The Succulent Wife's Favorite Things

Antiques of our Future

For those of us with a bend for all things design, here is a great book to help us appreciate great design of today.

It features the works of design illuminaries such as Tord Boontje, Marc Newson, Robert Venturi, Niki de Saint Phalle, Naoto Fukasawa to name just a few.

Brilliant and inspiring collection of beautiful and fabulously designed functional objects. Very clever.

The author, Lisa Roberts believes that the objects listed here will become the collectibles of the future and will significantly increase in value once they are no longer in production. That's the only excuse I need to bring some of these objects home with me. You can buy it here.

Eco-Living Tips

I am a self-declared Daily Candy addict. I know that are a few of us out there since they have a 90% + open rate on their emails. Love my DailyCandy fix, but have stumbled upon this other fantastic daily newsletter from www.IdealBite.com. They offer daily tips about easy simple ways to live a more ecologically aware way. AS they say, small changes add up: "Small changes...Done by Many...Create Big Results."

I love the "educational" aspect the best. In just a couple weeks of subscription, I've learned - among other things- about Parabens, cold water washing and the immense amount of CO2 emitted every time you flush the toilet in an airplane. Who knew?

Readers are invited to contribute their tips and there is a blog where readers are invited to comment.

This is one newsletter that feels good to receive. Pass it on!

My New Favorite - Level 99 Wide Leg Pant

I just got the Level 99 pair of wide leg jeans that I ordered from the very cute Polkadots & Moonbeams shop. These were so very hard to find. They've been sold out forever.

Denim style, these wide legs pants are a flattering fit for the more curvaceous among us. Indeed, The waist actually fit as well as the hips. Those of you with this body type know too well about the gaping waits around pants. Oy!

Fitted around the derriere with a nice non-clingy wide leg. And, for a designer jean, the price is right at $98. Love the light fabric which will make these tolerable in the Las Vegas summer heat. You have no idea...

GoCar Tours

THE CURE FOR THE COMMON TOUR ™

The GoCar is the first GPS-guided tour car that launched in San Francisco in April 2004.  As the “first ever storytelling car", it's evidently the most fun way to tour San Francisco, San Diego and Miami.

The GoCar looks like a tiny yellow two-seater car, but is actually a three wheeled moped that carries two passengers required to wear helmets. The "integrated" tour guide system provides running commentary in a choice of five languages. The GoCar takes you to spectacular places few visitors get to see on their own. It's like having a local show you around. This little car can go where the tour buses can't.  It also allows you to tour at your own pace. The GPS tour guide will make suggestions for good stops and direct the driver if he or she gets lost.  Gone is any excuse to be a stupid tourist!

Rich and Dark...

I just discovered my new favorite mascara: L'Oreal's Voluminous mascara in Carbon Black. Yummmm.

You know the type of question "If you were stuck on a desert island and only had one makeup tool to bring with you, what would it be?" Well, mine is definitely mascara. My mom would like me to say lipstick (you know, it's that generation), but no, it's mascara.

I must have tried every brand from Yves St-Laurent, Dior, all the way down to Rimmel and Maybelline's always top rated Great Lash. These never did ANYTHING for me. Those complicated mascaras with the primer coat? Forget it! Messy, and who's got time? I never found that price was a factor in mascara. Lipstick, eyeshadow, foundation, absolutely. Mascara? Never saw a difference. So, L'Oreal's Voluminous has been the brand that I've fallen back to - between disloyal experiments. And I just tried the new Carbon Black Voluminous. Ooooooooooooh, I like this one. For rich, black, black, black lashes... this is the one I'm sticking with!

Quick Fix -- Art*O*Mat Vending Machines

What is an Art-o-mat?

Art-o-mat machines are retired cigarette vending machines that have been converted to vend art.

For less than the price of a pack of cigarettes, you can get your own little pieces of art.  A much healthier habit if you need to have one.  And, so much more fulfilling than a few drags.

Each Art-o-Mat selection costs $5;  half goes directly to the artist, $1.50 to the host and $1 for machine maintenance. Pick the artist, pull the  machine knob on the converted cigarette machine and you get - not only a thrill - but also an original work of art in miniature form. That's all you need to know to become an instant art collector.

Over 400 artists contribute their work. See some examples here and an ABC News clip below.

Virtual Alter Egos -- Cute Cute and for a good cause!

I discovered the www.DesignHerGals.com site a few months ago and finally made a purchase with notecards models featuring my daughter and then my niece. They loooooooved seeing an illustration that represents them. 

Here is the one done I created for my daughter. For those who know who, they immediately recognized her and were oooiing and ahhhing at how much it looked like her.

I think that this is a really clever concept. Not just the product, which is awfully cute, but mostly because it supports a breast cancer foundation and donates $1 of every sale to the Gal to Gal Foundation, which focuses on Stage IV Breast Cancer . Their goal for 2007 is $1 Million. Go ahead and start designing your personalized avatar and contribute to an important cause!

The Hip New Look of an Old Craft

Sunny Leather Rising by Allison Sattinger

Allison Sattinger is re-inventing the old craft that is hand tooled leather. She makes unexpected leather accessories that fuse the classic technique of carving and tooling leather with the airy chic of the California girls who wear her collection of belts, necklaces and cuffs.

The rarity of tooled leather in fashion has made for some really fun conversations with strangers asking, "Where DID you get that necklace/belt?" and more than one on-the-spot purchase. The word has spread from friends of friends to clients and teachers, precipitating the need to create a full line of readily available pieces available at The Succulent Wife’s online store.

Vacation with a Purpose!

Well, same thing happens every March. I end up panicked, faced with the task of organizing our family's summer: camps, obligatory summer school, family visits, leisure travel... How can I fit it all in and coordinate it so that it schedules correctly? Oh, and then I'm working with special wishes, demands and budgets. I feel like a flight controller at O'Hare. 

This year, I am quite excited at the idea that we could be choosing a Volunteer Vacation. Indeed, I just found this great company that organizes such vacations for families: www.CrossCulturalSolutions.org.  It's still expensive, but I think that it would make an incredible impact on my children. Personally, I have lived in a third world country, the Congo to be exact, so I have an idea of what abject poverty looks like. Although, I must shamefully admit that I never have done anything to "help" directly. And, as much as we criticize this country that we live in, we are completely ignorant of the living conditions that the vast majority of this planet's inhabitants deal with in their everyday. I need my children to have a better appreciation for what they have. Be grateful and remember to give back.

This "vacation" would definitely be pricey, but also "priceless" in terms of the life changing experience it would bring to all of us.

One Week of Art

Brilliant! Enjoy and get inspired at the infinite possibilities... Amazing to see how much can be created and how much can change in a week's time.

Crayola??

Well, this is perhaps the last thing I thought I would ever be writing about: a Crayola product!

Indeed, while my daughter and I were shopping for supplies for a school project, we saw these Crayola Twistables Slick Stix and thought that the nubby crayons might be good to cover large surfaces quickly. Well, just one little glide out of the package and we had our new favorite thing!

These crayons totally live up to their name and their packaging. For once, the packaging does make false claims about the product's attributes! It simply pushes this little qualifier: "Super Smooth!" Smooth? Close your eyes and imagine the decadent feeling of using your most buttery lipstick and drawing with it. That's what these crayons feel like! Forget that you can't draw anything close to a fine line with these. That's not the point (pun kinda intended). The point is that these crayons provide an experience in coloring like you have never had. The Slick Stix just melt on the paper and leave the most vibrant color in their path. Too bad that only 5 primary colors are available.

I have this sudden urge to color a mandala!

PS: I don't know how good these are for young kids. I heard that they can be messy and are not washable. But this newly rediscovered inner child is having a ball. Who knew that coloring would ever be fun again?

Tooth and Tusk Jewelry Collection

Lacey Wilkins is the creator behind the almost eponymous NeckLacey Jewelry line. Her education and training in the field of fashion merchandising allowed her to launch this first collection like a pro. It is cohesive with a palpable fashion forward edge. Lacey is obsessed with the study of trends - existing and upcoming - and loved the idea of creating a "rock & roll" look that moves beyond the now pervasive "skull-with-something-froufrou" product.

The shark tooth selected by her son in a tourist gift shop while the family was vacationing in Florida is what spawned the whole collection. Based on marine elements, the Tooth and Tusk Collection displays a hard edge with shark teeth and sharp shapes which juxtapose beautifully with the vulnerability of the coral. Lacey's unique wire wrapping technique also imparts a sense of irreverence and of "imperfection as the new cool".

No animals were harmed in the making of these great pieces*

* Horns and Tusks are approved but the Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources and the Bureau of Animal Industries and Customs. The shark teeth are fossils from the US East Coast. Sharks shed their teeth naturally many times a year. The coral is from a commercial coral fishery with a license to cultivate from a unique Coral Collection Area with sustainable management guidelines.