Best of 2009: Thursday Picks-Funni Bonz, Fine Ingredients, The Princeton TweetUp and The Week of Weddings!

July 2009: Interview with FunniBonz BBQ founder Jim Barbour

Some people would say that Jim Barbour is a saucy kind of guy. But the West Windsor entrepreneur would take that as a compliment!

After launching his own line of all-natural BBQ sauces called FunniBonz in December 2008, Barbour has been treating NJ residents to his unique and all-natural creations. As of January 2009, FunniBonz has sold 2,200 cases which are 26,400 jars and are in 102 store locations and have received orders from Market Meats in Vancouver, Canada and Selfridges in London, England making them an International company. With 3 full time employees, 6 part time employees, 12 part time independent contractors and 1 intern for the summer, FunniBonz is growing rapidly!

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August 2009: Interview with Fine Ingredients founder Kathy Favro
What do biscotti and hockey have in common? A New Jersey mompreneur.

Westfield resident and hockey mom Kathy Favro noticed a lack of true Italian Biscotti in the marketplace. After baking her own creations at her husband's restaurant and finding her treats in high demand, Kathy started Fine Ingredients, a mail-order line of handmade artisan biscotti and cookies made with fine imported Italian ingredients. With clientele ranging from spas & salons, corporations to wedding planners, this hockey-mompreneur has been baking yummy gourmet treats for over 15 years, allowing her to support her son’s passion for hockey while being a stay at home mom for him.

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August 2009: The Princeton TweetUp!

On Thursday August 13, 2009, a group of nearly 40 Tweeting professionals from the Princeton area gathered at Salt Creek Grille for a social media networking event, the first of its kind for local area.

The TweetUp, an in-person meeting for people who know each through Twitter, was as chance for local professionals and entrepreneurs to meet each other for the first time in person and discuss how social media is changing the way people do business.


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September 2009: The Week of Weddings with NJWedding.com!

Are you getting married this Fall? Still looking for last minute gift/theme/music/design ideas? Look no further!

For an entire week, we will be bringing you Fall and Winter Wedding trends with tips and ideas from New Jersey Wedding specialists. This "Week of Weddings" was made possible with the help of Erik Kent of NJWedding.com who rounded up feedback from so many NJ wedding specialists that we needed an entire week of trends!

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Best of 2009: Wednesday Picks-Grover's Mill Coffee, Wine to Water, Little Miss Julia and NJWedding.com

May 2009: 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.

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May 2009: A Drink for Tomorrow Charity

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.

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May 2009: Little Miss Julia children's hair accessories

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.

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June 2009: Interview with Erik Kent of NJWedding.com

Yay you’re engaged! Call your parents, tell your friends, walk around with your hand extended flashing that gorgeous ring in your face.

Here is some Vaseline to help keep that smile going.

Go ahead and subscribe to all of those bridal magazines and websites. Pull out the Wedding Checklist and start mapping out your plan of action. But first things first: Where are you getting married? If you said New Jersey, then you’ll want to read on. If not, shame on you, but enjoy our day anyway!

When I was planning my May 2006 wedding, I subscribed to all sorts of websites and purchased MANY magazines. You should have seen my Internet bookmark list of wedding websites-I had categories for limos, flowers, accessories, dresses, etc. What I should have done was just use the one-stop resource for New Jersey Weddings, NJWedding.com. It’s a gold mine of wedding information for couples planning their big day in the Garden State. From vendors, to advice, to contests and photos of real weddings, NJWedding.com has it all.

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Best of 2009: Tuesday Picks-Lunch and Learn, Today's Mom and PeaPod

April 2009: Stop and Shop Lunch and Learn

Andrea Astrachan is not just Consumer Advisor for Stop and Shop; you could say she is their Chief Mom Officer as well.

As a mother, Andrea knows what other moms value in terms of healthy food choices for children. She understands the challenge moms face trying to get their kids to eat healthy and stay within a budget. I’m already getting challenged by Maddy when I try and feed her peas and carrots when all she wants are cheerios.

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April 2009: Today's Mom BookBash

On Friday April 24th, I had an amazing opportunity to join 50 (+a guest) other women in New York to celebrate the release of the book Today's Moms: Essentials for Surviving Baby's First Year written by Today Show producers Mary Ann Zoellner and Alicia Ybarbo. I could not contain my elation to not only have been chosen to attend, but to attend my first TweetUp and meet so many other amazing and influential women that I have spoken to through Twitter.

Not knowing what to expect from the festivities, I brought my sister and her really good camera along for the fun ride hoping just to get to know more of the moms and get a chance to talk to Mary Anne and Alicia. Boy was I in for a wild ride!

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 May 2009: PeaPod 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.

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BEST OF 2009: Monday Picks- Recycled Clothing, Diaper Cakes and Fairway

Jan 2009: Maddy's Christmas Bolero

For some reason, baby clothing designers make holiday dresses without sleeves. Maybe it's a way to get us to purchase a sweater to go with it. In any case, I got Maddy a dress that I had been eying since early November and searched all over for a matching sweater to go with it. No luck. But then I got an idea...

The Dress

I had a dress from my college formals sitting in the closet unworn for awhile. It was my "skinny" dress: body hugging velvety fabric with marabou-boa across the neckline. I bought it from Joyce Leslie at a time when I was so excited that I hadn't gained the Freshmen-15 and could now shop at this cheap and made-for-girls-with-no-hips store. Needless to say, it does not get worn anymore. So I made the decision to give up the dress in order to keep Maddy warm and cute for the holidays. And it was an opportunity for me to test out my sewing skills.
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Jan 2009:Haute Diaper Cakes
 

Getting inspiration from my fellow Twitter mompreneur, Renee at Cutie Booty Cakes, I channeled my inner craft-goddess and made a diaper cake for my friend's baby shower. I did some research on how to to make them and found many helpful videos on YouTube. And I have to say it came out pretty freakin' awesome!

Cyndy's theme was ocean with purple accents. I concentrated mostly on the purple and tried to find any ocean/sea/water theme toys/accessories. I can't wait to make more for anyone who wants one! The materials I used are listed below, but remember that every cake and cake designer is different. You don't have to follow my steps exactly. Watching the videos will actually help understand the diaper part since it's a little hard to explain in words. All I can say is thank goodness these are not edible because then I can kiss my WW success goodbye!!
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March 2009:Fairway Paramus Grand Opening

This may sound a little odd, but I just love new supermarkets. BIG and NEW supermarkets with catchy logos and colorful abundant produce sections at the entrance. I'm in no way a foodie by any means (to save money we've been having boiled chicken and a variety of frozen veggies for dinner), but I love to look at it!

That's why I was excited when I received an invitation to the Fairway Market Grand Opening of the Paramus location. Being a Princeton resident, I didn't know of Fairway NY nor did I know of the long anticipation that residents of North Jersey had for this legendary food store to come to town. But after spending an hour up in Paramus, one of the largest shopping meccas in the state, you understand the excitement for Fairway coming to town.
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