Method Home: People Against Dirty

Many years ago I saw a really cool looking bottle of hand soap at the store made by a company called Method Home. I liked the design of the package so I tossed it in my cart. It worked and smelled great, and I later discovered that their complete line of home and personal care products are all natural. What more could a girl ask for? Cute packaging, good for the environment (and my health) and it actually works. I was hooked.

As a marketer, I've continued to admire them and have been impressed by their punchy copy (ex: People against dirty), their cool partnership with Virgin America, and their creative user engagement tactics.



In their "laundry room love" video they asked fans to submit video of themselves doing scripted moves and then stitched them together into a master video. Fun stuff.



Then last week I was in the city in a cafe, and the Method Home biodiesel truck pulled up. On the back was an e-mail address and a message offering "handsome rewards" for those that wrote in saying where they spotted the truck. I wrote in, and got a voucher for a free product in the mail.



Needless to say, it was a positive experience with their brand, and I remain a raving fan.

My chance encounter with a balloon art star from TLC's Unpoppables!

I recently went to a birthday party where I knew just one person: the birthday girl. I assumed my afternoon would be filled with awkward small talk with other guests while she flitted around greeting her many friends. I couldn't have been more wrong.



I met a balloon artist: Brian Asman who runs a business called Balloons Equal Fun. Now, I know you're probably thinking "Big deal Lori. A guy who makes animals out of balloons" - but this isn't your average balloon guy. Go, go, GO to his web site and click through the "folks, decor and twisted" photo galleries to the left of the main image. It's truly amazing. He even does personal caricatures and has worked corporate events for companies like Yelp and personal parties for stars like Robin Williams.

Brian makes INCREDIBLE Balloon art. He wasn't working at the party, but when he casually showed me a few of his photos on his phone, I immediately said "you could be the Duff or Cake Boss of the balloon world." Then he told me TLC had already taped 6 episodes of a show called "Unpoppables" profiling a team of "balloon artists" working together for events. You can see another clip here:


Personally I think the show would have been better with just Brian, but I'm probably biased given my chance to meet him and see him and see his work firsthand. It just goes to prove that you never know who you're going to meet and that there are fascinating stories to be heard in the least expected situations. Thanks Robin, for inviting me to meet your friends. As they said in Avenue Q, "There is life outside your apartment."

A golden retriever's kryptonite

Holly has loved the water as long as I've owned her. Even though her voice recall off leash has improved over time, she just can't resist the call of the water.



When Brett and I got married, we took her with us to Rochester. While packing up the car for the drive back we realized she was gone. We called for her and she was nowhere to be found. Starting to panic I yelled out one more "HOLLY!" and we saw a head pop up in the pond behind my parents' house. We smelled wet dog for the entire trip back to DC.

When we lived in Amsterdam our teenage dog walker asked if he could take her off leash at the park to throw a tennis ball for her. We told him he could, but that he had to keep her on leash on the way to the park, and whenever water was in sight. He proudly told us that he had already tried her off leash and "she listens." We shrugged and said ok and then laughed when he brought her back dripping in mud an hour later. "She doesn't listen when she sees water" he said. We didn't have to say "I told you so."

Yesterday I was cleaning the house and heard splashing out back. I saw a golden retriever playing in the marsh and realized it was Holly. She was having such a blast that I decided to let her play - but I've learned my lesson to keep the deck door shut.

Cupcakes cupcakes cupcakes

Last weekend I flew to Rochester to spend some time with my niece and nephew. One of our activities was to make cupcakes. I brought my cupcake book with me and they each chose a design. My niece wanted to make banana split cupcakes, while my nephew went for the ghost angle.
Although the cupcakes didn't look quite like the ones in the book, everyone agreed that eating them was fun.

My own personal "Cake Wrecks"

I'm a sucker for cute cupcakes, and last week I saw an adorable book called "What's New Cupcake" which proclaims that making adorable cupcakes is easy for even the average person. I'm heading to Rochester to see my family so I bought the book, thinking it would be the perfect afternoon activity for me and my niece.

After getting home and browsing the adorable pictures, I went to their facebook fan page to look at user submitted photos. While the user photos were all cute, many were far short of the beautifully styled cakes in the book. Could the average person REALLY do this?

Since I manage a Canadian team, and it's Canadian Thanksgiving today, I thought I'd try to make their turkey cupcakes. Armed with about $30 in ingredients, I set to work, melting caramels and rolling them out to make turkey skins and drumsticks, and to make "lettuce" out of corn flakes, food coloring and frosting.


How did it turn out? Let's just say, I'm not a pro and don't have the patience to make 12 cupcakes all by myself. I gave up after the 1st one. My own personal Cake Wrecks.

Santa Fe - Not a bad place to spend the weekend

When Brett and I started dating, he spoke fondly of the 2 years that he had lived in Santa Fe. We've gone a few times over the years, and I have to say it's a great little town.
Lots of nice hikes, galleries, spas, restaurants. I enjoyed browsing the numerous shops, though I'm not sure I want a mirror in my house with "lo feo" on it...

Not sure I need an inflatable fruitcake either :-)

A nature movie in our back yard

One of the things I love about our rental is the waterfront location. Growing up with a mom who was a wildlife rehabilitator and animal lover was bound to leave its mark.

With the tide changes we see a never ending mix of shore birds and wildlife - like the flock of pelicans, or the seagull that poops on our dock, running towards us when he sees us, hoping for a handout. We've also seen seals, sand pipers, and the usual ducks and geese. Every now and then a heron will wander the marsh grasses behind our house. I love watching it all.