I love living in Taiwan, p.1: Jos Designs wooden hair sticks

One of my favorite things to do in Taipei is visit artist and designer markets and pick up things I'd never be able to find back in the United States. Take Jos Designs wooden hair sticks, for example. Each one is carved out of hardwood and inspired by motifs in traditional Chinese art:

I have two carved from blue sandalwood and they smell wonderful.

Just Pretty: Japanese sugar candy

I bought some Japanese sugar candy from a store in Ximending, which an area known as Taipei's answer to Harajuku. Lots of teenagers and college students hang out there on the weekends.

The candy that looks like little stars is konpeito, a traditional Japanese confection that has its roots in Portugal and is handmade over the course of several days.

The rock candy often has miniatures of flowers, fruits or popular cartoon characters in the middle. Doesn't the rainbow one on the bottom right look like the Mac spinning marble of doom? Looking at it gave me dry heaves (remember, I just had a laptop break down on me for the second time in half a year) until I popped it into my mouth and ate it. Take that, marble of doom!

The little pearls are light, crunchy and powdery, and taste a little bit like fruitier Sweet Tarts. I think they would be so cute on cupcakes.

I hope you've enjoyed this trip through candyland! I love candy; it might show up again on The Renegade Bean :-)!

我愛日式糖果!

Secondhand Treasures: Pig Newton

A couple weeks ago, I stumbled upon a secondhand store near where I live in the Zhongzheng District (中正區) of Taipei. I wandered in and found this darling piggy bank on a shelf of ceramic tchotchkes. It was only a few US dollars, so of course I adopted her.

It just so happens that I have a Re-ment miniature that looks identical to Pig Newton, which was part of the charm for me. I started collecting Re-ment as accessories for my Blythe dolls, but I really enjoy them for their own sake. The miniatures, many of which are hand-painted, are based on items found in Japanese culture and everyday life. Taiwan is a former colony of Japan and there are still a lot of old Japanese buildings here from before World War II. A lot of items found in secondhand/vintage shops are also from the colonial era, but I think my pig is a newer import. I'm not sure, however, exactly how old she is.

I love how my Re-ment miniature and Pig Newton look like they were always meant to be together.

There have been a couple (minor) earthquakes in Taipei recently, so Pig Newton is living on a shelf in our bedroom, cemented down with tack putty for her own protection.

I keep Little Pig Newton with her new big sister... they like to whisper secrets to one another.