Extreme Decorating – Parents, do you suffer from a “Pinterest Stress” disorder?
May.17
(Note: “Extreme Decorating” is an ongoing series in which WallCandy Dad goes beyond removable wall decals and explores unusual and over-the-top decorating ideas tried in homes, restaurants, hotels, businesses, tourist destinations and public spaces. We all get decoration inspiration from different places, as it is a reflection of our tastes and personalities).
NBC’s TODAY Moms blog just did a survey that’s sending shockwaves across the creative world.
Out of a sample of 7,000 mothers in the United States, an alarming 42 percent replied that “they sometimes suffer from Pinterest stress, the worry that they’re not crafty or creative enough.”
The average self-reported anxiety level of these women is an 8.5 out of 10, NBC reports. And 75 percent of respondents also said that the pressure they put on themselves is more stressful than the feeling of being judged by or compared to other mothers.
Acknowledging that so-called Pinterest Stress is hardly a national health crisis, TODAY featured photographer and parent Jenna Andersen, founder of the humorous arts & crafts blog “Pinterest Fail.” Andersen shows before-and-after pictures of decorating and cooking projects — what the promise and expectations looked like when it was first pinned or repinned on Pinterest and how the final project lived up to the hype.
“Pinterest,” the mom blogger tells NBC, “is largely a site of unrealized dreams.”
Obsessing Over the Perfect Cake Pop -- This Pinterest user saw these Easter Chick pops in the top picture and wound up with the lackluster specimen below, which still tasted yummy. Double click to see this "Pinterest FAIL" yourself.
This is hardly a Mom-only phenomenon. Plenty of Dads cook, too. And let’s not get started on how difficult it is to paint a room EXACTLY how it looks in a catalog or magazine.
Or as my fellow Dad blogger, Eric Mack, on CNET’s Crave site puts it:
“I’m sure that blinging out my oven will be completely worth it in the end just like all the other Pinterest-inspired projects around my home. But you might find me in my kitchen at 1 a.m. dripping drops of sweat and tears on that shiny piece of vinyl as I try to get it perfectly plumb with the edge of the oven door without getting any more Liquid Nails in my hair.”
I don’t put much stock in the claim that 4 out of 10 moms are so overwhelmed by the promise of Pinterest photos that the rest of their lives feel like a disappointment. But I do think that TODAY has reminded us all, parents or not, that we shouldn’t fall into the trap of constantly comparing our lives, homes and possessions to others.
Part of the fun of decorating with WallCandy stickers is that you can always easily remove them and start all over again with no damage to the walls. Looking at our Pinterest Boards are only the starting point — not the blueprint for your final look. I think watching your kids decide where the Whoo Loves U Owls or Flutterflies go on the Tree is far more entertaining than following any instructions.
WallCandy Arts loves interacting with its community on Pinterest — go visit us there now!
Stress-Free Pinterest -- There's no pressure to look like the catalog when you decorate with WallCandy Wall Stickers -- especially since they can be removed and reapplied anytime. Double click to check out the WallCandy Pinterest Boards!
And there’s no pressure for your wall stickers or chalkboard decals to EVER be perfectly lined up. Because we won’t judge you. Really.
(Have you stumbled across a fabulous case of “Extreme Decorating” lately? Where were you last overwhelmed by the decor? Drop us a line at hello@wallcandyarts.com).
Extreme Decorating: Creatively Using Your Child’s Lunch as a Canvas
May.3
(Note: “Extreme Decorating” is an ongoing series in which WallCandy Dad goes beyond removable wall decals and explores unusual and over-the-top decorating ideas tried in homes, restaurants, hotels, businesses, tourist destinations and public spaces. We all get decoration inspiration from different places, as it is a reflection of our tastes and personalities).
Graphic Designer David LaFerriere has captured the imagination of parents everywhere with his famous Sharpie sketches on sandwich baggies. (Source: Flickr)
Putting loving and inspirational messages in your kids’ school lunch is a tradition probably as old as lunch itself. But most of the time we hear about it, it’s usually the creativity of moms. So it’s refreshing to see a doting decorating dad get a little bit of attention.
The talented dad responsible for the sandwich art above is graphic artist David Laferriere, who has shared his daily lunch sketches — made with Sharpies on plastic bags — on the popular photo site, Flickr.
David has been amusing his sons Evan, 15, and Kenny, 14, for the past five years with daily cartoons of monsters, animals, dinosaurs, aliens and funny faces. “I’ve been doing it for my kids since they were little,” he told the Flickr Blog. “They love it and nothing makes me happier than hearing their reaction at the end of the day.”
Personally, nothing makes me happier about this story than knowing that these teenage boys aren’t too cool to appreciate their dad’s enthusiasm, artistry and dedication!
David, who lives with his family in the Boston area, originally tried putting artwork directly on the bread with food coloring but the process was laborious and bread didn’t serve well as a smooth canvas. The Sharpies on plastic technique gave him more versatility and the option of saving his best work without it getting moldy.
Lunch Art Retrospective -- You can see hundreds of artist David LaFerriere's sandwich bag drawings on his Flickr photo gallery. Double click the image above to see more pics.
The Sharpie company a while back wrote a tribute to David’s talents, which he fine-tuned at the Rhode Island School of Design.
More than a million people have seen his baggie art so far. You can watch a video interview with the artist here.
As a creative dad myself — I design my children’s birthday invitations, but have yet to put my stamp on lunch — it’s wonderful to see other fathers’ work. Besides David’s Flickr feed, check out the blogs Lunch Bag Art and Lunch Bag Artist if you have a moment.
There are lots of lucky kids out there!
(Have you stumbled across a fabulous case of “Extreme Decorating” lately? Where were you last overwhelmed by the decor? Drop us a line at hello@wallcandyarts.com).
Extreme Decorating: Crashing at New Hampshire’s “Adventure Suites”
Mar.28
(Note: “Extreme Decorating” is an ongoing series in which WallCandy Dad goes beyond removable wall decals and explores unusual and over-the-top decorating ideas tried in homes, restaurants, hotels, businesses, tourist destinations and public spaces. We all get decoration inspiration from different places, as it is a reflection of our tastes and personalities).
Smack in the middle of New Hampshire’s White Mountains is Adventure Suites, a theme hotel that seems to be simultaneously targeting the imaginations of families, young couples, and lovers of kitsch of all ages. It is a microcosm of Las Vegas, Niagara Falls and Disney theme resorts all rolled into one. The hotel staff one minute might be delivering room service to Ancient Rome, towels to the African jungle or changing the sheets in Hollywood.
In the winter, they go the extreme step of offering an igloo room outside, in the tradition of the ICEHOTEL in Sweden.
In the spirit of getting decorating ideas for your child’s bedroom or playroom, let’s pop in on five of the Adventure Suites:
Treehouse Suite
What kid DOESN’T want to sleep in a treehouse? (For those who don’t, the hotel also offers a Hugh Hefner-like Penthouse). There’s a Mom & Dad room at the bottom and inside “Mr. Tree Trunk,” the kids can climb up into their spacious loft, complete with skylight to look at the stars. (If you want your own stars, no matter how cloudy the skies, check out WallCandy’s glow-in-the-dark Sunny Day Starry Night wall stickers, which feature the constellations at night!)
Dragon's Lair Suite
Got any Harry Potter, Magic Cards or Dungeons & Dragons fans? This “lair” has a “floating bed” that gently sways in a pendulum motion and dragon sconces and hanging lamps that breathe light instead of fire.
Log Cabin Suite
This is where Abe Lincoln, Davy Crockett and Daniel Webster would have stayed if they were into kitschy tourist accommodations. The bed frame is made from tree branches and there’s a fantastic view of the mountains from the private deck.
Sugar Shack Suite
With a heart-shaped jacuzzi, heart shaped pillows and ruby red lips everywhere, this is romantic overkill ripped straight out of the cheesiest Niagara Falls love shacks. A great setting for a Lady’s Man to try out his choice pick up lines or if you ever go on a vacation with Katy Perry.
5. THE CAVE
The Cave Suite
What better way to channel your inner Fred or Wilma Flintstone than to spend a night in The Cave? You can see the faux rock couch, hotsprings hottub and mountain lion in the picture — but off screen are stalactites, dinosaur bones, a waterfall shower and a tunnel for the kiddies to crawl through.
What’s particularly impressive is the Adventures Suites is not a chain, so they didn’t just order rooms ready-to-go from some theme restaurant catalog. It appears as if each room was meticulously decorated as a labor of love. Regular artistic love, not “Sugar Shack” love!
Which suite would you like to recreate?
(Have you stumbled across a fabulous case of “Extreme Decorating” lately? Where were you last overwhelmed by the decor? Drop us a line at hello@wallcandyarts.com).
5 reasons why WallCandy decals are like the 2012 Summer Olympics
Aug.2
The pageantry is well under way!
We all live busy lives, but if leisure time is overflowing in your world, there will have been 5,535 hours of Olympics television coverage from NBC (spread across NBC, NBC Sports Network, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, Telemundo, and NBCOlympics.com) by the end of the closing ceremonies. If you DVR it all, that’s enough to watch non-stop for 230 days. If you are kind to yourself and plan for 8 hours of sleep per night, you could stretch your Olympic couch potato time to 346 consecutive days.
Prefer the short cut? You can always just check the official Olympic Medal Tracker to see how your favorite country is faring compared to the world.
We’re proud to have our peel-and-stick wallpaper recently honored by People Magazine in their round-up of fun patriotic gear and decorations.
But we also humbly submit that WallCandy products overall are the Olympians of Home Decor.
In the spirit of the Summer Games, please indulge us as we explain why:
1. WallCandy Salutes London — As the primary benefit of investing a gazillion dollars to gain the world’s undivided attention, the host city gets to show off its culture and attractions to millions of potential tourists. Our London Bus Temporary Wallpaper celebrates England’s iconic doubledecker buses — vehicles that capture children’s whimsical imaginations.
London Bus Temporary Wallpaper (Click for more details)
2. We Have Endurance — So you think those Olympic triathletes can last forever out there? Let’s see how long they can cling to a wall without budging like our chalkboard and dry erase decals!
3. We’re Vibrant and Colorful — We loved the streaming rainbow tribute to the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s album in the Opening Ceremonies as we’re huge fans of unbridled outbursts of color (see our French Bull Mini Multi Dot or French Bull Kiss temporary wallpapers or our Overlapping Heart or Dottilicious Polka Dot Wall Decals).
Channeling Colors: The Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics included a Beatles tribute.
4. We’re Flexible – Yes, yes, we know those gold medal-winning USA gymnasts can delicately and effortlessly place their toes on their noses, but WallCandy’s reusable vinyl decorations can be removed and repositioned as many times as your fickle heart desires — with absolutely no damage to paint or walls.
5. We’re Fun — Whether your kids are Lego addicts or not, you must catch some of the animated plastic brick action over at The Guardian. The British media powerhouse has recreated the U.S.-France Men’s Basketball showdown as well as Women’s Gymnastics and Women’s Fencing in their spirited Brick-by-Brick series of videos. Anything is possible if you have enough Legos.
The Guardian's brick-by-brick homage to Olympic basketball action.
What’s been your favorite Olympics moment so far?
Nostalgic Fun: The playroom makes an unexpected cameo in the 2012 presidential race
Mar.23
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?
celebrating the world’s tallest buildings — and their wall decal twins
Mar.6
Afraid of Heights? Then maybe some of these luxury skyscraper hotels aren't for you! (Source: Hemispheres Magazine - Click for more info)
So many of us have noticed the silly practice of hotels, apartment buildings and other high-rises skipping over the 13th floor — just jumping from 12 to 14 as if it were possible to simply eliminate Number 13 to calm superstitious nerves. This practice is an extremely slippery slope as any staircase shorter than 13 steps means you’ll be staying in a dollhouse.
I thought of this paranoia when I was reading about the World’s Tallest Hotels, a recent feature in Hemispheres Magazine, the official in-flight publication of United Airlines.
As the magazine highlights, the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong has 118 floors (wonder if 113 is there) and at 1,608 feet, it towers over the highest hotels in Chicago (Trump International Hotel @ 1,392 feet) and New York (Four Seasons @ 682 feet). The top floor of the Ritz-Carlton has a restaurant appropriately named the Ozone, where you can marvel whether or not the Biblical Tower of Babel will one day come to fruition.
I’m personally a fan of the sailboat-shaped Burj Al Arab in Dubai.
Remember your first glimpse of the big city?
Now your kids can let their architectural imaginations soar by erecting their own urban landscape with skyscrapers galore, traffic and even a news helicopter hovering above the Big Apple. True, we’re positioning this snazzy French Bull City Wall Stickers set as Any City, USA, but candidly, yeah, that is our tribute to the magnificent Empire State Building.
French Bull City Wall Decals (Click the building of your choice for more info!)
Our removable, repositionable, self-stick Made-In-The-USA city scene was recently featured on NBC’s Today Show!
Take a look and get hooked:
Wall Sticker Royalty: What do Princesses do once the wedding is over?
Feb.10
WallCandy Arts removable wall decals celebrate princesses of all shapes and sizes!
So remember the hoopla surrounding the Royal Wedding? You know, when we were bombarded with 24/7 coverage about what Kate and Pippa were wearing, what kind of china they’d be eating off, who made their shoes, and what kind of shampoo the princess used on her gorgeous locks?
Much like our own weddings, the time zaps by in an instant. The only difference between Kate Middleton and the average bride is that Kate gets to keep wearing the tiaras and party dresses all year long. Just like your little girl.
In the spirit of promoting imaginative play and the new launch of WallCandy’s French Bull Princess Wall Decals, we thought we would check back in with Princess Kate to see what she has been up to since saying “I Do.”
Well, just she won my heart over by celebrating her 30th birthday in January by staging a 1980s-style disco and karaoke dance party with Duran Duran songs and 80s-themed cocktails with creative names like “The Ferris Bueller Fizz,” the “Pacman Martini,” the “Back to the Future,” and my favorite, “The Walkman.”
Remember those?
Princess Kate, also known as the Duchess of Cambridge, opened up a new art show this week at London’s National Portrait Gallery, while Prince William was busy on a routine six-week training mission for the Royal Air Force in the Falkland Islands (that “war” was so 1980s, too). It’s good to know that Britain isn’t just letting their prince play dress-up with the military uniforms.
But back to your daughter(s) and the bedroom or playroom walls….
Turn your girl's bedroom or playroom into a Princess Paradise with our new French Bull line.
So you get four princesses in all and as you’ll notice, they are not skewed to the traditional blonde stereotype (not that there is anything wrong with blonde princesses). Hey, why can’t a princess have strawberry pink or purple hair? They’re princesses!
And as with all our Made in the USA removable decorations, these princess wall stickers (and fantasy castle with royal gardens) are completely repositionable, reusable and BPA and Pthalates free!
And if you’re secretly feeling guilty about missing Princess Kate’s Birthday, you may want to check out our Special Occasions section. 
Relax on Thanksgiving, go crazy on Small Business Saturday!
Nov.24
We like to shop as much as the next gal or guy, but there’s something a bit unsettling about the mad “Black Friday” stampedes — which have started to creep into “Black Thursday.”
At the risk of undercutting our own sales, I’m going to beg you: PUT YOUR CREDIT CARDS AWAY ON THANKSGIVING DAY and chill out with your family.
Go to your local high school football game. Watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with those oversized cartoon hot air balloons. Tell your Mom you love her cooking or go toss a Frisbee with Dad. Or tell your Dad you love his cooking and go play Frisbee with Mom.
There’s a reason why Thanksgiving weekend is one of the busiest travel times of the year, and it isn’t about going to the mall.
Now with that sermon out of the way, let me make it clear that I am neither anti-holiday shopping nor anti-credit card. Small Business Saturday, sponsored by American Express, is the ultimate blend of the two.
Amex is encouraging Americans to devote some of their gift budget to local businesses, a badly needed boost for Main Street — especially in this economy. It almost sounds too good to be true, but the company is also giving $25 in free spending money to its cardholders who spend $25 or more at a local business which takes American Express. What a deal! (Click here for details).
If you want to spend that “play money” on WallCandy removable chalkboard wall stickers, wall decals or temporary peel-and-stick wallpaper, we wouldn’t protest. Your best bet is to go to the WallCandy Small Business Saturday page!
You can enjoy four days of HUGE savings on WallCandy from Friday, Nov. 25 through Monday, Nov. 28!
No matter which credit card you use, you’re eligible for our four day Thanksgiving special: Buy One and Get One for Half Price. This deal applies to all our easy-to-apply stickers with the exception of the Occasions collection and gift certificates.
With all our stickers and decorations made in America, WallCandy certainly fits the spirit of Small Business Saturday. Listen to WallCandy CEO Allison Krongard explain why she refused to manufacture her products in China on the Fox Business Network.
And closer to home, here’s Allison celebrating more than 225,000 WallCandy kits decorating rooms around the world!
WallCandy Profile for American Express from Allison Krongard on Vimeo.
Emmy Recap: Celebrating our own Modern Families!
Sep.19
Which "Modern Family" Character Are You?
You know that silly question of which child or grandchild you like the best?
That’s how I felt watching the Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series category during last night’s Emmy Awards. Four actors from “Modern Family” were up for the honor — Ty Burrell (Phil) Ed O’Neill (Jay), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Mitchell) and Eric Stonestreet (Cameron) — as well as two outsiders, “Glee” songbird Chris Colfer and Pretty in Pink guy Jon Cryer (better known as Charlie Sheen’s surviving sidekick in “Two And A Half Men.”)
There was no doubt that last night was Modern Family’s Night — the sitcom won five Emmys in all. But my mind went blank when it came time to choose who to root for. The show has a true ensemble cast with the laugh lines getting spread pretty equally. My preference would have been to kick out Cryer and Colfer and give the two remaining nominee spots to the Modern Family kids: Nolan Gould (sweethearted but clueless Luke Dunphy) and Rico Rodriguez (precocious Manny Delgado).
Check out the pic of Manny holding the Emmy above. Doesn’t he seem like age 10 going on 40 — even in real life?
America's First Comedy Couple: Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell.
A pre-Emmy US Weekly poll favored Burrell and Stonestreet, but Burrell won out in L.A.
I think the Phil Dunphy character is super relatable as a goofy dad who will do anything to entertain his kids and himself. And the actor’s acceptance speech reflected it, too. Burrell also seemed more excited for actress Julie Bowen (his TV wife)’s corresponding Emmy victory than her real life husband did!
Entertainment Weekly recently posed the "Modern Family" cast in the most realistic scene in family life... The dreaded competition for the bathrooms.
The success of Modern Family is truly remarkable because the episodes focus on the absurdities of “normal” suburban life. When we take a big step back, all of our lives could be made into sitcoms.
It’s the perfect fit for the WallCandy family demographic. The show pokes fun at sibling rivalries, the struggles of work-life balance, the crazy competitiveness of PTA moms, zealous youth sports coaches and where our life’s dreams and realities unexpectedly meet. As a dad, I love the ongoing dynamic between popularity-obsessed Haley and her goal-oriented bookworm sister Alex; and the contrast of Peter Pan-like Luke and his can’t-wait-to-grow-up cousin Manny. You can’t miss “The One That Got Away” episode which spoofs those birthday tribute videos we all make for relatives’ milestone birthdays or wedding anniversaries.
The new season premiere is at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 21. The one-hour special has a Dude Ranch theme (click here for the preview) and was shot in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, exploring how the family dynamic changes on vacation.
Which brings me to my tangential excuse for writing about Modern Family on a wall stickers blog. We all have an Inner Cowboy or Inner Cowgirl clamoring to break free. And the brand new WallCandy Arts Western Birthday Decorating Kit is a way for your boys and girls to continue their role-playing fun long after the candles go out.
I’m curious to see if Manny rediscovers that he’s a kid and reluctantly enjoys the cowboy masquerade — or if he dismisses the entire exercise as too juvenile. In any case, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the episode and if there are any other birthday party sticker themes you think we should explore! Drop us a line at hello@wallcandyarts.com.
BRIGHT BULBS – Night Light wall decals glow beyond energy debate!
Sep.7
WallCandy's "Night Lights 2" decals can brighten up any evening!
Not sure if you’ve been following the ugly light bulb debate in Congress, but there’s been a huge fight over whether Americans should be using traditional incandescent light bulbs (the ones we’ve been seemingly using forever) or more energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs. The former are much cheaper than the latter, but don’t last as long. Critics of the new efficient curly-Q bulbs say they don’t produce the same brightness or quality for reading light.
You can weigh the pros and cons yourself by clicking below on the comparison chart created by the McClatchy Tribune news wire.
But Congress has strangely overlooked a third and more attractive option: glow-in-the-dark removable wall sticker light bulbs.
Yes, it’s true: WallCandy’s Night Lights decals will add a friendly glow to your child’s bedroom without a single volt of electricity. Go ahead and unplug that incandescent blub night light – and retire it forever even. Stringing these Night Lights stickers along the wall from the windows to the hall will safely guide your little ones to middle-of-the-night bathroom trips or even a midnight snack.
BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED: Night Lights that don't require any electricity but still do the job -- in style!
You get 48 glow-in-the-dark light bulbs and 18 feet of “electrical cord” to festively string them along the wall. Did we mention that the cord also doesn’t add a penny to your utility bills?
Personally, I have fond memories of a glow-in-the-dark monster poster that hung on the back of my childhood bedroom door. The message was “PLEASANT DREAMS!” in a glowing spooky font, with the eyeballs of Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy and a zillion vampire bats staring at me all night long. Those monsters helped me find the bathroom for at least two of my formative years without a single stubbed toe.
Quite frankly, these Night Light bulbs are a lot classier. And if you are in full decorating mode, the WallCandy Arts classic decal gallery now includes Benjamin Moore paint color suggestions for each sticker set!
(Are you redecorating your child’s bedroom or playroom? Share your before and after pics with us at hello@wallcandyarts.com )
