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!

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02) These process photos from Tugboat Printshop make me desperate to learn more about woodcutting…

03) Death Star Watermelon!

04) I’m constantly amused by looking for people I know on the Auckland Street Style blog. It’s only happened a couple of times, but I recognise every location!

05) Wallpapers from Stupid Love – I have the bats on my desktop right now.

06) My obsession with moss continues, so a moss table by Ayodhya would please me greatly.

07) I like the faux greenery of this grassy Boon countertop drying rack for baby accessories too!

08) It’s hard to believe I haven’t linked to illustrator and designer Kevin Cornell’s website Bearskinrug before, and there’s so many archives to peruse.

09) OMG PEA CAR

10) Posie Gets Cosy visited a magical hazelnut orchard, unbelievable pretty!

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01) I love Playmobil because it has some truly wacky components, so I loved this list from Topless Robot of the 17 Least Appropriate Playmobil Sets for Children.

02) Oh my goodness, Kris Atomic has an amazing cat!

03) And she has also assembled this collection of photos of amazing sights around the world. I want to go to there, indeed…

04) JSR and I were both taken by this steamer trunk armoire – it’s a little office in a giant suitcase! I’m sure it’s more fun to look at than to use, but even so…

05) This surreal animated video of teddy bears and cars is… oddly hypnotising.

06) It wouldn’t be a D&A post without a link to Zooborns! This vicuña has a charming neck…

07) I gasped when I saw these felt mushroom terrariums by Heidi from My Paper Crane. Truly magical, I bet they’ll sell in an instant… the dolls are awesome too!

08) More sculptural goodness from webcomic Articulate Matter.

09) And again, loving these faux mounted butterflies from Geninne’s Art Blog.

10) The cloud-shaped marshmallows make this the cutest cocoa around.

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02) The U900 Japanese amigurumi ukelele band (!) videos have been all over the blogosphere, but I just want to make sure none of you miss out… watch Diamond Head, Walk Don’t Run, and check the related videos for even more!

03) I was very grumpy a few days ago and these baby anteater photos cheered me right up.

04) Gorgeous cupcakes from bellacupcakes on flickr, love the rich colours! (via Epicute)

05) And more amazing Brain Slug cupcakes from thesmallcatclub on flickr. Do you think anyone has ever used the phrase “cherry buttercream brains” before?

06) Color Me Katie’s beautiful sidewalk chalk footprints are immensely cheering.

07) The San-X website offers a huge selection of colouring in pages, desktop wallpaper, icon sets and printables. It is in Japanese but not difficult to work out!

08) I’m starting to pay attention to nifty stuff for children, like the play kitchens made from old entertainment centres by Giggleberry Creations and Sutton Grace. I won’t need to do this particular project myself as I think (hope!) my parents still have the awesome play kitchen my Dad made for me when I was tiny, but there’s definitely the possibility of other play furniture in a similar vein… (via Buzzfeed)

09) Embroidered Tim Gunn by Totally Severe, need I say more? (via Mr X Stitch)

10) One more food link: Giga Pudding! It’s a HUGE creme caramel, with a great promotional video. It’s my birthday on Thursday, if only I could have a Giga Pudding Party!

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01) I love the idea of a meal planner and grocery list in one. I try to have some idea of what I will cook each week, but it usually involves lots of printouts and bits of notepaper and isn’t very organised! This DIY tutorial includes downloadable/printable PDFs.

02) Lovely art process videos from Geninne D. Zlatkis. To see the whole piece watch Watercolours 1, 2 and 3; then White Ink 1, 2 and 3.

03) Three remixes/covers of the Mr. Plow song from The Simpsons by Moby. Hee!

04) Baby porcupines are pretty high up my all-time-cutest list after seeing these photos.

05) More Lego! (I’ll stop soon.) This time it’s an awesome Howl’s Moving Castle.

06) I made a little squeak of glee when JSR sent me the link to this upcoming Professor Layton action figure. I adore the DS games, and he looks just perfect. Plus, it is hilarious to me that his “action” is to sit down and have a cup of tea!

07) Scott Teplin’s Alphabet City is a set of 26 meticulously drawn fantasy houses in the shape of the letters of the alphabet. The more you look, the more there is to see.

08) Luxirare’s food/art yoghurt parfaits featuring spheres of juice are mindblowing.

09) My new favourite word game for the iPhone is Moxie. It is very soothing; I play a couple of rounds before bed each night.

10) Slow motion Maru. Wait until he shakes after his bath about halfway through. It is the BEST.

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02) I love the dedication evident in the 221B Baker Street drawing of Sherlock Holmes’ flat!

03) The links in this roundup of blogs by Pixar artists and animators are going to fill a lot of my holiday time.

04) I really enjoyed the pilot episode of Jesse Thorn and Adam Lisagor’s web series Put This On, even though it’s about menswear which is not precisely my arena – I’m looking forward to their first season.

05) If you’re looking for a holiday project, how about this make-it-yourself paper window display from the children’s book A Nutty Nutcracker Christmas illustrated by Wilson Swain?

06) Kris’s Color Stripes extracts fabulous colour palettes from photographs. So inspiring!

07) I may have, somewhat foolishly, started reading Lego blogs. (It is foolish because I want to buy so much Lego!) My favourite so far is The Brothers Brick.

08) Speaking of Lego, this Lego-peg-size quad-hole-punch by Muji is such a simple but clever idea.

09) Hilarious TV-dinner themed cupcakes from My Paper Crane.

10) Fold up money so the face is wearing a hat!

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02) I don’t know if it’s always obvious from this website, but I am a huge nerd, and therefore appreciate this Star Wars chess set made of Lego.

03) Fancy pants terrariums by Matteo Cibic.

04) Keyboard Cat papercraft from Tubbypaws – he plays when you turn the handle! I fear my glue-skills may not be up to snuff, but I bet JSR would be amused if I made it :)

05) Four-year-old Finnish rappers in the sweetest animated video clip. The walrus conductor made me squeak with joy.

06) It’s funny to read a cat’s blog. I love Maru!

07) A huge list of ideas for customising and recycling old t-shirts from Hide Your Arms. Personally I’m tempted to use some of these ideas for new t-shirts, since I don’t actually wear them but still lust after the odd design…

08) A super sweet stop motion video from Google Japan explaining how Street View works.

09) Ohhhh, huge rubber duckie!

10) These baby black-and-white ruffled lemurs look so much like our kitten Monty, with his grey face and huge eyes and tiny mouth.

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02) I have the original Treeson vinyl figure designed by Bubi Au Yeung, which is super sweet, and I like the look of this new blind box set of Treeson and friends characters too. Hopefully I can find someone selling open boxes so I can pick the ones I like most, Ren and Newspaper Boy and PinB.

03) Speaking of vinyl toys, the Totem Doppelgangers by Anton Ginzburg are also tickling my fancy… but which colour? I think I like white best!

04) There are some craft mediums I just cannot manage, and therefore vastly admire. Polymer clay is one of those, and this miniature salmon preparation board blows me away. I didn’t realise for a minute that the stick on top is a match. Eeep!

05) Goat tower! Goat tower!

06) Zokei University in Japan has the best website ever. Down with staid corporate boredom! (via American Elf)

07) Socks on chair legs. I am going to implement this idea in our house – it will help protect the wooden floors and be super cute!

08) I don’t like to Cute Overload very often, because I assume anyone who looks at my website will already read it, but just in case I must direct your attention to this puppy in a coffee cup. I may have squeaked when I first saw it.

09) And some more adorability, a four minute video of baby pandas playing. They basically just wobble!

10) I’m used to admiring the artwork of Gabe from Penny Arcade, but this sample page of a fantasy-setting boy-scout comic called The Lookouts goes above and beyond. So, so good.

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02) Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater as a Lego kit. I will be buying one as soon as it goes on sale. I hope the Architecture line is extended – imagine the Centre Pompidou in Lego! (via Prairie Mod)

03) The Beatles Rock Band trailer is gorgeous. Nothing to do with the game, just a great piece of animation! (The first link I had for this video stopped working, so I apologise if this one is also taken down.)

04) Loving Scott Campbell’s pieces from the Gallery 1988 show Quiet Storm. I hope he releases prints of some of these, particularly Tea Spilling and Building with the Bowies!

05) A round-up of lovely soaps by Design is Mine. Fancy soap is one of my favourite things; it doesn’t cost too much but cheers me up with every hand-washing.

06) Classic albums reinterpreted as 60s-era book covers. Super fun! (via Drawn)

07) Grass-free landscaping ideas collected by Apartment Therapy. I want to keep some lawn at our new house, but ideally it will be small enough that a push mower is a realistic option, and I am very keen on low-maintenance plantings, so we’ll be using some of these techniques.

08) A magnetic Katamari amigurumi from Amy’s Babies! It will pick up your paper clips and cutlery and screws, that is genius! The pattern is provided too, perhaps I should make one. I could roll it over the floor when I drop a needle :)

09) Another fun tutorial, instructions for an 8-foot giant squid pillow from PWStyle. I’m considering making one of these too… they look so great lounging on couches in the squid gallery!

10) The Twilight phenomenon explained in comic form by Lucy Knisley. (Caution: spoilers!) I have not read the books, but I made a friend explain the plots to me which is not really much better :D

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02) A cartoon field guide to the International Housewares Show 2009. Hee! Great artwork from Lunchbreath and Fueledbycoffee. Trade shows do tend to be a bit ludicrous, though I do need a new spatula, the handle keeps falling off mine…

03) Nut and Bee Friend Jonathan recently reminded me about the adorable flash games site Orisinal. All the games have lovely artwork and cute premises, such as catching bees in bubbles or making koalas slide into snails. Thanks Jonathan!

04) Typographica’s roundup of their favourite typefaces of 2008 makes me want to look at words all day. (via Tiny Showcase News)

05) Nifty vegetable planters made of guttering from the Juneau Empire. I’d love to run something like this around the edge of a deck!

06) Gennine from Gennine’s Art Blog made a video to demonstrate her stamp-carving process.

07) Lovely Package showcases the packaging of the flavoured chocolate squares from Meiji 100% Chocolate Cafe. We visited in Tokyo and tried several of them. The Royal Milk Tea and Lemon Salt flavours were particularly tasty but Cheese, not so much…

08) A super cute video of Courtney Woolsey singing Lollipop by The Chordettes – all four parts! (via Boing Boing)

09) I love Wilson Swain’s artwork, and can’t wait to see his new pop-up book The Castaway Pirates! The publisher’s page includes a printable PDF of a “Captain Runny Nose” dress-up paper doll… I love sheets of paper dolls so I’m going to frame it.

10) A “no-recipe recipe” from Vegan Yum Yum for Crash Hot Potatoes. This is now one of my favourite ways to prepare potatoes – lots of rosemary and a little salt, they’re so tasty!

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