Awesome team effort, gals! Your costume was voted The Best Foiled Costume by the ever amazing social media community.
Starting this month, @kellyvonebers & @lamarero will receive a dozen of our favorites (for an entire year!) 
Thanks to all who participated & who came out to our One Year Anniversary bash at theWit! We couldn’t have done it without you.
At our One Year Anniversary at theWit we decided to throw a costume contest out of foil. The winner gets a dozen free cupcakes every month for the next year.
Thanks to all who participated. There are some crazy costumes, and we have our favorites, but we’ll leave it up to you, the wonderful social media community, to vote for the best Foiled costume.
We’ll keep the voting through 08/26/10 until 12 noon, central time.
and the little cupcake on top…
and the little detail on top…
‘Shiny, Happy, Birthday’
The fine print resides here.
I remember my very first tweet to college friend Xander:
And I remember having dinner with my good friend Amy, who said to me, “You know what? It might be a good idea to see what this whole social media thing is about.”
Well, Xander and Amy, we owe you. Because without you, we never would have found such a fantastic, vibrant community like the Chicago social media one.
And now we’re celebrating a YEAR (!) of interacting with you all at one of the coolest new lounge spots in all of Chicago, and we’d love to throw a big party with lots of free cupcakes and foil and have you all come.
So will you please come celebrate with us? We promise we’ll bring the cupcakes if you bring your pretty faces. And guess what? Be one of the first 100 to register, and we’ll even have a little gift waiting just for you.
See you next Wednesday, lovelies!
-Mari
Your man could be our first ever mancake.
Tweet us @FoiledCupcakes using the #mancake hashtag. Tell us in 140 characters or less why the man in your life deserves to be this year’s mancake. Done.
We’ll pick our favorite and announce a winner by Tuesday, June 22nd. Which means you’ll need to have your tweets in by Father’s Day (Sunday, June 20th).
Okay! Happy Mancake-ing!
The legal stuff resides here.
Guest post today by @phampants, our worst travel tweet winner. (He gets a Dozen of our Favorites! Yeah!)
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When the awesome @brandonzeman RT’d @foiledcupcakes‘ Worst Travel Tweet challenge, I asked myself, “What story should I pick from?”
When I backpacked Europe alone last summer, I had quite the adventure. The adventure also included many mishaps. From sleeping in the Brussels train station in 40 degree weather with bums to having my 4gb flash card go corrupt on me and losing 3 days worth of pictures in Rome. Let’s not also forget that I was only allowed to live 18 days on a TINY duffel bag containing all of my belongings that weighed no more than 22 lbs. Don’t believe me? Here’s photo evidence (sans a 6 pound laptop):
Yeah, it was an interesting trip. Just as interesting as learning how to drive stick while driving on the other side of the road while in Ireland. Oh wait! That’s right, I couldn’t drive because I lost my wallet (one of three) containing my driver’s license, student ID & my debit card on the morning of Day 3 of my trip in the Dublin airport. How did I lose it? It was in my jacket pocket which also contained my umbrella. Apparently, the umbrella looked like a huge knife in the X-Ray machine, so when they took it out to check, the wallet fell out. Sadly, I did not noticed until I was in the middle of the Brussels train station 2 hours later.
So what did I do? Being the seasoned & experienced traveler that I am, I had wallet #1 and #3 handy. Those two wallets contained 350 Euros, 60 British pounds and a credit card. Now before you go all, “Oh he cheated, he had a credit card,” remember this: Europe is a CASH continent. Finding a place that takes credit card is like trying to a hot dog place in Chicago that puts ketchup on your hot dog. It wasn’t easy, but I did survived 15 days with 350 Euros & 60 GBPs.
Want to read more about my trip & the day I lost my debit card? Read more here.
Want to know how you can survive cleverly when traveling and losing your debit card? Read more here.
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Congratulations, @phampants - your story touched the hearts of millions. Well, at least of the people who voted for you. And thanks to all who participated!
My flight was delayed on my way back from #SESNY. And I was bored. So I decided to give out a free dozen cupcakes to the person with the worst travel story.
Problem is, we got, like, 40 kajillion responses. I did my best to narrow them down, but now I’m too stressed/entertained/indecisive to pick a winner. So I’m delegating that decision out to you.
We’ll keep voting open through Tuesday, 3/30/10 until 12:00 noon, Central time.
My suitcase was damaged. I had personal items strung out on the claim conveyor belt which I had to scoop up as they went by.
seeing two shoving matches break out as people boarded the 7:06 am train from Naperville to Chicago. Relax, people!
Not airplane-related, but once got barricaded into a state park in India, held up for moolah. #CUPCAKES
worse was when i lost my debit card while backpacking europe. i had to survive 15 days w/ 350 euros & 60 pounds
The fine print resides here.
[By the way, I almost picked this one:
@antrants: SYD to LAX, pilot had to re-route half way, crashed, got lost on an island, had to time travel with some dude to get back.
But come on. That's so been done before. ]
What’s this Chicago Soup thing all about and how did Foiled Cupcakes get involved? Read about it here.
It’s been almost a week since Chicago Soup and Teen Living Programs celebrated their $100K social media win from Chase bank and we’re still reeling in the craziness of it all. So much food and so many congratulations! What a great effort and campaign.
See pictures on Chicago Soup’s Facebook page. And please become a fan while you’re at it. Because then you’ll be the first to know about ways you can make an impact in your local community without much money, effort, or time.
On a personal note, thankyouthankyouthankyou to the following individuals who have donated their time, talents, and efforts to making Chicago Soup a reality (I’m estimating that over 500 hours have been donated to Chicago Soup):
Geoff - my new bao friend who has a bunch of fancy titles at Wow Bao/LEYE and apparently every single connection in the world
Nia - the easiest person ever to work with on a project and high-up gal at Teen Living Programs
Christine - the loveliest PR person I’ve ever had the pleasure of collaborating with at JP Morgan Chase Bank
Patrick - brilliant designer, project managing fiend and co-founder of C2 Creative Consulting
Derek - community strategist, new Canadian, and co-founder of Foodtree
Tim - video guy who can whip together great pieces and founder of Beyond the Pedway
It was great collaborating with such a talented team to make this all come together so nicely. So thank you from the very bottom of our mixing bowl.
I just took a look at our Twitter page and had no idea we were over 5,000 followers. Wow!
So in honor of each of the 5,014 followers we have on Twitter (to whom we owe every piece of our growth and success), I’m going to do the unthinkable:
One meter for every one of you. 5,014 meters. A 5K + an additional 14 meters to the water fountain.
If you know me at all, you know I’d rather sing karaoke in front of thousands, kiss a snake, eat stinky cheese, talk to a complete stranger, or listen to country than run. Even like 10 feet. I hate running.
But thanks to everyone who’s supported us to this point, and faithful runners who inspire me like Chanthana, Kate, Jacqueline, Sue, Tim, Carla, Paige, and Heather, I’m dedicating my first real 5k to all of you who have been the true backbone of our business for the past eight months.
And from the bottom of our mixing bowls, we at the Foiled Cupcakes team all thank you.
Now I just need to find a race. Any suggestions?
- Mari
P.S. A special thanks to Fleet Feet for getting me all set up with new shoes for my first run. (How did they know that I’d do pretty much anything to have an excuse to buy new shoes?)
This past summer, we hosted a cupcake photo shoot to capture still shots of our cupcakes in all their glory. And while this served a functional purpose (getting pictures of our cupcakes on the website), it also served a social purpose: getting together with 20 of our favorite Twitter friends and sharing the shiny happy goodness.
Thanks to all of our cupcake models for being so flexible and fabulous and fun! F(cubed). And VERY special thanks to Chris Vaughn for photographing our cupcakes and models! He is fabulous to work with, so nice, so genuine, so lovely. THANK YOU, CHRIS!
In no particular order, we present the remainder of our 20 cupcake models (see the first batch here):
Everybody Loves Chocolate | Student at DePaul University | Chicago, IL
What song does the cupcake you’re modeling with remind you of? Why?
‘Everybody Wants You’ by Josh Kelley because everybody wants a scrumptious cupcake
Why we like Iris:
Because she’s so ridiculously bad at comebacks, it’s endearing.
Bananarama | Recruiter for the Cleveland Indians | Cleveland, OH
If you could gift Foiled Cupcakes to any celebrity, who would it be? Why?
President Obama. Foiled Cupcakes brings happiness to all that experience them. In the moment you are eating them, all troubles of the world melt away. Obama could use this stress relief.
Why we like Meka:
He works in baseball. Enough said.
Choc Full of Cherries | Chicago, IL
Now that you’re a bona fide cupcake model, what are you going to do with your career?
Hopefully move on to NY Fashion Week or serve as a guest judge on America’s Next Top Model. So Fierce.
Why we like Jessica:
Because she tweets things that are relateable. Like seeing a cute boy on a city bus.
Southern Belle | Special Event Sales expert | Evanston, IL
Now that you’re a bona fide cupcake model, what are you going to do with your career?
Eat cupcakes for world peace. And encourage the world to adopt them as currency - that would be magic!
Why we like Melissa:
She likes to go out and dance. She likes to have fun. And she is cute as a button. Seriously.
Plain Jane | Morningstar, Inc. | Chicago, IL
What song does the cupcake you’re modeling with remind you of? Why?
‘Don’t Stop Believing’ by Journey. At first, the Plain Jane is a little “plain” on the outside but once you get to know her, all your expectations about what it means to be “plain” and “simple” are out the window. Don’t Stop Believing!
Why we like Sarah:
Sarah’s always on the go and she knows Chicago’s the best city in America.
Strawberry Short Cupcake| Upshot | Forest Park, IL
Now that you’re a bona fide cupcake model, what are you going to do with your career?
Figure out a way to take my new found cupcake modeling talent and spin it into a full time job. I mean, next step is supermodel stuff, right?! (we say, duh!) Somehow, someway … cupcake modeling will eventually pay my mortgage!
Why we like Kelly:
Because she wants cupcake modeling to pay her mortgage.
Lime is the New Black | Groove Parlor TV | Chicago, IL
If you could gift Foiled Cupcakes to any celebrity, who would it be? Why?
Jody Watley - 80s pop star. she LOVES red velvet cupcakes and she should try Foiled Cupcakes’ Southern Belle.
Why we like Paula:
Paula has been one of our most ardent supporters since day one. And we absolutely appreciate her for that!
Give Me S’Mores | Personal Trainer at Lifetime Fitness in Warrenville | Aurora, IL
Now that you’re a bona fide cupcake model, what are you going to do with your career?
Maybe Sara Lee needs someone to model pies!!
Why we like Ryan:
Ryan barters personal training sessions for cupcakes. It evens out.
Chai Maintenance | Event Planner at Kamileon Events | Chicago, IL
What song does the cupcake you’re modeling for remind you of? Why?
It reminds me of ‘Material Girl’ by Madonna, for a Chai Maintenance cupcake!
Why we like Shona:
She’s a detail-oriented gal who loves to have fun. And she plans amazing events!
And a big thanks to Stephanie Perrin for editing these photos.
I’m literally floored. In just a matter of 30 minutes and a handful of tweets, we were able to collectively donate $500 to the Red Cross Haiti relief effort today. Thank you to the following individuals who donated (and will be receiving 2 Dozen of our Favorites cupcakes as a result):
@mattchevy
@tommychoi
@johnpneedham
@mojoguzzi
@CityGirl912
And a special thank you to @rickmurray for thinking of, donating to, and participating in this fantastic idea.
By the way, even if you didn’t get free cupcakes out of donating, it’s still always a good thing to do.
I’m always amazed at what a group of totally unrelated people can do together to make a difference. You guys all freaking rock. I’m so verklempt.
- Mari
