September 2012 – Page 4 – everydaysparks

A real bed head

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Cate

I noticed these on a recent Fab.com sale and thought they needed to be shared. Strictly speaking, they’re not works of art, they’re beds. But with a difference – these beds are made out of GIANT ANIMALS. Uh huh. According to their website, the people at Incredibeds are trying to encourage children to sleep in their own beds, rather than in with their parents or out on the lounge or up in a treehouse, I guess. I’m just not sure that dressing a little person’s bed in a giant bear or dog or pink cat, complete with giant paws, is the way to go…I mean, I’ve seen Gremlins, I know just what happens when seemingly cute, innocent, furry things go rogue…

Fuzzy Brown Bear “appears sleeping WITH EYES REMOVED”.

As always, I just put the ideas out there for you to consider. Perhaps you know a little person who would like to sleep in the jaws of a dinosaur every night, or be cradled by a giant brown bear that has had its eyes removed, or a fairly suspicious looking pink cat. Or maybe your inner child is crying out for a bed like this. Whatever, you can check out more about these beds at the Incredibeds website here. Good night & sweet dreams…And good luck…

Arty sparks

LEGO art

Posted on September 4, 2012September 3, 2012 by Cate

I could happily post about LEGO (that’s not me shouting, that’s the proper way to write it – I checked) a few times per week. There are some very clever creative types building amazing things out of little coloured bricks. More than just kids’ stuff, this is genuine art – and not being a real fashionista, it’s my kinda colour blocking. Today, I wanted to share some of the work of Thomas Poulsom. Tom is a LEGO artist/builder based in the UK and he has an amazing collection of his work on Flickr, including a whole range of rare, colourful birdies. ‘Twas Norman, the Northern Cardinal who first caught my eye in the designboom feature post on Poulsom’s work, but I’ve included some other highlights here. Just remember, these are all made FROM BLOCKS. (Ok, that was me shouting that time.)

Kingsley the Kingfisher
(c) Thomas Poulsom (via designboom.com)

Tiago the Toucan
(c) Thomas Poulsom (via designboom.com)

Woody — The Woodpecker
(c) Thomas Poulsom (via designboom.com)

There’s just a taste of Tom Poulsom’s work – you can check out more of his stuff on Flickr here and the designboom feature is here. Poulsom’s birds are also posted on the LEGO CUUSOO site – it’s a pretty cool place, where you can share your LEGO project or product idea and if you more than 10,000 people support it online it will be reviewed by those little men in bowl hats at LEGO HQ and might become an official LEGO product (earning you 1% of total net sales as royalties). How’s that for inspiration to get building, peeps?

WWWhat?

Arrr, me hearties

Posted on September 3, 2012September 3, 2012 by Cate

Let’s all be sure to mark Wednesday 19 September on our calendars with a big X. Because in case you didn’t already know, 19 September is officially International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Uh huh. Apparently, this day began ten years ago, when John Baur and Mark Summers were playing racquetball in the US and started speaking to each other like pirates. No, they don’t know why, either. But they decided they were on to something and started to spread the word and encourage everyone to talk like a pirate on that day. It seems that it took off and was covered extensively by international media outlets, bloggers and scurvy dogs. Savvy?

The boys called themselves Cap’n Slappy and Ol’ Chumbucket and started the Talk Like a Pirate website, which features everything you could possibly need to prepare for the big day – a shop, a translator, posters, songs, some craft activities and a link to a Pirate Name Generator. My pirate name is allegedly Dirty Anne Bonney, so I’m not sure how that works.

Whatever you’re doing on 19 September, be sure to punctuate your everyday speech with an ‘ahoy there’ or an ‘aye aye, Cap’n’ or maybe even a ‘shiver me timbers’. I’m giving you plenty of notice so that you can check out all of the info you need here before you plan your festivities. Arrrrrrrrrr!