La Mer Collections Odyssey Wrap Watch

Designer Martine Ilana and I are obviously kindred spirits.  We both have a hard time finding beautiful watches that are the right amount of femine without being fussy. Except she's a completely brilliant watch designer who actually ended up making the watch she was looking for and I'm merely a gal lusting after her creations.

La Mer Collections, her line of women's watches, not to be confused with La Mer the iconic beauty line, features hand assembled watches with straps made of luxury Italian leather in some of the the best color combinations and timeless style. 

La Mer Collections watches can be found at Bloomies, but you head over to the website you can customize your very own watch making it a near perfect solution to my earlier watch dilemma. 

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Martha Stewart Custom Stamps Review

I can't wander around any store with a Martha Stewart section without getting completely caught up in it.  Her magic breaks down all my defenses and I end up spending more than necessary on things I never knew I needed.

This time it was a custom stamp kit from Michael's.  Excuse while I start to justify, but I had been looking for an address embosser or self inking address stamp to the tune of $30.  You know, because I send so many letters (I don't) and the stamps will save so much time on the return labels.

Plus, I reasoned to my DH who didn't understand the value of this stamp set, I could make thank you cards and birthday cards and all the cards that I would normally go to the store and spend a few bucks on.  Pop out a few custom made cards and the set has nearly completely paid for itself.

So I bought two. They're different though and one font set isn't enough variety to make cards out of. Duh.

Without further ado, here are the stamp sets.  So far I've used them for 4 special occasions. Like Easter. And birthdays.

And now I've shared them with the world making everyone's life easier which is practically a public service so totes worth it.

Right DH?

The Good
Stamp packaging is great.  Only one set comes in a handy case. All the letters from both sets fits in the one case making organizing a cinch. The letters pop into lines in the case so they don't jumble.  There's a clear area of the case that holds rings and stamp mounts allowing the user to see everything when the case is open.


Circle stamps are the coolest. The round stamps have pretty border frames or the option to place words in a circular arrangement.

A lot of uses. Aside from address stamps, these stamps will help me make gift tags, jar labels, book inserts, recipe cards, invitations, zomg.

Clear mounts make it easy to accurately place the stamps.  This is a huge upgrade over wood stamps which take a little bit more planning to get in the right place.


The Bad
Pulling apart the letters.  In the circle stamp collection the letters broke apart really easily.  The rubber was thick and perforations pulled apart cleanly.  But in the set with the case, the letters were hard to pull apart on the perforations.  I tried using a knife and an X-acto and ended up use an extra sharp razor to break them apart.

Custom stamps are tedious. As in sometimes tweezers are necessary to get the ltters in place. And there are a lot of letters.

The case is not big enough.  The case doesn't hold all of the stamp mounts making it an appealing idea to pick up another case. As for now I'm keeping the mounts that don't fit in the case in their original packaging. Not perfect.


The Ugly
The stamps are not always level.  I don't know if this is my inexperience but it's extremely difficult to get the letters to stamp at the same thickness because they vary in height on the mount.

It takes a lot of tries. In order to get the letters level, I would do a practice stamp, move the uneven letters and stamp again.  It took about 4 tries per stamp before I got it to an acceptable place and even then it wasn't perfect.  As a result, when I was finished with the stamp, I didn't want to undo my work and make new stamps.

Final Verdict
I would buy this again instead of the address stamps.  The two sets only cost me about $40 at Michael's and give me a lot more options.

The creative possibilities exceeds the issues that will likely go away with a little more practice.

Plus, the compliments we got from the tag I put on our Easter hostess gift was worth the effort.

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The Crab Pot in Alamitos Bay

I'm known for getting weird hankerings and having to have them. Yesterday it was lobster after a comedic conversation about why there's never been a lobster buffet. I don't think, dear readers, you need any further explanation.

It was a beautiful Southern California day yesterday where the sky was blue, the clouds were like cotton and the sun was perfectly shining in the sky. I immediately thought of the Crab Pot on Alamitos Bay. Yes, it might have been pure exhaustion from the previous two days or just a complete brain fart, but I assumed the Crab Pot would have lobster also. Turns out I was wrong, but it is a great season to get a good deal on Alaskan king crab legs.

Alaskan king crabs are fished only during October and January usually all done within a matter of a week or less and then shipped world wide. Turns out, they're usually frozen right on the boat so very few places actually carry fresh off the boat never frozen crabs. I've never had them that way in the first place and once my fishmonger explained to me that a lot of seafood is frozen right when it's caught for bacterial reasons. I don't know if this is true or if he was just telling me that because he didn't have any fresh out of the water sashimi grade fish.

During the month right before the fish, Alaskan king crab legs usually go on sale to make room for the new catch. During the fishing seasons, because of the freshness, the prices skyrocket. I suppose that's why at the Crab Pot their usual $33 plate of 1.5 lbs of Alaskan king crab legs was on special for $19. Fiance got so excited he immediately ordered it and said he was going to come back every week. I awaited the actual taste test.

We started with a sourdough loaf, which, if I had one thing to complain about, was that it didn't come complementary. I mean, hello, you're a seafood restaurant and you're going to act like bread and butter is a chargeable appetizer?! What kind of cheap restaurateurs...

Fiance also ordered a bloody mary, which he said was one of the best he'd had in a long time. Impressive considering he had just had one last Sunday from our favorite bartender. Our meals started with soup (clam chowder for me) and salad (with blue cheese for him.)

The food came out pretty quickly. We both ordered the Alaska King Crab legs so they came out in the same bowl. We each got a few lemon wedges, two containers of clarified butter, and tools to release the delicious crab morsels with. The crab legs were accompanied by red skinned potatoes and corn on the cob, all generously sprinkled with some cajun seasoning.

The crab was delicious, down to the last bite. We'll have to come back again, with friends.

They leave the bowl by the side of the table so that you can throw the carcasses in them. The service was great and each table equipped with it's own heat lamp was a brilliant addition as the sun started to set.

All and all a great Sunday spent watching the boats go by, hearing the lapping sound of water on the docks and the breathing in the fresh ocean air.

Our tab came out to about $46 without tip. Not too shabby for this delicious crab filled feast.

Sorry for the sub par picture quality. I forgot my camera and had to settle for my cell phone.

(From the Archives December 10, 2007.)

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