Frank Lloyd HOT!
I have to admit that, when I first saw the name of the huggable Mr. Wright doll here, I had imagined a miniature of Rodin's famous sculpture The Thinker, but with FLW captured in the iconic pose. (Then I remembered The Thinker is perched on his rock in all his glory, and I had to go find a place to sit down for a minute, as I was feeling a little swoony.)
What?
How delighted was I to discover, then, that the aforementioned Little Thinker was actually an adorable stuffed likeness, complete with tiny walking cane and wee pretentious man-scarf? VERY. I just want to bring him home, cuddle him as if I were his fifth wife and listen to him whisper sweet nothings about organic architecture an Usonian design principles.
What??
Buy it! Frank Lloyd Wright Little Thinker, $15.95, at shakespearesden.com.
digg it, del.icio.us it, Google it, StumbleUpon it, Linkroll it.
I've always been a geek about mythology from all corners of the globe. Japan, India...Norse mythology has always been a favorite of mine. But the old classics (the ORIGINAL old classics) from Greece are always a pleasure to revisit, a pleasure I hope to instill in my children someday. But we all know that kids HATE anything that smacks of literature or history or god forbid LEARNING, right? Which is why Mr. Cuddly Bull-face here is the perfect... Trojan horse, if you will: stealth culture at its finest! AND a fun alternative for parents looking to distinguish their kid from every other drooling Tickle-Me Elmo toter out there...
Here in Wisconsin, it's finally summer! (For the next 2 1/2 weeks, anyway. Then hello snow!) Unfortunately, summer here is mostly known for being That Season With All The Creepy Crawly Things. If it's not the earwigs crawling out of their moist, dank hidey-holes (EW!), it's the ants who will crawl in through that rip in the screen that you've been meaning to replace and carry off your dog. (She's not very bright sometimes.) And THIS year is especially special because it's the return of the cicadas! (They're like that great-aunt you only see once every 17 years and hope to GOD you're living in Costa Rica the next time she decides to visit.)
Yarrrr! It be fully three months until Talk Like a Pirate Day, when lubbers and buccaneers come together and hoist a grog or two in celebration of sea dogs everywhere! But September be a poor time for setting the mizzenmast and catching a likely wind off the oceans. Now June, 'tis a friendlier month for such sport, whether your craft be a sloop of fine Spanish oak or this dainty dinghy of a Pirate Ship Kite; she'll sail the skies as pretty as that little scullery wench at your favorite ale house!
Despite the fact that my parents clothed me in head-to-foot pink whenever I had the occasion to step out-of-doors, I have always been a tomboy. While my younger sister groomed her Barbie dolls' hair for hours on end (so much so that it looked like she really should have been able to purchase the Malibu Barbie Chemo Unit for them somewhere), I was knee-deep in LEGOs, Lincoln Logs, blocks and Hot Wheels. 
We are all about seeking guidance wherever it can be found, because god knows we could use the help. Magic 8 balls, the daily horoscope, best-2-out-of-3 coin flips: we prefer to let the universe decide our fate whenever possible. (It's called "absolving ourselves of blame".) So when we clapped eyes on our friend ZOLTAR THE ALL-SEEING, DIVINER OF FUTURES THROUGH THE MISTY REACHES OF TIME, we knew that finally, FINALLY, here was an advisor who would never steer us wrong. We mean, look at him! He's wearing a TURBAN, for pete's sake. You don't rock the turban unless you're serious about your MYSTIC POWERS. We can't wait for him to peer into the future and forecast how the universe plans to reward us for all that good karma we've been spreading around. (What, you thought we were letting all those people merge in front of us out of the goodness and generosity of our heart? SURELY YOU JEST.) Money? Power? EPIC LOVE DESTINED TO TRANSCEND THE AGES? Only Zoltar knows for sure. (But just in case we don't like what we hear, we've got the Magic 8 ball on stand-by.)
With the new, big budget 
With the all the Consu-kids 
We love toys just as much as the next hipster. One look at our workspace would make one believe that, contrary to all modern attitudes about child-labor, our boss somehow managed to persuade a 6-year-old to come design and develop websites for 40 hours a week. (We, however, have to provide our own morning snack and have been denied our afternoon nap.)
We love cartoon people. We love boxes. Therefore, ergo, QED, it stands to reason that we would love cartoon people drawn on boxes. And we totally do! We confirmed this when we instantly fell in love with these Super Bastard Box Art Characters. (Hurray for irrefutable logic!) 
The Japanese are arguably the World Heavyweight Champions of Kawaii. (That's "Cute" for those of you who aren't don't happen to be Japanese schoolgirls.) From 
We went in to Kidrobot the other day to buy 
We've linked to 
It wasn't the first time Plucky had had The Man put the screws to him, and he knew it wouldn't be the last time. The heat had served up a heaping helping of knuckle sandwich, and it was going down hard. He'd just been minding his own business, having a drink down at his favorite watering hole: last he checked, that wasn't a crime. Damn that chick he picked up earlier in the evening! From the moment he'd laid eyes on her, he'd had a feeling that she'd be nothing but trouble; broads with legs like hers -- the ones that start at yesterday morning and go all the way to tomorrow afternoon -- can only lead to heartache. He was staying cool, though; he had plastered a smile on his mug and shut his yap tight. The fuzz wasn't gonna pin this one on him. Not THIS time...
We've always wished that, when faced with a particularly sticky dilemma, our very own angel-and-devil tag-team would pop into existence on our shoulders to help us puzzle through matters. Maybe the angel and the devil would trade witty barbs before commencing wrestling in a comical manner, perhaps knocking the angel's halo askew in the process! We'd all have a good laugh before they disappeared with a tiny *pop*. Problem solved, crisis averted, we'd be free to continue blithely along the path of righteousness.
Normally, we are against office shenanigans; in today's economy, with thousands of American workers losing their livelihoods to overseas labor, the average employee can ill-afford to waste precious office hours running around engaged in wacky hijinx with nerf guns and whiffle bats and whatnot. 
We've seen these before, but never available outsite Japan! Recreate your favorite 8-bit video game characters by pushing the pixel pins into a grid and viola, one Mario! Since they are an import from Japan, 
Remember the Valentine's Day episode of The Office, when Dwight was given a bobblehead version of himself by Angela? Remember the little flutter of jealousy and desire you felt when you saw it for the first time, bouncing happily on his desk? Remember how you wished so hard that someone would love you so much in a hot, geeky way that they'd make a bobblehead version of you?
Kidrobot, makers of pretty much all of our favorite vinyl toys, is having a contest where the prize is an entire case of their new 
We like to live our life under the constant watchful eyes of thousands of tiny, Japanese toys. We like to think of them as little forest spirits made of plastic and vinyl who will grow giant fangs and claws if we are ever in danger.