That's Noice!

This is an interesting idea… the Shape Up! alarm clock is more than just an ordinary clock to keep on your bedside table and set to wake you up in time for work in the morning.

The alarm won’t go off until you do THIRTY REPS with the damn thing. See, it sounds like a great idea, but I’m so far from being a morning person that this feature alone makes me put this in the “not noice” category! (I think I’d prefer the smash alarm clock)

There’s no indication of how much the clock weighs, so maybe it wouldn’t be to hard to do at all. Wouldn’t stop me from complaining, though!

Sadly, I don’t really have the space (or the spare cash) for one of these babies..I LOVE them! Resin deer heads, covered in beautiful decorative paper.

Maybe these cardboard varieties from Cardboard safari would be more fitting…and cheaper. They have a range of different animals, deer, moose and rhino. They come in different sizes and prices start from $16US

Check out this adorable cupcake artwork by Sydney-based Amelia K Designs on Etsy.

There are lots of different designs available, but how can you go past this adorable cupcake one?

Prices are in US dollars, so a tool like XE.com’s universal currency converter will be your best friend to work out how much they cost.

Electric Firefly are an Australian company producing these super funky lighting products that will make an eye catching addition to any interior.

The Firefly Lamps are made of a durable, heat-resistant polymer sheet that is 30-50% recycled. Developed and made in Australia, it will not discolour or fade with use. They come in a great range of colours, so they can match any decor.

They are a great multifunction lighting solution, they can be used as a table or floor lamp or hung as a pendant.

There is some assembly required, but that is all part of the fun. Great instruction are included, as well as some instructional videos on the site if you get stuck.

Electric Firefly has a fantastic offer for readers. Get 45% off the listed retail prices with this code!

EFDCPROMO1

Enter the code on the checkout page (towards the bottom of the page).  After entering the code, be sure to click the ‘RECALCULATE’ button in order to apply the discount.

You can also submit your finished masterpiece to their facebook page for a chance to win a free lamp of your choice each month.

Who needs those stiff old studio family portraits, DNA is the new family portrait. Thanks to DNA11 your DNA can now be art.

When you order, DNA11 send you out a DNA test kit. Simple swab or your mouth, pop your sample in the mail and they will take care of the rest.

Your DNA is then extracted from your sample and run on a gel media which is then captured in a high quality digital image. This image of your DNA is then printed on canvas in a whole range of different colour options.

Now that is some original portrait! They can even do your cat or dog if you so desire. Price may be a little scary, starting at $278 for a mini portrait.

They also have a few other quirky art options if DNA isn’t your thing. Perhaps a lip print or finger print portrait ?

Living in Sydney’s inner-west, I often see zippy little cars with the GoGet logo on them. I finally got around to looking into what it is – and it’s quite a clever concept!

GoGet CarShare is a professional car sharing service. There are cars located in varying places (Sydney’s inner-city seems to be the busiest place) and it’s a basic process of booking a car in a particular location (can be done from 5 minutes ahead to a year in advance), swiping your card to get access to the car and voila!

There are 3 different pricing levels, but you basically pay:

• A monthly membership fee
• An hourly rate for your car booking
• A per km rate
• A $500 security deposit.

You don’t pay for petrol! Or servicing!

If I didn’t have to drive to work I would be seriously considering joining GoGet. Comparing how much I pay for insurance, petrol and rego, this would be a far more economical option for inner-city living.

If “blood”-stained bathmats and shower curtains aren’t your thing, maybe these would be a less provocative conversation-starter:

I love that these knife coat hooks are listed as “easy to install”, I guess that “freaks out your guests” is just too obvious to mention in the product description!

They’re by Tianyi Chiang and available from UK-based Bouf for £15.00 plus £10.00 shipping to Australia.

Oh how I love thee! I have been drooling over these things for so long! Up until a few months ago I thought we would be stuck renting for ever and I could never enjoy the awesome of the wall decal.

Now we have a lot of the painting done in our new place, I am trying to find some great decals. But it is hard to decide, there are SO many. Thought I would share some of my great ones I have come across. Are you a decal junkie?
First on my list, is this one drop dead gorgeous Cherry Blossom. Now, while it might be a little on the expensive side (approx $235AUD) wow..what an impact it would make. I love Cherry blossoms.

Threadless t-shirts, shirts do not get much better than these..love them. Did you know you can get some of your fav T designs as wall decals? Blik makes a range of wall decals based on some of the great threadless designs. Unfortunately, they do not ship to Australia. But thankfully, NZ company Jujube does! They stock a range of the great threadless decals as well as some other design. And the Aussie/NZ dollar makes it even cheaper shopping.

Vinyl Interior Design, and Aussie on Madeit also had a range of decals. Rah featured a tetris decal not so long ago.

And so so soooo many more. Do a search on etsy for wall decals and you will be blown away.

Does anyone have any decals? Would love to hear how you have used them in your home.

If I didn’t already own enough cupcake carrying devices, I would have already bought one of the Cupcake Courier in every colour.

Not very many cupcake carriers have tiered storage and this is the main reason I’ve been wanting these babies. It’s a shame I’ve already spent my Kevin Rudd stimulus money!

Normally the Cupcake Courier costs $59.95, but there’s a mother’s day special on their web site at the moment of $49.95.

Holds 36 cupcakes and there’s plenty of room for all that icing we love to pile on top. Nom nom nom!

This toilet design concept brings new meaning to “cop a squat”

This funky toilet by designer Nelson Ayala could be just what Women have been waiting for. I am sure we have all been there, public toilets can be so nasty. Trying to balance yourself without touching the seat..or peeing on yourself.  The ergonomic design of this toilet means user mounts the toilet with knees facing forward avoiding contact with your butt and the toilet. It even has a built-in automatic self-cleaning  system.

(via The design blog and cribcandy)

The cooler weather is nearly upon us for another year. Cold winter days curled up on the lounge under the doona. Till you need to get up to the loo or worse still..leave the house. Have you ever wished you could just wear your doona everywhere? Well..you can!

From Lazy Patch comes the Duvet suit.

Now you never need to leave your doona behind in bed, you can wear it everywhere, on the lounge, going to the shops. You could even wear it to work!

It comes in a range of colours. A full suit is $100AU or $50 for a jacket or pants

A percentage of profits from lazypatch will be going to the Simon Rhoden foundation to help ease the pain of current  cystic fibrosis sufferers.

Blood bath shower curtain and bath mat. Creepy, yes?

Do I still want them? HELL YEAH.

Bath mat and shower curtain from SpinningHat. I’m hoping the Australian dollar improves soon so I can “invest” in these stunning homewares pieces ;)

I bought this custom ceramic serving plate from Fired Up Arts while I was at the Easter Show on Monday. I LOVE the colours and the fact that cupcakes AND stars are featured. WIN!

I got to talking to the lovely ladies behind the counter and discovered that they offer classes and OOSH as well as creating custom ceramic items at reasonable prices (my 25cm x 25 cm serving plate cost just $25!).

You can order custom items for birthdays, weddings, births, christenings and anything else you can think of.

I’m thinking of getting a round cupcake plate next, to match the square one ;)

Fired Up Arts
Shop 2, 2 – 4 Stamford Avenue
Ermington, Sydney
02 9804 0209

These would go nicely with my leg vases!

Susan Kniffin Potery specialises in a fab range of baby head cups, bowls and tiles. Now wouldn’t a baby head mug be the best for having your morning coffee at the office? A matching bowl for your cornflakes would be even better!

Some of those face tiles would be a tad freaky late at night in the bathroom after a few drinks, what fun to freak out your guests.

Susan Kniffin Potery from $30US

I stumbled across the Image Cubes web site when I was bored yesterday and instantly fell in love – an Australian-based company with a product I’m totally into – photos!

You can buy their images of the beautiful Queensland environment as Image Cubes singularly or as a set of three. There are 2 sizes to choose from.

The best part is that you can upload your own photos to make personalised Image Cubes – for the same price!

They are just $19.00ea for 9cmx9cm or $32.00ea for 15cmx15cm. Shipping is as low as $4.50 within Australia.

I’m going to spend my Easter long-weekend picking 3 or 4 photos I want to get done. They can be (yet another) give to myself with my Kevin Rudd pennies!

On the weekend I was minding my own beeswax at Balmain Markets when I came across Greg and his Cup Candles—soy candles with the bestest smells ever.

You know how candles sometimes don’t smell too much like the scent they’re supposed to be emulating, or the smell doesn’t actually make its way across the room?

The Cup Candles don’t have that problem—these are without doubt the best-smelling candles I’ve ever sniffed. I have the passionfruit candle sitting on my coffee table as I type—unlit—and the smell is gently wafting around the room—not too much, but there. When the candles are lit it enhances the experience, but doesn’t make it overpowering. I can’t stop inhaling this smell!

All of the candles from Cup Candles are soy-based and burn for 30-40 hours, depending on the cup style.

We bought the passionfruit, cinnamon and vanilla scented candles. The passionfruit is hands-down my all-time favourite (unless mango or peppermint scents exist and then I’ll have to undergo therapy) and I was close to buying the chocolate flavour but decided the flavour was too realistic and feared that I’d end up eating the candle.

I had a little chat with Greg while I was frantically inhaling all the different scents (there’s pineapple, lavender, mandarin and heaps heaps more) and he was telling me that he travels to Japan every year to source cool-looking Japanese cups to create one-off sets of candles.

The clear-glass candles sell on the web site for $15, but if you find Greg or Miki at a market you can buy them for $10 each. Bargain!

You can buy candles online and they can even ship overseas.