The upcoming presidential election seems to be the topic everywhere – even in chocolate cafés.   I ran across these election themed truffles a few days ago while wandering around the Marina district in San Francisco.  The café there is conducting their own presidential poll and is keeping a tally of the number of elephant and donkey truffles sold until the election.  

The donkey truffle features mayan ganache (milk chocolate, cinnamon and crushed almonds), and the elephant truffle features a dark chocolate extra-bittersweet ganache.    

Perfect for a presidential debate or election party,  you can find these adorable truffles at any Moonstruck Cafe or order from the Moonstruck website.

Now that it’s the middle of summer, it’s not uncommon for me to see a daily forecast of 100 degrees.  When I do venture out into the heat, I’m either looking for a swimming pool or a shady spot where temperatures are significantly cooler.

In this type of climate, sun hats are a great accessory for summer.  They can be both stylish and very effective for creating your own personal shade.  Not only that, they’re becoming more and more popular as people want to protect their skin from potential skin cancer.  The Coolibar hats have a 50+ UPF rating and block out 98% of harmful UV radiation.   

Here are some of my current favorites:

Tula Hats  |  Coolibar  |  Sunday Afternoons  |  San Diego Hat Co 

Ever wish your travel outfit could look as good when you disembark from the plane as when you boarded?  Well, here are some wrinkle resistant travel dresses which are versatile, comfortable and most importantly look good on!  You can wear the same outfit on the plane, at the beach and even out to dinner.   To dress up, just add jewelry or a scarf.

For one option, check out SkirtSports’ Footloose Dress.  This sporty dress has a built-in shelf bra, V-neck and flattering empire waistband.  SkirtSports was founded by Nicole DeBoom, who has won several triathlons across the country.  Wanting to look good even during her work outs, Nicole created a whole line a sporty tanks, skirts and swim suits that are both functional and stylish.

Another great travel outfit option is Patagonia’s Morning Glory dress.  This dress is made of jersey knit that feels great on and doesn’t wrinkle.  With a flattering cut and halter-style neck, this dress can be easily adjusted to different bust sizes.

For a couple of other options check out The Territory Ahead site.  Their Sojourner Dress and the Vintage Moderne Dress are also resistant to wrinkles.  The Vintage Moderne dress is made of Tencel – a fairly new natural fiber which feels and drapes like silk but is actually made of wood pulp cellulose.   Glad they’re putting that wood pulp to good use!

Links:  SkirtSports  |  Patagonia   |  The Territory Ahead

One of my first small business ventures was creating a portable carrying case for the Mac when it was introduced in 1984.  At the time there was an incredible amount of excitement surrounding the Mac and its groundbreaking design.  More portable than other competing computers, it only weighed 20 pounds.  Our Mac carrying case was a tasteful charcoal gray with a rainbow-colored logo and was featured in MacWorld magazine. 

Today’s laptops have come a long way in the portability department.  It’s pretty easy to go online and find a 4 lb laptop.  However it wasn’t too long ago that you had one choice for a laptop carrying case – black nylon.  Not anymore! There’s an amazing selection of laptop cases for the girl on the go, spanning the whole spectrum of styles.

For a great overview of some of the fashion choices – check out the Funky, Chic and Cool Laptop Bags, and Laptop Bag Explorer articles on Squidoo.  

You can find the laptop bags pictured above at:

 - careerbags.com

- edotsquare.com

- francesandgrace.com

- acmemade.com

Slip into good vibrations for a good cause!  HoMedics has developed new Massaging Slippers to sink your feet into that benefit The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF). 

For the third year in a row, HoMedics has committed to raising funds by donating $1 from each sale of these pretty-in-pink foot pleasers to the worthy organization.

Can’t make it to the spa for a foot massage?  Try these limited edition, cushy Massaging Slippers.  They’re battery operated and provide an invigorating vibration massage to soothe tired muscles.  Available during September exclusively at Bed, Bath and Beyond for $19.99. 

I’m going on a girls trip in a few weeks and staying in downtown Chicago.  While I’m excited about exploring the city, already I’m asking myself … what am I going to wear?!  Luckily there’s help for those, like me, who occasionally need inspiration in the fashion department.

Just like Expedia searches multiple travel sites for the best travel deal, ShopStyle searches fashion sites for apparel, shoes and accessories.  When I searched for “black sandals” on ShopStyle it returned a list of over 6,500 results.  The level of detail was pretty impressive – each result included a photo, catalog description, available colors and sizes, and a link to the store offering the product.  I found that I could also easily refine the search results to fall within a certain price range, brand, store and sales discount level.

Browsing through the results is actually a breeze.  I used their custom slider to quickly scroll through product photos until I found one of interest.  Hovering over a product photo shows a caption with all the product details and a “Buy this” link.  Talk about power shopping!

One of the things I like most about ShopStyle is a feature called Stylebooks.  It offers a way for women to easily share their personal fashion style.  Any visitor to ShopStyle can create a personal stylebook.  They can then create looks from the products they encounter while shopping. 

Here’s a ‘Look’ from one user’s stylebook:

With stylebooks, it’s easy to share your favorite finds with all the other women using the site.  Others see your stylebook by choosing ‘Browse Looks’, and can even add comments.  Stylebooks are a great source of ideas for pulling off a complete look.  Be sure to check out the celebrity stylebooks which recreate looks from various celebrities. 

Related links:  ShopStyle  |  ShopStyle stylebooks 

Yesterday it was 95 degrees, sunny and too hot to do much of anything except search out a place in the shade and order a cold drink.  We ended up sitting on the patio of my favorite restaurant, watching the boats skim across the lake and sipping a frozen lime margarita topped with Grand Marnier.  I love the citrus combination of orange and lime and even better, the drink seemed to cool my body temperature down at least 10 degrees!

It sounds like a lot of people are opting for frozen drinks this summer.  I ran across an item today saying that Margaritaville Frozen Concoction Makers are so popular that stores can’t keep them in stock. 

What’s your favorite cocktail to sip on a summer evening?

It seems like every summer I begin with the goal of having a really good tan.  With the explosion of self-tanning options, I might actually have one this summer.   Besides making me look like I just came back from a leisurely vacation in the islands, a tan has the additional benefit of absorbing light which helps hide imperfections in the skin.

Ulta, it turns out, has a dizzying array of choices for self tanners - L’Oreal, St. Tropez, Bella Bronze, Neutrogena, Jergens, Aveeno, Glow Fusion, Olay, Coppertone, Fake Bake, Fruit of the Earth, Bullfrog, Ban de Soleil, L.A. Express and Solarcaine to name just a few.  My daughter and I visited Ulta this past weekend, and to be honest, the selection was a little daunting.  Not knowing which product was better, we ended up choosing a familiar bottle of Jergens Natural Glow before checking out.

Here’s a blog we should have read before we went to Ulta. The Beauty Addict spent the month of May testing various sunless tanners and reported their findings during their Fake Bake Month. 
Although not quite like a Consumer Report, they did use a rating system for each product and assigned points based on scent, color, texture, drying time and neatness.  After reading their reviews, I’m planning to try the L’Oreal Sublime Glow since it had very good color results and its scent is supposed to have less of the tanning (DHA) smell.

If you’re new to sunless tanning you may want to check out their beginner’s guide to self-tanning, which has some good tips as well. 

Many of Ulta’s sunless tanners are 25% off through June 9. 

Links: Beauty Addict  |  Ulta tanning special