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 !

There are many events where someone will receive promotional products, and one of my favorites is a birthday party. I remember getting a "goody bag" when growing up, and going to the parties of all my friends and schoolmates. It usually consisted of a custom plastic bag stuffed with custom food products, some sort of promotional games and toys, promotional pencils, and more. I have been given the challenge to come up with some birthday swag ideas for my mom's 70th birthday. We rented a beach house for a week, so we are thinking a promotional beach towel with a commemorative slogan or a wacky image of my mom on it. We will also get a promotional six pack cooler to keep things frosty cold. And of course, a party would not be a party without a Fiesta Acrylic Light-Up 10 oz. Wine Glass. The glass will surely be the hit of the party, and definitely a keeper to bring home and reminisce for months to follow.

We are making our first trip to the beach this weekend with the little one. In the earlier days, I would bring a promotional beach towel and a beach pass. As the years passed, I started bringing the 28oz Eco-Fresh Lite Sport Bottles, the beach chair, and maybe even a beach umbrella as well. This is Day 2 of getting things ready. The little red wagon is packed! One of the best promotional products we got recently was the flexi-freeze bottle cooler. This is going to be worth its weight in gold on Saturday. It will have two bottles of formula ready to go in a moment's notice. She is good about eating every 3 hours, but sometimes that time sneaks up on ya!

Spring time always gets me excited to go outdoors and do something.  The excitement usually leads to bad irrational decisions, kinda like adding another bicycle to my stable of rides.    I was at the local bike shop and they had some leftover 2009 bikes that they were hauling up out of the basement to make room for the 2010 models.    There was this one bike that was calling me.    I wondering the store trying to distract myself from day dreaming of riding home on the shiny new bike.  That only lasted a few minutes before I broke down and bought it.. I haggled a couple of times to make myself feel better.   As i was signing the paperwork, he wheeled the bike around front after being inspected and he had put a water bottle rack on it for no charge and of course it has his promotional water bottle inserted into it.   The water bottle was pretty cool, it was branded with the shop logo and of course contact information.    I think the promotional water bottle has be one of the original promotional giveaways.  I think i have received one with every bike i have received since i was 6 years old. 

Recently I have been inducted into the fatherhood club.  I am the pround father of a 3 week old girl,  she and mom are doing great. It has been an amazing experience, it hasn't been all roses but as someone recently told me ".... it is all about survival for the first 3 months."  I find myself channelling my family members to figure it all out.  I can hear my grandmother now ".. ohh she looks cold, she needs a hat on".  Out of now where the other night, I found myself singing songs to her similar to what my dad use to do when we were having a bad day.  One of the best survival kit we got was from the hospital.  The nurses and doctors are so great as we were approaching our last day in the hospital we were showered with gifts, a promotional backpack loaded up with formula, a grocery tote with assorted lotions, wipes and diapers and we also were given a few cozy blankets embroidered with the hospital name on them... and being the proud dad that I am I have to introduce her to the promotional products world.. here she is

I am celebrating early, the department stores have there St. Patty's Day stuff out why shouldn't I.  Today was a fun day, I was drinking out of my promotinal stadium cup from the party last year.  I always have my lucky clover keychain with my keys on it for good luck, I got that as a party favor from the year before and someone had found a  clover stress reliever in the afternoon to add to my celebration.  I can't wait till this years party, I wonder what the promotional gift will be. 

The Winter Olympics are a great place to see some outragous fans.  Everyone supports there country by wearing some promotional apparel in there native countries colors;  the US wearing there red, white, and blue.  The Canadians with there red and white and who will ever forget the enthusiastic Dutch fans in there bright orange promotional apparel.  It must be awesome , to be that athlete representing the country and have droves of fans cheering you on so loud that it makes the building shake.  Whether they are ringing there cowbell, blowing there noisemakers, or holding up a sign

Last night I was in for a treat, my wife had let me know that she was going to make dinner.  I work late on Thursdays so this was great, but I had my suspicions, take out, sandwiches, cereal, what was it going to be?  Two steps into the door and I knew I was in for something good.  My wife scored a gourmet italian dinner kit that was branded with a company logo. It had pasta, sauce, breadsticks,  everything you needed except the vino!  It was from the Sportsman Channel (I had never heard of it before) promoting a new show they were doing.  What more could I ask for, a full stomach and some tv after a day of work.   Like I said I had never heard of the channel before but later that night I looked them up on the local cable network.  We have all kinds of Food Products you can use for your next promotion.

This week was a big cleaning and organizing week at my house.  We are getting ready!!!. Everything found a home, things got donated that were no longer used and space was made.  This weekend kicks off the accumulation of baby gear; bottles, sippy cups, bibs, diapers, highchairs, cribs etc.. your house never seems big enough and after reviewing our registry we have a lot of stuff coming.  There is a lot of gear needed for a newborn but there are also some fun stuff that comes as well.   We recently received a rattle that had places to put pictures of our extended family that lives out of state.  We also received a really cool  100% Organic Infant 1-Piece branded with a cool family crest representing my wifes irish heritage. 

If you have been to the maket lately you will see the highlight of the fruit department is oranges.  Tis the season for my favorite fruit and my favorite germ fighting vitamin C product.  My local market was handing out an orange peeler the other day with every 5 pound bag of oranges.  I went for it.  I have a drawfull of kitchen accesories, so what is one more.  After my wife used it for the first time, I was back at the store buying another 5lb bag of oranges to insure that she would have a second orange peeler for her office.