Everything's Coming Up Matzoh

In respect to the upcoming holidays and prompted by Cyndi’s stationary post, I wanted to post my favorite holiday wrapping paper from Knock Knock.

Beth was the one who discovered this great place about 3 years ago, and she also gave me the matzoh bread paper as part of a Christmas gift! It made me want to wrap everything flat and rectangular in my house.

Other great matzoh items (which I am not ashamed to admit I also own):

Matzoh potholders (I was jealous of Beth's)



Matzoh bread magnet

Stick a needle in my eye

Crossmyheart.com has stationary. Most of it, not my style. But we all pitched in for that ugly baby sweater, and got a thank you note back on cross my heart stationary. It was a simple 7.5” x 4” cream colored cardstock with a pink trim. The envelope, however was lined with these fantastic brown, red, green, pink and cream “holes.” You can see them here, in a less cool color

That’s pretty much the usefulness of the site.

P.S. Watch the Hello Kitty wedding

UPDATE: boy am I dumb. Here's a scan of the envelope lining.

Embroidered Pillows

Although part of me would definitely want to own pillows featuring states that mean something to me (California, Pennsylvania), I am strongly drawn to aesthetic pleasantness of North Dakota and Texas, shown above.

It’s true that these pillows are scarily pricey, but they are so cute and a great inspiration for some DiY embroidery – I’m going to make a Torrance pillow! (Suggestions, anyone, on what landmarks or icons to include?)

If you don’t feel like making your own and have the extra cash to blow on cute but unnecessary home accessories, you can find a whole variety (every state as well as a lovely selection of other regions, cities, countries and national parks) at at least these two online stores:

Top Notch Giftshop

Tabula Tua

Coasters and Coffee Stains

These very very cute Stamp Cups are from British designer Barnaby Barford. Check out his other clever items including a still life fruit bowl, a solitaire olive serving tray, and a tic tac toe ashtray. The olive tray has been featured in Readymade and Food & Wine this month.

I found the link through this SF distributor's website, SMALLPOND, which also features the below pictured teacup flower pot.

Related link: www.thorstenvanelten.com



If you're not into decorative coffee stains, Elsewheres carries this cute set of coasters made from recycled tires.

Snuggle Slides

This is not to be taken as a gift request because these shoes are so expensive. I just saw them on the Free People website and I thought they were super cute and cuddly.

The ones on shoes.com don't have as cute lining but they are the same brand and everything. I wonder how that works.

The brown ones are very cute too. I wonder if they'd be hard to make...

Fairy Floss

Rose flavored Persian cotton candy from Pariya, a Persian online food store which also carries dried fruits and nuts, nougat, toffee, Turkish Delight, and dried rosebuds. Called "Fairy Floss," it comes in such exotic flavors as saffron, pistachio and chocolate and costs $14 for 7oz, plus shipping. (Anybody wanna split an order?) Featured in this month's Food & Wine.

Is it a pencil or a chopstick?

pencil chopsticks

chopstick pencils

Both make fantastic gifts!

America's favorite meat product

Once again, we must ask ourselves the question: Cute? Or disturbing and gross?

I am the first to agree that bacon makes most things better, but bacon bandages? Really?

Check out the other fairly wide variety of bacon and meat-related products here.

More Halloween Cocktails

Be sure to use Firefox for this one, there are about a gazillion pop-ups.

the Jack o-tini contains something called Bols Pumpkin Smash Liqueur which seems to not be available anymore. This is a travesty, and I'm just about to quit library school and go into the booze business.

Who’s nibbling at my house?

I know gingerbread is more of a Christmas thing than a Halloween thing, but since witches are a mark of Halloween and a witch did live in a gingerbread house, I figure, what the hay, I’m posting this now.

I know this slightly pathetic looking gingerbread gift tote from Fred Flare is not that great, but ahhh, is it inspirational! As soon as I spotted it I knew that its potential was so much greater than what meets the eye…

In my fantasy, I would stitch up plain little brown gingerbread house bags for my friends, and with it include a cute little variety of trimmings they could use to decorate their own houses as they wished. And yes, of course, this would require all of the gift recipients to be crafty enough to own their own needles and/or glue guns - lucky for me, my friends *are* that crafty. (Yay craft-lovin’ friends!)

Still, as creative as my friends are, I don’t know if this project would be amusing, or a nuisance. After all, making a present for yourself is never that fun. So what do you think? Fun, or tasking? Gift or burden? (If you say “fun” we’re totally doing this at the gift exchange).

Mike Rotch

After all the fun we had last Halloween making our take on the Martha Stewart cupcake graveyard, I've been on the lookout for a new scary themed treat to make this year.

I saw a Clare Crespo article in Budget Living about building your own Halloween castle out of store-bought cookies and candies, but I want to save that for Christmas, and plus it was rather ugly. I also checked all the regular resources: Family Fun, Martha Stewart, the Food Network. I even checked some of my old Harry Potter party resources. I was kind of disappointed by the lack of cute things, or at least cute things that didn't require a lot of work. Cyndi's candy corn drink is still the cutest by far. But here are a couple favorites from Pillsbury:

Silly Snake Dogs

Ghost Cookies

By far the worst thing I saw, both in appearance and probably in taste:

Hot Dog Worm Sandwiches

I also want to try making some pumpkin spice cookies. So who wants to get together and make cute holiday goodies this weekend?!

Two in One

Chocolate-Dipped Red Wine Bottle

This is one of those things where for the right person, it's like "WOW, What a perfect gift!" and for everyone else it's kind of like "Hmm, ok, thanks..." It seems like a very silly item, something that my parents would keep on display and never open because it's "pretty." Peronally, I like it because I'm obsessed with multi-tasking products and I actually think Ryan and I would use it, maybe on a picnic or something. The only question is whether we would care for Goosecross wines.

On the plus side, it comes in your choice of milk chocolate, dark chocolate or white chocolate, and the bottle is shrink wrapped beforehand, just in case you're worried about germs or paper labels in your chocolate shell. And you get to choose which kind of red wine you want dipped. But I'm still not sure if it's worth the $67 price tag. Maybe for Christmas everyone I know will get a bottle of Two Buck Chuck dipped in bulk Ghirardelli chocolate from Trader Joe's. Much cheaper.

Ubiquitous Forms

Something I saw in Budget Living an issue or two back:

From Lorena Barrezueta, the Gourmet Collection "is comprised of various aluminum forms which are translated into porcelain." Comes in a variety of bright colors, or in clear glaze with gold trim.

Scary

I think I just found a woman who is like all 5 of us (or at good number of us) all rolled into one. It scared me. Heck, it still kind of scares me right now.

She makes cute things at ease in front of the TV (that are at a professional level, not like the typical DiY crap) and the shopping sites she posts are cute and artsy. Stuff I think we would buy. Actually, stuff probably some of us have already bought. She likes Death Cab for Cutie, posts pics of cats and is going to be Strawberry Shortcake for Halloween! Eek!

Here it is: One Good Bumblebee

More Cool Mirrors

Check out these fun "puddle" mirrors created by Dutch-born, London-based designer Tord Boontje (who also designed those fabulous garland lights that Beth and I love). These mirrors come in a variety of nature-inspired shapes and are self adhesive for easy installation! (Try to ignore the flowers - those don't come with).

You can check out more of Tord’s designs at Artecnica, a hip homegoods store located right here in Los Angeles.

Core Value

I love this ad for the new Cool Green Apple flavor of Extra sugarfree gum! It was all over the buildings in New York and I thought it was so cute.

The itself gum is also great... it kind of reminds me of some Japanese apple gums. Very good tart flavor. It's like a party in my mouth, and everyone is bobbing for apples.

Beth's Ring-a-Ding-Ding

As mentioned in the comment on Kim's ring post, Kim's ring is also pretty much what I am looking for. I want a 3 stone ring with two "trillion" cut diamonds flanking the middle stone. I am mainly concerned with dainty, and so the balance of size between the 3 stones needs to be right. They should be around the same size. And I prefer small, somewhere between .5 and .75 carats. for the middle stone. The middle stone would preferably be round or brilliant cut. I am not a big fan of squares.

The above pictured rings are good examples of the balance that I would like. I also like the below art deco ring because it has the approximate size and shape that I like. I like the details and the subtlety of the setting. I would also prefer a thinner as opposed to a thicker band, and platinum or white gold.

Mini Dog in Mini Car

Yup. That's what it is.

Here are some of my ring selections...I had cute out pictures from magazines a while back (not from Martha Stewart Weddings or Wedding Style of course) but I can't find them. Oh well.

I would say I'm a more classic style. I like a platinum setting and a decent stone. Nothing too gaudy or showy but good quality. I don't know what size is good so I had to whip out my old diamond setting thing I got a few years ago from a diamond distributor (it was advertised on tv like five years back and was free) and look at the fake stones and compare the sizes. I think 1 ct is good but on the large side. I'm left handed and have to think about practicality...since I use that hand all day I don't want to bang my ring on something and have the stone fall out. Six prongs is a must on any round stone.

Jana's Alternative Ring-A-Ding-Ding

I know I too post a ridiculous amount of jewelry on here, but since this is sort of related to Beth's prompt, I'm putting it up.

Karen Karch makes some of the most gorgeous rings I have ever seen - I would love to own one some day, be it engagement or not. The "tiara" rings are particularly tempting, although some of her more traditional untraditional engagement rings are cool too.

Next time I go to NYC I'm making a stop at her store Push for sure!

Sheckys Redux

In the midst of running off to New York for a week, I didn't have time to post anything regarding Shecky's Girl's Night Out, and I guess neither Cyn or Em found the time to either, probably in part because it was so disappointing. The only things we bought were EDITED UNTIL LYDIA'S BIRTHDAY which have no corresponding website to share. (But might soon, as she promised me (cyndi).) And I picked up a cheap lamb printed undie set from Harvey's. The other girls may have gotten stuff but I can't recall. And I had to work late that night so I missed the chocolate fountain. Boo. Even the free goodie bag was a let down. Some of the stuff was very cheap, some of it wasn't universally useful (hair cream for red heads, etc.), some of it was just lame.

The experience of running around a giant room stuffed with girls all shopping and drinking on a Thursday night was pretty cool, and I liked spending an extended amount of time with Cyn and Em. I realize we don't really shop that much together, at least not in boutiques and such, and I am rather unfamiliar with their tastes. (Which is why they should also spend more time posting things they like ont his blog! Ehem!) It was cool to see what they would like and dislike.

One thing Cyndi and I liked but opted not to get due to cost was this "passport wallet" from rebe, a tiny clothing and accessories company with very vibrant and provocative uses of vintage and kimono fabric. The wallet was $88, but a few of the patterns were super cute and it seemed kind of useful, like a purse wallet. Alas. Too much money, and I was saving for my big H&M spending spree.

Variations on a Theme

I feel like about a third of my posts are just of jewelry that I think is pretty, and after a while it all kind of looks the same because it's all my taste. Sorry to bore everyone with some more of it. This is partially caused by the fact that I have been searching for a ring for my own October posting prompt. I feel like what I want is so simple, but for some reason it's so hard to find. Anyhoo, while it didn't make the cut, the below gold and diamond Cherry Blossom ring from Hannah Clark was on my list for "alternative" engagement rings. I guess I'm a little attached to flower motifs.

Glo Genics

Glow in the Dark Bubble Bath

Cool or Creepy? You decide. Like taking a bath in Ninja Turtle toxic ooze.

dishware in the afterlife

Designer Sarah Cihat buys dishes and bowls from secondhand stores and uses layers of color and patterns to create gorgeous and unique new pieces suitable for framing (or eating).

mirror mirror

This acrylic mirror from Brooklyn design firm The Design Can comes in 7 variations with a laser cut hole guaranteed to add a little whimsy to morning reflections... My personal favorite is the pirate version. Arrr.

The Design Can website doesn't seem to allow purchasing, but the New York based Elsewheres sells it for $50. They only carry 4 of the mirrors, including the above shown Antlers.

Elsewheres also carries a load of unique products from various designers.

I love Shag

I don't know why all the good ones are married.

Interview

www.shagmart.com

I'm particularly interested in Around the World in 80 Drinks

Candy Corn

Oh my gosh, the cutest Halloween/ Thanksgiving drink ever! CANDY CORN! If my house didn’t have a hole where the kitchen should be, I’d throw a party.

I found this site while searching yahoo for food erasers—since we seem to be getting a lot of traffic from msn for the food erasers search. This came up. it doesn’t sound too bad.

or for something a bit closer to home long beach iced tea

and let’s not forget dessert

Munchkin Cats

I don't even want to look at the blog, so keep posting until the babies go away.

Munchkin cats, like daschunds have stubby little legs and are supremely retarded looking

See more here and here.

The Worst Thing You've Ever Seen

This is by far the most disgusting thing you will ever lay eyes on. I'm sorry, but it's like The Ring. I am compelled to share my horror:

Scary little clay baby

Big pile of clay babies

My boss sent these in an email attachment. There were actually like 12 more photos, one with a marzipan baby being born in an empty egg shell. Be glad I spared you that one! They came with the following text:
"These are made with marzipan.... really unbelievable! While some of the faces may look crafted rather than real, every detail is amazing, and the rest looks VERY real.

Definition of Marzipan: a sweet paste made of ground almonds and sugar, often with egg whites or yolks, used as a layer in cakes or molded into ornamental shape."

I don't know what or who or WHAT is behind such a horrible art form, or why anyone would spend time making little ugly tiny babies, or if anyone pays money for them. Unfortunately, no one has any more information for me than what is included in the email. But they have little tiny marzipan genitals for &%#*@ sakes! I am going to have the most horrific almond-flavored nightmares now. And so will you. You're welcome.

UPDATE: Hmm, a polite poster has informed me that this a an urban legend, which I didn't bother to check. That's what I get for polluting the blog with anti-cute. Thank goodness though, no one is eating almond flavored babies. But still disgusting to look at....

UPDATE: Here are real marzipan babies.So, while the ones above are not marzipan, there most definitely are marzipan babies. I should know. I made the marzipan myself. Eat away!
-C

Jana's Ring-A-Ding-Ding (Part One)

I am a fickle person, so I really don't know if this will hold true until the day I actually become engaged, but here are a few rings that I enjoy.

Like Cyndi, I do prefer platinum, and I am currently a sucker for Art Deco rings...just about anything from the 1920's - 1930's is good. The rings above aren't engagement rings, necessarily - just rings that I think are pretty, and could easily stand in as a nice unique engagement ring.

Still, I grew up in a world where my mom had a platinum band solitaire from Tiffany's, so a part of me still wants something traditional...maybe a nice honking Ascher-cut solitaire from Harry Winston! If I end up with a rich fellow.

More bird jewelry

As a person who is too scared to get an actual tattoo, I've recently turned to tattoo-inspired jewelry to satisfy my tattoo needs. This kissing bird necklace by Kimberly Baker totally fits the bill. She also has some other cool tattoo-like jewelry in her line.

Candy Girl

I guess paying $20 for a box of 15 candies that probably once cost less than $1 combined seems a bit silly. But I'm a sucker for bright colors and the potential for nostalgia, even if it's someone else's nostalgia for a time and place I never experienced. Now I'm being sold back my parents' and grandparents' childhoods as well as my own.

This tip from Budget Living Magazine might actually be the worst deal they've ever shown, but it's apparently popular, as Big Tips Candy is currently SOLD OUT of this treat box! You have to wait 1-2 weeks for a new stock. But it would be a cute gift for a someone to whom these candies would actually mean something. Maybe we should all pitch in and share one over coffee, because I surely don't need to devour those bars all on my own...

From the product description:
"The Big Tips Candy Collection is filled with 15 of your favorite full-size regional candy bars including: Mallo Cup, Clark Bar, Idaho Spud, Peanut Chews, Goo Goo Cluster, Big Cherry, Twin Bing, U-NO, Sky Bar, Nut Goodie, Old Faithful, Salted Nut Roll, Bun Bar, Mountain Bar, and Rocky Road. Enjoy the most welcome temptations and treats all packaged in a snazzy gift box."

a pair of plummeting birds

Do you guyes remember that one Christmas Party where we made everyone watch that Ben Stiller/Bill Pullman movie Zero Effect? I had such a huge crush on Bill Pullman at the time. That movie was so oddball, and I remember for years Ryan and I would joke about this poem in it where the author rhymes the word birds with the word towards. I don't even remember the punchline anymore, but it came to mind now for some reason.

ANYWAYS.

Cute necklace from Lucky LooLoo, and some other cute items on the site, although I would like Jana to give a second opion about whether or not the items are worth the price. Appraisal, please.

And seriously, that movie was so oddball, but it had its moments, and it might be worth a rental if you're looking for something quirky.

Also, thank you to Cyndi for doing the ringading prompt first! Yay!

Cyndi's ring-a-ding-ding

In what world is it easier to pick an engagement ring than make Halloween plans?? Mine, I guess.

So, here it is

or a less honking version of this this

A decent weight platinum (or maybe I'd settle for white gold, if I REALLY, REALLY loved him. But, could I really love a pauper?) band, .75 k round, but a really nice quality. I'm more concerned with quality than size. And I'd feel much safer without a giant honking rock to worry about every day.

p.s. Be sure to take the "right ring for your right hand" quiz at www.adiamondisforever.com it's annoyingly flashed, but it got me right, and showed me nice things at the end. It also gave me this very important advice, "Better blatant and safe than coy and sorry."

October Prompt

Beth and a White Castle Chicken Ring.

Partially motivated by the fact that not everyone seems to participate in our bloggie, and partially for practical purposes...

I was talking to Jana and we realized that in the event that one of us were to have an arranged marriage/become a picture bride/have a shotgun wedding or otherwise become engaged, we wouldn't have any way to help each others' intendeds pick out a good ring.  As well as we may know each other, I don't really feel qualified to make such a call.  Even for Kim, I can't really remember exactly what she wants, or maybe I just can't keep up.

So you have till the end of the month to post a picture or pictures of a ring or rings that exemplify your style and taste for your ideal engagement ring. Comments are welcome but not necessary.  This way, we will always have an available example.

Next month's prompt: Your ideal coffin and tombstone style, in case we have to help your husband make funeral arrangements. Although maybe that would have been more appropriate for October?