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SHINE – introduces you to the people at the heart of the American Dream

October 29, 2009 by Lilla | Comments (0)

It’s no secret that CRAVE loves biznik. One of their coolest projects is Shine a collaborative film project featuring entrepreneurs and their stories.

Check out this great trailer:

to learn more and join biznik click here.

Party Blueprint: Preparing For Autumn Entertaining

October 26, 2009 by Jessica | Comments (3)

fallparty

Dawn Sandomeno and Elizabeth Mascali are lifestyle experts and partners in Party Bluprints Inc, the first ever website to provide online electronic party plans – Partybluprintsblog.com.

Recently the talented entertainment mavens provided a killer blueprint to help ready your home for Fall entertaining. Check out excerpts below, or the full post.

1. First impressions are important – address your front door and entrance. Bring life to your entrance by planting flowers in the same vibrant hues as the changing landscape. Be selective in your plantings and they should last you through Thanksgiving. If needed, give your door a fresh coat of paint and accessorize with “door decor” (flowers, wreaths, plaques,etc.). Finally, provide an attractive welcome mat – stylish and functional what a winning combo.

2. A new season can inspire a fresh vibe in your home. Freshen up your interior by simply tweaking a few existing elements. Change the color of your candles and make sure you have plenty of them throughout the house – there’s nothing like candlelight to warm up a space (it also hides a multitude of sins). Given the “coziness” of the next two seasons, if you have a fireplace, make sure it’s ready to go (have it cleaned annually). Accessorize your hearth & mantle which are focal points.

3. Bring out cozy throws, we love faux fur blankets in chocolate and camel.

4. Swap your summer tablecloth and/or placemats for ones in a richer fabric and palette.

5. Spruce up your powder room by changing the color/pattern of your hand towels. Keep this “private room” smelling sweet with a scented candle in pumpkin or fall spice.

6. If you don’t have them already a “big bang for your buck” purchase is a variety of glass jars/urns. You can fill then with candles or seasonal items like, flowers, produce, candy, etc. and arrange them as a focal point. Small apples from the local orchard will be featured in ours. In a few weeks, the apples will be turned into homemade applesauce and fun candy will fill the containers for Halloween, just remember, the smaller the candy, the more you need to buy! As the season or your mood changes, it’s easy to swap out the contents for an instantly fresh look. These foundational “accessories” are extremely versatile and will serve your home well throughout the seasons and the years.

What are you doing to ready your home for Fall?

Tips and Tricks – Flirting With Words

October 22, 2009 by Inna | Comments (2)

coffeechat

140 characters, 1.5 seconds, and thousands of competitors. That’s what you have to work with when trying to capture the attention of your target market. Although this may be overwhelming, you have one tool to fall back on that has worked for centuries, flirting!

In our latest Coffee Chat we learned how to use this common form of social interaction to break through the social media clutter by writing captivating copy, enticing updates, and headlines that call for attention. With 23 years of flirtatious marketing expertise, Lynn Baldwin-Rhoades, owner of Marketing Shebang and leader of Power Chics, gave us the keys to success.

Keys to Writing Tantalizing Copy:

  • Keep it simple: Since people don’t have much time they tend to scan and only read approximately 1 out of 5 words, try to keep your writing at a 5th grade level.
  • Check out your competition so you can position yourself differently.
  • Create a “swipe” file with examples from other bloggers and sites that you can use for inspiration later
  • Know your target market!!
  • What is your target market’s emotional needs or triggers?
  • Focus your target market’s needs, they want to know what they’re getting.
  • Speak in a personal way: Don’t just write to a general audience, picture one specific person.

Get Attention – Headlines That Work!

  • Use the magic number; “3 STEPS TO GORGEOUS”
  • Imply that they’re messing up; “Beauty Flubs Fixed?”
  • Make them curious; “Eat This, Balance Your Hormones”
  • Address their insecurities; “Bye-Bye Belly Bulge!”
  • Remember that we all buy emotion!

Organize and Conquer – Time Management Tricks

  • Tweetdeck.com: Way to customize and consolidate multiple social networking accounts.
  • HootSuite.com: Allows you to schedule tweets, customize, and organize multiple accounts
  • Google Reader: consolidates your favorite websites and blogs and constantly checks them new content.
  • Google Alerts: Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.
  • Google Analytics: Free tool that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. With Google Alerts you’re more prepared to write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites.

Other Recommended Sites:

In summary, being flirtatious with your words will make you stand out. Know your audience and focus on their specific needs, try to add value every time, and finally be consistent and keep it simple!

10 Hot Cocktails for Fall Fetes

October 19, 2009 by Jessica | Comments (2)

falldrinks

When days grow longer and nights cool off, its time to trade tank tops for turtlenecks and mojitos for hot toddies. As entertainment season warms up, we recommend serving these festive beverages exploding with rich flavors.

Recipes links via Fineliving.com

What’s your favorite cold weather cocktail?

Currently Craving: Halloween Costumes

October 12, 2009 by Jessica | Comments (0)

costumes

Halloween is just around the corner and everyone is dishing about costume ideas. Here are our some of our top picks for non-typical outfit options.

1. Kardashians
In 2009 these spunky sisters replaced Sex and the City girls among friends playing the “which character are you” personality test game. Life-of-the-party drama queens can dress as Khloe.  Seductive entrepreness types are a good fit for Kim.  And subtle seductresses make fab Kourtneys.

2. Cougars
Confident older women who love hot, young men are hilarious contemporary pop culture staples.  Grab a pack of your fiercest girls and wear towering heels with sultry low cut dresses.  Tease your hair, spray tan your skin and don’t forget to accessorize with a giant martini.  Or, dress as an actual cougar!  Rent furry digs from your local costume shop.

3. Tributes
Honor Charlie’s late angel Farrah Fawcett with a bodacious tribute costume.  Swayze fans can celebrate his contribution to entertainment by gathering an entourage decked out in Dirty Dancing finery.  And MJ enthusiasts can remember the good days of the King of Pop’s reign with sequins and leather.

4. Game Show Contestants
Who didn’t love Supermarket Sweep?! Think pairs of friends in solid crew neck sweaters, high-waisted jeans, white Keds, large name tags, huge hair and blue eyeshadow. Push around a children’s sized grocery cart full of plastic foods for kicks.

5. Beauty Contestants Gone Wild
Great for large groups!  Everyone in your party wears disheveled dresses with sashes that say things like “Miss Construe,” “Miss Diagnosed,” “Miss Behaving,” Miss Deameanor,” “Miss Conduct,” “Miss Communication” etc.

6. Empowered Female Athletes
Dress as your favorite real life female sports hero, or if your group is large, consider dressing as Rockford Peaches, the personality packed, fictional women’s baseball team from A League of Their Own.

7. Tired Ladies
Wear pajamas, robes, slippers, and sleeping masks over very messy hair. Let mascara run down your faces.  Carry a coffee cup, a magazine in the pocket of your robes, and carry a pillow.

8. Robert Palmer Video Girls
The back up dancers in Robert Palmer’s iconic Addicted to Love video are the ultimate sex kittens in thigh-skimming skirts, killer heels and ultra smoky eye makeup.  Grab four of your girls and recreate the magic.

9. Sunburned Tourist
Dress like a tourist with Hawaiian shirt, Bermuda shorts, cameras around your neck, black socks with sandals, etc. Use makeup and self tanner to give yourself a bright red sunburn.

10. Self-Absorbed
Ideal for the narcissist in all of us. This one is simple, just hot glue or sew standard kitchen sponges all over a monochrome outfit.

What was your best Halloween costume?

Highlights from PICNIC

October 8, 2009 by Nicole S. | Comments (1)

picnic

Since 2006, PICNIC has been bringing together creative and inspired entrepreneurial minds and takes place annually in Amsterdam. This collaborative event is part conference, part workshop, part networking and connects people across all disciplines. PICNIC provides the platform for forward thinkers to create a meaningful conversation about today’s evolving economy. This year’s major themes focus on new media technologies, establishing a sustainable economy and the close personal relationship between people and their mobile devices.

CRAVE foundress Melody Biringer jet-setted to Amsterdam to attend the festivities and has been sharing her experiences in the blogosphere.

Some of her favorite highlights from the speakers:

  • When the economy is down you need to have a lot more confidence
  • #1 thing, just make/do something cool
  • Keep going, even though things are looking dark
  • Look local, set up satellite locations anywhere
  • Heroes are mentors you can look up to
  • It is not a dog eat dog world. There is enough for everybody to go around, in the end, dogs don’t eat dogs
  • Entrepreneurship is not a job it is a lifestyle that is with you all the time
  • Start things when the market is down, that is when you can build
  • Younger entrepreneurs are thinking a lot more green than older ones
  • Build a green company with a profitably objective so you can keep re-investing in a green initiative
  • Be big, passionate and bright

To read more about Melody’s European escapades and see pictures of the event, check out her full blog at cravingamsterdam.wordpress.com

Time Saving Solutions: Dry Shampoo

October 5, 2009 by Jessica | Comments (2)

dryshampoo

Who really wants to wash their hair every day? For years I used my mother’s second day hair ‘trick’ of sprinkling baby powder on my crown to absorb excess oil. The technique is fine in a quick pinch but the heavy white residue can leave embarrassing flakes on your clothing and look messy under bright lights.

Thankfully a new generation of dry shampoos exist that enable you to sleep in longer, preserve a blow out or get a mid-day volume lift.

Check out our favs below.

The All Nighter is made with natural plant-based ingredients and natural minerals, gently scented with essence of tangerine (to freshen without being too perfume-y). The All Nighter Styling Powder also contains real silk powder to add manageability to hair, and it imparts a luxurious satiny feel. It’s even available in six shades which is great news for brunettes.

Lulu Organics hair powder is made with white clay, baking soda, USDA Organic corn starch and rice powder, and Oregon Tilth Certified Organic horsetail powder and essential oils. This earth friendly formula is available in four delicious, distinctive scents: Lavender/ Clary Sage, Patchouli/ Amber, Jasmine and Tuberrose.

Klorane Gentle Dry Shampoo is based on softening, protective oat extract, cyclodextrins and natural polysaccharides to clean the hair without washing, as often as required. Your hair regains volume and lightness within minutes. It’s a bit pricey and hard to find in stores, but it’s worth it for the scent, and lack of residue this project leaves.

Ever use a dry shampoo, dish about it here?

Totem – Interview with Rhodeshia Nelson

October 2, 2009 by Lilla | Comments (0)

totem

As Totem, in Hinsdale, gears-up to present its Chicago Designer Showcase this weekend (October 2nd through the 4th) featuring cutting edge designs by local emerging talent, we’d love to introduce its fabulous owner Rhodeshia Nelson.

Rho, as her friends call her, is an entrepreness that loves fashion and she’s created a spirited boutique that women of Chicagoland crave! While she will never complain about dressing herself in gorgeous clothing, Rho’s true passion has always been helping others look and feel their best in clothes that embody who they are. In 2005, Rho followed her dreams, ran with that passion, and opened Totem. CRAVE Chicago is thrilled to feature Rho in our first edition CRAVE Chicago guide, and we think you’d like to get to know her too:

People may be surprised to know…
I have a degree in Electrical Engineering. After working in Corporate America for several years, I decided to solve complex equations of a different kind.

What or who inspired you to start your business?
For years, my friends would ask me for fashion advice when putting outfits together for various occasions. I discovered that I LOVED shopping for and dressing other people, and so began the dream of Totem.

What is your indulgence?
Shoes. I have a separate closet just for my shoes, and I’m constantly adding to my collection. You can’t have the perfect dress without the perfect pair of shoes.

Where is your favorite place to go with your girlfriends?
After work, the girls and I like to swing by Vie for one of their yummy cocktails and appetizers. The real key for me is good company, good atmosphere and good wine and I’m happy.