Vampire Weekend just blew my mind.


I am about to have an epileptic seizure from repeatedly watching Vampire Weekends music video for "Cousins".
Montage inspiration anyone?

Mom in the media

Julie Hesketh, nurse practitioner and my mother, is telling her story in today's Winnipeg Free Press. Check it out here.


She was also featured on CJOB this week, resulting in several excited texts from my fellow Cre-Comms asking 'Is your mom on the radio?'. I was proud to text back, 'Damn right she is!'


I love you mom.

Twit-book

For many of my friends, Facebook and Twitter are simply a part of the daily routine. Check your friends latest pictures on Facebook, receive news about Marc Jacobs Spring, 2010 line via Twitter, all before breakfast. The two sites offer similar alerts and services for the busy, young, thing on the go, and its rare for anyone under 30 not to have an account at one or both of these sites.


This huge audience of receptive and easily accessible young people is a tempting demographic for the PR professional. The challenge that PR professinals face is that they don't want to be sold anything. The users of Facebook in particular are much more likely to use the site for entertainment and recreational purposes. Unless you're offering them something, they would rather not listen.


Twitter is a slightly more receptive audience, with a format that is better suited for promotions and reaching a specific target audience. Twitter users readily sign themselves up to receive a streaming feed of profile updates, news and semi-disguised advertisements from the people they follow. 

Facebook is most useful to PR professionals for its fan pages and events. Many companies and organizations now have Facebook profiles with a huge audience of 'friends' from all around the world. Facebook offers a slightly more personal and friendly promotional approach to PR that while tricky to navigate can lead to impressive results.

New media has given us a unique opportunity to forge relationships and dialogue directly with our customers. By creating strategies that take advantage of both Twitter and Facebook, PR professionals have the chance to reach a young, ready to listen audience and get great results for their clients.

DIY studded dress

Materials

A large pyramid studded belt. You can usually find them in the back of your tween sister/brothers closet or at your local Value Village. I found mine at a Salvation Army on Pembina highway for two bucks, and it even has different tones of studs for my other DIY projects!

A little black dress/shirt/jacket/etc. Make sure its made of a strong but piercable material such as a rayon knit. The fabric can not be too delicate or else the studs will have no support and fall off but there is nothing fun about trying to force blunt studs through impenetrable leather either.

A pair of needle nose pliers. I don't have a picture of the ones I used but if in doubt ask your local handy man/woman. 



Directions

Flip over the studded belt, exposing the uncovered backs of the studs. Use the needle nose pliers and your fingernails to lift up the steel backing and pull out the studs one by one. For the project I did I used twenty studs, but according to what look you're going for you can go for more ore less studding.


Once you have lifted out your studs lay out your dress on a flat surface and plan out your pattern. I wanted a tribal/bib inspired neck line which I achieved by laying the studs out in a symmetrical pyramid based pattern.


Next use the needle nose pliers to peel up the stud backs so that they stand up straight and easily pierce the fabric. The final step is simply pushing the studs through the fabric of your dress, lining up the stud and using the pliers to fasten the studs in place.

The end result will be something like this handsome dress:

 Dance time!