This Pen Lets You Draw On Your Food With Spices

I'm sure we have amongst us some talented masterchefs and skilled kitchen ninjas who enjoy creating wondrous dishes that look as incredible as they taste. For the food-decorating connoisseurs out there, you can now add a little extra spice to make your creations extra nice using this nifty little gadget:

The CinniBird is a curved, pen-like device (I actually think it looks a bit more like a banana) that helps you to draw on your food using spices. Cinnamon, cocoa powder, paprika, ground parsley, you name it.

Is it bordering on ridiculous? You bet. Is it useful? Perhaps. Honestly, at the very least, I wouldn’t mind using something like the CinniBird to add a bit of a personalised cocoa powder drawing (or a sweet message to my wife for extra brownie points) to the morning coffees (yes, more than one, am I right?)

I think it could open up a great opportunity to make food preparation and mealtimes more fun. Both parents and their __kids can partake in bringing extra creativity to the table, and adding a hand-drawn seasoning smiley face might make all the difference. Decorating food with a device like the CinniBird might even help to entertain, and hopefully encourage, even the fussiest of eaters. If you’re daring and time-savvy enough, maybe you could add a little ‘please, eat me, please’ message to your kids’ insanely epic and/or healthy school lunches.

And if you or your __kids aren’t so keen on ground-up dry spices and more into liquid condiments, well then I’m sure a good ol’ squeezy bottle of tomato sauce will do just fine, too (just not in the coffee though!)

Find out more about the CinniBird

The App You Don’t Want To Live Without! David Attenborough Does It Again!

Just the other day I found myself reminiscing about my childhood Sunday nights, when David Attenborough documentaries screened before 60 Minutes. Despite the fact that this combination of TV shows caused nervous butterflies in my stomach (because it signalled the end of the weekend and the imminent start of the school week, ugh!), I still adored watching anything made by Sir David Attenborough, and it’s a love I hold to this day.

You can imagine my excitement when I discovered the app from the BBC – ‘Attenborough Story of Life’ – and the extreme joy of having my expectations exceeded when I started using it.

At last, gathered in the one spot, are over 1,000 of the greatest wildlife moments Sir David has caught on film. The app features the broadcast legend himself giving an introduction – it’s almost impossible to believe he’s 90 years old because he looks and sounds so spritely. (I’ll have what he’s having thanks!)

As for the app itself, users can explore a comprehensive collection of Sir David’s work, presented as short clips of around 2 minutes duration each. They’re perfect for our busy lifestyles and it means I can spend idle time learning and being awe-struck by nature instead of rolling my eyes at the never-ending stream of selfies on social media. This app takes us back to the days when the cameras focussed on the world around us, instead of on our own insular existences.

The content on the app spans Sir David’s 60-year career and includes highlights from more than 40 BBC programs, including Planet Earth, Blue Planet and The Life of Mammals. There are plants and animals from every continent and habitat – kangaroos, polar bears, lions, sharks, insects and whales – you name it, and this app will no doubt have it covered.

There was a particular thrill revisiting clips that I first saw when I was 5-years-old. I even loved the grainy footage, and seeing Sir David in his cream-coloured safari suit from the early ’80s was a total hoot.

As would be expected with a product from the BBC, this app is high quality, and I particularly love the innovative design. You can search for clips to watch by using your finger to scroll a wheel and selecting a category, or you can simply type in a specific word and you’ll get search results. You can then create and save your own collections of videos and share them with family and friends. And to gamify the experience, there are even hidden films featuring Sir David that were made especially for the app!

The cost? Free! The only slight catch is you need to be connected to Wi-Fi to watch the film clips, but this shouldn’t be a problem in most locations these days.

So go forth in your best safari suit and see what you and your __kids can learn about the world. No selfie stick required! Click here

This New Construction Kit Lets You Build Your Kid’s Rides!

Ever wanted to build a little ride-on cart or bike for your kid but just never knew where to start?

Normally these projects might mean flexing your carpentry and mechanic skills, but let’s face it: we all don’t have those skills to build something awesome and safe for the __kids (just yet anyway).

If you at least know how to wield an Allen key after all of your IKEA furniture-building experience, this construction set may be just right for you. Looks like building your toddler a little trike just got easier!

It’s almost like a super-sized Meccano kit that lets you make things that your __kids can actually ride on. Awesome!

Armed with an Allen key, Infento sets can let you build up to 12 rides for your child, making it an incredibly flexible construction kit that grows with your child from the ages of 0 to 10.

By having a single kit to build multiple vehicles, you eliminate the need to buy different sized trikes, scooters and bikes every year as your kids outgrow them. Infento encourages the whole family to think sustainably in this way, and to be creators and inventors of their own toys as other construction kits do.

My only concern would be making sure the loose bits of the kit are packed up properly after use – if having Lego stuck in your feet is a thing then I imagine stepping on large Infento bits will hurt just as much!

So who’s up for some Infento-ing? Check out the Infento website