New Stockist: Dandelion Wishes

Opening this Friday! We're excited to welcome Dandelion Wishes to the family of retailers who carry This Charming Candy lollipops. This children's clothing boutique in Tacoma WA focuses on fun and functional apparel for kids, and we wish them tons of success.

Tacoma native, busy mom and former designer of custom kids clothing, Susan Lewis is opening Dandelion Wishes, offering clothes for real life for boys and girls aged 4-10, and toys and gifts too!

Everything has been carefully selected because it was designed to be lived-in: well-priced classic styles in great colors kids want to wear all day long, while still getting about the business of being kids. These are not precious, frilly clothes that make parents want to say “don’t get your clothes dirty!” 

Check out their opening night Champagne & Cupcakes celebration, and their all-day Opening Party on Saturday!

Brief Shipping Delay

Just a quick reminder that I'll be out of town helping my mom move from March 19-26. The Etsy shop will stay open during that time, and shipping will resume when I'm back on the 27th. Thanks!

Friday linkaround: Facebook Updates, Forecasting Snowfall, Dolphins

1) Facebook has begun rolling out changes to users' newsfeeds. If you haven't seen the new design yet, TechCrunch has a quick video about it. I'm kind of intrigued by this one, it looks like a nice update. What do you think?

2) I took Meteorology 101 as an undergrad at Penn State and that was a darn difficult course. Even though I find the graphs and assumed mastery of basic concepts challenging, I enjoy following UW prof Cliff Mass' weather blog. This nugget of info caught my eye in a post about forecasting snowstorms:

A rule of thumb is that you multiple the amount of liquid precipitation by ten to get the amount of snow (although that ratio can vary as well).    So if your storm total is off by .3 inches of precipitation, you could have an error of 3 inches of snow.  But an error in rain total of .3 inches would hardly be noticed.

That does make sense now that it's pointed out to me, but I hadn't conceived of it that way before.

3) Dolphins who are familiar with each other may call each other by "name"! How cool is that!?

It seems one dolphin can call another specifically by mimicking the distinct whistle of that other dolphin.

"These whistles actually turned out to be names. They're abstract names, which is unheard of in the animal kingdom beyond people," said Randall Wells, one of the authors of a new study on dolphin behavior[.]

Crafty Wonderland on May 11

Ahoy Portland! We will be returning to your fair city on May 11 for the spring edition of the Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Sale. We're delighted to get to see you again and hope you are too.

The details:

Saturday, May 11th, 2013
11am-6pm

at the Oregon Convention Center
777 NE MLK Jr. Blvd, Exhibit Hall D
Portland, OR

We urge you to procrastinate on your Mother's Day shopping and then go on a handmade spree with us and the 225+ other vendors. We'll have all our delicious flavors, including the Box Set super-collection with every flavor. It's in a snazzy white box. Mom will love it!

Lollipop gift box - photo by Heather Immoor

How to Receive Coupons from Etsy Sellers

We're excited about this recent update from Etsy - sellers can now create, and buyers can ask to receive, "thank you" coupons after a sale. Meaning, after you purchase something from a shop, you would soon get an email offering a discount on your next purchase with that shop if they're offering such a promotion.

Here's where to turn it on: https://www.etsy.com/your/account/email

There's a check box for "I want to know about... Coupons, promotions, and recommendations. Receive coupons, promotions, and recommendations from Etsy shops you love."

We've turned on a "thank you" coupon for our customers - we hope to see you in the shop soon, because you deserve a ten minute treat!

photo of our most popular flavors -
by Heather Immoor

Cottage Bakers Market on May 4

Coming up on Saturday May 4th, we'll be participating in the new Cottage Bakers Market in Bellevue, WA! This is a cool new venue for local food businesses, mostly bakers (but obviously not all!) - similar to a farmers' market.

We don't get over to the Eastside as often as we participate in Seattle-based events, so we're excited about that too. The timing on this event is terrific - about a week before Mother's Day, just in time not only for Moms, but looking ahead to Dads & Grads too.

We particularly love the Fruit Basket collection at this time of year - it looks like a bouquet of cheerful flowers, at least to me. Hm, are there any flowers that aren't cheerful? I suppose there are.

Fruit lollipops by This Charming Candy
photo by Kevin Keeker

Shipping Heads-Up

I'm going to be out of town from March 19-26 and won't be able to ship any orders during that week. If you know you'll need lollipops around that time, please place your orders by March 17th. Shipping will resume on March 27th. Thanks in advance for your understanding!

Gigantic Lollipile photo by Heather Immoor

Valentine's Day Is Over...

While Billy Bragg's Valentine's Day Is Over is a haunting yet uplifting song about the breakup of a violent relationship, our interpretation is a little more benign. Our heart-shaped Valentine lollipops are now on sale. Onward!

Ooo, Mr. Bragg will be playing in Seattle on April 3rd. I've never seen him in concert; I might just have to go...

Friday Linkaround: Tom Douglas, deep sea vents, and Instagram

Happy first day of March!

1) I read this inspiring post in Seattle Weekly about local chef Tom Douglas going to extraordinary lengths in the name of customer relations. A food reviewer contrasts his poor experience at a Miami restaurant with his initially poor experience at one of Douglas' restaurants back in 1999:

Douglas expressed his deep disappointment at my treatment as a guest. He mentioned staff and menu changes, and said that feedback like mine was valuable for fine-tuning.

Enclosing a check for $100 to cover the cost of my meal, plus a gift certificate for $150 to spend on my next meal, he requested that "you send me your review of your next experience at Dahlia Lounge." That next meal was much better, and I've held Douglas in high regard for his integrity since the incident.

2) Awesome Science Time! Some incredible undersea pictures were published this week of blind shrimp, anemones, and other newly discovered creatures living near one of the deepest (5000 meters down) and hottest hydrothermal vents (401 degrees Centigrade omg) ever discovered. Go see!

3) This Charming Candy is still pretty new to the Instagram scene, posting occasionally but mostly just enjoying accounts with pretty pictures. Now that there are web profiles it's easy for me to link to my favorites, including...

• The US Department of the Interior, which posts ridiculously beautiful nature photos, mainly of our national parks. 
• Seattle's Trophy Cupcakes, who are currently hard at work on styling gorgeous photo shoots for their upcoming cookbook. 
• Minneapolis artist Brock Davis who specializes in clever portraits of food, styled in unexpected and delightful ways.

If you have favorite Instagram accounts, I'd love to know what they are!