One of the things that we here at Motivators deal with on a daily basis is being part of event preparation. And while we have several customers and clients who depend on our rush service for their last minute orders, we have several other customers who order way ahead of time. As Ozzie's blog stated, it's always better to prepared ahead of time, than having to rush. And since so many of our customers call up looking to purchase promotional items for their sunmmer events now, it makes sense as to why our infamous sales bloggers have been blogging about how it's summer already. We all tend to think very far in advance and thus promote as such. Around here, Christmas really does come in July. But I assure you, we haven't all lost our minds. We are well aware that is only April and that there is a frost warning in our area for this evening. I return you all to your regularly scheduled blogging.

Its finally here! That time of year when you can comfortably hang out outside, barbeque, go to the beach and do whatever else it is you do to enjoy the summer heat. As we all know fun in the sun can be hazardous when the proper precautions are not taken. A great idea to get your idea out where it needs to be is a promotional sun care kit! There are so many different varities to choose from for what fits your needs.  My favorite from the bunch is the Express Sun Kit. This item includes sunscreen, of course as well as two blistex packets, incase your lips get chapped from all the sun exposure. Two wash up towelettes, an anti-septic towelette and bandaids! During the wonderful season what better way to get your company name out there then a promotional product designed for use in this summer?  

OK, so our friend Bill was talking about not procrastinating, especially if it will save you money, which made me think about some of our customers who need promotional items delivered right away! I mean, all of us here at Motivators try our very best to make sure that we give great customer service and satisfaction, so when it comes to RUSH orders, we do our best to get the customer what they need, when they need it! However, when this is the case, we need to rush production and sometimes expedite shipping, which usually means added cost. Since the summer is just around the corner, fun summer holidays are coming up - Memorial Day and 4th of July, for example - which means it's time for company picnics, the beach season opening up, and graduation parties. I know many times customers have last minute events that come up as well, but it is always a smart idea to plan ahead and get those holiday and summer promos ordered before we get into the season and need to RUSH orders. Planning and ordering ahead not only saves you money, but also guarantees that items will be available in stock. So, what I am saying is plan ahead; and while everyone else is running around trying to place their last minute orders and waiting for deliveries, you can be applying your promotional sunblock, styling your fun promo sunglasses and playing sports on the sand.

I'll preface this blog post with one simple fact: I don't do organic food. One of my best friends in college was very into all natural and organic food, and I refused to eat it because in my mind, it tasted like dirt. Organic fruits and veggies are one thing, but anything created and manufactured to be organic was gross. Small minded thinking? More like trial by fire. I had tasted several different types of organic foods but eventually I just gave up.

 Yesterday, while at the GoGreen Expo in NYC, my friend Andrew and I committed ourselves to trying some foods. There was organic chocolate, which was ok. We had some organic all natural orzo type thing and it was pretty decent. There was a particularly bad experience involving Andrew and some vegan sorbet, but I won't get into that. I don't really know what made us try the Bumble Bars as we passed their booth, but we did. One bite and my whole theory of organic food tasting like garbage was blow straight out of the water.

These delicious snack bars are sesame seed based and infused with all sorts of nuts and other crunchies. I'm currently loving their Tasty Tropical flavor. And it's not just that these bars are Organic. No, no. They're certified organic (by the USDA), they're Gluten Free and they're Vegan. Yeah, I had to go and like a triple threat. But I can't help it. These bars are so tasty, I can't even believe they're good for me. I had to blog about this because I will never ever attest to eating organic food and liking it, so I figured I'd better put it in writing. 

Just goes to show you that at trade shows, no amount of promotional products can ever make up for having a serious quality product.

I love the summer. And I love cooking. My fiance and I live on the first floor of the apartment complex and luckily have a very nice patio. What better appliance to buy than a BBQ!? I enjoy grilling...hot dogs, hamburgers, steak...chicken, you name it I will grill it. We did forget that we do not own ANY outdoor cooking utensils. Fortunately Motivators offers an assortment of BBQ items to choose from. I chose the quality BBQ set due to all the tools it offers and the convenient case. So tis the season to start up your grills with Motivators help!

Starting on May 1st all 7,000 Starbucks will be Wi-Fi hotspots, granted if you are an AT&T broadband customer you will get free Wi-Fi at all 7,000. So for all of you Starbucks fanatics not only can you get your cup of coffee but now you can surf the net instead of reading your usual book. Gizmodo
Promotional Coffee with Mug

This is a great item for corporations with many sales representatives or employees who are looking to save some money.  These letter openers use your business card so you can give that personal touch to any event or promotion you are having.  It is a sturdy plastic so it isn’t a "one time use" and with the added magnet on the back it will surely make it up on anyone’s refrigerator, file cabinet or office cubicle.  Who doesn’t need a letter opener with a magnet? 

Yesterday was the first episode of LOST on ABC, after a brief, yet torturous few weeks in which the show did not air any new episodes. Many people that enjoy the show are obsessive over it like I am, however I won’t speak for anyone else because my obsession with the show borders on insanity, but then again, I’m a pretty intense person so usually everything I get into, I get into 110%.  That being said, I decided that I wanted to blog about LOST because I figured it would be a good way to channel all of the excitement and thought that I have put into last nights episode.

Last time, I talked about how Photoshop and/or graphic art appears in our everyday lives, perhaps even where we don’t realize it. Today I’m going to talk about how Photoshop can help you create some really cool effects that you might want to practice just for fun. Little things like what I am about to show you can help you liven up a photo album, play a practical joke on someone, or even just create something cool that you might end up paying $20 for if you passed a booth or kiosk in a mall. We’ve all seen those booths that take your picture and somehow manipulate it to look like you’re in a place you’ve never been before. But with Photoshop, you can do things like that at home and for free. Let's attack the mall shall we?

Below is a picture of an ordinary mall with no changes done to it yet. The menu that you see is the brush palette which you can access by selecting the brush tool and right-clicking on your canvas. In most versions of Photoshop there are brushes available that may not show up on the original brush palette. To check out what other brushes might be available to you, click the small arrow on the top right corner of the palette (as shown in the image below).  Your going to want to choose ‘wet brushes’ and then Photoshop will ask you if you want to append the list, which I always select because it will then add these brush choices to your current list. Click the picture to see it a more detailed version

 

  

Once you have selected the wet brush (as shown in the image above), you may change the size of it to whatever you think works for your particular picture. The wet brush spreads significantly with only one click of the mouse so you may not need such a large one. I then decided that I wanted my smoke monster to be creeping into the store on the right side, so I started to just swirl my brush in small circles starting from the top left corner of the image gradually becoming smaller as you get to the head of the monster which is entering the store. Simply use smaller circular motions when getting closer to where the head should be, or select a smaller brush size. You’ll notice that this particular brush is doing most of the work for you. The circular brush strokes are really all you have to do and it starts to come together and look like the smoke monster immediately. To finish it off I simply created another layer and used the same brush but a slightly lighter shade of black to add highlights. I simply ‘dabbed’ (one mouse click) a bunch of brush strokes over the original layer of smoke, then gave this ‘highlight’ layer a quick once over with the blur tool, and slightly adjusted the opacity of the layer until I got it to look how I wanted it. As it stands now the monster looks like its entering the store by passing in front of that tree, but I think it makes more sense if the monster is behind the tree. The way to do this is to combine the two layers of smoke that you have, (you can do this by selecting both layers with your mouse and the shift key, then right-clicking and selecting ‘Merge Layers’) I then took the opacity of the layer down enough so that I could see completely through it. Since I can now clearly see the tree’s shape behind the smoke, I am able to use the lasso tool to carefully cut out the shape of the tree in the smoke layer. In other words you are tracing the contour of the tree but then cutting that shape out of the smoke layer to create the appearance that the smoke is behind the tree. After you have done your cutting, just adjust the opacity of the layer back to about 97 or 98% (the real smoke monster is slightly translucent depending on how you are looking at it, here I think darker is better and more realistic looking) and there you have it!

 

 

That was really simple and not time consuming at all, yet very effective. I hope you have enjoyed this tip and I hope if you haven’t discovered LOST yet, you get into it immediately. You wont be sorry. Maybe next week I can show you how to make it look like a dementor from Harry Potter is sucking the happiness out of one of your friends.

Did you ever have one of those days where you wake up and just feel like, "Hey, Today is really going to be my day!"? I have that day once a week. For me it's Not Mondays. Cause let me tell you I always wake up with a case of the "Mundays". It's not really Tuesday, because to me Tuesday is just a repeat of Monday, a sequel if you will. Wednesday, Ha, I still don't know why it's Hump Day, it always feels like slump day! Thursday is good, but it's more of a tease, because I’m just not there. But my Day is Friday. It's not just the waking up, it's not that morning shower, it's not even that delicious French Vanilla Iced Coffee Light and Sweet in the Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins custom plastic cups to start the day. It's the anticipation! I don't look forward to just the weekend, the possibility of nice weather and relaxation, I look forward to that refreshing, ice cold, frost beverage that will be waiting for me at Happy Hour! Now let me just say, Happy Hour must be done in moderation for your safety and the safety of others. However, the idea of getting inexpensive Ice Cold Beers, and some delicious food, and fun times with friends on that Final day of the week is excellent. The feeling of a job well done. The feeling of accomplishment at the end of a hellish trek from Monday to Friday! But most of all, the camaraderie between you and your co workers that makes it all worth while. So when your clock hits about 6pm today (providing it's Friday) think of me, and know, It's Friday....My Day!

In rememberance of Earth Week why not promote your business with Eco-friendly products.  Whether it be for work or play Motivators has the environmentally friendly product for you.  Now, I am a hardcore sports fan and I have noticed that the players tend to often feed off the noise of the crowd to enhance their performance.  One of the oldest tools for generating crowd noise is the megaphone.  If you are fortunate enough to be able to afford the high priced ticket to see your favorite team then why not cheer your them on with the Recycled Megaphone.  Be loud, a little obnoxious, and environmentally conscious at the same time!!!!