Tag Archives: shopping

Royal flush

There’s Team Edward and Team Jacob. But in the doll making game…

It’s Team William all the way.

Mattel has released a Barbie and Ken version of William and Kate to commemorate their upcoming one-year wedding anniversary.

As you can see, they have given William a full head of hair — something he doesn’t possess in real life — and strengthened his jawline. And although Kate looks a bit like every Barbie I’ve seen, she’s pretty and her gown is spot-on.

No doll marker would risk offending the royal family.

That clearly wasn’t a concern for the Mattel designer selected to create the dolls that recreate the wedding of Bella and Edward in Twilight Breaking Dawn.

I’m guessing he isn’t a fan of the saga.  And Edward in particular.

His doll’s face is flat and fat, and his hair looks like an old lady’s wig.  I know the white makeup isn’t flatteringly on anyone in the movies, but it eliminates all detail here.

In the words of my friend Tina…

Barf.

Lady luck

When it comes to bugs, I earned my wimp card years ago.

I’m not a fan.

But the ladybug?  That’s one very different beetle.  It’s cute, it eats a lot of harmful insects and it’s lucky.  (That’s a scientific fact.)

If you like ladybugs too, you might consider this Ladybug Nightlight that my friend Stephanie sells at Stoopher & Boots on the Upper West Side.

Look at that face.

And you might stop reading right now.  Because the rest of this post on ladybugs will freak you out.  It did me.

Hungarian Artist Gabor Fulop also likes ladybugs.  A lot. So much so that he created 20,000 and hand-painted them.

He then applied his ladybug creations to a  sculpture of the human form, forcing viewers to imagine what it would feel like to have ladybugs crawling over every inch of their bodies.

Me?  I wouldn’t feel lucky at all.

Like the Dickens

While I was on a business trip in London a few years ago, a surprise snow blanketed the city.  A colleague, looking out the window of our hotel room at the falling snow, quipped:

“It’s so Dickensian!”

And we had our catchphrase.

It did feel like we had stepped back in time, into one of the classic novels we had all read in school.  The snow didn’t last, but the memory of that brief interlude has to this day.

Stateside in 2012, ‘Dickensian’ has an entirely different vibe.

StrangeBeautiful just launched their Dickensian Edition of nail colors, which is roughly 10 different shades…of black.

(Only true New Yorkers can discern the difference.)

Creator Jane Schub said her interpretation of Dickens for the collection was inspired by photography, literature, art, coal and broken shale.

Geez, Jane — did you even read the novels?

They have happy endings.

Burned

On my way to the subway last night, I overheard a snippet of conversation as two girls walked by:

“…so then I threw it all up, and I have never eaten it again.”

Man.  I guess we all have one of those stories. Mine happened when I was 13 years old.

After a morning of shopping, my mom and I got chili dogs at the Midtown Drive-In in Mayfield, Kentucky.  They were a favorite.

Then.

On the way home, I started feeling not-so-good.  Bad, actually.  And I told my mom, who was driving the car, that we needed to pull over.  NOW.  Her response?

“Hold on.  We’re almost there.”

How does one “hold on” when you getting ready to throw up?  I don’t know now, and I certainly didn’t know then.  My clothes and her car upholstery suffered as a result.

And I’ve never eaten a chili dog since.

So…have you sworn off a food that turned on you?  Share your story in the comments section.

And enjoy your lunch!

Meow

Pet owners.  We love our animals.

And companies know they can sell us just about anything.

Huffpost.com recently put together a collection of some of the stupidest pet products on the market.  I can’t disagree with the editors on most of ‘em.  They are ridiculous.

BUT…

I have to stand up for one of them…mainly because the product in question is less ridiculous for pets than it is for its original human intent.

Kitty Croc Bed

The croc shoe has been super-sized and turned into a bed for cats.  HuffPost argues it is far stupider looking in this iteration.

I disagree.

Croc shoes are ugly.  They may be the most comfortable shoe on the planet — but there’s not a foot in the world that doesn’t look stupid in them.

Sorry, Mario.

I think making the croc huge and putting a kitten inside is the best thing that ever happened to the shoe.  Dare I say…

Purrrfect?

A doll’s life

Barbie…a hoarder???


That’s no dream kitchen, sister…

It’s a nightmare.

It kept Carrie M. Becker up at night.  So the St. Louis native, photographer and sculptor created “Barbie Trashes Her Dreamhouse,” a photographic exhibition at the Riney Museum of Fine Art at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas.

I love the idea of Barbie as a hoarder.

The girl is so perfect in every other way; you just know she has to act out somehow.  What better way than trashing that powder puff pink nightmare of a townhouse?

Which begs the question…

What is Ken’s secret?

Blocked

There have been a lot of reruns on TV during the holidays.  Now 2012 has arrived.

Is this year going to be a rerun, too?

I was reading a ‘style preview’ and was fascinated to discover that color blocking is going to be all the rage in 2012.

Color blocking?  Wow.  How innovative.  I think this has been the third or fourth time that color blocking has been ‘new and red hot’ in my lifetime alone.

I remember buying a Mondrian-style blazer for my very first job out of college when color blocking was big.

I know fashion is cyclical, but I wish we had a few more original ‘episodes’ thrown in between the reruns.

I gotta admit, though — these new color blocked tights are kinda out there.   So maybe color blocking in 2012 is less of a rerun…

…and more of sequel with 3D effects.

A robot’s tale

I met a robot in my neighborhood.

image He’s a nightlight for sale at my friend Stephanie’s shop, Stoopher & Boots.

Every time I have seen him, I couldn’t look away. (We don’t get a lot of his kind on the Upper West Side.)

Then I started hearing a sound when I was near him…a soft chant. “Milo. Milo.” (He’s a friend of mine — the baby boy variety – who has a particular interest in the ‘bots.)

He needed that robot nightlight.  So after a quick consultation with his parental units, it was soon on its way to Milo’s robot-themed bedroom in sunny Los Angeles.

image

Look at it — sitting in his room, like it was made for the place.

It’s almost an exact match to the robot in the print on the wall!

How a’bot that?

Moon landing

I finished my Christmas shopping this morning.  Bought the final gift online, picked a shipping date and sent it on its merry way.

It’s a great feeling.

But wouldn’t you know it?  As soon as I crossed everyone’s name off my list, I discovered the perfect present for any hard-to-buy-for person.  It’s another exciting Google search find:

Lunar Land

That’s right.  You or someone you love can join the over 5,000,000 people from 176 countries who own personal property on Earth’s sexiest satellite.

According to the website, Lunar Embassy is the only company to possess the ‘legal basis and copyright’ for Lunar Land.  It is available in a variety of packages, all which include one lunar acre of land.  (The amount of documentation included drives the price.)

Our family draws names at Christmas, and as soon as the pairings are announced, the emails start flying, requesting gift ideas.

If only I had discovered Lunar Land even an hour sooner!

To the moon, Alice! — Ralph Kramden, The Honeymooners

Toys gone wild

I’ve heard of baby dolls that go potty…

…but dolls with potty mouths?

Some customers are demanding Toys R Us pull the “You & Me Interactive Play & Giggle Triplet Dolls” from their shelves because one of the dolls says “you crazy bitch.”

Triplet’s got ‘tude.

The dolls are sold exclusively at Toys R Us and are intended for children 2 years and up.  The store says the complaints have been scattered and they will stand behind the product.

Listen for yourself.

Personally?  I think the doll did it.  And I think parents are crazy not to want to keep it around.

Your kids start cursing?  You would never talk that way in front of them.  Must be that darn baby doll the children wanted so badly.

Not your fault.  Nope, you’re good parents.