Poo In A Box!

No, it's not a suggestion, it's the gift that keeps on giving! This really clever gift idea combines the ever popular Grow-Your-Own theme with the comedy value of poo! Everyone knows that there's nothing like muck when it comes to garden fertiliser.

The poo comes in three different 'flavours'... erm, varieties. Elephant, Rhino and Reindeer. Each quantity of poo is dried and packaged to be odour free - after all, poo might be funny but we'd rather not have to live with the smell! The boxes come with a picture of the animal in question's bottom and some seeds to grow in the poo. Elephant comes with rose seeds, Rhino with banana plant seeds and the Reindeer with Christmas tree seeds.

The little boxes are biodegradable, so you can start your seeds out in them, and then just plant the whole thing in a bigger pot once the box is outgrown.

Poo in a Box - £5.99 from ShinyShack.com

Flying Lantern

The Sky Lantern is thought to be the historical precursor to the hot air balloon. Made from paper with a bamboo frame, the whole structure is lifted by hot air generated by burning fuel just below the balloon.

Much more restful than fireworks, you can light and release a Sky Lantern on a still night and watch it rise gracefully into night sky. If you're really lucky someone might spot it and think it's a UFO.

The Flying Lantern comes all ready assembled with it's own fuel block, so you just need to pick a still night, unfold it, light it and watch it fly.

Flying Lantern - £3.99 from ShinyShack.com

Worktop Saver

Vegetables don't have to be boring. More than just necessary for your health, it seems they can be decorative and entertaining too!

I love these worktop savers, the toughened glass has a landscape design made entirely out of fruit and veg. I particularly like the cauliflower sheep grazing peacefully on a hillside of watermelon with a lone brocolli tree in the background. The procession of snails made from courgettes and breadrolls is cute too. Coming up close behind on my list of 'wants' are the vegetable sunflowers and the tractor made from peppers and pumpkins.

Given the choice I would probably have one worktop saver of each of the four designs, but sadly my kitchen doesn't have quite that much worktop.

Toughened Glass Worktop Saver - £13.99 from ShinyShack.com

Maggie Nutcracker

The 80s has definitely been gone long enough for us all get nostalgic about it. Apparently even about the politicians. The Iron Lady, as she was known, saw us right through that decade and the blue suit, rock-hard hair do and her propensity to crush unions left, right and centre has gone down in history.

It's quite appropriate then, that some bright spark has chosen to immortalise the former Prime Minister in nutcracker form. She's wearing the suit and the legs are sprung for easy cracking.

She even comes packaged in a box with a Number 10 door in the front. A nice touch, as she never did want to leave that address.

Maggie Nutcracker - £9.99 from ShinyShack.com

Frame Anywhere

Now this is a great alternative to banging hooks into walls. These cleverly sticky photo frames are designed to be the perfect fit for a standard 6" x 4" photo.

So all you need is your photo and the frame. Peel off the sticky backing and fit your photo to the frame. Then whack the frame onto the appropriate wall, door, cupboard, you name it. The sticky backing will hold the frame in place, but will also peel off perfectly so you're not stuck with it forever.

I think it's great, you can move photos around and swap them out according to your whim without having to worry about putting up hooks or picture pins.  Ideal for adding a bit of colour to your room without knocking holes in the plaster.

Taking great pictures is so easy these days with digital cameras and high quality printing easily available, so why not display a few more of those shots, rather than keeping them shut away in an album or filed somewhere on your PC?

Frame Anywhere Pack of 2 - £5.99 from ShinyShack.com

Jim'll Fix It Soap

Now this takes me back. If I close my eyes I can still see that poor, daft scout troop eating their packed lunch on the rollercoaster. I wonder what happened to that chubby boy with the really disastrous bottle of milk? If you know what I'm talking about, perhaps you too wrote into Jim'll Fix It, hoping to do something weird and adventurous. I think my request was something to do with tobogganing...

Suffice it to say, Jim didn't Fix It for me, but the Jim'll Fix It Badge is still guaranteed to make me smile. This one looks just like the original ones and is even authorised by the great Sir Jimmy Savile himself. Ok, so it's actually a bar of soap, but we can still wear it with pride before washing away the day's grime.

And you know what you'll be humming in the shower... 'Your letter was only the start of it, one letter and now you're a part of it...'

Jim'll Fix It Soap - £7.99 from ShinyShack.com

The Sat-Nag

I'm a relative newcomer to the joys of Satellite Navigation. I won't deny that it is very useful, but there are times when I could cheerfully throttle that very calm lady who keeps repeating, 'Turn around when possible' over and over again because I've missed my turn on the roundabout.

Because of this, the Sat-Nag has raised quite a few giggles. It looks very similar to a real Sat Nav system but it won't actually navigate you anywhere. However, at the press of a button it will come out with some really amusing instructions in exactly the same voice as the Sat Nav lady. I particularly liked the one she came out with today - 'At the next turning I'm going violently grab the sides of my seat because a car at the junction has moved forward one inch'. It took me right back to being a learner driver with my mum in the passenger seat. Of course she used to thump her right foot down hard into the passenger footwell at the same time, desperate seeking a brake pedal that didn't exist. Happy memories.

Sat-Nag - £8.99 from ShinyShack.com