High heels are, literally, a pain in your calf! At least they are for me, and I’m thrilled that the “hot style and hottest look” is wearing flats.

According to Style Editor Judy Gordon of the Today Show, “This season, flat shoes are chic, hip and trendy . . . the ballerina flat is one of the trendiest shoes going? And there are so many ways to wear it! If your style is chic and sophisticated, channel your inner Audrey Hepburn and wear a simple ballet flat with A-line skirts and slim capris. Feeling feminine? Lace on a pair covered in floral embroidery, metallic brocade, or white cotton eyelet. And if you want the hottest trend, find the most outrageous ballet flats that you can — glitter-covered, jeweled, in animal prints or snakeskin — and wear them with everything you own.” Sandles are relatively easy to buy through catalogs. Many offer FREE Shipping deals.

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“What Worked, What Didn’t” is the subject matter which I’ll be sharing at this years catalog conference. Herschell Gordon Lewis, the character and legend within the direct mail industry that I met back in 1996, will be chairing the panel. I met Herschell back in 1996, when we sought Herschell’s advice, and now, 9 years later, I’ll be sharing the podium as one of his panelists. I’m a bit nervous (the art of public speaking is still something I’m trying to master).
If anyone reading this blog will be attending, please comment back and let me know.

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It just arrived in the mail. Recently my husband ordered gourmet dry pasta from Rossi Pasta & Co. Last night I made a delicious eggplant sauce with three (3) cups of Cabernet Sauvignon, red & green bell peppers, capers, onion, fresh garlic & mushrooms, and lot’s of love and simmering. Of course, my kids hated it but we thought it was delicious over the saffron angle hair pasta. You can’t get pasta like this at the local supermarket!
I love having Italian dinners with a great Merlot.

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I had my 2nd acupuncture this morning. Fourteen (14) needles later, admittedly some tears running down my cheeks as the evil doctor twisted and turned the needles every 15 minutes as the pain shot through my eyes, head, ankles and feet.

Low and behold … no more sinus infection with tons of disgusting colored mucus. Does acupuncture really work? I’m s-l-o-w-l-y becoming more of a believer. I’ll keep you posted (heck, perhaps I can say NO to antibiotics once and for all?)

Posted by Melody at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Baby boomers and folks with lot’s of discretionary income are “turning kitchens inside out, with outdoor dining furniture and gear that mimic indoor living. Some companies are even selling artwork to be hung outdoors and, oddly enough, artificial plants designed for outside use,” according to Time Magazine author Lisa McLaughlin .

Personally, I can’t wait to re-do our backyard patio area. I just bought some outrageous lighting that looks like tulip plants, as well as I really think a steel garden gazebo would look great in my garden.

Of course, my husband would prefer the natural look of teak.

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Imagine 25 acres of a tropical botanical garden interspersed with over $5 million worth of hand blown glass! Each piece of glass blown and placed outside, among the gardens, to appear like it came from nature. I just had the opportunity to tour South Florida’s Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens, featuring internationally renowned Dale Chihuly. After the tour, of course, I had to shop … I entered the Gallery so excited about buying an original Chihuly, only to find the cheapest one was selling for $4,500.00 (about 8 inches in diameter). Mark my words … it will be worth double this in 5 years!

What really amazed me as I was touring and learning about the “magic” of Chihuly is that his basic premise applies to most of corporate America and certainly to Catalogs.com. His concept (and ours) is that one who works alone often accomplishes much LESS than working cooperatively within a team.

Here's how Chihuly brings teamwork into artwork "He has revolutionized the Studio Glass movement, by expanding its original premise of the solitary artist working in a studio environment to encompass the notion of collaborative teams and a division of labor within the creative process . . . Chihuly's practice of using teams has led to the development of complex, multipart sculptures of dramatic beauty that place him in the leadership role of moving blown glass out of the confines of the small, precious object and into the realm of large-scale contemporary sculpture."

Glass is one of the oldest forms of art and dates back to about 3500 years ago. But I can promise you you’ve never seen anything like this!

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Purses are like shoes ... you can't have too many. I don't know about you, but I have to buy NEW purses each summer season. It has something to do with Spring cleaning and brainwashing myself that I deserve several new handbags each summer! Heck ... I'm worth it!

Dillard’s department stores are offering an awesome deal ... bring in one of your old, ratty, ugly, worn -out handbags (you know, the ones your'e getting ready to donate to charity anyway), and you will receive a discount on any regular-priced handbag purchase of $50.00 or more. Used handbags will be donated to a local charity.

Another place to look for cool handbags which are already reasonably priced is at Alloy, where a functional and summer white slouch bag costs ONLY $25. Check out a cotton and bamboo rattan tote for the summer if you're looking for something perfect with jeans.

I recently attended a fancy wedding, and bought a drop dead gorgeous evening bag.It was a gorgeous metal purse featuring Swarovski stones on its exterior and a gold satin interior -- and what a steal -- only $15.99

Another "have to have" bag is Kenneth Cole's small bucket leather purse. On sale for just $109 (reg. $190), or Echo's sassy lime green stachel on sale for $69.99 . . . normally $108.00.

Go treat yourself (just don't tell your husband or boyfriend how many you buy)!

Posted by Melody at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Just 10 minutes ago we launched a new Senior Living category on Catalogs.com. Just because your body may be changing, we've heard from thousands and thousands of consumers who's mind and spirit is still young as ever, yet are requesting special products and equipment to adjust and adapt to their current needs.

Baby Boomers are now benefiting from special products and services now available which are unique to their needs, such as special nutritional supplements & vitamins, support & medical hosiery/pantyhose, medical & rehabilitation equipment, bifocals, magnifiers and special eyeglasses, home safety devices, products for Alzheimer patients, even specialized travel and tour packages for seniors.

On-line and catalog shopping really meets the needs of the elderly, as many are either embarrassed to buy products at the stores, thus admitting their age. But the most common reason we have found elderly people seeking products is because its EASY … no driving, parking, walking, no crowds!

Organizations like the ARRP, the National Council on Aging, and the Alliance for Retired Americans are all very useful sources of information as well.

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Imagine this: I’m lying on a table with 2 needles in my forehead, 2 needles on each side of my nostrils, 1 needle at the base of my throat, 2 needles in the creases of my arms, 2 needles in each wrist, and 2 needles in my ankles. Then imagine a little man turning these needles every five minutes to inflict MORE pain, and when I commented “I thought acupuncture wasn’t suppose to hurt!” he responded with a laugh and said “that’s what all the American doctors want you to believe, but without pain…. There’s no gain” then walked out of the room, came back and turned each needle again as I winced in pain.

After chronic bronchitis, chronic sinus infections, sinus surgery (where the doctors basically Router Rootered my and drilled both cavities of my sinuses to prevent recurring infections) … I’m once again plagued this year with my third (3rd) sinus infection (and it’s only April, so do the math … 3 infections in 4 months!)

And so now I begin my trials and tribulations with acupuncture … as the doctor said… with my medical history “You won’t be an easy case but we’ll do our best.”

Stay tuned for the results. If anyone has any stories they can share (good or bad) I’d love to hear from you!

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Spira Footwear tried to compete head on with Nike and Reebok. CEO of Spira Footwear David Krafsur said he would offer $1 million to a runner that wins the Boston Marathon while wearing its shoes. The only drawback is that the runner might not be able to keep the title since track's governing bodies have not approved the spring-laced shoes.

Place my order TODAY! This is my recommendation as a “runners dream.” It’s all about technology, inventions, and my belief “May the best equipped athlete win!”

When inventors took our society from horse-and-carriages to the Ford Model T automobile, many people were weary at first. But as time passed, it becaome a more efficient means of tranpsortation.

If a few “extra springs” can create a faster runner … then we should all applaud CEO Krafsur’s for his vision, creativeness and chutzpah!

And what a fabulour PR stunt it was! Though the winner of the Boston Marathon did NOT wear the Spria shoe, it really doesn’t matter. The FREE public relations Spira has obtained from this marketing ploy is worth signficantly more than what he gambled on spending. Articles and interviews were featured in Forbes, eye witness news, Boston Herald, Pittsburgh live, Coloradoan, PR News Wire and more.

From a marekting and entreprenuer analysis … Krafsur is the real winner!

Posted by Melody at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sorry, but Word Of Mouth (WOM) marketing, as mentioned in my previous blogs, is a “new age” term for combining Marketing Director/Public Relations Director/ or Corporate Communications Specialist and I think it somewhat comical that the new “buzz word” is Word of Mouth.

Take, for example, Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba’s latest posting, that spoke about how Foldera just filled a new job position as Vice President of Word-of-Mouth Marketing. Click further and you will read the following job description
“. . . responsible for the company's word-of-mouth marketing efforts, including contributing to the company blog, injecting customer feedback into the service, following the buzz in the blogosphere, and engaging with customers and thought leaders about how to help address current and future customer needs.”

Excuse me, but this sure sounds like a typical job description of a PR or Marketing person.

Another example is Dow Jones, in New Jersey, posting an ad for a Marketing Manager for Promotions and Buzz Marketing, with the following job description

“Create online and offline promotions using buzz marketing techniques to drive subscriber acquisition and usage of the company's various media properties. “

Guys, really, you can call it what you want but why not just call it Marketing and be done with it. On your resume it all looks the same, and anyone with brains can read a resume and say to themselves “Oh, another marketer!”

Posted by Melody at 09:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Recently Grrl Genius wrote some great business advice and self-worth affirmations, and I just want to mention that I couldn’t agree more with her when it comes to mentoring young people, giving direction and purpose to their lives, and establishing a “true reality” picture of what it takes to “make-it” in this cut-throat world of ours.

Credos to Grrl Genius as she wrote “The world is filled with hate, oppression, sexism, racism, anti-Semitism, terrorism, homophobia and people who insist on wearing mullets, and not in an ironic way. But if you allow these things to be your reason for not doing better, well, you're allowing the racists, sexists, anti-Semites, terrorists, gay-bashers and people with ridiculously bad hairdos to win.”

“When I focused on how unfair the world is to women, it made me too depressed to try and succeed. When I decided to use my silly (but highly effective!) method of declaring myself a Grrl Genius, capable of accomplishing anything I could dream of, my whole life turned around. Words are powerful. Smarter women than I (Oprah Winfrey, Marianne Williamson, Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi) all believe this to be true.”

I believe that you can accomplish anything, not despite being a woman, but because you are one. Dealing with an unfair world has made you stronger and more sensitive. Claim your strength. Claim your power!

Case in Point: Catalogs.com recently added to our existing staff a part-time high school girl to help out with general filing, sorting, envelope stuffing, etc. We paid her hourly, and she was able to gain valuable experience and begin to understand the power of professionalism (rather than flipping burgers at McDonald’s) Now that she’s graduated, we are taking on a new young male intern. Mentoring kids is important. As the Sensei in my daughter’s karate class just said tonight “People who don’t GIVE don’t GET!” It’s important for all entrepreneurs and businesses to teach and educate our children as best we can!

Posted by Melody at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Music used to be an important part of every kids curriculum. Since the budgetary cuts in the No Child Left Behind bill, schools throughout the country have drastically cut or completely eliminated music from the curriculum. I think this is AWFUL.

Therefore, I’m doing something about it! I got involved in a local Philharmonic board with the total intent being on influencing where discretionary dollars can be spent to promote in-school music education. This past week, we had a 4-piece percussion ensemble come to my kids’ school. They were awesome! The kids heard steel drums, vibraphones, regular drums, base, and about 10 other hand0-held instruments. Heck, they even demonstrated how music could be made from a wastepaper basket and an old aluminum-folding chair!

Even Brian Bailey in his blog sited Condoleezza Rice on Piano as stating that she was classically trained in piano, and makes a point of regularly meeting and playing Chamber Music in the apartment.

As parents, we must get involved.

Stanford University research has found for the first time that musical training improves how the brain processes the spoken word, a finding that researchers say could lead to improving the reading ability of children who have dyslexia and other reading problems.
The study is the first to show that musical experience can help the brain improve its ability to distinguish between rapidly changing sounds that are key to understanding and using language.

The research also eventually could provide the "why" behind other studies that have found that playing a musical instrument has cognitive benefits. "What this study shows, that's novel, is that there's a specific aspect of language ... that's changed in the minds and brains of people with musical training," said researcher John Gabrieli, a former Stanford psychology professor now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

Posted by Melody at 04:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I hate to tell all you “young up-and-coming marketing executives who believe you are onto a whole new branch of marketing called Word of Mouth Marketing” but good old Proctor and Gamble started it in 1879.

A little history: Procter and Gamble had no idea a new innovation was about to surface when one day in 1879, a researcher forgot to turn off the soap mixer, and more than the usual amount of air was shipped into the batch of pure white soap that the company sold under the name The White Soap. Fearing he would get in trouble, the soap maker kept the mistake a secret and packaged and shipped the air-filled soap to customers around the country. Soon customers were asking for more "soap that floats." When company officials found out what happened, they turned it into one of the company’s most successful products, Ivory Soap.

Word of Mouth Marketing is really are nothing new … use whatever means necessary to receive feedback from your customers!

However, if you want to get in on a free teleconference I learned about from Ben McConnell & Jackie Huba , WOM Ethics ("A Practical Guide to Doing it Right") is scheduled for tomorrow (Wednesday, April 19) at noon ET. Call 512-225-3050 and enter pass code 772541#.

I find it ironic that DuPont Corporation just became the first Fortune 100 company to endorse the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) Code of Ethics. Maybe they should speak to another Fortune 100 company named Proctor & Gamble.

Posted by Melody at 12:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I must have missed this class when I attended Indiana University. According to Julia Heiman, director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University, Bloomington, and a field dubbed “teledildonics" allows people at two remote computers to manipulate electronic devices such as a vibrator at the other end for sexual purposes. When America's top sex researchers gathered recently to discuss the next decade in their field, some envisioned a future in which artificial sex partners could cater to every fantasy. Heiman stated that “What is very likely to be present before 2016 would be a multi-sensual experience of virtual sex."
And to think that I studied marketing, accounting and biology! WOW! I must be a prude or something. I think this could have a far reaching and NEGATIVE impact on our society. Call me an old married mom with ethics, religion and pride but this cannot be a good thing to teach our kids. The possibility of developing erotic materials for yourself that would allow you to create a partner of certain dimensions and qualities further typifies the problem with our current culture … to create the perfect body, the perfect spouse, the perfect orgasm! Why do you think anorexia is prevalent among children today? Everyone tries to be like models that have been airbrushed or movie stars that have fantasy weddings.

I say … get back to reality and realize that the more people who rely on technology for pleasure -- the LESS social they become, the less able they are to interact and the more reclusive we all become!

Posted by Melody at 11:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ever wonder what would happen if a women in a wheelchair had to fit between the super small aisles of a lingerie section within a department store? You know the bra and underwear racks are sooooo close together. What would happen if the woman in the wheelchair attempted to “raise herself up” holding onto one of the displays so she could reach the pair of undies located on the top rack? Crash! Ouch!

SHOPPING WITH MY MOTHER
Going shopping with “my” mother is an experience probably few of you have ever encountered. It’s quite an adventure. My Mom lost her leg about 12 years ago. The incompetent doctors were forced to amputate her leg just below her thigh. I've learned a lot since then about amputee’s.

Imagine trying on pants or shorts wearing her prosthesis! It’s an impossability. The department stores and malls are too hard for her to walk using crutches so—it’s the wheelchair (which she HATES}. I dearly love my Mom, but she has the patience of a two year old that’s been cooped up in the house for a week. Not only that, she never really likes to shop—even when she had two legs.

Do you really think the ADA (American Disability Act) is doing a damn thing?

Posted by Melody at 03:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I have to admit … I LOVE vacations …. HATE planning them. This summer I’m planning on taking my kid to the Kennedy Space Center (NASA) summer camp program.

Planning the trip is quite an ordeal. Steve Rubel mentioned in his blog Micro Persuasion that the New York Times newly created a site that plots all of its "36 Hours" travel columns on a big Google Map. The column even tells me where to eat, sight see and explore along Cape Canaveral and the beach area. Heck ... they even suggest great hotels.

SShhhh ... My husband will think I spent hours researching all the details (better that he not know it took me 30 seconds)!

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Is it appropriate to wear to a wedding a drop-dead gorgeous dress with serious cleavage showing? My husband seems to think it’s OK. I was a bit nervous. Not because it didn’t’ look great (it’s amazing what Victoria Secret’s Push-up bras can do for you after breastfeeding 3 kids!) but because I didn’t want to “take attention away” from the bride.

How stupid I was to even wonder about this. Who am I kidding?

Me … at the holding age of 25 (give or take a few decades) was on the dance floor next to a 28-year-old bride!!!! Who just happened to have won several Olympic medals for swimming, and who just happened to be a commercial jet aviation pilot. Well excuse me … my cleavage was no match for her brains and beauty!

Posted by Melody at 06:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For many of you loyal followers who have been following my most recent dilemma “what should I wear to this wedding?” I have one simple piece of advice:

It’s always better to be a bit on the “dressier” side than on the casual side. I was floored by how varied the attire was at this wedding my husband and I recently attended. Everything from long gowns, black cocktail dresses, silk flowing pants, Channel Suits … down to a simple cotton skirt, worn with an everyday t-shirt and flat sneakers! I was shocked.

Guess who looked out-of-place? You don’t go to a fancy estate for a beautiful wedding and dress like it’s an everyday picnic.

Posted by Melody at 05:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I’ve been to about 100+++ fancy affairs (weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, baby christenings; graduations; charity balls, etc) but NEVER have I seen such exquisite and unique centerpieces.

My hubby and I just attended a wedding on a very secluded estate on the water. As we held our champagne Waterford stems with juicy succulent strawberries brimming the edges, we strolled towards the back of the estate. Before us lay thousands of rose petals forming a processional up to the chuppah.

Set on top of each table was a 4-foot glass vase filled with 5-6 foot cherry blossom twigs (perfectly in bloom). Flown in special from Israel were the sweetest smelling peonies flowers tightly gathered in arrangements of 24, with about 4 of these bunches surrounding the tall and elegant cherry blossoms.

For those with money … this tops them all!

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