Long Valley mompreneur turns creativity into a business

If the Internet and Twitter were around when I was a little girl, my mother could have started a successful business with her hair accessory creations. A Long Valley mom has done just that and has successfully used social media to help grow her business.

Joanne Schlesinger would buy women’s hair accessories for her daughter when she couldn't find something she liked in children’s stores. But then she realized: hey I’m creative; I can make these myself!

People started to notice her designs too.

“As my daughter started wearing my designs, people started asking where they could buy them,” said Schlesinger. “I enjoy creating accessories that add to the beauty of any girl’s hairstyle and there was such a positive response that I knew I could take something I enjoyed doing and turn it into a profitable venture.”

And so Little Miss Julia was born in December 2008.

Offering a crayon box collection of flower, fruit and critter barrettes and bows, the Little Miss Julia collection has a color to complement any outfit. And little girls can do glam too-add some extra sparkle with the crystal barrettes.

While Joanne gathers ideas from online research and browsing what's in the stores, she develops new designs from her own daughter's wardrobe.

“I get a lot of ideas from a need,” the designer added. “I look at my daughter's clothes and if I don’t have something that compliments an outfit, I create a new design.”

Her daughter, who was the inspiration for the business, also acts as her creativity partner along with her other children. But it’s her daisy barrettes that Joannes loves and has grown into quite the collection of colors, sizes and even sparkles!

Sparkles are not just for little girls however. Little Miss Julia sells a line of Swarovksi crystal barrettes that are appealing to teens and moms. But wait! It doesn’t stop there. Joanne sells her line at pet boutiques in the state. Paris Hilton did you hear that?! So you can see: something for all ages, making the company one that a girl can take with her as she grows older...or use to accessorize her own dog!

Little Miss Julia is a growing child too. While the growth of the business has been gradual, Joanne took to the Internet and social media networking sites like Twitter to make connections and spread the word about her unique creative style.

“Twitter has been an incredible networking tool,” said @littlemissjulia. “I have made a lot of contacts which have lead to interviews, features and advertising links. The power of Twitter has been more far reaching than I expected when I first got involved with it.”

Sidenote: it is through Twitter that Joanne found me (@mrsmonj). She’s one of my NJ Twuddies.

And it’s the hard work that Joanne has done by networking through Twitter, reaching out to bloggers and working on search engine optimization (SEO) that has resulted in a steady growth of her sales both online and in the stores. She currently sells her barrettes in a few local NJ shops and hopes to expand to Long Island, Westchester, New York City and Rockland County as well as throughout New Jersey. (Hint Hint!)

In addition to her available designs, Joanne also offers custom barrettes for customers with a specific color or design in mind. Simply select the “create your barrette” option from the website to view colors and floral options.

Gift sets and party favors are also available and can include any combination of barrettes and clips presented in a cellophane bag with matching shredded paper and bow. How cute is this idea: Joanne made favor bags for the girls at her son’s birthday party including barrettes, a mirror and little brush. How many girls want a super hero goodie bag when they can have cute barrettes!

To start shopping, visit Little Miss Julia online. Follow Joanne at Twitter and drop her a line.

Burlington County woman helps fight global water crisis

A Moorestown woman has figured out how to turn wine into water.

Stephanie Weaver had a goal to one day start a non-profit organization to alleviate some form of suffering in the world. While studying at Georgetown, the Moorestown native narrowed her focus on fighting poverty at an international level, but it was an article on CNN.com about the water crisis in South Africa that launched her to action.

“After learning that 1.2 billion people don't have their most basic human need met, and that millions of people, mostly children, die every year because the don't have a glass of clean water, I couldn't just sit back and do nothing,” said Weaver.

Starting with a small wine tasting fundraiser at school to benefit the water crisis, Weaver essentially turned “wine into water” laying the foundation for her non-profit organization: A Drink for Tomorrow. By partnering with businesses, primarily focusing on those in the wine industry, Weaver is planning fun and tasty events to draw attention to a global crisis.

With their first campaign “Turn Wine Into Water,” Stephanie and her team, all of whom are volunteers, have gotten the support from Moorestown and Philadelphia area wineries, liquor stores and most recently a home improvement company and party planner. One of the campaign events, hosted by The Wine Cellar in Cinnaminson (above), is an on-going wine tasting of South African and American wines, specifically chosen since those countries have been affected the worst by the water crisis. The Wine Cellar donates $.25 for each bottle sold and is currently running this promotion for 6 weeks with the final event on June 30th.

The type of wine does not matter for a business that is interested in participating in the “Turn Wine Into Water” campaign, which involves a merchant partnering to run an extended promotion and not just a one-time event.

“Whether a wine store or winery owner wants to donate a percentage of proceeds for his or her choice of brand, varietals, or every bottle in the store,” added Weaver, “they would still be helping us ‘Turn Wine into Water’.”

While Stephanie’s organization is only a few months old, she has a unique concept that has already garnered the attention of area merchants. The owner of the South Jersey party planning company Reflections of You has partnered with A Drink for Tomorrow and will make a donation for each new couple that signs on with them.

Since A Drink for Tomorrow is completely volunteer run, Stephanie is always looking for help from people interested in helping with partnerships and promotion- visiting with business owners and gaining their interest in joining this worthwhile cause. And since most of the fundraising to date has gone to start-up costs, they are in need of more partnerships and promotions in order to fund a water donation for an entire community.

For more information on how you can help Stephanie turn wine into water as a volunteer or a participating merchant, visit her website at adrinkfortomorrow.org.

Mrs Mo's Pretty Picks: Hot for Summer 2009: Tie-Dye

In fashion, everything old is new again and it seems like the 80s wave is continuing this summer with the hottest trends including Tie Dye, Ruffles, Colored Jeans and Fringed Bags.

Over the weekend I stopped into my favorite LBI clothing store, Tula the Boutique, to get some of their recommendations. Store manager, Brooke Mesanko, who is also 4-months pregnant was wearing a long Tie-Dye maxi tube dress confirming the trend which also doubled for fun maternity fashion! Along the walls of this very hip boutique were some rocker chic styles and haute separates. What's great about Tula is the fashion for any budget. You can find Hollywood favorite Alice & Olivia and Robert Rodriguez in the same space as more budget-friendly labels like Bobi, Miss Me and Sky.

Sales associate, Dana Muerater, pulled out 2 of their best selling dresses: more Tie-Dye! The first one made me think of Nicole Richie. Long, gray Vintage Havana Tie-Dye dress(above) with rope straps and matching fabric tassel in the back that draped down from the neck-line. Very sexy! The second, shorter dress(right) donned vibrant hues of pink, blue and purple and continued the roping detail on the straps. Two other popular brands, which make great summer pieces, are Sky and MM Couture.

I had no doubt that Mesanko and Muerater would confirm the Tie-Dye trend since I had seen it popping up everywhere from wraps to dresses. Just be careful how you accessorize with Tie-Dye, because usually the print is enough. With the Vintage Havana dress, for example, I would stack some silver bangles or throw on an arm cuff. Stick to ball, stud or small hoop earrings. For additional Tie-Dye styles or dress, the easiest place to find an assortment of brands, prices and colors is to search at TheFind.com.

Mrs Mo's Favorites: Christopher Deane (left) and Nicole Miller (right)













Tula the Boutique has 2 NJ locations:
806 N. Bay Avenue
Beach Haven NJ 08008
609.492.2099

524 Broad St
Shrewsbury, NJ 07702
732.219.8888

Mrs Mo's Shopping Local Guide: Grover's Mill Coffee

On the evening of October 30, 1938, Orson Welles led a radio broadcast of “War of the Worlds” expecting to provide light Halloween entertainment. What resulted, was a nation paralyzed by fear and members of a small NJ town planning a revolt against Martians.

The effect of the broadcast, which embarrassed the residents of Grover’s Mill (now part of West Windsor), became part of American folklore, spawning books and movies on the subject and most recently a coffee shop.

Grover’s Mill Coffee, started by husband-wife team Mickey DeFranco(right) and Franc Gambatese, is part community gathering place, part museum, paying homage to the legendary broadcast which Gambatese has been fascinated with since his childhood.

But it’s more than just a place to marvel at Gambatese’s impressive collection of movie posters, publicity shots of Wells and historic photos of Grover’s Mill residents, it’s a place to gather and drink good coffee.

Inspired by the community aspect of cafés in Spain, DeFranco and Gambatese wanted to recreate that idea in West Windsor where residents could enjoy nice conversation among friends and colleagues without the distraction of schedules or responsibilities.

“We want to be everyone’s 3rd place,” said DeFranco. “You have your home, you have work and your have your 3rd place and that’s Grover’s Mill Coffee. There’s nothing else like us in town.”

On any given day, you’re likely to find a group of moms chatting, local officials taking a break or members of local bands practicing for their evening performance which the coffee shop has a series of including singles nights, open-mikes and day time “conversation cafes.” One afternoon, Maddy was lucky enough to get a serenade of “Fools Rush In” performed by local band Concerned Citizens of Yesteryear, who is the coffee shop’s designated house band(see the video below).

Playing on the Martian theme, Grover’s Mill sells bagged coffee like Orson’s Espresso and Rocket Fuel but there are over 20 roasts available. Beyond coffee drinks are teas, coffee accessories and custom baskets and labels, all of which are available at their website, www.groversmillcoffee.com. And why have coffee alone when you can serve it up with biscotti, slice of gourmet cake or a healthy wrap or soup.

Grover’s Mill Coffee is located in the McCaffrey’s Shopping Center in West Windsor and is only about a 5-minute drive from the “Martian Landing Site” monument at Van Nest Park, which is near the Grover’s Mill Pond.

Strange but true New Jersey history, which resulted in out-of-this-world coffee. Pun intended.

Drive to Win $50 of Gas!

When I was commuting an hour from Princeton to Morristown for work, I had about 5 different routes to take depending on my mood. There was the highway route when I was in a rush and then there were the back roads, each with different scenery, when I was feeling more relaxed. And I'm just that kind of person that likes to find little-known ways to get someplace..as if it was my own secret path.

Now there's an opportunity for those of us who have a favorite route to win for sharing!

Palisades Car Insurance is searching for the nicest drives in New Jersey and they're offering the winner of the best route a $5o gas card. That's like 2 fill-ups for my CR-V! But I'm going to step aside and let you, my readers, vie for a chance to win.

From now through June 22, log onto: Palisades.com/NiceDrives and submit your text, photo or video. At the end of June, Palisades will share its top 10 drives (as selected by an expert panel of Palisades Crashbusters®- people who drive over 300,000 miles a year) on its website.

Buckle-Up, get driving and try not to swerve as you take your photo or video. No accidents please!

Online Grocery Shopping with PeaPod: The Review

Back in March I had the opportunity to join other NJ Mommy Bloggers at The Frog and Peach Restaurant in New Brunswick for a workshop on budget and family friendly food options at Stop and Shop.

We also had a chance to talk with Peg Merzbacher, Director of Marketing at PeaPod, who educated us on the helpful features on PeaPod, Stop and Shop's online grocery store, like saved grocery lists and healthy food filters. Since then, one of my goals was to try out PeaPod especially since lugging heavy groceries along with a baby and diaper bag hasn't been to fun lately! I will be honest that I never really considered online grocery shopping since I didn't have a reason not to physically go to the store. However, when a friend of mine mentioned that her sister saved a ton of money without the impulse shopping, I knew I had to give it a try.

Health friendly shopping

It's quite simple to navigate through PeaPod and I won't bore you with the specifics, but there is one feature that Peg really wanted us to know and to share with others. For those of you who follow a strict diet like Gluten-Free or Peanut-Free or Low Sodium, there is a feature called the MyNutraFilter at the top of the screen (see Figure). It allows you to select a filter so that when you shop for let's say, soup or cereal, the foods that fall under the filter will appear first above other options. That way, you don't have to scroll through a bunch of foods that don't work for you.

Right to the sales

At the main page, there is a space to type in your Stop and Shop value card number for instant savings. Additionally, at the bottom of the screen is a link to all of the Weekly Specials to save you time looking for them. However, as you shop through the various "aisles," food marked with a red flag is a sale item. There are also coupon codes available for first time shoppers including 60 days of FREE delivery!

No more impulse shopping

So I know bringing a shopping list to the supermarket is supposed to keep you on track and prevent you from overspending, but I still fall prey to impulse shopping. Especially if something is on sale or a new flavor or a new cleaning product. Shopping online eliminates that temptation. Instead of browsing aisles looking at all the food/products you don't need but buy anyway, you have categories and words to click on-not as glamorous and therefore not tempting.

Forget something? Just click and you're done

Don't you hate it when you go to the store to get something specific and then leave with other items and not what you went for to begin with? Forget about going back to the store, especially when you have cold/frozen groceries and did I mention the 1-year old baby? With PeaPod, if you forgot to add an item, you have a few hours after placing your order to adjust your list. That includes: adding/deleting items, changing delivery date and time, and adding promotional/coupon codes.

Tracking your orders

One thing that I tried to do with receipts and memory is to see how long certain bulk items last before I have to restock. Like how often do we do big shopping trips where we have to replace big ticket items like cleaning supplies, toilet paper, shampoo, soap, etc? I'm not an organized mommy shopper with a coupon box and supermarket circulars. I often forget about getting the Sunday paper to clip coupons. With PeaPod, you can save orders and either order the same thing again or use them as a reference. I would love to get to the point where I know what day of the week I'll need to restock on dinner meat or after how many weeks will I need to replace toiletries, etc. Having previous orders saved will hopefully make that easier for me!

Final thoughts
I was really happy with my first PeaPod experience. It felt good to keep my bill under $100 and stock up on many of our essentials for the week. As with all supermarkets however, there are some that have better deals than others. I will continue to buy my frozen vegetables and chick peas at Wegman's (less than $.90 a bag and $.65 a can is hard to top). I also use Truvia sugar instead of Splenda/Sweet 'n' Low and that isn't available online either. But, the pros heavily outweigh the cons and shopping online may not be a weekly occurrence (we enjoy getting out and shopping together as a family), but it will definitely be something I do more often.

Shop Now Save Later!

Perhaps this will entice you to give PeaPod a try: A special promotion for first time shoppers is going on where you get 60 Days of Free Shipping! Secondly, there are several other savings codes available through the rest of the year. Cha-ching!

Salt Creek Grille Wine & Jazz Festival in Princeton

Mother's Day Sale: Bellies and Booties

a note from stephanie gold

moms get 20% off everything this week

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It's Mother's Day, time to be pampered with a nice meal, gourmet goodies or a bouquet of flowers. But after all is said and done, isn't it better to pamper ourselves with the things we really want?

To help you do just that, print this post and receive 20% your entire purchase at Bellies & Booties now through Monday, May 11th. Spend $75 or more and receive an additional 10% off any one item (great if you've been eying that special outfit for a special night out)!

Can't make it in? Enter code SPECIALMOM at checkout on BelliesAndBooties.com and save 25% on orders of $100.00 or more till Monday, 5/11!

Hint: Forward this email to the guy in your life right here, or create a wish list on BelliesAndBooties.com.

Present this post to your fashion associate upon entering the store to receive your special discount!

Hurry in for the best selection, or shop BelliesAndBooties.com for free in-store pickup!

Mrs Mo's "No Excuses" Mother's Day Gift Guide (Central/South Jersey Edition)

Is there a Mother’s Day that stands out in your mind as being extra special or unique?

Last May was my first Mother's Day and I had the unique honor of being a 3-day old mom. Even though we celebrated at Princeton Hospital, I only hope other women have a similar opportunity like that.

I’m all about doing something different and unique for Mother’s Day, so with the help of some of my friends on Twitter, Facebook and good old Google, here are some thoughts on making your Mother’s Day a memorable one:

New Mom:

1. Got a new mom celebrating this year? Give her a copy of Today’s Moms:Essentials for Surviving Baby’s First Year written by Today Show producers Mary Ann Zoellner and Alicia Ybarbo. It’s fun, it’s real and it’s not scary!
   
2. A New mom could definitely use a lot of pampering this year (hint hint!), but give her something special that will last forever like an at-home newborn portrait session with Carrie Steffe of EMA Photography, located in South Jersey.
   

A Toast to Mom:

1. If you’re on a budget and your mom enjoys good wine, try a local winery like Cream Ridge. Brian Mulligan, the 3rd generation owner, recommends the Chambourcin or Riesling. They are also well known for their fruit wines (and I’ve tasted them all, so I can tell you that they are delish!)
2. If you think Mom would enjoy an entire weekend devoted to wine tasting, send her with some friends to the Mother’s Day Wine Trail Weekend sponsored by the Garden State Wine Growers Association with events at various participating wineries across the state. For the list, including Cream Ridge and my other favorite, Hopewell Valley, click here.
   

Family Outings:

1. If the theater is more her scene, take Mom to the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick for the final showing of New Year’s Eve starring Marlo Thomas and Keith Carradine.
2. Let your kids have their moment in the spotlight when the 10! Show of NBC10 in Philadelphia comes to the Adventure Aquarium in Camden for a meet and greet. Best part: only $10 admission!
3. Take a gamble on something different and enter Mom in the Borgata Mother’s Day Giveaway with prizes given every hour from noon til 7pm. Giveaways include: a Rolex watch, a girls night out package, an overnight stay and dinner for 4 and pretty pretty jewelry!
4. And of course, there are plenty of restaurants throughout New Jersey offering Mother’s Day brunch.
   

Pretty Things for Mom:

1. Handkerchiefs are back and they are bolder and funkier than ever! Amanda at More Than Gifts in Marlton told me about a new product they just got in called The Happy Hanky. With floral, damask and mod print motifs, Mom can sneeze, blot or wipe away happy tears in style!
2. 94.5 WPST Radio is running a “Mother’s Day Makeover” contest ending Friday which is like the jackpot of Mother’s Day gifts. Grand prize includes: spa day, new wardrobe, brunch, massage, jewelry gift cards and more! If you don’t win, you can still get local gift ideas.
3. Visit your neighborhood Brighton Jewelry retailer for their special “Ears Looking at You” promotion: Buy any necklace or bracelet and get any pair of earrings free! Top Picks: North Jersey- Bearpaw Central-Charmed by Claire South- Donna’s Bag
   

Miscellanious:

1. Elizabeth Norton, founder of PartyPlanningProfesor.com, offers something for everyone: families on a budget, dad-friendly crafts, gifts for Grandma and Mother-in-Law, gifts for Foster Moms and how to honor a mother who has lost a child.
2. Go Green this Mother’s Day and give Mom a break at the same time. EcoMaids, with locations in North Jersey, is a full-service Green Cleaning company. If you book them for a home deep-cleaning, Mom will get a $25 gift card to the spa of her choice!
   

There you have your Mother’s Day 2009 No-Excuses Gift Idea List! You would be hard-pressed not to find something that would appeal to your mom. And don’t be shy about calling around to stores, spas or restaurants to see what they are doing for Mom this year!