      
Archive for the ‘Gift Ideas’ Category
Friday, June 4th, 2010
So, I’ve sorely neglected the blog. I’m sorry! This has been the craziest few weeks, and it’s just getting crazier. In the next 3 weeks, I need to finish writing/typesetting/editting my cook book, run the commitment ceremonies at Pride, and get everything ready for a big event we’re attending at the end of June – including making crazy costumes. Yeeeow!
Enough about me, my crazy schedule, and excuses for shirking my blog responsibilities. I have something to post about! It’s geeky, wedding related, AND pretty – that’s pretty much the trifecta of awesomeness around these parts, right? Oh, also reasonably priced and FUN – a quintrifecta? I dunno.
Either way, it’s Twitter that’s responsible for the subject matter of this blog. FSM, how I love Twitter! Always hear about the coolest stuff there, probably because I follow – and am followed by – some of the coolest people ever. Love it!
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This is Surly Amy… who is a geektacular artist located in Hollywood, California. You see what she’s about to pack in that gift box? Custom jewelry! Not any of that boring, fairly nondescript beaded jewelry that you see pretty much everywhere these days (which, I admit, can be fun to make… I do it myself from time to time!)… NO! It’s custom sculpted/cut/carved/painted ceramic jewelry! Awesome!
Unique is ALWAYS cool in my books.. but when it’s technically well done, artistic, AND with a nerdy bent? Just awesome. Amy’s business, Surly-ramics, is a purveyor of all of that.
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Posted in Favors, Gift Ideas, Inspiration, Interesting, Random, Vendors | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
You may remember the subject of today’s blog entry from my Valentine’s Day blog entry. Well, I have a really cool update. Also, I SWEAR I make this wedding related by the end of this entry!
From time to time, I blog about stuff that I find cool. It may be what someone did for their Save the Date, it may be a cool product, or an awesomely talented artist. I don’t get asked for those blog entries, I don’t get paid for them. I just blog it because I find it cool, and – assuming you find *me* interesting enough to read my blog – I figure you’ll find it cool too! “Birds of a Feather” and all… 
Alex, the ridiculously gifted artist behind The Pumpkin Geek is one of those insanely talented people I tend to “meet” on Twitter. I can’t remember how I came to follow him, but once I saw his work, I was an immediate fan! If you haven’t seen what he does, be sure to peruse his site – he carves the most intricate, geeky Jack o’Lanterns ever! They’re all from fake pumpkins, so you can treasure the art indefinitely!
Where I’m usually lucky to receive a “hey, thanks!” email (which I totally appreciate!), Alex shocked the SHIT out of me by mailing me a custom carved mini pumpkin – featuring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine – to thank me for the blog!
If you know me at all, you know that I shrieked like a little girl when I found out. I have a big crazy thing for Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Not so much a crush as.. hrm. I don’t know. I find the character oddly relatable in some ways, and inspiring in other ways. That, and seriously.. I’d kill for Hugh Jackman’s delts. I have a BIG poster of him downstairs in my gym for exactly that reason! (more…)
Posted in Compliments, Gift Ideas, Inspiration, Interesting, Random, Vendors | 2 Comments »
Friday, February 12th, 2010
I’ll admit it, I’ve long been a Valentine’s Day curmudgeon.
Don’t get me wrong.. I have nothing against love, affection, showing appreciation for those you care about, romance, or whatever. I’m just not big on feeling forced to do anything, or ads that seem to.. well, encourage romance by way of guilt. Jewelry ads that seem to tell guys that they don’t really love their girl if they aren’t willing to express it by buying a “REAL stone” are particularly great for getting some eye-rolling time in!
Nope, I’ve always preferred the “Do something nice for my hubby, cause he deserves it / he had a rough week / *I* had a rough week / I feel like it / Saw something or had an idea that made me think to / etc way of romancing my hubby.
That said, the market really does get hit with an awful lot more “romantic” gift items this time of year, and I’m REALLY impressed with some of the ideas I’ve read about on Twitter, come across online, etc. Of course, I procrastinated WAY too much to actually order any of these for this weekend, but they’re all too cool NOT to share! Consider this partially my “fantasy Valentine’s Day wish list”, and partially me spreading some love to people/companies that I like!
First off, ThinkGeek.com is an amazing one stop shop for Valentine’s Day, IMHO. They have cool products year round, of course.. but major kudos to them for their VDay lineup! My Favorites:
Valentine’s Day Box of Mini Plush Microbes!
This was actually my #1 gift wish (to give OR receive!) this year, and actually would have been able to order in time, but they were sold out till this morning. Bah. Cutest thing ever! Admittedly, probably best for someone with a certain sense of humor – I’m sure some people would take offense at getting a heart box full of plush venereal diseases*. I, however, think it’s awesome! Click here for all of the details.
Plush Beating Heart – It’s adorable! What else is there to say? Click here for all those details
They have a ton of cool items.. check out their Valentine’s Day Gift list Here.
Next up, gotta give some love to my Twitter buddy, Geeky Clean. Sure, there are a million and one soap companies out there, and I’m sure many, many are just fabulous.. but she’s got a unique, awesome product. You know how it is. Nerd solidarity!
“Sexterity” soap
I’m not even into RPG, and I think this is awesome. “peach, cherry blossom and white jasmine” sounds amazing, and come on – super cute idea. My hubby is a reformed gamer, this would be perfect for him. You know, if I didn’t steal it for the scent! Also FTW: “Swine Flew” bacon scented soap and pretty much everything else they make.
I think their soaps would make amazing guest favors for any nerdy or geeky wedding, party, shower, or whatever – and she will do custom packaging! Mental note: Blog more about this later!
Now here is a company I recently found on Twitter, and I am COMPLETELY blown away by the talent here. I mean really, disgustingly talented. He carves fake pumpkins like this:
K, everything I said about no guilt Vday? 1 exception: Oh wonderful husband of mine, I know you’re reading this.. you know, if you *really* love me, you’ll totally order me a custom carved pumpkin, featuring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Claws out, preferably featuring him in a tank top. Thanks! *mwah*
You can follow this ridiculous artist on Twitter HERE, btw.
Pumpkins a stretch for Valentine’s Day? Not in my mind.. and hey, it’s my blog! So… there.
Ah, the love continues! My favorite radio station just played Nek’s “La Vida Es”, which I think is the most romantic song ever. Maybe I’m mentally ready to celebrate this weekend afterall, feeling warm and gushy after the song.
How are the Mr and I spending Valentine’s Day, you may wonder? This year, we decided to have fun with it: White Castle, Boone’s Farm, and B movies. Cause that’s just how we roll every once in awhile
* I get a kick outta the way people talk about “VD” on Twitter, much in the same way I snicker when brides discuss their STDs. (”Save the Dates”, for my non-wedding readers!) Mature, I know Gotta take your entertainment where ya can, right?
Posted in Commentary, Gift Ideas, Interesting, Random, Vendors | 2 Comments »
Monday, November 30th, 2009
So, with the mass amount of ads for Cyber Monday deal in my inbox this morning, I made the last minute decision to give Celebration Generation fans a sale as well!
For today only, we have our Jacked Up Java Caffeinated Brownie Mix on sale – only $10. This is just over 28% off the retail price of $14!
Each package of mix make 18 large brownies, each containing the same caffeine level as a large cup of coffee. Super easy & foolproof to make. Mix is easily divisible into 2 separate batches, and comes in a resealable bag to aid in that.
Makes a great gift for programmers, gamers, nerds/geeks of every flavor, and college students. Well, and for anyone else who likes chocolate and coffee!
Posted in Announcements, Gift Ideas, Our Products | No Comments »
Friday, October 30th, 2009
This recipe combines 2 of New Orleans’ most popular desserts – The flavors of Bananas Foster, in the form of a praline! Highly addictive.
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Posted in Candy, Gift Ideas, Gluten Free, Holidays, Recipes | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
This is a unique take on an earlier recipe I posted, Sponge Toffee. While traditional sponge toffee was always a favorite as a kid, I developed this recipe to satisfy my more mature tastes as an adult.
This sponge toffee was inspired by one of my favorite goodies, my grandmother’s ginger-molasses cookies. (Recipe coming in December!)
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Posted in Candy, Gift Ideas, Gluten Free, Holidays, Recipes | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
We’ve had an exciting thing going on here for the past few weeks, and I’ve been dying to spill the news. Well, everything is all in place, so here goes!
THINKGEEK.COM IS NOW CARRYING OUR JACKED UP JAVA BROWNIE MIXES!!!111!!!!1!!ONE!
YES! Hubby and I have always been big fans of Think Geek, so this has been an extra-difficult secret to keep. We are feeling so l337, it hurts!
Thinkgeek has always been my one-stop shop when it comes to gifts for my geek of a husband, and we both love perusing their print catalog *as soon as it arrives* at our house, scanning their website for cool new items, and figuring out cool uses for some of their unique offerings.
In fact, ThinkGeek was exactly what I had in mind as I developed my Jacked Up Java mixes! I’d already created one cake mix – and several cookie mixes. That was well enough on it’s own I guess, but we got into some evil megalomaniac brainstorming. “What can we create… that we could potentially get sold on ThinkGeek?”. THAT was the genesis of the Jacked up Java line, and it thrills me to no end that it was ThinkGeek themselves who eventually became our first wholesale client for the Jacked up Java line!
It’s been an interesting, surreal handful of weeks since I first heard back from their Caffeine Guru. (and I quote: “I need to buy mix right away. BECAUSE IT’S AWESOME. I am so wired from one of your “magic” brownies.”) Since that email, we’ve:
- Made an epic grocery run, picking up more than 900 lbs in dry goods. Definitely a record for us – I usually buy my ingredients on an as-needed basis, weekly!
- Individually labelled 400 pouches, by hand, front and back. My fingernails hate me – that was a lot of sticker-peeling!
- Processed that 900 lbs of dry goods into 400 mixes. In ~40 lb batches.
- Inhaled unhealthy amounts of cocoa and caffeine during the process.
- Bagged, sealed, crated, and hauled 920lbs worth of freight.
- Yes, FREIGHT! Had to take the lot of it to Blaine to ship as freight, something we’ve never had to do before. SO exciting! The 16 boxes were put onto a pallet and wrapped, while we took photos and giggled like schoolgirls as they drove it off on a forklift. See below!:
I cannot tell you what a huge relief it was to be done all that mixing, bagging, packing, and hauling.. and to see it be taken away! We shipped it as we were on our way to our a couple weeks ago, so the time off was doubly welcome. Especially the jacuzzi – hauling that much mix really does a number on the back!
On that note, I really should give a big affectionate shout out to my husband, who has been AMAZING throughout this whole process. From hauling the goods to the kitchen to spending LATE hours there with me, doing all of the weighing and bagging.. to hauling boxes, providing shoulder rubs when I need it, and more.. he’s just been wonderful. I married well!
So, that’s about it. They’re starting off with the brownie mix, but may end up picking up the cookie mix later. FYI ThinkGeek: our Jacked up Java cookies have a famous handful of fans : the Aces of Cakes themselves, the freaks over at Charm City Cakes in Baltimore. You know, just to name drop a little I had sent a couple batches of the buzzworthy cookies to Mary Alice, as a thank you for a recent referral.. and got the coolest email comment ever:
“Oh my GOD. Everyone LOVED them. They made us go coocoo – in a good way. Those things are LOADED! We loved them thank you thank you thank you! You’re the sweetest! – Mary Alice Y.”
Just sayin, that’s all.
Anyway, I think I’ll cut this short before I go into full out ThinkGeek fangirling…
Check out our Jacked up Java Brownie Mix on the ThinkGeek site here: ThinkGeek.com – Jacked Up Java Brownie Mixes @ ThinkGeek .
Check out the rest of our mixes (including the Jacked up Java cookie & Brownie mixes!) Here.
No matter which site you buy them from, enjoy responsibly! They make awesome gifts, too!
Posted in Announcements, Compliments, Gift Ideas, News & Events, Our Products | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
Candy Apples are a fun activity for the family, are cheap and easy to make, inspire nostalgia, and are a tasty way to use some of the bountiful apples this season. What’s not to love?
Well.. aside from sugar burns, anyway. While this is an easy recipe, I recommend keeping little hands away from the cooking sugar, and ideally away from the dipping process as well. Kids can have just as much fin picking out the apples, the flavors, etc… without the risk!
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Posted in Candy, Gift Ideas, Gluten Free, Holidays, Kid Favorites, Recipes | 1 Comment »
Monday, October 26th, 2009
While Peanut Brittle is always nice, I do like to get crazy with things every once in awhile. This is one of my favorite variations on an old standard! This is also particularly nice for gift giving at the holidays!
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Posted in Candy, Gift Ideas, Gluten Free, Holidays, Recipes | No Comments »
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
Well, Halloween is just around the corner, so now’s a great time to post our recipe for decorated sugar cookies!
These are great to serve guests at your halloween party, or as a weekend activity for kids, or even to hand out to your favorite Treat or Treaters. Very easy to make, and can be a lot of fun!
Cookie Ingredients
2 cups butter, softened
2 1/3 cups granulated sugar
5 eggs
4 egg yolks – Reserve egg whites for icing!
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract*
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
7 cups all purpose flour
Icing Ingredients
4 egg whites
1 Tbsp lemon juice
4-6 cups powdered/confectioner’s sugar
In a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy. Add in eggs and egg whites, a little at a time, beating well between each addition. Add vanilla extract, and mix until well incorporated and smooth.
Mix remaining 3 ingredients together, carefully stir into wet ingredients until fully incorporated.
Wrap dough in plastic film, chill for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F, grease cookie sheets.
On a floured counter, roll cookie dough out to about 1/4″ thick (can be up to 1/2″ thick if you prefer a thicker cookie). Use cookie cutters to cut out whatever shapes you’d like, place cookies 2″ apart on greased cookie sheets.
Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes, or until bottoms look lightly golden. Allow cookies to cool on cookie sheets for at least 5 minutes before moving. Cookies need to cool completely before decorating.
In clean stand mixer, whip egg whites until foamy. Add lemon juice, whip for another minute. Slowly add powdered sugar until cookie icing reaches desired consistency. You will want a thicker frosting for piping details and borders. If you’re wanting to “flow” the icing within piped borders, icing can be thinned with a little lemon juice or water.
* 2 tsp Anise extract can be substituted for a fun variation. I especially like using anise (black licorice flavor) for doing cookies that will be shaped/decorated like black cats or bats.
Posted in Cookies, Entertaining Ideas, Gift Ideas, Holidays, Kid Favorites, Recipes | No Comments »
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Token pre-Valentine’s Day blog. Awwww :)
Friday, February 12th, 2010I’ll admit it, I’ve long been a Valentine’s Day curmudgeon.
Don’t get me wrong.. I have nothing against love, affection, showing appreciation for those you care about, romance, or whatever. I’m just not big on feeling forced to do anything, or ads that seem to.. well, encourage romance by way of guilt. Jewelry ads that seem to tell guys that they don’t really love their girl if they aren’t willing to express it by buying a “REAL stone” are particularly great for getting some eye-rolling time in!
Nope, I’ve always preferred the “Do something nice for my hubby, cause he deserves it / he had a rough week / *I* had a rough week / I feel like it / Saw something or had an idea that made me think to / etc way of romancing my hubby.
That said, the market really does get hit with an awful lot more “romantic” gift items this time of year, and I’m REALLY impressed with some of the ideas I’ve read about on Twitter, come across online, etc. Of course, I procrastinated WAY too much to actually order any of these for this weekend, but they’re all too cool NOT to share! Consider this partially my “fantasy Valentine’s Day wish list”, and partially me spreading some love to people/companies that I like!
First off, ThinkGeek.com is an amazing one stop shop for Valentine’s Day, IMHO. They have cool products year round, of course.. but major kudos to them for their VDay lineup! My Favorites:
Valentine’s Day Box of Mini Plush Microbes!
This was actually my #1 gift wish (to give OR receive!) this year, and actually would have been able to order in time, but they were sold out till this morning. Bah. Cutest thing ever! Admittedly, probably best for someone with a certain sense of humor – I’m sure some people would take offense at getting a heart box full of plush venereal diseases*. I, however, think it’s awesome! Click here for all of the details.
Plush Beating Heart – It’s adorable! What else is there to say? Click here for all those details
They have a ton of cool items.. check out their Valentine’s Day Gift list Here.
Next up, gotta give some love to my Twitter buddy, Geeky Clean. Sure, there are a million and one soap companies out there, and I’m sure many, many are just fabulous.. but she’s got a unique, awesome product. You know how it is. Nerd solidarity!
“Sexterity” soap
I’m not even into RPG, and I think this is awesome. “peach, cherry blossom and white jasmine” sounds amazing, and come on – super cute idea. My hubby is a reformed gamer, this would be perfect for him. You know, if I didn’t steal it for the scent! Also FTW: “Swine Flew” bacon scented soap and pretty much everything else they make.
I think their soaps would make amazing guest favors for any nerdy or geeky wedding, party, shower, or whatever – and she will do custom packaging! Mental note: Blog more about this later!
Now here is a company I recently found on Twitter, and I am COMPLETELY blown away by the talent here. I mean really, disgustingly talented. He carves fake pumpkins like this:
K, everything I said about no guilt Vday? 1 exception: Oh wonderful husband of mine, I know you’re reading this.. you know, if you *really* love me, you’ll totally order me a custom carved pumpkin, featuring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Claws out, preferably featuring him in a tank top. Thanks! *mwah*
You can follow this ridiculous artist on Twitter HERE, btw.
Pumpkins a stretch for Valentine’s Day? Not in my mind.. and hey, it’s my blog! So… there.
Ah, the love continues! My favorite radio station just played Nek’s “La Vida Es”, which I think is the most romantic song ever. Maybe I’m mentally ready to celebrate this weekend afterall, feeling warm and gushy after the song.
How are the Mr and I spending Valentine’s Day, you may wonder? This year, we decided to have fun with it: White Castle, Boone’s Farm, and B movies. Cause that’s just how we roll every once in awhile
* I get a kick outta the way people talk about “VD” on Twitter, much in the same way I snicker when brides discuss their STDs. (”Save the Dates”, for my non-wedding readers!) Mature, I know
Gotta take your entertainment where ya can, right?
Posted in Commentary, Gift Ideas, Interesting, Random, Vendors | 2 Comments »