What Does Your Fave Instagram Filter Say About You?

Horoscope Find!

Believe it or not looking for a fun, positive horoscope is not an easy tasks! Theres tons of apps, and Google places to search and read from. But, I had to share this one. My lovelly co-worker at VS sends me mine {im a Virgo} every monday as a little special note and I love it! Refinery 29 presents a weekly horoscope that I just love tons! Don't search anymore and read there weekly advice! We all need a bit of magic in our lives from time to time, right;) ?! Happy Monday - for those who are living close to me and got tons of snow today bundle up, I hope its the last of the season!

Aries (March 21-April 19)
A full moon in your relationship house holds up the mirror. Have you been playing well with others, Aries? Erm…maybe don't answer that just yet. Press pause on your independent efforts and adopt a cooperative approach. Sharing the sandbox can be exhilarating, especially if you find the pail to your shovel. A complementary force can lift a huge weight off of your shoulders by taking up the tasks you’d rather shrug off. 

Bye Bye Google Reader - Alternatives?

It is a real sad news to hear that google reader is coming to its end! Honestly, I'm having a hard time understanding why they would want to get rid of some serious archiving system! Sad but true, but also happy to see that people want to be heard and a petition was created - check it out here -

Oh well, not the first time technology is asking us to adapt to change! If you are looking for an alternative here are my two recommendations - Feedly - on the left & - NewsBlur - on the right. Give these I try, they are new platforms but is nice to know we have some alternatives.

I hope we keep connecting and sharing through these new platforms. And you keep reading some #HeartThis. You can also stay tune through {Facebook} {Instagram} {Blogloving} or an RSS Subscription. Sometimes I do smile at being able to live through time/social changes. I think is so interesting and fascinating, can't wait to hear what is Googles reason for this; a good one has to be don't you think so?

xo - luciana

MOOD BOARDS = Pinterest

Before Pinterest, there were mood boards! Maybe that is why I am so in love and obsessed with this amazing boards! At VS we concept with a mood board situation, actually is my fav part of my job -- we should capture them like this, because is the best way to look back and understand a thought, a feeling a style hint a mood for something or someone! It is the best quick visual tool you can ever use to introduce or illustrate a direction of a style. Now you know, next time you need to gather some thoughts, maybe take a look at your Pinterest account or even your sketch book as a: flow for a thought!

I'm handling the VS Pinterest account, and felt like it was my own, tons of time, tons of work into it! But recently, i decided to have and open my own, so I'm just starting but here is My Pinterest in case you want to check it out!

#HeartThis: First Freebie - January!

Hi! As many as you know, blogs have done some "giveaways" lately. And since I'm a fan of them, they have  inspired me and thought I would give it a try. I'll start with one of my own print as the first SmileBABY freebie! Im giving away a Creme de la Creme - gold leafing 8 x 10" print (translates to Best of the Best). I hope you participate and get as excited as I am :) Hopefully if this works, we could totally do a monthly giveaway!

Its very simple - How you can Enter:

- Follow SmileBABY via Google Friend Connect (the pictures on the right hand side)

- Like SmileBAbBY on Facebook &/or Instagram

And since I finally decided to join the little blue bird! Get extra points and join my on Twitter @By_LucianaM

That's all! The winner will be choose randomly. Starting tonight - Monday 21st at midnight until Friday 25th at midnight too. 

I will announce the winner on Sunday 27th and ship a pretty print by Monday 28th!

Tons of good luck! Happy Monday :D

Curalate Set for Launch

NEW YORK — Curalate, a solution that provides a comprehensive overview of brand engagement on socially curated Web sites such as Pinterest, will launch today. 

eceive funding — $750,000 to be exact, from NEA, First Round Capital and MentorTech. Curalate is able to help brands benefit from all the action that’s happening around new social mediums, according to co-founder and chief executive officer Apu Gupta.

“The biggest fans are pinning images, and brands want to connect with those advocates — but they didn’t have an easy way to do so. We aim to help them connect and form better relationships with fans,” Gupta said of the technology, which is able to recognize images and that in turn helps partner brands understand, track and report engagement. 

The tool allows participating brands to see all its vital numbers at a glance, which include how many people have engaged, how many times they’ve engaged, what products are top of mind for people, how much traffic is being sent from Pinterest back to a brand’s Web site, who the biggest brand advocates are, how many tweets are coming from Pinterest about a brand and even provides a calendar to assess which content was responsible for increased user engagement. 

Currently, about 150 firms are working with the tool, including Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Birchbox and Warby Parker. The solution is meant to simplify the information gathering experience. Available via a monthly subscription, Curalate is only compatible with Pinterest for the time being, but Gupta said he hopes to extend this service to other socially curated sites like Polyvore and The Fancy. 

Shenan Reed, co-founder and chief media officer of Morpheus Media, a Createthe Group company who began using Curalate in its beta form about a month ago with clients Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus, contends that Curalate is likely to have an impact on brand’s understanding this space — which until now has been considered uncharted territory. “Granted it’s only working with Pinterest at the moment, but the implications of what it can do because of its image recognition technology are tremendous,” Reed said.

Reed noted that although it’s not the same direct correlation that one would look for in terms of measuring ROI, Curalate delivers relevant information to help partners track, see and understand exactly where fans are learning about a brand.

Why Pinterest Is So Addictive

I would have written this article sooner, but I was busy on Pinterest. If you are still among the uninitiated, the social platform for collecting, sharing, and commenting on of photos of personal passions is uniquely engaging, absorbing, and addictive.

The human instinct to collect things--be it baseball cards, miniature spoons, or teacups--is as old as stuff itself. But it took Pinterest to perfect this process online. So no wonder it’s having a moment: comScore found that Pinterest just hit 11.7 million unique monthly U.S. visitors, who spend an average of 98 minutes a month on the site, compared to 2.5 hours on Tumblr, and 7 hours on Facebook. It’s also driving more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube, Reddit, and LinkedIn--combined, according to Shareaholic.

But why would Pinterest, which has been around since 2008, be attracting such swarms of devotees now? Fast Company turned to the experts to uncover the psychology behind Pinterest’s winning formula, and why it’s resonating with thousands of new users.

Finding Your Happy Place and Sharing Your Ideal Self

Dr. Christopher Long, a professor at Ouachita Baptist University teaching a course in consumer psychology this semester, says some of his students expressed concern over an assignment to use Pinterest to pin their own examples of content relevant to each chapter in the textbook. “They were trying to wean themselves because they were concerned with how much time that had spent on the site last fall. One even said her New Year’s resolution was to cut down on Pinterest,” Long says.

Design customer experience

Strategically based design is how you bake in experiences people really care about. A well-designed customer experience is the main event in defining how worthy your proposition is of the love (devotion) customers bestow on your brand.  Think of it this way, if your brand were no longer in existence, would it matter to anyone?

It is no longer enough to “exceed customer expectations” with product / service, quality and price. In the idea economy, those attributes are now the ante. To thrive in this new epoch we find ourselves in, enlightened marketers are shifting their focus from counting transactions to creating scintillating, dramatic, novel, relevant, transformative customer experiences.

More than facts, process management and functional product or service attributes, value creation is a designed based discipline of creating an episode, an encounter, an adventure, a perception, and a sense that there is greater use value in the experience than in the goods themselves. In leading companies, design is a strategic business imperative, not a decorative act. More than designing artifacts, innovation-driven companies use design as an integrated discipline for creating experiences people love. Experiences are somewhat metaphysical. Enlightened marketers know this, and design the experience to be emotionally rich. Harley Davidson does not sell motorcycles, Starbucks does not sell coffee, and Herman Miller does not sell office chairs.

Remarkable brands have a metaphysical presence and deep emotional connection with their customers. They really matter! Strategically based design is the why behind the what.

And let’s remember that small companies can be remarkable companies too. Value creation is an idea that transcends size and scale.  Starbucks is a perfect example how their bigness almost killed their greatness. How remarkable the experiences customers have engaging with your brand, determines how much you matter. Right now, not many people care that much about Chrysler. Do people care about Honda? Probably.

We’re at the dawn of a new economic age, one driven by ideas, not rigid process. The shake-out in our current economy is proof enough that “creative destruction” is a firestorm clearing the way for more innovation in serving people and being of great value to them in their daily lives.  If your value proposition is not of great value to people, it will not be rewarded with a future. This is as it should be.

Trove of Dinosaur Feathers Found in Canadian Amber

An extraordinary collection of ancient feather fragments preserved in amber has opened a window into a lost world, one that now appears populated by dinosaurs covered in plumage as rich and varied as that of modern birds.

The feathers date to the end of the Cretaceous, about 85 to 70 million years ago. At that time, the forerunners of birds were well on their way to taking wing; dinosaurs like Epidexipteryx and Limosaurus, discovered in China in the last decade and dating to approximately 160 million years ago, possess relatively bird-like bone structures and hints of what might have been feathers.

baby whale!

The Meaning of Life (in Under 300 Words)

Perhaps you think I've set myself an impossible challenge here?

Not so. The meaning of life is pretty straightforward to state. Your life has whatever meaning you give to it. So the question becomes: what do people say gives their lives meaning? That's easy enough to measure and psychologists have done exactly that.

Baumeister and Vohs (2002) have synthesised four factors. When people are asked, the more they report each of these four factors being fulfilled, the more meaningful their lives feel:

Yes plis!

An awesome website that recommends books based on what books you have liked! Great starting point if you are looking for something new to read.

Let go of:

people who don’t call you, the t-shirt from the ex, the insecurities about the way you dance, or sing, the shoes you’ve had in your closet for 6 years and are so raggedy but they still fit, that nagging feeling you’ll die alone.

that one time somebody called you ugly, that one time you got dumped, that 10th time you got dumped, feeling bad in a bathing suit, the takeout still in your fridge.

your fear of flying, your fear of never traveling, your fear of being the one who makes the first move, your fear of failure, your fear of monsters under the bed, having to wear makeup every time you leave the house, feeling bad about not shaving your legs even though it’s summer.

being so negative, feeling like you shouldn’t feel optimistic about things, the odd way you think your thighs and nose look, and being worried about how your hair frames your face, 86% of your doubt.

the bad friend, having to go to the movies with somebody and not alone, staying home on a Friday, going out and feeling like you’d rather be home, feeling alone, pretending like you always WANT to be alone, getting caught in the rain without an umbrella, saying cheesy things about the rain.

being worried you’re being too honest, being worried about being rejected, being worried about ordering dessert, being sad that your love life is kind of boring, constantly putting yourself down before somebody else does, being afraid of being disappointed, holding yourself back.

feeling bad about being clumsy, feeling bad your nails are always chipped, bad habits you cling onto, feeling guilty about thinking too much about the past, getting nervous about how you can’t quite grow up just yet, most of your guilt, feeling terrible about the things you haven’t done yet, comparing yourself to people you aren’t, comparing others to the people they are not, that one or two or thirty people you know you should.

The Neurobiology of "Don't Shop When You're Hungry"

Being hungry biases the brain to want food at all cost.

Published on July 17, 2011 by Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D. in The Science of Willpower

A study presented at the 2011 conference of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior sheds new light on the age-old advice: "Don't go shopping when you're hungry."

Researchers injected participants with either ghrelin, a hormone that increases hunger, or a saline solution. Then they created their own little eBay in the laboratory, asking participants to bid on both edible treats and non-food items. While participants were contemplating their choices and calculating their bids, the researchers were observing their brain activity in an fMRI machine.

Le Petit Prince

If you haven't read this book, you must:)

10 Hidden Benefits of Smiling

Smiles are about much more than just showing pleasure. Psychological research reveals 10 ways to use them to your advantage.

People are always smiling, especially in groups, but it doesn't just signal that they're happy, far from it. We use smiles for specific social purposes because they can send out all sorts of signals that can be useful for us1.

Here are ten ways smiles can be used to our advantage by sending out messages about our trustworthiness, attractivity, sociability and more.

1. Get others to trust you

In a world where everyone is out for themselves, who should we trust? One signal that suggests we are trustworthy is a smile. Genuine smiles send a message that other people can trust and cooperate with us. People who smile are rated higher in both generosity and extraversion and when people share with each other they tend to display genuine smiles (Mehu et al., 2007).

Economists even consider that smiles have a value. In one study by Scharlemann et al. (2001) participants were more likely to trust another person if they were smiling. This study found that a smile increased people's willingness to trust by about 10%.

Ninja!

10 Ways Our Minds Warp Time

How time perception is warped by life-threatening situations, eye movements, tiredness, hypnosis, age, the emotions and more...

The mind does funny things to our experience of time. Just ask French cave expert Michel Siffre. In 1962 Siffre went to live in a cave that was completely isolated from mechanical clocks and natural light. He soon began to experience a huge change in his experience of time. When he tried to measure out two minutes by counting up to 120 at one-second intervals, it took him 5 minutes. After emerging from the cave he guessed the trip had lasted 34 days. He'd actually been down there for 59 days. His experience of time was rapidly changing. From an outside perspective he was slowing down, but the psychological experience for Siffre was that time was speeding up.

But you don't have to hide out in a cave for a couple of months to warp time, it happens to us all the time. Our experience of time is flexible; it depends on attention, motivation, the emotions and more.

Time is relative

The last words on time come from two great thinkers; first Albert Einstein:

"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity."

And finally, Douglas Adams:

"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so."

Revenge of the Lawn

Our Secret Attitude Changes

When you change your attitude about something, do you know why? Psychologists have argued that the inner workings of our minds are largely hidden away from us. One aspect of this is the surprising finding that people are often unaware when they have changed their attitudes.

We may well, for example, be able to identify our current opinions on global warming. We might find it easy to say, "Yes, I think global warming is occurring and humans are to blame," or, "No, it's just a long-term trend that has nothing to do with humans". But when our opinions change, by say watching Al Gore's documentary, 'An Inconvenient Truth', psychologists have found we are unlikely to be aware what changed our minds. It gets weirder. In certain circumstances we may even be convinced that our attitude has never changed. So that we are convinced our 'new' attitude is the one we always had.

Whether or not this sounds far-fetched to you, the effect is dramatically demonstrated in an experiment carried out by Goethals and Reckman (1973).