Happy Mother's Day!

Ah the joy of May. Flowers are blooming, birds are chirping...it's the best time of the year to celebrate our favorite person in the world, our mothers. 

This mother's day, I was not able to spend time with my mother. (She decided to go to my brother's instead, to be a grandma and take care of my niece). Although I'm not going to be able to be with my mom this mother's day, I am thankful for her.

It's been almost a year since my mother was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. I remember the day we found out, and how frightened I was. Was I going to lose my mother? How much time do I have left with her? What can I do?

My mother is my everything. She raised me and my brother all by herself, working long days and coming home to cook dinner at nights. She's an impatient Chinese woman, but she's as strong as a bull. She never show any hurt emotions whenever something bad happened, not when my father left and not when she found out she had cancer.

I love my mother, more than I thought I would ever love her (all those angry times I had with her when I was going through my angst years). Starting this mother's day, I'm going to be a better daughter, to be there for her and not let my fears stop me from loving this godly woman.

She's still battling that evil disease, but I know she's a strong woman and she'll be there for the next mother's day, and the one after, and the one after. 

LOVE YOU MOM <3 HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

My mother and I in Maine

Food: Stuffed Mushrooms

I LOVE Cooking! It's an art in itself and while looking at my daily Pinterest and FoodPorn sites, I found a very yummy stuffed mushroom recipe.

It's extremely easy, you basically separate the mushroom tops from its stems and mash the rest of the ingredients together, place it on the mushroom tops and sprinkle mozzarella on top of it.

Mouth-watering stuffed mushrooms

You place it in the oven and you bake it at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes...

VOILA and look at all the juices! Extremely yummy!

If you noticed, there's two stuffed peppers in there (because I had extra peppers)

I also toasted some rye bread and dipped it in the sauce. Looking at all these pictures are making me drooling now!

Stuffed Mushrooms

• 20 Fresh Mushrooms
• 2 cans of minced clams
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
• 1 small onion
• 3/4 cup of dried bread crumbs
• 1/2 chopped green bell pepper
• 2 tbsp dried parsley
• 2 tbsp italian style seasoning
• black pepper (to taste)
• 1 1/2 cups butter melted
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

$1 Pizza Madness: NY Fresh Pizza

In Hells Kitchen, I can guarantee you that you will find about five to six $1 pizza places PLUS the regular Italian pizzerias. 

I just so happen to fell upon NY Fresh Pizza right before going to Times Square. They claim to be the "The Best Pizza Slice for $1" (I'm sure thats one everyone says!) I handed the pizza man my $1, got a 'fresh' slice and I stood by a table (small bar table) and just snacked away.

The cheese was very artificial, almost plastic and it needed more sauce (if you are the saucy type). The crust was good though! Overall, I rate this slice a $0.50, and what Domino's should taste like. 

Rating: $.50

If you can't make up your mind on which $1 pizza place you should go to when you are in that area, visit NY Fresh Pizza! 

NY Fresh Pizza
787 9th Ave
(between 53rd St & 52nd St)
New York, NY 10019

PR & Marketing for Startups

If there was one course I would've liked to take while I was in college, it would've been a entrepreneurship/startup course. 

With the current economy and young emerging trends, start-ups come and go in the past 5 years. So which ones make it to the top? How do they get their brand across? What tactics do they use?

I admire start ups, their visions and their determination are the key ingredients to success. Current marketing strategies for start ups are way different than the 90s, where a small business processes a couple of paper work and place ads in the local newspaper to get the word out. Nowadays, there's social media, guerrilla marketing and more liberal strategies are the methods that produces cost-effective and instant publicity. 

Thanks to social media, spreading word about a brand new start up is as instant as instant ramen. With Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest's Web analytics tool, startups are even more capable of tracking their success of their social media campaigns. All for little to no costs - the best thing a startup can hear!

For new startups eager to get their product across, keep note on your productivity in the social media world, search for ways to engage and interact with your target market through these types of media, and I can guarantee you results. 

$1 Pizza Madness: Introduction

After graduating and moving back to the Big Apple, I had to figure out a way to spend my money frugally while trying to find a job. After sharing my frustrations with my best friend about how eating in the city can be very expensive, I've thought up an idea to eat $1 pizzas. It was a win-win situation, I LOVE pizza and it only costs me $1!

So, welcome to my project and follow my pizza madness journey as I try to find the best $1 pizza in NYC!

Puppy Lift? - Plastic Surgery for Dogs?

I was taking a relaxing weekend trip to the Museum of Natural History with the boyfriend when I fell upon a shocking subway ad.

"Call Dr. Armond: Canine Plastic Surgeon"

A 'before' and 'after' picture shows Brad, originally a bull dog, transformed into a jack russell terrier.

At first, I really fell for it. I thought that it was the most hilarious thing that anyone can ever put into a subway ad. I'm so used to the typical "Learn English in 5 days!" or "Be a Plumber through 6 payments of $39.99"

I had to check this out, there's no way this can be real! I quickly typed the webpage into my phone and that's when I realized...

Good Job Comedy Central.

This is one of the BEST marketing tactic I've personally experienced. Whoever thought of this idea needs a promotion. 

Comedy Central

D.I.Y. Crafty: Valentine's Day

I always look at V-Day as a hallmark holiday tricking men into buying expensive chocolates, flowers, teddy bears and greeting cards. HOWEVER! I always find it a nice excuse to start being crafty and make my own gifts.

With my Valentine's Day Swap coming up and my sweet boyfriend's determination to be more creative than me, I went craft ninja. 

Keeping a tight budget, I scrimmage to my favorite store, Michael's. This store is pure evil! It's filled with everything and anything crafty and every time I purchase something, I get a 40% coupon for an item/next purchase. Michael is a incubus of crafters!

Anyway, getting back on topic, I bought a couple of small clothes pins, a shadow box (this I actually got from Christmas Tree Shop), v-day pins, some valentine's day foam stickers, a tin box and stock paper. I spent about $15 total with this trip (also because I had a coupon). I also stopped by the dollar store for a mug and some candies (Hershey Kisses: My Favorite!)

For my secret valentine for the V-Day Swap, I created this:

I placed a box of  candies into the box, a mug and made my "Love is all you need" card. Simple and cute! I am working on being better at making the card (it looks like a Kindegarden's work, haha). 

I also made this for my honey pie #theboyfriend: I got my pictures printed from Printstagram and I just simply place a landyard across the shadow box, and clipped on some pictures. I added some extra pins I had laying around. I love this box because it says 'Memories', so I'm planning on placing tickets and places that my boyfriend and I had been to into the box. 

I had a great valentine's day! It was simple and my boyfriend loved his gift. I hope that my secret valentine did too!

Valentine's Day Swap 2013!

I am extremely excited to be a part of Allie Lehman's Valentine's Day City Swap. She's one of my favorite blogger and unfortunately I missed out of her Christmas shop that she did in December but she decided to do one for Valentine's Day! Yay! 

How it works:
You give Allie your name and information. She will then disperse all the participants another participant's name and address. These participants can be anywhere (in the US) and I'm excited to be getting my secret valentine's day person. Time to do some crafting and shopping!

There's still time for you to join! Tomorrow's the deadline for applicants, maybe I'll get you as my secret valentine! 

Social Media Week - Feb. 18-22

I am looking forward to social media week in NY this year. Since I started school, I've always wanted to attend their events, but because I always had classes, I wasn't able to. This year I can! 

Here are some things that I'm looking forward to:

NYTechWomen brunch Kick Off - Feb 17th: This is a great opportunity for networking and talking to women in the tech industry. I hope to connect with some aspiring women and seek mentorship within this group.

What Digital and Social Media Teach Us about Innovation and the Future of Education - Feb 18th: The title says it all. Social media and advancement of technology has expanded the way we think. Dr. Augustine Fou, the Chief Digital Strategist for Marketing Science Consulting Group, Inc. will be exploring some examples of technology inspired education standards. This is a great topic to explore and discuss in terms of what kinds of new expectations we can achieve through social media. 

The Future of Branded Experiences Feb 22nd: MKG will be talking about a newer experience in brand management. Knowing MKG, this will be a fun exploration and presentation which involves a lot of audience engagement. This is important to companies and individuals since branding is such an important part of success!

This is only three of MANY other workshops and presentation that will be happening during social media week. Definitely check out their site here and I hope to see you all there! 

#smwnyc

Yelp? or NY Letter Ratings

I've always joked about the best food should probably come from the worse looking place ever (this proved to be true when I visited Taiwan, dingy looking stands had the yummiest food). So when NYC introduced the ratings for restaurants based off of their cleanliness  food safety and space, people took it really seriously. I don't think that lasted very long.

Sure this restaurant has a 'C' because they found dead insects (ew) and meat left out in the open (more ew) but Yelp says it's the most delicious place anyone has ever been to. Who do I trust?

I was watching a special on Nightline about restaurants in New York, and how they try to hide their low rating. It's funny because you would see restaurants having a 'C' on their windowsill (because it's required) but they would use the 'C' to spell out a word. When they hide the 'C' and Yelp gives it such a great rating, people might fall into the pits of food poisoning!

Granted, I like to take majority opinions on Yelp because these people are my peers, they relate to me and I trust that their stomachs are very similar to mine. When I heard that Yelp is going to start incorporating the NYS rating system into their site, I was definitely happy. Will this encourage restaurants to be more aware of their grade? Or will this just make them run out of business? What do you think?

Side Note: You can also find my random ratings on Yelp!

Happy New Year! 2013

Happy New Year everyone! I usually try to make a resolution list, but this year, I'm going to be bold. I'm going to try to achieve success but without making a list because I know that listing it out won't make a difference if I don't actually do it. 

I hope that by the end of 2013, I have been inspired many times, written many blogs about my thoughts and adventures and look forward to the next new year!

xoxo,

Fiona

Nivea prepares for "New Years Kiss"

It's almost New Years and of course living in New York, the big ball dropping is a huge deal! I'm personally not a big fan of going into Times Square and standing in the cold filled with thousands of people, but I know plenty who would do anything to be there for that special night... especially with that special someone.

As you may know, Nivea is one of the sponsors for the New Years Eve extravaganza. They usually provide hats for those closer to the ball drop (those big silly 'Cat in the Hat' blue hats that says Nivea on it). The company's known for their skincare products (lotions, face cleanser, chapstick, etc), and what a perfect way to promote its brand by incorporating themselves into the traditional New Years Kiss.

This year, Nivea hosted a contest through social media to promote the hype of New Years. It asked fans to post their most intimate shots of themselves sharing a kiss with their loved ones for a chance to win a trip to see the ball drop at Times Square.

I love the idea, it's a great branding campaign and it really incorporates the excitement of New Years. Granted, I would not feel very comfortable sharing a picture of me and my boyfriend kissing, let alone kissing in front of thousands of people (plus millions watching on Live TV) at Times Square, but we're at this technological age where almost nothing is private. (This is a good and bad thing, but that's for another blog post)

You can check our their Facebook page and see the contestants. The submissions are closed by now, but they will probably do it for next New Years so start taking tons of lovey dovey pictures for 2013! 

Just a personal plug: I do love their Eucerin brand, great lotion for my dry skin! If you're looking for a good brand of lotion to buy, consider trying it!

The joy of Christmas

I'm from a cultural background (Chinese/Vietnamese) where during Christmas, we usually exchange one certain gift and that's it. I'm very fortunate to celebrate Christmas differently with Colin's family. They are Irish/Latvian/Italian decent and have divorced (but close) families. So I will be able to celebrate Christmas THREE times this year! (Including my very own) 

My family: It's a very simple celebration. We eat dinner as a family and right before we leave, we give gifts. Not a big deal, easy peasy and gifts are usually re-gifts and have little to no effort of trying to get a gift the person likes [I'm not trying to make my family look bad, but Christmas is not really important, unlike Chinese New Year!] S.O got a really feminine picture frame and I got perfume bottles. It's the thought that counts!

Extremely fortunate for all the gifts I got! Telescope, Ukulele, Plaid shirts, Jacket, Robe, Comforter, Duck boots... Thank you everyone for such wonderful gifts!

Colin's Mother: Italian/Irish - They have a BIG seafood Italian dinner. We had crab, lobster, clams & shrimp all in a pot. S.O's mom is a really good cook, so our homemade menu consists of appetizers (crab dip, cocktail shrimp, pizza bread), the big pot dinner and dessert (key lime pie, parfait, ice cream) and of course Christmas cookies! It was so much that I couldn't even move after the night ended. This dinner usually takes place on the eve, and it's traditional to open one gift (which are usually PJs). On X'mas morning is when the living room is covered with presents. I had a great time at her house, we had so many people in one room just enjoying each other's company. The presents are great too! See picture

Colin's Father: Irish - A traditional Christmas dinner on Christmas day. It's kind of like a repeat of a typical Thanksgiving dinner. We sat in a huge long table, had tons of meat (I think it was pork and sirloin steak), sweet potato pie, vegetables and cheesecake for dessert. This was a more relaxing dinner because gifts were already opened and Christmas was coming to an end. 

I had a great long weekend! I am very glad that I have so many family and friends around me to celebrate Christmas. I hope you all had a great Christmas as well!

Old Spice Saves the World from a Mayan Apocolypse?

8-Bit Flash Game, Dikembe Mutombo and Men's deodorant saving the world from a potential Mayan Apocalypse? YES Please! After consecutive successful digital viral campaigns, Old Spice has done it again, this time with an interactive game and exposing the 12.21.12 apocalypse. 

This campaign hopes to engage the younger male audience towards Old Spice by putting stereotypical interests into its game. NBA Player Mutombo is the host of the game, guiding you (the player) to save the world by complete certain tasks once every week. While you're enjoying your time shooting down Furby-like toys and having intelligent conversation with a scientist whose also a bear, Old Spice would be adding extra years to the Mayan Calendar.

I personally loved playing the game, despite the fact that I do not use Old Spice manly deodorant. I'm sure hoping that tomorrow's not the end of the world! I'm not so sure if this game have benefitted their sales, however this is definitely a great way to increase their brand awareness. Always keep a look out for Old Spice's crazy marketing campaigns!

Need Christmas Gifting Hints? Try Elfster

This year, I have to purchase gifts for about 20 people and it's really hard to plan out where to shop, how to keep my budget and what to get for them. I found that using Elfster allows me to limit my gifts, organize my budget and figure out what to get for my friends and family!

Elfster is a Secret Santa online platform that allows a group organize their wish list and distributes their secret santas. The platform is simple and easy to use, with access to a communication page to discuss gift giving with your friends. I found this when I was in High School and had to organize a Christmas party for a group of my friends. My friends and I loved using it and the gift giving process was a lot easier. Since then, Elfster have evolved through Social Media marketing and encouraging to use it's site for every day gift giving. 

I really love this platform and I would recommend it to those who needs an electronic way to organize their gift giving processes. Check it out!

Food: Turning “Wort”er into Beer (Guest Post)

Hi everyone! This is a guest blog post from my boyfriend Colin. He's going to share our adventures in the home brewing world! Beer me please!

There are few better ways to spend time with a couple of friends than a day of brewing beer. I was very fortunate to receive my first brew kit from my awesome sister (Thanks Quinn!) on my 21st birthday, since then I tried to brew as much as I can.

My most recent batch began with a gift from a good friend: a True Brew IPA kit.  Now, I have had success in the past with kit brewing, however, I have tried the final product of this one in particular and I was not very fond of it.  Around this time Fiona and I were looking to expand our horizons from kit brewing to all mash—with our focus on a Rye Pale Ale.  But, we figured what the hell; we’ll keep the kit and see if we can use it as a baseline, even if this means using some liquid malt extract again (LME).  So we dug into this great book filled with pre-existing recipes (that she gave me to help start my brewing adventures) and tried to find a recipe to grow into.  Our selection was the Rye Pale Ale by Brewers Best since we have had good experiences with their kits in the past.  Our hopes for all grain were laid to rest for another day and the partial mash had taken its place yet again.

When the day finally came to get to business and start brewing, I met up with a group of friends and a case of beer (what better way to brew than to drink while doing it!) and we got to work.  Now, I’m not going to get all technical with the process that we used for the sake of time (if you want to know, feel free ask in the comments below).  For those of you who don’t know, the process of home brewing is like making a huge pot of tea (we call it “wort”), pitch yeast on it and then putting it in a bucket to wait for a few weeks.  You could also do a “secondary fermentation” where you put, what is now a tea and alcohol-y mess, into a glass jug (carboy) for the rest of the fermentation process.  When the time comes, the beer is siphoned out into clean bottles, caped, and then stored yet again.  In the end, after the initial fun of brewing, brewing becomes a waiting game (this really is the hardest part of brewing a beer for anyone). 

'NASA' Book of Pre-existing Brew Recipes (Left), Our tasty Rye Pale Ale served with a Brooklyn Brewery Superhero glass (that Fiona got from Comic Con [nerd])

Sure enough, after a day of fun, too many weeks of waiting and a lot of beers in between, the final product is here.  So here is Colin, Fiona, and Friends’ ridiculously good best Rye Pale Ale ever made!  Okay fine, not quite, but it is a whole lot better than any Budweiser I have ever had, and when all is said and done, the cost probably cheaper per bottle.  The beer has a great aroma from the cascade hops that were added during secondary fermentation; however the flavor was overwhelmed by the 8.6% ABV of the beer.  Underneath that taste of alcohol was that nice rich deep flavor that you would hope for from a good Rye Pale Ale.  So while it’s not quite a Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye, this beer is just another step in the right direction of making a world class beer for a fraction of the cost and a lot more fun. 

Ingredients List:

Grains
8 oz of 2-row
1 lb of Flaked Rye
8 oz of Honey Malt
6 oz of Munich
6.6 lbs of Amber LME (not really a grain)

Hops
1 oz of Bittering Pilgrim Hops
1 oz of Flavoring First Gold Hops
2 oz of Aroma Cascade Hops added during secondary fermentation

The Joy of Volunteering

I remembered when I was in High School and I was required to volunteering as part as my curriculum, I enjoyed it the most during the holidays. It's probably because I'm the master of gift wrapping (or so I believe). In any case, ever since Hurricane Sandy, I've been wanting to really give back to those that are in need. I quickly searched "Volunteer, New York" in Google and it brought me to New York Cares. 

It's really easy to sign up and participate. I made an account online, signed up for the nearest orientation day, attended it, went back home and picked out volunteer jobs that were available.

Now, you may know them as the organization that collect coats. You've seen their advertisements everywhere (see picture), but little did I know that they were more than just a coat drive organization, they were connected to many non-profits in the city that needs help. It's a great site and a great place to get started in volunteering.

They were in need of volunteers to help sort out clothing at their warehouse, especially to give to those who are currently homeless due to Hurricane Sandy. My friend and I signed up for the closest warehouse sorting and I was shocked at how many donations they received. In the span of six hours that we were there, we'd probably sorted over 5,000 coats, 500lbs of food, 30,000 bags of assorted clothing (that would be placed in another warehouse for further sorting) and weird things like Halloween Costumes and underwear (who donates that?!). I had a lot of fun meeting fellow volunteers and spent time lifting bags and bags of clothes. At the end of the day, it was hard work but it was well worth it. 

It's really important to give back, even if it's just four hours in your week. If you're interested, please visit New York Cares or other non-profit organization and lend a hand during the holidays. Santa thanks you. 

Black Friday Madness

I never was a fan of standing on line filled with hundreds of people waiting for a store to open at midnight just to save a couple of dollars. I'm always afraid of being trampled over! However, with the great deals that come with Black Friday, taking the risk of battling over angry shoppers became a tradition to many Americans.

This year, big retailers decided to follow a new strategy in dealing with Black Friday. Their new strategy consists of introducing their deals on Thanksgiving night and making their stores open as early as midnight on Thanksgiving day. Hoping it would generate more sales and less angry mob shoppers, the strategy ultimately became a bust. The growth of sales was not as significant as they expected and the amount of expenses needed to open their stores early were larger than the revenue. What could they expect? Stores like Walmart, Bestbuy and Target obviously read the papers about unemployment rates and the bleak economic times... so why would they think this strategy was a good idea?

It might have not been a bust if it was four to five years ago, when the economy was flourishing and the traditional 'Holiday consumer behavior' applies. What is 'Holiday consumer behavior'? It's the behavior of most American consumers when it is close to the Holiday season, they spend more than they expected during this time because they always feel like they didn't "buy enough" for their loved ones. You might be a victim of it (notice it when you go Christmas shopping!), and this type of behavior is what allow retailers to attract the consumers to go crazy during Black Friday. Unfortunately, in current times, consumers are spending less and trying to save more, even during the Holiday season, due to the economy, so the spending behavior has drastically change.

It's time for the big retailers to go back to their old ways, where they open their stores for earlybird specials the day after Thanksgiving. It'll allow the consumers to relax after eating their gigantic turkey and enjoy saving and spending at the same time to get ready for the Holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gobble Gobble! 

I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! Stay tune for my next blog in December. I'll be catching up on the aftermaths of three thanksgiving dinner, two birthday parties (including mine!) and Black Friday, Cyber Monday shopping extravaganza. 

In between being with family and friends, if you have time, please help out the victims of Hurricane Sandy in the East Coast area. They are still without power, heat and homes. 

Hope everyone enjoy being with family, filling up their tummies and having the time of their lives getting great deals! 

*Side note* My favorite part of Thanksgiving is when they take out the canned cranberries, and just plop it on a plate. It's so gooey and it's still shaped like the can. To me, it's really awesome.

Hurricane Sandy

As you may all know, Hurricane Sandy has affected the East Coast severly and many homes were lost. I would like to mention to those who were fortunate enough in the area to volunteer and help out those in need. As it is getting colder, those without homes have no where to go. If you have any canned food, or extra clothing - try to donate them to a church or an organization that is currently accepting donations for the hurricane relief. Also, monetary donations to The Red Cross is also appreciated. 

It's really important at this time to be bonded together, reach out your hand and help others who are in need. 

Thank you very much!