Etsy Pick: Monster Shark Soda Cooler

I have always adored sharks. When I was 7, I saw Jaws for the first time, and by 8, my parents - the same parents who wouldn't let me watch Four Weddings and a Funeral until I was about 16 - had rented me all four of the films from our local VHS store.

My friends and I used to pore over shark books, draw pictures, and play increasingly nerve-biting games of Top Trumps in which the facts on the cards were superseded by facts out of our own heads.

My mum always rather hoped I'd grow out of my fondness for all things finny, so I was particularly delighted when my last birthday scored not one, but THREE shark-related presents including a shark book I hadn't read! But now...whoah.


When my friend Helen emailed me this wonderful knitted Monster Shark soda cooler from Etsy this week I fell into a spiral of love.

It would go amazingly with the shark headband my friend Will brought me back from his adventures in Asia....


...or the shark hat that my editor Scott sent me and which I wore all the way to and during work...

Oh alright. FINE. I clearly do not need any more shark-related accessories.

So please. Can one of you get one? Just...one. You could share it. And then send me the photos of your shark keeping your can of hangover Sprite cool.

I obviously adore the silver version at the top, but you could go for the slightly more benign but equally wonderful Hammerhead shark in a nifty shade of purple, or pick your own colour entirely.

Even if you have precisely zero interest in sharks, I would very much recommend checking Handamade's shop, which is filled with cute and brilliant knitted goods. These sharks here are £16 including Etsy postage from the States. Pricey. Ridiculous. BUT IMMENSE.

EDIT: Jamie on Twitter has sent me this handy guide on surviving a shark attack - "it contains this line 'Keep on fighting, even if swallowed'". My favourite tip is the opening line. "The best way to survive a shark attack is to avoid a shark attacking you in the first place." Sound advice for us all there.