I have always been a sweet tooth. I was the girl who licked the icing off of cupcakes at friend’s birthday parties and ditched the cake below. I always picked the custard filled donuts, I trick or treated until I graduated high school and I would eat all the bread out of the lucky charms first, just so that I could have a few bites of pure marshmallow.
Jon Prince and his family of Js moved into the house next door when I was finishing up high school. I had no idea that my fantasy job moved in with them! I was incredulous when I found out that Jon owned a candy company and had free reign of every candy I had ever heard of, and more! Jon would roll up the driveway, jamming to the Grateful Dead, which drew me in. After a number of conversations where Jon schooled me on Jerry’s best years, he asked me if I wanted to write candy blogs for his company, Candyfavorites.com. Get paid to eat candy and write about it? Yes, please!
During my senior year of high school and freshman year of college, I received boxes of assorted candies from Jon. This made making new friends at college even easier since I, not only had tons of candy to share, but I had an interesting conversation builder, “Wait, what? You get paid to eat candy?!”
Dream-life experiences were only beginning with the candy blogging gig. During those blogging years I was dreaming about my life goal of being a contestant on the reality show, The Amazing Race, where teams of two race around the world navigating, performing challenges and working as a team to move towards the finish line prize of $1 million. Seven years after I wrote my first candy blog and four years after my first application video, I stood in Grand Hope Park in L.A. among a group of 21 strangers at the starting line of Season 29 of The Amazing Race!
One very important part of the race experience for me was having fun. While I am quite competitive and I wanted badly to win, I watched too many teams go through the race, bickering and fighting and not enjoying the experience AND not winning. I wanted to enjoy the experience AND win. In order to remind myself to have fun, I brought along a little button for myself and my teammate to wear. It was a generic Fun Meter that my uncle Jimmy gave me. I added my own “Amazing” customization to the pin. While I didn’t win the million, I did win the fans. When I returned home from the race, I was inspired by how much enjoyment the button had brought me on the race, as well as how inspiring the reminder of having fun was for the viewers, so, I spent months designing and creating my own Fun O Meter.
But why stop there?! This aesthetic meter button is evolving and one of the first customized meter buttons is CandyFavorites’ very own Sweet O Meter! These buttons allow us to convey a bit about ourselves without saying anything. These pins are identity builders, communicating devices, connection facilitators and plain fun! Are you feeling sour? Sweet? Blissful? This Christmas and beyond, you can finally communicate your sweet tooth state with the Sweet O Meter and use it as a tool to connect with those around you. Here is how you can get one with a chance to win a $50 Sweet Certificate at CandyFavorites.com:
- Receive a FREE Sweet O Meter with any purchase over $39.95 from CandyFavorites.com with coupon code “SWEETOMETER”.
- Take a picture of yourself wearing the Sweet O Meter button.
- Post the picture on any of our social media sites with tag #candyfavorites for a chance to win!
Stay sweet, stay fun!
Classroom/movie Munchability: 5 (the fun is in the dress-up play!)
