Friday, September 30, 2011

Mesmerizing Eye Candy from NASA

Last week, we caught this ridonkulously awesome video via Gizmodo with the headline, “This Fluid Fly-By Video Is the Most Astonishing View of Earth I’ve Ever Seen”.

Yup, that about sums it up. Watch full screen.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Salted Caramel All in a Row

photo by Kevin Keeker
At our last photoshoot, we also had a lot of fun playing with a dozen Salted Caramel lollipops. This is only one of a ton of fun, creative photos that Kevin took. We'll share more in a couple of weeks, as we've got some other business we need to take care of first.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Greatest Hits Lollipiles








Look at all the little lollipops nestled amongst their friends. Don't they look cozy? (These are all part of our Greatest Hits collection.)

All photos by Kevin Keeker

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Countdown to UFA

image courtesy Urban Folk Art
Wow, how time flies! In TEN SHORT DAYS I’ll be hitting the road (and Kate will be hitting the, um, airways) and heading to PDX, aka Portland, Oregon to take part in the first Urban Folk Art show in that town.

Well, more specifically, the show takes place in the nearby ‘burb of Hillsboro at the Washington County Fair Complex. The show’s got lots of cool features, including live music and crafty demos scheduled throughout the weekend.

So just a quick reminder of the facts, ma’am:
When: October 7-8-9, 2011
  • Friday Oct 7: 5pm – 9pm
  • Saturday Oct 8: 10am – 5pm
  • Sunday Oct 9: 10am – 4pm
Where: Washington County Fair Complex, Hillsboro, OR
Why: so you can buy candy no waiting for shipping! Including our newest product – Greatest Hits 2011.  And so we can meet you in person – we love chatting with our wonderful customers.

Will we see you there? Parking is plentiful and free!

Monday, September 26, 2011

Studio 616

Hello Idaho! Studio 616 in McCall, Idaho is now carrying This Charming Candy lollipops. It's a totally cute store nestled in a small town between a two national forests - stop in and say hi if you're in the area. :)

Friday, September 23, 2011

Eye Candy: Paper Sculptures

photo originally found here
Apparently someone is leaving beautiful paper sculptures all over Edinburgh, Scotland. A few of them have a tie-in to Ian Rankin - they've been carved from his books or books that are known to inspire him; one has his face. Someone has suggested that this artist might be making them, but no one really knows.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Crafty Conference

courtesy of
Schoolhouse Craft
This weekend is the Schoolhouse Craft conference in Seattle. I’m definitely looking forward to networking with other crafty people, and attending sessions on Friday and Saturday (can’t do Sunday because I’ll be making lollipops in our rental kitchen!). There are some super excellent teachers lined up – my brain’s probably going to explode.

I’m also honored that Jessie of Cakespy invited me to take part in her Saturday afternoon session, “Guerilla Marketing For Your Small Business”. I can hardly wait to listen to what Jessie and Erica have to say, and to share some of the things we’ve learned along the way.

Are you attending the conference? Do you want to? Tickets are still available!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Telling Stories with Photos




I totally love these 3 photos. I love how the lollipops look like they're walking around in the first 2 pictures. When I look at the last one, I see Birthday Cake & Pineapple Heaven holding up the wall, while Cinnamon-Cherry might have had a leeeeeettle too much to drink. Blueberry Muffin, Pistachio-Marshmallow, and Salted Caramel, meanwhile, are standing around talking about boys (or something) as they leave a club.

Or maybe I just have an overly active imagination. 

All these lollipops are available together as part of our Greatest Hits collection!

How about you? Do you have an overly active imagination? What do you see happening in these photos?

All photos by Kevin Keeker

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Greatest Hits is Back!

photo by Kevin Keeker
Our Greatest Hits lollipops are back!  Last year, we gathered the favorite flavors from each of our collections into a Greatest Hits pack, and it was so popular we're doing it again! These lollipops make a great gift for someone with a sweet tooth.

This year, the Greatest Hits includes 2 lollipops of each of the following flavors:

  • Salted Caramel
  • Pistachio-Marshmallow
  • Cinnamon-Cherry, aka Red Hot Love
  • Blueberry Muffin
  • Pineapple Heaven
  • Birthday Cake 

You get 12 total lollipops to delight your favorite foodie (even if you're your favorite foodie!). Our Greatest Hits lollipops are only available at the end of the year - these won't be around forever.

photo by Kevin Keeker
Head over to our Etsy shop to get yours today!

Monday, September 19, 2011

Vanilla Sunshine Cupcakery

Attention all Southern Californians! At least those of you who live in/near Claremont, CA. Our lollipops are now for sale at the Vanilla Sunshine Cupcakery in Claremont, CA. (Yelp page here.) It's a brand new business that I'm sure could use your support. Buy a cupcake and a lollipop while you're there!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Satisfy Your Impulse

Did you know? We sell our candy live and in-person on Sundays & Mondays at The Wandering Cafe from 5-7pm. Stop by, say hi, see where we make the candy, and buy some for yourself! You can eat your candy right away.

You can also reserve candy for pick-up if you want to save on shipping charges - place your order at This Charming Candy on Etsy and let us know that you'll be picking your candy up in person. Or email your order to us - you can pay and pick it up when you're there. 

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Mmm, Soup

When Kate pinned an Apple-Fennel soup recipe on our Pinterest, I knew I was going to have to give it a try. For whatever reason, I almost never to make chilled soups but they can definitely be awesome in warm weather. With Seattle’s summer on the wane here in early September, I grabbed an opportunity and gave this recipe a shot. The only modification I made was using almond milk from the supermarket rather than making my own, and using some toasted spiced pumpkin seeds for the garnish (sorry, raw food devotees).

My main recommendation would be to peel the apple before blending the ingredients. My soup turned out a funny mushroom brown color, I’m thinking due to the red hue of the apple skin – I used a Fuji. Other than that, it was a sweet and mild soup. In fact, I’d say it was surprisingly mild. I expected more fennel taste. So if you’re (like Kate) a little anti-fennel, this soup might surprise you in a good way.
If you like chilled soups, this one’s pretty solid. Thumbs up. 

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Foreshadowing?

I recently visited my mom, and came back with some treasured photos from when my brother and I were little. Here I am in the fall of 1975, utterly delighted because our next door neighbor has given me a few lollipops:

young susan holding lollipops

Now, who would have ever thought I might grow up and become a lollipop maker as an adult!?

Monday, September 12, 2011

Peppery

photo by Kevin Keeker
There's always a point during a photoshoot when we just get goofy. Like when we started putting actual pepper on our Black Pepper Melon lollipops. Note: they don't come like that - we just decided to see what it would taste like if they did. The verdict? They're going to continue to not come with a sprinkle of pepper.

Have you ever modified your candy at home after you bought it at the store? How?

Friday, September 9, 2011

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Mine Mine Mine!

photo by Kevin Keeker
These lollipops are mine, all mine! You can't have any!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Martini, Anyone?

photo by Kevin Keeker

photo by Kevin Keeker

photo by Kevin Keeker

photo by Kevin Keeker
These little hard candy gems are what we use for the free flavor samples we send with our shipped orders. We also use them as freebies when we give business cards for swag bags, say for Urban Craft Uprising. We occasionally need photos to show people what we're talking about when we say candy gems, so we took these. I'm glad we hit on the idea of putting them in a martini glass - it's so much more interesting than just setting them down on the table. 

What's your favorite thing to put in a martini glass that isn't a martini? 

We're starting local pickup of Etsy orders again on Monday September 12! If you live in Seattle, buy your candy online and pick it up in person on Monday.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Charm School Dropout Lollipops

photo by Kevin Keeker

photo by Kevin Keeker

photo by Kevin Keeker
Do you know the story of our Charm School Dropout lollipops? The short version is: when we make the lollipops, they don't always turn out perfectly. Sometimes we pour too much liquid sugar into the mold, and sometimes air bubbles sneak in. But they still taste delicious. When that happens, we pick 6 flavors and put them into their own package. We don't know what the flavors will be ahead of time, so it's always different and always a surprise!*

We refreshed the Charm School Dropout lollipops photos during our last photoshoot and I lovelovelove these new ones! Susan did a great job picking out some truly deformed hard candy and Kevin took some amazing photos that Marika styled for us. They're such an awesome team.

Are you good at making the best of your mistakes? (I have to confess that I'm often quite bad at it.) Have you ordered some Charm School Dropouts? What flavors have you gotten?

* The flavors pictured are Blueberry Muffin, Watermelon-Basil, and Black Pepper Melon, but all of our flavors are potential candidates.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Eye Candy: Lacy Vases

photo from poppytalk.blogspot.com
It was love at first sight for these lacy party vases - glue a doily onto some kraft paper and wrap with string? Simple and beautiful? Sign me up!

What's your favorite thing that you've ever made for a party?

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Not Now, Darling

photo by Kevin Keeker
This picture of our photo stylist with a watermelon-basil Charm School Dropout lollipop in her hand immediately made me think of Garbo's "I want to be alone."* Alone with a lollipop!

What's your favorite old movie? What's your favorite quote?

* According to Garbo's wikipedia page, she never said, "I want to be alone." Add it to the list of famous quotes no one actually said along with "Play it again, Sam," and "Beam me up Scotty."