Best Tricks and Worst Treats

These are the items that stick out in my memory.

*"fun size" candy bars were no fun and any house that gave out full size candy bars was legendary
*I dreaded the greasy peanut butter taffy in the black or orange wax paper wrapper.
*home cooked brownies/caramel corn/rice crispy treats were a drag. Even as a kid, I appreciated the effort, but my parents would make me throw it out since the ingredients could be questionable. Packaged candy, people.
*The most obscure trick I ever received was a real grasshopper in a cube of rainbow colored jolly rancher like candy.
*I remember saying, "no, thank you" to a man who ran out of candy and tried to give me a can of soup. How rude I was that day.
*One time, when a family ran out of candy, they filled up bags with pennies. This was better than handing out cans of beans.
*I ate the smarties last.

Zombie Pencil Sharpener

Happy Halloween!

Featured above is the Sadie zombie pencil sharpener from Living Dead Dolls. Wonderfully creepy.

Happy Haunting.

Old School Nintendo Mints

Another stocking stuffer from Fred Flare. Also available on Amazon

Mac-O-Lantern

Instructions on how to make your own sans-guts Halloween lanterns here.

Holly Golightly Sleep Mask

Another Fred Flare find of interest is this sleep mask fashioned after the one Holly Golightly wore in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Perfect as a stocking stuffer. Also available through Amazon.

Cool Umbrella Pot Concept

Since I live in Southern California, I do not need one of these, but I love the concept—the rain water collected at the bottom of the pot is used to water a small plant.

Clutch

The above zebrawood clutch is very much my style—sleek, natural, simple. I love the curve of the wood. It reminds me of a beautiful letterform. The Clutch is made by a company called Tivi and costs $280—a bit more than I would usually spend on a clutch, so I am putting it on my list of things to get once I win the lottery.

Snoopy Sno-Cone Maker

I had this exact Snoopy Sno-Cone Maker when I was a kid and I totally forgot about it until I came across it in the Fred Flare shop. I may have to get this for my brother as a nostalgic gift. Although, my mom may still have it. Fun times.

This product is also available on Amazon

New Toys

Sorry for the light posting lately. Computer problems are frustrating. So I took the plunge and replaced my g4etto laptop with a brand new Mac Book Pro. Thanks to my new toys, I no longer have to wait for the twirling beach ball when doing simple tasks like checking email and posts in google reader.

Five Year Old Equipment:
*Titanium Powerbook G4
*completely busted hinges
*dimmed/scratched screen
*Adobe CS 1
*OS 10.3
*inability to add CS3
*sporatic Firewire connectivity
*broken dvd player
*broken cd/dvd burner
*USB 1 (didn't work with my new ipod)
*measly 60 GB Hard Drive

The New Stuff:
*Mac Book Pro
*CS3
*OSX Panther

This is a little off topic, but I am so excited to be out of the stone age and I am happy that I will be able to bring more great stuff to my readers.

Compact Florescent Light Packaging

The blister packaging that has become so prevalent in compact florescent light packaging irks me. It is a step in the right direction to change all of your lights to compact florescent bulbs, however a step in the wrong direction to buy them in an oversized acetate blister pack. What ever happened to the simple, space efficient, recycled, corrugated sleeve? I realize that the more substantial packages probably helped Wal-Mart hit its goal to sell 100 million of these, but is there no better way to package/display these? I hope that the bulb manufacturers go back to the cardboard sleeve packaging once these become the standard choice for consumers.

Shitdisco Music Video: Fun with Pop-Ups

This video for Shitdisco's OK makes me smile. Ingenious.


Found in the swissmiss archives.

Pantone Tea/Espresso Cups

Ever since I posted about the colorful Pantone coffee mugs in August, I have been wishing for a smaller assortment of neutral tones. I am excited to announce that W2 has just listed sets of four espresso/tea cups for pre-order, but I am bummed that I can not buy them here in the U.S. Almost meant to be.

Anyone know if there is a reseller out there that ships to the U.S?

Xacto Blade Repository

Speaking of Legos, I wish I could buy this bank. My friend Flo gave me the brilliant idea to use a piggy bank for xacto blade disposal. This one would be great for me, but it isn't available in the U.S or in other colors.

Some other great Xacto blade repositories:
*Buddha Bank
*Swarovski Pink Crystal Piggy Bank
*Keyboard Money Boxes
*Millicent Bank
*VW Bus Bank
*Monster Bank

More Lego Paraphernalia

While browsing around this next, I came around some more lego inspired products for the kitchen.

*Lego cake/jelly mold
*Lego lunchbox
*Lego head kitchen timer. Buy it on Amazon
*Lego coasters
*Lego corkscrew

These, along with the ice cube tray I posted about in August, would make a great gift for a lego-lover on your holiday gifting list.

I also saw these "Lego my Eggos" at the grocery store a while back. Clever.

UPDATES:
*10/21/07: Lego head kids table and chair. Via swissmiss.
*10/21/07: Lego Cake. Via swissmiss.
*10/21/07: Lego Zombie. Via notcot.
*10/25/07: Lego Corporate Zombies. Via notcot.
*10/28/07: Marc Jacobs Lego accessories.
*11/06/07: Lego salt and pepper shakers

Lego products are popping up all over the place lately.

Ego Art

I will be moving in a few months, so I am starting to think of things to make/buy/personalize for the walls of our new home. DNA 11 offers custom art made from your personal dna or fingerprints. I like this his/her above the-bed-suggestion. I don't have $600-$1000 USD for two of these, so I may rip the idea off and create something similar myself to compliment whatever color scheme I choose.

Update:
*12/31/07: MAC Custom Kiss Art: MAC Cosmetics is now offering custom wall art featuring your smootch in your favorite lipstick color. Maybe this would be a good Valentine's Day present?

Friday Flickr Favorites: The Macabre

I am not "dark-sided," but in the spirit of Halloween, I thought I should share some macabre photos from flickr.

From left to right:

1. ancestors by panic-embryo.
2. Man Eater by stOOpidgErL. Buy a print of this in stOOpidgErL's etsy shop.
3. Attack by Sayla Marz.
4. Beautiful Decay by 45.Caliber.

5. Day 87: Eating Myself Alive. by Sayla Marz.
6. The Better To Eat You With by sMacshot.
7. Untitled by gabriela.
8. I dreamt i was a mountain by Jon.-.

9. Cellophane ad by China DoII.
10. The Faery Queen's Justice by crowolf.
12. #3 Storytime Sibling Rivalry 1933 by crowolf.
16. Wired by crowolf.

A Bakers Dozen: 13 Links #3

*Interview with Shepard Fairey
*pitter patter typographic umbrella
*a typeface with wonderful fancy swash goodness
*iPhone wallpapers from veer
*stirrup pants are back? ack!
*listen to you ipod in the shower
*8-bit tie
*mustaches of the 19th century
*make glowing mountain dew
*snap-and-Dine Dinnerware
*Tattoed Swine
*$125 Pop Up Book

*The End

Colin Pantall: Sofa Portraits

This is an interesting series from photographer, Colin Pantall, who photographed his daughter, Isabelle, on the sofa while she was watching TV.

From Colin's website:

"These portraits portray the flawed physicality of childhood and its mental and physical freedoms - but also the constraints that are applied by the adult world - the furnishings Isabel is so often pushing against, the dress determined by the educational system she is now part of, or even the attitudes to her physical self-expression as she watches television. "

Pessimistic Fortune Cookies

A coworker of mine recently got a fortune in her cookie that said, "Sometimes cookies have no fortunes." We thought this was kind of sad and now I wonder if it was a cookie from Wonton Food in Queens. The company hired writers to draft pessimistic fortunes.

Some of the messages include:

*Perhaps you've been focusing too much on yourself.
*Your luck is just not there. Attend to practical matters today.
*Today is a disastrous day. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em
*It’s over your head now. Time to get some professional help.
*There may be a crisis looming, be ready for it.

I wonder if the reverse side had lotto numbers to avoid.

People have complained to Wonton Food about two of the fortunes. Are they taking the fortunes too seriously or should fortune cookies always have a positive message inside? What do you think?

Via slashfood.

Playing with Food: Halloween Edition

*Sprinkle Skull


*Glowing Punk Cupcake

Sony Bravia Commercials

The Sony Bravia Commercials are so fun. The newest was filmed in NYC with stop motion giant clay rabbits.

In case you missed them, here is the tower of paint in Glasgow

and, my favorite, bouncing balls in San Francisco.


UPDATES:
*10/11/07: Sony probably ripped off the idea for the bunny video; Sony denies plagiarism.
*10/15/07: Another Sony Bravia video here
*11/26/07: New work for Guinness by Nicolai Fuglsig, director of the "Balls" video.

Monsters

monster make-up and famous monsters—frankenstein

Halloween Goodness

Halloween is just around the corner, so here is a grab-bag of goulish links:


For some spooky nostalgia, check out Monster Kid Home Movies, a DVD of 8mm and 16mm home movies. via Old Haunts.

Dig around the graveyard of Old Haunts, an entire blog devoted to vintage Halloween finds. The author, Keith Milford, also has a blog called Deviled Ham where he collects all things devil related.

Get yourself a recycled vinyl skull necklace, or some cheesy glow-in-the dark fingernails.

Learn about candy corn and wax lips and then cook up some candy-topped monster cupcakes.

Entertain some guests in-style with these Halloween themes from the Hostess with the Mostess.

Order yourself this disposable film camera to add ghosts (sans photoshop) to your photos of Hallows Eve.

Happy Haunting.

Japanese Table Cloth Yanking Competition

Via core 77.

The Italic Poster

The link away from fffound is broken, so I have no idea who the artist is, but this is a cool idea.

via fffound.

Calligraffiti

Calligraphy meets graffiti style here.