NY Gift Show

Yesterday my friend Karen and I decided to check out the NY Gift Show at the Javits Center. (this is the same Karen that accompanied me to my butcher job..uh..I mean haircut this past weekend) I used to go to this show all the time when I had my gift basket business. It had been a while so I thought it was time to check it out again. Always looking for some new creative packaging ideas. I'm also helping Karen out with an upcoming baby shower (I'm in charge of the cake and cupcakes) so we thought we might find some inspiration for that as well.

We got there late in the afternoon and they already ran out of directories. Not good! We definitely could have been more productive if we had one. Oh - one tip I want to pass on if you ever go to trade shows - don't wear 4 inch spike heels!! Ooop, forgot to remind Karen about that one. :)

The Javits Center is huge - tons and tons of aisles to walk down with loads of different products to see.

There was a sign saying "no photography on the show floor" but I managed to sneak a few shots in anyway. Yep, I can be rebellious like that.

This was a cute booth that we found. Check out all of these sweet treats! Looks yummy, doesn't it?

Now look closer at the label...

Towels!! Genius. I'm telling you, creative packaging makes all the difference. They can be found online at TowelTreat.com

For all you diy-ers out there (like me) if you check online, you can even find instructions on how to make them yourself. Would make a great favor for a baby or bridal shower.

Then my heart almost stopped when we came up to this booth.

Did I ever mention how much I absolutely LOVE ribbons? I'm sure I must have. Paper and ribbons - love them both.

These were my favorite - the ones in the middle row with the roses on them My head is spinning with tons of ideas for these. I MUST have them!!

This was like being in ribbon heaven! Best part, they have NO MINIMUM ORDER!!! Unheard of! They are called Ampelco so if you're a ribbon freak like me, I highly suggest you check them out.

When we got to this next booth - Alice Supply Co., we both stopped in our tracks. This definitely could have won the award for "Most Creative Booth Display"

Look close - her skirt is made from dust pans and her top is a garden hose!!

This girl is sporting dust brushes for her skirt. Looks lovely with her cocnut shells.

This tdefinitely akes fashion to a whole new level!

All I can say is I'll never look at my cleaning supplies the same way EVER again.

Curl Talk - Anatomy Of A Bad Haircut

I decided to start a new segment on my blog called "Curl Talk" - basically because I have unmanageable curly hair that makes me crazy and I needed a place to vent about it and hopefully get some suggestions from my other curly haired comrades. You are out there, aren't you?!?

This weekend I finally booked an appointment to get my hair cut. It was waaaay overdue! Every time I get my hair cut it ends up being a traumatic experience so I tend to space them out quite a bit. The main problem is that I don't have a hairdresser that I love so I keep trying new ones hoping to find that perfect fit. Needless to say, I'm still searching.

I decided to try a local place in my neighborhood based on recommendations. As it turns out, the day I had my appointment, my longtime friend Karen came by that I hadn't seen in ages and she ended up coming with me. She must have sensed that I needed moral support.

We get to the place ON TIME and they say there's going to be a 15 minute wait.

Off to a great start!

Finally the woman comes over that's going to do my hair and just has this look on her face. How do I describe it? Disgust? Horror? Disinterest? I'm already getting a bad feeling. I proceed to tell her I just want a little cut off - like maybe an inch because when my hair is short, it just puffs out. I can't have short, curly, puffy hair!! I told her the last time I had it cut, they cut it into long layers and angled it. I don't want that.

So she says. "ok, so I'll give you long layers and angle it"

Hellooooo!!! Was she even listening to me?!? I told her again what I wanted. I looked over at Karen and she was just rolling her eyes.

I don't know how it happened, but somehow she talked me into long layers. Don't ask me how. I'm still trying to figure that one out myself.

A different woman washes and conditions my hair, then brings me back to the first one. This is where the fun really begins. As she starts hacking away, she's already telling another customer that she'll be with her in 10 minutes.

TEN MINUTES?!? I just sat down lady!

The more she combs and cuts, the drier, fuzzier and puffier it's getting. The knot in my stomach is also growing - in direct proportion to the rate my hair is puffing.

She thinks she's doing a great job, and I have to keep pointing out the problem areas - which basically is the whole entire head! I started to feel like a shrub and she was the gardener with her hedge trimmers, "Oh, we need a little more here. Now it's not even, let's do a bit more here" As I see more and more hair falling to the floor, I'm really starting to freak out. Whatever happened to ONE INCH???

I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I grab Karen, run home, rewet my hair, and put my own products in. I then call for more reinforcements. My sister.

My sister and Karen try to save what's left of it. They proceed to take little sections of hair around my whole head and make twists to set the curls and try to decrease the fuzz.

I can finally relax.

Let's go over the final version: Here's a "before and after" picture. I don't really take many pictures of myself so it was hard to find a good "before" shot. This one will just have to do.

Do you see how much longer my hair was? You're not even seeing my whole head of hair. Believe me, it was long! Look how short that "after" picture is. Eeeek!!

Let's break it down.

First - remember I said I didn't want it short because it would puff out? Well, here's my short, round, shoulder legnth, puffy hair...

Now what's with this piece? Why did she decide to keep this ONE piece long? Doesn't match the other side AT ALL!

This is the part that really gets me. It may be hard to tell from the picture but she hacked my hair into not LONG layers, but SHORT croppy layers!!


The layers are cut to the middle of my head - right where the arrow is! I can't even tie my hair back anymore without half of it falling out!

Yes, the problems us curly haired girls must face.

Next time (which won't be for a long time), I'm going to splurge on either Ouidad or Devachan.

Until then, my hat is going to be my new best friend.

The Today Show - Accessorize To Perfection

Not sure if you caught the Today Show today but on the Style section, they had a segment on how to Accessorize To Perfection. They showed how to take the same black dress and have it go from a day at the office, to lunch with some friends, to out on the town in the evening.

The thing that really caught my eye was that they suggested HEADBANDS for 2 of the looks!!

For the lunch look they used a red headband

and for the evening look they swapped out to a black headband.

You can watch the segment here.

I like! I like!

If you want to accessorize to perfection, check out some of the Total City Girl headbands on our Etsy Shop.

The Lion Cake

Last week was my other nephew's birthday which means that I was on cake duty again. YAY!!

He's such a happy baby. He turned one. Can't believe it went so fast already!

For his birthday celebration I was asked to make a lion cake. I thought about doing a sculpted cake covered in fondant but my week was pretty busy and I never made it to the store to get more fondant. Since my time was limited I opted for a sheet cake decorated with buttercream icing. I found a picture of a lion that I liked online, drew it on a piece of paper and then redrew it with icing onto the cake.

The colors didn't come out exactly as I planned but I still liked it.

My 6 year old daughter asked "why isn't the lion yellow Mama?"

Hmmm, I thought. I don't know. Are all lions supposed to be yellow? I guess when you've been to Disney a hundred times, you're main point of reference is Simba. Gotta start making more trips to The Bronx Zoo!!

Well, good thing the cake wasn't for her. It was for this little guy and he seemed to like it.

Too bad he never got to blow out his own candles. Not with these two around.

Hey buddy, I seem to remember you having a birthday not too long ago. Uh, just a couple of weeks ago as a matter of fact.

And what about you little girl - yours is just a few months away in April. Be patient!

You'll get your Spongebob cake soon enough.

ETSY Love In The Bronx

It's Friday which means we've come to the end of our discussion on The Bronx. I told you about two locations that I thought were definitely worth mentioning - Arthur Avenue and Wave Hill. Today, we're not going to talk about places of interest, but instead, people of interest.

As I was doing some work on my ETSY shop, I decided to browse around a bit. On ETSY there's an option to "shop local". I was curious to see if there were other sellers in The Bronx. I came across quite a list! There were a few in particular that really caught my eye.

Ummashin’s Goodies



I absolutely love love love this one!! Besides her hats being so cute, the photography for this shop is amazing as well. All of the items are hand crocheted by a Bronx "mama". I love the blue and brown combination of the one in the picture and I saw another one in pink and brown. Uh! I have a weakness for pink and brown!! For more info on this great shop, click here.

Next up, Cutiepiecompany

When I saw cutiepiecompany, I just had to stop and take a look. Besides her name being so cute, her site is all about papercrafts, and you know how I just looooove papercrafts! In her shop she has journals, notecards, gift tags as well as original art. The Lady In Red shown above is one of her moleskine cahiers journals. For more info on cutiepiecompany, click here.

If you like soaps, you'll definitely have to check out this next one - Good Enough To Eat Natural Products

The name alone for this soap is a complete attention grabber - crunch-a-bunch bar. This soap combines a light sweet smell of banana and the richest of Organic Granola. I don't know if I want to wash with it, or just eat it! Sounds like a perfect breakfast to me! For more info on Good Enough To Eat Natural Products , click here.

If you haven't had a chance to check out Total City Girl's ETSY shop (that would be me),

you can take a look over here or there's a link on the right sidebar of this blog.

Outer Borough Experience - The Bronx, Part II

Yesterday I gave you a little insight into an area in The Bronx known as Arthur Avenue. If you're a foodie, definitely put it on your list of places to go.

Today we switch gears and talk about some culture going on in The Bronx. Culture and The Bronx in one sentence? Yes, it really does exist!

There's a hidden gem located right along the Hudson River in the Riverdale section of The Bronx known as Wave Hill.

What is Wave Hill you ask?

It's a lot of things to a lot of people.

If you're an artist, it's a place to go to paint and draw.

If you're a photographer, it's a place that has spectacular views and lots of opportunities to refine your nature photography.

If you're a soon-to-be bride, it's a perfect venue to have your wedding.

And, if you're a parent, it's a place that offers a fun, inexpensive cultural activity to do with your kids on the weekends. So versatile!

Quite a few weekends when we don't want to go too far, but we know we have to get the girls out of the apartment before they either

A - zone out from watching too much TV

B - fight over something as insignificant as empty toilet paper rolls ( I swear, I'm not kidding you)

or

C - make a giant mess of the place (which means more clean up for me - and that's just not going to happen!)

we ask "Who wants to go to Wave Hill?" Fortunately they answer with "we do!"

What's good about Wave Hill is we can all get something out of it.

The hubbs (he's an artist by the way) will either bring a sketchbook so he can draw,

or his easel so he can paint.

Ooooh! Nice job!

The girls get to participate in the Family Art Project - a different art workshop for kids held every weekend. My sister and her kids usually come with us so that makes it even more fun for everyone.

One weekend, the theme was water so they got to sketch by the frog pond,

and run around the sprinklers. I think that was their favorite part!

Another time they painted with colors from nature using berries, leaves, and whatever else they found ON THE GROUND. No picking anything off the trees!!

So busted baby!!

They get exposed to lots of different media,

and get to make a big old mess in someone else's territory. Love that!

I of course bring my camera and photograph everything!

Kids,

lots of trees,

the frog pond,

the extensive gardens,

and of course the beautiful scenery.

Even this. I think it looks like a hippo. What do you think?

Then we usually head on over to the little outdoor cafe where the girls like to eat lunch,

and cupcakes! Nice sharing!

They like to work off their lunch by running around the grounds and playing frisbee

until we found out you're not allowed to play frisbee. Woops!

By this time, they're done. We pack up our things and head on out.

I especially like Wave Hill in the Fall and Spring but each season has something special to offer.

For more info on Wave Hill, you can check out their website.

To continue our Bronx theme, tomorrow I'll be featuring some artisits I found on ETSY that also happen to be in The Bronx. The Bronx should be looking pretty good by now!