The Color Run

A couple of weeks ago I was at my hairdresser's getting my roots done, and she mentioned that she was interested in participating in an upcoming marathon. I shot her a skeptical look. Now this gal is not a runner; however, she is super creative. So when I asked her about it she told me it was The Color Run. I checked it out and immediately understood why she wants to do it. The Color Run is a one of a kind experience that is less about speed and more about enjoying a color crazy day with your friends and family. It doesn't matter how old you are or what shape you are in at this event. It's about having fun - whether you are an athlete or a casual walker. The next one on the west coast will be in San Francisco on July 28.

There are only 2 simple rules: 1. It is mandatory that you wear a white shirt at the starting line, and 2., you must be plastered with color at the finish line. Here's the details.

Free People Gets Tacky

Look what I found whilst cruising the Free People blog:

Yes, that's right, a fabulous and easy Aleene's glue project. For the full instructions, click here.

Mobile Pop-Ups

A few weeks ago I did a trend report on mobile pop-ups. These pop-ups are boutiques, churches, restaurants, art installations, and even cinemas on wheels. Pop-up food venues, while not a new trend, are changing from what they were just a few years ago.

We've always had a lunch truck stop by our building twice a day for at least two decades. It's part of our culture. Then just last week, Cafe2U, a new mobile coffee business, began stopping by as well. What a perfect concept! Yummy coffee drinks available for purchase in the morning or afternoon at my place of work. I just walk out the door, and there's Bob ready to make me a drink. Here's Chloe and Allee getting their caffeine fix. What's next, a Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream truck in the summer? Maybe.

Here in Fresno we have our own Dusty Buns Bistro truck that cruises around serving gourmet sandwiches and bringing culture to our little city. It was so popular that two things happened: 1), It became a favorite eating destination for many people in the Tower District, and 2), it became controversial when traditional nearby restaurants complained that Dusty Buns was violating current parking rules and taking away customers. But that is another story.....

Is pop-up retail the new way to go? Here's some great reasons pop-ups work:

• A pop-up can fill an empty retail space left ravaged by the adverse economy.
• A pop-up is temporary and appeals to the short attention span of the consumer.
• A mobile pop-up can attract a whole new consumer based on geography. The use of social media like Facebook and Twitter can be used to instantly alert consumers of the pop-ups whereabouts. Brilliant!
• Because it is temporary, a pop-up creates a sense of uniqueness and urgency that encourages the consumer to impulse buy.
• Pop-ups are a great way to test the market and to collect feedback before making a substantial commitment to a brick-and-mortar store.

Yummy Studded Shoes

Hip and edgy studded shoes for every kind of girl. Free People

Pillow Talk

Every year I go in search of the perfect Valentine's Day card for my hubby, and if I am inspired and have some extra time I make my own. I like to give really personalized gifts and this pillow project is perfect for that. Seriously, if you can hold a marker you can do this project. Here is where you can find the easy instructions.

A Train Trip to Hanford

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip.....

My husband loves ice cream. His birthday is coming up so I had the bright idea of loading up the family and a teenage stowaway and taking the much talked about train trip to Hanford to experience the 'best ice cream in the world' at Superior Dairy. Some of the kids had never been on an Amtrak train so we thought it would be a fun experience. We really did think that. Really...

There was just one little snag in our plans: our train to Hanford was over an hour late. It kind of put a wrench in our day. We had pre-purchased round trip tickets - the plan was to leave Fresno at 11:35 for Hanford, have lunch and some ice cream, and then catch the 2:42pm train back from Hanford to Fresno. Plenty of time (we thought) to walk to Superior Dairy from the depot, eat in a leisurely manner, walk back to the depot and head home. Well, that was how it was supposed to be.....but with the train from Fresno being so late we had to rush through our day in order to be back to our train for a 2:42pm departure.

Here's how the day played out: We arrived in Hanford at 1pm, and started walking toward Superior Dairy. On the way we stopped at Burger King for a bathroom break. We decided it would save time to grab a quick burger there. We then power-walked to Superior Dairy from BK, and got our ice cream. The place was so crowded they didn't think they could serve us in time if we sat down to order ice cream from the menu so we got the world's thickest milkshakes to go, hurried back to the depot with 10-minutes to spare, and ate our shakes with a spoon because they would not go up a straw no matter how long we stood in the sun waiting for the train to arrive. We got back on the train heading north, and enjoyed the ride home, enjoying the remainder of our shakes. We were back in Fresno by 3:30pm.

Here's our day in pictures...............

The 3 boys bought snacks, ate them, and then sat there waiting for the train.

Here they are after only 30 minutes. Have you ever spent time with 3 bored boys in a train station? This is what they looked like after we reined them in.

Fresno, 12:15pm, no train in sight...

And just-like-that our train arrives, we hop on board and off we go! We arrive in Hanford in under 40 minutes.

We got off the train and followed other ice cream seekers toward our destination. Look, I see it.....Superior Dairy. Just a few short blocks from the train station.

After waiting in the busy parlor, we got our shakes and hurried back to the depot with about 10 minutes to spare.

Here we are, eating our milkshakes at the train station so we don't miss our ride back home.

Everyone keeps looking for our train to come....

Safely on board, my husband eats his ice cream.

Even though it didn't quite go as planned, I'm glad we did it. Check that off our local bucket list.

And away we go!

Heart Mug

Every month at iLoveToCreate we have our sales and marketing meeting to keep us all informed on the happenings of our company. As a part of that meeting we usually have something creative we get to do - like playing with fabric paint and markers, using our Body Art products to make temporary tattoos, or painting a ceramic project. We take every opportunity to be creative! Here's what we got to make at the last meeting....a ceramic coffee mug with a heart-shaped handle, just in time for Valentine's Day. I'm a 'purple' girl as you can see. I was going for a leopard spot look for my design...not wanting to paint a traditional red heart on my cup.

What I love most about painting ceramics is the 'surprise' factor -- before you fire the piece in a kiln the paint looks dull and chalky. But when you see it after it's fired--wow! It's all shiny and colorful and pretty!