Posted in Home sparks, Sparks in the wild

A Tale of Two Kitties

Helena is the talent behind Tokyo Inspired – selling ‘lovingly handcrafted’ cases for your iphone, camera or pencils. They are very cute and more than a little bit quirky. And they remind me of Zippy from Rainbow. I discovered Tokyo Inspired on etsy and although I can’t claim to be down with the mysteries of the animal kingdom, I am really not sure about the photos that Helena has used to sell her wares…

Take this lovely image of a cute snoozing kitty. The cat looks so happy snuggled up against her soul mate there on the rug. Except – it’s not her soul mate, IT’S A PENCIL CASE. And it has a fairly maniacal-looking zippered smile on its face. And eyes that never sleep. But then, I think there’s probably no harm as long as the (real) cat is happy, right?

Then there’s this pic of a grey cat laughing with his arm tucked around his equally delighted companion. Oh, he’s so chuffed that his partner mirrors his wide smile when he tells his favourite joke about that time with the saucer of milk. They are so happy and in sync and meant to be together. Except – hang on, that’s not a smile, that’s AN OPENING TO STUFF PENCILS OR A SMART PHONE THROUGH. And I start to feel like this is getting a bit out of hand.

And these two grey cousins, caught in a never-ending battle to see who can ‘freeze’ the longest. It’s just not right.

I love your work, Tokyo Inspired – the cases are very cute and I can think of lots of people (myself included) who would like them. But I’m just not sure that it’s fair to the real cats to keep up this charade. Because one day, maybe a zipper will break, or a sequinned eye will drop off, or an ear will unthread, and there will be heartache in the litterbox.

You can check out these very cool cases (and cats) at the Tokyo Inspired shop here.

Posted in Sparks in the wild

Deeper Water

…is the name of my favourite Paul Kelly song, but that’s not what this short post is about. I first saw this on Bless This Stuff and thought it needed to be shared – it’s the hotel pool from the Holiday Inn, Shanghai. Yeah, whatevs, I hear you mumble – what can be so special about a hotel pool?

Well, this.

It’s a glass-bottom pool.

Hanging off the building.

At the 24th floor.

I checked and they also have a turndown service and deliver a free newspaper to your room each morning. No pets allowed.

Just don’t get confused and book the Shanghai Downtown Holiday Inn – they don’t seem to have a pool which makes their hotel seem, well, a bit crap in comparison.

In case you don’t believe me, or if you want to find out more, the original Bless This Stuff post is here and the hotel website is here.