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Friday, January 29, 2010

Paul Smith scarves... beau-ti-fuuuul

I've always loved the prints on Paul Smith scarves, especially the florals... major swoonage! The color palettes are always spot on and the material always looks so dainty and pretty. Pictured above is the Bougainvillea Printed Silk Scarf which has tassle details that look beautiful combined with the smoothness of the silk. Here are a few more of my favorites:

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

cute DIY found object project by APAK : Happy Hermits (Ride the Lucky White Bunny)


Happy Hermits (Ride the Lucky White Bunny) is the latest original available on APAK's Etsy store. This piece is on sale for $200 and combines a found object with original sculpting. The following is the description of the object from APAK's Etsy page:

The bunny is a found object and custom painted and fixed. The material is ceramic cast and the inside is hollow. The hermits are handmade by APAK and made of paper clay. The whole sculpture is varnished.

Really adorable! Reminds me a bit of the old Paul Smith ceramic bunnies that I used to be obsessed with. Wish I would have picked one up while I had the chance, maybe even to DIY myself.


If you haven't entered yet, don't forget to check out my giveaway for three Glee chewing gum prize packs: http://thewideworldof.blogspot.com/2010/01/glee-gum-review-and-giveaway-ends-21010.html

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Glee Gum review and giveaway (ends 2/10/10)


I looooove gum... seriously. I chew it at least a few times a week and some weeks, well, practically every day. When you have long classes to attend everyday, the monotony of hours of study, and a commute which seems to drag on and on (and on and on....) gum can become pretty crucial. A life or sleep situation!

When you chew gum as much as I do, you tend to pick out favorites. I consider myself pretty picky when it comes to gum and I've really narrowed down my options because the only gum I will even bother purchasing is peppermint Glee. If you haven't seen Glee before, it’s a candy coated style gum with a crunchy outer shell that comes in a cute little box (18 pieces per box). I'll leave it to Glee to describe the gum since they do a way better job of it than me...

Glee Gum is all-natural, gluten-free chewing gum with no artificial coloring, flavoring, sweeteners nor preservatives. Glee Gum is the only gum in North America made the old-fashioned way, with chicle! Chicle is a natural tree sap harvested sustainably from the rainforests of Central America. Once all chewing gum was made with chicle, but today most gum is made entirely from synthetic stuff. Not Glee Gum! Glee Gum uses chicle because it is an eco-friendly way to help conserve the rainforest. Chicle is also what gives the gum such great, long-lasting chewing texture! Glee Gum is a “green” gum right down to the packaging, which is made from biodegradable, recycled cardboard. So chew with Glee, naturally!

Sounds awesome right? It seriously is THE BEST. Being as crazy about their peppermint gum as I was, I dropped a quick email to Glee and before you know it they had generously supplied me with some samples of each flavor of Glee along with a package of Wee Glee (which contains the ever elusive banana, the only flavor you can't purchase by itself). The great thing about Wee Glee is that each box contains a medley of all the fruit flavors in a nice little box that you can tuck away in your backpack, purse, etc. I kept mine in the car along with my ever present package of Peppermint Glee. The boxes fit perfectly in my car cup holder and it looks adorable!



I had never tried any of the other flavors of Glee but I was pleasantly surprised by how good each of them was. Here’s my quick run down of each of the flavors:

Non-fruit flavors:


Peppermint is still my favorite flavor, hands down. The color is really beautiful… wait, am I really talking about the beauty of gum color? Kind of weird! But it IS really pretty... it’s a pale mint green color and the flavor is as equally beautiful as the color. Super refreshing and has a nice subtle lingering flavor. I sometimes chew my gum for hours and hours (and hours and hours), which is maybe sort of gross, but I do it in the name of science… testing the lasting flavor ability of gum... yes... scientific purposes *shifty eyes*.


Cinnamon was my second favorite flavor. The thing I love about the cinnamon is that the flavor lasts long but the initial taste isn't all burn-y like some other cinnamon gums. Plus the color is a nice soft pink rather than a gross unnatural red #2313213 color. There I go with the gum colors again. I can't help it, I'm all about aesthetics and well, this blog IS about things that are cute and this gum IS very cute.


The one flavor that I was the most apprehensive about was bubble gum. Admittedly I am an avid hater of all things bubble gum flavor, but the bubble gum flavored glee was actually one of my favorites. The gum was indeed was very bubble gum flavor-y but the crunchy outer shell somehow made everything alright with me. Whew, crisis averted!

Fruit flavors:


My favorite of the fruit flavors was banana, which coincidently can only be found in the packages of Wee Glee. Also coincidently, I hate bananas themselves, but I like things that are made with banana (banana bread/muffins, etc). Typically I don't even like banana flavored candy but this gum was REALLY good. The secret again I think was the crunchy outer shell.


Triple berry tastes sort of like Starburst. I can really see people loving this flavor. Remember that mystery flavor of Starburst? It reminds me of that, if I'm remembering correctly, which I'm probably not. Maybe I'm thinking of wild berry Starburst? Is there even a wild berry Starburst? Maybe it was wild berry Skittles I'm thinking of, that seems about right. I don't know, now I'm just confused! But in any case triple berry GLEE is super.


The tangerine flavor is really refreshing. The flavor doesn't taste fake and it’s as just about as juicy as gum can be. I know some other gums that make "juicy" claims but this gum actually is juicy!

There are a few big retailers that carry Glee & you can search for them using the product locator on the Glee website here: http://www.gleegum.com/retail-stores-locator.htm. I've purchased Glee from Amazon.com a few times in the past, but I think next time I'll be making an order directly with Glee because they sell the gum in bulk. Peppermint one pound bag, you are mine! Muahhaha!


** I did NOT receive any monetary compensation for this post. I received free samples of Glee Gum to try and was allowed to post at my discretion. All opinions expressed here are mine **



Glee is generously offering THREE readers of this blog (US residents only) a chance to win a prize pack of 3 boxes of Glee Gum and a Glee coupon.

* To enter all you need to do is visit the Glee Gum website and leave a comment on this blog post about something you learned about Glee from the website or a flavor of Glee Gum that you’d like to try.

For one extra entry each you can:

* Become a fan of Glee Gum on Facebook
* Become a follower of Glee on Twitter (leave your twitter ID)
* Tweet about the giveaway and leave a link to your tweet (you may tweet once per day)
* Post this giveaway in your blog and leave a link to your post
* Follow this blog via Google Friend Connect OR subscribe via RSS or email


Please leave a separate comment for each entry! Also make sure to leave your email address in one of your comments or have your email address visible in your profile.

This giveaway will end 2/10/2010 at 11:59 PST.


Giveaway winners: Rose Mary, Ashley, Celeste

Monday, January 25, 2010

Robie the Robotic Banker.. best ever.

Did any of you also used to own one of these? They used to sell Robie at Radio Shack back in the day and at least a couple of times during 80s my neighbors bought my family one for Christmas . Yes, more than once, but always 100% appreciated.. you can never have to many Robies! Sadly though, I have ZERO Robie's now, I wish I still did! ;_;

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Cookie baking adventure.. wheeeee!


Today was another one of those make-a-quick-snack-requiring-very-few-ingredients days. I felt like making an eggless & butterless (i.e. vegan) chocolate chip cookie, but eggless, butterless cookie recipes are few and far inbetween. However, in a time of great recipe need, my #1 go to recipe site Vegweb never lets me down.

The ingredients for this cookie: flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, chocolate chips, sugar, oil, vanilla and water. Check, check, check... got all of these things. Yes!

I made some slight variations in my cookie:
  • I added a slight bit more water then the recipe called for.
  • I used slightly less sugar than the recipe called for.
  • I used Ener-G egg replacer instead of baking soda. Which in retrospect I think makes no sense. Correct me if I'm wrong (which I am more often than not), but I believe baking soda is a leavening agent and Ener-G is a binder... but whatever, it worked!
  • Rather than chocolate chips I chopped up a bar of 70% Cacao Bittersweet Scharffen Berger Chocolate which I think helped out a ton flavor-wise.
  • I also halved the recipe for trial purposes which produced about 9 medium sized cookies, perfect for myself and a couple others as a midday treat.
  • I heated the cookies for 7 minutes on one side and about 5 minutes on the other- worked out well for me, slightly crispy (and not burned!! arg... oven fry flashback!!) on the edges and chewy in the middle.
I forgot to take pictures as I was cooking, so all you get to see is the finished result: my semi-malformed, sort of too shiny chocolate chip cinnamon cookies. They were actually very tasty (the cinnamon was great), also the perfect combination of crunch and soft! Best of all, super simple to make!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

snack of the day : garlic oven fries (+ recipe) !

I was running low on food (I need to get to the grocery store STAT) so I cooked up a batch of garlic fries with the staple ingredients that I had lying around (and that are always around). Not the healthiest snack, but still beats fast food. This recipe is super simple & very intuitive, so if you haven't tried making your own yet, I definitely recommend it. Also, if you have any tips on the perfect oven fries, I'd love to hear them! *Takes notes frantically*.

This is my method: Cut up 2 medium sized potatoes into wedges or strips. Personally I prefer thin strips because they seem to cook more evenly and also more quickly (I'm impatient), you also minimize the risk of a fry thats uncooked on the inside and burned on the outside ewwwwie! Toss the fries with a little bit of cooking oil (just enough to coat them).


Place the fries in a single layer on a cookie sheet (place the side with the greatest surface area down on the sheet). Set your oven to 425 and cook for 15 minutes on one side then scrape the fries off the sheet, place browned side up and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes.

While you're waiting for the fries to heat up, crush 1-2 cloves of garlic and place them in a bowl. I cover mine with a little bit of oil to enhance the flavor and make my fries a little bit more soggy (gotta love those soggy fries!).

After your fries are cooked they should look something like the picture below. I was watching youtube with headphones on so I missed my timer going off, thus this batch o' fries is a little more.. well... burned.. than I'd like them to be. Note to self: don't wear headphones when cooking. Toss your fries in your garlic and top off with a sprinkle of salt.


Dip in your sauce of choice and you are doneeee. Voilà!

Friday, January 15, 2010

Ingela P Arrhenius prints from L'Affiche Moderne

L'Affiche Moderne has just released a great selection of prints from Swedish artist Ingela P Arrhenius and I've become a huuuuge fan of every single on of these prints. The artwork is adorable! I love the classic style and combination of bold and subdued colors used in each of the pieces.

Prices range from 29€ ($41.64) to 129€ ($185.21) depending on size (12x16 inch or 20x28 inch) and format (regular, mounted canvas, framed, mounted PVC).


On Stage





Friends on Tree

Swedish illustrator Ingela P Arrhenius takes her inspiration directly from the 50s and 60s.

She creates wonderfully naive and classy illustrations, full of vibrant and playful colours. L’Affiche Moderne has never been so modern while being so retro..


Thursday, January 14, 2010

Giveaway : win 1 of 10 Cottonelle gift baskets



Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win 1 of 10 Cottonelle gift baskets (please include your contact information or have it visible in your profile). The winners will be randomly chosen by Cottonelle on January 29, 2010 from all entries across all blogs sponsoring this giveaway.

Are you team over or under (Team Over FTW) ?

http://www.cottonellerollpoll.com

**This post is sponsored by Cottonelle, by posting I am entering a contest for a month's worth of Cottonelle toilet paper via Mom Bloggers Club. Visit Mom Bloggers Club for your own chance to win!**

Hello Kitty Swatch "flik flak" watches

I've always loved Swatch watches. As a kid (and even as a teen) I wore their Flik Flak watches pretty much exclusively because they were cute, affordable, super durable and extremely lightweight. Now Swatch and Sanrio have teamed up to produce 3 awesome watches. I totally want one (or all) of them!

Flik Flak for Hello Kitty Watch and Pencil Pot, $60

Keep time in Hello Kitty cute style with this adorable Swiss-made wrist watch. Beautifully designed watch dial and fabric strap featuring Hello Kitty looking very pretty in red. Easy to read numerals. Includes a matching pencil pot for your desktop!



Flik Flak for Hello Kitty Watch: Fashion, $50

The Hello Kitty fashionista keeps time in super cute style with this very cool Swiss-made wrist watch. Lovely watch dial and fabric strap with Hello Kitty and logo in sweet hues of pink on classic black.



Flik Flak for Hello Kitty Watch: Angels, $50

Hello Kitty helps you keep time in super cute style with this adorable Swiss-made wrist watch. Lovely pink watch dial featuring Hello Kitty face and easy to read numerals. Hello Kitty dresses up as an angel on the sweet pink fabric strap.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

love you deeeeeer

The word of the day is "DEER"... Yay! *Bells go off and everyone goes crazy* Whew, that was exciting. Now lets get on to business! Gama-Go has a really cute selection of deer items in their web store right now & the cuteness is making me go a little funny in the head. Check it out!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

"happy bird" tattoo inspired vinyl figures

Japanese artist Murakoshi recently released 2 new colorways of his vinyl "Happy Birds" which are modeled after tattoo art. Each of the sets (pink and blue) are available for $30 (not including postage which is $10 and shipped from Japan). Every set comes with 2 birds, each of which is approx. 2" tall.



There are also 5 sold out colorways (pictured below). These birds typically sell out super quick so if you want a set be sure to order ASAP. Also I'm really sorry about the quality of the images, they've all been taken from Murakoshi's official website and I believe it is a one man operation. You can also preorder the birds above from Lulubell Toys (USA based) for $35 a set.





Tuesday, January 5, 2010

5 watch necklaces (part 2)

1. Wise and Watchful Eyes Necklace
Modcloth.com, $24.99



2. Old and New Pocket Watch Necklace
Modcloth.com, $27.99




3. Cuckoo Clock Necklace
Modcloth.com, $28.00





4. Betsey Johnson Betsey's School Of Dance 2 Row Bow & Clock Pendant Necklace
Zappos.com, $48



5. Marc by Marc Jacobs Bow Tie Necklace Watch (comes in white and black)
Zappos.com, $175


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