Etsy artisan BaconFactory creates the most stunning word burned art portraits I’ve ever seen – and I absolutely love how many of the subjects are decidedly geeky in nature.
Hang the Joker portrait from The Dark Knight and ask your guests, “why so serious?” Or perhaps an iconic pose from the Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter films would make a perfect nod to your fandom of their respective series. Star Wars and World of Warcraft are also duly represented (the pyrography portrait of a Night Elf is especially breathtaking). And for those wanting to pay homage to silver screen Hollywood ingénues, Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn are yours for the wood burned bliss.
Insert obligatory joke about how they already give you “wood” here. ;)
Wine connoisseurs enjoy the very finest beverage-enjoyment innovations. Give true vino-philes and sommeliers their deserved due: their fervent fascinations with the meticulous details that make and define a fine wine have made fruitful their pursuits of ways to better enjoy one of the world’s oldest adult libations.
From the time Jesus re-stocked the bar at a dry wedding, necessity has been the mother of invention. We’ve seen aerators that will enhance a low-quality, cheap wine’s flavor noticeably; electric corkscrews, and manual ones that resemble deformed drill presses; I’ve even found an infrared wine thermometer and single bottle wine cellar with customizable temperature and humidity settings. Few aficionados take enjoying their passions to heart quite as wine lovers do.
And oh, the troubles this Instant Wine Bottle Chiller solves. I’m no sommelier, but I do love good wine. Unfortunately, it’s proven every time I want a chilled Chardonnay or white port that forethought might never be my strongest suit. I rarely have something chilled when I want it, and by the time a hastily refrigerated bottle would finally cool to the perfectly chilled temperature, oftentimes I just don’t desire a glass any longer.
Sure, I could start making a habit of always having a bottle gettin’ chilly in the fridge – or I could just toss this wine bottle chiller spout in a freezer for six hours before using, and instantly cool a room temperature wine up to 15°F with a single pour. The thermos-like shell will keep the internal stainless steel pouring tube cold enough to chill an entire bottle, and covering the spout’s air inlet with a thumb will slow the flow, keeping the wine chilling longer inside the spout before it exits into the glass.
My sweet tooth doesn’t often gain a foothold – but when it does, I catch myself lamenting being caught without a handy emergency fix. My freezer tells my dietary sensibilities’ story: meat with sides of meat. Chicken, fish, beef and game leave precious little room for much else. Besides, on tight a budget, spending extra on tubs of ice cream and boxes of popsicles I won’t dig into but once every couple months or so and can’t even store makes precious little sense.
But still, what a fellow would give at times like that for a quick, no-muss fix … oh, and as long as I’m getting greedy, how about something reasonably healthy, too?
The Zoku Popsicle Maker will freeze three tasty, custom treats in about ten minutes, as long as it’s been primed in the freezer at least 24 hours before. From there, the three die-cast aluminum molds will freeze fresh fruit, juice, pudding or any other filling or ingredient smoother and with fewer ice crystals than anything you could pull from a grocer’s freezer.
And just because I’ve known nary an adult who every so often doesn’t have to compromise with an inner moppet, I have to wonder what a delicious White Russian-pop could taste like. Or if I could stop at just one …
Know what doesn’t break out nearly randomly enough? Hockey games.
Not many droll, drab tux-and-tails affairs couldn’t be improved vastly by 12 gentlemen and ladies spontaneously fashioning a crude puck of a canapé or tuna can, sticks from a few brooms (or, would one be so inclined, actual hockey sticks), and a net from a pet kennel or fireplace. And here you go, folks: now, you needn’t even want for skates.
The friction-resistant plastic base and foam foot grip of Simtec’s Carpet Skates fit over any athletic shoe (up to an adult size 15) with an adjustable hook and loop closure. Find a big carpeted room with some wide open space, like a hotel conference or banquet room, and imagine that any place is center ice at Madison Square Garden. For you showier sorts, check out the DVD that comes included with your carpet skates with bonus performance tips and artsy tricks.
Or … just glue it together with about six or seven other DVDs, and you’ve got another puck. Watch the DVD. Hit the DVD. To each, their own.
If Clerks should’ve taught us anything, it’s that there isn’t a bad place on God’s green Earth for a good pick-up game. Whoopity-doo, so Mom told you never to play ball in the house? Don’t use a ball. Use a puck. GAME ON!
Like sands down a picture frame … this is my productivity sliding down the tubes.
Will these desktop sand windows back up my hard drive? No. Help me take better pictures, make better meatloaf, or woo my dream woman? No. Can this thing even find lost car keys? No. But it will briefly help you forget that you lost them!
Just let the flowing sands cased within a black beech-wood or walnut picture frame slide over one another. While the sand windows’ speeds and directions change to form their own perfect landscapes before your eyes, it’s like watching the creation of an utterly unique work of art, right before your eyes – and right by your side at your desk or on your end-table.
It’s instant, customizable, interactive art at your fingertips. It’s unusual we wax philosophical about these products, but it really reaffirms the miracle of something being created from nothing to watch something so simple as moving sands create a seemingly random (yet undeniably beautiful) landscape before one’s own eyes. Each sand window also includes a small syringe for removing water and air, the regulation of which will alter the way the sand flows and thus, what majesty it creates with each turn.
BaconFactory Pyrography Art ($44.90)
