Ipod karaoke
Do we even have to discuss how potentially dangerous this little item could be? It appears that you have to download special songs online so that you can see the lyrics across the bottom, but I wonder if you could just use the mike to sing regular old songs off your ipod. I mean really, who needs the lyrics to “It’s Raining Men” or “Beat It” anyhow.
Available from fredflare.com
Plastic food has come a long way in 30 years
While searching for those placemats I just posted below, I stumbled across these plastic play foods that feature latino cuisine items such as a taco, empanada, tamale, flan, etc. Boy has plastic food come a long way since I used to play with it or what!
Kids are funny
Oh I wish you could see these placemats very up close because they are HI-larious! They are disposable paper placemats with kids recipes printed on them. The kind man at the Bob’s Your Uncle booth told me that they are coming out with a new series of these because they did so well, but for now you can get the old series at amazon.com
My favorite recipe of the bunch is for Blueberry Muffins and reads as follows:
Blueberry Muffins:
Blueberry
Sugar
Dough
Salt
Put into muffin things
Put them in the oven
Keep them there for a while
Take out
Eat them
Wood is good
These bracelets from Schlee Design called to me so I had to post them even though I can’t seem to find an online retailer…darn it!
Bourdain’s brilliance
Sigh…I love Anthony Bourdain.
Sigh…I love Top Chef.
What? Anthony Bourdain is guest blogging at Michael Ruhlman’s blog? YES!
Check out Bourdain’s Top Chef contestant run down and tell me he is not the greatest.
He’s so dreamy!
Homesick Coloradoan
I just had to post this link to a great website I was just turned onto by the simply recipes blog. It’s called Homesick Texan and it is all about Mexican and Tex-Mex food. Although I am not from Texas I can sure identify with the lack of great Mexican and Tex-Mex here in NYC. Those guys from the Pace Picante Sauce ad sure had it right!
Oh and by the way, the photo above is of chocolate frito pie. MMMM fritos…MMM chocolate….MMMMMMMM
Thoughts from the NY International Gift Fair:
So, I finally finished rummaging through the fair yesterday at approximately 6:00 pm. This means that I was at the fair for two full 8 hour days, and I am at least an inch shorter because I walked so far carrying 2 huge bags of press kits…but it was worth it.
Most of the feedback that I received from vendors at the fair was positive. I say most because as crazy as it seems to me, there are people out there that have no idea what a blog is. Wha??? Yes, it is true. Some people even gave me suspicious looks and questioned my intentions. It proved difficult to explain to these people that I was not looking to make money off of them, that this was just a hobby and that I provided a source of free marketing. Oy vey.
But let’s talk about the good stuff shall we? As I said previous, I will be wading through the millions of business cards and trying to bring you some fresh and inspirational retail content over the next couple of weeks…it will take at least that long to post all the great design I saw at the show. Stay tuned!
Sink into Sukie
I stopped by the Sukie booth quickly on Sunday at the gift fair, and was reminded of how truly snazzy their pillow collection is. I know the designs above are not terribly new, but they are so cool they are totally worth putting up. Available from Sukie.
A different kind of cowboy dip
Instead of the kitchy cowboy and Native American images I am used to seeing on dinnerware, Abigail Hornik-Minckler has designed some really beautiful pieces of ceramic using historical photographs from her personal collection. Although the pieces are not available online, I wanted to post about her and the western motifs she is using anyhow as a sign of respect to the work she does. They all made me extremely nostalgic about Colorado and Wyoming, with sagebrush and grass as far as the eye can see. Extremely cool.
You can find her website here, and there is a store list so I hope you can find one near you somewhere.
Where in the world is my dinner?
Another great NYIGF find for you, and something that would make an excellent gift for the architect or city planning fiend in your life…the City plate series from notNeutral. These 12″ platter/plates come in four different delightful urban flavors: Los Angeles, Berlin, Cairo and Shanghai. Although they are sold separately on their website, at the show they were displayed all together and I think they are more fun that way.
As a side note, the people at this booth were some of the nicest and most receptive to my blog at the whole show so I want to give them BIG PROPS! Thanks guys!