Daft Cars

We sell the Top Gear Book Daft Cars, primarily because my Dad had the car on the front of the book when i was a kid, The Amphicar.

This was in the early 80's when they were already a bit of a rarity.

If I remember rightly there were only 7 working ones in the U.K.

It is easy to see why, Dad was always working on it and after every trip in it, it needed to be worked on again!

It always felt like it was sinking when it was going along in the water, and it actually did a couple of times . You also needed an enormous 4X4 to yank it back out of the water, which is not ideal.

For all of its faults it was great fun and exciting to go out in , not least because none of us including my dad could swim.

It certainly drew a crowd, though because it really did look like a triumph herald that had accidentally driven into the water and was somehow managing to keep going!

Christmas Cards

For the first time, this year we have added a Christmas Card section to the website . MOMA NY box sets of gorgeous elaborate and rather exclusive cards.

From a 3D Santa in an aeroplane to a marvellous

pop-up Santa with his reindeer.

We also have several Modern Toss Cards which have always been a firm favourite in the shop.

If you are in the market for some downright rude Christmas cards with a good dose of Bah Humbug you will never go wrong with Dean Morris cards.

We no longer take internet orders internationally

Sadly, for now,we have decided to no longer automatically accept International orders on the website. The costs are so sporadic that we cannot give our international customers value for money. We also have found that a large proportion of the items that we have sent to Europe have not arrived at their destination.

So if you would like to you would like to buy from us , but do not live in the UK, the islands, highlands or Ireland then please send us an email letting us know what you would like to buy and we will get a price for postage for you. You can then decide if you would like to proceed with the order.

All International orders will now have to be signed for which costs £3.00 and then the weight cost will be calculated on top of that.

Sorry for any inconvenience,or disappointment caused to you.

love from random: The 2010 Diaries are here.

love from random: The 2010 Diaries are here.

The 2010 Diaries are here.

The ever popular range of Santoro diaries have arrived for 2010. We have all of them in stock in the shop at the moment, and the most popular ones are on the website.

They are a great design that people come back for year after year.

1. They last all year because of their removable plastic covering, so you can chuck them in your bag or stuff them in your pocket and they are still in one piece by November
2. They have a sticker sheet with them so you can mark out important dates.
3. There is a monthly planner at the beginning of each month so you can see where you are at and what is coming up easily.
4. The weeks are set out over a double page so there is plenty of room to write what you need to in for each day.
5. There is a design for everyone, from the London Underground Map through to beautiful illustration work.

Get in there soon , the best ones always sell out quickly, right now the top ones are the POPPIES

design and the ever popular 101 THINGS CATS DO.

POSTAL STRIKE OFFER

While the postal strikes are on and off , all orders in the UK over £10-00 are being sent by courier and will need to be signed for. That means you can be sure your order is coming to you quickly and is not going to get lost in a depot somewhere. As usual all orders in the UK over £30-00 are free, so it is a good time to do a little early Christmas shopping!

My Yard Store Opening

This Friday (9th Oct) the boys and girl from My Yard open a new exciting fashion store at No 40, Park Street. Just a few doors up from us. It is definitely worth a visit if you are in the Bristol area. Support independent trade and young designers and keep the big corporates from taking over the area. Good Luck mebabbers.

Competition on Facebook

We have a competition running on our facebook site Love From Random. All you have to do is add a photo or video of yourself or others with one of our products. Or maybe you have made something out of one of our 'Things to Do' section.

i am particularly looking forward to the promised picture of a knitted aubergine from the Amigurumi knits book. If you want to let off a sky lantern and film it that would be great or maybe you drink from one of our mugs every day! Whatever you fancy join the fan page and then add it to our wall.

At the moment the prize is a fantastic 'Hot Type Transfers Kit' full of very cool fonts that are ready to transfer onto clothes, bags etc. This is very popular at the moment so will be the prize only for a short period, then we will change it to another new and exciting product.

Get posting now.

Discount in Venue Magazine

If you are a Bristol local, Venue Magazine has the Student Guide Supplement this week.

We have put a discount voucher in there so you can get 20% off in the shop if you bring it with you and hand it in. Good thing is you don't have to actually be a student to use it, so if you are a student of life and you are already a regular in the shop you can still make use of it. It is valid until the 1st December so you can enjoy some massive savings on an early Christmas shop.

Think Gum

Newly added to the shop and the website today is Think gum. Big in America apparently, but then so are alot of things. According to the packet, it is full of brain boosting ingredients, (various different herbs etc) and says it will help chewers take on mentally challenging tasks, be more alert and improve information recall. That is alot to claim in a little piece of gum.

We were intrigued enough to order it and as soon as it arrived cracked open a couple of packets and tried some. so what is our verdict.

No1 for me it tastes horrible, yuck,yuckyuck ,it tastes like the smell of a 1980s health shop, but others did not feel so strongly and quite liked it, these younguns dont have the same memories as me clearly.

As for the effects well i do feel a bit more chipper, I have got round to updating the blog after all! It does have Guarana in it though which has natural caffeine so it could be that.

Banksy Exhibition

We finally went to the Banksy vs Bristol Museum exhibition a few days ago. We had been waiting for the queues to die down as we actually work on the same street, but that does not look like it is going to happen anytime soon. If you find yourself in a long queue, it really is worth it. It is truly brilliant. However if you really hate queueing it is way way shorter at the end of the day on most week days. Get there just before 4pm and you will still have an hour to enjoy it. The museum shuts at 5pm. Don't miss it.

Facebook Fanpage Members Discount!

Any minute now, we are going to be giving a nice big discount code to all of our facebook fans. We have finally hit 100 members, so to celebrate that they will be sent a special message.
If you are not already a member of the facebook fanpage please do join up! http://tinyurl.com/mo7eul
you can expect special offers and extra news, fun stuff from our members and chat!
We don't however bombard you with messages that you just don't want, so give it a go, you have nothing to lose!

They are cleaning it up today!

Last night i wrote of the paintball shooting of the Banksy piece on Park Street. This morning on my way in i took a few photos of the council attempt to clean it up.

I thought the guy on the right was a typical art expert shipped in especially to clean up the mess , with delicate precision. It took me a while to realise that i thought this because of his red braces, which was, of course actually his harness.

Latest news is that they abandoned the clean-up after a short while, but they may have been going for their lunch.

Park Street Mural Vandalised

Our street, where our shop is, has this big Banksy pic on it, i walk past it everyday, and it often makes me smile. I also love that most days, when i walk past it at six when the shop shuts, there is someone taking a photograph of their friends posing in front of it. People from all over the world enjoying and appreciating it.

Today there were a load of reporters and cameras around it because it has been vandalised in the night, by firing paintballs at it. There are many reports on the news and on the web. Here is one of the local ones http://tinyurl.com/m555ba.

There are plenty of people making comment about it. Me, i just think it is a shame , because i enjoy it everyday and someone has ruined that. Apparently there will be a clean up job very soon, i hope it is successful.

Banksy Exhibition at the Museum

The Banksy exhibiton at the City Museum ( just at the top of our road), came as a complete surprise to us, i have to admit. We are obviously not that cool, or in the know, to have known in advance. Turns out that very few people did know about it so I wont be beating myself up about it. Legend now has it that a whole new team of people were employed from the job centre to put it up over night so that even the museum staff didn't know about it. Banksy was , so rumour says, one of those said employees, overseeing the set up, without sharing his identity.
The exhibition will be on for a month, so do pop in and see us if you make a trip to Bristol to see it.
We are of course hoping to get a bit of a rush on our Banksy mugs an magnets.
Here is the link to our website page with the mugs on it! http://tinyurl.com/n74xoo

Maggie Is Back

I am so pleased the Margaret Thatcher Nutcracker is back. I have long been a collector of political satire,mostly Kitsch, cartoon and caricature pieces. I have allsorts of bits around the house, including a full set of Spitting image squeaky dog toys that i have photographed.I also have a Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Neil Kinnock toby jug among many other bits, but, still ,i had not picked up one of these to add to my collection before they sold out. This time i am going to grab one before they are all gone. I have made that mistake before with some of the George Bush things we have had, and of course they are already out of production , and now therefore collectable.

We also have had two Barack Obama things arrive today. They should be on the website by the weekend. so keep looking if you are a fan! Obama mints in a cute little collectable box and Dress your own Obama magnet set, called Obamarama, which looks like its going to be hours of fun!

The Apprentice Final Tonight

Tonight the end is nigh. shame. I love The Apprentice and to me it was just hotting up. Never mind, it's been a goodie anyway. I want Kate to win, i think. It has been great to have some involvement this year with the Cat Playhouse. We have started a bit of a tradition of having things that they have to sell or find, last year it was the Mosque Alarm Clock that calls you to prayer. We still sell that one in pink. I wonder what it will be next year?

Fathers Day is on its way

Fathers day is on the 21st June in the U.K. On the website we have two areas to help find things for your dad. We always have the gifts for him section , because it can be so hard to find gifts for men that are a bit different from the usual socks/ties/aftershave type gifts.

We have also put together a collection of things you may think your pops will like. Fathers are all different, all different ages with all sorts of interests so you may well find the perfect something here.

Is your dad a bit of a genius? What about an Albert Einstein little thinker doll?

Is your dad a music buff? What about a Beatles Abbey road Lunchbox?

Or is your dad a bit of a retro gamer? We have a whole load of things he might like but a favourite has got to be the ice invaders ice cubes for his drink!

Whatever your dad is like ,have a look you are bound to find something to suit him on the website or come into the shop and have a look at our special display .

The Big Birthday Giveaway

If you are on Twitter, look out for us this week. As a celebration of my impending 40th birthday i am giving stuff away everyday!
We started on Saturday giving away 10 of our own eco bags, and then thought why not give a little something away everyday just for a bit of fun!
I hadn't really allowed for the fact that some people would be a tad untrusting ( there is alot of spamming on twitter so you can't really blame anyone).By day 2, we had lost a few followers, we were giving away toffee poppets,lots of people wanted a packet but didn't give an address to send them to.
I was having second thoughts about this week of giveaways if people were starting to think i was collecting addresses for spamming purposes. Then someone on twitter suggested that i go for more of a competition format, so today i decided on a question "How many times stronger than a man is a gnome?" and the prize? a tiny gnome of course! The 10 tiny gnomes went very quickly! Great. (oh and the answer is 7 times stronger apparently!).

So quiz questions it is for the rest of the week. I have a bit of a plan for the things we are going to give away but this could all change as we go along. Keep a look out and you will get yourself a little something in the post!

Most important thing to remember is this is simply a bit of fun to mark the countdown to my 40th birthday on Saturday and this is what i looked like last week on my holidays to prove i am a real person and not some bot!

The Cat Playhouse

We are back from our Hols, and one of the first things I have done is add the Cat Playhouse featured on The Apprentice to our website. When I mentioned it last week I had not seen the episode but I did already know that the teams had not sold it very well!

The team obviously liked it,but I think they were missing the point a tad, this is a design item, a piece of art, it has amazing detail on the inside and on the outside and should take pride of place in any design conscious home. Yes of course you can give your Cardboard box loving kitty a box with a few holes cut out of it, but then you have a box with holes in it in the middle of your living room,hardly classy.

We are stocking the Plane which has great details like a cockpit with dials and controls. We are also have the fire engine with extending ladder and detailed insides as well.

We have put one of each together in the shop , they are easy to do, with no need for glue.

Off On Our Hols

We are off on our holidays for a week or so. The shop will of course be open but the website will not be sending out any packages until our return.
We are going to be away for this weeks Apprentice, sadly.
1. It is pretty much my favourite programme
2. One of our products is being featured HEAVILY and i want to spill the beans now, but if you are a fan of the programme it would spoil it for you.

The said item will be listed on our website as soon as we get back next Wednesday and will be available in the shop this week.

Just to give you a little clue it involves cats!

See you next week!

I Wish I Could Knit Better

I wish I could knit better. The new Amigurumi Book that I have been looking forward to, has arrived, I really want the aubergine! I have asked my mum and she has said she will make it for me. If that goes well i am going to push her generosity and ask her to make me the hermit crab, with a really bright shell.

My other favourite in our things to do range is The Creepy Crochet Book. Problem is I can't Crochet either! I love the monkey in a fez and of course the little ninjas.

I would love to see any of these little characters made up. If you make any of them please take a photo and pop them on our facebook page . that would be marvellous!

Lunchbox Bonanza

I am very pleased with myself. I have created a new sub category on the website for lunchboxes and tins, without having to ring Dan to ask him where I have gone wrong. I am feeling a tad techie, just for a minute.
I had to move all of the lunch boxes into their own sub category because there are now so many to choose from. If you take your lunch to work it is a great way to save money and be stylish at the same time!I just added a few new ones today, The Raleigh Chopper, which uses the original advertising. Batman which is going to surely be a favourite with the boys. A brand new wizard of Oz tin which replaces the smaller old version. A union Jack tin tote which would make any mod proud and finally a fantastic Pink Floyd tin showing some of their albums.There is a little puzzle attached to the Pink Floyd description, i am hoping for some replies to be sent to our facebook fan page depending on how many we get i will be sending out prizes!

Domestic Sluttery: Shop in the spotlight: Love from Random

Domestic Sluttery: Shop in the spotlight: Love from Random
Ah that's nice innit getting a lovely little mention from the domestic Sluttery ladies. I am honoured and truly chuffed.Best get in there quick for the Jon Burgerman wallpaper, there are only a few left!

Cycling in Style in Bristol and beyond

Bristol is to be the first Cycling City in the UK apparently. Lots of money is to be spent on improving the cycling networks etc, and the amount of people cycling in Bristol is set to double over the next couple of years.

This can only be good news in my book, the more cyclists there are on the roads, the safer it feels, as you are definitely seen. Cycling into the centre will be quicker,cheaper,and more convenient if there are more of us doing it. I hope there are going to be lots more bike parking spaces sorted out. If you have a really snazzy bike, you can park it at the Mud Dock Bike Shed where it is going to be safe and you can get a shower as well if you want.

There is talk of a big bike rental scheme starting up soon where you can get a bike for an hour we shall look out for that.

To make your bike more individual , we have just had some retro accessories arrive, that generally, you are not going to see in the local bike shop.

We have a traditional Bike horn that makes a really big hoot, which is ideal for getting the pedestrians to move off of the cycle path!

A whirl-A-Bell, which is one of those retro whirly metal kite type things that you can attach to the frame or handlebars of your bike and makes a ringing noise as you cycle along. This would look great on one of those ladies town bikes with a basket!

We also have a completely pointless and wonderful, Bike Aeroplane, or Bike Airplane as it is called. This is a little silver plane that attaches to your handlebars with a red propellor that whizzes round when you cycle along, How cool is that! A great accessory for adults and children alike.

We are on the look out for more accessories to make your bike stand out in the crowd, right now these are available in the shop and online on our website

Operation Nice

In the spirit of our motto 'Commit Random Acts Of Kindness' we have added a link at the bottom of our blog page to Operation Nice.com who in a simple and lovely way embrace the idea. It's just all about being nice to people and most of all doing it without always wanting something in return.

MP3 Accoutrements

We have had the first arrivals of a collection of Ear buds, headphones this week. They can obviously be used with anything that requires headphones, but are going to be an interesting little accessory when your listening to your I pod,(other brands of MP3 player are available). We have had the Ducks, Love ducks and Ladybirds arrive, but look out for more varieties in the coming weeks.

Another new in snazzy little gadget is the Headphone splitter by Lecci. How often have you given one ear of your headphones to a friend so they could listen to what you are listening to. Or laid next to someone on the beach or in the park wanting to listen to the same thing? You may have seen a headphone splitter before, but this one is on a keyring, so you can have it with you all the time. It is also in some very nice packaging, you've got to love good packaging when it comes to gadgets!

In Your Face Ads

I found a website where you can make up your own roadsigns and Motel signs i love it. I think we may definitely use them in a flyer in the future. In the meantime here they are, ( they are easily changeable so we may change the words again and again!).

You could also make up an eyechart which might have been my favourite but i really love the possibilities of the Motel sign.

Look out for these pictures on the streets of Bristol!

A bit of a move around

Friday we spent all of the day having a good old move around, replacing some of the shelves and putting some of our vintage wares into the shop. This was all because I bought an Ercol dining table and it didn't fit in the shop. I definitely think it looks alot bigger in there now, come down for a visit and take a look soon

And some more Ice cubes

Today two more types of ice cubes arrived, as i had blogged about our collection only yesterday i thought it only right that i should add these to the list. The Bone Chillers Ice Cubes are an old favourite that have come back in, great for pirates, gothic parties or lovers of all things skull related.

A new one is the Gin and Titonic Ice that consists of four Ocean liners and four Icebergs.

Ice Cubes R US

The latest offering in shaped ice cubes to hit our shelves is the ice invaders silicon tray of space invaders shapes. ' A totally retro addition to your drink that will score highly with children of the 80's and their gaming descendents'.(that's what it says on the box!).

This is not all though ,oh no, there is a myriad of ice cubes to choose from to suit every occasion and interest. Just added to the website we have the AK Ice Tray, which actually makes 3D bullets in an ice mold.

We have the Alphabet Ice cubes that are great if you want write words in butter, chocolate or jelly etc, or you could make peoples' names in ice and put them in their drink, it would be interesting to see how many people actually noticed that it was their name and not just letters.

Or what about the old favourite Frozen Smiles Ice Cubes, that look like false teeth. Again you can get really creative with these and freeze milk as teeth then maybe some grenadine, or red food colouring for the gums, to make a fairly gruesome drink accompliment.

Who knew that shaped ice cubes would become such a must have accessory? We have even more new ones arriving soon so there really will be an ice cube to suit every taste!.

Free posters

I am getting a whole load of new poster titles in very soon. Today in the shop I am giving away the old sale posters. yes that is free,no charge, no catch,. They as you can imagine are going quite quickly. The only thing I ask is that you only take ones that you want.

Andy Warhol Soup Cans

I have always been a fan of Andy Warhol, so I am pleased to have two new licensed Andy Warhol Magnet sets available. I particularly like the larger set just of soup cans, they are a classic, i think i'm going to have some for my fridge!

Frida Kahlo Rocks

The Unemployed Philosophers Guild's range of Little Thinker Dolls have just arrived. There are a massive range of dolls available however we have chosen a select few to start with. We have gone for fairly instantly recognisable personalities and may well branch out into the more obscure philosophers etc if these prove popular. My favourite of course is Frida Kahlo, the iconic kitsch figure that she is. Also on the website we have Salvador Dali, who looks very dashing in his satin cape, Sigmund Freud in a velvet suit,William Shakespeare and Albert Einstein in a lovely grey woolly jumper. If you come into the shop we also have one Elizabeth 1st and one Jesus!

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day all. If you are a regular in the shop you will already know that if you are in the market for a valentines card that is not full of slush we are indeed your best bet. There are still some really great ones left so get in quick. Unfortunately we were not quick enough off the mark to get a collection on the website, next year.

There are a few love related gems on the website though, we have put some of the best bits in the our favourites section for easy access. My favourite is the love heart cake cases at £1.50, buying these does mean you will have to make a bit of an effort and maybe knock up some cornflake cakes to put in them, but THAT is the romantic bit.

Flowers of romance | Banksy | Artists | Love From Random

Flowers of romance Banksy Artists Love From Random
What a great gift for Valentines day. A present to show you are a true romantic

Banksy Mugs are back

Hoorah the Banksy mugs are back in stock, despite the snow they were delivered today. The selection we had pretty much sold out over Christmas and this is the first time we have had such a good choice since then.
The Banksy magnet tiles came in with them too. There are a few that are ideal for valentines day; The girl with a balloon, the man throwing flowers and the kissing policemen. They all come in both the mug and the magnet tile.

I have joined twitter

I joined twitter a couple of days ago under the name lovefromrandom. I wonder if there are any followers on there that would like to send me a message or two. Please take a look at the link i would be very pleased to hear from you.

Snow Snow Snow

The big trip for buying new stock this week was cut seriously short by the weather. I came home early last night so that i didn't get stranded in Birmingham , I was at the train station for what seemed like hours watching the trains being cancelled one by one. Anyway i got home safely in the end.
I still managed to get a whole load of new gear , all coming in over the next few weeks. As the new seasons stock arrives I will be showing off all my favourites here and of course selling them all on the website.

Doggie Badge Mirrors

We were on our way into the Pet Kingdom in Harrods to see if they did actually sell real live puppies, on our way there the corridors had these great images of puppy dogs in bright colours. I liked them enough to take a quick photo of the corridor, while Sam was growling at me not to. ( She was worried that we might get thrown out of Harrods and that we would never live down the shame).

The very next day we were at a Trade Fair and met the artist, she had for sale some compact mirrors with all of the images on them. A definite new line for the shop and for our website-puppy dog badge mirrors. So a week later they are for sale in the shop and we have a couple on the internet already.

Of course my favourite is the Dachshund , anyone that knows me knows that I am defiinitely going to be getting a real little dachshund of my own very soon and he is going to be the official shop mascot and hang out with me down here every day. when he arrives i'm sure I will be showing him off here and on the website as well! i can't wait.