Archive for the ‘Ideas’ Category
Lampshade skirt
Posted on: 20/08/2011
- In: Ideas
- 2 Comments
You can now wear a lampshade (skirt) for less (£12 from ASOS). If you have great pins and don’t mind a breeze around your bottom, this is the skirt for you. (Can’t say it’s for me.)
Hunks a go go!
Posted on: 05/08/2011
- In: Fabric | Ideas
- 2 Comments
Oh dear. What have I done? I must have had a moment when buying this fabric… Talk about huge (pattern repeat that is). Who’s your favourite? (Mine is Specs Man). Obscene or audacious – it’s fun.
Christmas lampshades – super or silly?
Posted on: 24/07/2011
- In: Fabric | Ideas
- 4 Comments
Every year we dig out the Christmas decorations, perhaps even buy a new one to add to the collection. Would you have a Christmas lampshade? Imagine sitting down to your festive dinner beneath a decorative shade that adds extra special cheer. Or sipping sherry on Christmas Eve in a pool of light cast by a Christmas shade on your favourite lamp base.
Pareidolia and Lampshades
Posted on: 02/06/2011
You know that thing when you can see a face in the clouds? Or when you can see the Man in the Moon? That thing is called pareidolia. It’s a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus being perceived as significant.
Remember the Kate Middleton jelly bean?
It’s not new – in 1978 a New Mexican woman found that she could see Jesus Christ in the burn marks of a tortilla. Thousands of people came to see it.
Carl Sagan (one of my most revered people, ever) hypothesized that we are hard-wired to see human faces. If you can spot a face in poor visibility or from a mile away, you’re likely to brace yourself for what may come next – fisticuffs or a friendly chat. Natural selection will favour those that see faces – it’s a survival technique.
Who do you see in this lampshade?
Beatrice’s Wedding Hat
Posted on: 20/05/2011
- In: Ideas
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20,000 squids for an octopus hat? An eye-watering amount of money for a skin-tone over-scrolled pretzel. Yup, that’s what the eBay bidding has reached for the inspired Philip Treacy hat that our beloved Princess Beatrice wore to Will’s and Kate’s wedding. And, with proceeds being donated to Unicef and Children in Crisis, even the Dragons’ Den Duncan Bannatyne has bid £5,000. How can Beatrice top that for the next Royal wedding, eh, Harry? I’m hoping she’ll have a lightbulb moment and plump for a lampshade. No, not one by an internationally renowned hat designer, but one by me, ‘lil ol Ruth McAllister (say it in a Devonshire accent, please). I’m thinking a 20cm diameter Blakely by Alexander Henry, or a huge Jungle Paisley by Kaffe Fassett. I’m gonna tweet Theo Paphitis about it on Small Business Sunday – see what he reckons…
