Travel by Color

In art, I tend more towards modern and impressionist. Not really a big suprise - it's the color that draws me in, and sometimes the textures and shapes. While I appreciate the talent a painter must have in order to paint a realistic landscape or still life, it just doesn't do much for me. I love the colors....

We also know I love travel...so I've really been enjoying this site by Explorra that suggests destinations by your color choices.

Give it try here.

I'm hoping eventually they'll do an even more sophisticated one that lets you select color combinations. I love the red, gold and turquoise together, which would tell me I need to visit the Dali Theatre Museum in Figueres, Spain .

Based on my color choices, I should go to tropical paradises and cold, cold places like Antarctica or skiing. Sounds good to me!

Happy travel dreams!

Christmas Gummibears

of COURSE Haribo would make its bears with Christmas hats for the holidays.....

Greetings from the Weinachtsbären!

Cupcake Madness

o the cupcake craze has mostly passed - at least in the USA...it's only beginning here in Germany.

I am looking forward to getting a tasty treat at Billy's Bakery in New York after Christmas, but I'm more amused now by the interesting colors and shapes. Baked by Melissa has an incredibly fun site and concept. You can order cupcakes from the wide selection, or create your own (for huge orders).

I know green cupcakes are kindaweird, but I like The Green Lantern...mint and chocolate....yummy!

 

and the very appropriately named NomsCookie

And I bet Cookie Monster would love this one!

  Her cupcake gallery currently has over 3,000 variations for your drooling pleasure, but the most fun part is the Create Your Own Cupcake Customizer. You choose your cake, frosting, color, topping, and stuffing...then can load it in the gallery for all to see.

It's a pretty addictive site.

Here's one I made for Herr J, inspired by one of his favorite (childhood) foods

 

Enjoy!

via Must Have Cute

Can't-Miss German Childrens Games

Germany is the home of such great games as The Settlers of Catan, Alhambra, and Carcassonne.  In fact, they invented the genre of game known as "German-style Board Games," including these strategy games similar to Catan.  The stores' game sections are full of them here and there is even a highly prestigious annual Game of the Year award.

(btw...you can play a short version of Catan online here)

The German toy industry also is very well known for its stuffed animals (by Steif) and model cars/construction machines (Siku and others).

But for the younger kids, there are some quite interesting toys and games out there by Goliath Toys. I remember Ants in the Pants and Hungry Hungry Hippos, but they've taken the interactive part a step further. My descriptions would be so inadequate....you just have to watch the short commercials.

These are not SNL-style spoofs....they are made for real products you can buy on Amazon.de here.  

Kackel Dackel ("Pooping Dachshund")

Schweine Schwarte ("Pork Rind")

Snotty Snotter (no translation needed) 

Fliese Fliege ("Fly Tiles"??)

Man Purse Math

Herr J is still manpurse-less.

To be honest, we haven't really focused our efforts on the issue. Too many other things to do...vacation, vacation photos, job search (me), german class (again, me), enjoying the wonderful Christmas season in Germany, Christmas shopping, etc.

Though, with winter, a man purse has even greater utility. It's really cold here - cold enough that even I am choosing function over form. yes, cold has brought me insanity and I wear gloves and hats and try to wear warm, flat boots. The point being that now guys also have to carry around gloves, hats, umbrellas, and extra weather-related necessities...greatly weighing down the pockets of the man with no manpurse.

I've been keeping an eye out for good bags for Herr J. The ones I've seen and liked brought up some interesting questions:

• Should a guy have a more expensive bag than his girlfriend?
• Is it OK for a guy to have more bags than his girlfriend? (In most cases, I'm going to vote no on that one!)
• Is there some Maximum Man Purse Ratio? i.e, what's the maximum acceptable ratio of how many bags a guy has to how many his girlfriend has? Is it 1/2, 1/3, 1/4???
• In terms of contents of your bag, is it ok for the guy to have more in there than the girl? (I'd say it depends what's in there....electronic gadgets good, hair care products not so good)
• What's the minimum ratio of electronics to other goods that need to be in there to keep the bag manly?

 This is so much more complicated than we thought

Bored, Educated Germans Build the Ultimate Scarecrow

"Achtung! Achtung! Bitte fliegen Sie weiter"

"Attention, attention. Please fly somewhere else."

Strangely polite....

Gummi Garden of Eden

Trolli "Puzzle Trees" + Katjes "Apple & Eve" gummis = tasty and tempting fun

 

Both of these are cool on their own...the Puzzle trees come in pieces that you mix and match to assemble trees.  The different colored fruits actually are different flavors (pear, apricot, plum, lemon, cherry, and apple).

The Apple & Eve are sour apple gummis in apple and snake shapes, with slogan "Who needs Adam?"