I couldn’t believe that I actually did this much on this blog for 2006. And I only started half way through the year. Well, it’s been fun (and therapeutic). Everyone, have a fantastic holidays. I’ll be heading out on a long vacation far far away very soon and I won’t be blogging while I’m there. Look out for a fun-filled travelogue coming up on my return, plus loads of goodies-hunting to come in 2007 as well. Ciao.

FAO Schwartz, the ritzy toy store down by Central Park, has this fantastic product call Make Your Own Custom Monster Design Kit. How awesome is this?! The initial kit contains drawing material and a small questionaire to get further details of your imagination precise. Send it in and the creative folks at North American Bear Co will faithfully reproduce it to your specification. It also comes with a custom tag that tells the story of your creation. $200 with some extra lead time. (Tomorrow (12/4) is the last day to submit your design in to get it for xmas). Get one here.

Admittedly I’m not a cat person. I feel a bit awkward among cats. There’s a back story to that, but not for today. My old roommate is about to get a brand new kitty. Her old one died about a year ago. It took her a while to recover, but I do think she is ready for a new member of her family. On that note, I have been sort of hunting around for interesting cat stuff to get her for the holidays. Here we have Cat bowl that says “cat” just in case you forget what animal you have ($20 at Unica Home); the fancy airplane safe Jet Setter pet bag from Postmodern Pets (no price) for traveling in style; the ScoopFree Automatic Self-Cleaning Litter Box - because, really, you don’t want to get closer to those lumps than you need (and it got great reviews from cat lovers as one of the best auto litter box out there - $135 from Petco); a cute Fishbone tag to identify her from the rest of the purring species ($15.95 at Modern Tails); and last but not least, a fabulous Wicker Lounger complete with toy dangler straight from Denmark (199 EU from Cat Interiors.

Meow!

Happy December!!! (New header graphic to come) To celebrate the season, here is an elegant pair of tableware perfect for that special holiday dinner. I love how the Red berries give you that sense of “wintery brights” but they are not so blatantly christmasy that you can use for any special occasions. I can already imagine pairing these with all white table setting with holly sprigs centerpiece for a fabulous “white” themed party. Dinner plate will run you about $72 each and the salad plate goes for $60. Available at Clio Home. Pair the gorgeous dinnerware with the Vivienna Flatware ($155 for five piece place setting). I love how the knife stands up on its edge - commanding a second glance. The curves on the spoon and fork edges are thoughtfully placed. Somebody really paid attention to details. Available at MoMa Design Store (tho the site says its on backorder at the moment). Unfortunately this pair runs a pretty steep tab.