Hello Kitty Pink Hot Chocolate

I love Cost Plus World Market! I always make a point to visit every few months because they have a particularly wonderful international candy section. Recently, while perusing their candy aisles, I came across Hello Kitty Pink Hot Chocolate. Pink Hot Chocolate and Hello Kitty? Of course, this intrigued me and I quickly picked up a couple of packets.

 Upon opening the packet, I noticed that the hot chocolate powder was quite white.

I decided to make this hot chocolate with almond milk. If you do this as well, make sure that you choose  unsweetened almond milk, otherwise, your pink hot chocolate will turn out waaayy too sweet!

As you stir the contents of the packet into the hot liquid, you will notice that solution slowly turns a soft baby pink color! What does it taste like? The hot chocolate has a mild vanilla flavor. It isn't particularly fantastic hot chocolate, but not bad for $1 or $1.50.

If you want to see my video review of this product, check this out: 
http://youtu.be/VcbC91gASgQ

Making musical Instruments!

Recently, I have been obsessed with making miniature musical instruments! I made my first whistle as a present with a cute little hippo that I etched into it. I will take photographs of this piece soon so all of you can see! This  image is my first attempt at making an ocarina out of copper and it was successful!

An ocarina is an ancient flute-like instrument that dates back over 12,000 years. The ocarina exists in many cultures, however I was concentrating on examples from Aztec culture. Sadly, my first knowledge of ocarinas came from my obsession a long time ago with the video game, The Legend of Zelda. I suppose I wouldn't have researched this fascinating object further without this experience. :-P

These images above are of the underside of the ocarina. I gave it a dimpled surface. It reminds of an asteroid. 

I started researching primitive instruments from Viking culture and I found plenty that I would be interested in fabricating! You will definitely see more future postings of miniature instruments in the future!

The most adorable shoes ever!

I was surfing the internet and came across this company that makes the cutest shoes! Who wouldn't love to have cute scenes of little bunnies and other baby animals playing across their shoes? Well, maybe not everyone...but I certainly wouldn't mind! ;-)

The company that makes these fantastic shoes is called "Le Pommier" and is based in Singapore. Maybe someday I will own a cute pair of shoes like these! A girl can dream right? :-)

Cupcakes and a walk through the park

I decided to take a break from some personal work this weekend and take a lovely stroll to Balboa Park. Such a beautiful day in San Diego!

While I was walking through the park, I decided to head over to the House of Pacific Relations International Cottages.

Every Sunday, all the International Cottages have an open house. Everyone is welcome to walk in and partake in their tasty treats! This is a fun, relaxing event and all entirely free!

On this particular Sunday, there was a special event taking place. The House of Ireland was having an early St. Patrick's Day Celebration complete with Irish dancing!

To support the House of Ireland, I, of course, had to purchase a chocolate Irish cupcake!

The cupcake was tasty, by the way! I just love the crunchy, green sugar crystals on top of the creamy chocolate icing! Yummy! :-)
I lastly, peeked into the House of Finland and the House of Ukraine and found some beautiful crafts and design which I will put in a later blog post. I hope you all had a lovely weekend as well!

 

Is this just your ordinary simple, hammered silver band?

I recently completed this ring for a client. Looks pretty standard, right?

Take a look at these other images to see just how LARGE this ring really is?

Maybe these other images will help you out! :-)

I paired the silver hammered ring to a ring I own that is a size 6.

Can you guess the size of this silver, hammered ring?

The ring is....SIZE 15 and 1/4! I have never in my whole jewelry career made a ring this large! This ring is so large, that it is 3/4 of a size shy of the maximum size that a standard ring mandrel can accommodate! The client was not a basketball player by the way. ;-)

Grape-Flavored Nerunerune by Kracie

I just recently reviewed a new candy for my "Bizarre Japanese Candy Review" series on my Adorable Mayhem channel on Youtube. This review was made possible by a generous donation from Shane! This product is Nerunerune by Kracie, who is the same wacky creator of Popin' Cookin'. Thank you Shane! :-)

I have seen quite a few comments by people in the candy community that love the grape-flavored Nerunerune. Now, I have to say that I have tasted this product several times, different flavors of course, and have found it to be quite vile! :-( Yes, it tasted terrible! However, because of the buzz about this flavor, I thought I would give this candy another taste test! Here's what it looks like when the product is thoroughly mixed together.

Look at the pretty rainbow rock candy sprinkles!

I have to admit the candy is darn pretty looking! Here are more images of the candy.

Even though the glittering rainbow sprinkles sparkled so beautifully against its violet, pillowy candy cloud, its taste, sadly, did not match its beauty! :-( Watch my candy review to see our reactions to our unusual candy find! :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6BgAT3BIh4&list=UUAF7DMTeAnZOZvikNygerOA&feature=plcp