Julie Pippert: Using My Words

A good pitch: the PR agency for Kuhn Rikon KinderKitchen (cooking tools for kids) contacted me after I reviewed a local kids' cooking class. They'd like to send some samples for a review. "Would you mind donating them for a fundraiser?" I asked. They agreed and sent the above amazing basket for a school fundraiser. It was one of the most popular and hotly bid upon items. They got credit in the flyer for the event, and displayed their great products in-person to hundreds of parents. Of course I wrote a blog post about it, too. The winner of the basket was ecstatic, and more word of mouth for the product. I know personally of quite a few sales, just from this one effort. That's some bueno PR and I applaud Katrina of Field & Associates PR who set it up. She represented her client well and beneficially . I read a disturbing post Monday from a partner at a PR firm, " The Mommy Elephant in the room. " This post was pushback from a PR firm partner angered

BEFORE: AFTER: The best birthday my dog ever had was one of his early ones, age 2. At the time, my husband and I were both working full-time so our dog, Bo, attended a fantastic local doggie daycare in Beverly (MA) run by a great guy named Joe. Joe loved planning parties. We had Halloween parties (with prizes for best doggie costume), playdates, holidays, and birthdays. The birthday cake was meatloaf with mashed potato frosting. It even had fancy script that read, "Happy Birthday to Our Best Friends!" Our dog is a best friend, a member of our family. Like other good friends and members of our family, he dealt with cancer. Luckily, we caught it early -- it was an ugly one with a very low (single digit) survival rate. So we've gotten to celebrate more birthdays with him, and that means so, so much to us. I love birthdays. I love the excuse for a party, a reason to celebrate, getting together with special people, cake (!), giving a gift, and even the singing. I love getting

Today on an NPR story , an actor was talking about his challenges getting roles. A common theme perhaps, but his obstacle, he said, was the fact that he uses a wheelchair. He's not bothered by the fact that the actor who plays wheelchair-bound Artie is not actually disabled, "People who have disabilities or who use wheelchairs who could still conceivably play that part should have equal opportunities to audition for those roles. And if it goes both ways, then the best actor should get the part." Another disabled performer, Alana, said that this doesn't actually happen. She said that it floors her that even open-minded producers and directors envision that disabled actors and performers should only play victims, in roles that revolve around their disability. In fact, the part usually acts out a morality play, by having the characters be charity cases, she said, heroic characters overcoming tragedy. The disability, then, is the real character, and the actor is merely pl

For Mother's Day, my husband arranged a weekend away and a luncheon at Driftwood Estates Winery and Vineyard. It was spectacular! The kids love the open space and beautiful scenery (and trees!) there. The food was great, the wine as good as always, and we met the nicest ladies from Austin -- one is a fantastic photographer and she kindly took photos of our family! A wonderful Mother's Day. Topped off by adorable drawings, cards and homemade gifts from my fabulous children.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, here's a million (in no particular order other than this is how I want it): I got to have lunch with the fabulous Magpie and see and learn in person right there all about what she does -- it's as awesome as you'd think: I love that photo (above). It makes me warm, happy and remember how good it felt to be there, with my friend. After lunch, I decided a 30 block Zen walk was in order. Maggie had told me about these bronze sculptures placed (and perched) around the city. I looked for them and saw a lot of them and other cool and beautiful things so I snapped photos crazily. I also kept grabbing other crazy photo snapping tourists and showing them the statues. Because Amy is that cool, and because our Choose You ambassador Ellen Pompeo was on the show, we got to go to Jimmy Fallon show. That meant entering 30 Rock. That meant my poor friends had to deal with my constant 30 Rock references, as well as grabbing a page and forcing a pho