Jim's Skull Art

Some people like to make art out of garbage.

Some people like to make art out of money.

Other people like to make art out of food. Or even dead animals.

Jim? He does skulls. They mostly seem to be created using rope/cord/hemp material (I can't find the material he actually uses), but there are other various kinds of skull sculptures, too. The work is intricate and detailed, so even if skulls might not be your thing, check out the art work involved.

Dry Erase Clock

In a lot of ways, we've come to rely on technology for....well, for everything. Clocks, planners, and alarms are certainly no exception and are actually one of the most frequently used functions of cell phones and such now.

But for some, it's still better to revert back to creative uses of old methods. This dry erase clock is one of those methods. No need to use a fancy phone, your computer, or heck, even good ol' fashioned pen and paper. Hang this on your wall and write your reminders of the day's events right on the face of it. It can't get any clearer than that!

Then again, for the 135 bucks you'd spend on this, maybe you should just get that phone you've been eye-ing instead...

Girlfriend proposes 10 minutes before the wedding

An in-depth article gives all the details of their relationship and how this worked out. Basically, though, the girlfriend of many years and mother of their children together was planning the boyfriend's surprise birthday party and thought "hey, why not make it a surprise wedding?"

With the help of some friends and family, she coordinated the entire event, took him to the place, everyone jumped out and yelled "surprise" as usual. Then she took the mic, got everyone's attention, and proposed, telling him he had 10 minutes to get ready because the wedding was happening right then.

Yikes! Of course he said yes and they'd discussed marriage before but because of financial reasons hadn't done it yet. Talk about a quirky way to propose!

The Sad Man's Kama Sutra

This totally fits my PG-13 requirements here, hehe.

I love the "Misery" one....oh so true!!

Powerbella gets the geeks outside in a geeky way

Treehugger posted about this awesome umbrella that will be available next month. Not only is it solar powered, but it's also 100% recyclable and waterproof. I'm not sure how many outlets it has, but after a day in the sun, it should have enough power to charge ipods or a laptop battery.

I'm sure it will be expensive and yeah, it's kind of eye roll-worthy, but I think it's a unique idea and definitely something I'd love to have. Yes, we should all get out in the sun and leave our electronics behind, but this is great for those times where I have things to do online and would now have the opportunity to take my work outside in the great weather. I love taking my laptop outside anyway, but a battery only lasts so long and unless the shade is just perfect, there's usually a glare on my screen. Yuck.

I'll be interested to see how many public areas end up putting these into place. I can see them being a hit at hotels, especially with all those people on business trips or all the family outings that may bring along their iPods/stereos/etc.

Litttle Miss Matched -- The end (beginning?) of mismatched socks

If you've never had an issue with mismatched socks or socks gone missing, then consider yourself lucky. For the rest of us, this is the quirkiest solution to such a problem....make the mismatching worse (better!), have fun with it, and end up with all sorts of socks.

Little Miss Matched sells socks in sets of three...and the don't match exactly, but they complement each other. And if socks aren't your thing right now because it's summer, check out the flip flops instead.

If you're zany enough to be okay with silly mismatching socks...that somehow match anyway....then definitely check these guys out. They have soooo many different kinds of socks, flip flops, cami sets, bedding, accessories (notebooks, purses, silly sock coin purses, etc), and surprisingly enough, a lot more stuff. 

The Mom Song (Everybody can relate)

The. Greatest. Mom. Song. Ever.

We can all relate to this song, regardless of if we're moms or not. Every single line is hilarious and oh so true. It's a really fast paced song, but the lyrics are written across the bottom so it makes it really easy to follow along.

Heart-shaped Watermelon

You can say "awww" first. Then you can look at the price tag of 15,760 yen (about $160) for one. Holy cow. It took the Japanese couple 3 years to perfect, but they finally produced perfect heart-shaped watermelons and will surely be producing more in the future for such high prices.

Jake and Micah know catnip and fortune cookies

(Pirates and paws)

Oh boy do they ever! Okay, so Jake and Micah are actually the cats, and Mei is the owner/creator of the site, but the products are adorable and fun. The "about us" page gives the history of the site and a bit about Jake and Micah, but these little bits really sum up what the site itself is about:

Jake & Micah combines a designer's love of animals, fondness for sewing and experience in fashion.
....
The idea for Jake & Micah began in 2007 when frustrated with the
selection of cat products found in pet boutiques, Mei decided to design
her own cat toys and accessories. The goal of Jake & Micah is to
create products that are unique and fun but also safe from pesticides.
All items are handcrafted with your pet's happiness in mind. We use
only the freshest, sweetest certified organic catnip in all our toys.
Your kitty will know the difference immediately.

Do you think that's what made me explore the site, though? Of course not. I didn't read that until I was writing this post and figured I should say something about the site as a whole.

What got my attention were the quirky toys that the catnip was packaged in. They have several varieties of "fortune cookies" along with other asian "dishes" to order for takeout. Oh, and then things like the swiss miss rolls, collars, and mats, too. The prices are surprisingly reasonable and if you're one to pamper your pets with cute toys like this, Jake and Micah are right up your alley.

Creative Blog Titles -- Part 3

I get a lot of people coming to my blog because they search for "creative blog titles" or some other similar phrase. I've done a couple quick posts like this before, but I wanted to pass on some more ideas for people who were looking for inspiration.

In the fast pace internet world where most pieces are skipped over quickly, there's a lot to be said for people who can draw you in with just their creative names. These are a few people (a couple repeats from last time) who got me to stop and read some of their posts after all I'd seen were their quirky blog names. Sometimes I'm wrong, but most times it turns out that an interesting blog name is reflective of interesting material inside, and of course I want to read more of that!

Always listen to your pig-puppet
Fairy Hedgehog
What's large, grey, and doesn't matter? (An irrelephant!)
Indecisive Peach
I'll get you, my witty (and your little blog, too) (which is now Closet Narcissist)
Plastic Alligator
Functional Shmunctional
Fairy Blog Mother
Ficken Chingers
The Secret Government Eggo Project
Randomability

If you think your blog name is particularly creative or you know another blogger whose title is silly or interesting, please let me know and I'll check you/them out. And hey, who knows, maybe I'll include the name/link in my next quirk about it!

List of 99 things you should have already experienced on the internet

....unless you're a loser or old. ;-)

You should have seen this

This is the absolute ultimate in internet lists. If you've been around the internet for a few years, you've probably seen many of these. If you've been here for a long time, you should've seen most (all!) of these, and if not, go go go....view the ones you don't recognize!

All the classics are there and if you're bored, it's fun to go through and enjoy some of them you haven't seen in a while.

Here's a few from the list so you know what you're getting into (a few of them have even been mentioned here on QJ):

• Dancing baby
• Charlie bit me
• Mentos and diet Coke
• Numa Numa
• Peanut Butter Jelly Time
• All your base are belong to us
• Star Wars kid
• Rick roll!
  
• Christian the Lion
• Where the hell is Matt
• Sneezing Panda
• Ok Go - Here it goes again 
• Daft hands

And 86 other great internet phenomena! Really, clear your schedule and go at it. You'll have a blast. :) Have the kids home with you for the summer? Call them in and enjoy some of the classic humor pieces together....chalk it up to summer educational activities!

Beatboxing parrot

We all know they can "talk," but this one can beatbox, too, hehe. Just a quick, fun video. There are lots of other beat boxing birds on YouTube, too.

More synthetic sweets -- Floss with your cupcakes

If sniffing your chocolate isn't your style, how about flossing with your cupcakes would work out better for you. The price is still kind of high ($5 for 27 yards), just for floss, but for a novelty gift, it could be fun.

Turn your "cereal with marshmallows" into "marshmallows with cereal"

Were you one of those kids who loved eating Lucky Charms (and/or any of those other cereals with fun little marshmallows in them)? Did you ever think it never seemed like there were enough of the marshmallows? Half of you who answer yes to that probably 'still' wish there were more of those marshmallows, huh? Hehe.

Well you're in luck. Cerealmarshmallows.com sells your favorite dehydrated (just add milk for fluffiness!) marshmallow puffs. Each 8 oz bag supposedly "spices up" 18-25 bowls of cereal, and right now, they're selling them at a huge discount.

Don't like them in your cereal? Keep in mind that these would make good marshmallows for hot chocolate or adding to baked desserts. And they'll stay good for about two years, if for some odd reason, you don't end up eating them all much sooner than that.

15 Creative Coffee Tables Want a huge iPhone?

At first glance, this looks kind of cool, especially if you're an iPhone lover, but my favorite part is that the icons pull out and become coasters!



For a house on the beach, what better way to keep the theme going?



I love aquariums, so I'd be most likely to get something like this, but it seems like it'd be a pain to clean and take care of the fish the way they need to be taken care of.



And here's the last one I want to point out. It's a fold-out book light! Okay, so it's not exactly the coffee table itself, but it's kind of cool that it pops out like that, no?

Find the rest of the creative coffee table designs at Web Urbanist. There's a periodic table of elements one and even an interactive table. The prices are insane, though!

Turn your dryer lint into Play-doh

It can't actually be Play-Doh, so before I get into legal trouble, let me be clear that I'm using it the most generic of senses....."modeling dough" is more accurate and legal-friendly, I suppose.

You can find the quick and easy tutorial on ecochildsplay.

Summer is here and kids are home from school, so start saving your dryer lint for a rainy day. They'll love it!

And hey, it might make you feel ever-so-slightly better about continuing to use your dryer instead of line drying your clothes outside. ;-)

How to make yourself into an elephant, ostrich, etc, out of household items

I think that's the most intelligent title I can give something like this when frankly, I haven't the slightest idea what the heck this guy was doing.

Maybe he was bored out of his mind. Maybe he was doing a full-size shadow puppet performance and was practicing. Maybe this is supposed to be art. I don't know, but maybe you can figure it out instead. Check out the rest of the animals (squirrel, frog, seal, elk, elephant) here.