Bringing Step Aerobics Back

*I know I haven't blogged in awhile but bare with me. I have a lot of ideas, it's just been hard to find the time lately. (this weekend! maybe)

I've been trying to go to step aerobic classes at different YMCAs here in Nashville for the past little bit and I find it unfortunate that it's become so hard to even find them on schedule. That makes me sad cause it is the BEST cardio workout and the funnest, at least for me. That's why I find myself traveling to 3 different Ys throughout the week when gas prices are almost $4 a gallon, not cool! My dear friend Kumar helped point out to me that I spend about $78 extra in gas money a month traveling to all these other Ys. I've played soccer for the majority of my life so I think I enjoy the eye-foot coordination part of step aerobics. The challenging part is when the choreography gets complex while trying to maintain an 8 count beat. No other sport requires and uses the eye-foot coordination like soccer, but step is pretty close. Not to mention that this class not only involves stepping up and down on an adjustable platform, but also performing upper body movements too. Ahha, a little hand-eye coordination going on at the same time. Lastly, your mind stays so involved with the choreography that you don't have a chance to think about the time or how many calories you've burned! We're on the brink of it becoming a past time I feel and that must stop. In a perfect world I could pick out the music too! My favorite music to work out to is usually pop, hip-hop and even rap. I think everybody knows how much easier it is to get a good workout when you've got good music. I can also imagine doing a step class to my favorite rock too. Like a mix of Bloc Party, Gnarls Barkley, the Strokes, CSS, Smashing Pumpkins, AutoVaughn, the Bravery, and lots and lots of Daft Punk, always!...No but really this whole thought process gives me a business idea. It happens and one day I will strike gold in my head dammit! Stayed tuned for more of those and watch this...doesn't it look fun?!? Just a little bit..hahah and it's not really like this at the Y, i wish!

Music You Should Know: Chromeo

Chromeo
This tune Bonafide Lovin' by Chromeo puts me in a good mood and cracks me up. Here are some of the lyrics to entice you listen to it:

Let me tell you that i saw your boyfriend walking down the street, he was standin all shaky, hands all sweaty, and he could hardly speak. I might as well take a minute or two, to put you on to some game, you want a boy like him and a man like me and thats just not the same.

Never mind an sms, what you need is a sweet caress, everybody wanna talk too much, what you need is a special touch. Ooh girl wouldnt that feel right, a little dinner with a candle light and really when it comes down to it, pick a man who's down to fight.

I hear an 80s influence big time with the guitar, keyboard hook and with the (oh oh oh oh) in the chorus; I love it! The video is exactly like the Money for Nothing video by Dire Straits too, awesome. They're going to be at Bonnaroo and I'm praying at Lollapalooza too (lineup comes out on MONDAY!). Lolla's a must and Bonnarro, I might be working at or volunteering at this year, we'll see.

Comedy in Nashville (Bret Ernst and Jimmy Fallon!)

This uber cool chic I work with, aka Ginny G, told me this past Thursday that a friend of hers was going to check out Jimmy Fallon at Zanies. I immediately knew I was blessed to be hearing this info because the ticket was for Bret Ernst and Jimmy was billed as the 'Special Guest.' I found a tidbit online confirming Jimmy as the "very special mystery guest." The MC for the night, the very funny Lucas Bohn, opened the show with a 15min set and set the mood right. He then handed it off with 'this next performer needs no introduction, Saturday Night Live's Jimmy Fallon.' Jimmy came on with his guitar and immediately started with his tune 'Car Wash for Peace.' We had perfect seats in the center of the balcony upstairs and as soon as Fallon said he didn't mind if we took pictures I decided that meant videos too. The headliner, Bret Ernst, (from Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show and Weeds on Showtime) followed Jimmy and kept the level of comedy at about as good as it gets. I was in tears a couple times. He immediately created good rapport with us and maybe because we could relate to him, definitely at the table I was sitting at, assuming he's around 30. He made fun of some of his friend's MySpace pages, being a teacher, working in the restuarant industry, early 90s R&B (Jodeci, haha!) and going to the roller skating rink back in the day! Awwww, we had a blast and laughed so much it hurt. I have some videos from the show below, ENJOY and check out the rest on my YouTube channel, worthyofnotedotcom!
Jimmy's 'You Spit When You Talk'

Bret Ernst

NoteWorthy Products - Dogeared Jewelry

Dogeared Jewelry

I'm not always going to feature jewelry here but for now I have to mention this company. Let me just say that I am so envious I didn't think of something like this. Dogeared jewelry has taken a simple design idea, creative packaging that includes emotional marketing gimmicks and created a thriving product. The emotional positioning of this product is genius. Their 'best known and most loved creation' is the make- a- wish necklace which is a simple pearl or charm on a silk thread. Here's the selling point that evokes the emotion in the buyer of the gift, it's on this card that says 'make a wish and put on your necklace. when your necklace wears off, your wish should come true...' Yea right, but for all of us dreamers with hope, the emotional association and response is to spring for a $26 necklace. So that's the concept for the make-a-wish and then you have your choice of different colors of silk string, endless possibilities of 14k gold dipped or sterling charms, and then an occasion, (this is where it gets personal and fun!). Occasions are titles at the top of the card and encompass the intentions of your wish, purpose or energy of the necklace. As they put it 'ask and the universe will provide.. trust and believe!' The ABUNDANCE necklace is one of my favorites, probably cause of the cute feather and its general purpose! They have occasions from anything about love, being a new mom to one simply titled happy birthday. In fact, most of the line are necklaces that are not intended to fall off so you can permanent wear your dreams around your neck or at least until they come true. My other favorite is the Karma necklace! I just ordered one and I can't wait to sport it all summer! It says 'what goes around, comes around...wear your necklace as a reminder to keep the circle positive, peaceful and loving'. And big thanks to my dear friend Brooke who gave me my first Dogeared necklace for my birthday.

Really?!? I Can't Get Enough!!!

BREAKSK8

haha! That would be of the dance crew on roller skates called Breaksk8 on MTV's America's Best Dance Crew. I've been catching bits and pieces of the new show here and there and then got completely mesmerized by an episode I saw last week. The assignment for the remaining crews was to put their own twist on a track from Michael Jackson's Thriller album in honor of the album's 25th anniversary. All the dance crews did a such a great job, I'm liking this show now! Well Breaksk8 picked 'Beat It' out of a hat and had 'their best performance yet'...check it out cause I can't get enough! Maybe I like the song 'Beat It' more than I thought or this is just more proof of the undeniable impact that album had on all of us but I would pay to see them do a performance to the song in full. Their performance also reminded me of that movie "Breakin'" that came out in the early 80s. I think I watched that movie a lot when I was little!



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Morphed - the future of mobile devices

Predicting the future technology, this video demonstrates the Morph concept phone from Nokia. "The device, which is made using nanotechnology, is intended to demonstrate how cell phones in the future could be stretched and bent into different shapes, allowing users to "morph" their devices into whatever shape they want."

Music You Should Know or Remember:

SIA

I'm sure you cool kids know who SIA is and if you don't shame, shame. You would at least recognize one or two of the numerous hits she's done with Zero 7 or the huge hit "Breathe Me" that played on the series finale of Six Feet Under. Well I just got back from Atlanta where some friends and I decided to celebrate a birthday by making the 4 hour drive to see SIA live in concert. It was at the Variety Playhouse in Little Five Points, a venue similar to Belcourt Theatre but bigger for all you Nashvilians, and I was blown away. How many times have you seen a live performance and thought it sounded even better than the CD? The songstress sang her heart out and now might contend w/ Beck and Ryan Adams for my admiration when it comes to a live performance. I wish I had a set list but I was enjoying myself way too much to try and manage that. Not mentioning we missed the first song because of an inexcusably SLOW server at Sweet Lime, located across from the venue. No really, we're pretty easy to wait on cause we've all been servers before. Great sushi...horrible service! Oh, the best part, after we waited way tooo long for our food, our server forgot to enter half our order so we left still hungry! Hence the photo, we snagged a muffin before walking in the show...
I have some videos posted below you have to check out, especially the clip of her explaining an alter ego and a little bit about her career. I had no clue she was so animated, quirky and funny! The majority of the songs she played were from her new album Some People Have Real Problems and surprisingly 3 of the songs she did w/ Zero 7. "Sweet Potato", "Throw It All Away"!!! and "Buttons" were the songs that would've been on my wish list though : ( This was the best show of 2008, so far!
"Day Too Soon" from new album:

Sia, the comedian:

"Destiny", a Zero 7 song:

"Breathe Me" from Colour The Small One:

If you want more, there are a couple more videos on You Tube!

Fine China is for Single Women Too?

I googled "registering for fine china" and inadvertently found an excerpt from the book called Fine China is for Single Woman Too by Lydia Brownback. I started to read it, the title being the reason why I wanted to write this particular blog, and was compelled to read the entire excerpt. I found myself oddly relating all too well to some of it, it was almost chilling and I will let you find it for yourself if you're all that interested ; )
Back to the point, and no Maris this is not an advertisement for AshBlue, because I'm in an area of business, oh screw it, because I manage a retail store that sells fine china I've become completely besotted with the essence of the bloody stuff! I've noticed first hand that the market of brides registering for it is just not what it once was, so I hear. That could be a product of its own, beginning generations ago due to the passing down through families. Why would a girl want to register for fine china when she's getting Nana's set (or whatever you call your grandmother). Is it just not practical anymore? The new urbanism movement is driving people back into the city and usually in smaller functional spaces. Where would you store 12 complete place settings of china in your new urban modern loft? Well, I would probably display them on a wall somewhere. Or is it because the perceived value (unfairly so) has lessened due to the economies of scale of brands like Crate&Barrel, William Sonoma, even Target that have stolen the bridal market. 1 in 7 of my friends married in the last 2 years registered for fine china. The rest opted out in favor of everyday ware from those previously mentioned retail giants.
Fine china and porcelain is usually on the upside of the market, especially when you look at the traditional manufacturers which can be intimating if you don't know, you got to ease into it. All deserving of praise though once you put your hands on it and find a pattern that suits your being. The only reason I found myself enlightened with the endless possibilities, especially if you dare get in to mixing and matching, is because that's what I do and I know what the market has to offer. Enough about why people don't love it as much as I do. I pitty the fool! So here are some of my favorites; I just haven't decided which pattern to invest in yet!

From left to right: 1st row- Gwinnett Lane by Kate Spade, Pinny's Beach by Kate Spade, 5 Lenox patterns (Continental Platinum, Murray Hill, Federal Cobalt, Grand Central, and Columbus Circle), Brown/Gold Laque de Chine by Haviland, Samoa Green by Jars 2nd Row- Emperor's Garden by Sieger, Blue Fluted Mega by Royal Copenhagen, Elisabeth and 3 colors of Arc en Ciel Presentation Plates by Robert Haviland and C. Parlon, Yellow Convivio by Match, La Scala by Richard Ginori 3rd Row- Turenne by Raynaud, 4 patterns by Haviland- (clockwise) Illusion, Oasis, Tambour, and Platinum Black Symphony, Avington Clear Magenta by William Yeoward, Gosford by William Yeoward, Emperor's Garden by Sieger 4th Row- Bangalore by Kenzo, Matignon Green by Robert Haviland and C. Parlon, Feuille D'or by Haviland, Oriental Trees by Bernardaud, Omari Rouge by Haviland.

ATTN: Interior Designers

WWW.FLOORPLANNER.COM

Planning a new space, whether it's your office or your living space, is full of challenges and can take a lot of your time. You’re either starting from scratch (like we are, trying to design the new store for AshBlue) or, the most time-consuming, just trying to figure out how to fit the stuff you already own into a new place. I'm telling ya, I have faith that there is just about a website, with or without software, for just about everything these days and I love it! So naturally I have to share, what are blogs for anyway? On floorplanner.com you can use simple drag-and-drop tools to create floor plans. There’s a menu of different types of doors, windows, fireplaces, sofas, tables, beds, etc that you can drag into your floor plan and easily edit with a click of the mouse if you change your mind. You can sign up for a free account and start designing immediately. There’s always the option to add more services later for a pretty reasonable yearly subscription. Here's the beginning of my draft of the draft for the new store ; )

The Zorb Experience, Exclusively in Tennessee!

Straight from New Zealand (who also gave us bungee jumping) this 30 seconds of fun is exactly what it looks like! It involves climbing into a giant inflatable ball and careening down a hill. You experience maximum G-force while rolling down a hill at speeds up to 25 mph. You can either ride strapped in or free in a shallow pool of water. There are currently only 10 locales worldwide. The first U.S. zorbing site opened this past fall in good ol' Pigeon Forge, TN, www.zorb.com/smoky. Road trip anybody? I thought this video sums it up well, sorry it's so long. It's worth checking out!

Who loves color? ME, me, mE

There is definitely a website for just about everything these days. I stumbled upon a website for COLOURlovers™! Yep for color lovers called COLOURlovers™. I haven't completely figured out what all it has to offer but it claims to be a design community resource that monitors and influences color trends. I guess you can create colors, put palettes together, and post your own patterns that can all be rated by either other users or maybe by the website's point system, not too sure. Color has always inspired me and I have been known for my obsession concerning it, whether it's from the paint on my wall to my collection of gel pens. Once, I chose a paint sample with 4 shades of purple on it and instead of picking one of the shades for my wall, I picked all four! With a quart of each, I divided the wall into four even parts horizontally and painted my walls just like the sample. Oh yea and I also read that it was nominated for the Community Website of 2007 webby award.

NoteWorthy Products - River Song Jewelry

I attended the New York International Gift Fair for the first time a few weeks ago and I have so much to share. But today I only want to recognize a company that had a flawless presentation and followup with me since market. I spent the majority of my time in the handmade section which mostly consists of jewelry. The first thing I liked about this company was the merchandising of their booth and their logo! Come to find out, their logo design was done by KittenChops which explains my appeal to the brand's identity. Zaara of KittenChops has designed things for Starbucks and HearMusic. HM was my favorite station on XMradio until it magically disappeared. (yea yea they moved to a station called SBUX XM Cafe but the format's just not the same) Anyway, when you're at market looking at products all day long it really takes something truly creative to catch your eye. I was so impressed with the way they displayed their jewelry, resting on branches and laid on trays made to look like they were laying on the floor of a forest.


You have to check out their website!

Music You Should Know or Remember:

Since I took such a long hiatus...again I'm sorry! I'm not going anywhere this time. hahah

You should know the band Ghostland Observatory! I saw them at Lollapalooza in Aug 2007 and they were easily one of my favorites! Their music immediately intrigued me because of it's beat driven electro punk sound. Check out their MySpace and listen cause I'm not going to try and be a critic here : ) I just think you should know them! Besides, they're going to be at Bonnaroo this year! Below is a video I came across on youtube that just happens to have one of their songs playing in the background. This is why youtube rocks and anyone can be noticed or admired by least a couple people somewhere in the world! I get a kick outta watching this video. I give him props for putting something like this up!

The Antique and Garden Show - Nashville, TN 2008

For the past seventeen years, the Antiques and Garden Show has utilized the Nashville convention to the fullest by bringing together nationally and internationally renowned experts and exhibitors in the fields of antiques, decorative arts and landscape design. The show offers 150 antique and horticultural vendors and many innovative landscaped gardens. They seriously build permanent looking garden scenes inspired by the year's theme that compete for awards. Not only is the the convention center full of lavish looking gardens, it is divided in half, a side for the antique dealers and the other for horticultural vendors. The supposed horticultural side has a variety of vendors ranging from dealers of original European posters, to a gourmet food company, Cherchies, to one of my favorites, a vendor of high quality reproduction prints, Gladstone Jones Prints. In addition, the horticultural side allows small boutique type stores to represent themselves, which is why I found myself packing up half the retail I manage (AshBlue) and living in the convention center for a week every February. This was our third year exhibiting at this show and we were very flattered when we were offered a new location. Our prior location was more central but this year we were honored to be the first space on the horticulture side. We were the first thing you see when you walked in, catching shoppers both before they had spent all their money or on their way out the door! We were a hit in our new spot! I don't think I've ever talked to that many people in such a short amount of time in my life. We saw a ton of our favorite customers as well as many new faces! Most importantly we got to tell the world that AshBlue is moving to another location, more about that later. Here some pictures of our beautiful booth!

I thought it was very important to somehow take and display the newly unveiled line of handmade traditional Indian tents we have started selling and renting. Here's a link to an article with more info specifically about the tents, click here!

Here are some more pics, just in case you want to just look at them...awwww

...and pls email me at marrah@ashblue.com if you have any questions!

I'm soooo sorry!!!

That's all I have to say right now. I look forward to posting blogs again! Stay tuned! : )