For open minds
This bust is the design of Victoria Curtin Rivera of Chibinendo Art. The studio offers limited edition statues, busts and fine pieces of art. Rivera takes commissions but her shop has some designs for pin-ups, merch inspired by films, literature and music as well her own designs.
I think both the shrunekn head and this scary clown might do well over Halloween! After all, who wouldn’t want a shrunken head on the mantelpiece?
In Pure Spirit
What’s the spookiest design in your collection?
Did you know that nearly one in every five people feel anxious often or even all of the time? The awful feelings are especially common in women who are about twice as likely than men to suffer. Many people suffer in silence because the symptoms are easily obscured by the stress of modern living.
Do you think any of those apply to you? The feeling of spinning thoughts is especially familiar to me.
I’ve suffered from tension headaches before; a double whammy. They’re not nice and therefore all the more reason to try and deal with anxiety.
Whereas feeling stress is natural it is possible to find that your brain has become over stimulated due to the excessive release of neurotransmitters (like dopamine and adrenaline), which leads to hyperactive nerves, and therefore the feelings of anxiety.
The people behind the informational video are the company who make the traditional herbal remedy Kalms which you can pick up from Boots and other chemists.
Kalms, no doubt, is stepping up their education piece as they’ve just released a new herbal relief product called Kalms Lavender, an one-a-day capsule, designed to tackle the symptoms of mild anxiety. You may already recognise lavender as something often recommended when it comes to creating a sensation of calm.
Does it work? There are over 15 clinic trials that show daily capsules can have a positive effect. Kasper and others showed how Silexan can work in two weeks.
In Pure Spirit
Do you or anyone you know suffer from anxiety? Does lavender work for you? What tips would you share in the comments below?
The management of this Subway found reason to put up a rather strange sign. It makes you wonder what might have happened here that made printing such a sign necessary in the first place.
Do you agree with the owners? Are they entitled to ban paying customers from using Ouija boards in the building? Or do you think the sign will backfire and if anyone wanted to stir up trouble for them that they will anyway?
In Pure Spirit
What’s the strangest sign you’ve ever seen posted in public?
Via Reddit uploads.
1. They’re cute
This almost goes without saying but who doesn’t love puppies? They’re absolutely adorable and the best part is, when you sponsor a guide dog puppy you’ll get regular ‘pupdates’ on their progress, including pictures, videos and text, all the way from young 6 month old pups to fully mature guide dogs. You get to track their progress and watch them grow up from adorable young animal to working guide dog, enjoying all the best parts and never having to worry about cleaning up any messes!
2. They perform an important function
Though guide dog puppies are undeniably cute, they do also perform a very vital function. They can help disabled people, such as those who are blind, to live a much more independent life than they would be able to without them. Guide dogs can help otherwise very vulnerable individuals to feel safe doing normal, everyday things that would otherwise be taken for granted. Things like crossing the road and going to the shops can feel like daunting tasks when you are blind, but a guide dog can offer both a level of safety and confidence, enabling those to live a far more independent life than they would otherwise be able.
3. They need your help
Guide dogs are very expensive to train, not least of which because they fulfil such a vital role and they are depended on so much. They are still dogs that are curious about the world and are naturally very easily distracted by everything from dropped food to small animals running around. Guide dogs need to be trained well to learn to ignore such distractions and not endanger their handler. As you may imagine, this is expensive to do and funding is low, so your gift donations really can help make a difference.
4. They’re a companion
Being blind can be a very isolating experience and it can be very lonely. A guide dog is not just a support animal, but it is also a companion and handlers can become as attached to their guide dog as any other pet. Having this companion be with you and help you through every day can help make even the darkest days seem a little brighter, and this can be important in keeping spirits up. This alone can be why some people choose to use a guide dog over simply using a cane; they are so much more than a simple seeing eye aid.
5. They’re a conversation starter
Being blind can be a very obvious disability to others and people will go out of their way to make a clear path for them. While this has the best of intentions, it often results in blind people being almost avoided in public and it can be very hard for blind people to meet new people and socialise because of this. A guide dog functions as a great conversation starter. As people stop to compliment the guide dog, it is a great opportunity for the handler to do anything from ask for directions to strike up a full conversation over a cup of coffee!
Tempted? Sponsor a Guide Dog puppy for your dad today!
In Pure Spirit
What would you add to this list? Not sure. Plenty of time to sponsor a puppy while you mull it over.
When spring finally arrives, and the weather starts to warm up – the bright yellow daffodils bring us lots of visual sunshine, the rays of the sun are warming and not just defrosting the ice, the animals begin to nest and flourish. This is where most of us are excited to get outside and enjoy the new season.
It’s so satisfying to go back into the garden, perhaps tend to the plants, sit on comfortable garden furniture and enjoy a cup of coffee on a nice day. The kids are usually excited to get outside and play too. The garden is our own, little space to recharge our batteries and get some fresh air, all of course, within easy distance of the house. To make this garden to house enjoyment even easier, a lot of people choose to integrate both their indoor and outdoor space.
Many people opt to integrate their outdoor and indoor space, so that there is easy flow and accessibility between the two. There are many different reasons to do this, including:
If you choose to connect your indoor and outdoor space, it will enable you to have a living room that appears much bigger, and an indoor space that brings in all the peacefulness and greenery of the garden.
When you decide to bring the outdoors in and connect your living space to your garden, it is important to ensure that you take steps to integrate the two areas together. If you don’t, the look can be disconnected, the maintenance may be higher, and you may not get the practical benefits or the ‘feel’ you were looking for. If you’re considering merging your living room and outdoor space, these useful tips will help you get started:
Ideally, you can have at least one colour or pattern theme that runs from the living room into the garden. Perhaps you have a lot of duck egg blue in the living room, and you could opt for duck egg blue patio furnishings, or garden planters. Just one colour or theme that runs all the way through, and the two spaces will be connected.
This is most important when it comes to enjoying the area during the evening, so that you can make the most of the entire space. One lovely thing to do, is add soft lighting all the way down your garden, onto your decking and into your living room. The cheapest and easiest way to do this is with LED lighting like fairy lights, or LED lanterns. With fairy lights you can wrap them around anything and they tend to look pretty. No need for electricians or wiring changes, just make sure you use weatherproof ones in the parts of the garden exposed to the elements.
This isn’t an option for everyone, but it can be a very practical option for some. Floor tiling that goes all the way from the living room and onto the patio really does bring the space together, and adds a practical element in terms of bringing in dirt and mud from outside. You can also do this with wood.
If the living room leads straight onto decking or a patio, make sure the levels are the same height.
Floor to ceiling doors are a must when it comes to integrating your indoor and outdoor space. External bi-fold doors are perfect for adding light to your living room, and making it easy to open your living room up to your outdoor space.
Even though you can see the outside from the living room, a good thing to do is to ensure there is actual greenery both sides of the doors. Perhaps use a planter with grasses on your decking, and then have a similar indoor plant on the inside as well. This unifies the two spaces and actually brings the outside in.
To make use of your outdoor space in all weathers, why not add some covering over the top of the patio or decking. This ensures you can easily sit outside with your partner, with a cup of hot chocolate and a blanket if it is snowing, or perhaps take shelter under a quick summer shower, without having to drag everything indoors. A patio heater is also a great idea to prolong your outdoor entertaining through the seasons.
Hopefully, these tips have given you lots of inspiration for how to integrate your indoor and outdoor space. Remember to take your time, do lots of research, and most importantly – keep it personal and unique to you, this is a special space for your family to spend time in and enjoy, it should be personalised to your needs and tastes.
In Pure Spirit
What tips do you have for bringing outside inside? Let us know in the comments below.
This is a sponsored post. Money goes to hosting costs.
We’ll put this down to someone playing a good prank on Craigslist.
I’ve done a quick check. There’s no shortage of spooky dolls you can pick up on ebay. Got a friend who needs a scare?
The text reads;
Our daughter doesn’t want it anymore. Our dog won’t stop barking at it and we never find it where we left it. Doll has really cute laugh. No batteries.
In Pure Spirit
What’s the most spooky doll or toy that you’ve ever owned?
Snapchat is more than just an app that allows you to send messages that self-destruct after they’ve been read. Today’s version of the app is focused around video messaging and pioneered clever visual filters to spice up those messages.
Want to see what you look like with puppy ears, or as a pirate or with glamour make-up on? Snapchat has a filter for that. One of Snapchat’s most popular filters is the faceswap. Look into the camera with a friend and Snapchat will swap your faces around and you’ll get to send a hilariously weird message to friends.
It’s become common to hold up items with faces for Snapchat’s faceswap filter to use. The effect is funny and allows you to faceswap by yourself.
But what if Snapchat finds a face in the picture that you weren’t expecting? That’s what has appeared here! This picture, uploaded to Reddit shows a young woman trying to faceswap with a Care Bear… except, the computer’s algorithm has seen another face. Snapchat’s camera has looked into the darkness behind the woman and seen the contours of a face!
The result? Both weird and spooky at the same time!
In Pure Spirit
What do you think might have caused this? A patch of shadow that just happened to look like a face?
Thorpe Park have a new attraction arriving next year. It’s Derren Brown’s Ghost Train.
An advert for the new ride was due to be aired on TV on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, before the watershed, but regulators Clearcast have now said it is too scary.
A spokesperson for Thorpe Park told press;
Plans to air our new promo for Derren Brown’s Ghost Train on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day have been changed due to advice that it may not be appropriate for audiences during this period.
The catch? The video is (currently) live on Facebook.
In Pure Spirit
Did it get you?
Too scary for TV or is this whole thing a wonderful piece of marketing for Thorpe Park and their new attraction?
Source: The Drum.
Isn’t it amazing that we still don’t know how the moon came to be? I’d always been told that the moon was blasted out of the Earth after the planet impacted with a large asteroid. It’s a relief to know that that’s not the only possible explanation.
In Pure Spirit
What’s your favourite story about the moon?
What do The Office, The Inbetweeners, Friends, Love Actually, Bridget Jones’s Diary and Napoleon Dynamite all have in common? They’ve all inspired Shoe Zone with office party worthy dance moves.
You can checkout the infographic summary cards below or even research even more and find out how to recreate these moves over at Shoe Zone.
In Pure Spirit knows about Shoe Zone through the charity the Show Zone Trust. They’ve raised more than £210,000 for the trust and other charities in the last 15 years.
In Pure Spirit
Are you familiar with any of these dances?
If you want to keep an eye on the special offers and discounts shoezone is able to share with its customers then this is the page to watch.
