The Simpsons 25h Anniversary Moleskine Notebooks

Fresh for 2014 comes the latest limited edition release from Moleskine. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Sprinfield's favourite family, Moleskine have created a range of The Simpsons hardcover notebooks. The set is available in both yellow and black (lined and unlined), feature classic illustrations, exclusive doodles, quotes and a set of stickers; lending themselves to Homer, Bart and the rest of the crew. [via]

Available mid January, pre-order your set here.

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Embiggen Pins | Not Your Usual Simpsons Merchandise

It’s a running joke in The Simpsons that their merchandise is fairly shoddy. Their faces (particularly Homer’s and Bart’s), appear on everything; from pizza cutters to plasters, from breakfast cereal to t-shirts - and it’s generally all cheap.

Occassionaly, though, you can find a Simpsons gem. My Surly bottle opener is quality and I’ll be first in line to buy a genuine Duff, once it’s released. These badges from Embiggen Pins are firmly in that category too.

What makes them good, is that they’re so different. Aside from Bart on a skateboard, they don’t feature the usual Simpsons character line-up. Instead, we have Alf (in Pog form), Homer’s half-cat/half-dog hybrid, Frostilicus, and the motivational mascot from the Osaka Seafood Concern.

With these pinned to my jacket, I know that anyone who stops me to chat Simpsons is a proper connoisseur.

You can find Nik at - Twitter | Instagram | Editions Newsletter

NHL x The Simpsons Illustrations

We’re fans of The Simpsons. Serious fans. Mat has almost endless photos of his many trips to see The Simpsons at Universal Studios, in Florida, while I have an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of series 3 to 11 (aka. an annoying habit of constantly quoting lines from the show).

We’re also fans of illustration. Perhaps not as serious fans as we are of The Simpsons, but it’s rare not for one of us to stumble across some ace drawings on Instagram at some point during the day. So, when these illustrations appeared on Instagram, showing NHL logos reimagined as Simpsons characters, we spent a good twenty minutes basking in their beauty and genius, before adding them to the ‘must cover’ column of the Buckets publishing list.

And here they are for you all to enjoy. Don’t forget to check out the artist, AK47_studios, on Instagram.

You can find Nik at - Twitter | Instagram | Newsletter

Orlando Photo Diary Part 1

To cut to the chase I'd love to move to America; it's something I've said for a few years now and my goal is to find a decent job, pack our bags and leave. But for now I've got a few year's worth of photos to look back through if I ever start feeling nostalgic. Here's what we got up to this time -

We spent a lot of time down at the local town of Celebration - days filled with relaxing by the lake, drinking the best filtered coffee and checking out the local shops. Evenings spent in similar fashion; working our way through the craft beer menu at the Town Tavern (immense Boston food too), at Market Street Cafe for shakes or drowning ourselves in salted cameral ice-cream at Kilwins.

No trip to Orlando would be complete without some G-Force action - we whizzed around both Universal Studios + Islands of Adventure in one day! The newish Harry Potter area is definitely the crowd pleaser at the moment but my personal highlight was visiting The Simpsons area; seriously guys Springfield looked incredible! Duff beer on tap, Lard Lad Donuts the size of your face...I just wish we had the brains to eat at Moe's and not a rushed hot dog earlier on!

As always I was trigger happy in the supermarkets + shops, looking for packaging to pique my interest, I'll leave that for part 2!

Hope you enjoyed this one, have a lovely weekend folks!
Mat

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The Simpsons LEGO House + Weekend Links

   

Imagine working for LEGO, that would be pretty cool right? To celebrate the yellow gang's 25th anniversary, LEGO and their enthusiastic designers have created a fully functional and accurate Simpsons house, made up of 2,523 pieces. Seriously though, this would be a dream job!

This week has given me plenty of time for reflection. I was asked back to my old college/uni to talk to the students about "Graduating in a Recession". My main advice was to always be proactive, passionate and don't doubt your ability and talents. Sometimes I need to listen to my own advice.

What's on the cards this weekend guys? I'll be found catching up with emails, your comments and with a cold pint of Guinness.

Weekend Bucket List

A short interview I did for my mate Sally of The Cafe Cat.
This got a lot of people talking on Twitter - Bloggers & Photoshop, How Far is Too Far?
#StanSmith yourself.
I aim to travel more this year, Lake Tahoe is high on the list.
Loft Trading's latest short.
Kristabel's been doing her bit for Blackpool tourist board, she makes my town look classy!
Don't forget to enter our latest Giveaway.
I'm not one for hoodies but I could get down with this lot.

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Duff Beer | Official Licensed Simpsons Beer

image source

'Well beer, we've had some great times.' - Homer.

It's fair to say that in The Simpsons, Homer deserves his mantel as a 'drunken gambler'. Wine, whisky (does that count as beer?), dry martinis, and a cocktail prepared by the almost teetotal Ned Flanders, all find their way into Homer's drinks repertoire. 

Despite all of this - and despite inventing a cocktail of his own - Homer's mainstay is definitely beer. Did you see Mat + Hollie visited Springfield?



He's not, as many would believe, a complete stickler for the wonderful Duff, having dabbled with Fudd, Red Tick Beer, and Tuborg (the beer of Danish Kings); but it does seem to be overwhelmingly his drink of choice. 

Now, word on the street is that we'll soon be able to join Homer in a can of the red stuff. Chile will be the first country to see Duff on the shelves, followed by select countries in Europe. At least, that's what the papers are saying! 

And I for one welcome this new beer, encouraging others to fill their car holes (or underground salt mines) with crate after crate of the stuff.



Hopefully we'll see Henry K. Duff's Private Reserve follow too...although fortunately, there's no news on the release of Duff Zero.

 Altogether now! 

'Duff beer for me, Duff beer for you. I'll have a Duff, you'll have one too'.

You can find Nik at - Twitter | Instagram | Heavy Denim | Newsletter

The Simpsons x Pokemon Badges by Thumbs Design

Sometimes your stumble across something that hardly needs an introduction - just like these badges from London based graphic design studio, Thumbs Design.

Merging too of the most popular cartoon creations on the planet – The Simpsons and Pokémon – Thumbs Design have created this amazing set of enamel badges, trading cards and stickers.

Get over to Etsy to see the full range.

You can find Nik at - Twitter | Instagram | Newsletter

My Creative Space with Boden

 Wearing - Sandown Jumper c/o Boden | Jack Spade Chinos | Trainers c/o New Balance | CHUP Socks | 

Watch c/o Paulin Watches | Ray-Ban Glasses

We're all quite nosey by nature aren't we? Twitching curtains and ear wigging at the bus stop has slowly morphed into what we now call social media. We now see a lot of people's lives, but one thing I've always enjoyed is seeing around people's homes, especially those who work in a creative industry. Boden recently invited me to share My Creative Space, and although I still don't officially have an office (I'll work wherever I can find, and in this post it's at Hollie's parents' house), I thought it would be a great opportunity to get to know myself + Hollie a little better.

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How do I start the Day: Porridge, Tea + Emails

I usually wake up at about 7:30 throughout the Winter. I start most days with a large bowl of porridge with honey and cinnamon, BBC1 News on the telly and my head in emails. If it was the Summer I'd be at the gym for 7:30, but that isn't likely to happen in this freeze.
 

I'm Currently Reading: Cool Beer Labels by Dan Bellon + Steven Spegg

For anyone who's been reading Buckets & Spades for a while you'll probably know that this book is ideal for us. It sums us up. Beer, check, labels, check, stories about design and funny little anecdotes, triple check. There's ain't a lot of reading to be done, but that just suits me fine. The Tintin comics and Printed Pages magazine aren't far behind either.

What's in the Collection: Anything + Everything
Me and Hollie are both proper collectors. It's mostly stuff linked to pop culture, graphic design, and childhood keepsakes. We each have little corners around the house where we gather bits and bobs - can you spot the 3D model of Old Man Buckets?! We're currently pretty obsessed with the LEGO Simpsons minifigures. Nearly got the whole set!

What Am I Wearing: Something Comfy + Relaxed

I'm all about getting up early, showered, dressed and ready for work - it's my way of preparing for the day. I feel more productive if I'm properly dressed and ready to go. Ain't no work getting done in pyjamas. Today I'm wearing the Boden Sandown Jumper from their SS14 collection, relaxed Jack Spade Utility Chinos, Made in England trainers by New Balance and my favourite socks by CHUP. I was also very kindly send this cracking watch by Paulin Watches, which we featured back in December.

What I'm listen to: Not That Much Actually

I'm easily distracted so I don't tend to listen to music while I'm working, but lately when I've been trying to relax First Aid Kit, St. Vincent + Johnny Cash have been on-hand. Hollie's the musical one out of us two, she's amassed a pretty impressive collection of old and new vinyl.

A Special Memory: Visiting Savannah, GA with Hollie

We travelled to Savannah back in 2013, and instantly fell for its charm. The city is jam-packed with all sorts of cool facts, historically important events and extremely warm + welcoming people. Around every corner you're hit right in the face with another fact-bomb. A truely fascinating place, and somewhere we'd love to visit again some day. American road trip maybe?

My Guilty Pleasure: Pro-Wrestling

Not sure if it's classed as guilty if you're not embarrassed by it, but I'm a big fan of Pro-Wrestling. It stems from loving it as a kid (as most of us did), but I got back into it about three or four years ago. It's way better than any soap opera in my opinion, plus the live shows are a riot. Austin 3:16 said I just whopped your ass!

The Engagement Present: Alessi Bottle Opener

We didn't really make a huge fuss when we got engaged, we tend to keep our personal lives pretty low-key. We did however treat ourselves to this limited edition spotty bottle opener by Alessi. He keeps me company most days when I'm working alone.

What's in the Planning: Travel More, Explore More

I didn't explore that much earlier in my life but I'm more than making up for it in my late 20s. Next week I'm in Brighton, Birmingham and potentially there's a short trip to Gevena on the cards (fingers crossed!). Then there's this Euro Road Trip that myself + Nik are trying to arrange, we've pencilled it in for May. We so need to make that happen!

Hopefully you feel you know me a little more about me after this look into My Creative Space. A big thank you to Boden for inviting me to be a part of this series.

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Eastern European Matchboxes by Matchbloc

I haven't written anything for Buckets in a while. Moving house and starting a new job have taken up about 99% of my time recently. I've kept an eye out though, scanning through Instagram, SnapChat, and whatever else occupies the 1% of the time I have free, to find sources of inspiration for a blog post or two.

This one writes itself really - a whole series of Soviet-era artworks, found on the top of matchboxes, each one a stunning demonstration of graphic excellence. All collected in one place, Matchbloc, by the dudes behind Present & Correct.

Go, take a look, and give them a follow! If you like this you'll also like these not-so-regular Simpsons badges.

You can find Nik at - Twitter | Instagram | Newsletter

Nice Things @ Togs & Clogs

Simpsons Shaving Brush

Slim Harpo, real whiskey drinking music

Captured By The Norwegians, sounds intriguing, no?

Lexon Office Collection Set

Pointer Duck Boots, perfect feet coverings for us Brits

Teapigs Green Tea with Mint, I was sold on the camel

Armor Lux noggin warmer

Toy2R Transparent Pom Bear

Now, these are some pretty cool things I must admit. Snazzy enough for me to pick them out but the main reason behind this post is to show you just how slick the store images look. It sure worked on me because I want it all. The products are all taken from (from what I can gather) this brand spanking new store called Togs & Clogs, based in Manchester, UK. The whole site is just really well done , with oodles of categories and an expanding Lifestyle section. For all you chaps (I'm pretty sure most of the girls will like it all too) who are into vintage bikes, watches, clothing, well designed stationary and  well chosen Blues music I urge you to check it out. Now this is all I know about the store, annoying they don't have a physical store as yet, I can only hope. If it's as good as this then I'm sure to have very empty pockets.

Check out the store or follow them on Twitter for the latest.