love is in the air!

Tom is en route as I type this!

Me = overly excited (what's new?!)! :)

Our Travel Plan:

10 - Prague

night of 10-15 - Gryon, Switzerland

15-17 - Prague

Yay!

Love,

Me

MHTV special...meg(ski) and bro(ski): ski ještěd, cze!

As I was walking home last night through the dimly-lit cobblestone streets of Prague, it began to snow. Not just any snow...it was bit, fluffy, beautiful flakes of joy...swirling around my head and up and down and left and right with no seeming convention whatsoever. It was free and floating and eccentric and gorgeous. It made me smile.

It's March in Prague, and whereas I am used to Minnes(n)o(w)ta winters with heaps of March snow, Prague is certainly not. In fact, Prague isn't used to snow much at all these days. Before I left for the States at Christmas it started to snow. And, it wasn't just a fluke thing...because it continues to snow today. The snow brings to the surface moments of magic into my life...up in my office on the third floor of Czech Inn I feel like I'm in a snow globe...last night as I walked through the dark and eerily quiet streets in my neighborhood, I found myself sticking my tongue out, playing a game to see how many of the oversized, fluffy flakes I could capture in my mouth...today the snow began to fall again - with wild abandon - and I started singing (loudly - pretty sure the locals thought I was crazy), 'if all the snowflakes were milkshakes and cupcakes...oh what a snow that would be...standing outside with my mouth open wide...' (like Cass and I used to sing at ski races). Magical and delicious. I love the snow.

So it would only be appropriate that I spend the weekend - after it snowed on Friday - bussin' it to the north of the Czech Republic to conquer the Czech (big) hills. And what's more...my bro was able to strap on the ol' skis and boots with me. I've quite sufficiently fed my love and passion for snow in my time here by heading to Germany last winter for the world cup, Switzerland to board (Laax and Flumserberg), Austria for a work/ski outing, Austria for the world cup (kitzbuhel!), CZE (Liberec with bro), and now to Switzerland (Gryon - hittin' up the Frenchy side with my fiance!)...I am so truly blessed to work in the business of hospitality where contacts in faraway lands are easily established. I have met some of the most amazing people. Wow.

I am still holding out for one more large snowfall...JUST ONE...please GOD?! Come on...just one more. That's all I am asking for. :) Funny to see all of my southern friends hatin' on the snow, when I just continue to love, love, love! Okay, okay...hang with me for a sec. If it snows once more - more than 3 inches - I will make a vow to ski Petrin hill in the center of Prague and get it on video for all of you to see. I promise.

Okay, now...LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!!!

Check out the Winter Wonderland below...

the snow globe effect in my office

with the goods in karlovo namesti - totally (not) normal

breakfast of champions (in honour of tom) with crazy guy in background (ha!)

smilin' in the sunshine!

beautiful tracks (not ours...it just looked pretty)

meg(ski) and bro(ski)!

alpenrider: no friends on powder days! hardcore...ha. :)

the sibs smilin' atop ski jested, liberec, cze

skiing: cze-style. ha.

snow surprise

Oh yeah...you're probably wondering how the skiing in the Czech Republic is? Well, let's just says it's no Alps...but it isn't Buck Hill either. It's respectable, and probably would have been better had we arrived earlier (bus got in at 11 and we spent the better part of an hour trying to figure out where to go and how to maneuver the ski area...not super self-explanatory, as you can imagine). Snow was rock-hard ice, a lot like the midwest.

But...surroundings were epic. Tons o' tree coverage...very cool and beautiful, although they could have had a few more good runs had the trees been cleared (don't hate me, environmentalists...I like me a good tree-hug every now and then too. but come on..that's skiing land! :)). Zach and I were talking about it, though, it's interesting why there are so many trees. You see, the trees are fairly young (post-Communism)...as many of the natural resources had been cleared out and land built upon during Communist reign, with little or no regard. As a result, there are regulations to how the land can be used now. Good if you like trees...bad if you like skiing. But what if you like tree skiing?! Well, not so fast, mister. Tree skiing'd be sketch here. We czeched (ha! never gets old!) it out and it was sketchy indeed.

meg(ski) and bro(ski)'s excellent adventure! from megan harrod on Vimeo.

But really, at one point I said to Zach, 'It looks like Narnia!' Shortly thereafter he informed me that this was probably because Narnia was filmed here. Oh. That could be why. Duh. :)

MHTV: meg(ski) and bro(ski) from megan harrod on Vimeo.

What a gorgeous gift...these little white flakes. So simple, but give me such joy. It's the little things in life.

Let's just hope there are a lot of little things...Petrin, here I come. :)

Ski fast,

Me

the (super)ultimate wedding...

...yep, we've decided to join in on the fun and submit an entry in Crate and Barrel/Daily Candy's Ultimate Wedding Challenge.

LEMME VOTE!! Okay...go here and click on pretty pink 'vote for this entry' button on right of picture: http://www.ultimateweddingcontest.com/entries/38320

'What the heck is this challenge, and what does it mean to me?!' Well, it's really cool because not only do you get to vote for two really cool people to win a really cool contest, but we all get the chance to sit back and marvel at the power of social media! In just three days, we've collectively tallied 258 votes. My goal is 100 votes a day. So, today we still have yet to grab 42 votes. As a wise man once said, 'Yes, we can.' ;)

So, go ahead and vote...if you have multiple email addresses, vote with every one of 'em. And, spread the word. Invite friends to the event we created on facebook. Post it to your profiles. Change your statuses. Tweet it. MySpace it. Email it. Pop it in an envelope and old-school-snail-mail it. Whatever. (okay, maybe not the snail-mail one, as we only have until 31 March). So, act now! Hurry!

In the mean time, enjoy reading my version of our entry...which was the resounding loser when we chose which one to submit, mine or his. Zach (my bro) chose Tom's in the taste-test. But...you tell me...which one is really better?! Leave a comment below to let me know. hee.

Title: She had him at H.O.R.S.E.

Our love story.

This fairytale began with a chance meeting on a dance floor (through a mutual friend) and turned into a beautiful written love affair, Megan and Tom sharing their biggest dreams and their love for brightly-coloured socks, haribo gummi food and global exploration (and his love for the pancreas) through their unique gift for prose. Finally, after three weeks of writing, he challenged her to a game of H.O.R.S.E.. She beat him. It was love at first H.O.R.S.E. 11 months later, she received the opportunity to work in Prague and they buckled down for long-distance-love. Thousands of miles apart and hundreds of love letters later, he proposed to her in the fairytale town of Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic.

Three important details about our Ultimate Wedding.

An outdoor wedding, on a flower farm near home. Oozing with personal style…shabby/chic with a euro-ecclectic, romantic and unique flair. Family and friends from around the world. Polish flavour. Global love. Superhero-themed. Juicy Lucys served on a silver platter. Red bull/vodka fountain. TOMS shoes...and lots of 'em. As much dancing as possible…and then more. Bonfire with s’mores. A hired ice-cream truck. Wishing on Chinese lanterns and releasing them into the air.

Our everyday dream day.

Relentless exploration as a couple…of the world, new recipes and the gummi candy aisle. Thinking beyond ourselves, and helping others. Mutual laughter. Broadening our worldview through words on pages or steps on cobblestone in European cities. Early morning trips to the gym on weekends and long naps in the afternoon. Bringing back the family dinner. Meaningful conversation. Back rubs after a long day at work. Enjoyment of the gifts God has given us. Like, for instance, Sebastian Joe’s oreo ice cream. And, of course, many, many games of H.O.R.S.E.

Happy voting! Happy Sharing (as I always say...sharing is caring!:))!

Me

LYRIUMROLMWAYE

WHAT ON EARTH DOES THAT MEAN?!

Find out more: http://www.ultimateweddingcontest.com/entries/38320

More to come...

Me

mhtv: my wonderwoman

Okay, yeah - I know...you guys all know how much I love superheroes. And, wonderwoman specifically. So I thought that today, in honour of a true wonderwoman in my life, I'd bring wonderwoman to work with me and put together a montage to wish this wonderful woman - my mother - a VERY WONDER(WOMAN)FUL BIRTHDAY!

Happy birthday to a woman who I admire for many reasons. Mom, I (or 'we' I should say) wish you safe travels, lots of gifts:) and love from family, hugs and positive vibes, all the way from Praha, CZE!

Even though we're thousands of miles away, you were with me (and all of the people in my life today) throughout the day - from morning, to noon, to evening. Enjoy!

MHTV: Wonderwoman! from megan harrod on Vimeo.

Happy birthday, mom! I love you and wish you a fabulous birthday!

Love from one wonderwoman to another!

mosaichouse.com makes hotel blog news!

How Mosaic House Re-designed Their Website & Added 800 Facebook Fans Before Opening
by JOSIAH MACKENZIE on FEBRUARY 23, 2010

Megan Harrod is the director of marketing for Mosaic House. I’ve been watching them develop a new website for their soon-to-be-opened property for a while now. When they added Facebook Connect to the homepage, I knew we had to talk…

Josiah: What were some of your goals when redeveloping the website?

Megan: We wanted to focus on the things that makes Mosaic House, Mosaic House. For us, the biggest thing is the atmosphere created by all the communal areas in the building. For the website, we really wanted to show this element. We’re still building out the full website – it’s in progress right now.

Design is also important to us. We wanted that to come through in the imagery.

You mentioned one of the key selling points of your brand is the social aspect. How do you communicate this through design?

The biggest thing for us is the addition of the Facebook Connect feature. What I was talking to the designer in the planning stage, we decided to add this because it’s all about engagement. We haven’t even opened yet, but have nearly 800 fans on Facebook.

The Mosaic House is all about bringing people together. So adding Facebook Connect to the website enables us to bring people together online. We have further integration planned as we rollout the full version of the site. So when people land on the home page, they see a whole mosaic of faces…and then we can direct people to our Facebook page where we encourage further interaction.

I love how you’re integrating Facebook into the website – I don’t see a lot of hotels doing that. Very few hotels are able to reach 800 fans so quickly. Can you talk a little bit about how you promote your Facebook page? How did you get so many people signing up?

I read an article the other day by Seth Godin about faux followers. It was talking about the loyalty of your social media fans: are they really friends? Is it just about getting as many fans as you can?

With us, it’s cool, because we have staff that are really engaged in the project. It’s very much a family environment. So there are people back home (a lot of us are expats) that are following this project and have been for while – because there’s a lot more history in the project than a lot of people know.

So we just told our friends that we’re all involved in this project. They’re all young tech-savvy people: people that would love to stay with us when they visit Prague. We posted pictures and information as the building was developing, and information about the launch party and special promotions. And our friends told their friends, which passed it along to their friends.

We didn’t expect to get so many fans so quickly, but it’s because our team is so engaged in the project. That’s growing our fan base naturally. Everyone’s really excited about the opening…they’re not faux followers.

Our designer said “You need to integrate [Facebook Connect], because you have 800 fans and you’re not even open yet!” And these people are actually interacting with the page.

I think that’s a really cool story about the organic approach you took. I’d like to briefly touch on the Facebook page itself. Do you have a system to manage things?

A lot of people have a strategy, but we haven’t defined a specific strategy — like “we’re going out Monday, Wednesday and Thursday to update it.” It’s just myself and a few others that are closely involved in the project. So it’s just like we would update our own Facebook statuses. It’s organic. It’s not anything that’s very scheduled… and I don’t think it needs to be. I think it feels more genuine this way.

So what types of content do you like to share on Facebook?

Yeah, we want people to get jazzed about the location, so that’s a big thing. What actually just shot a video of around the area. Also images around the space, so people can see what it will look like, and what a sample room looks like. Any events going on in Prague, so people can see these cool places like art galleries in the neighborhood.

So people start getting excited about the things that they could see in Prague when they come here. Any relevant information we find, we post. We posted some stuff about Tom’s Shoes, which is an organization which was started by a traveler, and is a great cause. So we’ve discussed some options for promotions in the future as a way to give back.

So that’s what we’ve done. We will be posting more promotional information in terms of generating a stronger following in the future, but that is more of the strategic approach that we’re talking about.

Do you have plans for further Facebook Connect integration on your website?

The design of the homepage will change when we have the full site launched. But it will still be a feature on the home page. We will direct a lot of people from our website to the fan page, so they can leave reviews and what they liked about staying there.

So we’ll use it a little differently once we fully open. But Facebook connect will still be an element of the homepage, very much front and center.

It’s a cool thing because people feel special when they see their picture on the home page. They feel like they’re being recognized and a part of the project.

Great! I’ll be very interested in watching this website as you roll it out.

*(pretty cool, huh, friends? excited about mosaic house? jazzed about social media? love to travel? wish you were a superhero? uh...err...whatever you fancy, become a fan of mosaic house on facebook to follow the progress of the renovation, learn more about the swanky future opening party, facebook stalk future fellow travellers and more...happy fanning!)

love, me*

waddaya think, friends?!

Tell me what you think.

Love,

me

UPDATE 9.3 - Fez has the most votes so far...really, guys? Do you think?! Hmmm...I am swaying towards Valencia. What to do...what to do...