Tag: wacky

Posted in Home sparks, Sparky gifts

Something Fishy

Posted on by Cate

Have you ever had a fish as a pet and thought, gee, you’re lazy? Or have you imagined your fish being capable of so much more than just swimming ’round and ’round the bowl, with the occasional detour through the fake castle or the fake volcano? Well, check this out. I first saw it on Fab.com – it’s the R2 Fish School: the complete kit to teach your fish amazing tricks. Uh huh.

Your Fish School kit comes with an instructional DVD, over 20 training bits, feeding wand and an instructional manual. Crikey, sounds complicated. But it would be worth it to see your fish performing cool feats to impress your family and friends. Wouldn’t it?

Apparently Dr Dean and his son Kyle developed this idea while they pursued their peculiar hobby of training fish to perform tricks. Yes, really. They found out that fish are smarter than we think, so they got in cahoots with the good people of R2 Solutions and – hey presto, the Fish School was born.

According to the Fish School website, “it is easy and fun to teach your pet fish to swim through hoops and tunnels, do the limbo, eat from your hand – even play soccer!” And if you want proof, the website has video footage of “Fish School graduates” doing their thing. Just don’t expect them to be wearing little fish caps and gowns.

They also have a web cam on poor Comet, a goldfish that is currently in training. Not for the fish Olympics, but to beat the current world champ of fishy tricks (yes, there’s a Guinness World Record for it) – Albert the goldfish, who has even appeared in a TV commercial.

For more info, you can check out Dr Dean’s Fish School website, or buy the kit for your fishy friend from R2 Solutions here.

Posted in Food sparks

Fakin’ bacon

Posted on by Cate

I am not a huge fan of bacon. I like the idea of it, and can sometimes be swept up in brunchtime euphoria and order it, only to be reminded on its arrival that I don’t actually like to eat it. Unless there is no fat and – no offence, pigs – but there always seems to be fat. Now, I have always known that I’m one of the few people (outside the vegan/vego community) who doesn’t like bacon, but until recently I didn’t know about the whole industry devoted to bacon lovers. Not just food products either – oh no, there are accessories, scented stationery and a whole heap of other crazy bacon-inspired things…

For only $5, you can buy these bacon flavoured toothpicks. Whether you are inspired by Joel Madden or some other cool dude who chews away on a ‘pick, apparently “if you love bacon, you won’t be able to live without these scrumptious, bacon flavored toothpicks!” EverydaySparks is here to save your life, bacon fan. Even though I think they sound like a crazy idea, I do like the tin that houses the 80 toothpicks – Sir Oinkery Porkinson, with his monocle and cane. But with no shoes to cover his trotters (I mean hooves).

Then there is this bacon wallet. Which is not really made of bacon, but of faux leather. For that little bit of Lady Gaga in all of us, without the worry of being followed around by all of the neighbourhood dogs.

Or maybe you feel like your bacon fix is limited to the kitchen and you really want to bring your love of bacon to your bathroom. No, not bacon scented air freshener (although I am sure you can get it somewhere), but bacon soap, toothpaste and dental floss. Uh huh.

If you or someone you know is a fan of fakin’ bacon, you can check out the whole category of stuff for sale at Fred Flare here.

(They also have bacon salt, popcorn and – two products that almost made me cry – bacon flavoured chocolate and a bacon & choc-chip pancake mix. Oh, the horror.)

Posted in Home sparks, Sparky gifts

Great Danes

Posted on by Cate

I first read about Danish label LuckyBoySunday in Frankie magazine, alongside a photo of three very cool looking chairs. So I looked at the website (yes, even though they were apparently only for children) and I was hooked. I don’t know if Danish children are more melancholic (if that’s a word) than other children, but the collections of accessories on the website would scare the crap out of most kids I know.

The creation story of LuckyBoySunday is a cute one. The idea was born “on a Sunday in August 2007” as Camilla & Camilla (yes, really) sat by a lake in Copenhagen and “shaking hands, promising each other to create our very own version of a child’s reality”. And so they did. With their focus on “silly, seriously, joyful, graphics, dreams. Yes!” they are surely on the right track. As long as your children aren’t prone to nightmares as they see their toys coming to life at night…

The collection is made of “very soft 100% baby alpaca”, which sounds a bit cruel to me. (They haven’t specified, but I presume they mean the baby alpaca’s wool.)

Anyways, the peculiar hand cushion is called Fancy Finger, for obvious reasons. And the little girl is holding Dead Buddy. Uh huh. Then there is Balthazar, the shirtless guy with the blue balaclava and his bestie Sailor Jack, who look like they’ve had a rough night at sea. Or somewhere. And then there’s the Uffie cushion – part-robber, part-anxiety and all charm. Then there are the fabulous Mr Bells, with their green and blue moustaches.

The collection is for children? Do you really think so? Either way, they have some very cool and kooky accessories and their website is well worth a visit. You can check it out here.

Posted in Fashion Sparks

Lashes of style

Posted on by Cate

Apparently, I’m lucky to have nice, long eyelashes. I guess it’s luckier than short, stumpy eyelashes, but I can’t be sure. Although I do know that a lot of women spend a lot of money on mascara that promises to fatten their eyelashes, give their eyelashes volume, or enable their eyelashes to sing and dance. I’ve never worn it as I worry that it looks like I have long legged spiders sitting on my eyes. But then I saw these – goodbye spiders, hello birds or scorpions or fish!

Yes, these are fake eyelashes. MADE OF PAPER. Apparently “inspired by the Chinese art of paper-cutting”, these Paperself eyelashes “blend an element of traditional culture with contemporary design”. And then add a whole heap of creepy. The lashes are reusable (you just re-glue them, as with any craft project) and are available in full-width or half-width, depending on just how scary you want to look.

So, if you’re inspired and want to jazz up your look for a special occasion – and I’m going out on a limb to say these beauties will work for both girls and boys – then consider whacking a paper insect, bird or undersea wonderland on to your eyes. Nothing says I’m serious about this promotion like a scorpion tail on the corner of your eyelid. Or stamp your authority – I’m here from the UN to sort out this crisis – with the deer and butterfly set. Or for someone in a serious profession (dentist, accountant, politician), there’s a clown set. And I know that I’d trust a scalpel-weilding surgeon much more if they were sporting these undersea lashes.

Something for pretty much everyone, then! You can snap ’em up at the Urbanities website here.

Posted in Fashion Sparks, Sparks in the wild, WWWhat?

Hats off, dogs

Posted on by Cate

Look, I’m no Dr Doolittle or Cesar Milan (I think that is the Dog Whisperer guy’s name), and yes, my own dog Goldie is in fact made of synthetic fibres. But even I can work out what the pug dog in this picture is saying. He is saying SAVE ME. This ‘custom snuggly dog hat’ is knitted by a lady in America, who has a shop on etsy dedicated to dog hats of various styles, colours and levels of humiliation.

From the mildly disturbing football-fan look on the left to the Parisienne style modelled on the right, this shop has a fabulous collection of photos that are just waiting to be made into a coffee table book. (Honestly, I found it hard to choose the pics for this post – there is an aviator hat complete with knitted goggles, a piglet hat and a flower child hat, to name just a few.) I know that people love their dogs (or ‘fur children’ as they are sometimes called), but I’m not sure that this is the way to show your affection for your pooch. Although maybe I’m totally wrong and there are fierce walk-offs at dog parks all over the world, with fashionista pups strutting down the (ahem) catwalks, vying for the attention and approval of other dogs and their ‘fur-less parents’. Maybe dogs love fashion as much as some humans and maybe they also like to look glamorous while keeping their heads warm. Maybe.

But I suggest that the Punk Rock Mohawk Hat is a step too far. Although, I shouldn’t judge – maybe dogs love robbing banks and starting fires and punching on in riots as much as some humans. In which case, when you stock up on this balaclava-esque hat for your fur child, you might want to check out the range of doggie suits for the Court date that surely awaits…

Jessica’s knitted hats for pugs (how’s that for a niche market?!) are on etsy and her shop is definitely worth a look. Even if you don’t have a (real) dog.