Burger of the Week #142

Feeling a bit weighed down this holiday season? Join the Non-Athletic Department. Uniform provided by Alex Solis on Threadless.

Cut, Pasted and Pinned

Before there was Pinterest, I  had scissors, glue, bulletin boards... and my little blue book.

Pinterest has greatly organized my life. As a crafty crafter, the ideas pile up, get lost and often forgotten. Before the internet knew how to sort and categorize my thoughts and ideas, I would paste magazine tear-outs and illustrate ideas in notebooks.

Pinterest is now my visual bookmarking system. A searchable bulletin board. I still reference and add to my blue book, but Pinterest is my go-to, for how-to's, decor ideas, typography hints and of course, recipes! 

The anxiety is lessened knowing my ideas are neatly pinned, sorted, and shared! If you're a habitual DIYer and you haven't turned to Pinterest for inspiration and stress-free idea filing... I'd recommend making it a New Year's resolution!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Awesome

Ok, who else has discovered this "Auto Awesome" thing that my smartphone has started doing?! 

Auto Awesome creates fun new versions of photos and videos—combining them into short animated gifs.

Check out how it's added snow and twinkle to some of my images below. Silly, yet charming and fun—and it happened with no effort from me!

Icy View from Home Yesterday

Skating at Rockefeller

Wollman Rink in Central Park

Twinkling Christmas Decor in the Free People Store

Twisted Christmas (Coffee Cake)

The food festivities have begun!

I spent most of the afternoon working on this Gooey Apricot Orange Twisted Coffee Cake (which means, yes, we essentially served coffee cake for Christmas Eve dinner). This is actually a recipe I attempted Thanksgiving weekend, only to encounter total ruin (I think I murdered my yeast). 

This was one of my first attempts working with yeast, and after my Thanksgiving failure, we were particularly careful. Operating without the aid of the KitchenAid (ok... we may have let my mothers bread machine do 15 minutes worth of kneading for us....), we ended up with the most perfectly, round dough I've ever created.

The results were a phenomenally sweet treat. And though not quite Country Cleaver pretty, it was well worth the second attempt!

DIY: Simple, Festive Garland

So every year as I collect Christmas cards, calendars and miscellaneous prettiness, I punch 1.5" circles from the patterns and save them. I've taken the circles and sewn them together into a festive garland. 

With the array of colors, it's appropriate for year-round merriment. It's a simple, recycled, DIY! Now I just need to figure out how to store it without tangles!

Going a-round with Frank Lloyd Wright

In continuation of my Frank Lloyd Wright tour... when last in New York, we went to the Guggenheim. The cylindrical building is an architectural landmark, and I was interested in seeing how it functioned as an art museum. Built in 1959, the building's main gallery is a unique ramp that extends from the ground flour up 6 levels toward the skylight. 

As we ascended the ramp, we stopped off at each annex side room, which made our experience of the Rotunda disjointed. In retrospect, I'd recommended viewing the rotunda exhibit seamlessly as you climb, and then visiting the side rooms on your way back down. 

Overall, the view from the top was mesmerizing—and the parallel lines captivating. From there, you are able to see an overview of the main exhibition—on our visit it was Christopher Wool. The monochromatic-ness of Wool's work was quite striking when paired with the lines of the Guggenheim's architecture. 

The museum as a whole seemed small, and without the added interest of the ramp and the spiraling gallery, it would be underwhelming. It had some structural elements that seemed to interrupt the building flow, bathrooms that intruded and you had to walk around instead of passing seamlessly by.

But for any Frank Lloyd Wright fan, it's an interesting and important piece of history.

Burger of the Week #141

The now infamous Burger Earmuffs....

When Josh Gates ordered a Destination Truth t-shirt on Amazon and received burger earmuffs instead... he was not disappointed. (WHO WOULD BE??)

Visit Buzzfeed to see his earmuff antics....

Meet the Newest Family to Sell you Soda

On my recent flight from NYC to GR, I was handed this napkin along with my tiny little glass of Diet Coke. The napkin directed me to polarbearsmovie.com, and since I aways take instruction from ta, I checked it out.

For the 2013 campaign, Ridley Scott produced a 7 minute video introducing the newest Coca-Cola polar bear family. Along with watching the animated short on the website, you can meet the characters and go behind the scenes.

It's a well done, elaborate ploy to get consumers to interact with a beverage brand on an entertainment level. I'm sure kids everywhere will be asking their parents for the soda sold by Jak, Zook and the Polar Girls... even though the product appears no where in the entire video segment.

The Coca-Cola polar bears first appeared in France in 1922, and appeared sporadically after that until 1993, when the Northern Lights ad reintroduced them, and made them one of the most popular icons in advertising. Since then, they've become an integral part of the Always Coca-Cola campaign and are a particular delight during their annual Super Bowl ads.
You can watch the new movie on youtube or at the polarbearsmovie website.

Atypical Stereotypical Gift Giving?

Hey Grand Rapidians, if you haven't quite checked of those hard to buy for people off your list, Revue Magazine has a beautifully designed gift guide to help you out. 

Organized by personality type, the guide offers suggestions based on Do, Drink, Listen, Eat and Watch. 


Ideas for everyone, including your favorite... '90s Child, Artist, Beer Geek, Biker, Bookworm, Cosplayer, Creepy Uncle, Critic, Doomsday Prepper, Eccentric, Fashionista, Film Buff, Foodie, Internet Activist, Music Geek, Parent, Thespian, Thrifty, and West Michigan Enthusiast. 

The writing and illustrations are spot-on and witty. Illustrated by Craig Horky and compiled by a collection of contributors, it's a very original and appreciated approach to (local) holiday gift giving. 

You still have time to review it here. 

Burger of the Week #140

It's time to finish up your holiday baking. Maybe this little burger timer from Modcloth can help!

Holiday Ghosts

So my boss beat me at Pacman at Stella's on Friday (a shockingly worthy opponent), so I owed her some Pacman cookies. With Christmas being so near... I figured why not holiday them up a bit!

Meet this year's Christmas cookies. Two birds, one stone.

A Presidential Card form Grand Rapids

The 2013 White House Christmas card was designed right here in Grand Rapids by PopUpCards.com artist Chris Hankinson.

The card features a pop-up rendering of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, and even features the first pets!

Eat Responsibly... as told by Chiptole

From CAA Marketing and Moonbot Studios comes a breathtaking animated short film for Chipotle that will leave tears in your eyes.

It plays out like a feature film— A hauntingly beautiful Fiona Apple cover of Pure Imagination gives the soundtrack to an emotional lesson. In this dystopian fantasy a scarecrow goes to work at a food processing plant, discovers the evils occurring behind closed doors, and eventually returns to work on a small farm.
One of the most honest statements in the film, is the food labels at the plant... "100% Beef-ish". Chiptole's goal is to explain to people how the food they eat is raised; to try to expose the rosy façade of an over-produced food industry. This isn't the first time they've urged for the cultivation of a better world— you can watch their 2011 animation here. 

The video ultimately links to an app you can download for a game defeating crows. You can also purchase the Fiona Apple cover on iTunes.

The video hits a home run: amazing song, impressive animations, and a decisively strong environmental message about the evils of manufactured food production. I am shocked that this message comes from a massive food chain, and only pray that they are living up to their own judgements.

This video illustrates perfectly why I became a vegetarian. If you want to watch the more gruesome, real-life version, take the 12 minutes to watch this message from meat.org.

Holiday Surprises at the Airport

Looks like i should have gone to Calgary last weekend instead of New York City. Get ready for an amazing holiday surprise...

Canadian airline WestJet set up an electronic Santa chat stations in terminals allowing travelers to talk live with Santa telling him what they want for Christmas. Then, while passengers flew to their destination, WestJet shoppers ran out on a crazy spree. 

When the travelers arrived at baggage claim, big blue boxes with their names came down the ramp. Everything from underwear to big TVs were wrapped inside. It's a magical moment, as Christmas wishes are fullfilled. 

This is what Christmas should be about, generous surprises in lives of strangers. (Even if it is a fantastic marketing ploy to go viral on the internet). I applaud WestJet for celebrating the holiday in an original fashion.

Window Shopping on 5th Ave.

One of the reasons that a trip to NYC at Christmas was so appealing to me, was the chance to see the holiday windows and decor on 5th Ave. Here's the run down of my three favorites.

Bergdorf Goodman – Bergdorfs always has some of my favorite windows. Their windows are so special, they have their own section on the blog. The 2013 holiday series is stunning. Holidays on Ice celebrates a whole year of holidays, all in a glittery, white frozen landscape. The series was unveiled in a spectacular manner... complete with acrobats dangling from the 5th Avenue building, you can watching the reveal here. There's so much spectacular detail in these windows, you can't look at them enough and these (beautiful) photos don't do them justice!

Saks – According to legend, there's a Yeti living on the department store's rooftop, who makes snow in the winter. The series of Sak's windows tell the story of how the Yeti left Russia and came to NYC. The animated windows are spirited and adorable. And I sincerely hope there is a Yeti on the 9th floor, instead of Santa, who you can tell all your Christmas wishes to (i did not go upstairs to check...). Read more about how the windows were created here or order the storybook here. 

Tiffany's – Tiffany's small, modest windows were tasteful and effective. They also had transformed the side of their building into a NY apartment scene. They did a fabulous job of bringing window elements into the store, in cases and on the mirrored walls.

These windows were dazzling, not a total surprise. What was surprising, was the number of stores who didn't seem to do anything special or specific for the holiday at all. You're on Fifth Avenue!! Step it up, take advantage!

Skating Across NYC

I was off to NYC last week with the main objective of  achieving a bucket list item.... Skate at Rockefeller Center. 

The Rockefeller Rink is featured prominently on the Today Show throughout the winter, so it's only natural that someone with an interest in figure skating would seek it out. Besides, skating there, the day after the massive, tree lighting ceremony, seemed like a good way to kick off this holiday season. 

And since I was there, I thought I'd also skate at Wollman Rink in Central Park (now called Trump Rink) and also at Bryant Park.

What's the obsession with skating in NYC? Perhaps it's scenes like this from the movie Serendipity. (I also tried to get into the café Serendipity to try the frozen hot chocolate, but there was always a 2-3 hour wait).

Rental skates made the day difficult, and I'm still sporting a pretty awesome bruise, but overall, it was a most excellent day in the city, surrounded by beautiful lights and the Christmas spirit. 

For those of you in New York with the urge to do your own skating tour.... I've got two more to add yo your lists. Saturday, after Thursday's skating adventure, I found rinks below the Highline and Brookfield Place near the 9/11 Memorial.