January 2018

Less than a week until the biggest football day of the year - SUPER BOWL SUNDAY! Want to enjoy the game, the ads, and the half-time show with friends and family? Then throw a party with a contest!

Football and competition go hand-in-hand and a Superbowl party is the perfect opportunity to share football, food, drinks, and a little friendly competition.

Superbowl Sunday Competitions

Cheering the Hawks on to victory!

Football Pool.  Have party attendees buy squares and then assign numbers to the squares for the score after each of the quarters and the end of the game.

Prop Bet.  Who will win the coin toss?  Which team will score first?  Will Gronk do an end-zone dance?  These are all fun things you can bet on that only require luck!

Chili Cook-off. Have your family and friends bring their chili in a crock pot for blind tasting. Read my past blog on how to host a chili cook off. Don't forget the prizes, such as chili medals, blue ribbons and chili cookoff trophies for your winners!

Fantasy Football Awards.  Superbowl Sunday is the perfect day to award you fantasy football league winner and haze your league loser. Bring your perpetual fantasy football trophy to pass to the champ and an engraved toilet trophy for the league loser.

Other Ideas to Make the Game Festive

A sweet stadium made of snacks, get the idea on Pinterest!

Cute Decorations.  Decorate in your favorite team's colors and include one of our Championship Trophies, that looks like a Lombardi trophy, for your table centerpiece. This could go home with the big winner of your Football Pool.

Snacks: Chips and salsa, guacamole, nachos, cheese or bean dip, garlic bread, and cornbread all go great with chili. Cut up veggies with ranch or even a salad balance out the other junk so at least your guests get a little something healthy.  Check out our Pinterest page for great game day snack ideas!

Dessert: I personally like cookies, brownies, cupcakes - things you can eat with your hands, to keep dishes at a minimum.

For someone who blows up the game, award our popular bomb trophy!

Drinks: Beer, lots of it. Conserve fridge space and have a cooler with ice for the beer.

Awards:  To add some laughs at the party, I’d recommend one of our funnier trophies. Two of my favorites are The Golden Throne and The Bomb Trophy .

The Superbowl is a great excuse to get together with family and friends, and hosting a competition is sure to bring an unique twist to your party. But no matter what, Superbowl Sunday is all about hanging out with family and friends and enjoying the best commercials of the year!

Cheers,
Jessica

With the New Year comes new resolutions, and for many people that means trying to lose weight.  Really the underlying goal is to be healthy, with a balanced lifestyle of eating right and exercising, in order to live longer and feel better!

Since a majority of your waking hours are spent at work, your office can be a help or a hindrance to this goal.  Holiday treats, donuts, birthdays can all derail your dieting efforts.  Instead of an obstacle for reaching your goals, make work a positive, supportive environment for healthy living with friendly competition!  Same with friends...happy hour can decimate a diet.  Establish an weight loss challenge, either at your office or with your family & friends, to motivate not only you but also those around you to break bad habits, lose weight, and live healthier!

How do you set up a challenge?

One great resource is Livestrong's How to Create an Office Weight Loss Challenge.  Some pointers are also below:

1. Set up the parameters.  Set a point person to be in charge of all metrics, yet who won't share the data or judge.  Establish the time frame for how long the competition will last and the weigh-in dates.

Up the stakes for your weight loss challenge with cash prizes and a Biggest Loser Trophy for the winner!

2. Invite participants.  If at the office, advertise around the water cooler, in the gym, at the vending machines.  If doing with friends, send an Evite, Facebook group, or Fitbit group to get everyone motivated.

3. Set the rules.  Usually you measure by percentage weight lost, number of workouts, etc, not pounds lost. You may also want to include no-nos, like diet pills, laxatives, skipping meals, anything that can sabotage your health.

4. Keep up the Motivation.  Create a Pinterest page, Google drive, Facebook group, Snapchat feed or some other shared online location for posting healthy recipes, workout tips, and inspirational messages. Encourage one another to keep going!

5. Reward the winners!  Consider a weight loss trophy to your "Biggest Loser", along with prizes along the way during the challenge.   If you have members buy into the challenge, then you can award prize money along with your award. Consider our "Biggest Loser" scale trophy for your winner!

Best of luck keeping those resolutions and Happy 2018!

Cheers,

Jessica

Mika and I presented Linda with her customer of the year award today!

Today's blog is to celebrate a very special customer, Linda Trinh from Sprint!  Our staff nominated and votes her as our 2017 "Customer of the Year!"

Linda is an Executive Admin for three of Sprint's top executives.  She is a busy gal and well liked by her colleagues!

Our staff loves working with Linda, as she is friendly, positive, and easy to work with.  She was a frequent customer at our Issaquah showroom for many years.

Since we have closed our showroom, Linda says this hasn't impacted her working with us, as ordering from us is as easy as ever.  She just emails us what she would like and we take care of the rest!  She said that she loves working with Mika and Janice on her orders.

And the feeling is mutual!  Here's what our staff says about working with Linda:

Mike says, "Linda is always sweet, understanding and accommodating".

Our 2017 'Customer of the Year', Linda T. from Sprint!

Mika says, "I especially like that Linda kept us as her go-to when she changed jobs from Verizon to Sprint.  Her usual jobs are easy because it’s usually the same thing, but once or twice a year she needs to place a big order and she’s very receptive to suggestions and advise from us.  She is really appreciative of the work we do".

Today we presented Linda with the Trophies2Go Customer of the Year Award at her office in Bellevue, WA.  Thank you Linda and all of our awesome customers for your business!  We appreciate you trusting us with your recognition needs.

Cheers!

Jessica

Winter Classic, 10 years of soccer excellence!

We are proud to provide championship soccer trophies, soccer medals, and pins to one of the nation's premiere soccer tournaments, the Pacific Northwest Soccer Club (PacNW) Winter Classic!

This year is the 10th Annual tournament, held over the first two weekends in January 2018.  More than 100 top youth soccer teams attend the tournament, its the premier winter soccer event in the Country!   Over 100 college coaches attended the showcase, looking for future talent for their schools.

The PacNW Winter Classic is based out of the the world-class Starfire Sports Complex, located just south of Seattle.  Starfire Sports is the training home of the Seattle Sounders and features 11 fields of both natural grass and artificial turf.

PacNW designs a logo for the tournament each year, and this year, in it's 10th year, features the roman numeral X in the design!  All championship teams win the tournament's exclusive trophy, it is NOT offered on our website, we only purchase it for this specific event.

Thank you to Executive Director Todd Johnson for trusting us with his tournament's award needs!  It's an honor to be chosen as his awards vendor.  Good luck to all the teams playing this weekend and have fun!

Cheers,

Jessica

An example of a Thermo Plaque.

A huge shout out to Luke at Thermo Plaques, who was chosen by our staff as Trophies2Go's 2017 'Vendor of the Year'!  Based in California, they have been in business for over 46  years!

The Thermo Plaque Company creates custom laminated wall plaques from diplomas, certificates, news articles, magazine articles and much more.  The plaque edges are sanded, sealed and painted to finish the display.  It's a great way to celebrate and acknowledge any accomplishment!

Our customers that order special plaques from Thermo Plaques include Tiger Oak, who does the many Seattle Business Awards, and The Scotsman Guides.

Here is what our staff says about working with Luke:

An example of a Thermo Plaque made by Luke, our 2017 Customer of the Year!

Mike says that Luke is "very helpful, responsive and knowledgeable"

Mika says "Luke gets back to us right away when we request an order, and it super nice and easy to work with.  Also really creative.  Great products."

Janice says "Like is very responsive, he gets back to me quickly.  He is quick, he gets the covers done fast for our customers".

Our vendors create the components that allow us to assemble and customize the best quality trophies and awards in the industry.  Thank you to Luke at Thermo Plaques and all of our awesome vendors for great products to offer our customers!

Cheers!

Jessica