The beauty of being a blogger is that I have a platform to share whatever noteworthy topic that pops into my head. Sometimes, the crazy stories I come across on the inter-web or the random thoughts that pop into my mind aren’t really noteworthy at all {on their own}. They usually make me pause, laugh, or just plain roll my eyes and I go on about my day.
So, without further ado, here’s this weeks edition of Random Goodness from Around the Web:
When One Door Closes, You Rebuild the Door
I just read about the most heartwarming thing a company is doing for dementia patients in nursing homes. The company, True Doors, makes made-to-measure stickers of doors for rooms or apartments. They’ll recreate the doors of the dementia patient’s old homes, so they not only feel comfortable in their new environment, but the custom doors stimulate memory and helps with orientation, making it easier for them to find their rooms in new environments such as a nursing home. How amazing is that?
A New Mexico pottery shop is turning human remains from cremations into coffee mugs, bottles and bowls. I can’t tell if I’m super creeped out by this, or I want my family to drink their tea out of Mavis cups when I’m gone {once they’ve been fired in a kiln, the glaze becomes food- and drink-safe}. It gives new meaning to artists becoming their art!
“Integrating someone’s ashes into ceramics is a way of infusing their memory into everyday life. So you can have coffee every morning with the memories of your grandmother, or have a bowl on the table to spark stories at family dinners,” owner, Justin Crowe said.
What do you think? Would you get a bowl made out of you or do you think it’s creepy?
The Cat in the {Cat} Hat
For your viewing pleasure, please enjoy this video of cats wearing hats made from their own fur. It’s so weird, I can’t stop watching!
Sticks and Stones May Break the Bank
Should we call this a blue light special {anyone remember those?}? For a measly $19.95, you can take home some logs. Yes, logs. Just logs. Like the ones you can go chop down in the forest or pick up off a beach or on the side of the road. For free. But apparently there’s a market for it because it’s a listed item. Would any of you buy these?
And that concludes this installment of Random Goodness from Around the Web. Please make sure to leave your random responses in the comment section.
~Mavis
Lisa MTB says
My two cents on “dinnerware from the dead”: this could create all kinds of family drama when someone drops or chips a mug. Also undecided on whether it’s creepy or not.
Melissa says
Exactly what I thought – anyone sentimental enough to want to drink from their loved one’s ashes would probably find it incredibly upsetting if that bowl/mug whatever got broken – what then?
Helen in Meridian says
Bone china is much stronger than regular porcelain and definitely stronger than pottery. Sis gave me an Old Country Rose cookie jar. I said it is perfect to hold my ashes. As to the cats…they are caticorns.
Lace Faerie says
Oh ya! My thoughts exactly! When the bowl made of Granny gets broken, you’ve lost her twice! Doesn’t seem to creepy, I’ve heard of worse. Like the Nibbly Nana dolls with real teeth! Now that’s the stuff of nightmares!
Rebecca in MD says
The dinnerware from the dead is just plain creepy! It seems very disrespectful.
Sharon Rice says
Hi Mavis,
I just want to tell you that I love these articles — you find the strangest but oddly intriguing topics!! And to answer the question about my remains in a mug — DEFINITELY NO!!!! And I wouldn’t want anyone else’s in my mug either! LOL
AmyWW says
I am not a fan of making stuff out of people’s ashes. Not dishes, not diamonds, not paperweights, not anything. It’s not that it just creepy, it also delays the inevitable loss (someday you WILL lose it or break it or be unable to keep it) and transfers the responsibility to someone else (“Here is the diamond brooch/paperweight/coffee cup that is actually grandpa’s ashes. Who wants it now that grandma has passed?”) Nobody wants it, that’s who. But then what is to be done with it? Can you imagine 100 years from now when your great-great-great grandson is trying to pawn a “diamond” ring that has been passed down to him without the important “back story”? Oh. My. Goodness.
Pat says
The door for dementia patients are wonderful. Anything made out of remains is horrible. I imagine it ending up in purge pile someday.
Tammy says
I also think it is tremendously disrespectful to make dinnerware out of human remains. I’ve never heard of anything like this.
Those doors are pretty neat!
Brianna says
I love the idea of the dementia patient door. It is so simple, why haven’t we been doing this for decades? In regards to the ashes, I don’t think I can go to a thrift store and look at coffee mugs the same again and wonder about the glaze. My parents still have my brother’s ashes, but I don’t think I would ever propose this idea to them. They will eventually make a decision what to do with them, but this isn’t one I would support. The cat video is just weird and makes my allergies bad from just watching it. In regards to the birch longs for sale, they are for indoor use only, but their picture shows them sitting outside. So contradictory. I could not imagine buying them unless they were cinnamon scented and dusted with gold. I still cannot understand how people buy certain items readily available naturally, for instance everybody in Georgia decorates with pine straw and they buy it by the bale. Such a silly thing because we use to rake it up and burn it or take it to a years waste recycling event when I was growing up in Montana.
vicki rossiter says
I like the doors. However, I don’t want to be made into dinnerware. That’s a little too much for me!
Lauralli says
My father in law just passed away in December. Wondering what to do with the ashes. My mother in law is a little creeped out by them in her home! However, they used to drink coffee together every morning! 🙂 I think not, though! I LOVE the door idea!! That’s so awesome!! And, the logs…..they are pretty and we don’t have trees that look like that in my area. I’m not really in to that look, but I can see where someone might be and pay for it!
Nanci says
Artful Ashes does some really beautiful things with ashes.Check out their website.
Lina says
I think the doors are a great idea, i also agree that the dishes would be disrespectful and just plain creepy.,
Linda says
I love the idea about the door for dementia patients. We had to move my 95 year old dad about three times before he passed away. As long as we put up his pictures on the wall, it was as if he never moved and knew he was “home.”
Sarah says
I actually am a fan of the whole make ashes into something culture. My aunt had herself made into necklaces for her sons (and subsequent grandchildren), another cousin made himself into a paper weight, a friend became a tree.
I do live in Seattle though. It’s all so popular here. I imagine it is also a generation thing- although my aunt was in her 60s.
I find it no difference than having “aunt sue” sit in an urn in the back of your closet or our in an urn in the living room. I find it no different than passing on an urn of ashes- at some point no one is going to want them. Then what will you do? At least a paper weight is cheaper to bury.
Lisa MTB says
I really like the living memorial options (example: http://www.letyourlovegrow.com/).
Deborah from FL says
Instead of a coffee cup, i’d prefer for the ashes to be incorporated into a flower pot.
Just my 2 cents! :p
Debi says
Creeps me out. But if I had to make a choice…I agree, a flower pot might be the answer. Better yet throw my loved ones to the wind…the place they enjoyed the most.
Cynthia Platon says
I have already told my husband that I am going to have a diamond made from some of his ashes. He thinks I’m kidding, I’m not!
Julie says
What happens when the cup or bowl breaks? Will you throw Grandma in the trash?
Lisa Millar says
I think I would rather fertilise some tomatoes than become a cup… It is a little weird.
Re the logs for sale. Reminded me of seeing little bundles of sticks (normal off the ground-type sticks) in the craft section of a Japanese dept shop! They were not cheap either! I just can’t imagine anyone spending money on that!
I suppose its like the $5 rocks in our nurseries that you can buy. We seriously live in a rural area with rocks galore.