My wife and I just got back from a mini vacation to Lake Tahoe, CA.  We went snowboarding at Heavenly Mountian.  It was a great time even with the lack of snow.  The " Tahoe " sun was out all 4 days.  A suntan was the last thing I was thinking about when I went snowboarding, so I was not prepared.  As lunch time rolled around.. I took a look at myself in the mirror and realized I was going to be in for a world of hurt.  I headed directly to the shop and picked up some promotional sunblock.  They were cool they were branded with the mountain logo and cool image of a snowboarder and they had a sport clip so I could clip it to my board bag and never be without it.  and of course I paid a premium being @ 10,000 feet.  The good news is they even threw in some promotional candy to help heal the pain of the sunburn.

This morning at Motivators was an exciting one!  We had a visit from John Cudahy, a representative from one of our warehouses.  He brought in many interesting promotional products that will sure be a hit with our customers.  We saw new promotional flashlights, promotional cutlery and many diffrent types of promotional drinkware.  The one item that really stood out was the hand blown glass pilsner mugs.  They were extremely light and gave the liquid inside them a "floating" look.  These are sure to be a poplular seller for a wide array of our customers.  I also think our whole team is looking forward to getting a few samples for the office! 

With yesterday being Valentines Day many treats were going around the office, and ofcourse many are hesistant on eating that 2nd piece of promotional chocolate, trying to hold onto their New Years resolution.  Well not my daughter! She indulged in Valentines Conversation Sweethearts, , chocolate truffles and cupcakes. What was even better is that she wanted to share these things with her little cousin, ( I believe that was partial to me telling her about the dentist and what happens when you dont take care of your teeth). All in all, we had a great day! We learned to share, try delicous treats, and learned about the dentist.

Lately I have been so tired of listening to the radio stations and the same music replaying over and over again. It drives me insane! how many times can you really listen to Adelle on everything radio station. That is why I love my ipod, I just plug it in to my car and listen to my favorites. Custom MP3 players are great for this exact reason, and I get to choose what I listen to and it isnt repetitive.

This past Thursday January 26th, Ken, Laura, Samantha and myself attended the SAAGNY winter showcase 2012.  The plethora of trade show items were amazing.  Any promotional product you could think of was there.  Any item you may want imprinted they had on display.  It really makes you think about how many of these items you come in contact with every single day.  We all had a great time walking the show and are looking forward to selling many of these item to our customers!

The other night a few friends and I were sitting around trying to remember the restaurant that catered our previous years super bowl party.  We were a second from giving up as one of my friends raised his glass and said "uhhh I think I remember the name"!  Along with the hero, wings and keg we ordered, they gave us plenty of promotional items to remember there name, address and phone number.  The one in particular that solved our issue was the Logo beer glass.  Without this promotional product some other restaurant would of gotten our business!  It makes you wonder how much more business would your company of done, with a promotional item of any sort.

Back in my teenage years I remember going to numerous birthday parties, sweet 16's, and many other celebrations. Although it was many many years ago (sigh) I can tell you that certain parties made a lasting impression on me based on the customized party favors that were given out. My favorite was and still is the promotional 12 .oz light-up flashing glass. Another great idea is promotional candy, and I remember lots of it! My favorite was the take out carton full of candy, just like the promotional candy take out - Jelly Belly beans.

I don't know if I have too many friends, but it seems like I am out celebrating a birthday at least once a month! This month it's my friend Emre's birthday on January 18th. I never know what to ever get as gifts and always drive myself crazy. Luckily with the help of my co-worker Olha, we decided to put in a special order for a promotional iPad case from Motivators. I know Emre recently purchased an i-pad so thought it would be a very useful gift. With one birthday down and many more to go, I need many many more gift ideas, it is going to be a long year!

Tis the season for traveling for my wife and I.  We love the winter.  Unlike most people in the Northeast that head to the warmer weather climates we head to the pacific northwest in search of BIG POW, aka alot os fluffy snow .  I just pulled our snowboard travel bags from storage to get them ready for our upcoming trip.  Everything was fine but our custom luggage tags.  They were the free paper ones that you get at the check in counter.  This year I planned ahead and got some custom luggage tags guarenteed to be able to spot our luggage and last for many more trips to come.  I was able to get a couple of our promotional explorer Luggage Tags.  These are great hard plastic pieces with a protective cover for the written information.  

It's a girl! Sunday, I attended my friend Gulizar's baby shower in New Jersey. She did not want a suprise or anything big. She just wanted just some close friends and family over her house. I decided to go over on Saturday to help her out with last minute things that needed to be done. Little did I know, her house was already full. Her mom and her mother-in-law came over with a bunch of other women cooking. We decided to get out while we can and went to another friends house to frost the cupcakes that I had made for the shower. We also did some final touches on the promotional gifts we put together as favors. Gulizar ordered customized tote bags, pens, notepads from Motivators for the games we would be playing at the shower. Gulizars small, intimate, shower turned out to be so much fun. I cannot wait to meet the little princess in two month. Her due date is February 14th!