Showing posts with label startpoint media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label startpoint media. Show all posts

Saturday, November 20, 2010

77kids Holiday Sneak Peek & Charity Launch - Giveaway

Today we attended the grand opening and holiday sneak peek & charity launch at the brand new location of 77kids in Ross Park Mall!  77kids is part of the American Eagle family and they have clothing for children from size 0-3 months to children's size 14.  The designs are fresh and fun!  Everything is constructed well, reinforced, and the pants have adjustable waists (score!).

Our main purpose for attending was to be introduced to the store and learn about the launch of their holiday charity efforts.  Watch this video for an overview of how you can donate from in the store:



In addition to donating in the store you can also help to raise money for local children's hospitals by making your very own snowflake once a day between today - December 14th!  77kids is asking for 100,000 snowflakes to be made so that they can donate an additional $25,000 to local children's hospitals, this particular store is donating to the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC.  The BEST part is that for every snowflake you make you are entered to win gift cards (they are giving away one $77 gift card DAILY!!!) and one lucky person will win a winter block party for them and 77 of their closest friends!  Sounds like a blast!  Making a snowflake takes about 2 minutes and the kids can have fun with this too!

77kids has graciously offered a $50 gift card for me to give to one of my lucky readers! Will it be you?  Submit your entries until 11:59 pm December 2nd!  I will contact the winner the following day and you'll have 48 hours to reply, if you do not reply I will have to move on to the next person on the list.

Here's how to enter:


Required for Entry - 
* Make a snowflake here and "like" 77kids on Facebook or Follow @77kids on Twitter.  Leave a comment here telling me you created your snowflake and either "liked" or followed.  INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS OR TWITTER NAME SO THAT I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU WIN!  

Bonus Entries - You'll get ONE EXTRA ENTRY for each of these below, just be sure to leave a separate comment for each of them noting what you did AND INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS OR TWITTER NAME!

*Tweet this: 
"@CaraRolinson is Giving Away a $50 gift card to @77kids! http://goo.gl/twdIs #77kids  "
Leave a comment here letting me know you Tweeted INCLUDE A LINK TO YOUR TWEET and EMAIL ADDRESS OR TWITTER NAME.

* Share your snowflake on Facebook.  Leave a comment here letting me know you shared INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS OR TWITTER NAME.

* Follow Me with Google Friend Connect, leave a comment here letting me know you followed me INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS OR TWITTER NAME. (if you already have connected via GFC then just leave a comment stating this is the case)

* Follow Me on Twitter, leave a comment here letting me know you followed me INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS OR TWITTER NAME. (if you already have connected via Twitter then just leave a comment stating this is the case)

****I was compensated for this post.  However, my thoughts and feelings on 77kids, their stores and their charity launch mentioned above are my own and are 100% honest to how I feel about them.****

Saturday, December 26, 2009

New Space

One of our err Chris's big projects to accomplish over Christmas break was to rearrange the 3rd floor office space. It's been over three years since we've last organized it, probably closer to four actually. Since that last organization, a LOT has changed with our companies and our family. Read: our needs have changed. He spent two days cleaning and moving and reorganizing this space.

It was quite cramped with too much furniture and our desks were facing each other in the middle of the room. There wasn't much room to spread out and work or play. It was very unfriendly to the kids too with lots of accessible cords and plugs.

This floor is quite functional, it's where our photo editing happens and is also used for equipment storage. I also have my craft area up there.

To help us gain more usable space, we moved things to the outer walls and ditched a huge couch. We now have the creative side and the storage side. This leaves the majority of the room open. There is enough room to have two little boys run in two separate circles at the same time and not have them collide. I've seen it with my own two eyes! Another permanent fixture is the kids' easel with crayons. Also, a small square ikea end table which doubles as a perfect kid-sized table.

Tonight we decided to move 'after dinner family time' to the 3rd floor. Each kid brought up a few toys. They played, we all played, Chris had some photos processing while he built a tent, the kids played together, he blogged, I chatted with a friend, I played. And just like that, it was kiddo bedtime! It was beautiful.

We are happy to have a new space to play and live in.

Here's a view of my new ginormous working/crafting area. In this photo, I am sewing the capes I last blogged about.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

New Things

Life has really stepped in the way of blogging lately! I'm sorry for the the lack of quality updates in over a month and beyond. I'm going to do my best to NOT let this happen again. I am going to blame a few things, one, the fall weather, during my free time with the kids, we've been outside a LOT and two, I haven't created much. I've been knitting away at a pair of socks, I've got one down and just started the 2nd a few days ago. sock number one fits like a perfectly snug dream! I think i've found my "go to" pattern for socks (rav link - it's also in my projects list) that fit my weird little feet. I can't wait to wear them as a team! LOL I have created some halloween costumes but I have no photos of those yet, so we'll save that as a topic for another post in the next few days.

So, since there is little crafting and really NO interesting cooking going on in this house, I am going to share some news about ME!

I realize that it's October and the end of it at that! I also realize that a good bit of my readers already know this but it's part of the big picture so that's where I'm starting. At the end of August I went back to school. I'm enrolled in three classes, two evening and one online. I hope to finish by Spring 2011. I'm majoring in Digital Media Journalism at Point Park University. So far, I love the classes and the time out of the house alone is really rejuvinating. It's amazing how much one misses the outside "grown-up" world when they are staying home with toddlers. The schedule change was a welcomed one by everyone in the family, Chris gets more time with the boys, the boys get a break from me and I get to talk to adults about things that don't include topics like sippy cups, snacks and dinosaurs... Win.Win.Win.

A few weeks ago during a playdate my friend asked me what my plans were after I complete my degree. Was I planning to work outside of the house? Was I planning something else? My answer at the time was, that I have loose plans to use my new digital media skills to create some sort of online presence in the craft world, writing a book is part of that loose plan as well. Since then, my direction has taken a slight turn. That is still something that I would like to do eventually. But I am now seeing a brighter and straighter path. Since that playdate I have found myself with a new job and this job brings lots of promise for others like it. Before I found this job, I had loose ideas about what I wanted to do. Those ideas struggled with me not wanting to be out of the house much if at all for work and they also struggled with my desire to be my own boss. Frankly, me getting a job out of the house would mean, that Chris and the kids would get to have all the fun in the summers while I sat in an office. NOT appealing to any of us. (i realize the double standard here, yes chris works the other 8 months out of the year in an office but those 8 months are the cold/wet/snowy/dark so it all sorta works out right?)

Then, all of a sudden, a new opportunity fell out of the sky, landed breifly on a local message board that I frequent, Pittsburghmom.com, and safely landed into my lap. The forum manager/director, and friend, later told me that she often receives emails from local companies looking to fill jobs with her forum readers and participants. Some are good some are not. This one, was exceptional. Basically this company was looking for a local stay at home mom to manage some social media directives a few hours a week for a client of theirs. Said, client, Steaz.com (I want to add, I've tried MOST of their products in the past week, I haven't met one that I didn't enjoy! They are organic, vegan, support fair trade and the company is VERY VERY eco friendly. It's awesome to be able to do work for a company that I can stand behind.) Anyways, I figured, I know how to use facebook and twitter AND I manage our pages for our own companies so I surely understand how this would fit into an advertising package. I also have public relations experience from my past life so, I jumped, I didn't leave my chair until I had an email prepared to send out inquiering about this new endevor. I heard back in a few hours via email, and we had quickly set up a time to talk on the phone the following day. That phone call went VERY well! Last week, I met with them locally and Wednesday, I am flying out to Philly with to meet the company founders and the rest of the team at their company headquarters. Just like that, I'm a social media consultant! and frankly, it all happened so fast, that it makes me giggle when I think about it.

In short, I'll be managing the facebook page and group for Steaz and using Twitter as well. We also have plans to do outreach to mombloggers for giveaways and some other fun things too! We'll be doing giveaways, and coupons and online events. (I'm sure that there will be a LITTLE bit of cross-over here with some product mentions, but don't worry, my main topics will not be about products, and they will continue to be about knitting, sewing and my family.)

If you're interested in following me as Steaz on Twitter, we're @steaz. They are currently figuring out their facebook presence, they have both a page and a group. After our meeting tomorrow, I should have a better idea about which one we'll be using regularly.

Also, Chris and I have added some new services to our offerings, you can read about those here.

Very Exciting Times are ahead!