewear, or we are merely on the back end, that they are so out that they are in.
(Photo compliments of ZenniOptical.com – Where you can see an entire gallery of spectacles for every holiday.)
modern fashion | Comment (0)An Elegant Pen for the Low-Maintenance Age
This post brought to you by Parker Pens. All opinions are 100% mine.
In far more perilous times, which are viewed as "gentler" times to us, a long feather wiggled over letters, Declarations and deeds. The birth of the fountain pen revolutionized correspondence, and the cartridge fountain pen made sending off missives to the king much more practical. After all, the ink splotched pocket was seen as a faux pas and not as the equivalent to a pocket protector for those with a geek fetish.
Now, Parker, who has been collectively keeping it classy since 1988, have tweaked the technology once again with the Parker Ingenuity collection. The cartridge-based pens produce the elegant letters which made you toss your plastic click pen years ago, but with no skips or smudges. In fact, pushing it around the paper has the feel of a roller ball, and the low-maintenance demeanor as a ball point.
What may sell folks who wouldn't normally consider a fountain pen is fashion. All of the Ingenuity styles feature a streamlined, modern look that is not in the least bit stodgy. Although you may think that your 10/$1 models work just fine, imagine that you are inking the deal on a home sale. Would you really want to hand something to them that smudges and runs out of ink on the dotted line? More embarrassingly, I was handed a free pen that advertised another business unrelated to the person that was having me sign. Unwittingly , it was even a competing business. Maybe, I'll have to gift them with a pen to thank them for the rousing endorsement of the other folks.
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In Calgary: Breathe in the Fashion
When I lived on the east coast, I had a scheme. My future self was going to sublet an apartment starting the week before the end of the college semester. So many students who lived overseas would dump vintage finds and designer and midcentury furniture and clothes on the curb or in the dumpster. They just could not take them with them. But why didn’t they at least send them to the consignment shop or give them to charity? The budding entrepreneur who would resell the mint condition luxury items was never that daring.
I have run into a few folks that said that Calgary is really where its at. You won’t find the Picasso in the dumpster quite like you would in Boston, but the proliferation of indie designers, vintage clothing and decor shops and neatly edited consignment and thrift stores makes up for it.
Urban Thrift boasts an eclectic collection of vintage finds and modern second hand clothing on 34th Avenue.
What’s in Store on Edmonton Trail is the cow-colored building that stocks clothing spanning from the 1950s through the 1980s.
Divine on 17th is the place to go for vintage T’s, sunglasses and track suits, as well as modernware.
Cat’s Eye is on 10th. Apparently, this shop as moved a few times, but if you can catch it – there is a mix of 1920s through the 1980s. They also do costume rentals.
What other haunts would you heartily recommend? Write in and let me know.
Fashion for Aspiring Hospitalistas
While dressing for work may allow latitude for originality at “creative” companies, jobs requiring uniforms are not as stifling as they may seem. There is something comforting, in some ways, about a routine. As long as one can keep up with the laundry, going to work in a uniform lends some anonymity for some, and tailored style for others. While the most famous uniforms, such as military dress blues, cut a dashing figure, green surgical scrubs are often the same shapeless sacks as they always were.
Maybe I am being a bit harsh, but while gentleman sometimes have an advantage, as many were made for the male form originally, the designs are sometimes equally unflattering to both genders. Scrubs for men are often limited to plain blue, as the patterns are frequently populated by kittens and pastel unicorns. For women, the baggy profile make most ladies look formless.
Next time you look into buying scrubs online, take a gander at Blue Sky Scrubs (On the web at http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/). The contrast-stitching on the pockets gives the plain designs some visual interest. The scrubs come in both male and female sizing scales. There is also a fitted top for ladies. It is not inappropriate or revealing in any way. It merely eliminates some of the superfluous materials under the arms that create a boxy silhouette. In the medical profession, extra fabric is not necessarily modest. It is a safety hazard when flapping sleeves get caught.
(Still) Having Teeth is Glamorous
This post brought to you by JB1010. All opinions are 100% mine.
Gingivitis Germs. Golf. Yes, lots of golf. The life of a dentist can be a bacteria-filled and solitary existence. Unless your friends are a nuclear nosed reindeer and a gold prospector. Unfortunately Hermie is one of the few screen icons that bring a glamorous spin to the profession. Too many screen dentists are just too depressing or frightening.
Then there's Austin Dentist Lance E. Loveless, DDS, whose life is apparently almost equally famed than the legendary Hermie. After all, not only does he have a name seemingly ripped from a gumshoe tale or a an 80s soap opera (the former I read, the latter…what's that?), but he made the cover of DENTALIFE. With the background defocus setting! He is just "That Guy." Of course, nowadays, instead of causes of anxiety and pain, dentists are magicians who make you magically younger because your teeth are white again, or so the glossy ads in the local Chamber of Commerce magazine say.
It is actually a good move to promote cosmetic dentistry with old school cavity grinding, as leery patients will perhaps equate dental work with a Hollywood makeover. Maybe they won't get made over every time, but teeth could potentially be saved when someone finally goes in after years of neglect.
It's embarrassing to say, but the fashion accessory I most neglected were saved. Yes, admittedly, despite sonic care-ing and whitening at home, I hadn't been to a dentist in a few years and the hygienist commented that I "came just in time" before any serious damage was done. Although in some circles, gold teeth and grillz are inexplicably still acceptable fashion statements, you don't want to adopt any fashion merely to hide what you don't have.
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