free shipping at pandacub all weekend

Looking for some cute little accessories for the holiday gift-giving season?

My little Etsy shop, pandacub, is offering free worldwide shipping all weekend, so why not browse for some great deals?

Pandacub accessories make perfect stocking stuffers, or offer a imaginative way to decorate a gift!

Or...you can always treat yourself to something nice too!

pass the turkey...

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends! I hope you have a lovely long weekend holiday and lots of great food to enjoy!

november giveaway winners

Thanks everyone for entering my November giveaway for a set of menagerie bobby pins!

The 2 randomly-drawn winners are:
MizzSnape
JenniferB

Congratulations! You'll both get a set of menageris bobby pins with 5 animals of your choice! :)

more photos from vegas

Just a few more photos from our trip to Las Vegas.

The one crazy thing about Vegas is that the buildings imitate so many famous world landmarks.

This was outside the Venetian hotel (where we stayed)...which was a beautiful example of Italy - complete with gondolas


and Paris (the Paris hotel)....

How about New York City (New York, New York hotel)?


and Egypt (the Luxor hotel)...

Besides the international travel, there's so much light, sound and distractions in the city! But I did find lots to inspire me as well...

viva las vegas!

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I really enjoyed Las Vegas far more than I expected to. It's so...unreal! Everything is WAY bigger than life and all lit up. And the place just doesn't sleep!

No matter what time of day (or night) hubby and I headed out, there were always tons of people on the street and in the casino. The only thing that we didn't find easily was places to eat at 2 in the morning. :)

We stayed at the lovely Venetian hotel and the staff and service we received there was amazing.

There was one thing I HAD to do while in Vegas - and that was to do the CSI Experience at the MGM Grand (I'm a big CSI fan). It was a little disappointing, especially as it cost $30 a person, but I'm glad I did it. Basically, you get to "play" at being a CSI - you get a case, you examine the crime scene, go through the different labs and then present your findings. It was pretty simple, so it's hard to mess up, but at least I can now say I've done it.

What didn't disappoint was the Cirque du Soleil show we saw. There are so many to choose from in Las Vegas, but we decided to go see Love, which features music by the Beatles. It was mind-blowing! I can't even begin to describe the show. It was spectacular on so many levels. We had amazing seats and there was so much to take in. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has the chance to see it. It's definitely worth the price of the ticket (which is on the high side of Cirque shows). I'd see it again in a heartbeat.

We also checked out every hotel/casino on the Strip, saw the Bellagio fountain show 3 times (twice during the day and once at night), did a little shopping, a little gambling, and tried to avoid the street corner card "flickers" (if you've ever been to Vegas, you know what I'm talking about!)

The other thing I love about Las Vegas is the food. There's so much good food at every corner. And there are celebrity chef restaurants every where you look! If you want to check out what we ate while in Vegas, keep an eye on the food blog I share with my sister, Chubbi Bunnies. I'll be posting a day-by-day account of what we ate, along with lots of mouth-watering photos.

I'm sorry to say that I'm back to work tomorrow. It's really hard to come off of "vacation-mode", especially when you were having so much fun. I didn't think I'd like Vegas so much, but I had such a great time that I know we'll be going again soon!

love going on vacation and seeing this...

Well, pandacub and hubby are off to Las Vegas for a week! Finally! I'll be sure to share lots of photos once I return, but in the meantime, I hope everyone has a safe and lovely week.

p.s. I love the few hours before going on vacation and seeing this:

Weather in Toronto (where I'm leaving from):

Weather in Las Vegas (where I'm gong to):

introducing pandacub pips

I was kind of bored last night and doing some random Etsy stuff for my shop (cutting fabric, gluing bobby pins, etc) while watching TV and for no reason, decided to rename one of my products and expand the collection.

Some of my bobby pins that are made up of smaller buttons are sold in sets of 5 and I love making pretty matching sets. I had a few that were based on the seasons for inspiration and then others that were matched based on colour. They're a great way to accessorize with a little colour.

So, as I was playing with my fabric, I decided to try and create as many different colour sets as possible and will be posting these in my shop in the next couple of weeks.

Also, they used to be named after the seasons or colours, but I've decided to give them a common name and make it a real collection. So...I'm officially introducing...pandacub pips!

According to wikipedia: "Pips are small but easily countable items. It is used to describe the dots on dominoes, dice, denote suits, and is the name for the small seeds of some fruits. It could be used as a synonym for dot in most situations, for example morse code."

So, I think "pips" are a cute way to describe these little bobby pins. What do you think of the new name?

hello november!

Wow, I can't believe it's November already! There's only 2 more months left to 2009 and this year has absolutely flown by.

If you're planning on getting some pandacub goodies as gifts for the holidays, shop early and don't forget to take the busy holiday shipping times into account!