Sawdust Bear Makes Things

I’ve become more enamoured with Etsy lately(I’ve always been, but I’ve been buying some seriously quality stuff from there recently). So, here’s a gift guide featuring two of my current loves – etsy sellers and tentacles.

(clockwise from top left)
(clockwise from top left)

1. $15. Pockethulu by misskittycharms. The adorablelest mini Cthulu.

2. $78-$175 Jewelry from OctopusMe. Cast from real octopus! They’re all gorgeous.

3. $30. Red squid necklace by noadi.

4. $30. Squid Brain Tie by toybreaker.

5. Octopus necklace($22) and tentacle necklace($20). by societysedso.I couldn’t decide which picture I liked better, so I used both.

6. Squiddy Bear by hillyhil.

7. $7.50-$9. Circus Freak Squid pins by BicycleOcean. (these are RAD.)

8. $22. Giant Squid Chubbikin by erinaellis. These are so darling.

9. $12. Tea At 20000 Leagues – Gocco print by SepiaLepus.

I think that the alphabet trend of 2007-08 is mostly over, but I still love the idea of spelling out something really big on my wall.

I don’t own a wall yet, so I’m hoping that there’ll still be some stragglers.

Here’s to the stragglers!

1. $6 – Metal/Enamel letters from Urban Outfitters.

2. $6 – Plywood letters, also from Urban Outfitters. They all have different patterns, but the “B” is my favourite.

3. $98 – Oversized Zinc Letters from Anthropologie. They’re a bit over two feet tall!

4. (left) $10.95 – Alphabet mugs from Fishs Eddy. These are SO cute.

5. (right) £11.50(about US $16) Initial mugs from Pedlars.

6. $200 – Iron Ampersand from House Industries. Yes, I understand that this is not part of the alphabet, but it is very rad.

7. $6 – More monogrammed mugs. This time in “missus“(get it, it’s girlier?) and normal versions from Anthropologie. It’s surprising that the best deal of the batch comes from Anthropologie, home of the $200 peasant blouse, but hey.

Admittedly, I’ve never been all that into my initials(S.K – nothing too interesting), but I do like the idea that I can noncommittally label a certain mug as “mine”. I mean, why would you drink from a mug that doesn’t have your initial on it?

For something a bit more temporal – what about alphabet ice cubes?

Not all banks are pigs, and more importantly, not all pigs are banks.

I’m not sure what compelled me to go on a search for piggy banks – perhaps I felt I need to save more money(I do)and perhaps I just like pigs.

$34 – Money Box from Rare Device. Cute egg shaped things, ready to take your quarters.

$9.99 – The Porcoino piggy bank, available at Target. I think it is adorable and is under $10, so I wouldn’t feel too much like a hypocrite for buying a piggy bank to save money. It also comes in pink.

$29.99 – Sheep and Duck Banks from Target.

$14 – Zookidooki Sobaba Monkey Ceramic Bank from Target, who’s really rocking this piggy bank thing.

$28 – I fell in love with this Pamela Barsky piggy bank cast from an authentic mid century mold when I saw it on the cover of Martha Stewart’s Living, which I unabashedly read.

$25 – Owl Bank and Baby Owl from Planet One. The baby owl is not a bank, but it is very cute.

$39 – COINK Piggy bank from Mod Livin’.

$86 – Dwell Studio’s Baby Banks, also available at Mod Livin’. This one is an elephant. Yes, this is an expensive way to save money.

$95 – Since we’re talking about expensive piggy banks, how about the bright pink Bank in the Form of a Pig by Harry Allen?

To tell the truth, I currently keep my spare change in a $2 thrift store mug that says “MUG” on it.I’d like to be a little classier, but I’m not sure that a bright pink pig shaped bank is really in my budget right now.

I was cleaning my tub yesterday and realized that the only reason why I was cleaning it was because I had a really cute hippo cleaning sponge.

See. It’s adorable. The other side is pink and scrubby, but a bit dirty, so I’m not taking a picture of it. That led to a quest to find more adorable cleaning supplies – not things like bath scrubs or whatever – actual cleaning stuff for cleaning actual dirty things.

(left to right)

1. $48 – Merdolino Toilet Brush from Alessi. Because I want adorable things in my toilet bowl.

2. $10 – Sandwich Sponge from MOMA(their Destination Seoul line).

3. $20 – mini vacumn friends from fred flare. I haven’t had much luck with handheld vacumn cleaners, and I’m not sure how well these work, but they are pretty cute.

(left to right)

4. $5 – kitchen sponges from Ice Cream Drops Shop. I actually just called them “kitchen sponges” because the actual item’s title was “Kawaii Kitchen Smiley face Sponge-Stew pot Mug”. For efficiency’s sake – they’re kitchen sponges.

5. Just so you don’t think that the Japanese have a corner on the adorable kitchen sponge market, Loofah-Art makes some cute loofah kitchen(and bath) sponges. They’re even biodegradable and all that.

6. $3.50 – more cute kitchen sponges at From Japan With Love. The one pictured is the “Cute Japanese Sponge-Ringo-Cute Apple”. There is also a banana, and an omelette and…

I wonder if Japanese sponge manufacturers sit around trying to outdo each other with cute. Oh! He brought on the Hippo Sponge! Hmmm…it must be time to test the OMELETTE 3000!

7. $11.99 – Leaf Clean Up set, available at Target.

8. $24.95 – I’m sure that if children were threatened with being dipped into a toilet bowl, they would probably be very honest. Hence, the Pinocchio Toilet Brush. That little hat is so cute.

9. $29.99 – Flower Power Broom, available at Target. I think that if you used this broom, woodland creatures would come by and help you clean. But only if you were a pretty, pretty princess.

Unfortunately, I could not find my awesome cleaning sponge anywhere(it was from a japanese market). Oh, hippo sponge.