Target and Neimans must be Crazy

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I was excited when I first heard about the Neimans and Target collaboration. I was thinking that it was going to be as exciting as the Missoni collection that debuted last fall and crashed their website. The Missoni line featured their signature style but at high end Target prices. Most pieces were under $40 and looked great. Of course there was some wacky things like a $400 bike, but most things were budget friendly and totally usable.

The Neiman Marcus collection at Target will be officially available for sale Saturday, December 1, 2012. It has been hyped up a lot, even creating spots on my favorite TV show Revenge. The main marketing message is that you can get items from these exclusive Neiman designers at Target. Maybe this is great for people that don't live within a decent area of a Neimans, but considering there's one within 20 minutes of me, its not that much of a draw.

I made it, so its my recipe

I swear my grandma Vi was the queen of “Almost Homemade.” I didn’t even realize that a lot of the thing that she cooked wasn’t homemade, because she always said that it was. As the holiday’s come around, I’m really starting to miss hanging around my grandmother’s kitchen table as we “almost” make a dinner/dessert for everyone.

Her favorite dishes to pull off as homemade were cakes and pies. She would get a box cake mix. Throw in a stick of butter, an extra egg and some vanilla extract. If she was trying to make a pound cake, she’d add a box of instant pudding. Or if she put some canned icing in the microwave, it became “her” glaze.

The berry cobbler. I think I was about 12 when I remember what she actually did with this cobbler to make it “homemade.” I may have seen her do this in the past, but this was the first time I really noticed what she was doing. She bought a Marie Callender’s Berry Cobbler. She let the pie unthaw on the counter. She then carefully removed the top crust of the pie. Sliced up some butter and added some sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. Put the crust back on with an egg wash. After baking, she proudly told everyone she made the pie from “scratch.”

I really miss baking with my grandmother. I know she’d be proud of me and how far I’ve come along in baking. My first time I baked cookies for Christmas, they were as hard as rocks. When I asked her what I did wrong, she promptly said, “you have to use real butter baby. That margarine just don’t work for baking.”

When ever I find myself reaching for a box of cake mix or brownies, I make sure to add a little something to make it mine. 

As Grandma Vi said, “if it came out of my oven, it was homemade.”

So you want to be an Event Planner?

Having worked in Public Relations for over seven years, I've realized that PR burn out happens to many of us. When you decide to work in public relations, you are first excited by the thought of glamorous parties, meeting people and the late nights. What no one tells you about are the long days that you have to put in to have a successful event.

When freelancing or working in a small company/department, there are less people to delegate responsibilities to, and you the workload gets crazy before the event. I recently found myself running around Detroit's City Hall in order to get tent and food permits, changing tents last minute because the tent people did the walk through the day before the event (that was a little my fault), managing RSVP's and reaching out to the media.

Time (line) is Almost Up

Many people are dreading the timeline feature on Facebook, but most marketers are looking forward to its roll out. There isn't much longer to wait, timelines will be activated for all Facebook brand pages on March 30, 2012. So ready or not, it's coming to your page. How will this affect your company's page and how will this be different from the current brand pages? Be ready for the timeline activation so that it will truly represent your brand. In fact, Facebook is giving you the opportunity to play with your timeline and view it before you publish it live.

I believe that the Facebook Timeline may be a social media marketers dream. The timeline feature allows brands to highlight important moments in the company history. Pictures will also be much more prominent on the pages. Since Facebook has more pictures uploaded to its site than any other website, this is a great way to feature images with the brand.

Here are some tips and tricks so that your brand page is ready for March 30th:

Birthday Freebies!

When you’re young, you look forward to your birthday. Having a birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese or the skating rink. Even a backyard party with all your friends and family with some cake and ice cream. It seems like the mound of presents just keeps growing as every new guest comes enters. And you wait patiently until you can rip off the wrapping paper with fury. You don’t often know which gift came from whom, but at that age, who cares?

Well once you get older, you realized that you no longer get gifts from everyone. That the day you were born isn’t that important to everyone. Your birthday is just another day. Often you have to remind people that your big day is coming up.

But guess who doesn’t forget my birthday? All the stores and restaurants that I frequent! As my birthday approaches I get excited for the emails and cards from different places offering me freebies. So if you still want to feel like a kid opening up a ton of presents, be sure to sign up for these birthday clubs:

What's my name? I forget

So most of my friends know me by the name my parents gave me: LaKeshia. I was never a big fan of it, but after 30 years I was finally accepting the name (see the story on my name here). That is until I became unemployed last year.

You always hear stories of people with ethnic names not getting jobs. I thought this was not so true anymore. We elected a man named Barack Obama, the least American name of any president. We've evolved, I thought, people are creating all types of unique names for their children.

Moving on Up

A few years ago I would have been able to get a home loan with no problem. In fact, in 2002 I was approved for a loan at the age of 22 and making less than 25k a year. After looking at houses and all the costs that went into them, I realized that I really couldn't afford a house. With taxes, insurance, maintenance and everything else I knew that I would be quickly underwater. Well I know first hand how the mortgage industry crumbled. Loans were handed out like candy.

Now, almost 10 years later, I have my college degree and have a stable career making good money. However, I can't get a home loan. My debt to income ratio is messed up because of student loans. Plus they just aren't lending as easily any more.

So recently when my lease was due for renewal on my apartment of four years, I wondered what I was going to do. I've been VERY unhappy there. Management has changed and is now terrible. I thought by the time I was 30 I'd be living in a house and maybe even married. But life rarely goes as you plan when you're younger, so I'm making adjustments.