French Bull Big City Wall Stickers

Whenever I take my kids into the city, it’s like King Kong is clinging to the top of the Empire State Building.

About 50 percent of our time is spent staring at the top of skyscrapers, or even modest high-rise apartments. It’s a miracle that we don’t get trampled by sidewalk pedestrian traffic!

People may assume that WallCandy’s French Bull City Wall Stickers represent Manhattan. Based on the low car-to-cab (not to be confused with low-carb) ratio, I can definitely tell you that the boy in the picture is NOT playing with New York.  Midtown traffic is just a sea of taxi yellow.

French Bull City is Any City, any place your child deems it to be. It very well could be downtown Hartford, Nashville, Sacramento, or even the City of Fairies if you crossover with our Sweet Dreams Fairies decals.

The thing I appreciate most about the French Bull architects is their creative building designs. Why should urban planners settle on cookie-cutter buildings?

In the spirit of avoiding boring plain rectangles, we found some fascinating skyscraper architecture around the world. For starters, check out this bottle-opener-shaped tower in Saudi Arabia. It almost could double as a giant slingshot.

Kingdom Centre -- Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Source: WebUrbanist.com)

Also known as the Burj Al-Mamiaka, the Kingdom Centre tower has the negative space to abide by local laws forbidding occupied floors beyond a certain height.

The Gherkin in London. (Source: WebUrbanist.com)

Costing more than $1 billion, the Gherkin is Britain’s most expensive office building. Looks like a bullet or missile wrapped in pretty wrapping paper.

The Lippo Centre in Hong Kong (Source: WebUrbanist.com)

This skyscraper is my favorite. It looks like one of those toy brain-teaser puzzles you twist for hours with no progress.
Locals nicknamed these towers the “koala trees” because it looks like the “C” shapes are clinging to a trunk.

So what’s the funkiest-looking building you’ve ever seen?

Mother’s Day is a great opportunity to celebrate the summery nature of our dear mothers, but is one festive day enough? Every May, our friend and loyal blog reader, Jack, takes his mother on a weekend trip to somewhere they’ve both never been. So far they’ve been to 32 of the 50 states together, including Alaska.

In Allison’s house, they celebrate Momukkah. “It takes eight days to fully celebrate the magic of Mama,” she said.

If there’s one WallCandy design that most reminds us of our mothers, it’s our Rococo chalkboard decal. It has a knack for keeping things neat and organized in the midst of chaos. We also admire its grace and the subtle way it encourages us to be productive and try something new, a process that begins with a note: Make kale chips to go with dinner. Sign up for SCUBA. Practice calligraphy by writing mom-centric haiku.

Like the rest of our peel and stick chalkboard wall decals, Rococo is reusable, made in the USA with non-toxic materials, and leaves walls looking just the way they looked before.

In celebration of all you versatile moms out there – whether you’re the mother of a hefty brood of humans or one gorgeous potted gardenia – we’re offering 25% off Rococo with the code mom25 from now until May 19. Give your own dear mother an elegant space for scribbling down important to-dos, add it to the wall above your daughter’s headboard to create a special place for sappy love notes, or design a refrigerator door that keeps track of goals and grocery lists. You know, kind of like a peel-and-stick mom manager extraordinaire.

We’d love to learn about some of your family’s Mother’s Day traditions. Leave a comment or send a quick note to hello@wallcandyarts.com.

Of course, the mess laying in wait beneath two such striking styles was more than memorable – it was downright traumatic, especially for the ones responsible for chipping away the hardened chemical glues and sanding the wall for hours in preparation for a pseudo-restorative skim coat. Perhaps it was this awful process that inspired Allison to design a peel-and-stick wallpaper that requires neither glue nor primer, blood nor tears. Once you’re ready for a new look, simply peel it away to find your walls still looking fresh underneath. It’s also completely reusable, so you can decorate a different space without creating extra waste.

We suspect we’re not fostering this serious case of wallpaper love all by ourselves. So, to celebrate the appearance of WallCandy’s striped removable wallpaper in the May 2012 issue of Parents magazine, we’re offering 15% off all removable wallpaper kits, from our dorm-transforming mustache print to French Bull’s super-cute Monster Mashup. We cordially invite you to shop our website and use the code wallpaper15 at checkout to save on your next memorable design project. Happy peel-and-stick wallpapering!

What wallpaper pattern sparks your sense of nostalgia? Tell us about it! Send us a message at hello@wallcandyarts.com.

The Chalkasaurus is the latest peel-and-stick sensation in WallCandy's full line of Removable Chalkboard & Dry Erase Decals. Click the pic to see other members of the chalkboard family!

You never forget your first dinosaur!

Mine was Dino Flintstone, the domesticated Rockasaurus who lives with Fred and Wilma Flintstone. In the episode where Fred first met Dino in the wild, the friendly creature could talk — but strangely his eloquence completely disappeared by the next show.

My children were first enchanted by the ubiquitous purple Barney (“I Love You, You Love Me”) and Dorothy the Dinosaur from The Wiggles.

And later, I became absolutely obsessed with Michael Crichton’s “Jurassic Park,” the book — not the movie — and I was mesmerized by both the wily Velociraptors and the chicken-sized Compsognathus, nicknamed “The Compy” for short.

WARNING: Do not attempt to write on Raptors with chalk!

My own son rattles off dinosaur heights and weights like a sportscaster with an NFL roster.

Which is why I am delighted to announce the birth of the WallCandy Chalkasaurus.

Our latest chalkboard design which is coming soon — stay tuned to our announcements on Facebook, Twitter and the WallCandy newsletter — most closely resembles the Brachiosaurus, an 85-foot-long, 30-plus-ton vegetarian.

Our Chalkasaurus is 33-inches high and weighs virtually nothing. He or she (we quite frankly can’t tell the difference between dino-genders) comes with six chalkboard plant clusters and allergy-free chalk.

And unlike Dino Flintstone, this Chalkasaurus will talk back. Depending on whether you choose to scrawl out a grocery list, a phone message or the coming week’s Little League or soccer schedule, we see it joining the pantheon of all WallCandy’s removable and reusable chalkboard decals as a Family Communications godsend!

Here are some other fun peel-and-stick chalkboard styles (see a video demo) to look out for if you’d like to give the Chalkasaurus some friends or recreational activities:

Chalkboard Jungle: Elephant, Giraffe and Birds.

Chalkboard Stars: Use for either Hollywood-buzz or astronomy.

Chalkboard Cupcakes: Frost it with multi-colored chalk.

Chalkboard Ice Cream: Will never melt, we promise!

P.S. Sign up for our newsletter at the bottom right-hand corner of our homepage and receive a 10 percent-off coupon good for Chalkasauruses and/or any other WallCandy product.

THINK PINK: Click the Princess to learn more about WallCandy's French Bull Princess Wall Decals!

We here at WallCandy are huge fans of the color pink.  Need convincing?  Just take a look at our French Bull Princess Wall Decal collection.

Sure, there’s the hot pink princess dress, but if you zoom out on the scene, you’d see pink tree trunks, pink leaves, pink hair, a pink castle and plenty of pink flowers and clouds.

It wasn’t so long ago that there was a parenting backlash against pink, concerned that our daughters would become prisoners of gender stereotypes if they played with dolls and had a wardrobe consisting of every shade of cotton candy. The pendulum seems to have swung the other way, with Disney Princesses dominating the birthday party scene and even some of the toy aisles.  There’s the realization that childhood fantasies of dressing up like Princess Kate have their own imaginative value and don’t hinder our girls’ potential to become engineers, mathematicians, lawyers, business leaders, etc.

The LEGO company, for example, just came out with a pink and purple-dominated “Friends” brand as a result of marketing research concluding that girls want pink.

Yet, in our liberated times, flouncy pink clothes might have a shot at expanding beyond the traditional toddler and tween demographic.

Check out this middle-aged guy in the tutu, for example:

Bringing Ballet to Rural Audiences: The Tutu Project (Click tutu for more info).

Brooklyn photographer Bob Carey is working on an offbeat photography coffee table book featuring him modeling a pink tutu — and nothing else. The Tutu Project will be documented in his book “Ballerina,” with proceeds benefiting breast cancer research. Bob’s wife Linda has been battling the disease and these “adventures of a guy and his pink tulle” have been amusing her and fellow patients.

Bob has been posing in the tutu since 2003 and has pranced around such landmarks as the Grand Canyon, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Times Square.

According to the NY Daily News, his fans include officers in the Atlantic City Police Department. When the cops received reports of a strange shirtless man wearing a tutu, they investigated the scene and determined they wanted to pose for souvenir pics with him.

It should be noted that Bob wears pink shorts underneath the tutu for modesty reasons and, of course, to avoid any indecent exposure complaints.

If you've ever taken a ride on the New York Subway, this scene isn't so unusual. What is unusual is the model's dedication to charity.

The Huffington Post playfully called Bob a “Hairy Fairy Godmother.”

In that spirit, we think he’d look fabulous as one of our Sweet Dreams Fairies!

For a more detailed dose of Bob’s humor, please visit The Tutu Project.

What will be the next children's plaything to bask in the national spotlight -- removable wall stickers, perhaps?

Besides being fervently pro-America (you did know that all our removable wall stickers are made in the USA, right?), we wisely keep our nose out of politics in the WallCandy world.

Why?  Well because, quite frankly, there are Democrat Princesses and Republican Princesses. To our knowledge, Cowboys and Owls have no staunch positions on national health care — at least the decal-bodied ones who live in our bedrooms and playrooms. And heck, you can scrawl any political screed you wish on the Rococo chalkboard decals or our Stick-On Dry Erase Whiteboards.

But the playroom is our domain here, and we were overwhelmed with amusement and nostalgia this week when the Etch a Sketch made a surprise guest appearance into the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

First, a Mitt Romney spokesman said that the general election against President Obama would be like a clean slate for his candidate:

“I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up, and we start all over again.”

Then his rivals pounced, alleging that Romney has no core values and can erase his views without any moral hesitation before creating new ones that suit his audience of the moment. Ann Romney didn’t like the metaphor, defending her husband on CNN.

But the amusing part was seeing both Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum hold up Etch a Sketches at multiple press conferences. For a split second, at least for me, the political noise was turned down to silent and I just saw two grown men smiling with a classic toy that spans most of our childhoods. (Remember the Etch a Sketch’s fun cameos in the Toy Story movies?)

More amazing: Shares of parent company Ohio Art more than doubled in Wall Street trading, according to Bloomberg News.

Martin Killgallon, the company’s senior vice president of marketing and product development, had a clever spin on the hoopla for Bloomberg: “Etch A Sketch has right and left-hand knobs,” he said. “We speak to both parties. And together we can draw circles.”

Now, any suggestions for infusing children’s bedroom and birthday party decorations into the national election?

The writer really nailed the philosophy behind the design, too. Supporting your child’s ever-evolving sense of style during crucial development stages encourages identity, independence, and self-esteem. Of course, decorating his or her room to reflect every whim can become time-consuming and toss a sizable wrench into any parent’s ability to be appropriately enthusiastic.

Traditional wallpaper requires a commitment that isn’t quite compatible with keeping the harmony between a busy parent and a creative child with constantly changing tastes. Peel-and-stick removable wallpaper goes on without glue, primer, or pretreatment, and comes off without leaving your walls looking like they’ve lost a battle against a jug of industrial chemicals. When your child is ready for a new look, simply peel the wallpaper away and reuse it to decorate the playroom, bathroom, that blank wall in the walk-in pantry… any room that could use an easy makeover.

Jungle Love: French Bull and WallCandy Arts team up to create the Friendliest African Safari your baby can enjoy from her or his crib.

What amazes me about language development and early education is just how often the passengers of Noah’s Ark make an impact on our kids.

Think about it.  If you’re learning to speak a new language, how often would you use the words “Giraffe,” “Lion,” “Hippo,” or “Elephant” in normal everyday conversations?   I suppose that you would if you grew up in a zookeeper’s family or in a hut near the Serengeti Plain. But jungle animals totally dominate children’s literature and decor.

The end result of that?  A population primed for becoming biologists, environmental conservationists or at bare minimum, the future audience for Animal Planet, National Geographic and The Discovery Channel.

One of the things that amuses me most as a parent is being continually surprised by how many astounding details my elementary school and preschool-age children know about the animal kingdom.  To celebrate the recent release of WallCandy Arts and French Bull’s latest Jungle Wall Decals, our research team has come up with some amazing animal facts (via National Geographic’s Mammal files) so you’ll be prepared the next time your youngster starts a conversation.

French Bull Elephant Wall Sticker

THE ASIAN ELEPHANT

• Elephant ears radiate heat to keep them cool.
• An elephant’s trunk has more than 100,000 different muscles!
• Elephant tusks aren’t merely decorative. They’re used to scrape bark off trees, dig for food and water and occasionally for combat.

French Bull Lion Wall Sticker

THE AFRICAN LION

• Male lions are super territorial, prowling over 100 square miles with their families.
• Female lions do most of the hunting with cubs not joining the fun until they are at least one year old.
• Lions are the only wildcats who live in groups.

French Bull Giraffe Wall Sticker

THE GIRAFFE

• The adult giraffe’s legs alone (6 feet) are usually taller than most humans.
• Male giraffes like to sometimes joust by butting their long necks and heads. Female giraffes wisely avoid this activity and experience less headaches.
• Giraffe mothers give birth standing up!
• Grabbing a drink is often a risky activity, as bending down makes giraffes vulnerable to attacks from predators. Luckily, giraffes only need to drink once every few days. They get plenty of moisture from chewing plants.

So who knows, maybe there’s a future Jane Goodall cooing in your crib right now!  If you’re a huge nature buff, don’t forget to also check out WallCandy’s Chalkboard Jungle, Elephant Chalkboard, Forest Friends, Deerly Beloved, and French Bull Jungle Party removable temporary wallpaper.

The World's First Cupcake ATM Machine? (Source: Sprinkles Cupcakes)

Based on all the gourmet cake and cupcake bakeries popping up in reality TV shows and our neighborhoods, it was only a matter of time before there was a 24-hour Cupcake ATM!

CNN just featured the latest innovation from Sprinkles Cupcakes, which boasts it was the originator of the world’s first cupcake bakery in 2005.

Sprinkles, which has 10 high-profile bakeries nationwide and is featured on the Food Network series “Cupcake Wars,” debuts its first Cupcake ATM at its Beverly Hills anchor location on March 9, with the rest of the chain being outfitted by the summer.

The machines will hold 600 freshly baked cupcakes each, with outdoor access for the after-hours munchies. It will only take credit cards and the price of convenience will be slightly higher: $4 a cake vs. $3.50 inside the store.

A Sprinkles spokeswoman told CNN that there are plans to eventually locate the Cupcake ATMs at remote locations where gourmet snacks aren’t readily available. A very noble pursuit indeed.

Of course, there’s another way to enjoy cupcakes 24/7 and that’s with WallCandy’s new French Bull Cupcake Land wall decal board game.

French Bull Cupcake Land

These removable cupcake wall stickers are a bit friendlier than Cupcake Wars, giving parents and kids another fun way to practice learning numbers and colors. Inspired by numerous classic children’s board games, Cupcake Land puts a freshly-baked spin on rolling the dice. You can “fly” like a butterfly, slide across rainbows and skip, hop and jump at various marked spaces.

And every game can be different since all WallCandy Arts decorative wall decals are repositionable and safe for wallpaper, paint and all surfaces.

We humbly invite America’s growing legion of retail cupcake bakeries and home cupcake enthusiasts to fly their favorite dessert colors where the whole world can see them.

By the way, if you’re also in the mood for an interactive cupcake decal that can double as the “Special of the Day” board or the Family Communication Center, check out our Cupcake Chalkboard!

In the meantime, take a look at how Design Solutions decorated with WallCandy® removable wallpaper, removable chalkboard decals, and reusable peel and stick wall decals:

The full album is available on our Facebook and Google+ pages. (Clicking the links will take you directly to each.)

We’d love to see how you decorate your home and business spaces with WallCandy® Arts designs. Send a photo to hello@wallcandyarts.com and share your style!