Payin’ Taxes

One of the tasks we’ve been doing in January is filing various federal, state, and local tax returns related to running This Charming Candy. After I mentioned feeling “oddly accomplished” upon completing some of the forms, Kate reminded me of this quote from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy [...] says of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation products that "it is very easy to be blinded to the essential uselessness of them by the sense of achievement you get from getting them to work at all."

Which is not to say that government websites are useless, but certainly there's some unnecessary complexity :-)

(Hitchhiker themed buttons by offtherecord on Etsy)

Charming AND Eye Candy: Darren Criss

Like pretty much everyone we know, we’re intrigued by Glee newcomer Blaine and are very curious to see if he will become Kurt’s boyfriend.


photo from http://www.fox.com/glee/photos/#episodes/episode_6:109530

We're further delighted to find out that Darren Criss, who plays Blaine, is 10 pounds of charm in a 5-pound bag. He did an interview with Rolling Stone about his role on Glee – in song, of course – and gave adorable and thoughtful answers to the questions they posed. Check it out (sorry about the commercial before the video begins):

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/watch-glee-star-darren-criss-perform-teenage-dream-live-at-rolling-stone-20101206

Tangerines and Chinese New Year

Did you know that tangerines are good luck symbols for the Chinese New Year? It's true. The Chinese word for tangerines sounds like the word for luck - so it's traditional to give out tangerines (and oranges & pomelos, according to this website). I've gotten tangerines from my Asian coworkers for new years before - they're really yummy. Chinese New Year is February 3rd this year and we'll be entering the year of the rabbit.

If tangerines don't grow where you live - in California all the orange and tangerine trees are laden with fruit right now, but Seattle doesn't have much in the way of citrus - perhaps you could consider our Tangerine-Clove lollipops as a substitute. (Hopefully clove doesn't counteract the good luck symbolism in Chinese - nothing I could find on the internet said it did. Wikipedia says it's contraindicated in Chinese medicine for people with fire symptoms.)

Happy Chinese New Year!

Kid-Friendly Flavors

Here at This Charming Candy, we tend to specialize in unusual flavors that appeal more to adults than to kids (like Tangerine-Clove, for example). That’s not to say that we don’t have kid-friendly flavors, however. We’ve found that people of all ages enjoy the Celebration Time (Bubble Gum, Birthday Cake, Root Beer Float) and the Breakfast Tray (Blueberry Muffin, Maple Sugar, Sweetened Grapefruit) flavors.

But beyond that, it really depends a lot on the individual’s tastes. One of our Facebook fans recently posted this picture of her adorable 4-year old son, who was enjoying his first Salted Caramel lollipop. In his own words: “This is really yummy. It is a circle.” Right on both counts, little dude!

photo by Karin R. – thanks!

Free Shipping on Spice Rack!

This is your friendly neighborhood reminder that we're currently offering free shipping on our Spice Rack lollipops. Get yours today!

Photo by Kevin Keeker

Hearts and Flowers

We usually make our popular Honey-Jasmine flavor in a daisy-shaped mold and include it in the Love Triangle collection.

But we figure that a threesome isn’t necessarily the right message for Valentine’s Day :-) So once a year we also make it in a large heart shape and pair it with Cinnamon-Cherry for the Sweet Valentine seasonal duo.

Either way, the mix of sweetness and floral fragrance is a loveable combination suitable for the Sweetheart in your life!


Photos by Kevin Keeker

Plush Team in Candyland

We got a promotional email the other day for a show in Milwaukee, WI called The Plush Team in Candyland. I kind of fell in love with the poster, and, seeing as I'm originally from Wisconsin, I couldn't help but give them a little airtime.

So if you find yourself in Milwaukee over the next couple of months, stop into the Hot*Pop Gallery and enjoy some cute plushies!

Wall of Snow

Your Friday Eye Candy comes to us from Gizmodo. These are apparently unphotoshopped pictures from the aftermath of a blizzard that took place in Japan. That is a lot of snow.

Hot Pink and Red

We love the elegant way Anders Ruff displayed our Cinnamon-Cherry and Bubble Gum lollipops in their recent photo shoot. The “Lollipops” tent label is part of their I Heart Valentine’s Day printable design collection – a collection of adorable paper decorations to help you throw the most bitchin’ Valentine’s Day party of all time.

We’ve posted the rest of the lollipop photos in our Facebook page, so if you don’t yet “like” us on Facebook, may we suggest this would be a fine time to do so!

Please order your Valentine's Day lollipops by February 8th.

Photo by Becca Bond Photography 
Styling and printable party decorations by Anders Ruff

And of course – lollipops by This Charming Candy!

Teaberry in Tokyo

The Adventurer’s Pack lollipops recently went to Tokyo (the lucky things!) and they brought along our resident photographer, hero, and all-around good dude Kevin Keeker to document their, um, adventures. Here are some shots of the Teaberry lollipop frolicking in Inokashira Park:

At some point, it disrobed – thankfully there are no ordinances against public indecency by lollipops.

There are more pictures of Teaberry, Nutmeg Creme and Pistachio-Marshmallow lollies in this park in our Facebook page, so if you don’t yet “like” us on Facebook, may we suggest this would be a fine time to do so!

BONUS FEATURE:

Seattle indie-rockers Telekensis sing about going to Tokyo

Sweet, Delicious, Free Shipping

Do you love our Spice Rack lollipops (the Vanilla-Cardamom, Tangerine-Clove and Salted Caramel flavors)? So do we! To help spread the love, for a little while we’re offering free shipping on Spice Racks in our Etsy store.

Yup: buy a Spice Rack and there’ll be no charge for the shipping (that’s a savings of $3.50 for the first one, $1.50 for each additional Spice Rack you add to your cart). Wooo!

photo by Kevin Keeker

Who’s YOUR Sweet Valentine?

For the next few weeks, we’ll be making and selling a heart-shaped lollipop duo called Sweet Valentine; it’s got spicy hot Cinnamon-Cherry and sweetly floral Honey-Jasmine flavors.

photo by Kevin Keeker

This delightful 6-pack is only available for a limited time, so be sure to nab yours from our Etsy store! Each flavor is also available by the dozen while supplies last. If you want to make sure you get them for Valentine's Day, please order before February 8th!

Eye Candy: Colorful Pierogies

Just about every January, I get hit by a surge of cooking energy and go into a delightful frenzy in my kitchen. I often make large batches of things to store in the freezer. It helped that this year, Kate & I took the first week of January as vacation from This Charming Candy so I really got busy!

Among the things I made for my freezer were 11 dozen pierogies, which are Polish dumplings:

My favorite filling is sauerkraut and onion; they go beautifully with pork dishes and also make a delightful stand-alone lunch. For fun, I decided to experiment with adding food coloring to the dough – I made purple ones, green ones, and orange ones.

And now, I get to enjoy having delicious, adorable, colorful homemade pierogies for the next few months! Yay!

The Proper Way to Drink Tea

photo of Mr Tea from LennyMud's Etsy shop

Anyone who follows our twitter feed knows that we love ourselves some tea. We've personally pimped Remedy Tea and Natur'el Tea in this space before, and I love both World Spice and Peet's teas. Susan's partial to Urban Tea, a company based in nearby Kirkland, WA. So when we saw Christopher Hitchens writing about none other than George Orwell's rules for tea, well, there may have been squeeing.

Not that I follow all the rules, of course. I do use a teapot that catches the loose tea leaves and I don't appreciate either milk or sugar in my tea. I like it black (or green as the case may be since that's what I seem to mostly drink these days). But I cannot recommend enough using a tall cylindrical cup instead of a wide one, or brewing loose tea leaves in a pot.

Do you have any rules for when you drink tea?

Setting the Scene...

Photo by Kevin Keeker

I wish that I was as good a writer as the Fug Girls. I want to come up with some instant vignette about spices traveling the world (or maybe just the Spice Girls) to convey a sense of fun about our Spice Rack lollipops shipping free whenever you buy them with something else. But all I've got is something mumbly about a caravan full of spices weaving its way back to Europe along the silk road and aren't you glad that the postal service is so much faster?

So I ask you, dear readers: what scene would you sketch for our Spice Rack lollipops traveling to you?

Hello!

photo by Jesse Oleson, aka Cakespy

We're back! Susan and I have had a glorious three weeks off in which we traveled to see family, played games, ice skated until our legs dropped off (ok, that was just me), cooked non-candy, and generally relaxed and got our energy back.

Our Etsy shop is open and our vacation responder has been turned off. Drop in and say hi!