This is the greatest TV ad you will ever see.  And yes, it’s a real thing,

Happy Saturday!

Definitely one to watch in HD!

22 months
1,357 hours
30 people
2 ladders
1 still camera
288,000 jelly beans

Can you imagine working on a project like this for 22 months straight? Without a green screen? The “making of” video is really worth seeing if you want to know how they did it.

Now I need to find out what else Kina can do – what a cute little song!

Edited to add: This cover of Fast Car by Tracy Chapman gave me goosebumps.

Feel Good Friday is a small collection of the inspiring stuff I’ve discovered around the web.  It’s all about good health, happiness and the stuff that makes us feel good!  Please leave me a comment if you have a great article or blog post to share in next week’s round-up.

Cooking Light has identified 42 of the most common cooking mistakes.  Heaps of great advice here!

Earlier this year I was briefly interested in the concept of barefoot running, although I wasn’t ready to take the plunge myself.  The more I’ve read on this topic, the less I believe that barefoot running is a good idea for most people.  Have you tried it?  What do you think?

Last weekend I had a horrible head cold that was threatening to move to my lungs, but I was also due for a run.  This article helped me decide what to do: should you run when you’re sick?  (In my case, probably not – but I took a short run anyway!)

Speaking of colds, I was happy to read this list of 7 healing foods to fight colds & flu.  Now I know why garlic does such a good job at clearing out the germs!

Do you have a green thumb?  I love keeping plants on my desk at work.  They break up the sterile environment, encourage conversation (“This is my fern, Laverne!”) and they also mop up some of the nasties that end up in our air.  As long as you have a natural light source or a desk lamp there’s a plant that will grow in your workspace.

I really enjoyed nutritionist Kathryn Elliott’s article about the danger of over-sentimentalising butter, and what the manufacturing process really looks like in Australia.  Worth a read.

Did you hear the good news this week that chocolate lovers weigh less?  There are all sorts of theories that discuss the whys, so my advice is to make sure you have plenty of chocolate within reach before you begin your research!

I received an email this week about MoodGYM – an innovative, interactive web program designed to prevent depression. It consists of five modules, an interactive game, anxiety and depression assessments, downloadable relaxation audio, a workbook and feedback assessment.  It looks like fantastic interactive resource which uses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) techniques to explore negative emotions – and it’s free!

And finally…

Jo Goddard came up with 4 foolproof ways to make a baby laugh. If you can watch this video without grinning like an idiot please consult a cardiologist immediately.

Happy Friday!

This post is dedicated to Mrs Chinncredible, who once believed in dropbears.

Last week Chantilly from My Girl Thursday posted this incredible video, and it made me want to drop everything and learn more about the artist.  An hour later I was still drooling over his portfolio and videos, so I thought I’d share some of my favourites here.

But first, a little bit about the artist Neils Shoe Meulman (from his about page):

Niels Shoe Meulman (also known as Shoe) is an internationally known artist and graphic designer. He is born, raised and based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Meulman began tagging ‘Shoe’ in 1979 and became a graffiti legend by the time he was 18. In the eighties he met New York artists like Dondi, Rammellzee, Haze, Quik and Keith Haring. He then formed the Crime Time Kings with Bando from Paris and Mode2 from London. Together they gave graffiti in Europe its own distinctive style.

Niels Shoe Meulman revolutionized the art of writing with Calligraffiti, an art form that fuses calligraphy and graffiti. He launched this movement in 2007 with a successful solo exhibition in Amsterdam. Since then, his Calligraffiti pieces (signed NSM) have been shown in various international exhibitions and are part of several museum collections. His more recent painting style can be described as Abstract Expressionism with a calligraphic origin.

nielsshoemeulman.com - Shoe’s personal site (and one of the cleverest designs I’ve seen)
calligraffiti.nl - A collection of Shoe’s works
Unruly Gallery - Shoe’s art for sale, plus a bunch of other great artists

Off Canvas – official short film by Petter Eldin (Beijing 2011)

Pair of shoes, carbon acrylic on linen, 2012

(un)known – carbon acrylic on linen
work in progress photos by Mark Groen

So imagine how dumb I’m feeling for missing his Australian tour by just a few weeks?  I love this promo video he did for the tour.

I have a sudden urge to break out my art supplies and get my hands dirty.

I’ve set myself a challenge to complete 101 Things in 1001 Days, from 1 January 2012 to 28 September 2014.  You can read more about this project here, and follow my progress as I go!

A page from an old journal of mine.  Any excuse to start thinking about autumn!

One of the best parts of having a list of 101 Things is that it gives you permission to do things you wouldn’t normally do on the spot.  We’re all constantly being reminded of the things we should do – sensible, responsible uses for our time and money that qualifies us as grown-ups.  There’s no escaping those.

But what if you wrote a list that was partly made up of Very Silly Things (VSTs)?  What if you set yourself a timeline that was every bit as real as the bright red due date on your energy bill?  What if your success was measured not just by the completion of your responsibilities, but by your VST progress?

My 101 Things projects have been conceived with that exact philosophy in mind.  I know that I have grown-up goals to conquer, and that they’re really important.  I have goals on my list that cover skills I want to develop, fitness milestones, study and money.  I know that when I’ve achieved each one I’m going to feel amazing.

But my list is also peppered with little VSTs, like #54 – Fly a kite!  These little items are really special to me, because they tend to be about experiences and memories and reconnecting with the fun times.  Some of them are downright irresponsible, when you consider the money that could be saved for a financial goal.

But personally, I hope to never become the sort of person who says no to a brightly-coloured kite.

Source unknown.  Does anybody know who made this cute little guy?

We were shopping for a few things this weekend, and I wandered into a games shop for inspiration for another of the items on my list – a new jigsaw puzzle.  While I was there I spotted a rack of little kites, and was surprised to discover that they were all between $20-$50!  I chose one with two strings that could do tricks and assured the helpful gentleman behind the counter that the operator would be over the age of 12.  Well over the age of 12, as it turned out.

Tim and I took it for a spin after dinner last night, and that’s when we discovered that we had absolutely no idea what we were doing.  Everything we tried would send it plummetting to the ground, and after a while a highly-amused audience began to gather.  Eventually some kind soul came over and gave us some tips (add a tail, and let the line out completely) and we were able to get it up in the air.

It was the BEST feeling to watch our little kite soar through the sky when the wind picked up!  The crashes were still violent, but after a while they became less frequent.  And our little makeshift shopping bag kite tail flapped happily away in the sky.

The video captures a little bit of the excitement, and it’s worth watching for the crash montage.  I only wish that I had remembered to record it in landscape!

Music credits: “Kite Fight” by Sweet Thing / “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” – Mary Poppins (Original Soundtrack) 

My advice: put a VST on your to-do list this week.  Your smiley muscles will thank you!

I’m not quite sure how it came to be Monday again so quickly (didn’t we just have one of those a few days ago?)  The weeks are zipping by faster than I would like and I’m finding myself swept up in the madness of it all. 

This weekend I finally admitted that I had lost my grip on time when I finally began to put away my Christmas presents.

… in mid February.

Each year my parents ask me to put together a wishlist, and each year I try to make it more ridiculous than the last.  I try to include at least one pet (this year it was a pony and a bunny rabbit) and as many age-inappropriate toys as I can think of. 

And that is how I found myself, at the age of 31 (and 11/12ths), with a kit to build my own kaleidoscope.

The least I could do for my parents was to put it together and paint it pretty colours!

The kit contains different lengths and widths of cardboard tube, plastic end caps, plastic “lenses”, mirrors and coloured beads.  You need to supply your own polkadots.

I was surprised (and maybe a tiny bit embarrassed) to discover that this kaleidoscope is actually pretty great!  I made a little video on my iPhone so that you didn’t have to miss any of the action.   

(Oh!  But you have to promise to click through to Vimeo and watch it in HD.)

And by the way, that incredible music comes from an album called Soundtrack for Everyday Adventures by Lullatone.  I discovered them on the weekend and immediately bought two of their albums.  It’s all toy pianos, xylophones and melodic percussion – and it’s basically the happiest music on earth!

It is a legal requirement of reading this blog that you watch their adorable video. 

(How was your weekend?  Did you do anything silly?)

This project looks like So Much Fun!

Every day in 2011 Madeline shot some video of her life in LA.  At the end of the year she compiled it into one 7.5 minute video, with each day represented by about a second of footage.  The end result is so much fun and the ending is perfect.  It looks like a happy year!

My birthday is in March, and this looks like a really fun way to document my year of being 32.

I have six weeks to decide whether I’m this disciplined…

So here’s the thing.

I’m going back to work today after almost 4 weeks of leave.

I really don’t have the words to describe how I feel about this, so please watch this video instead.

Hold me.

After organizing our bookshelf almost a year ago (http://youtu.be/zhRT-PM7vpA), my wife and I (Sean Ohlenkamp) decided to take it to the next level. We spent many sleepless nights moving, stacking, and animating books at Type bookstore in Toronto (883 Queen Street West, (416) 366-8973). 

Everything you see here can be purchased at Type Books.

Grayson Matthews (http://www.graysonmatthews.com/) generously composed the beautiful, custom music.

But none of it could have been done without all the volunteer hands who shelved and reshelved books all night, every night.

This is absolutely magical.  Thanks to Sophie of Her Library Adventures for sharing this!