Remember those old Trading Spaces episodes when Genevieve Gorder used to whip out an avocado or egg drop soup and announce:  “Here is my inspiration for designing your room!”?  Or those Kohler commericals where the couple places a faucet on the desk and instructs the architect: “We want you to design our house around this”? 

It seems that I’m not the only one who gleans creative inspiration from unlikely sources.  Just today, I ripped out a page of a Pier One catalog because one line of text gave me an idea for our bon bon business that I plan to execute soon.

Another source of inspiration?  Peeps.  Yes, I’m talking about those neon, sugar-coated marshmallow confections (made with corn syrup, gelatin, and carnauba wax!) that are nearly indestructable.  No joking.  Wikipedia reports:

Peeps are sometimes jokingly described as “indestructible”.  In 1999, scientists at Emory University performed experiments on batches of Peeps to see how easily they could be dissolved, burned or otherwise disintegrated, using such agents as cigarette smoke, boiling water and liquid nitrogen. They claimed that the eyes of the confectionery “wouldn’t dissolve in anything”.  Furthermore, Peeps are insoluble in acetone, water, diluted sulfuric acid, and sodium hydroxide. 

For a company that prides itself in using real ingredients and no additives or preservatives, perhaps you are a bit surprised that South ‘n France Bon Bons would find inspiration in such an unlikely place.  But you see, it’s not the actual Peeps Easter Candy that inspires us; it’s what people do with them. 

Every year around this time, newspapers like the The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and The Seattle Times hold an annual Peeps diorama contest (the St. Paul Pioneer Press was the first newspaper to do so).  Hundreds of crafty individuals enter fabulously creative displays.  Universities have even jumped on the band wagon:  MIT, and even my alma mater, The University of Chicago have challenged students and alumni to use their smarts in Peeps-inspired contests.

One of my favorite dioramas pays homage to the children’s classic Goodnight Moon and can be found here.  As I admired the work of these wonderfully imaginative and talented individuals, I stumbled upon this humorous spoof of Beyonce’s hit single:  Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It). 

 One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was on YouTube, learning about mash-ups.  A mash-up is a song or composition created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the instrumental track.   You won’t want to miss this mash-up of Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) and Chubby Checker’s The Twist.  I think it’s brilliant!   And, yes, I’ve already used it as a source of creative inspiration….

My favorite museum in Paris has to be the Rodin Museum. Located in a quaint period house with beautiful gardens and a charming outdoor cafe, this museum is small enough to  fully enjoy  in one visit (unlike its overwhelming counterpart, the Louvre).

The location really is the perfect setting for Rodin’s incredible sculptures.  I’m not just a fan of his art, I really like Rodin, the man, too.  He was a fascinating character who seemed to have a real understanding and appreciation of women.  Although I like several of his more memorable quotes, this is one of my favorites (for obvious reasons):

Rodin once said:

“Les compliments sont des bonbons dont les femmes raffolent toute leur vie ; jeunes, pour les croquer à pleines dents ; vieilles, pour les faire fondre doucement entre leurs dents.”  

Translation: 

Compliments are bon bons that women adore throughout their entire lives; young women eagerly gobble them up; older women savor them slowly until they’ve melted away.

I must be getting older because I recently received a very flattering offer to appear on the cover of a local magazine (more on this next week).  When a staff member from the publication called to inquire about my participation, I assumed I had been tapped because of my affiliation with chocolate, since it is a very popular subject during the month of February. To my surprise the staffer said I was chosen for my lips!  Weeks later, I’m still savoring this delicious compliment and looking forward to seeing how that photo shoot turned out….

What about you?  Do you savor your compliments?  Is you style of ‘digesting’ compliments the same style you use to eat a bon bon?  How do you eat a bon bon?

This month, Pascal and I became movie stars.  We were actually supporting actors; the real stars were the chocolate dipping pot and the bon bons.  Chris Davis of Chris Davis Productions and his talented crew descended on the bon bon factory to film a 2-minute promotional video about South ‘n France.  I hesitate to use the term ‘video’ because the quality and the production value of this promotional piece reads more like a mini film than like the unsteady, poorly lit, amateur YouTube spots the word ‘video’ brings to mind.

There is a lot that goes into making a 2-minute movie of this caliber!  I couldn’t help but think of a variation on that old joke, “How many people does it take to screw in a lightbulb?”  In our case, it was “How many people does it take to stir a pot of chocolate?”  The answer, if you’re filming, is five.  One to direct, one to assist, one to light, one to film, and one to actually stir!  I snapped a few photos while Chris and his team adjusted lighting and directed Pascal to get a perfect shot of stirred chocolate complete with visible steam escaping in curvaceous, sexy vapor waves from the pot!

The Chris Davis Productions team really knows its stuff.  They think of every single detail (like the steam) and they make it fun and interesting for us amateurs.  I learned a lot!  For example, it is very uncool to call things by their real names.  Camera men (there were no women in this case) call clothespins “C-47s”.  And if you want to plug something in, you ask for a “stinger” (never an extension cord!)

There are all sorts of neat lighting tricks to achieve desired effects; sadly, they have yet to devise tricks to make me look 50 pounds thinner on camera!  But, they did use filters, water glasses, hand shadows, cardboard, and all sorts of other creative tools to cast light and shadows that give the video its warm, inviting feel.

As for the casting, that’s where I came in.  I didn’t want to disappoint Chris, who works on amazing shorts with perfectly selected character actors (just watch his reel, or what I call a portfolio, to see what I mean).  So, I did what I always do when I’m out of my league.  I turned to the professionals.  I called my friends Rob Powers and Sydney Pennyand asked them to do me a big favor.  Lucky for me, they were willing to accept an evening of bon bon tasting in exchange for their industry knowledge.  You might recognize Syndey, who is a Daytime Emmy-nominated actor, from her roles as Julia Santos Keefer on the soap opera All My Children and Samantha “Sam” Kelly on The Bold and the Beautiful.

I filled in the cast with a couple more friends (including Heather Tompkins, our company’s top ”model” and Bon Bon Princess) as well as a few people I had never even met!  I actually found one of our actors via Twitter when the film studio retweeted my announcement that I was ‘casting’ for our video.  Talk about the power of social media!  I was happy to have “new customers” in our video so that my subsequent voice over was truthful.  The “trying flavors for the very first time” was also true–our actors all got to try our seasonal Pumpkin Bon Bon for the very first time, even if some of them were already loyal fans of other bon bon flavors.

We tried to serve some wine to our volunteer acting crew as a supplement to payment in bon bons, but the bright lights and an open door (for a shot that didn’t make it into the video) were a powerful magnet for an entire family of gnats who loved our wine so much they decided to skinny dip in our decanter!  Our next two bottles were corked, but we finally managed to get something that didn’t taste like rotgut in their glasses….

When the filming was complete (enough footage to create a few minutes of film takes dog years–or at least multiple visits!), the editing process began.  Multiple visits created a new challenge:  continuity.  Like any movie, watch very closely and you’ll spot a tiny inconsistency or two.  In our case, it was Pascal’s hands.  Can you see the difference? 

Chris and his team worked wonders in the editing room!  For example, although Pascal and I felt a bit silly when they asked us to dance for the camera, that little snippet of the two of us is one of our favorite clips!  I’m also impressed that they actually got Pascal to smile.  I don’t know how they did it, but I’m grateful.  When I came in during the final stage of editing to record the voice-overs, I got to see how they control sound volumes versus background music to create a seamless product.

There is so much more I could tell you, but why don’t you just watch it? Meanwhile, know that I highly recommend Chris Davis Productions.  While we were filming, I joked about having two huge cameras trained on me, while  I stood on my marker and took breaks to powder my nose.  “This is as close as I’ll ever get to knowing what it is to be a darling of the paparazzi!”, I said. 

Truth is, Chris makes his clients feel like stars and he delivers a product that is worthy of being nominated for industry awards (in fact he’s won quite a few in his day!)  Chris is at once an artist and a consummate professional, not to mention a super nice guy.  We were lucky to work with him and his team of talented young men and we’re happy to have a video that shows everyone who visits us online a little bit more of what we’re all about.

We hope you enjoy watching our promotional video as much as we enjoyed filming it.  And, “y’all leave feedback in the comments now, ya hear?”

Linus was not the only one waiting for The Great Pumpkin to appear.  For years, South ‘n France has searched for the perfect Pumpkin Bon Bon recipe and we’ve finally found it. Introducing our newest and first seasonal flavor, Pumpkin Bon Bons!  They will be available from now until Thanksgiving. Perfect for the fall season, we take a velvety pumpkin filling (not too sweet with just a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg) and mix it with a buttery-sugar cookie crust. Rolled into bite-sized bon bons and dipped in our special blend of rich, semi-sweet chocolate, they are pumpkin pie perfection!  

Pumpkin Bon Bons are currently available for order by going to our website. Select your tin and fill it with all Pumpkin Bon Bons, or customize your order with any combination of our many delectable flavors. To paraphrase a great exchange from this classic cartoon movie:

Linus:  [to Charlie Brown after Sally just told him off] You’ve heard of the fury of a woman scorned, haven’t you?

Charlie Brown: Yeah, I guess I have.

Linus: Well, that’s nothing compared to the fury of a woman who has been cheated out of Pumpkin Bon Bons!

Keep Calm and Carry On was a poster produced by the British government in 1939 during the beginning of World War II, to raise the morale of the British public in the case of invasion. It was little known and never used.

 But, in 2000, the poster was rediscovered in a second-hand bookshop in Alnwick, Northumberland. Since Crown Copyright expires on artistic works created by the UK government after 50 years, the image was in the public domain.

In recent years it has become an iconic image, adopted by graphic designers and used as the decorative theme by numerous private companies for products ranging from posters to clothing, to mugs, to stationery to doormats.

Flickr has a pool of amusing design variations and parodies of the vintage poster, including: Keep Calm and Carry Om (for yoga enthusiasts), Keep Calm and Avoid Comic Sans (the typeface most hated by graphic designers), Keep Calm and Eat a Burrito (go figure!) and Keep Khan and Curry On (which I think should be at the entrance of every Indian restaurant).

Of course, my favorite:  Keep Calm and Eat Bon Bons!  That sentiment could not be more a propos for me than at this time of year, when I’m pre-buying for our Christmas season.  As we lay out thousands of dollars for ingredients, tins, gel paks, cartons, catalogs, postage and more, I can tend to get a bit panicky!  Will everyone remember to buy bon bons for friends, family, co-workers and clients this holiday season?  Will we sell out of bon bons or have leftover inventory?  Will all of those catalogs actually generate the sales we need to break even?

The poster seems to work.  Keep calm.  Carry on.  Eat bon bons.  That’s all anyone really needs to do.  I feel better already.

A few weeks ago, I took a dance class in Manhattan with my mother that I promised to tell you about. Our teacher, Alex Tchassov, is one of the best teachers I’ve encountered in any discipline! He has a gift for creating analogies so appropriate and easy to understand that he had us dancing the tango, the cha cha, the waltz and the swing in no time. I felt like the children in Peter Pan when they discover that they’re flying. Only I was saying to myself: ”I’m dancing! I’m ballroom dancing!”

We got to see World and US Rhythm Champions Jose Decamps and Joanna Zahorowicz perform a steamy dance number that literally left the entire room speechless for a while after their performance. It is amazing to watch such talent just a couple of feet in front of your eyes; every movement they made was so fluid and controlled. Once we were partnered with the male dancers, I started thinking too hard about my feet and about the steps and about messing up. I noticed that as soon as I judged what I was doing, things usually fell apart for me. The art of dancing contains many life lessons about communication, listening, and trust. And for me, my experience in the dance class mirrored my real-life struggles. I learned more about myself than I did about dance steps that evening!

But, as promised, Alex helped us access (even if for just a few moments) that special place where dancing transcends everything else and sweeps you into its magical, enchanting embrace. 

Speaking of going to a happy, magical place, this video on YouTube, which I discovered just a few days after the dance class, perfectly captures the spirit and joy that dancing can create. This huge group dance number (more than 200 people!) was performed to Do-Re-Mi from “The Sound of Music” in the central train station of Antwerp, Belgium after just two rehearsals.  Can you imagine what it would have been like to be either a spectator or a dancer in the train station on that morning? Just seeing the video kept my heart smiling and my toes tapping all day. Enjoy!

I often wish that Paris was "in my backyard", but I don’t think I’d go as far as Gerard Brion to make it happen. Gerard lives in the South of France in a village called Vaissac. He’s spent the past fifteen years creating a model of the City of Lights in his backyard using old cinderblocks, baby food jars, discarded soup cans and other unique materials. Brion occasionally lends small sections of his mini-Paris to a "miniatures" museum in real-life. However, he insists that he created his masterpiece for his personal enjoyment and generally does not open his backyard to the public except for the occasional small group once or twice a week. I wonder if he does a mini fireworks display on Bastille Day? Judging by this nighttime view of Brion’s backyard, I’d bet it would be just as spectacular as the real show on the Champs-Elysee. For more photos of Gerard Brion’s work, check out this slideshow by The Sun in the United Kingdom.