We all know that the internet is full of cool stuff. But the ‘cool stuff’ that I’m particularly interested in stylish, well designed ‘stuff’. Especially if this stylish, well designed ‘stuff’ is environmentally friendly. Which is why I was stoked to come across Clever Bastards‘ Upcycled category in their store.

To quote CB, Upcycled is taking “Old objects, materials or junk that not only find new life, but are fashioned into something of higher value. And that re-creation is of greater value to the environment too. So make a statement of style… as well as one of sustainability.”

And right now, I am loving the Blue Willow Tea Bangles created by Lindsay Pemberton. These vintage tea cups were rescued from the Salvation Army and ‘upcycled’ into cute, stylish tea-bangles.

Cute, right? Check out Clever Bastards for more trendy + environmentally friendly stuff!

One of Siblings good friends has recently acquired a Pomeranian Puppy. A cute fuzzy little critter with sharp teeth and a ferocious yip. She has also fallen head over heels for Quinn, or so we think. On their most recent Puppy Play Date, she spent all afternoon chasing him, stealing his toys, or attempting to wrestle him to the ground.

It was awfully cute!

Livejournal user plusninety has decided that my face is prettier than theirs, and have taken one of my public photos and posted it all over their journal and lj profile. Needless to say I am kinda wigged out about it.

In short, I removed all my public photos from scrapbook. ALL OF THEM.

I also left a snarky message, because I don’t think plusninety (who is apparently Russian) is going to kindly take down a photo because I asked nicely.

I am most definitely DISGUSTED with the internet. I knew it could be creepy, but the internet *I* knew is a happy fun place, filled with fun and great things, where everyone (mostly) played nice and we all got on joyously. I forget that it has this disgusting underbelly of creepy and gross.<

Sigh. I think I just got learned by the internet.

[edit] I TOTALLY just got learned! It’s an live journal based script that takes the your journal username and generates a public picture from your account. If you log out of lj, it doesn’t generate a picture. While I’m glad that its not focused on me, this is STILL A HORRIBLE AND DESPICABLE THING TO DO! Internet, I am still unimpressed with you.[/edit]

Since Coca-Cola brought out Glaceau (famous because 50 Cent apparently owns 10% and is all gantsta on their ads) I am no longer worried about how far Coke’s corporate fingers reach because now I can walk down to the diary and help myself to the rebranded Nutrient Water Rehab:

Yes, I noticed that it’s been rebranded, and that really its EXACTLY the same thing as Vitamin Water:

And right now I care very very little about the rebranding, and am much more excited that it is now available in my locality!!

On my way back from the States a couple years back I stopped in Colorado for a week and a half to see The Second Quarter. As the altitude of Avon Creek was alot higher than I was used to, I got sick. As the cure for that is apparently ‘lax out and drink lots of water’ I compromised (not such a big fan of water) and drank copious copious amounts of Vitamin Waters Dragonfruit instead. I rather developed a taste for it, and continued drinking it like a fish even after I got better. I was sad that I only discovered the fantasticness of it at the END of my visit, but now it matters little. Thanks to Coca Cola I have some right now on my desk.

Hurrah!

[edit]Turns out I was wrong, and it turns out I do care – Nutrient Water is NOT rebranded Vitamin Water. Sigh – my bad![/edit]

1. Take a picture of yourself right now.

2. Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair – just take a picture.

3. Post that picture with NO editing.

4. Post these instructions with the picture.

This is me, tired, a little bit stressed out, at work.

MMmmmmhmmmm.

The last couple weeks I’ve been working quite hard on all sorts of projects; webdesign jobs, finding suitable bridesmaids dress fabric (still!), puppy socialisation, and a whole bunch of other finicky little things. And I was getting quite flustered about all these things, and little time in which I had to do them. In my flustered state I bemoaned my woes to The Boy, and despaired in not being able to afford to hire someone to do all this work for me. The Boy indulged me and I got all the self-pity out of my system. Anyway, later I found this on my desk:

6 Steps To Riches

1. Develop a cat-dog that flies.
2. Market flying cat-dogs.
3. Sell millions worldwide.
4. Activate secret plan “Octopus”.
5. flying attack dog-cat-army of danger.
6. Steal Money from people.
VICTORY!!

Possible costs:
- Genetic Scientists
- Wings
- Glue
- Collars

While ever so slightly immoral (and not to mention the logic flaw – if I am selling millions worldwide I would already be rich and not need to steal money. I think ’6 Steps to Riches’ sounded better than ’3 Steps to Riches’) and is about as feasible as most B Grade horror movies, it did cheer me up no end. :)

So, I made Piklets this afternoon. It seemed like a nice thing to do, so I did. I made up the batter without making too much of a mess, and it took me a couple goes to work out how best to flip them and how long to wait before I should (sometimes they were too brown, sometimes they slid off leaving a trail of batter on the flipper).

Anyway, after eating at least half of the piklets while I was making them, I figured it would be nice if I shared them with Sibling and her boy, so I saved a few of the best ones (the ones that weren’t odd shapes, or weird shades of brown, or charcoal), buttered them with some jam and trotted down the hall to deliver them.

Well, they just left, and the best of my piklets were still sitting there uneaten.

. . .

Next time, *I’m* going to eat all the good ones, and the goobers can go without.

While I have a degree with a technical background, its been pointed out that as pretty as my designs are I don’t *actually* have any formal training in design. In truth, the lack of formal design never stopped me from producing design work. It did however stop me from appreciating designs from a formal or technical point of view.

But this is the internet, and if you can’t learn what you want from the internet, then you don’t know how to use it right. And I can honestly say I’ve been educated by the internet, and oh the fabulous things the internet has shown me!

The discovery I love the most right now is makemakemake.org and their fantastic design posters:

:) While I’m quickly learning there is more to design than just great ideas and rubbing them in other designers faces, its nice to know that at least the world of design shares ribbing quirks with every other industry.