Category: WWWhat?

Posted in Sparky gifts, WWWhat?

St Patrick’s Day, every day

Posted on by Cate

And a very happy St Patrick’s Day to you. With so many cheesy Paddy’s Day products around, I struggled to pick one to feature today. But I settled on this.  Its full title: St Patrick’s Day Necklace – Tiny Terrarium with Lucky Liam the Leprechaun – Irish. It’s a mouthful, to be sure, but it’s also a pretty cool way to carry St Patrick’s Day around with you every day. Or just on those days when you fancy the company of a tiny polymer clay leprechaun tucked into a bush of preserved moss, stuffed into a little glass jar, corked and strung onto a necklace. Which, let’s face it, is probably every day.

I love St Patrick’s Day and I especially love the way that everyone seems to find some otherwise hidden Irish connection that entitles them to join in the celebrations. It’s a great day to catch up with friends, maybe drink some green beer and eat some green sausages if so inclined, tell some tall tales, listen to music and generally have a good time.

Whether you’re Irish or not, that’s a pretty great way to spend a day.  And even though it’s not a holiday outside of Ireland, it is a Saturday this year, so get craic’n and have a wonderful day.

(And if you’re totally taken by Liam the Leprechaun in his tiny terrarium, wander the website of Messy’s madness on etsy.)

Posted in Arty sparks, Sparky gifts, WWWhat?

Too cool for school

Posted on by Cate

These amazing fine art prints from Angela Rossi in LA make me laugh. Out loud. (See kids, we used to say it like that before you lazied it into LOL.) With the animal tops perfectly matched to the old American yearbook bodies, you can just imagine these dudes roaming the halls of the local high school back in the day. Not wishing to stereotype, but I reckon Andrea the Giraffe (all animals named by the artist, I have just interpreted the characteristics) would be the studious library-at-lunchtime geek; Hunter the Hound is either smoking in the bathroom or saying dopey things at the back of the classroom; Ryan the Raccoon is the cool jock (with a beard); Timmy the Alpaca would be all about music/drama/dahnce; Heather the Persian Cat would be the uptight teacher’s pet and Rachelle the Cockatoo would just be annoying (with a cute blonde ponytail).

Check out more cool prints, plates and postcards at Angela’s etsy shop Beat Up Creations.

Posted in Arty sparks, Sparky gifts, WWWhat?

These boots are made for readin’

Posted on by Cate

I love etsy, the online world of arts and crafts people – some of whom have amazing talent and produce truly beautiful work…and then there are others, who hopefully haven’t packed in a lucrative day job in search of megabucks via their etsy shop. I’ll let you decide which camp this latest find falls into, but in the spirit of St Patrick’s Day, I was taken by the product title: Irish boots with green clover. Legs in the book. 

Off to a good start, I looked further and found a picture, surely worth 1000 words…

Wow. What strange world had I uncovered? What are these legs in the book all about? And what happens to all the bodies? Is there another, slightly poorer selling, series of bodies in the book? Turns out they are fancy bookmarks made by a lady in the Ukraine, whose motto seems to be ‘never stop sharing your LOVE’, which is very nice. But I doubt that the Valentine’s Day version of ‘legs in the book’ were used as a substitute for roses or diamonds by many romantics this year.

Anyways, in case you still can’t quite get how this all works, here you go:

Aha. To top it all off, the legs appear to be shipped to you in a beautiful gift box, which is long and narrow – eerily like a brightly coloured coffin, to be honest. To share your LOVE with some legs in the book, check out Olena’s shop on etsy.

Posted in Sparky gifts, WWWhat?

A beanie, to be sure

Posted on by Cate

Given that it’s the week leading up to St Patrick’s Day and we should be celebrating all things Irish, I thought I’d continue the theme with another great find from the treasure trove that is etsy. This “St Patrick’s Day Inspired Beard Beanie” is extraordinary and would make the perfect gift for any child, or person with a small head who wants to disguise their face. Created by Jamie in the USA, this is a practical way to keep children warm in the cold weather. And to scare their little friends and confuse their teachers and aging grandparents. Order your beanies from Momma B’s Hat House & More on etsy.

Posted in Food sparks, WWWhat?

O’Cupcakes

Posted on by Cate

In case I haven’t said it already, I love cupcakes. I really do. And I love Ireland and most things Irish. So the combination of the two should be perfect, right? Bzzzzzt. Wrong. But far be it from me to keep from sharing, just because I don’t actually like something. I’m selfless like that.

With St Patrick’s Day just around the corner, you might be inspired to whip up a batch of these corned beef & cabbage cupcakes from Cupcake Project. Yep, they’re corned beef and cabbage. And they’re cupcakes. The meat is in the cake and the vegetables are in the frosting. With ground corned beef on the top, where you might normally expect a cherry. Mmmmmm.

If you’d like the recipe for this or lots of other cupcakes, check out Cupcake Project.