November 25, 2011 – It’s Black Friday, and I’ve failed miserably at it.

It all started a few days ago…when my daughter, Alexandra, looked through an ad and found an XBox 360 4gb on sale for $100. She thought this would make a perfect Christmas present for her boyfriend. The catch was…you had to be there when the doors opened at 4:00am.

She asked me to go pick it up for her. Now, mind you, I have never participated in this Black Friday madness. Well…I have shopped on Black Friday, but not extreme shopping, not the getting up in the middle of the night when you should be sleeping shopping. But this time I agreed because there are legitimate reasons why she couldn’t go herself, and I know she’s on a budget, and well I love her and all that.

My plan was: get up at 3:30am, be at the store by 4:00am, buy the XBox, be back in bed by 4:30am.

I got up at 3:30am, and arrived at the store by 4:00am(Yes I am purposely not mentioning the store name). When I got there I walked right in, but then hesitated as I realized there was an insanelyyy long organized line of people waiting to go in(I asked later and was told they let them in to line up starting at midnight). I did the right thing and went to the end of the line, which was already moving in.

After I got in to the store I walked back to the electronics section and asked someone where the XBox was, I was first pointed to one area, where the surrounding customers told me that the ones that were left were a higher gigabyte model and were $299. That they only had 20 of the $99 models and they had been grabbed first thing. I didn’t take their word for it though and went and asked an employee, who pointed me to a different area, but they again said, “they were stacked over here, but that’s the first thing everyone grabbed”.

The moral of this story is – plan ahead. If you’re going to do the Black Friday thing, do it right. Or maybe…don’t hesitate and barge right in…

Reconnaissance: Go the day before and scout out what you want. Ask the employees where the item will be placed and how many of them they have.

Arrival: Get there many hours before the store opens and stand in line. Plan to dress warm and bring yourself snacks and entertainment. Make sure your phone is charged!

Action: Once those doors open go straight for your target bargain! Don’t be distracted by all the other pretty displays!

I don’t know if I’ll actually do the Black Friday thing again…I’m more of a Cyber Monday girl…but if I do…I’ll take my own advice. Live and learn…

And did I get back to bed at 4:30am at least? No, I stayed up until 6:00am to finish one blog post and write this one!

Have you ever done Black Friday? Any tips or tricks to share? Please comment below!

Photo credit: Jim Arnold aka technomonk

November 25, 2011 – 1% of our nation controls all the wealth, and then there are the 99% of us.

Who am I? I am a citizen, a mom, an entrepreneur, and I’m part of the 99%.

We need answers…we need help…we need solutions!

The recent Bank Transfer Day on November 4, 2011 urged people to transfer their money out of banks and move it to credit unions. This was in protest of the banks who are now charging fees for simply using your ATM card.

The countrywide #Occupy movement is history making, groundbreaking, ground swelling evidence that we need change.

The poor are paying too much in taxes…the rich are paying no taxes…that’s messed up! Gas prices are too high. Banks are charging more and more fees.

Where do we start? How about taxes – I understand that write-offs are important and help a lot of people. I understand that our taxes help run our country and are needed. So what is the solution?

No one making under $50k a year should be paying taxes. People making over 5 million should be paying a higher percentage…but still have write offs. Generally we pay 33% in taxes. That’s 1/3 of our income. Over a certain tax bracket they should pay 40% or 50% and still be allowed write-offs to balance it out.

The president needs to regulate gas prices. We need green sustainable energy solutions. I know personally that I used to drive to San Francisco one to three times a week a couple of years ago, but now, with the price of gas, I rarely go at all. It takes me over $54 to fill up my tank, which I do once a week as it is.

That has to be dramatically affecting our economy. I know if it made this change in my lifestyle, that it is happening to others. If people can’t afford to go places, they aren’t spending money and traveling, and that is hurting businesses large and small in the long run. They’re not spending money in those places they might have gone.

Also that top 1% needs to realize that they could do so much good for our country with the money that they have.

I challenge them to take 33% of it and invest in our country’s future.

Use 1/4 for after school enrichment programs for our children. Our overall education scores are lagging way behind other countries. We aren’t number one here people. Our math and science scores are near the bottom, with more and more technical jobs opening up in the future that we won’t have the qualified applicants to fill. We need to fix this.

Use 1/4 for college scholarships for students with a 3.5 or higher GPA. We need those smart dedicated students to run our country. College prices are rising higher and more and more worthy students just can’t afford it.

Take the last half and invest in new business ventures -venture capitalist style. Help our economy by helping the entrepreneurs – creating jobs – and you may just make more money than you started with.

I’m not an economist, or a politician and I realized this may be a simplistic plan, which is far-fetched and could only work if the 1% took up my challenge.

This economy is on my mind, and probably on yours, and we have to think about this, we have to discuss it, we have to find a solution to help this economy and our nation, our children, and yes, the 99%.

Please share your thoughts and comment below!

WordCamp This Way!

August 14, 2011 – I attended my 3rd or 4th WordCamp in San Francisco at the Mission Bay Conference Center. I loveee WordCamp, I have highlights from the years that still stick with me and replay in my mind!

I started blogging on wordpress.com and tried a few other blogging platforms, but found WordPress the best. It wasn’t long before I moved my blog to it’s own site and had wordpress.org installed. I’m a happy camper with WordPress!

If you’re a WordPress user, large or small, WordCamp is THE place to be. This time it ran from August 12th-14th. The days were broken down to:

Friday ~ Large Scale Installs
Saturday ~ Devs and Designers
Sunday ~ Content Creaters

I only attended on Sunday, as a blogger I am a “Content Creater”. I actually sent my associate, Leon Bacud, to the Saturday session for Devs and Designers. As my web designer for my upcoming website, The Smart Moms Network, I was hoping it would be valuable for him, and it was! He said he learned a lot of new things that he hadn’t been taught in any of the college classes he had taken!

Irene Koehler and Sukhjit Ghag

Highlights of my day included getting to hang out with Sukhjit Ghag and Irene Koehler,

Myself and Willo O'Brien

hearing Willo O’Briens talk on Leveling Up Your Blog with Video,

Myself with Matt Mullenweg

and always, Matt Mullenwegs “State Of The Word” address. He is such a charmer with that Texas drawl!

All of the WordCamp SF sessions on video can be enjoyed at http://wordcamp.tv and more info on WordCamp SF is available at WordCamp San Francisco 2011 site.

All of my pics from the day can be viewed on Flickr here.

Were you at WordCamp? What were your highlights? I’d love to hear! Comments welcome

Quent Cordair and Lorenzo

Lori from Cline Cellars

Cline Cellars

Grace's Table

2010 Sonoma Coast Viognier and 2010 Ancient Vines Mourvedre wines from Cline Cellars were poured by Lori, and yummy small bites from Grace’s Table were served.

Lorenzo and Mrs. Alcott

Honored friends and guests streamed through the gallery from 6-9PM, enjoying Lorenzo’s glowing art and engaging, warm personality. Gallery BFFs Chef Robin White, Andrea Sutton and Laura Cropper stopped by as well!

Quent Cordair Fine Art is located at 1301 First Street in Napa, California and is owned by Quent and Linda Cordair. Quent Cordair is a writer, as well as an artist, who recently had a short story, A Prelude to Pleasure, published on Amazon and has a major novel in the works, due to be published next year!

I’ve recently started working on Sundays at Quent Cordair Fine Art, which specializes in Romantic Realism. You can usually find me minding the gallery from 11am-5pm, getting my art fix! Please feel free to come visit me and see one of the loveliest galleries I’ve ever had the pleasure to visit.

You may view the online Quent Cordair Fine Art Gallery here (which really doesn’t really compare to seeing it in person, but will do for a start!).

A few more of my pics from the event can be found on Flickr here.

Please see a sample of Lorenzo’s work here. (I would love to know your favorites in the comment section below!)

Generally we think of Social Media as a way to connect with our customers, but in this instance, a business is using social strategies to connect with their competitors!

Danica Sattui

The update I saw was posted by lovely Danica Sattui. Danica is the niece of Dario Sattui, owner of V. Sattui Winery and Castello Di Amorosa Winery/Castle both located in St. Helena in the heart of the Napa Valley.

Danica’s Foursquare post read:

“Delivering cheese plates to say thank you for sending us people! @vsattui1885 — at Robert Mondavi.”

and then another one:

“Delivering cheese plates to say thank you for sending us people! @vsattui1885 — at St. Supery Vineyard Winery.”

This, to me, is *Social* Media at it’s finest. Smart, smart, smart! Not only is V. Sattui Winery giving recognition and appreciation to other wineries for their referrals, they’re also likely to get more referrals from these wineries because of this!

Old-style marketing/PR/advertising would never have given any recognition or appreciation to other similar businesses(wineries in this instance), they would have seen them as competition to be trounced on!

Now some of you smart cookies are saying, “Wait a minute Laura, how is this “Social Media”? I see the social, but where is the media?”

I’ll tell you! Although it is true that V. Sattui did not use Twitter or Facebook in this instance – but – Danica Sattui DID! Because of her random Foursquare check-ins, I was prompted to write this blog. Her Foursquare check-ins also feed onto her Twitter and Facebook pages. I know when I read her posts I was impressed. Impressed with her, and impressed with V. Sattui. I thought, how NICE! I have no doubt that others seeing this felt the same.

Danica was gracious enough to talk to me about her deliveries later that day. She said that the winery has been delivering treats to neighboring wineries once a year, for at least the last five years. Besides Danica, five or six other employees were also out making deliveries. She herself delivered cheese plates to nine wineries. She mentioned that she really enjoys making these deliveries and happily volunteered.

This friendly, generous, personal attention generates positive feelings, likely more referrals and increased business and profits for V. Sattui Winery. In turn, V. Sattui Winery will likely refer customers to visit wineries that send customers to them. It’s a lovely circle of good will.

I love it! Innovative personal touches like this are seeing social media cross boundaries that make it a win-win situation for all involved. In this instance with potential competitors!

March 24, 2011 – Last Thursday Podio launched their site for all the world – and threw a little party!

The Podio Team

Podio went LIVE at about 8:00 P.M. while Danish entrepreneur Tommy Ahlers shared his dream with us and presented his team. Podio is based out of Copenhagen and has opened a satellite office in San Francisco during their launch.

Podio is a website that lets you create your own business work tools and shape the way you work. It doesn’t require complicated technical skills to customize the site to your needs by using their free apps or building your own. Also, a calendar, contacts list, workspace, activity stream, and task list help keep your business flowing and organized.

Podio is free for companies or groups of 10 users or less. $99.00 per month allows businesses up to 25 users, with $4 per additional user, and includes premium features and high priority support.

Stowe Boyd

Right at the front door I ran into Stowe Boyd and Liza Sperling. Stowe(Social Philosopher and Connectivist) was in town from his home in New York and had been part of panel discussing ‘Tools for Work’ at an event held the night before for Podio. Liza has a brand new job as Director of Corporate Relationships at Seesmic with friends: founder Loic Le Meur, John Yamasaki, and Christine Wong.

Ran into a lot of friends I hadn’t seen in awhile, since I’ve been a bit of a hermit this year! Tom Foremski(Silicon Valley Watcher) fired up the new photo app Color, that I had been meaning to download, so I did! By the time he got back with champagne I had it all installed! It was so fun! Tom, Ken Yeung(TheLetterTwo), Stowe Boyd and I were all taking pics and posting them on Color. It’s so fun to use at a party, event, or conference! With Color you can see all the pics posted at the event that everyone is taking – whether you know them or not! Just heard that Color has been banned at the Royal Wedding coming up for Prince William and Kate! Didn’t realize Color was that big!

Jolie O'Dell and Cathy Brooks

Later in the evening Cathy Brooks, Jolie O’Dell(Tech journalist for Mashable) and Chris Heuer(co-founder of Social Media Club) arrived! Jolie has a brand new look! She always looks gorgeous – but the colorful hair is gone and replaced with a sleek platinum blond bob – very chic! Missed Kristie Wells, who Chris said was home ill. Hope you are better soon Kristie! Also, great as always to see Chistopher Peri(Perivision.com), Chia Hwu(The Subtle Influence), Larry Chiang(What They Don’t Teach You at Stanford Business School), Adrian Chan(Gravity7), Eliane Fiolet (co-founder of Ubergizmo.com), Michael O’Donnell(Zat Photo), and newlywed Maria Ogneva(Head of Community at Yammer).

Liza Sperling and Maria Ogvena

Podio treated us right! They had a nice array of snacks, several Podio people giving live demos (thank you Helena!), an open bar, and a good DJ (though not many were dancing while I was there – and by then my feet were hurting in the too high heels I wore-darn it).

Blue Ukeleles

There was a wall full of blue ukelele’s with Podio cards with a picture of people and a name. Wish I knew what that was about?

I had a great time, but was a little frustrated that I brought my Canon Camera in, but left the battery in the car. #fail. It was raining, so instead of going back I pulled out my handy little Sony Bloggie! Wish I had gotten some better pics, but I’m thankful I had the Bloggie(which I need more practice with, apparently…).

Some more pics from the Podio Launch in a Color album here!

If you were there with me, did you have fun? Highlights for you? Also, what do you think of Podio? Will businesses find it useful?

Photography and Makeup by Alexandra Iriarte (my daughter!)

Following is an excerpt from a post I did for St. Ives that you may have missed!

Banning the Blemishes!

Laura Iriarte/ Jul 01 10

We’ve all had them – blemishes, pimples, zits.

Let’s take a look at:

* what they are
* different types of blemishes
* what causes them
* how to get rid of them quickly
* and how to prevent them

What are they? Your skin is comprised of a dermis or outer layer of skin, and the dermis contains many pores. The pores provide oil or lubrication to the skin to protect it. Blemishes are caused when bacteria invade the pore and multiply causing the pore to swell, forming a bump, and often turning red from irritation and sometimes infection.

To read the rest of this post please visit the St. Ives website here. Comments are welcome here since you are unable to comment there!

Also, see link to previous St. Ives skincare article on Consistent Skicare

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Gorgeous Pete Cashmore and Shiny Me

I go to a lot of events – tech, social media, just plain social sometimes – and I generally am taking pics or pictures at those events. It’s what I do. I enjoy capturing a slice of the night. Sometimes I’m working at the request of the event, sometimes it’s just for myself. People are always asking me if I’m the official photographer, I usually answer, “I’m the UNofficial photographer!”

When the event is over, at some point I sit down to edit the pics and I often end up deleting half of them. I’ve gotten better at this as time goes on, I used to just post everything! I look back at some of my early work and cringe! I have learned not to post any bad photos, although what I like and what you like may differ. I’m always happy to edit or delete upon request! A lot of times I can edit a pic by adjusting the color and cropping to make it the best it can be. If there is a group of people, and the one on the end has their eyes closed – they’re cropped out! If someone is too shiny, in most cases they are cropped out or deleted.

Today I’m going to start a series of few simple tips I’ve learned to help those in front of the camera – men and women. Just a couple of pointers to make you look your best, and not end up in my recycle bin!

The first tip is powder. I learned this after attending Mashable’s first Summer Mash event in 2008. I had a wonderful time, took a lot of pictures, and had a lot of pictures taken of me. It was the first time I met photographer William Marc Salsbury and he took a couple of photos of me and told me I was a little shiny, which I appreciated. As it turned out, that was an understatement, I was a LOT shiny! I normally don’t have oily skin, but it was hot and crowded there and on camera, when the flash or lights hit me, shine city!

In the picture above I’m photographed with the founder of Mashable.com, Pete Cashmore, and it may not look too bad in the small size above, but click on it, and you will definitely see what I mean!

I’m not a fan of the matte look, but if you’re going anywhere, where there is any chance someone will take your photo, powder up before you leave! I do now! My favorite is a light dusting of loose powder, using a big fluffy brush! If you’re someone who does have oily skin, bring some pressed powder or blotting papers in your purse and touch up through the night. In a pinch, a trick that I learned from CBS 5′s newscaster,Sue Kwon at BizTechDay 2009, was to use toilet seat covers as blotting papers! You’ll thank me when you see the pictures after!

If you have any tips to share, I would love to hear them in the comments section below!

~Laura

Photography and Makeup by Alexandra Iriarte (my daughter!)

Most of you know that I’ve been writing on skincare and beauty for St. Ives for the last year. I’m going to start linking to my articles here for those of you that have missed them! Find my author bio here.

I’ve been consistent, I’ve been inconsistent, I know what I’m talking about here, and there is a *lot* to be said for consistency!

What are the benefits of consistent skincare? Let’s dissect this…

* What is skincare?
* Problems caused by inconsistent skincare
* What is consistent skincare?
* Benefits
* Wrapping it up

What is skincare? Skincare is the process of taking care of your skin, and generally refers to your facial skin, although body care has become almost as important in recent years.

The basic skincare process usually consists of cleansing, exfoliating, sometimes toning, and finally moisturizing the skin. Another important step …

To read the complete article, please visit the St. Ives website here. Comments are welcome here, as you are unable to comment on the St. Ives site at this time.

I’ve resisted this for awhile, even though quite a few of my photographer friends are using them, because I feel they look a little tacky. Now I’m beginning to change my tune.

As a photographer specializing in event photography, often my photos are used by others in everything from profile pics to personal or business websites. Generally I am flattered and honored (especially if they ask nicely first) but it’s great to at least be given credit.

A watermark, probably lauralovesart.com, on the lower corner would ensure all photos are identified as mine and possibly bring more traffic to my website and business to me. I’m planning to use www.easysector.com’s Batch Photo Watermarker.

I’m going to give it a try. If you have any feedback pro or con, I’d love to hear from you!