Lumping all these together in a mishmashy, hodgepdogey post, because they’re all bits ‘n pieces of good things that I’ve kept in a virtual pile. Time to weed out the good ones and share!

1)    Lotta Prints
My brother’s been on my case forever about going to a basic printmaking class because of my fascination with fabric patterns and design. I’ve decided to see if I like doing prints myself by taking baby steps with this book! I love Lotta Jansdotter and can’t wait for this to come in the mail.

2)    Panda Bear Skillet
This reminds me of Ross, because she has a panda trash basket, and I think this will be happy in a kitchen with a trash bin like hers! It’s adorable. I can see myself making scrambled eggs with chives in it for breakfast.  Interested? Get it from Fred Flare.

3)    Childhood In A Bottle
There’s a European deli called Sainsbury across the street from my office. Oddly, it has all these confections and such that I grew up with. Stuff like Smarties chocolate candy, Violet Crumble, and Horlicks, which I discovered last week. Oh joy! I had to stop myself from eating it all, straight from the bottle with a spoon!(By the way, I don’t remember it ever being marketed as a sleep aid when I was a kid.)

I also discovered that the malt-candy version is still alive and is available online. Lord help me.

4)    Ticonderoga Sensematic Pencil
It looks like it’s the standard-issue yellow-barrel kind, but it’s actually made of plastic. And, get this, it has something called a Sensematic tip, which is just like a mechanical pencil’s tip except it’s “intelligent” and always stays sharp, with no need for the whole clickity-click action at the other end (they call it an “automatic-feed” pencil). I love this review of it by “malfouka” on Amazon:

I don’t know where these people get off calling this a pencil! A pencil has to be SHARPENED. This so-called “pencil” can’t be sharpened, the “lead” just comes out automatically. I don’t what this world is coming to, first you have computers and now THIS!

5)    And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon
I want this for the office because I eat cereal for breakfast at my desk (sad, I know) and I hate wasting the disposable paper bowls that the office supplies. Thanks to Nina D’ Lizard for introducing the Uncommon Goods store to me. (Ms. Nina, the summer sale on the site is on, but you probably already knew that!)

If you can, head over to the Uncommon Goods site for other goodies like this awesome Udon Bowl.

Have a curly rest of the week, folks!