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That’s not where the creativity ends. Erika D. helped Sally M. get in shape without even ruffling her rabbit ears by calling her for workout accountability. “I asked her specifically about her workouts — intense yoga session, indoor rock climbing, surfing,” Erika D. said, “and also sent encouraging text messages and voicemails about getting a good night’s sleep in order to complete the workout for the next day.” Resourceful traveler V W. turned to Marlene M. who picked up V W.’s laundry returned it nice and clean before the end of the day.

Devon L.’s first task was a sweet treat: he picked up a delicious box of Specialty’s cookies as an interoffice gift. Some customers are testing the limits of TaskRabbit’s abilities; Jim S. is a last minute kind of guy and posted a task at 6:17 p.m. requiring pick ups at stores across town that closed at 7:00 and 7:30 p.m., respectively. “I honestly didn’t think my task could be done before the stores closed,” Jim S. said, but he was pleasantly surprised when he found everything on his doorstep.

We’re excited to see what San Franciscans can come up with next. Save a parking spot at Ocean Beach on our next warm and clear day? Provide a ride home to a few Giants fans after the next game? It’s up to you, but whatever it is, TaskRabbit can get it done.

Greening your life doesn’t need to be difficult. There are plenty of small (and medium-sized) ways to add some green to your daily living.

It is easy being green!

Each week, I will present one new easy-peasy idea for ways in which you can become green without spending much time or money.

This week’s EASY GREEN IDEA:

Plant a container garden.

Whether you have a large backyard or a tiny little windowsill, you can cultivate your own container garden. For around $20, you can be well on your way to growing your own veggies, herbs and flowers. Not only will you find this easy and rewarding, but as an official member of the Not-So-Greenthumb Society, I can vouch for the fact that being able to grow anything makes you feel pretty amazing.

Container gardens can save you loads of money on groceries (dry the herbs, use them for cooking) and taste fresher and more natural than store-bought greens.

• TIME: 2 hours (from shopping to clean-up.)

• MATERIALS:
  -A few terracotta pots, or a hanging window planter, depending on where you intend to keep your garden.
  -One packet of seeds per pot/container. (Note: Don’t try growing pumpkins in a window container. Aim for small and simple in terms of seed/plant choices. Strawberries can yield a large amount in the right environment. Basil is also a great starter plant.) If you want to start with seed packets, these are inexpensive and you can try a few different varieties without a big financial commitment.

  - Small bag of organic potting soil.

  -Patience (it will take about 1.5-2 weeks for you to begin to see the fruits of your planting labors, but your patience will pay off.

• Tips:
  -Visit your local farmer’s market or nursery for the best quality seeds and plants.  Avoid the big box stores, as these plants tends to miss out on the one-on-one attention that the smaller growers can offer, and shopping at local markets supports local farmers and growers in your community.-Pay close attention to the instructions on the back of each seed packet or on the back of each plant marker regarding how much sun exposure and water each plant needs.

  -Set a time for yourself (each morning before breakfast or each night before bed) to water the plants.

  This is all you need to get a small container garden up and running. Now is the perfect time to start one! This will help you save time (forget waiting in lines at the grocery store,) save money and will make the world a little greener with just a little effort!

You called – We answered.

We’ve had SO many requests for Runners in the Metrowest neighborhoods that we took things one step further and launched TASKRABBIT METROWEST!

This marks the first official local launch of TaskRabbit. Who KNOWS where our next launch might be…it might even be in your neighborhood!

What does this mean for TaskRabbit Members? You will now see a link to MY CITY in the upper right hand corner of TaskRabbit.com. Here, you can switch your city from TaskRabbit BOSTON to TaskRabbit METROWEST.

Members in the Metrowest area can now post their tasks specifically to Metrowest Runners, which means more localized attention and speedier task pick ups.

TaskRabbit is growing by LEAPS and BOUNDS (hop!) Whether you need a Runner to help you build Ikea furniture in the Greater Boston area OR you need coffee from Pete’s Coffee in Newton Center…there’s a Runner for that and they are right around the corner.

Neighbors helping neighbors. It’s who we are and what we do. Spread the love.

@TaskRabbit

Facebook.com/TaskRabbit

Rob Van Sickle eats dog biscuits.

He eats them nearly every day. As the Owner of Polka Dog Bakery in Boston’s South End, Rob believes in personally taste-testing his own products before they hit store shelves. Thankfully for Rob, he makes one delicious dog treat.

Rob opened Polka Dog Bakery seven years ago after his beloved one-eyed  adopted dog, “Pearl,” passed away. He had become deeply entrenched in the world of dogs and specifically, canine nutrition. To Rob, Pearl was like a child and he was heartbroken after her passing. Rob felt the need to contribute whatever he could to the canine world in honor of her memory and quickly realized the need for a high quality dog bakery. He immediately set to work developing nutritional recipes for puppies with distinguished taste.

Polka Dog is no ordinary dog bakery. Rob uses only the finest human-grade, restaurant-quality ingredients in his products.

“In an industry where so many bakeries are outsourcing their products and slapping their stickers on low-quality products, I am doing my best to raise the bar for canine nutrition,” says Rob. “People think “this is just a dog! He’ll eat rocks if I tell him too. He doesn’t care!” But my dog is like my child. Would you feed your child rocks? Dogs are what you feed them. If you feed them top-quality ingredients, this will be reflected in their quality of life, their life span, lower vet bills and their overall happiness.”

On any given day you’ll find Rob visiting the local butcher shops, farmer’s markets and fish markets picking out the freshest ingredients he can find. He swims through the crowds, among the classically-trained chefs who are purchasing the same ingredients as he is, only theirs are to be used in dishes at the 5 star dining establishments around town. Rob doesn’t cut any corners. Once he has completed his purchases for the day, he heads back to the Polka Dog kitchen to hand off the ingredients to his expert bakers.

“The liver is the stinkiest,” says Rob, “but it is tasty. My favorite are the carob chip cookies when they are still warm, fresh from the oven.”

Polka Dog customers are often seen dragging their owners through the front door, placing both paws on the counter and barking orders for their favorite treats. The bakery’s top sellers, aside from their dehydrated duck and fish skin snackies, are their puppy birthday cakes. Made fresh, these all-natural peanut butter and barley flour birthday cakes are iced with creamy vanilla yogurt frosting. It’s every puppy’s dream to nom one of these on his special day.

The customers may be demanding, but they are loose with the kisses. Our own Chief Inspiration Officer, Kobe, highly recommends the classic “Healthy Dog Treats” medley, made wheat-free, corn-free and soy-free, fresh out of the oven.

TaskRabbit is thrilled to team up with Polka Dog Bakery to offer home delivery of all of their goodies. We even offer a Dog Food/Treat Replenishment Program so that customers can automatically have their fave puppy food delivered right to their doorstep every few weeks as needed, because a high-quality product coupled with the convenience of delivery means no more hungry looks from you-know-who.

Visit Polka Dog Bakery at www.PolkaDog.com.

Happy Earth Day!

We love you, Earth!

This is one of our favorite days of the year here at TaskRabbit and we thought we might celebrate with OUR 4 IDEAS FOR GREENING YOUR LIFE!

4. Use Zipcar – Why buy a gas chugging car or truck to get around when you could pay a low-low rate for the occasions when you REALLY need a car. You’ll save loads of money on insurance, parking and car maintenance and you can USE A HYBRID to get around only when you are really in need of doing so (i.e. You’re certain you can’t just walk to the corner to pick up the daily news? Do you really need to drive?)

3. Use your Smartphone in green ways: Apps like “Go Organic” and “FindGreen” empower you with a bajillion ways to go green, from locating bicycle shops closest to you to finding the best local food sources, these apps give you every opportunity to live an easier, greener life.

2. Shop at Whole Foods: You heard me right. Get your shopping boogie on. Whole Foods has just committed themselves to reducing their energy consumption by 25% by 2015, so instead of boppin’ around from store to store picking up one product here and another there, try to get everything in one place (Whole Foods) and with so many WF locations, staying local (Locavores) shouldn’t be a problem OR, better yet, hire a TaskRabbit Runner to do your shopping for you! Which leads me to my next resource…

1. Hire a TaskRabbit Runner to help: Sure, sure. “Shameless self promotion.” BUT as an internet-based company that focuses on neighbors helping neighbors and community building, we pride ourselves on our green approach to getting around (Zipcar, by bike and on foot) and our services that let one person do tasks for 10 in one fell swoop (Hello Ikea runs!) HENCE, less gas wasted and lower carbon footprints for all!

*We are so green that we don’t even have a working printer in our offices, merely a non-functioning printer that is doing its best to store our granola stash.

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!

You can outsource anything on RunMyErrand.

You can even outsource the running of the Boston Marathon.

Margaret, Mika and Mary decided to hire RME Runners to run the Boston Marathon for them to raise money for their favorite charities and RME was more than happy to answer the call.

This year, RunMyErrand is honored to be running the marathon and raising money for three major charities:

The Ellie Fund

The National Federation of the Blind

and The Councils on Aging.

WATCH our Amazing Founder, Leah Busque, along with our Chief Inspiration Officer, Kobe, officially announce our plans for RunMyMarathon.

To learn how you can GIVE to these great charities, visit our site at RunMyErrand.com/Marathon

Follow us @RunMyErrand

And on Facebook: Facebook.com/RunMyErrand

For every errand completed this Holiday season, RunMyErrand will donate a toy to a very special organization called Room To Grow.  a nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of babies born into poverty throughout their critical first three years of development. Room to Grow supports the Boston community and we wanted to give back to them as well.

If you have anything you wish to donate to Room to Grow, we can collect it for you. Here is a list of items they accept.  Have a runner help facilitate the donation, by posting it as an errand on the site.  We would be happy to help!

Let RunMyErrand trusted neighborhood Holiday Helpers do your shopping, shipping and running around. Post your to-do’s now so you can spend your time doing the things that bring you joy this season.  It’s so easy. Try us this season and you’ll wonder how you ever got through the holidays without us.

Holidays are hectic. We can help.

• – Need flour to make your famous dessert?
• - Stop standing in line at the post office or at UPS.
• - Holiday lights too tangled to untangle? Get new ones.
• - And so much more.

To top off the joy: your first errand is FREE (a $15 value) and for every errand posted this holiday season, we will donate a toy to Room To Grow.  Room to Grow is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of babies born into poverty throughout their critical first three years of development.  Room to Grow supports the Boston community and we wanted to give back to them as well.

The word on the street is true, RME closed a $1 million financing from West Coast firms, including Maples Investments and Baseline Ventures.  Team RME is just thrilled.  Both have impressive portfolios including Twitter and Digg, and we are excited to be working with these two firms because of their expertise in the field.

We’ve got a lot of work to do, but it is very exciting to think about all the possibilities and potential that lie ahead.  We will be focused on aggressively scaling the business here in Boston, and plan to open an office in San Francisco in due time.  Many, many, people along the way have helped us get to this point, and especially the current RME community of Senders and Runners have been fantastic supporters.  We are so grateful to have such wonderful users, who want to help this business succeed.  Doing simple things like telling their friends, writing in blogs, wearing their RME t-shirts, or passing around post cards, have all helped … so thank you very much for your support!

As I wrote in my personal blog, I love what @dharmesh had to say about raising another $16 million for Hubspot: “Startups: Closing a funding round is not value creation. It’s the *opportunity* to create value.”

We have an exciting opportunity ahead of us, and we look forward to continuing to pioneer Service Networking!

Thanks to Xconomy and Mass High Tech for the stellar write ups!

Hi, its Rebecca, Marketing Guru at RME. I think of myself as a very busy person (hence the recent lack of blog posts) but I was humbled and put to shame by the entrants who participated in the 2 contests RME sponsored. One was the “Busiest Mom in Boston” contest we developed with Boston.com and the other was to find the “Busiest Elite Yelper” in Boston. We received hundreds of entries, rich with detail about day-to-day life,  and filled with funny anecdotes, frustrations, hopes, empathy, surprises and gratitude.

Beneath the frantic typing was the sense that although life is busy, our entrants would not want it any other way. Almost all ended their 250 word limit by declaring that life is busy, but happy. “My life is crazy and hectic, but I wouldn’t change it for anything, I would however, love a little help!”

Many applied on behalf of their moms, wives, co-workers, daughter-in-laws and sisters. I hope those nominated were able to read what their nominators said about them. Stories of inspiration and awe and love and admiration. Many deserving women, all in need of the RunMyErrand community and a spa treatment or two! And one husband, on behalf of his wife, lovingly wrote that after cataloging her day for our contest he “does not know how she does it all.”

Our Yelpers were equally busy leading hectic professional and social lives all over Boston. One entrant works full time, is studying at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts at night, practices cooking techniques, completes homework, plays in a band, volunteers at The Boston Food Bank, got married a month ago and tries to see his mom and his in-laws as often as possible.

Reading the stories of busy Bostonians made me wonder what else I could fit into my day. How else could I contribute to not only the enrichment of my life but of others as well. I am encouraged by their ability to squeeze every moment out of their long days but discouraged by their belief that help is a luxury. It is not a luxury – it is widely available!   That is the essence of the RME community — lend a helping hand, be a good neighbor, support those in need.

To the busy Bostonians who entered the contests and those who were even too busy to enter… ask (for help) and  you shall receive!