We got a new juicer through today as an advance birthday present for Cookie from Cookie Snr. And it’s amazing! We’ve been down to the market and stuffed a rucksack full to the brim of fruit and veg, and been madly whazzing it through the machine all day. Turns out grapefruit goes with just about everything.

If you have kids i would imagine a juicer being a great way of getting them to eat carrots and beetroot. So much fun ramming carrots in the tube of doom to be loudly grated to death… Monsters above spotted on Ffffound :)

And in a similar vein these Nest Egg money boxes by Mud Puppy. Lovely! Although a  shame to smash em’ ;) So tempting to draw eyes on them no ?

No need to smash this little fella when the time comes. Just pop the cap out’ his ass - well ‘face’ actually, but ass sounded better ; ) - and you’re in the money. Is it ok to buy something when you’re saving up if it helps you save up ? It is isn’t it, yeh…. ;)

Piggy will soon be available at Gorrinucha. Mini review spotted over on Grass Roots Modern.

An extraordinary image here of the UK completely covered in snow today. Pretty surprising! Even the very lower tip of the south west has snow, which is pretty rare. The most southerly tip of Cornwall gets snow maybe only once or twice a decade. I can only really remember seeing ‘proper snow’ there twice or so in my life. So there’ll be some chilly surfers and frosty palm trees at the beach i think :)

A little while before Christmas i came across the beautiful jewelry made by Cecile - aka La Bôite a Monstres. We struck a deal to swap a moustachioed monster for a bracelet and we set to work on our creations. My pirate bracelet arrived the other day. Very exciting! It features as it’s hero a full working compass, along side a functioning locket pendant, and pirate portrait also. I absolutely love it, and salute you Cecile on you marvelous handiwork. Thank you so much :)

I think of myself as young. I’m 32. ( I can hear you chuckling ;) ) But I feel, at the core, pretty much the same person as i did when i was 22. So it gives me the illusion that younger people might be living their lives, having the same experiences i had. I assumed that being younger these days is similar to how it’s always has been.

“I more or less understand what younger people’s lives are like” I thought. Turns out i had absolutely no idea! I was wrong on pretty much every count.

Answer this: 1 in 3 children carry…

A. A knife or gun   B. A mobile phone    C. An mp3 player    D. A book   ?

I was challenged by Andy to have a look at the stories and evidence here. I have to say i’m pretty shocked. I won’t reveal the results, as i’d urge you to go and have a read of these 10 points, about life today for Teens. You might be surprised.

If you’re a teen yourself i’d be really very interested to hear from you whether you feel this reflects your experiences ? Please do comment below. And do watch the Teens’ Speech ( live on Myspace ) on Christmas Day. I’ve seen a sneak preview and it’s very enlightening watching. You can read all about it here.

Oh no wait, it’s just a cat. Here he is here.

I know. At first glance that seems kind of coo coo. And maybe it is, but, how much fun would that be ? Cookie and i have a dream to make a documentary about New Zealand. And to do it we’re going to walk from the nothern tip aaaaaaaall the way down to the southern tip. Mental eh ? Yes! We are hoping to do it in about a years time. To help us save up the funds to get there and pay for equipment, and porridge to eat on the road we looking for people to sponsor us. It’s a bit of a challenge! We’ll be camping wild so there’d be no luxuries on this trip. But every penny counts when it comes to making the DVD’s etc as when we get back we’ll be penniless :)

It’s a pretty special trip as the route won’t officially open til next year so ( if it all comes together ) we’ll be some of the very first people to do it. Proper adventurer stuff!

SO! If you’d like to see the documentary of a boy and girl struggling against the elements ( and their will power ) to quite literally walk to Mordor in a Frodo stylie then your luck is in! If you’d like a DVD or want to help us then read all about it here and you can Donate a small amount if you wish towards to costs of the film. Thanks so much Monster-Munch followers! And if we raise the monies you will of course hear all about the trip live here on Monster-Munch :D

Help us :)

Kickstarter are kindly helping us with a donations page - but we only get paid if we raise the whole amount! So we have only less than 90 days to see if we can…. You know we love you! ;) xx  Nicky & Cookie

Get cool stuff made by us

Kind sponsors will receive a selection of things designed and made my me and Cookie ( of Made-In-England.org ) including the DVD, Specially designed A2 Posters, route planners and the right to give us very special challenges to complete on route! Read all about the Pledge Prizes here.

As some of you know, the other special thing about this trip for me is that i’m not, lets say, the most athletic person in the world ;) So this is going to be a mission and a half to say the least! And more than a mountain to climb. In fact you might know that a little while back a was rather ill, and to even dream of something like this would have been unimaginable. So in a way, that’s something that’s spurring me on to try and confront and conquer the impossible :) It might be a bit crazy but i’m damn well going to give it my best! Thanks for listening Monster-Munchers. x

Lovely work here from Sans Gil just flooded in through my inbox. Red and Blue monsters. Lots of character for such a simple shape. I once learned to knit in order to learn to make my first knitted monkey. Then when i realised i could make them quicker out of socks, the knitting went a little out the window ;) But these have so much charm because of their completely handmade nature. Great colours too.

Dare they say they even look cute? Certainly like they’re fairly jolly fellows at any rate! I’m imagining Creature Comforts type voices on them :) Thanks to Meachin for sending this one over. Love it. If you know who’s responsible then drop me a line.

Getting in the Christmas spirit here in Monster Munch watching Yann le Coroller’s Xmas Monster Animation. You can watch the video here and check out the rest of his fantastic monster illustration here.

Update: Yann got in contact and apparently you can get hold of this little fella in ticklable iPhone App format! He does a bit of shouting and screaming when you accost him. Lovely :)

Come and visit us at That’s A Cappuccino! And add your best and worst coffee shops to the map :) You can read all about what makes the perfect Cappuccino from the experts here. Our Mission is detailed here spelling out what we stand for and how you can assert your right to a proper coffee ;)

Special thanks to the rest of the very awesome Team#1 who managed to get this from idea to working website in under 24hrs. Impressive! Super work Iain, Gav, Meachin, Chris R, Aina, & Kate.

It’s our very first Hack Day here at Poke. And we have 24hrs to come up with an idea and build it into a real ’something’ on the interweb.

It’s a touch challenge. And i hope that Team #1 can live up to it’s name. We battle valiantly against some of the best in the industry today. The theme has been set: FOOD…… read the rules etc here :)

Our thoughts turn to the ( very disturbing ) slippage of standards, of Cappuccino making we been experiencing recently! We will stand no more for these ropey Lattes passing themselves off as Cappuccinos. What’s with all the milk ?? It’s diluting the caffeine! An overly milky coffee plainly isn’t good enough to keep our hard working brains afloat. It’s simply a dangerous predicament. So we’re standing up and shouting about it.

Introducing “That’s a Cappuccino”. The campaign to seek out and highlight the best and the worst of the offenders who shun ‘The Golden Rule’ of 1:1:1 Espresso to steamed milk, to froth. We will expect no more, no less. And we will be coming to a coffee shop near you very soon ……

Brilliantly made mini Where The Wild Things Are characters here. Made in the japanese character crochet style, Amigurumi. Very technical stuff! And impressive likenesses. Big thanks to the Beddard who sent me this. You can see more details and buy the patterns on CraftyisCool’s Etsy here. Can’t wait to see this Monster movie!

I’ve been watching too many horror movies this weekend with scenes of expected gruesomeness, and unexpected violent limb removal. So i’ve been trying to balance out the dark with some cute for the sake of getting to sleep tonight ;) So here’s a vid from Yewknee ( thanks for the link Cookie! ) of an impossibly cute squashed face kitten eating his dinner from chop sticks. There’s something of the Gizmo about him. And maybe a touch of Ewok?

More Aaaaaaaaaah and less Aarrrrggghhh! - that’s what you need on a sunday night.