I am completely smitten with Sanrio’s Hello Kitty Nerd Collection by Loungefly. Donning the iconic kitty in a pair of heavy black frames (taped at the nose) and a pocket protector, the result is an incredibly hip, geek-ily adorable homage to the new wave of nerd-love taking over or culture.

As much as I love these products, I wish they offered more items in this collection – I would love an umbrella, a business card holder, or a checkbook cover. Though it is so cute, I am trying to come up with reasons I would possibly need a metal lunchbox!

I “Hello Kitty Head” nerds. I don’t know what it possibly means, but I LUV it.

You can find this collection to purchase at Sanrio.com.

I like beer. And I like Japanese things. Therefore, it’s really not surprising to discover that I have a weakness for Japanese beer. Japanese beer tends to have a slightly lower alcohol content than other “beer-y” countries (see, Germany), and has a generally sweeter taste, very low on the hops. In short, it’s delicious.

One of my favorite Japanese beers is Hitachino Nest, a brand made by Kiuchi Brewery in Honshu, Japan. Not only is their beer extremely yummy, but their packaging is both adorable and hip in that retro, 70′s appeal sort of way. The iconic owl that adorns their bottles is easy to spot, and feels both traditional and urban all at once. His playful image makes what might be considered a strange, foreign beer both inviting, humorous and familiar.

Though it looks far from being done, I like what I see happening at . In the meantime, you can grab your Hitachino at a local quality liquor store near you. KAMPAI!

The grass is always greener, I suppose. First, we lived in an apartment, and I coveted a house desperately. Now we rent a house, and whereas I should be happy as a clam, I am not. Because now I want to OWN a house, so I can fill it with wonderful, permanent things that I will never have to worry about moving again, like wallpaper. Sweet, sweet, wallpaper…

Not helping my house-lust is the fact that I am absolutely, positvely smitten with the wallpaper of Grow House Grow!, an independent wallpaper company owned and operated by Brooklyn resident Katie Deedy. Between balancing two bartending jobs, Deedy hand prints these magnificent wallpapers, based on such whimsical inspirations as historical figures and stories.

A picture of the artist, in studio:

To see more of Deedy’s fantastic creations, visit Grow House Grow! by clicking here.

Face Your Pockets offers a simple challenge to its readers: empty your pockets on your scanner, throw down your face, scan the whole beautiful mess and upload it their website. Sounds kinda silly, right?

The results are anything but…

Click here to see the entire gallery, and submit your own scanned mug.

My favorite month has arrived! I love October, mostly because I love spooky things. October is the month I indulge in all things creepy, kooky, mysterious, and spooky. In honor of this most haunted of months, I will be posting heavily on things I find appropriately creeptastic.

I am starting off the month with these 7 Deadly Sins glasses by designer Kacper Hamilton. Each glass is based off of one of the seven deadly sins. Not only are the glasses designed to look like the sins, but upon using them the sin is revealed in the act of drinking (for example, the Envy glass steals the drink before it can reach your lips).

Wrath:

Lust:

Greed:

Pride:

Not only are the glasses brilliantly designed in their functionality, but they are gorgeous pieces of art in their own right, each glass superbly looking their part. I can imagine what a delightful conversation piece these would be at any swank Halloween party.

To see all seven of the sins, visit Hamilton Designs website, here.

(Snatched from Uncrate)

“Attack of the Type” by Grandchildren

I recall my first Typography class in design school. Me and my classmates anticipated it with the same excitement as one would a root canal. The professor who taught it was obsessed with letter forms to a degree I had never seen before, and have rarely seen since. We would wince as we handed our assignments in, shrinking under his scrutinizing gaze as he spoke to us in the foreign language of type: serif or sans, orphans and widows, leading and kerning, ems and ens.

Nowadays I am rather obsessed with type, and am usually the one screaming about leading and kerning. Aw, how things change.

Typography has had its ups and downs through the years. Since Gutenberg blew up its spot in 1440, it’s been a long, weird journey for letter forms. With the rise of the computer and the resulting obsoleteness of letterpress printing, there was great concern that the art of typography would be lost in the digital age. However, that has not been the case.

In fact, it’s becoming a very good time to be a font. As this New York Times article points out, there are more ways to make fonts than there have ever been before, in ways more accessible to the public at large. In the past, typography was considered a strange, incredibly specialized field; typographers viewed with the same curious interest and mystery as some rare, red-tailed lemur. However, with the new profundity of programs available on the market, more and more professionals and hobbyists are picking up this enchanting art form. There are even interactive social networks that are being built around font creation and sharing.

The current selection of fonts out there today is utterly enormous and wonderful. MyFonts.com publishes a wonderful newsletter dedicated to the faces behind the fonts, and there are numerous online font sites that host stunning libraries of free, downloadable fonts.

Read the full New York Times article here. What are your favorite font destinations?