Things I Love #56

So here we are, back in November.  This year really has gone by super fast and, with everything going on this month, it's going to be December and Christmas time before we even know it!!  Kind of hard to believe hey?

AMC officially confirms The Walking Dead for Season 5.  YAY!!!

Googly Eye Books is one of the best blogs I have ever laid eyes on.  No pun intended.

This Star Wars blooper reel is all kinds of awesome:

This Lego ring from FORMA Laboratories is all kinds of awesome.  I would put Yoda on mine. 

Just love these surreal floating eye sculptures by Sophie Ryder.

Real life reinterpretations of Studio Ghibli characters.  Totoro remains the cutest character EVER!!

This super awesome hair clip is currently on it's way to me!!  Can't wait:

What Should I Read Next? is an awesome website that recommends your next read.  Love it!

Iconic movie posters by Drew Struzan...so many of my favourite movies here!

I don't particularly love this news but Bill Willingham has announced that the Fables series will come to an end with issue 150...so sad...

Chubbs the pug has the best Halloween costumes.  That is all.

How to make me cook more:  buy me this skull pancake mold, this skull baking pan and this skull egg mold:

source

Staying on the subject of skulls, how great is this skull DIY from A Beautiful Mess?

Hooray!!  There is a Bee and Puppycat comic coming our way!!

Church of the Jedi...super interesting read.

Have you seen The Simpsons Hobbit couch gag?  So awesome!!

I can't seem to translate this site but it has pictures of some of the quirkiest ceramic art you ever did see!

And finally, I am definitely attempting this galaxy necklace DIY from Oh The Lovely Things.  So simple and effective!

Seen anything you love this week?  Let me know in the comments:)

Things I Love #54

This time next week I'll officially be a 30 year old!!  I don't know how it snuck up on me so fast but suddenly, after months of waiting, my birthday is less than a week away!  Eek!  In some ways it feels like turning 30 is some of the best motivation I have ever had.  So many exciting things going on at the moment - birthdays, derby, French lessons and the fact that despite my stresses, I am doing consistently well at varsity makes me a happy girl!  Anyway, here's what I loved this week:

This game!!  We haven't actually played it yet but all information points towards awesome:

I love these nesting dolls inspired by video game characters, especially the Super Mario Bros one.

Your brain on coffee vs your brain on beer.  Interesting.

Hello Kitty contacts anyone?  Not so sure about these actually...

My desk needs these Sushi Memo Blocks ASAP.  I think I'd develop a permanent sushi craving though...

Funko have a new Star Wars range and it includes R2-D2 and Wicket!  Want!!

DC vs Marvel Roller Derby art by Kevin Bolk.  These are so super cool!

Dr Lukas Brezak has some of the best skull artwork I have ever seen.  The rest of his stuff is pretty impressive as well.

Mailbooks for Good is possibly one of the coolest ideas I've seen in a while.  

Black Milk Clothing's Halloween collection is fantastic.  I want all of it...

Speaking of Halloween, check out Guillermo Del Toro's intro to The Simpsons Tree House of Horror:

And in case you are wondering about all the references, someone has sorted that out for us.  Check out the video here.

If Halloween was a bigger thing in South Africa, I would totally make this googly eye wreath for our door.  In fact I might just do it anyway.

I'd also be taking the lazy route and opting for either this Peppermint Butler dress, this Jake the Dog dress, this Fionna Hooded dress or this Nightmare Before Christmas Sally dress.

And lastly, Pixar's 22 rules of story telling are full of good advice!

Seen anything you love this week?  Let me know in the comments:)

Things I Love #42

Right now the internet is full of news of the upcoming San Diego Comic Con and, as per usual, the desire to be there myself is overwhelming.  It's definitely one of our long term goals to go.  We'll need a ton of cash though because I know I will want to buy ALL OF THE THINGS.  Daydreams aside, here's what I loved this week:

Malala Yousafzai is AMAZING.  Not only did she stand up to the Taliban and survive an assassination attempt but she's also addressed the UN on her 16th birthday.

Since I bought my piggy planter at the I Heart Market, I've been on the lookout for awesome animal DIYs.  Buzzfeed has a collection 14 that I'd really like to try starting with the Plastic Animal Taxidermy Plaques.

Also on Buzzfeed, 38 Signs You're a Basset Hound.  The puppies on this list are so adorable!!

Goodreads have put together an interesting infographic about the Psychology of Abandonment.

One of the biggest reasons I wish I was going to SDCC this year?  This amazing Wolverine Labbit!!

source

I want everything in this awesome new The Walking Dead clothing line from Her Universe.

There is a new Ratchet and Clank coming!  Yay!

The Revolution will be Crowd-funded.  An interesting interview with Alan Moore from Salon.

The Secret Toy Society is possibly one of the coolest ideas I have seen in a long time.  Basically you make a toy and leave it somewhere for someone to find.  Just the idea makes me smile.

Neon Werewolf takes photos of everyday Wookies and they are just as awesome as they sound.

Have you seen these Star Wars inspired Mickey Mouse ears from Etsy?  I'd like the Boba Fett ones please.

Street Art Utopia put together this list of some of the year's best street art.  Blows my mind.

Look at this Totoro hat form Scotako Boutique on Etsy.  I need this in my life before Winter ends....

On the subject of Totoro, look at this adorable Pickachu/Totoro mashup I saw on Tumblr:

source unknown

The NeuroKnitting project turns brainwave activity into awesome knitted scarves.  Awesome.

Hello Kitty gets her first comic, launches fan-fiction contest.  In another SDCC exclusive, Sanrio is releasing a Hello Kitty comic called Hello Kitty Fashion Music Wonderland inspired by Alice in Wonderland.

I am in love with these Day of the Dead Nightmare Before Christmas Funko Pop toys.  They are available for pre-order and I am definitely going to try get my hands on Jack:

source

Lastly, I am fairly sure I have the best parents ever.  Today they surprised me with a Kindle!  Yay!! Thanks guys, I love you both!!!

Seen anything you love this week?  Let me know in the comments:)

DIY Strawberry Earrings

I am a a HUGE fan of useless, cute junk.  It’s why I so often find myself walking out of places like the 100 % Store and Everlasting with cutesy post-its or hair accessories I will never wear.  Case in point, these super cute strawberry hair clips:

In my defence they were only 10 bucks!  Anyway, after wondering what on earth to do with this particular impulse purchase I had a light bulb moment – EARRINGS!  They were super easy to do and best of all, cheap.  Here is what you need:

• Strawberry hair clips (or buttons, charms etc) - These ones are fairly big and they have a nice flat back which makes them perfect for something like this.
• Earring backs - You can buy these in most crafting stores for relatively cheap. 
• Super glue

First things first, remove the hair-clip part.  This does make the back of these particular earrings a little less than neat but seeing it’ll be attached to my ear I am not too concerned:

Add a little super glue to the earring backs and attach to the strawberry:

And now you have earrings!!  Or in my case, 5 pairs of different coloured strawberries:

Like I mentioned before, I think this would work equally well with buttons or charms provided the back is flat enough to attach the earring part.  Let me know if any of you give it a try:)

Things I Love #25

Let's pretend that today is Sunday and I didn't forget to post Things I Love shall we?  Although pretending today is Sunday makes tomorrow another Monday and that's not exactly a good idea either.  To be honest, I didn't actually forget.  My brother-in-law was here from Chicago for a few days and it was a crazy, crazy, busy week and we needed all of yesterday to recover.  It was a fun visit though and totally worth the exhaustion that has followed!  Anyway, enough rambling, here is Things I Love #25:

South Africa is currently hosting the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.  Last night Bafana Bafana played Morocco and drew which earned us a quarter-final place for the first time since 2000.  Big, awesome news!!

Scotland really knows how to get people like me to visit - put cute, fat ponies into jerseys.  Super cute.  Here's a video of those cute, fat ponies being put into their jerseys...I die from the cuteness:

Paris is a beautiful city.  Here are some awesome colour photos from 1914 to prove it, including a picture of the Moulin Rouge.

This Totoro bed tutorial is awesome and, by the looks of it, quite easy to do.  I want one.  Now to convince Jason!

While we're on the subject of DIYs, this Spike Comb tutorial from Honestly WTF is next on my list.  Check out the rest of the site too, there are tons of great DIYs and just all round interesting stuff.

The Daily Bunny is one of my favourite sites ever.  Mostly because it provides me with a daily dose of bunny cuteness.  They recently did a two part GIF dump full of super cute images. This one is my favourite:

I love this quiz from The Vulture that makes you pick between Jay-Z lyrics and lines from The Great Gatsby.  I'm proud to report that while I know nothing about Jay-Z, I really do know my Gatsby.  I'd also like to add that despite my initial concerns about Jay-Z writing part of the score, I really do think it's a good fit.

Would you look at this awesome Life Buoy Handwash campaign called You Eat What You Touch.  The pug loaf and the hamster cupcake are my favourites!

Eventually winter will return to Durban so I am keeping my eyes peeled for interesting tights.  Like these ones from Nylon Journal which feature a New York City Subway map.  Or these Middle Earth themed ones from Black Milk Clothing.

The other day I made the mistake of googling sad pugs and was nearly overwhelmed by the cuteness.  Here are 35 sad pugs (in costumes!!!!!) so you can see what I mean.

That Boutique-y Whisky Company has released a Single Malt Scotch Whisky that features a Velociraptor fighting a shark on the label.  Can we say awesome?  If I drank whisky, this would be my whisky of choice.

Ever wondered how people writing period novels get the language right?  Well this author has created a Jane Austen Word List to assist with her latest novel.  This is such a cool idea.

This clip is actually a music video for a song called Little Octopus by Parry Grip.  I mostly like it because it has a teeny, tiny octopus climbing over a rock:

I haven't seen Moonrise Kingdom yet (sadly) but I am still intrigued by this beautiful pdf version of the screenplay featuring illustrations and shots from the movie.  Now to resist reading it until after I see the movie.

Oh Bulldogs, why are you so cute?  Just look at these 1905 pictures of Bulldogs in fancy dress.  I'd also  like to take this moment to apologize to my future outfit wearing dogs.  It'll be the internet's fault.

Timothy Leo Taranto has created some really great literary puns using the names of authors.  My favourites are Ernest Lemingway and DF Wallace and Grommit.  Oh and the Brontesaurus Sisters.

Look at these awesome Adventure Time crests by Mr.Caput on Tumblr.  So, so cool.

And lastly, my new favourite tumblr Pokemon and Fashion.  The creator adds Pokemon images to high fashion photos and the results are really great.  

Seen anything you like recently?  Feel free to share in the comments:)

DIY Terrarium

One of the things that I promised myself I would do while I was on leave was make a terrarium.  And guess what?  I did!  I originally set out to follow a tutorial that I found a few months back but alas when I went back to look for it, it was gone.  Because I tend towards laziness, I thought about giving in and buying one but they are so expensive - think almost 200 bucks for a teeny tiny little plant!  Anyway, I decided to just wing it and it turned out well.  Really well.  Here’s what I did:

1) Purchase a Glass Bowl - I found this one at Mr Price Home in Argyle Road for R 59.95.  It’s a nice size and depth.

2) Purchase Some Plants - I had already been looking at pictures online and on Pinterest and decided I wanted three little plants.  I probably should have researched the varieties available but I didn’t.  I went to the Tropical Nursery in Sherwood Road and picked three succulents that I liked the look of.  Here’s what I ended up with:

Aloe Aristata:  A small stemless aloe with succulent spotted leaves.  It has red or pinkish tubular flowers in November.  A very cold, hardy aloe.  Full sun. little water (from the label).

Echevaria – Rock Rose:  Pink/Grey tips and creased leaves highlights this silver/grey rose.  The sap is caustic, don’t let children handle it.  Full sun, drought resistant, hardy and slow growing. (From the label).

  

Unnamed (but cute) little plant:  This one is the tallest of the bunch but sadly didn’t have a label on it’s packing.  It has a slight reddish tint on its tips which I rather liked. 

3) Put Plants in Glass Bowl - I initially thought I would need to buy some extra potting soil but I spoke to the lady at the nursery who assured me that the soil I had already would be more than enough.   I carefully removed each plant from their soil...

...and then used a mix of all three soils to create a base.   One I had a little bit of soil in the bottom to work with, I planted each one according to the rough idea in my head. 

4) Add Some White Stones - While I liked the look of the terrarium with just the plants and the soil, I decided to add some white aquarium stones.  To me it just upped the prettiness factor by creating more of a contrast.

And that is how I made a terrarium that now lives on our coffee table.  Luckily our flat gets a whole lot of sun so I didn’t have to give too much thought to where to put it.  Altogether it came to:

1 x Glass Bowl - R 59.95

3 x Plants - R 100.80 

1 x White Stones  - R 49.95

TOTAL - R 210.70

It came in a little higher than buying one but for that price I got three plants instead of one and enough white stones to make another two or three terrariums.  I think I am going to start giving them as gifts!  Plus, because we live in a flat, I don't get many opportunities to play in the dirt so putting this together myself was very satisfying!!  Yay for finally owning a terrarium!