Live abroad in your own home.

These murals by PIXERS are breathtaking. Select one of their designs (FYI - they're not all travel-related) or create your own. Daaaamn. So cool.

Not long ago, in a country where the average temperature is more suited to a polar bear, where the food is washed down with melting icicles and sarcastic smiles never disappear off people’s faces, there were two guys who had a different perception of the reality.

During one, particularly heavy, December night spent in the company of Mr. Jack Daniel’s, they realised just how sad and ugly were the walls surrounding them. They later noticed that it wasn’t just their walls that were mutilated by miserable copies of famous paintings, the atrocity happened all over the country!

“F*ck! I can’t look at yet another Mona Lisa!!” exclaimed one to the other, this time accompanied by Mr. Johnnie Walker. The following day PIXERS was born and the world became a different place.

 PIXERSIZE.com - the most pixersized shop on Earth

 (via the always-brilliant Inhabitat)

Minakani Lab – Animals Wallpaper.

How amazing is this wallpaper? Wow.

Minakani Lab: Animals Wallpaper

Comma Workshop quilts.

I think I posted these before, but I don't care. I could not be more in love with Comma Workshop's quilts. COULD NOT. I covet every single one.

Collections @ Comma Workshop

100 designers. 100 tiny wooden cars.

These wee wooden cars make me happy.

100 Designers Each Create a Wooden Toy Car : TreeHugger

 (view all of them here)

Bear braid rug.

Ever since I saw this in Dwell magazine last year, I've wished someone would make one of these. A perfect illustration by Craighton Berman.

fueledbycoffee

Big idea.

I love it.

Poorly Drawn Lines – Big Idea

Storing sonnets on a double helix.

All it took was a couple of guys having a few pints and figuring out that you can use DNA as a hard drive.

They started with a text file of one of Shakespeare's sonnets. In the computer's most basic language, it existed as a series of zeroes and ones. With a simple cipher, the scientists translated these zeroes and ones into the letters of DNA.

And then they did the same for the rest of Shakespeare's sonnets, an audio clip of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, and a picture of their office. They sent that code off to Agilent Technologies, a biotech company...

The idea of storing data – text, audio and images – in DNA to save space is beyond mind-bending.This statement alone gives me vertigo.

If you took everything human beings have ever written — an estimated 50 billion megabytes of text — and stored it in DNA, that DNA would still weigh less than a granola bar.

 
NPR: Shall I Encode Thee In DNA? Sonnets Stored On Double Helix : NPR

 (image)

Massive Chicago Warehouse Fire Leaves Building Shrouded in Ice.

There must be a word for something so simultaneously beautiful and disturbing.

 

Laughing Squid: Massive Chicago Warehouse Fire Leaves Building Shrouded in Ice

Brooklyn Toile wallpaper.

I'm completely mesmerized by this wallpaper, commissioned by Mike D. of the Beastie Boys.

Mike Diamond of the Beastie Boys decided he wanted a Brooklyn inspired toile wallpaper that would line the walls of his Brooklyn brownstone. The vision was to pay tribute to all things Brooklyn in a way that would appear to be a traditional French Country Toile, but when you step to it the pattern reveals elements and vignettes that make up the truth about Brooklyn. Mike approached Vincent J. Ficarra and Adela Qersaqi of Revolver New York to help execute his vision artistically and Flavor Paper to produce the design as wallpaper. Due to the level of detail and shading in Vincent’s design we decided to produce the Brooklyn Toile as a digital print, but stay tuned as it may be revised into a hand screened print soon!

Brooklyn Toile captures many angles of life in the King’s borough from Coney Island to Hasidic Jews to Notorious B.I.G., the design covers many of the aspects of daily life dealing with subways and pigeons in a poetic way. Go on and get some!!!

Brooklyn Toile @ Flavor Paper : Tasty Handscreened and Digital Wallcoverings

(via Graham & Brown's Facebook page)

Angry Bear.

I don't know why, but I'm completely in love with this illustration. It must speak to my inner angry bear.

"Angry Bear" art prints and posters by Alvaro Tapia - ARTFLAKES.COM

Library Card Catalogue Cabinet.

Oooh. Yes, please. *drool*

Library Card Catalogue Cabinet – Storage – Recreate

Business cards of famous people.

Isn't it strange how looking at a simple business card lends an air of immediacy to your memories of these people? It's really fascinating.

The Fascinating Business Cards of 20 Famous People – Flavorwire

Modern Coffee Table. Or Dollhouse. Or Robotarium.

Sure, little kids'll love this dual purpose coffee table for dolls or action figures. But my tiny robots could live here, too.

 
Modern Coffee Table Doubles As Barbie's Dreamhouse or G.I. Joe's HQ

(Thanks for the ace find, Mr. Hambone!)

Good advice.

I might just buy this to remind myself every day. Love it.

 

Don't Feel Sorry For Yourself Haruki by AwkwardLadiesClub on Etsy

(via svpply)

It made me laugh.

Shahir Zag

(via Ray Vellest)

crayon creatures.

These are awesome. Waaay too spendy, but awesome. I especially like the last one – Hamster on a Speed Boat.

crayon creatures - figurines from children's drawings

(via swissmiss)

Cassette Tape Coffee Table.

If you know me, you know I love giant things. So this giant-ass mixtape coffee table is right up my alley. (Not a fan of the metal legs, but the table itself is pretty sweet.)

The Cassette Table is hand crafted with hardwood with a specially designed vinyl label that is sealed and protected with a clear epoxy coating. Stainless steel cup holders give the tape dimension. The front shelf, protected by a magnetically clasped wooden tape-run, offers a practical storage space for remotes and magazines while amping up the nostalgic look of the cassette tape. The Cassette Table is 42" x 26" x 15".

30min Series Cassette Tape Coffee Table

(via Thrillist)

Log & Squirrel Flowerpot.

Hee hee. Love this little guy. The squirrel pops up when the plant has water, and disappears when it doesn't. Useful and adorbs.

Flowerpot Log & Squirrel | Qualy Shop

Power Poles triptych by Dave Marcoullier.

I really love these.

Power poles triptych, CNC routed in solid walnut.
Dimensions: 6" x 12".

Scoutmob Shoppe - Power Poles Wood Art

Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum needs help. FAST.

If you're a Wisconsin designer, you already know about the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in Two Rivers. It's a beautiful place, housing a HUGE collection of historic wood type. They also hold workshops and exhibits celebrating and keeping alive this lovely, oft-forgotten manual medium.

Well, they need help, folks. Fast.

They're being evicted from their museum space – which means they have to pack up their 40K sq ft museum and find a new place to live on short notice. No small or inexpensive feat, this. (More information here.)

HOW YOU CAN HELP

1. Donate to and/or attend the AIGA WI Hamilton Museum Fundraiser. 

AIGA Wisconsin is having a fundraiser for them in January. If you're a designer or artist who would like to donate work for this fundraiser, please email Chris Klein at AIGA Wisconsin.

HAMILTON MUSEUM FUNDRAISER
Thursday, January 10th • 7-10:30pm
Location: Jackalope Lounj
345 N. Broadway, Milwaukee
 
Join AIGA Wisconsin for a special screening of "Typeface" as well as lots of cool items to help raise funds for the Hamilton Museum in Two Rivers.

2. Donate money.

To donate, visit their web site.

Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum - 1.5 Million Pieces of Wood Type

Red Conversation Heart Print.

This could be a sweet gift. Fits in a standard Ribba frame.

Red Conversation Heart Print

Perhaps the greatest commercial of all time.

General Electric has released what might be the most epic robot-themed TV ad ever. 

 

All Robots Get Together, Most Epic Robot TV Add - RobotShop Blog

"Rudolph" Windows ads.

The dialogue and copy could be a bit more clever, but kudos to Windows for the art direction on their Rudolph ads.

Santa, Rudolph, and Bumble love their Windows Phone | Windows Phone (United States)

Urban Shelf.

I'm completely in love with this little fire escape shelf, available from Chiasso (which I refuse to link to because their site is so cluttered and hideous).

Urban Shelf | Cool Material

Happy my birthday to you.

Everyone should have a polar bear suit to celebrate birthdays.

Lucius Art woodblock prints.

At $37 each (on sale), I think they're overpriced, but I do like the designs.

Scoutmob Shoppe: Lucius Art