Etsy Wishlist: Sloth Stuff

There are various animals I adore and are on my animal bucket list. I have different categories in my bucket list: things to do, places to visit, things to eat, things to see, and yes, animals to meet before I die. Sloths are part of the last list.

Here are some of the sloth items on Etsy:

Three Toe Sloth Plush by MillieFern

Sloth Ring by Curious Burrow

Happy Sloth Necklace by marymaryhandmade

Sloth Baby amigurumi pattern by chiwaluv

Little Sloth Necklace by marmar

Sloth Canvas Tote by squarepaisleydesigh

I guess the sloths have become extremely popular in recent years. Etsy used to have very small number of sloth related merchandise. Now there are 64 pages of sloth stuff on Etsy. There are, however, some items like T-shirts I have seen on other not-so-handmade websites listed along with really handmade items on Etsy. People have been posting increasing number of articles on how mass-produced items are showing up all over Etsy. The items above could be one of them; maybe I simply haven't noticed the same products on other retail websites. I hope not.

The following blogs are interesting to read if you are interested in what is going on with the online marketplace supposedly for handmade and vintage items:

RUSEtsy
EtsyTricksy

Music Video Bookmarks: The Last Bison, Social Studies, Paper Lions, Elijah Ford & The Bloom

The Last Bison Website


Social Studies Website


Paper Lions Website


Elijah Ford & The Bloom Website

Music Video Bookmarks: Parkington Sisters, Wild Child, Yellow Red Sparks, Jess Williamson

Parkington Sisters Website

Wild Child Website

Yellow Red Sparks Website

Jess Williams Website

Music Video Bookmarks: Lincoln Durham, Shakey Graves, The Dirty River Boys, The White Buffalo

Lincoln Durham Website

Shakey Graves Website

The Dirty River Boys Website

The White Buffalo Website

Music Video Bookmarks: Elle King, Dana Falconberry, Fallulah, Agent Ribbons, Love Inks

Here are some artists and music videos I bookmarked in the last three years or so.

Elle King Website


Dana Falconberry Website


Fallulah Website


Agent Ribbons Website


Love Inks Website

Ip Man and Ip Chun

Netflix offers many foreign films some viewers may never watch unless included in monthly fees. The best thing about the Netflix's system is that we can stop watching any boring movie without losing money. Back in the day, returning a movie was never an exciting part of watching a movie, but returning a movie I HATED used to ruin my day. With Netflix or Amazon Prime, all I have to lose is ten or fifteen minutes of my time I could have used for something else, like watching sloth videos.

Sloths are lovely, but I can only watch so many sloth videos. After a while I crave for some action movies. Since an action sloth movie is unavailable, I often look for martial arts movies. Ip Man and Ip Man 2 (the reason why the American movie title is not "Yip Man," I'm not sure) were surprisingly entertaining. Prior to watching these movies, I had seen Donnie Yen's action cop movie Flash Point (which is also on Netflix) and I enjoyed his fight moves. Two exciting Ip Man movies lead me to look for more Ip Man movies including The Legend is Born: Ip Man. There is an old man in this movie by the name Leung Bik who meets young Ip Man and becomes his mentor. This old man is played by Ip Chun, Ip Man's son.

 (photo from Ip Chung Wing Chun Martial Arts Association website)

Ip Man: The Final Fight is the newest Ip Man movie created in 2013. According to IMDB, there is "Ip Man 3" in development, but no details are disclosed at this point. IMDB got me excited so many times with movies in development and then left me in valley of sorrow when the movie deal fell through. What happened to the movie version of Silence based on a novel by Shusaku Endo rumored on IMDB five years ago? Of course, I would rather see the deal gone if the casting and script is not aligned with the novel. We'll see.

Magic for Dogs

The way dogs react to magic, disappearing treats, in the following video reminded me of my little niece when my husband tricked her to pull his finger for the first time.

Magic for Dogs

Three years Later: Living Inside the Evacuation Zone

Three years has passed since the horrific earthquake and tunami destroyed the coastal line of northern Japan. My parents who love the Tohoku area took me to many ports in devastated areas when I was a child. It was, and still is, painful to see the videos and photos from the familiar places. Japan being one of the most technologically and technically advanced countries, the recovery process seems disappointingly slow especially in more rural areas. 

Following the accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, many people were forced to leave their hometowns. Relocation was not easy for many former residents from Fukushima as people in other areas refused to take them in out of the fear of radiation exposure. Despite discouraging resistance and discrimination, people of Fukushima moved to other prefectures. Naoto Matsumura was not one of them. He chose to live within the 20 kilometer evacuation zone taking care of domestic animals other people had to leave behind.

(Photo from Naoto Matsushima's blog)

Watch the following video to see life inside the evacuation zone. The top video is the most recent one. Watch videos on YouTube site to use "cc" option.

March 2014

March 2013

Prefab Sheds: Studio Shed, Kanga Room, Modern Shed

My neighborhood has an interesting mixture of old and new homes. Most homes on my street are 1970s homes and many residents are the original owners. Down the street, there are more modern stucco homes popular in Arizona. Probably because of the large lots and overgrown vegetation compared to the newer housing areas, seeing different styles of homes do not appear disorderly.

There is an empty space in my yard big enough for a small structure. This space has a huge potential, but I am not really sure what I want to do with it. Building a covered outdoor living area would be nice. Having a separate workshop/guest house sounds even better. Either way, my biggest question is the style of the structure. Do I want modern style (like many buildings I adore in Dwell magazine) or an old-fashioned style to complement the house?

Honestly, the look of modern prefab sheds is incredibly appealing.
Here is one from Studio Shed

Kanga Room's studio

Modern Shed

With lots of other things on the priority list, it would not be happening anytime soon. It might take ten years. Who knows. Nevertheless, it is amusing to think about the possibility of currently unused space. First, we have to renovate bathrooms and 1970s style kitchen with avocado green oven and hood. I'm not kidding. I have avocado green appliances in my kitchen. So retro. It matches saguaros outside.

Link:
Backyard Offices: 8 Modern Prefab Sheds

Wake Owl

Take a break, and enjoy music video over a cup of coffee. Wake Owl's music is so soothing any time of the day.

Gold


Wild Country

Etsy Wishlist: Zed's Zombie Ranch

Zed's Zombie Ranch is in Bisbee, AZ. On my next day or weekend trip to Bisbee, I need to pick up one of the metal skeletons. The big question is where to put it. Right next to a Dalek pepper shaker might work. I wish the skeletons came in life size scale.

Steampunk Zombie Skeleton Steel Sculpture

 UFO Crossing Sign

 Zombie Target Practice T-shirt

 

Always remember Rule #2 Double tap.

Wine Folly

Wine Folly is a good site to obtain basic knowledge and latest news on wine. Like everything else, there is a trend in wine market and production. This site informs readers anything wine-related with infographics that basically act as eye candy to visually oriented wine lovers. The site also offers useful downloadable resources such as wine tasting placemats.

Making customized wine tasting mats or beer tasting mats might be fun. Actually, we could pretty much have any kind of tasting party.  How about chocolate, hot sauce, or olive oil? With wine, of course!

Made in the USA: William Bounds

It is only natural that my "made in America" obsession started in my kitchen. I love food, and I love to cook. Once the wooden pepper mills and salt shaker were old and faded after ten years of abuse, it was time to replace them with pepper and salt mills made in America.

It's been probably five years since I purchased William Bounds' HM Twist Chrome Pepper Mill and Salt Mill, and I have been very satisfied with the mills.  I noticed some negative comments on Williams-Sonoma page how some users experienced their mills falling a part and corroded, but my mills are still working well. I guess I was one of the luckier purchasers.  

One down side of these mills is what applies to all manual mills: it cannot beat the speed and volume capacity of electric mills. The electric mills also have a problem: they are usually made overseas (I cannot find a single model made in the US). I took the preferred product origin and nice design. 

There is one more America-made William Bounds product in my kitchen, and that is the nutmeg grinder.

Nutmeg is one of many spices I cannot tolerate buying pre-ground. Why? What is the point? All the nice flavor is gone so quick! I was using hand held grinder for nutmeg, but clumsy people like me could end up grinding own finger someday. The first time I saw this grinder on a website, my reaction was the same as when I glanced at an avocado slicer. Why buy a tool that does another tool in my kitchen already does? Then, I saw the nutmeg grinder at a store and tested it, and I was standing in the checkout line in the next few minutes. I have been pretty happy with the grinder. If I must rate this item, I would give four out of five stars for the lid being tricky to close sometimes.

Looking at William Bounds' website, the company seems to sell products made in the USA and overseas. Having multiple manufacturing location is common nowadays. Never buy an item without reading product description.

Sebastien Millon

A friend of mine texted me a drawing of a bunny a few years ago. For some reason, this bunny made her think of me.

It might be because I was born in the year of the rabbit, I love bunnies. Especially the violent bunnies disguised in cute little faces like the one in a Monty Python movie are hard to resist. I had to find out whoever drew this bunny who tries to threaten the Santa Clause, and that was how I discovered Sebastien Millon and his other cute (and deadly) creatures.

Links to Sebastien Millon sites:
Website
FB
Etsy
Blog

Gardening Videos

People who can grow anything get my absolute admiration, especially those who garden in the Arizonan desert. It was a lot easier to grow things in Texas where humidity was occasionally unbearable. Also, with wild bunnies running around everywhere, any gardening structure has to be fenced, and building such structure will take time and planning. Having a large vegetable bed sounds great, but I will stick to container gardening for now.

The following videos are great for someone interested in growing an indoor plant or starting a plant indoors and then planting it outside.

How to Grow Avocado Plant


How to Grow a Mango Tree

Wombat Videos

Sometimes I feel like I made a mistake moving to the United States and not to Australia. That thought is almost always triggered by watching cute Australian animals such as wombats.

Baby Wombat Running


Wild Animal Encounters - Ben Britton - Wombat


Playing with Baby Wombats


Man Cuddles with a Cute Wombat

Made in the USA: Nordic Ware

Nordic Ware was founded in 1946 as a small family business in the basement of Dave and Dorothy Dalquist's home in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1950, the company introduced a bundt pan which is still their best seller item.

I purchased my first Nordic Ware product seven or eight years ago. It was a tartlette pan sold at a Williams-Sonoma store. Now I also own a bundtlette pan, four bundt brownie pans, and two bundt mini bites pans.

Two of my bundt brownie pans and a bundlette pan are cast aluminum construction while other two bundt brownie pans and bundt mini bites pans are coated aluminum.

Cast aluminum bundt brownie pan


Coated aluminum bundt brownie pan

The cast aluminum version (top) is easier to work with, but these pans are a little more expensive. It tends to result in more moist bundt cakes and cakes don't stick as easily. Coated aluminum version (bottom) requires more greasing and flouring.

One little warning: I have seen Nordic Ware kitchen products made outside the United States. On their website, they seem to distinguish the product origin by showing "Made in the USA" icon if it is made in USA. All bundt pans I have seen have been exclusively made in the USA.

There is a reason the company has been in business for over 50 years: their products work. I know I will add more pans to my collection.

Nordic Ware Website

Other places to shop for Nordic Ware:
Amazon.com
Crate & Barrel
Williams-Sonoma
Cost Plus World Market
Discount shops (if you are lucky) such as Home Goods, TJMaxx, Marshals, Tuesday Morning
...and many other stores including department stores.

Buy "Made in the USA"

Look in your closet, kitchen, and living room. How many items can you find that are made in the USA? Most of us will find more products manufactured in other countries. I have been consciously choosing America-made products for the last several years when it is available. A bitter truth is that some items are not made in the United States at all. Some of us has taken economics classes and are familiar to the specialization of production and trading based on absolute advantage and comparative advantage a country has over other countries. But is the efficiency everything?

The main reason I purchase American products is the environmental concerns. The regulations we have in this country is not perfect but are still more effective than in many other countries. If the price we pay for a cheap foreign product does not include the true cost of production, such as polluted soil and water or compromised product safety, is a cheap product really worth saving a few dollars?

Fortunately, with the rising costs of manufacturing overseas and safety issues, some manufacturers are bringing back jobs and producing goods made by American workers. Other companies maintain their production in the US despite severe competition. In order to avoid the extinction of the American products, consumer awareness and support are inevitable. It is a good news, in a way. Each of us could direct where our money goes.

Links
Made in USA Challenge
This site explains why we American consumers should purchase products made in America.
10 items you didn't know were made in America
This article introduces a short list of products made in the US.

Rachel Fannan

It had to be at least two years ago when Beautiful Dreamer featured in a Canon TV commercial caught my attention. It turns out that I was not the only one who dropped everything what I was doing and searched who sang the song; Rachel Fannan's name came up in less than a second. She is also the lead vocalist of the LA-bases band Only You.

Beautiful Dreamer


Rachel Fannan feat. Michael Harris


Birds Fled From Me - The Resisted


Let Me Sing You Love Songs


There are other music videos of Rachel Fannan on YouTube.

Rachel Fannan links
Website
Music on Myspace
Only You FB

Sloth Videos

How would it feel to eat only 6 grams of food a day and poop once a week? Sloths are programmed to naturally sustain slow life style which I sometimes envy. It is simply incredible that these creatures are not extinct following the path of ground sloths, their distant cousins. Being smaller and living in trees did the trick.

Videos de Perezosos
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Sloth and Cat
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Edward Gorey

When I lived near San Antonio, Texas, McNay Art Museum was one of my favorite places to visit. Amazingly, the museum's collection started as a private collection of Marion Koogler who left 700 pieces of artwork and a Spanish colonial-style mansion on a 23 acre lot to be the foundation of the first modern art museum in the region after her death. In addition to the permanent collection which grew close to 20,000, the museum hosts numerous exhibitions year-round.

Personally, the most memorable exhibition was the work of Edward Gorey.

(photo from Harvard Magazine)

To be honest, I did not even know the artist when I went to the exhibition. However, being a fan of pen and ink illustrations, it took me no time to be drawn into Gorey's beautifully detailed surreal art. The exhibition shared Gorey's works from his famous books as well as more personal items such as illustrated envelopes he sent to his family members.

The following is a small list of the links to Edward Gorey websites:
The Edward Gorey House in Yarmouth Port, MA
The Last Days of Edward Gorey (A documentary by Christopher Seufert)
PBS Mystery!

Logo 101

Read this article if you need a logo for your start-up.

Logo 101: What you need to know before giving a face to your project

Dear Photograph

"Take a picture of a picture, from the past, in the present." This is on my to do list.

Dear Photograph website

Lizzie Velasquez

This is the most uplifting video I have watched in a while.



Lizzie Velasquez's website: http://www.aboutlizzie.com/