Attention Hotels: I have an Amazingly Awesome Marketing Idea

On my drive into work this morning I was thinking how it would be so nice to actually have some time alone with my husband.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I LOVE Jack even more than cookie butter on a spoon and a fresh roasted s’more all rolled into one – but we’ve had TWO date nights in the past 15 months. Momma needs some “not being a momma but a wife” time.

Then it hit me.

Pretty much the most awesome marketing idea that I can’t believe someone isn’t already doing. So if you run a hotel, listen up because I’m about to BLOW YOUR MIND.

You need to offer a “Parents Date Night” package which includes:

  • A beautiful hotel room with a king bed. Not for a whole night though – maybe just four hours (7pm – 11pm would be perfect) because it’s hard to find an overnight babysitter.
  • A fantastic dinner delivered right to the room at a set time. I’m thinking some kind of surf and turf deliciousness with a bottle of chilled wine. Of course there should be some kind of decadent dessert like chocolate covered strawberries. Oh and don’t just shove a room service cart full of food into the room… there needs to be a table set up with a tablecloth and candles.
  • A brochure listing all of the latest movies offered on pay-per-view that parents never get to see. Maybe they can finally see a movie without waiting in line and paying $50 to sit next to some asshat teenager that texts the whole time. Or watch something at a normal volume instead of having their TV on the lowest setting possible so that the fight scenes don’t wake up the kid.
hotel pic
It would be like this — our cruise we took while I was preggo — but fancier. And with more steak.

Imagine it… all you have to do is book the Parent’s Date Night package for Friday night and plan for a babysitter. Grab your spouse, check into the hotel and have a clean and comfy room waiting for you. You get to laze around in a plush hotel robe, have an amazing meal, watch a movie and have some (wink, wink) “grown up” time.

It would truly be like a little 4 hour vacation without really going anywhere. Bonus points if the hotel has a pool.

If this were offered in my area, I’d take advantage of it in a heartbeat. So, if there are any Maryland or DC hotels out there that want to make this idea a reality… please hook a mother up!

How about you, would you want a Parent’s Date Night at a local hotel? What would your ideal package include?

Come & Knock on my Door

Can you hear that?

Listen really hard… hear it?

That faint clucking noise is the sound of smug satisfaction in Joules-town. It’s like Funky Town, but with more failing arms and karate kicks.

Yeah, that’s right – I finished another house project!

One of the first things I added to my house list over a year ago was to paint our outdated evergreen colored door (apparently the previous owners really liked green). The door is a really nice one from Pella, so I really didn’t want to replace it… but the color was just so BORING. And early 1990’s.

old door 2

The door was green EVERYWHERE too – both inside and outside. Oh yeah, AND the inside surrounding trim. Blegh. Just the trim around the door though… the rest of the entrance has white trim. My husband said it best when he assumed they must have been thinking, “Holy crap this door is ugly, maybe we should paint the trim the same color so it blends in more?”

old door 1

With my mission to bring our door into 2013, I grabbed a bunch of fun colored swatches from Home Depot and we taped them up and stared at them for a couple of days…

swatches 1

Then we narrowed them down and stared a little more…

swatches 2

We wanted something that went well with the rest of our house and also worked well with the existing glass door. Finally, we picked a winner (Clover by Behr) and bought a quart of paint. And then… nothing. Life got busy and it sat in the coat closet for a few weeks.

This past holiday weekend was the perfect time for me to get my painting groove on and I finally had a chance to give the door a quick sanding (just the outside because it looked like there was a herd of bugs stuck in the old paint) and throw on my first coat. And yes, the first coat always looks horrible and you run around all confused wondering why you made such a terrible, terrible mistake…

coat 1

Then my second and third coat.

coat 3

Oooh, check out that fresh white trim! Here are some more saucy poses…

new door -1

new door 2

I LOVE the finished door. My husband tentatively liked it but said that it’s totally growing on him. So he’ll probably be joining me in giving it long lingering glances as I pass by it throughout the day. The only thing I’m not crazy about is the hardware, so I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for something fabulous next time we stop by the ol’ HD.

How was your holiday weekend? Did you finally finish a project that has been waiting in the wings (or hall closet) for ages? Do you walk past your front door and give it sexy bedroom eyes?

Thank You for Making My Day

So many times I see the sour side of social media.

You know what I mean – the penis enlarging porn spam, the much-more-than-snarky tweets and those troll comments where people just splash their hate around all over the place.

However, most of the time I’ve been pretty darn lucky.
{knock on wood}

I’ve “met” some other bloggers who I’m super excited to meet in person at BlogHer this summer (specifically Katie from Words for Worms, Chrissy at Quirky Chrissy and Kari at A Grace Full Life).* I also have some frequent commenters on both my blog and my Facebook page that I wish I could get together with for a cup of coffee. Or a hard cider.

red dressYesterday I was feeling exceptionally saucy in my brand new dress and posted a picture of myself on my page. My goal was to just share my happiness about looking kinda nice for the day.

Well, 38 of you took the time to click “like” on my picture and over a dozen comments were left with really sweet compliments.

Not one person used that opportunity to tell me I was ugly, or fat, or anything terrible that I see spewed online almost every single day.

Frankly, you made my day.

YOU made me feel pretty. All day long, I floated around on a cloud of feeling great about myself and it’s partially because of YOU.

See what power you have?

So thank you. Thank you so much for being awesome.

And in the vein of full honesty, at the moment I do not look anywhere as nice as I did yesterday. Within a space of about 90 minutes this morning my son wiped his banana-covered hands on my shirt as I left for work, I spilled my coffee in my lap AND I dipped my hair in cream cheese. So, in other words… we’re back to normal.

I wish you all a wonderful long holiday weekend and would love it if you took a couple minutes out of your Friday to compliment someone else and spread the love!

* If you’re going to BlogHer in Chicago, please let me know because I’d love to meet all my online friends in person while I’m there!