Thank you for the comments and emails about S&D’s questionable future. I’m working on some ideas to perhaps keep S&D in business with semi-regular posts, but it’s not all worked out yet. (ie Don’t disappear!)

In the meantime, I’ve heard from a lot of new readers, who I think can take advantage of S&D’s fabulous archives. The right-hand sidebars offer you the opportunity to scroll through “The Best of S&D” and different topics (my faves: Currently Obsessed and Interviews With Cool People). Also, check out our great set of School Supply posts. Don’t forget to scroll back in time for new/old content.

Finally, if you want to keep up with me during my sabbatical, I occasionally post to my personal blog, mariaink.com.

So, here marks the questionable future of Stickers & Donuts. I know that there will be a big July Break here, since I will not be around a computer for much of the month. Tricia is also a busy bee. I can’t promise we’ll stay away the whole month, but I can’t promise anything exceptionally exceptional or constant either. (I feel so honored to even HAVE readers, that I hate to let them down by being away!)

After July? Well, I’ll be starting school and I have never known what that future will bring. While I don’t want this to become a blog graveyard, I also don’t think I can commit the time needed to make this the kind of blog it has been in the past, and the kind I would have it be if this were my full-time job.

If you have any ideas shoot me an email : ).

I hope this isn’t getting too tiresome for you non-New-Yorkers, but if so, no worries. I’m leaving here on Tuesday, and promise to be located in a much more boring town for the next two years!

In the meantime… remember when I went to Economy Candy (and then somehow ended up writing a blog post all about food in Children’s Books)? Well, a reader named Stephanie told me I must visit Dylan’s Candy Bar. Which I did, in combination with my trip to Serendipity 3 (two blocks away!).

Even though it’s a little tourist-trappy, it’s a most fabulous and wondrous place for someone with an affinity for candy + bright colors + pretending to still be a child. It’s almost like a little candy art museum: there are tubs of gumballs, stairs with candy stuck inside them!, candy murals, and even a portrait made of Jelly Bellys:

My favorite favorite part, though, was a display downstairs in which famous people filled little boxes with their favorite candies and then signed them. Such a cool idea!

If you want to visit: Dylan’s Candy Bar in NYC is located at 1011 Third Ave. (E 60th and 3rd). You can take the 4, 5, 6, N, R, W to the Lexington Ave stop. (You can take a combined trip to Serendipity 3 which is on 60th between 2nd and 3rd.)

There are also other locations in in East Hampton and Garden City (New York), as well as Houston and Orlando (but I cannot attest to their awesomeness).

After the jump, Steven Spielberg’s favorite candies!:

Chris Van Allsburg is up there on my list of favorite children’s author/illustrators. You will certainly recognize some of his books which include Jumanji and The Polar Express.

Chris’s books give readers that happy/sad feeling akin to nostalgia, and are almost always insist on awesome feats of the imagination, but The Stranger, one of his more melancholy books, is simply about a mysterious man who arrives at a farm after losing his memory. The tale has hints of fantasy, but they are more subtle than jungle apes and trips to the north pole.

As usual, the illustrations are perhaps the most beautiful part of Van Allsburg’s tales:

I know we’ve been semi-lame lately, but Tricia is mad-busy, and I’m packing packing (my poor room is beginning to look so very empty). Also, there were a few Wordpress upgrade problems, all of which hadven’t been fixed. In time. In time.

But while and between packing I’ve been happily entertained by several new (er, okay, only new to me) and inexpensive products of the entertainment industry. REMEMBER in addition to books, libraries also usually have lots of DVDs and CDs, so there is no need to spend a cent, unless you are lazy like me and have Netflix.

1. Enchanted. So two years ago? Yes, but I’m still Enchanted. Hee hee. This movie is great for me for three reasons: (a) It takes place in NYC, a place I’m Currently Obsessed with because I’m Currently About To Leave It; (b) It makes fun of Disney movies while BEING a Disney movie at the very same time (very meta); (c) great musical numbers (nominated for several academy awards, but beaten out fairly by Once), case and point:

2. Bon Iver. I just discovered this new band via Adele’s musical selections in a recent issue of Oprah Magazine (*air high-five with Tricia*). His song “Skinny Love” blew me away. (I also love: For Emma, Blood Bank — alright, I like most of them). Check it:

3. Shakespeare in the Park! This is the deal. Central Park in NYC puts on a FREEEEEEEE summer series (two plays, one always Shakespeare). It is a professional production, this year starring Anne Hathaway as Viola in Twelfth Night.

This was the best Shakespeare production I have ever seen. If you are afraid of Shakespeare (”I don’t know what’s going on!!! What language are they speaking!?”), fear not! This is so well done that you won’t have to struggle to understand. To get tickets, you have to get online early in the morning (ex. I got online at 8:30 and was safely a ticket-getter), though late-comers sometimes get lucky. Bring something to sit on and games to play for the line — you can’t hold a spot for a friend whose coming later, either. They hand out tickets at 1:00, and everyone is entitled to two. The show is at 8pm, and it’s outside so bring appropriate clothes! Twelfth Night runs until July 12 2009. (PS A raccoon tried to crawl on stage during the performance!)

4. Colbert Goes Commando. I love that Colbert is making it fashionable to support the troops while not necessarily supporting the policies that got them where they are. If you haven’t heard, Steven Colbert of the mock news show The Colbert Report recently voyaged to Iraq, entertaining the troops by filming a week of episodes on location in one of Saddam’s old palaces.
Full Episodes from his trip to Iraq are available on Colbert Nation. The first episode, from Monday June 8, is especially good.

5. Persepolis. Yes, I’m also years late on this obsession, but I’ve been thinking a lot about this autobiography / graphic novel concerning a young girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. I’m disappointed in myself for being so generally uninterested in foreign affairs (though I do think it’s my duty, as a human, to be informed), so I’m thrilled that this “novel” makes the plight of people in other countries seem so personal and real.

6. Marlon Brando. Last week, I really let my Netflix account go. Suddenly I was getting movies in my mailbox that I had meant to keep forever on the bottom of my Netflix queue and never actually receive. So there I was with A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront. In order to get my next movies, you know what I had to do. I had to watch them. What did I discover? Old movies are hella well-written, and Marlon Brando is hella hot. Also, you will get to see one of the most famous scenes in movie history, which I think is much better in the context of the movie, but here we go:

So, go enjoy yourself with all your new entertaining suggestions! (And let me know if there is anything I should add to my list!)

#4, you’re the winner! Email me ASAP at tricia@stickersanddonuts.com

Thank you to JetPens.com and everyone who entered! We’ll have to have more contests on Stickers and Donuts- I have to admit I enjoyed the steady stream of “you’re cool!” emails throughout the week. YEAAAAA, POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS!

You might have seen Serendipity 3 a few weeks ago when Steven Colbert ordered the $1,000 gold-wrapped ice cream sundae. Little did I know I’d end up there a week later ordering only $8.50 worth of food (the minimum, per person). I also didn’t know that it would be cute as hell (a fashionable place for Manhattanites to visit) or have the largest, kitchiest menus I have ever seen.

If you want to visit, Serendipity 3 is at 225 East 60th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues). While you’re in the neighborhood, ensure your teeth rot by stopping by Dylan’s Candy Bar (which I should do a post about later) at 1011 Third Ave.

Finally, if you’re at a loss for what to order from their massive menu, Serendipity 3 is known for its frozen hot chocolate (though my friend and I split a $15 brownie sundae).

Flushing Mall, in the Chinese neighborhood of Flushing, Queens, is one of the most fabulous places on earth. Not for shopping (though eating, yes — but master your pointing and guessing skills, not everything is in English!), but for marveling at the impossibly colorful surrounds. Yes, the walls, the lights, and floors are all multi-colored.

What might you find in such a place? Well…

I actually recommend a trip to Flushing, and the Flushing Mall is a great stop — just ask the New York Times, which can point you to some of the best Chinese food in the US right here in the Flushing Mall (they recommend the shaved ice)!

The exact address of the Flushing Mall is 133-31 39th Ave. You can get to it by taking the 7 subway to the end of the line, or hoping on the Port Washington Line of the LIRR and getting off in Flushing.

As many dedicated Stickers and Donuts readers know, we are quite particular about our writing implements.  We even created a Stickers and Donuts Writing Implement Test Sheet-a true testament to our love!  Thanks to JetPens.com, here is YOUR opportunity to win a set of the most beloved pen model in Asia: The Hi-Tec-C!

The Hi-Tec-C is known for its incredibly precise tip, and non-bleed ink.  The pen also comes in a ridiculous number of colors (I own a “Beni Fuji Sunset Red” Hi-Tec-C“!).  The Hello Kitty and friends that sit atop these Hi-Tec-Cs make them extra special!  Even after you’ve written up a storm and used all of the ink, you can transfer the Hello Kitty caps to normal Hi-Tec-C pens.

One lucky winner will the set of 10 Hello Kitty 0.3mm Hi-Tec-C pens above!  To win, leave a friendly (or non-friendly?) comment below by June 12th! We will select the winner by a random number generator, and announce the winner on June 15th!

GOOD LUCK!

Roxaboxen is about a town that children make out of rocks and boxes:

My favorite thing about the book is that neither the author (Alice McLerran) or the illustrator (Barbara Cooney — a very famous children’s book illustrator, you’ll probably recognize some of the books she’s done) ever go into the children’s book cliche of showing the world of Roxaboxen “as the children see it.” No, the children still live in an ugly, barren land, and their town is literally of rocks and boxes. And no, they do not have random fabulous supplies, their jails are the bushes and their cars are old stearing wheels:

The children make up rules on a whim (you can’t speed in a car, but you can go as fast as you want by horse). I think it really encourages children to have their own fun with whatever supplies they have. In fact, that is exactly what I did as a child, forcing my friends to build little rock houses by my dead, hollow apple tree. I insisted on being Mayor. Their acquiescence, I later discovered, occured because they thought I wanted to be “The Mare” (though they couldn’t figure out why).