It IS an honour just to be nominated ...

... but it sure was nice to win! The International Cool Climate Chardonnay Celebration (i4c) was the winner in the Event category at the first-ever Niagara Social Media Awards. I'm honoured to say that I've been responsible for the social media for i4c since our founding event in 2011. 

The awards, organized by the Social Media Club Niagara, were presented at the monthly meeting on February 24, 2015 at Fresco's in St. Catharines. Judges Trevor Twining, Ruth Unrau and Vivian Kinnaird awarded i4c for "demonstrating how a company, group or organization has used social media to increase ticket sales, attendance, or awareness for their event." We've done all three! 

Our colleagues in the Event category included the Niagara Wine Festival, Pelham Summerfest and the GWEn Conference. 

The winners in the other categories for inaugural awards were:

Non-profit:  Community Care, St. Catharines & Thorold

Business:  El Gastronomo Vagabundo

Personal Branding: Tiffany Mayer - Eating Niagara

Agency:  Arnoldi:McPherson Digital Communications

Student:  Anneka Bosse

Community Builder:  Cathy Berkhout-Bosse

LOVE letters

A little something that I put together for one of my clients - Stratus Vineyards in Niagara-on-the-Lake. I call it "LOVE Letters." 

All the photos were taken indoors and out at the winery. Used in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and customer emails.

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone.

Birthday Dinner - with Icewine

It was my husband's birthday today so a week or so ago, I asked him what he'd like me to make for his special dinner. He picked a couple of recipes from our well-used copy of Anna & Michael Olson's "Cook at Home." From the "Romance" (!) chapter, Stan chose Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Madeira Pan Juices and Butternut Squash Purée. Both very simple, elegant and delicious recipes.

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Isn't it Time to Liberate Your Art?

Updated on Tuesday, March 3, 2015 at 9:28PM by Winestains

Updated on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 at 7:24PM by Winestains

"The world needs more art. The world needs your art. The Liberate Your Art postcard swap encourages you to create, share and liberate your art into the world, where it can do its greatest good." ~ Kat Sloma

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5H: Share your voice

Every morning, I wake up to notifications of new 5H friends and followers, and I delight to see where in the world they are, and to attempt to figure out how they might have heard about my 5H Giving efforts.

Just yesterday, I got an email via this website from Kim Todd of thegreenrock.ca to tell me that she'd been pointed to 5H Giving by a mutual friend, Martha Muzychka, and she'd been inspired to write about it. In her fabulous blog post, Kim ties her ‪#‎g2kgtg‬ efforts to the 5H philosophy.

Good to know gifts that give (#g2kgtg) is a special project of thegreenrock.ca that looks at local gifts that people will like, use, and that won’t leave an unnecessarily big footprint on the planet or humankind.

I particularly like how Kim explains and expands on my original 5H post, using wonderful examples for her local Newfoundland audience. 

That gave me an idea. Would you be game to define the 5H's using examples that are meaningful to you and where you come from, be that physically and/or emotionally? 

If you share with me, I'll share with the rest of our 5H followers, via this blog, Facebook and Twitter. 

5H has followers/friends/supporters all over the world now, so it will be great to hear whose voices chime in. Consider yourself invited! 

You can respond here, or email me at blog@winestains.ca.