With the unfortunate and rather depressing long continuation of the global recession Berlin-based designers have came up with these ultra cute and stylish ' Miss Monnipenni' piggybanks. Created from beech with acacia inlay Miss Monnipenni is available with either dark or light leather ears. Each comes with a lucky cent which hopefully will bring a bit more financial luck for the future.
www.siebensachen.com
The Pick Punch is a crazy but genius idea for making guitar picks. You simply use an expired credit card or gift card, put it in the slot, punch and hey presto! Available from The Spoon Sisters for $26.
Waldo Pancake is the chosen alias of illustrator Jim Smith, based in the UK. Jim has teamed up with Really Good to bring to the marketplace witty, sarcastic and all-round cool giftware products. Browsing through Really Good's website we have picked our favs including for girls this cosmetic bag (£8.50) and hairbrush and comb set (£6.50), for the office the chunky note block (£6.50) and address book (£7.50) and for the home the inner granny cake tin (£12), coasters (£1.75) and wall clock (£10). Waldo Pancake brings that pop of humour to anyone's life and we like!
Hidden Art is another brilliant design-inspired, fantastically quirky online store injecting more fun into the home. I love the creative wall hook products including knife hooks (£22), saucepan (£25) and their range of finger gesture ones (£90) are also pretty cool. Also like the supersized biro top desk tidy (£10) and the climbing wall light (£32.35) would make for an amazing feature in a bedroom.
www.hiddenartshop.com
It is that time of year when we are all frantically trying to find novel pressies. These socks from Uncommon Goods are really fun without being naff.
If you are looking for an alternative form of wrapping paper for someone who loves their rap music well then you might want to check out www.rappingpaper.co.uk. Although they don't have a huge range (includes Run DMC and Eminem) we think the idea of alternative forms of wrapping paper is a good one and why not rap lyrics!
Mattel have released their new Barbie Museum Collection. These art-themed dolls are inspired by artists Vincent van Gogh with the cocktail dress inspired by 'The Starry Night' Leonardo da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa' and Gustav Klimt's 'Adele Bloch-Bauer I'. This follows on from other themed Barbies including our favourites Frank Sinatra inspired Barbie and Grace Kelly Barbie.
Mustard supply a whole array products to online and offline gift retailers. Their products are fun, imaginative yet practical and we love their new mouse scrollers which will become available from the end of June.
There are several cool online stores selling fun gifts for guys that don't cost the earth and we have found some very funky little products which would make great gift ideas. Website worth browsing:
1. boysstuff.co.uk 2. prezzybox.com 3. gettingpersonal.co.uk 4. iwantoneofthose.com
5. paramountzone.com 6. treathim.com 7. harlemuk.com 8. birthdayboy.co.uk
9. perpetualkid 10. stuffforblokes.com 11. firebox.com 12. myredpacket.co.uk
Nicole Block is a talented Brooklyn based illustrator and stationary designer. Her Dear Nic cards are clever, emotive and distinctive and available through Etsy.
