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