On the 1st Day of Christmas...

... this blogger gave to thee...

... a lego man made of a tree.

Merry Christmas one and all! I hope you have all had a fabulous day, got lots of presents, eaten just too much and enjoyed the holidays in all its twinkly fairy light glow. And here is the first post of the 12 days of Christmas for you.

Created by French designer, Thibault Malet, these beautifully hand-crafted interpretation of the iconic LEGO man are made of sustainably sourced beech wood, stands at approximately four and a half inches tall and are fully jointed and moveable. Malet has taken this iconic childhood toy, in all its yellow glory and turned it into a more sophisticated and grown up, "Art Toy".

For 2016, there will be a limited collection of 100 - though as I write this there's actually only two left in Malet's online shop - each carved meticulously by hand and lathe to create a unique product. They're each numbered underfoot, given magnetic head joints and placed within their cardboard boxes, with even the waste shavings from the carving process being re-purposed into packaging materials for the limited edition toys. 

I love Lego. I always have. My favourite days when I was a kid was creating a Lego street across the living room floor, which were always concluded by the Godzilla like entrance of the "Lego Bomb" aka my little sister as a toddler. Her Lego destroying antics have gone down in infamy over the years and every Lego creations always came to the same end.

Now, can I ask, am I the only person who get irritated when people talk about Legos?

I know it's silly, but it's always bugged me, the plural of Lego is Lego, not Legos (well technically - if Google is to be believed - Lego Bricks is the the plural), like sheep is sheep, not sheeps. Legos just sounds so wrong, am I alone in thinking that?

Probably, but it's already a daft enough thing to be irritated by, especially on Christmas Day...

Merry Christmas! Part two tomorrow...

Link || Thibault Malet - Website
Link || Thibault Malet on Behance
Link || Thibault Malet Carves Iconic Lego Man [...] via Inhabitat
Link || Wooden Lego via Toxel
Link || Limited Edition Wood-Carved Lego Guys by Thibault Malet via This Is Colossal 
Link || Monday Inspiration via Handmade Charlotte 

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Listening: I'll Be Home For Christmas - She & Him

On the 11th Day of Christmas...

...this blog gave to thee...

...eleven days in Lego...

...ten tasty tipples...

...nine pins and strings...

...eight resolutions...

...seven shoes to choose from...

...six party dresses...

...five gold rings!..

...four paper worlds...

...three shiny gems...

...two texting whales...

...and a pendant that I made.

Every day, for two years, Dan Phelps has combined his love for lego and photography by taking daily photos of the figures.

Uploading 365 days a year through his blog, A Lego A Day, Phelps has chronicled the adventures of Indiana Jones, Hiker, the intrepid traveller and the the comedic side of Storm Troopers. As with most bloggers some scenes he plans and take time to construct, others are spur of the moment, figures coming to life within his home and surrounding.

I love lego and loved the comic side of Phelps' work with Stormtroopers which I find really entertaining. Also the fact that he takes a photo everyday (though not always uploads it every day) is something to be admired. I used Blipfoto and wanted to take a photo a day for a year - something I will try to start again this year - and it is incredibly difficult to achieve. A photograph a day seems simple, pick up your camera, point and shoot but even taking photos of clouds for twenty five days was difficult. Twenty-five days of cloud cover... was a series of photos I took every day for the twenty five leading up to my twenty-fifth birthday (being born on the 31st I'd have done a full month but the notion didn't come to me until later, but luckily enough days for my age) and while some days that summer were so cloudy there was no definition to the sky, other days were so clear it was almost impossible to find a cloud to photograph.

There was no need for me to think of an activity for those clouds to perform, so hats off to Phelps and his Lego tour de force.

{a LEGO a day}

{Phelps Lego Flickr}

Merry Christmas. Part twelve tomorrow...

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Listening: Enough Thunder - James Blake