February Foodie Pen Pals Reveal!

After the excitement of my first foodie pen pals adventure in January, I could not wait to be a part of it this month! When the names were distributed, I was excited to meet. Beatriz who has the cutest blog with thoughts that I know if she lived closer, we would be in big trouble! Great minds think alike! Before I tell you how you to get in on this fun project...let me tell you how the creative Beatriz made me one happy girl. I thank her for feeding into my Trader Joe's plea!

the handwritten portion of the program with the cutest lettering! 

These scones are so amazing, I need to buy stock in them!

Old Fashioned Donut O's-made me with sour cream  and whole wheat butter!

Lemon Pepper Pappardelle Pasta-sure to amazing with prawns

Healthy but Sweet! So many ways to use these!

Check out the Mardi Gras themed stuff I sent Jeremy from Stellar Path! Looks so much better after you send them!

How do you get in on this awesomeness??

From Lindsay from the Lean Green Bean herself:
 -on the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. it will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.


 -you will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. on the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!

 -the boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! the spending limit is $15. the box must also include something written. this can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!

 -you are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)

 -foodie penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. if you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. if two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.


If you’re interested in participating for March, please send an email to lindsay attheleangreenbean@gmail.com and include the following information:

 -your full name
 -your email address
 -your blog name/address (if applicable)
 -your twitter handle (if applicable)


 Lindsay needs to hear from you by March 4th as pairings will be emailed on the 5th.
Can't wait till next month!

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SBDC Daytona Beach Marketing Workshop Series

I am so excited! I get to host my first workshop! Sure, I have had a chance to open my big mouth at a couple lunch and learns but this in a bigger capacity! As in, a college! Check it! And Come! I think you may have to click on the image to read all the goodness! Can you tell I am excited?? 

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Organic Groceries Delivered To Your Doorstep...Yes, Please!

Just like a child, I have that eyes bigger than my stomach disease. Sadly, it goes a little further than what goes on my plate for dinner. MAC eye shadows, nail polish, insert craft supply here, LOFT jeans (how many do I need just because they are on sale?)...an understatement, that I am a little obsessive with my buying habits. 

The one thing I am obnoxious is my Farmer's market buying habits, even to me. I go to the Farmer's market like a child in a candy store...tote in hand, so excited to have just a little piece of urban life such as organic goodies. So I buy....and buy...and buy...Then I come home, organize, bag them up in food storage bags (OCD alert!) and then sadly a week later some of it is uneaten and thrown out because it has gone bad...I just have a problem with portion control. Although I probably wont stop visiting my favorite outdoor market, I found a new way to keep my habit in check. 

I was turned on to Front Porch Pickings who weekly or biweekly delivers your choice of basket and size or organic awesomeness to your front porch (get it). Initially, I was a little nervous that I would hate not having the control to pick and choose exactly what I wanted. But after my first delivery yesterday, I think that this is my new favorite thing and I am really excited. A more official description of how it works is here.

On Wednesday, I received an email as to what my basket would be, to ease that whole control freak aspect a little-you do have the opportunity to double up and delete on something you don't like. They are very flexible. I was instructed to leave a cooler with ice and they would see me Friday. Sure enough, when I came home Friday there was a huge refrigerator bag waiting for me! What I liked about the selection and more important the quantity was perfect for one to people with the small basket. 

In my basket, for only $20 mind you there were:

tangerines

sweet potatoes

HUGE green onions

salad greens

mini cucumbers 

strawberries

Brussel sprouts

grape tomatoes

I am very excited to get through this first batch and make some recipes, any ideas? The website for Front Porch Pickings is here, and I am sure that they have something similar in your neck of the woods. Oh, and I found a blog that will help me store the stuffage properly!

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Skinny and Clean-Loaded Turkey Santa Fe Baked Potato Skins

I have made a vow to eat cleaner and really think about what I am putting into my mouth. I will be really clear, I love food, I love to cook and I am excited about the new ways of counting calories, eating cleaner and watching what you eat is the new trend.

No offense to anyone, but for me-I just won't give up meat, eggs, cheese or pasta...I just can't and I just won't. Some of my favorite websites feature healthy recipes that are so good, I can't wait to turn you on to them!

My first recipe is from the Skinny Taste website. I receive a daily email from her website with healthy, yummy Weight Watcher pointed recipes. When we started following each other on Twitter, imagine my delight to find out that she is from Oceanside, Long Island where my whole family is from! WHOOP! Get ready to be very hungry at all these recipes!

Loaded Turkey Santa Fe Baked Potato Skins-Potato Skins filled with spiced turkey, black beans and tons of spices gives this a unique flavor-and guess what? They are Gluten-Free! Perfect for quick entertaining now for a NASCAR race (starts this week!)

From Skinnytaste-
Skinny potato skins loaded with mildly spiced turkey, black beans, corn and tomatoes topped with cheese - you won't be able to stop at just one!

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Socially Acceptable-Zip List

Getting organized in all areas is always a goal of mine. I would like to have every facet of my life in a complete organized manner and I am slowly chipping away at it.I am also trying to eat healthier, cook at home more and really be very aware of what I am putting in my mouth (more about that later).

I love trying new recipes and I have discovered a really fun website, app, etc. to keep them all in one place. Ziplist is my new fascination of late. Ziplist is fun because a lot of my favorite foodie websites like Skinnytaste and Lalaloosh have partnered with them to add them to their websites. The idea is with one click you can add the recipes you like to your list and if you want to get crazy make a shopping list with the ingredients you choose. You can search and save from over 100 websites that are partners and once you get your list going you can plan out your week, and sort by ingredient (like you are craving chickens) The list of partners are some of my favorites. Another good feature of Ziplist is that it has a mobile app so you can take your list with you to the supermarket.

The website promises to Plan Weekly Shopping Needs, Organize Grocery Trips and Save Time & Money

Check it out here and please let me know what you think. Sidenote-Why don't you take the partner list and put all those yummy blogs into your Google reader?? I am going to do that right now!! YAY! 

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Budweiser Shootout Fun

My former project Racing Fashionistas was the most fun I ever had in social media. I will say again that it taught me so much how to market a blog, it gave us amazing opportunities within the sport, made us strong advocates for brands on Twitter based on the success we had and I have made some amazing friends and contacts thanks to it. It breaks my heart that it has been one year since we posted on there. There is just no time. I wish there was. However, in order for me to have the best of both worlds, you may get a little #NASCAR action on here this week.
This is normally our view from where we watch the race from our friend's pit box. I thought they were gonna win this race, those Bass Pro boys!

Thanks to the glory of photography, this looks like Kyle is crossing the finish line...sadly its after the win...I am not that good!

Kyle pulling his car in Victory Lane

Kyle out oft he car, a millionaire 

(the purse for this race)

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Highly Acclaimed-Skinnygirl Releases WINE!!!!

I am becoming a bigger fan of Bethenny every day. She is the driving force behind the Skinnygirl brand, books, website, drinks, etc. etc. This is a woman entrepreneur who a girl like me can easily idolize.  Today the adoration just elevated to the kind of worship where one can hear angels sing. On her website and Facebook, Bethenny announced that in April she will be adding WINE to her collection of Skinnygirl cocktails. Wine!! Each only 100 calories and three new varietals-Red, White and Blush! Looks like I have a new food group!

From Bethenny's website

Read, read, read all about it and try to breathe shallow breaths! That is what I will be doing till April!

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Daytona International Speedway Gets Social (Media)

Yesterday, in the anticipation of Speedweeks, my favorite time of year-I received a press release that the Daytona International Speedway is vamping up their social media and ways to connect to the track. No matter which way you choose to connect, QR Codes, Facebook, their website or Twitter...they have you covered. 

Read full article from News Daytona Beach, which is a part of Black Crow Media, MRN Affiliates. 

One side note that I dont think they thought about is the length of their Twitter hashtags. As you know Twitter only allows you 140 characters. The benefit of Twitter is that it is brief, and to the point. 

Some I thought were terribly long

#BudweiserShootout

#GatoradeDuel

@NextEra_Energy Resources 250-what is this? Can't be a Twitter name and if they meant it as a hashtag-that is almost 20 characters!

#DRIVE4COPD300

This is when I miss my former project terribly. Every year, we talk about the resurrection of Racing Fashionistas, a fun pet project with my bestertons that taught me everything I knew about blogging and promoting and was the business plan for Little Blog Dress. Maybe I can convince them this year to try again, but it is a lot of work! 

The one event that is bigger to me than any race?? THIS!

Lenny Kravitz will be performing at the Daytona 500 and I will be there!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!  If nothing else, I need an upgrade from this picture, stat!

Check out those pants!!! (It was the 90's... give me a break)

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A Tranquilista Manifesto-What Any Woman Business Owner Should Know

Someone I admire very much, Kimberly Wilson posted this many moons ago. She recently reposted and I feel it epitomizes exactly why I wake up and do what I do every day as a woman business owner.

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NBC's Own Superbowl Promo

NBC is my favorite network....hands down. I always wonder if people take the time to think about why they watch what or is it only  I that is so crazy. I have been watching The Today Show since before I can remember, and a Saturday Night Live fanatic (to put it mildly)...I just love all that is at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. NBC is always my network of choice...I couldn't even tell you much about the other three from a news perspective.

This Superbowl commercial was a brilliant marketing nugget. Taking a song from How to Succeed in Business without Trying shows me that NBC knows how to do exactly that. Enjoy the NBC family from your favorite shows and news teams in a fun three minute promo to promote the network the best way they know how. Which part is your favorite?? 

 

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Sunday Musing

This was on someone's Facebook this morning and it really resonates with me. I don't think we say this often enough to ourselves. 

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Jason Wu for Target Plan Of Attack...I mean Action

My OCD in anticipation on the Jason Wu for Target launch tomorrow is almost more than I can stand. I must say that this blog post is so much more for me than it is for you. I have to somehow organize my thoughts and buying strategy like I did for the Missoni launch. 

Thankfully, for this launch I am not leaving an Anthrax concert, (sad but true) talking to my girl friend Nada of Beauty Mommy on the streets of NY freaking out that somehow I have to get back to Brooklyn and try to get on the shoddy internet connection to make these purchases happen. No midnight launch!!! So when I woke up by chance at 4am...yes I told you I am crazy...made three, THREE separate transactions for fear that I would lose the connection. Sound crazy? You obviously didn't hear that the Target website CRASHED at 8:30am...who is the sucker now?? Even my boyfriend understood that I wasn't joking when sources he deemed official reported on the crash and has steered clear of me for my game plan tomorrow. Even my best friend gets it now,  who initially couldn't understand why I cared that MERONA was having a new line.  

Tomorrow 8am, and prob non stop checking online over night I will be front and center at my Target with a plan..hoping my friends Rene and Nada will join because crazy loves company!!! I feel less insane with a partner! I hear somewhere in the heavens my dad saying if only you took your work this serious! Thank you to Nitrolicious for providing me with this canvas of crazy. 

My picks:

Trench Coat in Black, $54.99 

 Flared Dress in Black with Nude Patent Belt, $59.99 

 (Available at Target.com only)

Long-Sleeved Pointelle Sweater in Belize Blue, $39.99 Also Available in Red

Dot-Printed Shirt Dress in Cream, $39.99

Long-Sleeved Pointelle Sweater in Red, $39.99 

Pleated Cap-Sleeved Blouse in Red, $26, 99 (Available at Target.com only) 

Pleated Skirt in Navy Floral, $29.99 Also Available in Solid Black, which I must have

Jersey Dress in Red/Navy Stripes, $34.99 

Cat Tote in Cream, $39.99 (My MUST purchase)

Long-Sleeved Sailor Sweater in Black/Cream Stripes, $32.99

Flared Dress in Cream with Black Patent Belt, $59.99 (Available at Target.com only) 

Also Available in Black with Nude Patent Belt

Cat Tote in Cream, $39.99

Isn't she so so pretty?

Front-Flap Bag in Cream/Black, $49.99

(Because I need another handbag)

Wish me luck! And Let me know if there is medicine I can take for this sickness!

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I Have Bills To Pay Too

For the first time since I started my business , I have been having issues with a couple of clients paying their bills on time. Before I started my business, my whole professional life has been in radio and a sales person for them for over a decade, The radio station is set up that you are paid on what you collect, rather than what you bill. I am eternally thankful for this method. It has made me stronger as a business owner. When your next meal depends on how well you collect on your invoices- you get really good at going to get your money each month. 

A common obstacle for some business owners is asking for the dollar in the first place, and then there is sometimes an issue getting them to pay on time. While I have no struggle with the former, I am amazed at how many of my fellow small business owners are lax to pay my measly tab in a timely manner. I know that business is business but I am a little unnerved that these are the people that know better than anyone else how important it is to be paid in a prompt manner...and they just don't do it. That is why I was drawn to work with them in the first place, because I thought they would be the ones who were most sensitive to these kind of things. While a medium size business can have a $400 or $500 receivable that goes 90 days out without feeling it, that is a huge chunk for me. This week, I had a client texted me, I have many bills due...I will pay you when I can. Because, I don't have many bills due, right?

Although there are policies that I am putting in place, it really shakes my small business morale that people don't do the right thing for one of their own. How do you deal with non paying clients? 

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