Good morning folks! I’m writing to you straight from the Big Apple where I spent the morning back on the Today Show. This time it was all about the wacky, the wild, and the downright weird. You’ve likely seen a few of these items on our site via The BritList, but here are the 11 crazy items I showed off on the show.
Hog Wild Twirling Spaghetti Fork
food gadget for kids or lazy eaters. We all know how annoying it can be to twirl up your pasta, so this fork does it for you! Just give it a click and watch the pasta wrap around the edges. Truly amazing.
Musical Wine Glasses
traditional wine glasses. These are musical wine glasses which feature notations corresponding with levels of liquid, so while a nice full glass might be a B flat, when you start getting low on vino, you’ll be playing a G sharp. Yes, this has always been a wine trick, but now you have notes to go along with it and really wow your party guests. There’s never been a more fun way of performing impromptu concertos with your chardonnay!
4. Hand Crank Emergency Cell Phone Charger ($60): This is the best thing to keep in your glove compartment. It’s a cell phone charger that works by converting a crank of your hand into power. One minute of cranking converts into 30-second bursts of battery for a connected phone. It’s great for placing that essential call or text when you are in an emergency and don’t have access to electricity. It works with most phones and can charge them all completely if the battery on the charger is also completely charged.
3D-Printed Silver Jewelry
Did you know that you can design your own 3D jewelry and have it printed just for you? Seriously! You can create custom jewelry using all sorts of great online 3D modeling programs, or you can look through the Shapeways site and customize designs that already exist.
Foldable Me
Foldable Me is taking paper dolls to the next level. The company lets you customize everything about the design of the print-outs — hair, nose, chin, outfits, etc — online and then prints them on a very high quality sheet of cardboard that is precision cut to easily fold into a 3D shape. No scissors or glue are required and you can put one together in just a couple of minutes. These make for great additions to a gift and can be displayed anywhere in the home or office. I’m planning to make one of my mom as her mother’s day card this year!
9. Electronic Guitar Shirt ($30): Are you ready to take your air guitar skills to a seriously rockin’ level? This t-shirt has an electric guitar built right into it. It also includes a mini-amp that, naturally, goes all the way to 11. So awesome. You can remove the guitar component for machine washing and you can play most major chords. We’re not totally sold on the idea of having to rub your own tummy to play tunes, but we definitely dig the technology behind it.
10. Botanicalls Tweeting Plant Kit ($100): Botanicalls literally enables your plants to call you. When your plant is hungry or thirsty, the device will give you a ring and let you know exactly what it needs. So cool! If you don’t feel like getting called all the time, it can also send you a tweet. Botanicalls is definitely taking plan nurturing to a whole new level. We also like how the device has a minimalist, geeky feel with no fuss. It looks like the inside of a computer!
Aquanotes
AquaNotes, a (seemingly magical) waterproof notepad that will change the way you rub-a-dub-dub. Each pad comes with forty sheets of paper, suction cups, and a water resistant pencil made from cedar wood. It is even durable while completely submerged under water.
All in all, it was a pretty fun morning on Today!
More From Home
Fall is right around the corner, and we're getting amped up for our next session of Selfmade, Brit + Co's 10-week interactive startup school. Designed to help you create a new business or grow your existing one, this course is personally led by Brit + Co founder Brit Morin and co-founder Anjelika Temple, and supported by more than a dozen of the top female entrepreneurs, creatives, and investors in the country. Students receive personalized coaching on everything from how to get out of your comfort zone to how to scale your business, and everything in between. And now, thanks to Office Depot, even more of you can join the course!
For the fall session, we're thrilled to team up with Office Depot to grant 200 FREE scholarship seats to the course. Scholarships are open to US residents, focusing on women of color, women from underserved and underrepresented communities, and women in need of support to help them trail-blaze. After all, we firmly believe that your support system is a huge part of how you achieve greatness, and we are here to cheer all of you on.
To nominate yourself or someone you know for a scholarship, head to our nomination form right here. The deadline for scholarship nominations is September 27th — it's time to take the leap!
Beyond the scholarship, Office Depot is all about helping you accomplish more. Whether it be the start phase, growth phase or keep businesses going phase, Office Depot offers a full suite of business solutions, including services and products, to help you work from anywhere, organize and save time and help build your brand.
So what are you waiting for? Take a chance on yourself and get yourself one step closer to truly being selfmade. Learn more about the Selfmade program, apply for a scholarship and prepare to be inspired :)