UsedEverywhere.com

Dress Up Time in the Office (not for Halloween)

Our fearless leader, Tish, wearing one of many, many hats...

Our fearless leader came in today with some very appropriate gifts. Appropriate because at UsedEverywhere we do in fact have job titles that change as often as the weather does here on the West Coast. For those of you not so lucky, I literally carry an umbrella and sunglasses with me every single day of the year. Never know what’s going to happen 10 minutes from now.

I digress. What she brought in were HATS. Not  practical items like berets or fedoras or toques-eh, but crazy, wacky, goofy party hats. And they weren’t even for Halloween, believe it or not.

The story behind this is that her father loves hats, and that’s why she also enjoys a noggin-warmer on occasion. She grew up knowing that every birthday, baptism, hanukah and 6-month anniversary was really only an excuse to buy a nifty hat. So her father’s birthday is this weekend and she bought a bag full of hats. Everything from pirates (ARRrrrggghh) to kings, police officers, and whatever that gold one is with the white feather in it is for (help here?).

So naturally we had to get the most serious guy in the office to try one on.

Enter Nick, stage left…

“He doesn’t look so scary,” you say.  Sure, sure, but just you try to go up against him in a deal or an argument – he’ll win every time.  Quite the negotiator, that one.

Next came “Team Blue” – because the table has only boys at it, whereas other tables have a mix, well except for team pink of course (just guess who’s at that one).

If you don’t get the reference to the beanies with propellers on them… check out Wikipedia’s definition of propellerheads: “slang for a nerd.” Simple, to the point, and somewhat true.  (Burn from Team Pink).  Just please don’t ask them if I’M a nerd; whatever they say is a lie. Period.

So there you go, a dress up party and a little healthy inter-office competition.

Planning a TV show set in 9.5 steps

There’s this new show coming out in the fall called Family Matters.  Double entendre because, well, family does matter and it’s about family legal matters.  It’s hosted by a ‘sitting judge’ (I’m learning the lingo as I go) and looks super helpful.

The producer (boss lady in TV land) called me up and asked about sponsoring the set.  I said, “What a great idea, since we pride ourselves on being Family Friendly and helping out families any way we can, and that you could get all the stuff you need for a set from our sites – whether tv or little Jamie’s 2nd grade school play about sharing is caring.”  OK, so maybe I didn’t ramble on quite that much but you get the idea.

So as we helped them put the set together, with everything from some carpet scraps to finding a carpenter & designer on UsedVictoria, I took some pictures and thought other curious folks like myself might be interested in the process: enjoy!

Step 1: sketch it out old-school style to figure out the basics

Step 2: re-create the sketch in a basic computer program like Word or on of the Adobe Suite applications

Step 3: if you have a designer involved, ask them to decide on colours and put together a full-fledged mock up

Now comes the hard work of building the set.

Step 4: get camera equipment in place before building the set, in case it's heavy and breakable

Step 5: position set under existing lighting if working in a studio, or set up lighting if starting from scratch

Step 6: Build the riser / stage for the set

Step 6.5: make sure riser / stage is in the right spot, because once it's carpeted, furnished, and the backdrop is in place this'll be tricky to move (refer back to your drawings, spacings, etc!)

Step 7: install the carpet - measure more than you need so that you can wrap around edges, or place on covering edges with something like painted black wood to blend it in

We’re almost done!

Step 8: get the panels / background / backdrop printed and delivered, as well as furniture

Step 9: TA-DAaaaaa! All done with the set.

If you’d like to find out more about the show please visit www.familymattersTV.com.

Or if you’d like to know more about the process, please comment below and we’ll contact the individuals involved in each step.

Happy Birthday Redesign

Today we are celebrating the one-year anniversary of our website revamp! We thought it would be fun (and incredibly informative) to put together a little infographic to give you lots of interesting facts about how you have helped us grow this past year! Cheers!

*click the picture & zoom to see the cool details up-close-and-personal*

Similar soles, similar souls?

Looking around the UsedEverywhere.com office the other day, I noticed – between the randomly strewn pumpkins and halos – a pretty awesome team of employees!   *Pause for the audience to “awwwww”*

Then, as my eye wandered I saw that those who were chatting together had similar shoes!  Strange?  Maybe not… my theory is that your lifestyle lies in your shoes.  And more importantly, in your work shoes!  Sure, on the weekends you’ll wear runners for sports and heels for dinner out.  But work is where you really show your personality.  It’s where you most likely spend most of your time!

Are you a practical wearer, who needs to be able and run errands around town in a moment’s notice?  Or are you a look-like-how-you-want-to-feel wearer, who can sacrifice a few bucks to drive to work in order look reallyREALLYreally ridiculously GOOD-looking?  Or are you somewhere in between like me, who wears heals and a skirt one day and jeans and runners the next?

Either way, I awkwardly walked around the office today talking pictures of shoes in order see if I have a point!  Pictures below – enjoy

1. Professional. Polished. Slip-ons.

*these people are in and out of the office and bring their practical get-it-all-done shoes with them!

2. One of these things is not like the others…

*though these people do all work hard/ play hard, not sure if my shoe theory applies

3. Caj comfy slip-ons.

* these two are walkers. to and from work. need something sturdy.

4. Super caj and wonderfully trendy!

* these two are the lively ones that give us our online trends of the day

So at the end of the day, how did I do?

1. Yes I think my theory applies to the practical lot. 1 point.

2. One outlier… isn’t there a statistical calculation that can make that one disappear and my theory correct? 0 points.

3. Caj walkers might have been a stretch.  I’ll give myself a half point there. 1/2 point.

4. Yes I think my theory again to the trendsters but not sure if I get a full point. 1/2 point.

2 out of 4.  won’t quit my day job.