New Blog and Website!

Hello Everyone! I have exciting news! I recently created a new website! I will be fleshing out my website with more images, etc. The great thing about the website is that my blog is integrated into the site!

www.magboocandyandjewelry.com

All new blog content will be created on my website! If you are interested in continuing to follow me, check out the link above!

Thank you everyone for you support! :-)

Eclipse Chocolate Review

I am still working my way through my birthday candy stash! I recently was given Eclipse chocolate bars to try which is a company based in San Diego.  The owner was originally a jewelry and metalsmithing graduate from San Diego State University, but afterwards made a drastic career change. Will Gustwiller opened up his own chocolate shop which proved to be quite successful! So successful, that he opened up a second location in South Park!

Here are the treats I got!

These chocolate bars were given to me by a student of mine as a present. I quickly scarfed up both these bars! The quality of the chocolate is excellent and I do like the unusual combination of flavors in these bars. My favorite of the two is the Gingerbread Crumb. I distinctly taste all the spices in the bar, plus the creamy chocolate paired with the crunch of the gingerbread pieces adds a nice contrast! Very good! I would definitely repurchase!

The second bar was also very good. The chocolate in both bars are of excellent quality: very smooth and creamy dark chocolate. I would like this bar even better if they incorporated larger pieces of toffee in the bar, as I couldn't taste the toffee very well.

Overal,l I give thumbs up to Eclipse chocolate! They are known for their exotic flavors and high quality ingredients. Definitely give them a try if you get the chance!

Birthday Haul: Candy and Toys!

Hello Everyone! Not only did I celebrate the anniversary of my YouTube channel, I also celebrated my actual birthday! Yay! :-)  My birthday falls a few days before the birth date of my channel: February 20th. It's been a great few weeks! It has been filled with mini celebrations and presents and, of course, plenty of sweets! :-)

One of the presents I received was given to me from my jewelry student, Michele. It was a fun treat bag filled with wonderful little treats!

The little tote bag was covered with colorful illustrations of French macarons! What you see above are excellent chocolates that are locally made in San Diego from chocolatier, Eclipse. The owner, Will Gustwiller was originally a Jewelry and Metalsmithing graduate student from San Diego State University, which was the same program I attended. He later went on to pursue a business creating creative, delectable sweets. The flavors of chocolate bars I received were: Peanut Butter Toffee, Sweet Basil Mint and Gingerbread Crumb.
I will definitely be doing a candy review of these chocolates in the near future!

In the same bag were little colorful post-it note booklets that are pictured above, as well as little pirate tattoos!

Lastly, in the same bag, were donut erasers! How cute is this! I love donuts and even make donut jewelry!

I received fun presents from Shane as well which are pictured below.

I got Popin' Cookin' Curry! I will have another fun Popin' Cookin' set to review on YouTube! He also gave me sea foam blue/green wool roving and ergonomic felting needles! I can't tell you how excited I am about this! Sea foam blue is my favorite color! I love this color so much that even my car is this color!

He also gave me a Popin' Cookin' Decoration Cake kit!

I purchased one for the giveaway, but now I have one to review on YouTube!

One of the last presents from Shane were these pastries from one of my favorite bakeries in town: Swedish Royal Bakery! Oh my goodness, their pastries are absolutely divine! I cannot express how amazing their pastries are! What you see above is a slice of princess cake: which has whipped cream frosting, strawberry frosting, yellow cake and a layer of the most amazing marzipan covering the top of the cake. Next to the princess cake is a cardamom cake that is filled with whipped cream and almond custard. Wow! Both were very delicious! If you are ever in the Poway area in San Diego county, definitely check this place out!

The purchased the next few items myself as little birthday present to me!

I am so excited about this! This is a calender I have been eyeing for the past few months, but have been hesitant to purchase it because of the cost. Normally this calender runs for about $27, which I felt was a little out of my budget for a calender. Now that we are a few months into the new year, the cost went down to 50%, so I snatched it up immediately! If any of you are interested, I purchased this at Paper Source in La Jolla. The concept for this calender is so unique! There are six laser cut animals that you can assemble. For the month of February, you can see the gorilla set up above. March is the deer!

I also bought this little notebook from Paper Source. It was sea foam blue and it says chocolate on it, so, of course, I had to buy this! The notebook is so pretty and it only cost $2.95!

Below was a present from my best friend Keyanna! She bought me a little Hello Kitty magnet set!

This is similar to a paper doll set, except they are magnets! You can dress Hello Kitty in different outfits and accessories!

Another present I received was from my sister! She surprised me with French macarons which are one of my favorite desserts!

Look how beautiful they are! They are so colorful and beautifully packaged! She got me four dozen macarons! She purchased them from a well-known macaron bakery in LA called Lette.

One of the last presents I received was from my friend's mom. She bought me a crystal perfume bottle from Anthropologie. It is absolutely beautiful! It looks like a gemstone because of bottle's faceting. I have it displayed with some handmade ceramics I bought from the Crafts Center awhile back.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the presents I received. As you already know, I love toys and desserts, so I thought you might enjoy these as well!

Here is a link to the video for my birthday haul in case you want to check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWd880m1I8o

Japanese Circus Candy!

I know it has been awhile since I have done a candy review! :-(  The craziness of work during the holiday season pulled me away from my much loved time consuming hobby: filming and video editing. Now we are back and ready to review some interesting candy! You wouldn't believe how many strange candy finds I have accumulated in the span of a couple of months!

Today we will be reviewing Atekko Gum by Top.

When I came across this wonderfully cute packaging at Nijiya Market, I just about died! So many adorable colorful animals and multiple candy packages...I had to purchase this!

Most of the candy in this package is actually gum. There is one small package of cylindrically-shaped small candies that is indeed a hard candy.

The hard candies are pink in color and we couldn't discern any specific flavor. They were chalky in texture and one of the less appealing candies in the grouping.

Also pictured above is a small yellow gumball. These were artificially-flavored banana gumballs. I have to say, I personally particularly dislike artificial banana flavor. Shane didn't care much for this candy either. We both felt we disliked this candy the most of all. The texture of the gum is very soft which is a typical feature of Japanese gum.

The gum featured above was an 1" x 1" flat piece of gum. It had a nice lemon-lime flavor, similar to 7-up. The gum again, had a very soft texture, almost to the point of completely breaking down when being chewed.

In addition to the candy was a toy inside! These red cardboard squares looked like individual game pieces. They each had flaps that you could pull away that would reveal Japanese writing and some of them contained images of the candies. Unfortunately, both Shane and I cannot read Japanese and have no idea what this is exactly. Our best guess is that that the game pieces revealed some kind of prize that you could win, probably more candy?

As I mentioned earlier, the packaging is to die for! The animal graphics are so adorable and colorful! I do enjoy the novelty of opening up all of these tiny packages to reveal the different candies and toys! For this purpose, this circus candy would definitely be worth purchasing! In terms of taste, Shane and I both felt that the candy was overall mediocre. The candy wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. Each candy had some characteristic that was somewhat unappealing ranging from odd textures to not-so-great flavors. 

If you would like to watch our candy review, check out the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUyxwz7CkM8

Gem Faire Finds!

In December, I headed over to the Gem Faire at the Scottish Rite Center in Mission Valley. Many jewelers can safely say that they own far too many stones than they can possibly turn into jewelry! Unfortunately, I fit into that category. I feel sometimes that we purchase stones for the purpose of creating our own mini gem museum to "ooh and aah" over periodically. At any rate, I got a screaming deal on my favorite pearls: nucleated flame pearls. 

A fellow instructor, referred to these pearls as "pearls that grow their own friends". Yes! I like pearls that grow their own friends! I tend to gravitate toward unique, unusually shaped stones where it becomes a challenge to figure out to set those suckers! 

The color and luster are phenomenal! These pearls are beautiful and strange which is why I like them so much!

Well, I hope these don't remain in my "gem museum" for too long! I hope you enjoy looking at these amazing pearls as much as I do! :-)

Strawberry Panda Pie

This appeared to be a cookie to me at first. Upon further research into this product, I discovered that this is actually a small pie.  Officially the panda pie is called: Saku Panda Strawberry Monaka Pie by Kabaya. I purchased this from Mitsuwa Market.  Of course, I needed to pick this up because the cute panda face was calling to me!

The pie is both strawberry and chocolate flavored. Biting into it, I realized that the filling is a soft, airy foam with a creamy consistency. Very good! This tasted very similar to Meito fish wafer cookies that I tried in an earlier video.

Above is the shell of the pie which is similar to ice cream wafer cones.  It has yet another cute panda face on the back! The Japanese are very good at considering all the details in designing a product, even the back! I definitely recommend panda pies by Kabaya. Definitely pick this up if you get the chance!

                                                                                                                                                                   
Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph the package! Here is an image I found online, but of the chocolate version of this product. The packaging of the strawberry version is very similar so you will have an idea of what it looks like in the store if you are interested in giving panda pies a try!

If you want to watch my video review of Saku Panda Strawberrry Monaka Pie, check out the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFAbjRyjOXw&feature=results_video

Rocker Ring!

This is it! My newest crazy creation! I recently watched a haul video by Andreaschoice on Youtube and she featured a double finger ring with connecting chains. I loved the design and decided to create my own pimped out version of this ring!

I introduce you to....The Rocker Ring!

The original ring on Andrea's channel was two simple, delicate bands with connecting chains. I decided to kick this up ten notches by adding lots of tiny parts and constructing beefier rings with more finished rims! Those that know me, know that I am obsessed with excessive details! I have been hoarding this fabulous pink florescent acrylic plastic for years and I saw the perfect opportunity to fabricate with it! I formed and fashioned all the acrylic spikes. I fabricated all of the silver metal components and then set the plastic spikes into the metal.

I'll have to wear this out someday! I hope you enjoyed viewing my latest jewelry piece and stay tuned for more jewelry to come! :-)