Happy Friday everyone!  I am excited to introduce to you a brand new series of blog posts I’ll be doing over here on our blog called “Spotlight On”.  Every Friday I will spotlight a different cause, blog, website (etc…) – pretty much anything where people are doing unique things and making a name for themselves in cool ways.  I want this series to be a sort of platform where I can celebrate and call attention to things going on all around us that are making a positive statement.  For the first spotlight I have decided to highlight TOMS shoes.  TOMS CEO Blake Mycoskie is doing great things with his business and has initiated a notable philanthropic effort.  Read below to learn a little more about Blake and what he’s doing with his company.

In 2006 Blake was traveling in Argentina when he befriended local children and discovered that they didn’t have any shoes to protect their feet.  Wanting to help out these children in need Blake founded TOMS – a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased to a new pair of shoes for a child in need.  One to One.  Soon thereafter Blake along with a group of family, friends and staff – returned to Argentina with 10,000 pairs of shoes.  All made possible by TOMS customers.  Since the company’s beginning, TOMS has been able to provide over 400,000 pairs of shoes to children in need using their One to One model.  TOMS frequently hosts community events and Shoe Drop tours allow fans and enthusiasts to be apart of their One for One movement.  You can learn more about their movement and mission via their website here.

After doing a little perusing around the TOMS website I noticed some unique things that they are currently doing.  One cool contest I noticed was a collaboration with the magazine Teen Vogue where you can submit your own design for a pair of TOMS and receive a chance to have your design manufactured on a limited edition pair.  You can learn about it here.  TOMS is also extremely active in the online community.  You can follow Blake’s blog, join their Facebook page, follow Blake personally on Twitter here.

You can also purchase your own pair of TOMS and give to a child in need on their official web store.  With so many fun colors/designs to choose from there is pretty much a style for anyone.

Blake is a great example of someone having a passion and dedicating their lives to something they really feel passionate about.  I think we can all learn a lot from Blake and TOMS and I personally admire and feel inspired by his movement.  I’d love to hear your thoughts about this company and what they are doing.  Possibly you even own a pair of TOMS yourself?  Perhaps you are also feeling inspired and are thinking you want to help out in the effort – you can learn how you can get involved.

As for this new series I can’t do it without you, our readers.  Do you see something cool, unique or interesting going on around you?  I want to hear about it!  Post comments here or send me an email at alex [at] roomitup [dot] com.

Above video courtesy of the TOMS website.

Tags: spotlight, TOMS

Introducing Lindsey Bergeon.  She is one of women’s golf’s rising stars and we can’t wait to introduce you to her.

Right now Lindsey is living her dream playing golf on the DURAMED Futures Tour (the LPGA’s developmental tour), and she’s loving every. single. minute.  We are excited to come along on her journey, as she will be using a variety of Room It Up products with her while she travels and competes in a number of tournaments this season on the DURAMED tour.

Lindsey out on the course with her well accessorized golf bag!

Lindsey fell in love with the game of golf at an early age (11 years old!) and hasn’t looked back ever since.  Throughout her golfing career she has managed to rack up a number of accomplishments.  Lindsey is a three-time Gold Medalist at the AAU Junior Olympics, and a Four-time NCAA Division II All-American, just to name a couple (more of which you can read here on her website).  Off the course Lindsey has also excelled – she graduated from Florida Southern College with a 4.0 in Sports Management which landed her spots on both the Presidents List and Deans List.  Since she joined the DURAMED Futures Tour in November of 2008 she has had the amazing opportunity to travel and compete in numerous tournaments around the country.

In addition to golf touring she is also very active in organizations near to her heart, including The First Tee Program as well as an active board member of the Greater Sarasota Junior Golf Association.  In her free time Lindsey is currently working on another one of her dreams- founding a charity for animals in shelters.

We admire Lindsey’s great spirit and drive for the game that she loves and wish her the best of luck on her tour this season.

You can learn more about Lindsey and her tour dates by visiting her website.

Good Luck Lindsey!!!

Tags: duramed tour, golf accessories, Lindsey Bergeon, room it up

During last week’s Toy Fair Room It Up had the great opportunity to donate some of our products to the Toy Industry Foundation‘s (TIF) signature donation program, the Toy Bank.  Together Room It Up, along with hundreds of other Toy Fair exhibitors donated truckloads of toys and other goodies to one of this year’s collection partners, Kids in Distressed Situations (K.I.D.S) who will be shipping the products to Port-au-Prince, Haiti benefitting the thousands of children who have been relocated to nearby orphanages following the January disaster in the country.  You can learn more about the Toy Bank and TIF’s donation by reading the press release on the Toy Industry Association’s website.  We at Room It Up were just happy that we could pitch and offer some of our products to a good cause.

Tags: 2010, helping haiti, room it up, toy bank, toy fair 2010

The Inspiration:  Bright Bloom City Tote

In the spirit of yesterday’s spring break post I decided to take inspiration from one of our new prints for Spring 2010, Bright Bloom.  The colors in this design are just too fun and scream Spring!  For today’s outfit I decided to keep the clothing rather neutral and to express the shades of color in accessories.  Really accessories are where you can have the most fun with your outfits anyway, right?  Look below to see how I incorporated all of the different colors to create a fun, easy spring-like look.  Also, just HOW cute are those sandals?  So cute.  That’s all for now, check back next next week for another inspiring post.

The Result:

Items in this set:

Tags: bright bloom, bright bloom city tote, inspiration, room it up

We have almost made it through winter and Spring Break is right around the corner!  We at Room It Up want to know what you all are doing for SB2K10 and what fun things you have planned for your week of spring-y fun.  Whether you are headed to the beach, going on a road trip or just having a relaxing “staycation” at home I am sure it will be a welcome break to what has been a busy (and cold!) winter.

Does Spring Break still seem far away?  Try some of the below tips to get you in an SB-like mood.

Treat yourself to a mani-pedi… or even better do it yourself at home.  The OPI Brights collection has some fun shades to get you excited about warmer weather.  Try a fun unconventional color like bright orange or lilac on your toes.

Create a spring break playlist full of  new or old songs that remind you of Spring Break.  Just  upload it to your iPod and listen to it while you workout, walk to class, etc… and you’ll be instantly transported to a spring break mood.  For mine, I’m thinking “islandy” songs such as Weezer’s Island in the Sun and Vampire Weekend’s Horchata.  I’d probably also throw in some Rhianna and The Ting Tings for some upbeat tracks as well.  Now I want to know -  what’s on your Spring Break playlist?

Pick up some new bright beach towels and accessories from Room It Up!  From towel sets, coolers and spa wraps to lounge chair covers and terry lined beach totes we have it all to complete your Spring Break vacay.  Right now I am personally loving the Bright Bloom beach towel sets, and so is Teen Scene Magazine as they will have a few to give away to some lucky spring breakers on their “10 States 10 Destinations 10 Days” Spring Break Road trip – which kicks off next month.  You can learn more about their road trip by following them on twitter at @teenscene.

Tags: 2010, room it up beach, spring break

Wishing everyone a great weekend!  Hopefully you all have some plans to relax and have a little fun.  Catch us next week with some new postings.

PS that cute sweater jacket above is available here.

Tags: 2010, weekend

The color gurus over at Pantone recently released their new fashion color report for Fall 2010.  You can view the entire report (for free!) online via the Pantone website here.  I was most excited to see that shades of both Turquoise and Purple will still be important moving in to the fall amongst the other strong “fall-like” colors.  I personally am really into that Chocolate Truffle shade, someone should really get on making that a nail polish color.  Here at RIU we are working hard to finalize our Fall and Back To School collections so be sure to stay tuned to see if any of these shades made it into our new prints.  However, for right now let’s just look forward to some Spring weather (and colors!) and hope that things warm up soon.

Image source

Tags: fall 2010, fall 2010 color, pantone

The ending of Toy Fair in NYC today marks the end of our busy trade show schedule for January and February.  Together members of the Room It Up team traveled and worked on  a record 6 shows throughout the past 7 weeks.  Whew!  That being said we had a great time launching the new Room It Up spring collection to a variety of different retailers and audiences.  A big thank you goes out to all of you that stopped by our booth at any of the shows and helped make this January and February a great and productive couple of months.  Meanwhile the travel crew here at RIU is happy to unpack our suitcases and settle back into our offices until mid March (for CAMEX of course!)

With all of our travels came all sorts of new finds and insights that I will be sure to share with you here on our blog in some upcoming posts.  Be sure to stay tuned.

Like the cute red print above?  You can see it on Etsy here.

Tags: room it up, spring 2010, trade show, travels

The Inspiration: Merci Weekender Bag

For this week’s outfit inspiration I decided to go for the Black and White trend via one of our most beloved prints, Merci.  Last week on one of my favorite fashion blogs, Who What Wear they featured the black and white trend here.  Below you will see my latest spread via (my new favorite website) Polyvore.  For today’s feature I chose to speak to the Euro and Parisian nature of the print and in doing so chose some traditional items such as  the basic black blazer and patent black oxford.  (As a side note I LOVE those cute little oxfords and hope to someday – hopefully soon- own a pair just like them).  I also wanted to take a moment to point out that a lot of the items available on Polyvore are quite high end and thus a little pricey so for these purposes I am using them as merely true inspiration.  I no doubt know that you can find similar items at your nearest Forever21, H&M, Macy’s and beyond.. for more than likely a fraction of the price.  For now, please enjoy the below.

The Result:

Tags: merci, Outfit Inspiration, polyvore

Happy (early) Valentine’s Day!  It’s officially the weekend and Valentine’s Day is just around the corner… as in tomorrow.  Here’s is to hoping that you are all prepared with valentines, chocolates and flowers abound to give to those you love.  Since I (and 3 others of the RIU team) will be spending the holiday in the booth at Toy Fair I thought I would make a list of some fun things you could do with your valentine, that is if you aren’t in a convention center like me.

1.  Go to a museum!  There is loads of fun to be had and fun facts to be learned at one of your city’s museums, aquariums, zoos, art galleries and more!  What’s even better, I found this super great website for you to find one near you to fit your taste and location.  You can thank me later.

2.  See a movie!  If it was my pick I would totally choose the new movie Valentine’s Day.  With an all-star cast and a resemblance to my all-time favorite Love Actually – what’s not to like?  Disclaimer: this post was written on Thursday obviously before any reviews have gone out about said movie, if it turns out to be a bomb… sorry! I didn’t know!  You can find movie show times here.

3.  Cook/Bake up a storm!  Now I am definitely not your Martha Stewart, but sometimes I find it fun to search for a new recipe, go to the store and buy the ingredients and then give it a try.  Sometimes it’s good.  Sometimes it’s horrible.  It’s always fun. Right?  I like Epicurious for great recipes, and as a special Valentine’s Day treat try baking up some fun pink and red heart shaped cupcakes.  You can find some fun options here.

4.  Call an old friend.  Trust me, it will make their day… and most likely yours as well.

Still in a pinch and need a great Valentine’s day gift?  Head over to your local florist, grocery store, etc… they are bound to be fully stocked with red roses, tulips, etc… Be sure to include a personalized card.  That’s a must.  You can also click here to find a Godiva store near you because I mean, who doesn’t like Godiva, and it is Valentine’s Day after all.  But in all seriousness just an “I Love You” is really all any of us needs.

xoxo, Room It Up

Side note- that uber cute cupcake pictured above is actually not a cupcake at all and is in fact a vanilla scented bath bomb.  You can see it (and unfortunately not able to smell it…) on Etsy here.

Tags: cupcakes, love, roses, valentine's day, valentine's day movie