In further proof that Muppets are pretty much forever cool, here is a most awesome video of them singing Bohemian Rhapsody (found this via Geekologie). I already tweeted this, but it bears repeating because Queen plus Muppets cannot be denied.

Have a nice(r) day!

Just blogging here to advertise my participation in the Week of Hope with Hope Is In the Cards. From September 1st to the 7th, my partner- Cardstore- will allow anyone to personalize and send out a free card from the HOPE collection (including my design above) to anyone else worldwide. This includes postage! It’s a great way to show some love and encouragement to a friend or partner, so my “hope” is that you’ll all participate!

Feel free to personalize the card’s inside and back with your own photos and sentiments. Then just go through the motions and enter the promo code SENDHOPE at the final checkout point. Easy as pie!

Tell someone that they’re Number One! >

(Photo above poached from Design*Sponge, thank you! If I had my own photo, I’d use it!)

Was perusing through Design*Sponge’s great coverage of some of the artists at the National Stationery Show in New York when I spotted this card from Twig & Fig featuring my Pigeons illustration. They produced this beautiful card by doing a foil print on wood. 

Suzie McKig was kind enough to get in touch with me and offered to send me some samples, to which I say YES!  Apparently they have also done cards with my microphone, cassette tape, and headphones illustrations as well, which I would love to see. It’s always great to see my iStockphoto work getting out there and applied to products in such an excellent way.

Can I just say that I would really like a set of these little log pillows? The pattern/kit to make them is sold by Home Ec. (awesome shop, by the way), and I think I could actually be bothered to finally finish hooking up my sewing machine in order to make these! I think I prefer the white ones to the brown though, I like the birch look. I’m just not sure where these would fit in in my house…

I’m still pretty swamped right now, so I don’t have a lot of time for fun projects. But if I did, you’d better believe I’d try out one of these cool paper recycling projects from the Recycling links on Patricia Zapata’s blog. There’s some really neat stuff that doesn’t require large investments of time.  The magazine bowl above looks like a lot of the boxes I’ve been seeing in home stores recently too. Patricia is also the owner of A Little Hut, where you can find some really great paper cut projects.  Nice stuff!

Tweenbot: a human-dependent robot (not from the future).

Found the link to this “robot/people art” project by Kacie Kinzer via Geekologie and was somewhat fascinated. Okay, I will also cop to the fact that the first thing that caught my eye was the cardboard robot’s cute, smiling face. I’m a sucker for robot-related things, and giving it a big wide smile was a good call. Find out more about the Tweenbot after the jump.

From the Tweenbots site:

Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal. 

The site linked above has a video of the little bot in action. At first I was skeptical, I didn’t see nearly enough people reading the flag before setting the robot back on course, so I wondered if the whole thing was a set up. At one point though, one person reads the flag and then does nothing. This seemed like a realistic enough reaction to convince me that this wasn’t just an adorable hoax. Actually, come to think of it, there should be more adorable hoaxes.

On the bot’s first mission to get from the Northeast to the Southwest Corner of Washington Square Park, it took 42 minutes with 29 people intervening to put the robot on the right path. I’m somewhat interested in this experiment from a voyeuristic perspective and also because I sometimes wonder how many people will take the time out of their busy lives to just LOOK at their surroundings. I’m certainly guilty of being oblivious to the world around me at times, but I have to think if I saw a cute robot rolling down the street, I’d have to take a closer look.

I have to wonder though, would the results be the same with a scary or ugly robot? I think people are drawn to things that are somewhat indefinably “cute”, so I’m curious to know if it would work with different subject matter. Still, an interesting thesis project and I’d look forward to seeing more from Kacie.

All images are from the Tweenbots site, © copyright Kacie Kinzer.

Came by this article about the Quicksnap on Gizmag (photo credit to them, obviously) via The Kitchn. This isn’t exactly new news but it seems one of the finalists in a design competition sponsored by Toyota IQ came up with this clever idea for an ice cube tray that has a simple snapping mechanism on the back.  This affords the ice cube inept (like me) a way to pop ice cubes out of a tray individually.

While it may seem cool, but not necessarily like a breakthrough development, for me, it is. Whenever I need to get ice cubes out of a tray for a drink, usually one or both of the following things happens:
- I twist and turn the tray, struggling to get the cubes out and eventually crack or tear the tray  with my Incredible Hulk-like strength OR
- I twist and turn the tray and nothing budges until all of a sudden EVERY ice cube flies out of the tray and all over my kitchen. I search the kitchen frantically for clean cubes to add to the one errant ice cube that actually managed to fall in the drink glass. Then I inevitably end up wiping crumbs, hairs, old band-aids, etc. off of the other ice cubes that sprayed all over my countertop and use them anyway.*

So, I salute you Graeme Davies (inventor) and the Quicksnap. If perchance you’re reading this, please let me know when and where I can buy it. I’d be happy to invite you over for some icy, non-hairy margaritas.

* Let this be a lesson to those who visit: Bring bags of ice with you. Also, put your own ice in your drinks. Or you could just buy me this tray…

Grab yourself some pillowcases with my koi swimming around on them.  They would make a really nice accent piece for a modern, airy bedroom. I have to say, I ordered these myself (for posterity, of course) and they are a really great deal for $14.00 (on sale!).  The fabric is a really nice, thick material, seems very high quality, and the printing looks great!.  

Though I think these have been available for a while, I only learned of them fairly recently but they still seem to be available for purchase through the Urban Outfitters site. Since we have no Urban Outfitters in Winnipeg (booo), I can’t say for sure if they’re available in store. Perhaps someone can fill me in?

Is this not the most mo-fab teapot/tea press you’ve ever seen? (Mo-fab=modern-fabulous, it’s a new word I’m coining… right now)(patent pending). I received this as a Valentine’s Day gift from the lovely Nik, and I must say it’s my latest favourite thing around the house. I’d been coveting it ever since seeing it around Christmas at a kitchen supply store in Winnipeg, but couldn’t justify spending the bucks on it at the time.

Now that I have this in my possession, brewing my delicious T2 Teas (don’t forget to check out their Zodiac tea personality test) is even more of a delight for me. The integrated tea press keeps the tea from over-steeping, and the pump at the top gives you some good flavour right away.

In short, this is the teapot of love. And according to the test on the T2 site, I should purchase the Chilli Kiss tea next time I’m in Australia.

We had a small birthday soirée last night. Dinner first at the delicious Be One on Portage Ave, then scooting back to my place for a little snacking, chatting, and Rock Band-ing (Is that a verb yet? It should be.). So beforehand I decided that some sort of dessert would be in order and I stumbled upon this recipe at Bakerella for the most adorable cupcake pops.

I can’t say mine (above) turned out as professional looking as hers, but they seemed to be a big hit! Al declared them to be “the height of evil”, which I think we can say is a good thing. They really were deliciously light and sweet and they certainly were all eaten in short order.

I substituted the chocolate or red velvet cake in the recipe for vanilla cherry chip cake and whipped cream cheese frosting. I also didn’t use an entire can of frosting (I know, I know, I was going to make the frosting and cake from scratch, but I had some time constraints) because I thought it would make them a bit too sugary. I’m glad I made the changes I did, because flavour-wise I think they turned out perfect! Love that crispy candy shell wrapped around a moist, rich inside.

Have to give a shout-out to all my friends who came out last night and for the wonderful gifts. How nice to have such great friends, cheers to you guys!