01) If I owned this cookie message-stamper I would constantly make cookies with faux spy messages. THE SIGNIFICANT OWL HAS ARRIVED!

02) Fun mid-century modern styled cut-out play sets by Max Dalton, Sunday Barbecue and Cocktail Party. (via Bloesem)

03) Takochuuuuu! I finally got myself some of these fun little guys, and a few extra ones to customize…

04) Beautiful chests of drawers by Wis Design.

05) I think our cats need to visit the Boxxy Fold Rehabilitation Centre. Monty is definitely a category two “oddly lanky” boxaholic.

06) They Draw and Cook, recipe renderings by artists and illustrators. Lots of pretty work here!

07) Swonderful (a Nut and Bee stockist!) has a fun new wall mural outside their store.

08) A special big button to press for exclamation marks!!!! Genius!!!!

09) I liked this illustrated spread so much I made it my desktop.

10) The Ultimate Collection of Baby Anteater Pictures? I’m there!

01) Dog Sculpture 2010 by Akane Takayama, a socially inclusive art installation event involving cardboard dogs. Wonderful. (via Dude Craft)

02) The horrors of long-distance flight, hilariously illustrated by Christoph Niemann.

03) Your regular dose of Zooborns, this time it’s a curious baby gorilla. Love that last photo!

04) Charming stop-motion plush lake/sea creature.

05) Patterns for Colouring – for when you just want to colour something in! (via Thunder Chunky)

06) Beautiful giant bubbles.

07) How steady must Dalton Ghetti’s hands be to make these sculptures out of pencil graphite?!

08) Giant (and I do mean giant) kitty couch.

09) My thoughts about bread crusts indeed.

10) Who would have thought that navy and salmon could be so pretty together?

While I am definitely a kawaii collector I’m not particularly methodical, or a completionist – I just pick up little bits here and there that tickle my fancy. I don’t tend to get uptight about rare or expensive items, after all, there’s lots of other cute fish in the sea. Sometimes I’ll put a little time into searching out something specific, but generally I pick and choose from what’s readily available.

With exceptions.

Years and years ago I came across a small, blurry photo of some stationery featuring a character that was simultaneously a monkey and a soba noodle. It was reportedly by San-X and definitely seemed like the kind of character they release but it wasn’t on their website, which is quite comprehensive, and I couldn’t find any additional information about it at all. Googling combinations of descriptive English words revealed nothing, and the picture wasn’t clear enough to identify any of the Japanese characters. (I can’t read Japanese but I’ve been known to consult charts by shape to try and figure out words!)

I began to think perhaps it wasn’t a San-X item after all, but even widening my search produced no results. Every now and then I’d run my searches again, try and think of some other places to look, but I never had any luck.

Then a couple of weeks ago I stumbled across a picture of a sheet of stickers on flickr. It was the noodle monkeys! And… could it be… they were for sale?!

The package arrived this morning and I am overjoyed! I still don’t know anything about the character, including its name, though it definitely is San-X and appears to be dated 1999. I’ve sent a scan over to the folks at Quirky who translate San-X character information, to see if they can help, but if there happen to be any Japanese speakers here other translations are also welcome.

Look at them! They are monkeys and also noodles! How brilliant is that!

(Does one of those illustrations show them… in a stomach? Man, I love San-X!)

Some of my favourite toy photographs from flickr, by:
1. saience, 2. kinomi42, 3. pompom0, 4. pompom0
5. thesinisterpenguin, 6. debbiesphotoshop, 7. sindykids, 8. toylife
9. toylife, 10. doc18, 11. krysto_o, 12. toylife
13. altskingdom, 14. lynt, 15. pompom0, 16. ecpica

01) Mila’s Day Dreams are imaginative and charming. I especially like the Bookworm, Bunny Wabbit and A Space Odyssey.

02) Do you ever need to look at a really fluffy cat? The Super Pouffy flickr group will provide.

03) Torchwood nesting dolls! Look at Wee Ianto! Eee!

04) This hand-painted trellis wall is very effective, and super thrifty. (I usually loathe stencilling in home decor, but this works.)

05) Paintings of a a future post-apocalyptic Tokyo. (N.B. Some sidebar content on this site may be mildly NSFW.)

06) Cat-shaped lipsticks from Paul & Joe. Too cute!

07) Phenomenal stylized papercraft versions of Queen and The Beatles by People Too. (via Dude Craft)

08) These aquascapes are beautiful and slightly eerie.

09) Craft ideas from A Little Hut using the patterns and windows from old security envelopes – clever!

10) If you’re looking to improve your amigurumi skills Planet June has a series of excellent tutorials on the best ways to start, finish, decrease, join and embellish. If every budding amigurumist read these there would be much less frustration, and much tidier results!

Two of the lovely online shops that stock Nut and Bee are The Green Apple and Foxes!

The Green Apple is based in the UK and specialises in ethical and eco-friendly products. They stock some of my rubber stamps, made with recycled timber, as well as a wide range of clothing, homewares and gifty goodness.

Foxes is a brand new site (just opened on Saturday!) which sells a variety of New Zealand made, contemporary design and handmade pieces, including a selection of my magnets and stationery. There are lots of beautiful things to check out in their catalogue!

01) Maru is no longer the only Japanese cat whose blog I read, as I just found Kago! He has a fantastic relaxed-face expression, and this picture is especially great.

02) 50 geeky My Little Pony mods.

03) My current favourite little web game is Sushi Cat. The puzzles involve dropping a cat through sushi to make him sufficiently fat!

04) Lego landscape drooooooool. Love the lower left section.

05) These Taro Gomi colouring/activity books look like a lot of fun. At first I thought I’d buy one for Willow in a few years, but maybe I should test them out with one for myself first…

06) Best unicorn plush I’ve ever seen. Loving those wisps!

07) Oddly hypnotising MRI scans of fruit and vegetables.

08) A snazzy paper sculpture celebrating the early years of Disneyland.

09) How strange and awesome is this psychedelic Friskies cat food advertisement?

10) Storm in a Tea Cup automata. (via Code For Something)

01) I’m collecting ideas for using up teeny weeny amounts of leftover yarn, and these stripey crochet jar covers are very appealing. I might make one to hold my drawing pens!

02) Bookshelf Porn. We have a LOT of books in our house and some of these shelving arrangements make me drool…

03) A 3D panorama of the IT Crowd basement set. Awesome set dressing – how many of the props do you recognise?

04) Switch the legs and bodies of these handmade wooden slot animals around and make a menagerie!

05) Wonderful photo set of three months in Kyoto.

06) I’ve never thought about making English Muffins from scratch before, but Sunday Hotpants has me tempted.

07) Unwrapping a Surprise Ball by Gina Namkun. I’m inspired to wrap some presents like this for Willow one day!

08) The best birdhouses! (Though I suspect they are probably art and not for real birds.)

09) I should have linked to this at Easter, but it’s still funny: Peeps Sushi!

10) Occasionally I come across a crafty idea I’ve never seen before and it blows my mind, like this amazingly elegant french knot embroidery.

Since I decided to reclaim crochet as something I do just for fun I have been utterly obsessed with crochet rugs and afghans. They take so many hours, but the repetitive process means the journey is as calming as the destination, and what a destination it is – beautiful and useful and ready to last a lifetime.

I’m still working on the one I started while I was on maternity leave (trust me to pick a pattern that has at least twice as many stitches per square as the standard granny square!) but I’m mentally planning the next two or three as well. There are so many options, not just in colours, but stitches and textures and shapes as well.

Flickr contains a wealth of the most beautiful work, here are some of my favourites in various styles:

1. knotten2009, 2. solgrim, 3. whereyourheartis, 4. fwoukje
5. miainspiration, 6. wardi, 7. amygunson, 8. nathr3
9. slip_stitch, 10. littleberry247, 11. sarah london textiles, 12. ckroes

I’m fairly sure my next blanket will have a floral motif, but beyond that I am still dreaming :)

01) 76 Threadless T-Shirts from Sketch to Print, for those who love artistic process!

02) My husband sent me this link to an intricate Hobbit Hole diorama knowing I’d just love it – and I do!

03) There’s a mind-boggling amount of work in this stop-motion embroidered animation. (P.S. And from the back!)

04) Tiny terrarium in a light bulb tutorial, sweeeeet!

05) When I was a kid I would have been thrilled to have mini mailboxes in our house. I wonder if Willow will like them in a few years time?

06) It’s like a date stamp, but it makes emoticon faces!

07) Gurney Journey has lots of posts on technical art stuff, including a great gamut masking tool.

08) My dream kitchen table, a big slab of tree.

09) This free felt goldfish pattern includes lots of good toy-making techniques, and the result is so cute and plump!

10) Beautiful jewellery by Victoria Mason. My friend Megan Wegan turned me on to this site, and I love love love the Nice Biscuit ring!