Rif and Raff

05-17-2008 | 11:18 AM EST | 0 Comments

We all have some sort of salt and pepper shakers in the house, but there's no good reason that they have to be boring. Enter Rif and Raff, "a spicy twosome that have taken a stand against bland meals." Their little horns act as the dispensers, and their faces are just cute. I'm not sure which one is Rif and which one is Raff, but whichever one is the pepper shaker has a scrunched face that I'm taking as a sneeze. It seems like a more clever way to label them compared to a giant "S" or "P." On the back of each character are little wings and the bodies have a slightly modern twist with the polka dots.

Rif and Raff are available from the same company that created the greeting cards I posted about last week, Vinila. They're part of a collaboration with the German ceramic manufacturer Rosenthal, and I certainly wouldn't mind having them sit on my counter, greeting me as I start to make dinner.

Ludic the Woollyhoodwink

05-16-2008 | 10:37 AM EST | 0 Comments

I've always thought that forests are full of fun and wonderful creatures, but wouldn't they be better if they were also home to little guys like Ludic? I know that I'd be pretty happy to watch him and his friends walking around...but, unfortunately, the Woollyhoodwinks live in the Black North Forest, and I think that that's quite a ways away from Brooklyn, NY.

Ludic is one of five Woollyhoodwink members, and he's the daydreamer and poet of the group. There's also Junco (the leader, who's always taking everyone on forest adventures), Reddy ("the most tireless mischief maker of them all"), Ozard (the always needed scientist of the group), and Fluke (the baby, who "looks up to the other Woollyhoodwinks and tries his best to like them"). Designed by a San Francisco-based artist named Jeff Root, the Woollyhoodwinks are all handmade and created from patterned woolen fabrics. Each one will be slightly different, so your little friend will be truly unique.

The Blue Whale Boat Neck

05-14-2008 | 02:01 PM EST | 0 Comments

I used to love buying t-shirts with sayings or characters on them, but most of them just seem a little too young for me now that I'm in my 30's. I'm a huge t-shirt fan, though, so I've been on the lookout for some cool, girly shirts that I can still wear in my advanced years ;-) I love having nature themes on stuff (in case you haven't noticed yet), and the design on The Blue Whale Boat Neck shirt is great—as the designer points out, there are water reflections on its back, stripes on its belly, and a very cute little spurt of water at the top.

The t-shirt is designed by Circular Accessories, which is based out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It's silk screened by hand onto an American Apparel shirt, and because she's doing an open run of the whale, you can request a certain size and even ask her to print it on a different type of shirt (there are no guarantees that she'll be able to do it, but she'll "see what she can do"). The shirt costs $30, which seems reasonable to me...plus, she does have 7 cats, 1 dog, and a goldfish to feed...

Zoe Bird

05-13-2008 | 10:14 AM EST | 0 Comments

I guess that we all need a few cute little dust collectors around the house (I'm still trying to fill some shelves I put up months ago), so why not make them something unique and handmade? I ran across Zoe Bird a few weeks ago, and she's been popping into my head ever since.

Zoe Bird is made by cookoorikoo, and as you know by now, I love to point out when something is made from recycled pieces. Each of the birds that cookoorikoo creates are made from scrap pieces of material (this one is made out of linen and cotton, but there are other birds made out of felt), and they're filled with polyfil, have embroidered eyes, a wool felt beak, and 18 gauge wire legs. They're also hand-stitched, so you're really getting one-of-a-kind pieces with these ones!

Broken Plate Pendant

05-10-2008 | 10:49 AM EST | 0 Comments

We've all broken a plate before, I'm sure, but how many of us have thought to make something out of it? I haven't—I immediately start picking up the pieces to throw them in the trash. But there are some more creative people out there, and in a store called TheBrokenPlate, one designer finds her art in vintage plates. There are probably close to 100 necklaces on her site, and you'd be hard-pressed to find one that isn't great. I like the colors in the green and yellow leaf one here, but there are also some very cute little mushrooms, several floral designs, and even some text-based ones.

Not only is the jewelry itself pretty, it's also environmentally-friendly. The plates are obviously being recycled into a new use and it's surrounded in a black patinaed, lead-free, silver solder. And another cool thing about TheBrokenPlate is that they do custom work, too. So next time you break something, don't be sad—just contact the designer and repurpose it into a piece of jewelry.

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