Haoshi Design Studio

I'm not much of a jewelry wearer. What I do wear generally dangles from my ears and sometimes neck; I already went through the adolescent-subculture-pseudo-hippie phase wearing plastic and wooden rings from every finger with a bent spoon on my thumb, but for years until Ashton gave me a sparkly rock to put on my left hand I've avoided all hand accessories. However, the other day I was perusing Design*Sponge's recap of ICFF's trends of nature, and fell absolutely head over heels with Haoshi Design Studio jewelry, based out of Taiwan, most notably the Animal Series rings.

There's an entire zoo available, and when I realized these were only $75 I about flipped. These absolutely exquisite, classic, clean, and gorgeous pieces are a steal, and I would have predicted a price tag in the hundreds at least. Obviously, the rabbit is my personal favorite, and I'm hoping to add it to my right hand soon! I'm actually having difficulty restraining myself from ordering this immediately, but reason unfortunately prevails.

For the Birds: Luke Bartels & Jeff Canham

"Adorable" doesn't even come close to an accurate description of these handmade wooden birdhouses by San Francisco duo Luke Bartels & Jeff Canham. Admittedly, a bit pricey at $675 each at the Curiosity Shoppe, but if you don't mind shelling out the bucks, these little spaces have got to be the cutest avian nooks of the century. Unique design oozes from every clever quip painstakingly painted upon the collection; clean lines meet with tchotchke humor, and I can't imagine a more wonderful place to fly into and shake the dust of my wings every night!







How can I pick a favorite?! Whatever you do, please don't make me choose!!

Fuji Instax Mini Instant Camera

I'm at the point in my life where I can remember a time when only rich people and photojunkies had digital cameras, and the rest of us normal folk used those crazy little boxes with film that had to be taken and developed. Stacks and stacks of negative sheets still haunt my mother and fill her basement with blurry photos with a horrible-to-acceptable photo ratio of roughly 1,000,000 to 1. Ah, the days before a preview screen!

When Polariod announced the discontinuation of its extremely popular vintage instant photo camera, there was a major backlash from the artist community and nostalgia lovers. People across the world stockpiled the hard-to-find film packs whose numbers are only dwindling as the days go by. Still, there's a few options that have sprung up to fill the analog need in a digital world, one of whom is the Fuji Instax Mini Instant Camera by Photojojo!


Photo from Photojojo store

This lil' box of adorable packs a different wallop than the square photos we all know and love- the pictures that print have the immediate satisfaction like the digital cameras of today, but portray a dated look of yesteryears. Described as "Polariod's little brother", these little puppies are only about the size of a credit card and have a few upgrades from their outdated brother, such as four exposure settings for indoor/outdoor shooting, a built-in flash, and a sweeping wide angle so you can still have a bit of control while maintaining the 'surprise' aspect of instantaneous shooting! With film that costs just over a dollar per print, it's not the bargain of the century, but for the magical moment when it pops hot and fresh into your hand, it might just be worth it.