This week, I am up in beautiful Newcastle (on the coast, about two hours north of Sydney) doing some work. And although my focus is on work, I wasn’t going to miss the chance to go for a walk this morning – and I happened to catch an amazing sunrise on my way out, then a kinda creepy thick fog rolled in and shrouded my walk back to the hotel. Throw in a gorgeous beach, break wall, busy shipping port, fisherman and lots of hungry pelicans and it was a pretty awesome walk all round. Here are some pics…
Oh, I almost forgot. My day really started at 3.30am, with a crazy loud alarm, followed by two bright fire trucks and evacuated people in their PJs (from the apartment block across the street from the hotel – all ended up ok.)Nice start to the day for walkers and runners.Nice view, seagull.Nice view, fisherman.Nice view, giant ship.Awwwww.And the fog starts rolling in…Creepy…The break wall near Nobby’s Beach.Road to nowhere. (Not really, it leads back to the carpark, but felt very spooky this morning.)
Another fab.com find today – this time, one for the fashionistas. Well, not quite. They’re clothes, sure, but they’re a little bit different and most certainly won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Faux Real make ‘photorealistic apparel’. Uh huh. According to their website, Faux Real shirts are for people who ‘want to stand out from the everyday fashion crowd’. When a normal t-shirt just doesn’t cut it anymore, you might need to upgrade to a Faux Real ‘outfit’ t-shirt instead. I can’t really tell you any more, I need to show you some of the pics from the website for you to see for yourself…
Look out, little ladies. It’s the Faux Real 70’s vest for toddlers.From the bassinet to the boardroom, this romper suit shows that your baby means business.Surely every man needs a faux bacon suit. Surely.And here’s the ‘Beauty Queen’ shirt for the ladies. BYO kooky glasses.But this one really baffles me – a faux camping shirt. I’m getting one for the Camino.
You can check out these and other very quirky shirts at the Faux Real website here.
Ok, so firstly, I need to confess that I didn’t know that Snoop Dogg had changed his name to Snoop Lion. But rest assured, I’ll be looking into it. That aside, I recently saw an interesting post on the Ecouterre website about Snoop Dogg/Lion supporting an MTV initiative to recycle US guns into jewellery. And that sounds like a much better use of the metal to me.
Word, Dogg. Errr, Lion.
Jewelry for a Cause is the place where you can buy the limited edition MTV x Caliber bracelet. Here’s how they explain the concept: “The bracelet carries the unique serial number of an illegal firearm turned in to the Newark Police Department during a recent gun buyback. The item is part of the Caliber Collection, a line of jewelry that is made, in part, from the steel of reclaimed illegal guns. Proceeds from each sale of the MTV x Caliber bracelet will be donated to the Newark Police Department to help fund future gun buyback amnesty programs in Newark, NJ.”
One of the MTV x Caliber limited edition bracelets.
That’s the special MTV bracelet – not really made of recycled guns, but featuring the serial number of a gun that’s no longer on the streets, which is still very cool. But the story is even better for other jewellery in the Caliber Collection – they use actual ‘guns and bullet casings seized by law enforcement’ to make their pieces, some with added diamonds to up the bling factor.
So much prettier – brass with eight little diamonds (and the number of the Newark gun it came from).
You can check out the full Caliber Collection at the Jewelry for a Cause site here.
And back to Ecouterre – if you haven’t checked it out, it’s a pretty interesting site: ‘your online guide to the best ideas, innovations and emerging trends in eco fashion, sustainable style, organic beauty and ethical apparel’. It’s here.
Oh, and if you want to read more about Snoop Lion, his Wikipedia page is here.
A recent sale at Fab.com shared the work of C.G.Sparks (no relation) with the caption ‘artful animal-free taxidermy’. A niche market, to be sure. But I do like these wall trophies, celebrating someone’s skill with recycled rope and creative accessories rather than someone’s skill with a powerful weapon aimed at an animal just chillaxing in the woods. And although I’ve not yet seen a bear or lion or elephant in the wild, I’m tipping these ropey versions come in much cooler colours.
The deer, according to C.G. Sparks. [image from fab.com]The mountain lion. Still scary, even in rope form. [image from fab.com]Say what? Nah, it’s not ivory – it’s ‘medium density fibreboard’. Phew. [image from fab.com]You can check out other cool things via the curated sales at fab.com here – and although I can’t find these taxidermy friends on the C.G. Sparks website, they do have lots of other pretty great stuff (they call it ‘furniture with soul’) for your home here.
This isn’t really a book club, I just wanted to show you this excerpt from the book I’m currently reading on how to pack for the Camino de Santiago. I hadn’t expected there to be so much to learn about the topic, but it’s quite a long book. Like a lot of the reading I’ve done about the Camino, it’s super-informative, but parts of it are slightly disturbing.
Sounds like a plan.
Just look at that dude on the cover, trotting along the Way, with a little bird helping lift the burden of his (already tiny) backpack. Happy days on the Camino, yes? Well, not every day, if page 106 of this book is to be believed. I’m off to buy a whistle. Or a high-tech sound device.
![The C.G. Sparks version of a deer. [image from fab.com]](https://everydaysparks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/cgsparksdeer.jpg)
![The mountain lion. Still scary, even in rope form. [image from fab.com]](https://everydaysparks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/cgsparkslion1.jpg)
![Say what? Nah, it's not ivory - it's 'medium density fibreboard'. Phew. [image from fab.com]](https://everydaysparks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/cgsparkselephant1.jpg)
everydaysparks 