This “Living Dead Doll” pencil sharpener has got to be the coolest pencil sharpener ever. You stick a pencil in its eye socket and shavings come out its mouth. Now if only I still used pencils!

(more…)

Amazon really started selling “groceries” online… of course you’re not order broccoli from them; most of what they’re selling is dry goods or household stuff. A lot ends up being overpriced, but sometimes they have quite good prices. We use Seventh Generation recycled toilet paper in our bathrooms, and I noticed that Amazon is selling it at an excellent price - just under $39, with free shipping, for 48 500-sheet rolls of 2-ply.

Plus, if you buy $49 or more of groceries, you can save an extra $10 at checkout using the GROCERY2 promotional code. Even without the discount, $39 for a case of this toilet paper is substantially cheaper than Gaiam offers it. I’m not sure yet if you can use GROCERY2 more than once.

Adam suggested these to me. I was a bit dubious at first, but it turns out they work really well. They’re made from recycled church candles and wood fiber. You can use them to easily get fires going with pretty substantial logs without newspaper, kindling or (my personal favorite) massive amounts of cardboard boxes. The only drawback to them that I’ve found is that the candles they’re made from were scented, so they smell… a bit like cough syrup. So you may want to keep them sealed up when not in use. But they’ve made it a lot easier to get a nice roaring fire going. Now if only they’d refill our woodpile for us.

(more…)