I love to read! Ever since I was little I’ve always loved to read. I’d spend hours before bed reading chapter after chapter of my favourite books before my parents would come upstairs and tell me to turn my light off and get to bed.

My love of reading has been set on the back burner lately with the chaos of school, part-time work and running a business. Yet, I keep collecting and buying new books. Below is a stack that I’ve accumulated so far. There are many others, but these ones rank at the top.

I always go to pick one up but feel guilty that I should be doing something else. Project deadlines are always looming near and taking a minute to read a chapter of a new book just never seemed to be priority. I hope to change that this year and take time for myself and my books. Majority of the books above are marketing related so I could always argue it’s ‘research.’

Any suggestions on which I should read first?

It’s FebFest weekend!!! I hope all you Kingstonians are taking in some festivities and making your way downtown this weekend. Be sure to check out the schedule of events here. My friends and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a FREE wagon ride! There are BeaverTails, skating, and of course all the amazing shops and restaurants.

Hope to see you down there Saturday and Sunday. I’ll be the girl with the GIANT lens capturing the action. Be sure to say HI!

I’m loving my courses this semester. They are all opening my eyes to a world which I’ve never noticed or really took time to think about. I’ll be the first to admit that I live in my safe, structured Southern Ontario little bubble. I grew up in a white middle class family. My parents worked hard and raised my sisters and I very well. My only experience outside North America was to New Zealand a few years ago. Which culturally isn’t much of a shock to a Canadian. This semester I’m studying Economics and International Marketing, it’s becoming quite clear how little I know about the world outside of my bubble. And also, how I’ve been seeing the world outside my bubble has been skewed.

From my point of view in New Zealand

In my International Marketing class we learned about the term ETHNOCENTRISM. We are always seeing the world from our own point of view and comparing. We grow up in a specific culture absorbing its values and behaviours. It can be difficult, and nearly impossible when interacting with a different culture to see their values and behaviours through their viewpoint. It is important to remember not to think of “yours vs. theirs”. Neither is correct they are just different.

This can be true for any relationship really, different culture or not. When you disagree or have a differing of opinion than someone it may not be that one is necessarily “right or wrong” it’s just different. That is of course unless it’s 1+1, that always = 2 anyone arguing that fact is definitely wrong.

Hoping to continue to share more terms and tid bits of new knowledge throughout the coming semester.

Looking for something to do this February? Why not check out Kingston’s FebFest held in downtown Kingston from February 2-5th.

I recently worked with Downtown Kingston to redesign their FebFest website. There are so many fun activities they have organized. I look forward to photographing and taking in as much as I can this year.

Hope to see you there!

Breanne

Happy New Year everyone! 2011 was an INCREDIBLE year. I hope you had a great holiday. I was able to travel home to visit family and friends for Christmas this year. It was a MUCH needed vacation. I miss everyone there so much.

This past year was definitely a year I won’t soon forget. Here’s a little recap …

I GOT MARRIED!

We lucked out with a beautiful day in August, it threatened rain but held off until later that night. There are so many people to thank and we’re still over whelmed by the love and support we received from our family and friends that day. It was perfect!

Photo by Winding Violets

My husband and I helped a close friend open his very own restaurant. My husband helped a lot with the construction and I with all the design work. It was an amazing experience and this March Tommy’s will be celebrating ONE YEAR being open. They always say the first few years are the hardest for a new business, and though there have been some challenges the restaurant is doing really well.

Tommy’s Kingston – Twitter / Facebook

We also both went back to school (me in my second year, he in his first). It’s been a challenging first few months of marriage as our schools are not in the same city. But we managed to see each other every weekend last semester and hoping to continue that into the new year. (Bonus for him having Fridays off again).

Planning a wedding, helping out a restaurant, attending school full time and working part time definitely kept me busy. Of course thats never enough for me ;) I also volunteered with the Kingston Arts Council and Kingston Photo Club, and I took part in a market research project with St. Lawrence College and the Thousand Island Workforce Development Board to help project employment opportunities in the Kingston area … phewf! What a year.

It was a crazy busy year. More busy than crazy and as much as I loved everything I was doing in 2011 I’m looking forward to new opportunities in 2012. I’ve cut a few things I was doing last year to make room for new prospects on the horizon. This blog being one of the things I hope to now have more time for.

Wishing everyone the best in the new year ahead.

As my semester comes to an end, (only one more exam to go tomorrow afternoon) my excitement for the holidays is taking over. I still have yet to put up my tree, start shopping or baking :( … but there is still time right? Right? Oh dear! Much more behind than I’ve been in the past. But, with 3 jobs, volunteer work and school there wasn’t much time for anything else.

However, I did make time a few weeks ago to take some pictures of my friend Ashleigh and Luke, and their children. They wanted to send out a fun family christmas card this season and with that in mind I thought i’d play to their fun loving nature and have them pose a bit more ‘goofy’ then a typical family portrait.

Enjoy!

Some interesting quotes that have been inspiring me lately:

“When you look back on your life, it looks as though it were a plot, but when you are in it, it’s a mess: just one surprise after another. then, later, you see it was perfect.” -Schopenhauer.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” – Steve Jobs.

You never know where life will take you, and after 26 years it’s been one roller coaster of  a ride. Hoping my dots will soon connect.

CONNECT WITH ME!

So I’m starting a new trend. You heard it here first folks!! (Maybe, maybe not. I’m sure there are sites out there in the world wide web that have already done this, but it’s not frequent enough!)

Don’t ask people to “Contact” you.
Ask them to “Connect” with you!

Image Source

With the power of social media today, and the multiple ways you can contact someone it’s important that we remember that we’re making a connection. My professors over the past 2 years have instilled in me the importance of networking and connecting with as many people as possible. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc. make it so easy to connect with people we may not have ever had the chance to. Why just this morning I was tweeting with an amazing marketing strategist who is coming to Kingston’s Writersfest next week. A simple tweet from teacher, a simple reply and TA DA! Connected!

Now, what you do with the amazing connections you make is the next step. Staying ‘top of mind’ and relevant is something I’m continuing to work on. This is the same for businesses. You want to make connections with your customers. Connect with them in a way that when they need your product or service you are the first one they think of. There are multiple ways to do this and it’s so simple really that I don’t know why some companies choose to stick with the ‘tried and true” forms of marketing.

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”

Tony Robbins

There is a lot to be said for Facebook and twitter, but only if used by a company who will take the time to engage their followers and provide decent, relevant content. A great example of a company who is doing it REALLY well would be MEC.

I challenge you to connect with someone, through any means available to you. You never know who a simple ‘Tweet’ will lead to. Take the challenge!

Typography is one of my favourite aspects of design. You see it every day, in every form of media but do you really see it? It is a skill to be able to choose the right typeface that suits a project. One of my favourite initial stages of the design process is choosing the ‘perfect’ typeface. Sometimes it clicks right away, other times it takes hours to source the right one.

Anyone interested in typography should check out “Typeverything” an endless scrolling website featuring amazing typography designs. Right off the bat this caught my eye:

Created by Marko Purac

This one also caught my eye, not just because of the typography but also the message. RIP Steve Jobs.

Words by Steve Jobs. Painting by Mae Chevrette.

 And this one I love the interaction between the photograph and the typography, my creative juices are flowing after seeing this one.

If you’re interested in typography here are some other resources that I use for inspiration:

• I Love Typography
•  Logo Design Love
• Blog.Spoon Graphics

Things have been a bit quiet around here and I hope to now pick up the pace. My site had been hacked and my blog compromised so I took a break in order to sort it out properly. I’ve since switched hosting providers, and updated security so hopefully I won’t have as many problems as I did with my old hosting provider.

I’m up in Ottawa this weekend visiting the hubby, and while surfing the net looking for new and unusual media in direct marketing for a course project I came across this very intriguing info graphic posted on Taxi and created by Column Five Media.

The infographic provides advice to managers, such as: to not be afraid to “cross streams”—solve problems with the help of others, “keep your ghosts contained”—identify recurring problems and contain them, “go with your gut”—don’t second guess your final decisions.

As a regular ‘team leader’ or ‘coach’ as I’ve been nicknamed, I found the information humorous and useful not just for managers but for those in a leadership role. I really liked the part, “Be a cheerleader for your employees”. School can be hectic, and everyone has multiple projects, work and home life on the go. It can become tense at times working as part of a team and taking the time to chat, be silly and encourage each other is really important.

Until next time.