I am excited the NBA finals will be broadcasted today at 8:30 EST. I wish the Knicks would have made it. Guess there is always next year. I am not surprised the Heat clinched the Eastern Conference Finals. The Thunder on other hand, fought viciously through top seated teams to get to the finals. Here are some facts. The west coast teams have won 10 out of the last 13 finals. The Thunder snapped the Spurs 20 game winning streak to beat them in back to back games.  I think they sure deserved it. Althought I would want a east coast team to win, I am rooting for the Kevin Durant and the Thunder all the way.  So whether you're in a sports bar or at home watching the game, you can simply enjoy a drink in your promotional glass mugs. 

We recently had a 70 birthday weekend bash for my mom.  She has always been the center of a attention at any party she attends, even if it wasn't thrown on her behalf.  She always seems to have the best stories, the loudest laugh and the biggest smile.  This past weekend she was in her glory .. 4 days of all about JANE!!!  We decided on custom imprinted ceremic mugs, She loved it.  Every morning you would see 13 of us sitting on the deck struggling to start the day with a hot cup of coffee and an overjealous image of my mom on it.  It was great !

We all have our very own, customized routines. From the twenty minute snooze, to the cigarette after lunch, we've all adopted certain behaviors to help the days go by as best they can. One routine, prevalent with most people in our office, is the morning cup of coffee. In fact, people all across the world like to indulge in a hot brew to get the wake up boost that is much needed.

The warm cup of coffee resting between your hands in the morning helps to make the ten messages left on your machine to go by more quickly. Sometimes, however more than just one cup is needed. Your daughter's school called and says she refuses to come down from the jungle gym, or maybe you are trying to perk up for your own visit to the gym after work. It could be the stress or maybe it's a bit of an addiction. No matter what it may be, I'd like to show you frequent coffee drinkers the pinnacle of all custom mugs.
                                     
This gigantic mug graced the PPAI trade show last week and helped to draw people to its booth. Once filled with coffee, this mug is a bit hard to handle. But I'm sure you can all handle the walk from the break room to your desk. If not, you can always go back to using your regular promotional mugs and use the huge mug for other purposes.

Fill it with water and create your own fish tank. I'm sure a few rubber duckies would look just grand while floating inside the large aquarium mug. If fish aren't your thing, how about some snacks? That beast of a mug can hold a whole month's worth of jelly beans or mints for your enjoyment. While you all consider what you'll use this elaborate logo mug for, I'll begin my quest for a matching sugar spoon. I bet a ladle will do the job.

Winter storms are the best.  I could watch the snow fall for hours.. but you have to have the right accesories.  The most important is the cup of hot chocolate.  marshamellows or just straight up .. it all depends on the mug.  My favorite is a mug is one we received after we got married and it has a picture of me and my wife on it.. sounds corny but it makes me smile everytime I use it.  Give a gift this holiday season that will surely be a hit everytime they use it.  check out our Maxwell 11 oz. Ceramic Mug with C handle.  It is printed digitally so there is no limit to the number of colors or gradients we can even print high resolution photos on it.

The other day, Google's logo was transformed into a bar code to celebrate the birthdate of the barcode.  This logo was so obscure that it made me thing of what if they introduced other objects into the logo such as ... I don't know ... a promotional item like the 11 oz Colored Stoneware Mug!  As a graphic designer, I immediately wanted to transpose this vision to the computer screen and it turned out very interesting.  Perhaps they should use it on the birthdate of the very first promotional item (I think it was a coin for George Washington's election or something). 

I also thought back to many of the logo history blogs that Anthony writes and I think it's funny that when you think about the history of the Google logo and maybe think "wow, they're been consistent with they're branding."  Well, they have, but Google is only 11 years old!  When you first think of it, it feels like Google came along with the invention of Windows 3.1.  Maybe it's just me that feels that way.  Anyway, I found that the original Google logo looked slightly different using a different font and having an exclamation point at the end mimicking the Yahoo! logo.  Less than a year later, the logo was transformed into what we know today.  Interesting fun fact, the Google logo uses a blue, red, yellow pattern in the logo, but they were sure to make the "l" green to show that Google doesn't follow the rules.  What a rebel!  

This just in. The items I work with everyday like cool promotional keychains and cozy custom mugs have improved my social life. I spent my last weekend mingling with strangers and promotional products. Almost everywhere, I see custom imprinted items and feel like, "Hey that's my brother over there. The most handsome promotional trade show giveaway I've ever seen." Other times I say, "Oh look at my sweet customized water bottles. They've grown sooooo much." Either way, you understand that a very real and empowering relationship exists between us. Because of this, I feel that whenever I see promotional products it is my job, like a proud grandmother, to brag, brag, brag.
                                     
Thursday night I went to my spot on the Nautical Mile. It's the sleaziest hole in the wall you'll find down there on the Freeport Canal, but it's mine. Bras hang from the ceiling, drinking games are always encouraged, and weirdoes flourish there. See- I fit right in. One conversation began when I read the familiar, "Tapout" on a guy’s shirt. My siblings and I get together to watch (UFC) people kick each others butts every week. Because of his promotional apparel I had my first conversation about the UFC and actually knew what I was talking about. But my favorite bar patrons that night we're an unlikely pair. A 60 something year old grump with long grey hair and motorcycle equipment and a round, tattoo covered jolly 40-something guy. After friendly conversation and many jokes, the taller of the two began mumbling, "Aaah you don't know meee. Ahh you don't know." He eventually came out and said it. "You know Lynard Skynard, you know us. I'm Riiickey. I'm Rickey Medlocke." I had to question him, "Well then what are you doing here with that guy?" "He's my body guard!" he slurred. I unfortunately couldn't believe him. If he had promotional keychains autographed by the band maybe I wouldn't have dismissed his lies so quickly.
                                         (He actually did look like him.)

Friday night I spent with a best friend in NYC at a concert. The show was amazing. The Ours and Blue October gave moving and musically blissful performances. There were of course, annoying fans screaming at all the wrong parts and bouncing into me, I called them Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dumb. Though I didn't buy any of Blue Octobers promotional products, I did manage to have a charades conversation with the band's lead guitarist as he stood on the balcony looking down to me by the stage after the show. How romantic- I'm not a groupie.

On Saturday I celebrated my cousin’s engagement with an awesome cocktail party in her backyard. My uncle was excited about showing off his custom automatic wine opener and I was more excited to tell him that we sell them at Motivators. The promotional appliance got a ton of use that night and the bottles piled up one and the other, until I was sent away happily holding an awesome custom imprinted wedding favors. What a wonderful weekend.

Wednesdays are usually the longest day of the week. You're excited to have had a productive first half of the week and look forward to a nice weekend, but alas, it's just the middle of the week and you've got more responsibilities to fulfill.

Suddenly, waking up early to shower and eat a yummy breakfast before work turns into your alarm not going off and you waking up ten minutes to 9 in a panic. (Or maybe that's just me.)
Maybe all of your orders were neatly piled on your desk and now one's missing.
Maybe you get a busy signal on all of your outbound calls.

Can you handle the stress? If not, it's fitting that we work for a company that sells thousands of promotional stress relievers. They come in all crazy kinds of shapes and sizes and some are even attached to promotional keychains. Not to mention the latest hot item, promotional talking pens. The custom printed feel great talking pen will give you a good laugh and a nice release of steam.

                    

If only the female tourist visiting the Louvre gallery in Paris had a fun custom talking pen to help her chill out. Instead, she committed one of the first ever custom mugs crimes. It didn't include poisoned tea. And there was no broken ceramic promotional mug wounds either. Instead, this frantic woman hurled a custom imprinted mug at the glorified, Mono Lisa. That's a crime against all of art, history and humanity. And to think that promotional mugs are to blame.

Thankfully the 500-year-old, esteemed painting is protected by thick glass that prevented any damages. The woman however is a bit of a damaged good. She's been sent to  a psychiatric unit.If you're long day is tempting you to throw something, just chill out and focus on the good things. Like promotional keychains and sunshine and shooting stars.

And if you're planning a scandalous visit to France, realize that the Mono Lisa is in bulletproof glass. So no amount of logo mugs, or even imprinted aluminum sports bottles can break through that.