We don’t usually get too serious here at Celebrity Icing, but I think it’s okay to make an exception once a year. Here are some life lessons from some fantastic writers, movies, musicians, and actors to get you on the right track this year.

New Years resolutions come and go, but you can count on these predictions…

1. You Are Important

Your very existence has an impact on everything around you, so make the most of it. Sometimes we only think famous people are important but that’s not true at all.

Good old George Bailey (James Stewart) from It’s A Wonderful Life didn’t realize that his marriage to Mary (Donna Reed) and his life in Bedford Falls (above) had such a positive effect on everyone he encountered.

2. You Are Stronger Than You Think

In August 2005 a 23 year old woman in the UK lifted a car off of her friend’s leg even though she was injured. In 1982 a mother lifted a car up so that her son could be pulled to safety (he was pinned under the car when it fell during repairs).

3. Change IS Good

Pullitzer Prize winner Frank McCourt’s first book, Angela’s Ashes, was published when he was already 66 years old (he was a retired school teacher). Ian Fleming was 45 years old when his first James Bond book came out (previously he was a Naval Intelligence Officer). Whether you’ve been downsized or bankrupted, remember that things might actually get better instead of worse and you’re never too old to try something new if your current situation isn’t working out.

Misadventures are still adventures. McCourt turned his childhood poverty into a beloved and successful book and Fleming’s war experiences spawned one of fiction and films’ most exciting characters. Life is exciting, isn’t it?

4. Life Is Short

Andrew Koenig (Boner from Growing Pains), Corey Haim (Lost Boys) and Gary Coleman (Different Strokes) were all originally famous as children and, sadly, left us this year. If you’re like me, you grew up watching these actors. If you watched as much TV as I did when I was a kid, they almost felt like family.

Life is short, so make the most of it. If you love someone, don’t wait too long before you tell them- and remember, it doesn’t have to be a special occasion like Christmas or a marriage proposal. A simple ‘I love you’ any time is nice.

5. Enjoy Yourself

As Michael Jackson says in the song above, “Enjoy yourself… you shouldn’t worry about the things you can’t control… Why don’t you live, live the life you got…” Road rage, rude customers, and all of the petty drama that we create for ourselves… I hope to be a kinder, more patient, person in 2011 and I hope the same for all of you. Happy New Year!

What Season Are You?

This week we continue our flashback to the 80′s – when everyone was getting their colors done. I just discovered that this method of determining which colors work for you originates from a book called “Color Me Beautiful” by Carole Jackson - which spent 4 years on the NY Times bestseller list. For more information straight from the source, you should visit her website at carolejackson.com – she provides samples of color swatches that you can refer to once you identify which season suits you.

Wondering if you are a Winter? Then please read our last article called “Get Your Colors Done Part 1: Is Winter Cool For You?“

Are You a Spring?

In the last article we explained that Winters have cool skin tones and that they look good in black and bright colors. An easy way to remember this is that Winter has cool temperatures. Spring, on the other hand, is when things start to warm up – and if you’re a Spring you will look better in warm tones to flatter your complexion. If you did the paper test described in the Winter article and your face cast a yellowish tone on the paper, then you are a Spring.

Just Peachy!

Springs look great in warm colors such as coral and turquoise. See how the turquoise blouse compliments Mrs. Garrett’s skin tone?

Certain shades of green, red, blue, and pink also work well for them (think of bright Spring flowers in the sunshine). While black and white look best on Winters, a Spring can wear soft black and ivory.

Spring Gift Ideas

A gift in flattering colors will warm your Spring’s  heart. Here are some ideas for the Springs on your Christmas shopping list.

Peach Scarf

This vintage scarf is available at Etsy.

Yellow Gold

The warm tones of this yellow gold necklace suit a Spring more than white gold or silver, and the butterfly (a symbol of Spring) is also a nice touch.

Coral Converse

Perfect for the Spring man or woman on your list and available for under $30 at overstock.com.

Extra Reading:

Simon Doonan at the NY Observer has written an article about the Color Me Beautiful phenomenon that is both funny and informative, and includes an interview with Carole Jackson.

What Season Are You?

In the first installment of our nod to the 1980′s and the popularity of ‘getting your colors done’ back then – we look at Winters. For an introduction to this series, please refer back to our last post: ‘The 1980′s Called And Asked: What Season Are You?”

Are You a Winter?

Get Ready to Take a Test

Go get yourself a white piece of paper. Don’t worry, you’re not going to have to write a test – you just need it to determine whether you have a warm or cool complexion! You’ll also need a mirror. Hold the paper up to your face and then look in the mirror. Does your face seem to cast a yellow tone to the paper, or is it more blue?

Yellow Equals a Warm Skin Tone; Blue Equals a Cool Skin Tone

Examples below: Vinnie is a winter. He looks good in black and navy blue. Winters usually have dark hair and fair or olive skin.

If you’re a Winter, let the season inspire you.

The winter world is high contrast – bright white snow; deep black night.

Cher starred in a string of movies in the 80′s (Silkwood, Mask, Mooonstruck, Mermaids).

Bright, intense, vivid colors also look great on you -but stay away from shades of brown or faded colors – they will make you look faded, too; whereas Winter colors will really make you POP.

Winter Jewels

When selecting colors to wear – think jewel tones. Vibrant, deep and vivid colors such as emerald, ruby, or sapphire complement a winter’s cool.

Winter Gift Ideas

If you take a moment to think about what season the person is you can get them a gift that will make them look great! Christmas is the perfect gift-giving season for Winters. They look great in Christmas colors (Red, Green, Royal Blue, Pure White…). Here are some ideas for the Winters on your shopping list:

A Red Sweater

Note that a winter can also be a platinum blonde not just a brunette.

Not this platinum blonde.

Well, maybe- but actually I meant this platinum blonde!

Green Party Shoes

Have You Ever Had Your Colors Done?

During the 1980′s women would often get their ‘colors done’ – a trained specialist (like for example, one of your mom’s friends) would evaluate your coloring (hair, complexion, eyes) and then tell you if you were a Spring, Summer, Fall, or Winter. You would be told what colors you should wear based on this evaluation.

This type of oversimplification and rigid rules of style went out with those scarves you were supposed to be able to wear in 150 different ways (instruction booklet attached).

Yet, there are colors that suit different people – and they can still be a good foundation to build a personal look on.

Today fashion rules are much more flexible (and fun) but not everyone has the confidence to break the rules (or the eye to do it well). In that case, we start a fun 4 part series based on the 4 seasons:

Are You A Spring, Fall, Winter or Summer?

Women of all Seasons

Join us as we look at the characteristics for each season and the colors that compliment them.

Which season are you?

Perhaps you will be surprised by the results. Perhaps we’ll inspire you to try out some new colors. Or, you can use the seasons as a gift guide for the Winter and Spring folks on your Christmas list (that’s probably how far we will get this month). And, of course, in true Celebrity Icing style – we will include some sparkly Stars and some starry sparklers for you to enjoy -with some fun nods back to that colorful decade, the 80′s along the way…

I’m dreaming of a green Christmas, as I look out at the slushy weather outside…

Last week we looked at Red and this week is devoted to that other Christmas color….

Green

Who says it’s not easy?

Make sure you click on the video below for the perfect soundtrack to listen to while you help us celebrate all things green this season!

Green is Good

Admittedly it’s hard not to be cynical about their motives because it is so cool to be green these days. However, these celebs still deserve recognition because we emulate their behavior and it’s nice to have some wise and practical behavior to imitate for a change.

Heather Mills

Vegetarian, Animal Rights activist, PETA member.

Get a list of the top 10 green celebs at Hippyshopper.com.

Chris Martin

His music is coma-inducing and he’s not really my type but someone out there likes him because he was recently voted the World’s Sexiest Vegetarian. I’m guessing Jason Lee, Dean Wareham, and Colin Firth must all be carnivores… either that or the judges have very different taste from me.

Green is Romantic

You can do your part to support the global effort to preserve our planet’s future – buy a wedding ring that has been refined, not mined! You don’t want your wedding ring to be connected to continued mining of our planet, or to the violence associated with conflict diamonds. Instead, you can buy a ring that is made from 100% recycled scrap. Otherwise, five tons of environmental waste is created each time one new gold ring is produced! Not something you want to think about when you are wearing your ring in to your future years of marriage. You can read more about this at Recycled Metals.

Green Ring

Green is Groovy

Only 9 days to Christmas!

The traditional Christmas colors are Red and Green so this year, celebrityicing.com will feature them in two posts. This week we will look at radiant red and next week we’ll look at glorious green – with a few celebrities thrown in, of course! You may even get some last minute gift ideas! 

Red Music

Blonde Redhead

Click on the video for a lovely soundtrack to accompany your reading of this post…

Blond Redhead
  

Famous Redheads

Lucille Ball

Also… Shirley MacLaine, Debra Messing, Marcia Cross, Seth Green, Ron Howard, Robert Redford, Molly Ringwald

Surprisingly… Clara Bow, Bette Davis, and Marilyn Monroe were apparently natural redheads as well! 

Historically… Richard the Lionheart, Prince Harry, Thomas Jefferson, General George A. Custer

For a more complete list (and lots of great pictures), check out Anna Marie Bowman’s Famous Redheads Throughout History.

Red Jewels

Rubies

According to Chi in Asian Tradition, you can wear a red jewel to help you fulfill your dreams to become famous! The perfect gift for your actor, musician, artist or writer friends. Or, for anyone that you feel deserves recognition (like moms, wives, girlfriends… hint hint).

Food

Raspberries

I think this is my favorite color of red, and one of my favorite flavors, too! Perfect with some homemade cheesecake. 

Red Spirits

We just brought a bottle of ‘Little Black Dress’ home, not able to resist the label. Haven’t tasted it yet, but if it tastes as good as it looks, it will be a treat! 

Another interesting wine I would like to try is ‘Red Guitar’. 

Merlot

I can’t believe that Christmas is already here. If you’re like me and you haven’t even started shopping you should note that:

The deadlines for online shopping are this week!

Are you still there? I hope so, because I have some great celebrity-inspired ideas for what you can order right now without leaving your computer!

Ring in the New Year

This ring can be guaranteed to arrive for the holidays as long as you order it before noon on December 15th. It is called the Black Tie Diamond Ring - so, while you may not be walking the red carpet this season you can still have your very own ‘black tie event’.

Picture the Look on Your Little One’s Face

Order this cool kids digital camera today (December 9) and you could be putting it under the tree as early as Thursday, December 11th!

Joy to the World!

As an added bonus – it comes with Amazon’s Frustration Free Packaging* which will take the seasonal stress away from your Papa-razzi (or Mama-razzi).

(*Frustration Free packaging means the camera ships in an easy-to-open recyclable box, and eliminates the painfully hard-to-open and eco-evil PVC.)

Fisher-Price Kid-Tough Digital Camera Blue [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]

Get Your Own Bobblehead

Not just reserved for sports heroes – you can order customized bobble head replicas of your friends and family! Just make sure you order by December 11th or you won’t see head nor tail of this gift until January…

Be warned, I think my husband’s bobblehead is having an affair with the Bettie Boop figurine on our fireplace mantle…

Because Martinis Aren’t Just For the Cool Kids Anymore

In fact, I think you’ll find that nerds quite possible love James Bond just as much as they love science. Order this week for delivery by Christmas.

Butt-covering Disclaimer: The information about deliveries was taken from the websites where these products are sold and is, like all things in real life, subject to change without notice and not guaranteed.
Celebrity icing does not accept any responsibility for the products above, the companies, or the delivery people but we will wish you a Happy Holiday and good luck shopping!

Well it was bound to happen – given the cupcake images I use and the name of this blog, so let’s get it over with! 

My favorite cupcake jewelry and accessories

A sweet treat under any Christmas tree (or any other time for that matter). 

Pretty Please, With a Cherry on Top

Handmade

This cute little cupcake is handmade. The ‘cherry on top’ is a tiny swarovski crystal. You can order this sweet pendant and necklace directly from the artist, Natasha Puffer, from  her website by clicking on the photo above.

Cupcake Cutie

How sweet is this? The perfect cupcake baking outfit. 

Jessie Steele Audrey Bib Apron, Pumpkin Cupcakes

Customized Cupcake

You can order a charming custom cupcake charm (or half a dozen!?) from Jessica & Susan Partain at Inedible Jewelry. You get to pick your cake flavor and frosting. You can also add sprinkles, a cherry, or even make special requests. 

Here’s a witty hostess gift for the holidays… 

Or a cute charm for the coffee lover close to your heart…

Uh, You Got Some Cupcake on Your Shirt

Har har. Okay this shirt is really cute. It says pirate, it says cupcake, it says ‘hey I’m a tasty pirate’. I bought a different version for my husband not too long ago and it’s the first shirt I grab when I’m raiding his t-shirt drawer. His response is “ARRRRRR” of course!

Cupcakes that are Craft-alicious

I scoured the Internet for some cupcake crafts and here is my favorite find: 

Some craftsters did a cupcake swap and some of the tasty results were a cupcake coin purse, cupcake candles and a cupcake cookbook (above) all made by a very talented person going by the name eye_on_sparrow. Click on the photo to see the rest of the crafts. 

Get Some Taste

And now that I’ve made you crave cupcakes I thought I better include a recipe. Here is one that caught my attention – it’s a recipe for no-bake raspberry cupcakes submitted by William (Uncle Bill) Anatooskin on recipezaar.com. I haven’t tried it yet, but I think I’m going to have to, it looks so tasty! 

Raspberry Cupcakes

And for all things cupcake there are blogs dedicated to this very topic, called ‘Cupcakes Take the Cake‘ and ‘Cupcake Bites’. You can visit these blogs for even more cupcake information…