Theurel & Thomas: Macarons From Mexico

Macarons might be favorite indulgence of 2012 and it’s looking like they are going to be #1 in 2013.  I first heard about Theurel & Thomas when browsing through The Dieline.  I immediately clipped the article to my Evernote, but just as quickly as I clipped it I forgot about it.  Now almost two years later a good friend of mine Tovah was in Mexico and happened to stumble across this macaron haven.   

Theurel & Thomas is mainly focused on the production and sale of Macarons, a dessert very exclusive and prestigious in the world of pastry.  We are the first Macarons in Mexico, dessert of French origin, but made with hands 100% Mexican and talent.  Thomas & Theurel also create other confectionery made with the best quality, not forgetting our country and its quality ingredients. 

Theurel & Thomas used the branding team from Anagrama to give them a unique look.  Anagrama let the macarons speak for themselves and used white as the main color.  According to Tovah walking into Theurel & Thomas is like walking into a box of macarons.  Everything is pristine and the white back drop just makes the bold colors macarons pop.  

While the branding of Theurel & Thomas is jaw dropping some of their flavors make me want to book a flight to mexico right now.  They have all the classics like Vanilla, Pistachio, Lemon, Chocolate & Chai.  It wouldn’t be Mexico if there wasn’t a little Mezcal, Tequila and Chipotle in the mix.  They even offer the bag lunch classic Peanut Butter & Jelly.  If you are looking for a little food porn check out these great shots of the first macarons in Mexico!

Holiday Hint: 10 Ways To Glam Up Your Holiday Season

Tame The Flyaway : With the winter winds whipping your hair to and fro, taming your mane can be a full time job.  To keep your do looking polished, spray a little hairspray on an old blush brush and run it over fuzzy areas.  The alcohol found in hairspray will also absorb excess oil around the roots of your hair.

Take Time To Indulge: Being stuck on a diet during this time of the year can feel like you are in a prison. It’s sure to keep you on edge and make you a little hostile. So this season stop counting points, feeling guilty, and ditch the food journal.  It will all be waiting for you in January.

Stay In: The holidays can become a pressure cooker.  To maintain a zen-like state of clam, try staying in at least once a week.  Reserve a night where you make absolutely no plans, throw on your pajamas, turn off the phone, and relax.  Don’t use this time to fret about finding your best friend the perfect gift, or the holiday cookies you need to make.  Focus on you. You’ll be amazed how one evening in can keep you from going holiday crazy.

Sock and Slather: Next time you empty the dryer, grab a pair of toasty socks, slather your feet with a little cream, and slip them on.  If you do this every time you unload the dryer your feet will stay soft all winter long, and it might be the incentive you need to stay on top of your laundry. 

Pretty In Pink: It's sexy, elegant, playful, fun and will make your smile look brighter.  If you've got pale skin go  for something in a true pink with no hints of blue. Or try something with a coral base, it will warm your skin tone up.   For those of you with olive skin go for a darker pink with a ruby or cranberry base.  While darker complexions are flattered by a pink with a touch of red and purple.  Wear your pink lipstick on the days when you are feeling down for an instant pick me up. This is also the perfect accessory to your little black dress.

Master Holiday Travel: Holiday travel sucks, and quite frankly there is nothing you can do about it. But if you have a plan, it can suck a little less.  Think of your carry-on as an emergency bag.  Make sure it has all the staples to get you through an extra day just in case your luggage doesn’t arrive with you.  Almost all the airlines let you print your boarding pass before you get to the airport, take advantage.  While your online getting your boarding pass check your gate and its location so you don’t waste time wandering the airport.  Get there early, but not to early.  You don’t want to spend half the day just waiting around in the airport eating and drinking over-priced food. Once your there remember almost everything is outside of your control, so take a deep breath and go with the flow. 

Lizard Skin Smoothie: To keep your arms and legs silky smooth try a Glamour’s Lizard Skin Smoothie. Take one banana, a can of pineapple and 2 tablespoons of honey. Mix in a blender until it’s the consistency of applesauce. Slather it on your arms and legs, leave for 20 minutes then rinse. The banana and pineapple will act as a gentle exfoliator while the honey adds extra hydration. Resist the urge to eat it.

Little Black Dress: Take the guess work out of getting ready for yet another holiday party.  Grab a little black dress, a couple of statement necklaces, and you are set.  In pictures it won’t look like you are always rocking the same old, same old.  Plus it’s a great excuse to pick a few more statement necklaces. Elva Fields is the perfect place for original pieces with a festive feel!

Drink Up: In the winter months you need about 3 liters of water to stay properly hydrated. Now, before you run out and guzzle down a full three liters remember that you need that amount spread throughout the day.  If you’re forgetful put it on your daily to do list or schedule it like you would a meeting.  For those of you girls who love cocktail hour, add 8 to 16 ounces of water for every alcoholic drink you take.  Drink up. ladies!

Brown Bag It: Ordering out for lunch everyday while at work costs you roughly 2190 dollars a year and way too many calories to count. Try packing your lunch to save money, time, and your waist line.  Plus with all of those savings you this time next year, you could have all the money you need for a great holiday.

This post is part of BlogHer's Get Noticed editorial series, made possible by Cover Girl.

Resource List - Sorting, Storing, & Displaying Your Photos

Now that you’ve organized your photos, lets find something to do with them.  I’ve compiled a little resource list fill with some great ways to keep your memories safe and accessible. 

Photo & Memory Boxes

Semikolon Multimedia Box -  Features bold colors with plenty of storage options.With a coordinating grosgrain loop for easy opening and an interior band to hold the lid open, it expertly stores and organizes CDs, DVDs, cards or photos. All of your memories including your digital ones will be at home. The Multimedia Box also includes dividers and name-plate for labeling.

Kassett Box Set - Features Easy to label boxes that can hold all of your multimedia needs. At only 3.99 for two it’s the best deal of the bunch.

Semikolon Document Box - Bring a splash of distinctive color to storage with the Document Box. Use it to corral papers, letters, trinkets, loose photos and memory cards. It also includes a coordinating grosgrain loop for easy opening and an interior band to hold the lid open.

Martha Stewart with Avery Document Box - Document storage boxes are ideal for protecting important documents or organizing photos. The neutral shades make it easy for these boxes to work with any decor. 

Album & Photo Books

Semikolon 300 Pockets Photo Album - A bordered front cover cut-out window allows you to insert your favorite photo.The interior is meticulously finished with mitered corners and heavy bookbinders' card stock, and the back cover has a handy photo CD pocket. Each of the 50 pocket pages hold 6 photographs up to 4 x 6 inches in size - 300 photos in all - with no need for glue, tape or photo corners to mount your photos.

Semikolon Maxi Mucho Album - The cover is fashioned from heavy book board and expertly dyed classic linen, which is meticulously finished inside with mitered corners and thick black bookbinders paper.The book is filled with 45 sheets of acid free black photo mounting board as well as 2 full-size pockets. A handy photo CD pocket mounted on the inside of the back cover and an attached elastic band to hold your memories safely inside.

Blurb Photo Custom Photo Album - Blurb's free book-making tools work the way you do. Choose Bookify, our simple online program, Book Smart, our creativity-inspiring downloadable software, or PDF to Book, the ultimate in control for design professionals. Gorgeous, lasting bookstore quality. Primo paper, professional binding. Quick turnaround – on your doorstep in 7 to 10 days. Amazing value with prices starting at only $3.95. 

Digital Albums & Sharing

Aperture & iPhoto - Aperture and iPhoto come together in one unified library.You can open the library from either app and make adjustments to your photos.  There’s no need to import, export, or reprocess photos from one app to the other — just open your library and go. Faces, Places, Albums, and Smart Albums work across both apps, too. You can use Aperture to make professional edits, then go back to iPhoto to create a calendar or cards. It’s the library that’s sometimes pro, sometimes not, and always convenient. Share your photos with facebook and view comments without ever leaving iPhoto. iPhoto works with popular email services like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Windows Live Hotmail, and AOL. And since iPhoto keeps track of all your email messages with photos, you’re free to open a sent message, make changes, and share it with someone new, anytime you want. Building your book starts with a new dynamic Theme browser where each theme is revealed in a carousel — complete with images you’ve selected. Pick a theme, and an even smarter Autoflow instantly goes to work, placing your images for you.

Picasa - Is a simple way to get photos from your camera and computer on the web. Google's Picasa Web Albums provides 1GB of free storage that makes sharing your photos a snap. If you've joined Google+, you can use Picasa 3.9 to share directly to the circles you've created in Google+. They'll see your photos and videos in their Google+ stream. People that don't use Google+ aren't left out.They'll get an email to view your album in Google+, and they don't have to join to do so. If you've joined Google+, you may have noticed that name tags have become more social. With the release of Picasa 3.9, you can now upload and share your name tags on Google+. A plethora of new editing effects like Vignette, Duo-tone, Borders and more. Compare two different photos side by side. Or compare the original and edited versions versions of the same photo simultaneously as you apply edits in Picasa. Learn how to edit side by side.

Flickr - Multiple ways to upload your photos to Flickr—through the web, your mobile device, email or your favorite photo applications. Keep up with your friends and share your stories with comments & notes. Add rich information like tags, locations & people. Upload your photos once to Flickr, then easily and safely share them through Facebook,Twitter, email, blogs and more. Share photos only with the people you want to with our easy privacy settings. Flickr’s multiple-backed storage system makes sure you never lose another photo again.

Smug Mug - With unlimited uploads, never asks you to choose which photos or videos matter most, because safe backup at SmugMug is unlimited. Privacy when you need it, no photo sharing site offers as many privacy and safety options as SmugMug does. Power and Pro subscribers can make their SmugMug sites completely unique. Replace SmugMug's header with yours and brand your site with a custom logo, fonts, colors and graphics. SmugMug lets you buy the most exciting products from the best merchants. Buy professional prints and gifts at competitive prices from our labs, or from a growing list of the most popular makers of cards, photo books, posters and framed prints. Add photos directly from Picasa, Photoshop, Lightroom, iPhoto, Aperture and many others.

Series: How To Organize Your Photos

Date Night Road Trip

Date Night, a chance to re-connect with your mate.  But sometimes Date Night can become a pressure cooker filled with big expectations that often times lead to a bit of a let down.  No to mention it's hard to come with creative ways to spend time together that don't involve the T.V.  That's where I enter into the equation, Date Night is my specialty and Date Night Road Trip is one of my favorites. 

 

There's something about the open road that can make you feel free.  Who wouldn't want to share that with their special someone.  The moment I got my license I went on Date Night Road Trips.  Just to be clear you don't have to be in a relationship to partake in this, I've gone alone, with friends, and with boyfriends.
 
The Rules are simple; pile into the car and go left or right.  It's really about what you want.  After a long while turn left or right.  Do this until you arrive somewhere unknown.  After that, check out the the town; shops, dining, art, the local flavor.  You never know what you might find.  

What To Bring

Charged Cell Phone and Car Charger
Fun Playlist
Toilet Paper - I learned this the hard way
Hand Sanitizer
Snacks
Full Tank of Gas
AAA Card
Cash and Plenty of It - acidents to happen
ID's
Camera
 
What Not To Bring
Map
Sense of Direction
 
Recommended Prep
Clean out your car, you're going to be spending a long about time in it
Go to the bathroom before you

 
{photo's from the engagement shoot of Kaylee & Johnny shot by Sarah Rhoads via: Snippet & Ink}

Take The Long Way