I can't believe it's Labor Day weekend already. It feels like just yesterday we were planning for the 4th of July weekend. Unfortunately, though, this holiday weekend, the weather is not going to be as pleasant as it was in beginning of the summer season. Hurricane Earl has developed out in the Atlantic Ocean and is expected to hit the Northeast this weekend. How much of an impact it will have on us is not yet determined, but anything can happen so it does not hurt to be prepared. A useful promotional item to have handy in the house is the hurricane safety wheel, which contains important safety, preparation and evacuation information. Also, with the possibility of a blackout and immediate emergency - every household should have a LED Hurricane Lamp, bottled water, emergency clock / radio / phone charger (extra batteries, since this item has is an optional battery backup), and a premier first aid kit. It is a great idea to actually have these items readily available in all homes throughout the year in case of any kind of emergency. Even though it's always a good idea to be prepared, I really hope we will not need any of these promotional items this weekend. Instead I hope to use my promotional sunscreen stick and promotional beach balls instead. Happy Labor Day Everyone!!

And just don't come back. I know I make it sound as if it has been raining for weeks or months, even though it has only be raining on and off for the past few days. I can't lie - I don't like the rain. It is still August and it is still summer, but the weather outside made me whip out my fall jackets and scarves. It is just too early to have to deal with this dark and gloomy weather. I know everyone complained all summer long how it was so hot, but I was never one of them. I love the summer and the sun and the heat; and so you can assume how I HATE the winter and clouds and percipitation.

When I left my house this morning, it was quite chilly so I grabbed a light jacket and a scarf, just to be on the safe side, but while driving to work, it started to pour. The wind also picked up and before you knew it, it started raining horizontally. You can imagine what it must be like to walk from your car to the office in such weather. Luckily, I had a super strong vented, windproof umbrella in the trunk of my car. Though that is the catch - it was in the trunk of my car! I figured running back to the trunk and getting the umbrella would still be better than running into the office in that condition. Within the 20 seconds it took for me to get out of my car, open my trunk and whip out the promotional umbrella, it was too late. I was already soaked. When I walked into the office, Rachel - my sale manager, commented "how can you have come into the office with an umbrella, but still be completely soaked". There was nothing I could say to her that would not make me look like a fool. The only good thing that came out of all of this is that I actually took out my custom umbrella, which has been collecting dust in the trunk of my car, and threw it into the back seat of my car so that it is ready  to use for all of the rainy and gloomy days to come.

With my brother getting married in October, I have trying my best to help them plan their BIG day. When you think about it, all that planning and stress and exhaustion ends in a matter of hours, and before you know it - it is all over. The only thing that is left behind are the video tapings and pictures, so of course you want to make sure that they are all PERFECT!! The more "perfect" it is, the more "pricey" it also gets. For anyone planning a wedding on a budget, Motivators offers a variety of great wedding favors and giveaways at a low price. One great idea, which I personally favor, is promotional cameras which can be used during the wedding, so all of the guests get a nice camera as a wedding favor and also get to take pictures of the wonderful evening they had. You are not just giving the guests a gift, you are giving them memories to last a lifetime.

We seem to live in a very fast paced country, where everything is meant to be done right here and right now. There never seems to be enough time to take a deep breath and relax or just enjoy the moment, because we are all so busy rushing through our days. Rushing through work, rushing home, rushing through dinner, rushing through the weekend - rush, rush, rush!!  Though rushing does not necessarily mean that we always do things on time. There are two types of rushers -those who rush to get more done, and those who rush because they didn't get done what they needed to. Procrastinators seem to be my biggest enemy lately, though I find peace and solutions in our RUSH SERVICE section. No matter how desperate you may be, and how impossible you may think it is, through the items on our rush section, we will be able to RUSH the orders and deliver your promotional items when needed!

My husband came back from his overseas travels yesterday, and of course I had to pick him up from the airport. When we went luggage shopping a few years ago, we decided to purchase a set of red travel bags, so that it would be easier to pick out our luggage on the conveyor belt. However, to our surprise, everyone seems to have red bags lately so it is not that easy to distinguish our bags from everyone else's. So, to help make like a bit easier for my husband while traveling, I put on a bright green grip-it luggage identifier to help him pick out our bags from all of the other red luggage bags rolling on the conveyor.

When we got home, the first thing he did was to show me the aero-snooze travel kit and a custom imprinted fleece throw  that he got as a souvenir from the plane. He excitedly took them out of his hand bag and showed me the cool promotional products he had received. You would think after traveling to the opposite side of the world and being somewhere completely different than what we are used to here, he would have been more excited about something other than promotional travel items, but I guess all that my husband needs to make him happy are some free promotional items.

This weekend, I took a little trip down to my parents' house in New Jersey. Since my husband is away, I figured it would be a good time to bond with my parents. It was also my dad's birthday on Saturday, so it was the perfect time to spend some quality time with them. Being that they are only an hour away in northern NJ and it was only for two days, I really did not need to bring much with me - bathing suit (so I could take advantage of the salt-water pool), pajamas, toothbrush, a few summer dresses, and sneakers (so I could take the nightly strolls with the folks), so I had a tough time deciding what to pack my stuff in. My nylon sports pack was too small to fit everything, but my promotional wheeled duffle bag was too big for only a handful of things. So after a whole day of contemplating what I should pack in, we received samples of the Gemline Large Striped Canvas Tote in the office. When I saw the bag sitting on my desk Friday morning, I was so excited, I just wanted to pack my things and go to my parent's house that moment. I used this awesome promotional bag all weekend long, and it isperfect for little weekend getaways like this one, or the beach, or even the gym. This is a promotional item I highly recommend to everyone!

With the recent heat wave in the Northeast, many people are suffering, especially those who work outside and those without any air conditioning. Many people tend to head to indoor places where they can spend their time and avoid the sun and heat during the day, such as indoor shopping centers, movies, and designated "cooling centers". Being indoors all day, I guess I take advantage of the fact that I spend my day in a cool place without having to worry about being overheated. For those who do not have access to air conditioning, experts recommend using fans (this is where our promotional battery fans come in handy), keeping hydrated (by filling up your promotional water bottle frequently) and by using the cooling effects of water by using a promotional pump spray bottles filled with cool water to spritz throughout the day. I guess this is some advise that should have been taken by some triathletes during the Nautica New York City Triathlon on Sunday. Unfortunately, dozens of athletes were taken to the hospital with heat related illnesses after excessive physial activity outdoors in 90+ degree temperatures. Maybe next year,  they should have the triatholon indoors, in a nice air conditioned building, so they do not have to worry about the heat again.

Yes, everyone makes mistakes, even me. Just like everyone else, I make the wrong decisions sometimes, mispronounce words occasionaly (maybe it's from my Jersey-Turkish accent, I don't know),  and yes -  once in a blue moon my spell check doesn't work properly and I make a typo. Today, the wonderful Maria Pinto pointed out that I made a spelling error on my order, and said " im gonna make fun of you forever... cuz you never make mistakes and i found one." Yes, I admit it, I make mistakes too, but becuase of the promotional correction tape that I keep on my desk, I am usually good at hiding that I am human and make mistakes too, but I guess this one slipped by me. It's not that I don't make mistakes, it's just that I am good at hiding (or should I say "correcting")  them thanks to my endless supply of promotional items.

I love the summer. I love that there is always something fun to do - go to the park, have a barbeque, play sports outdoors, go to the beach and play in the water and  sand. Of course, out of all of these activities, the beach is my favorite. I always make sure to bring along my promotional sunscreen and my promotional beach towels with me. My husband usually likes to bring along his mesh folding chair with carrying bag, since he has a bad back and needs to be careful how he sits and lies down - especially on the sand. We fill up our custom 24-pack ice cooler  with lots of water, juice and fruit and head out for a day full of Vitamin D. However, with the weather being as hot and steamy as it is, and the sun being ultra bright, I realized yesterday, that we are missing the most important thing - a promotional beach umbrella, because sunscreen is sometimes not enough to protect from the harmful rays of the sun. 

Every sport has it's own "noisemakers" that motivates the players and fans. Soccer, being one of the most popular sport in world, also has its own, depending on the country it is being played in. With the World Cup being in South Africa this year, the world has been introduced to a whole new sort of noisemaker, called the Vuvuzela. Many of you are familiar with promotional megaphones, which the vuvuzela is similar to in concept, but very different in sound. The vuvuzela has a very loud and distinct sound that has been claimed with "destroying the games", as reported by many media outlets. Many of the soccer fans are complaining that the obnoxious sound of this horn is taking the fun out of watching the soccer game. Some people even want to go as far as to ban this instrument from the World Cup games. Maybe sponsors of the World Cup should have given out some other types of promotional noisemakers to give to the soccer fans, such as promotional soccer clappers, soccer whistlers, or even soccer maracas, so the Vuvuzela would not have dominated the games and made the soccer fans who have just been introduced to this noisemaker so miserable.