(Clockwise from top left)
- Max 365 Perpetual Wall Calendar, £55 – Yes it’s £55 for a calendar, but it’s a calendar you can use every damn day for the rest of your entire pitiful life. How cool is that?
- Bad Mood Print, £50 – Obviously everything from Goodhood would be a neat gift, but this limited-edition print gets my pick (and pride of place on my wall). There’s a series of four designs, each using iconic typography in a smart new way, but this one gets my vote. Bad Brains and Hollywood… and bad moods. Sounds like me, right?
- Star Mobile, £21.50 – Not sure if these are designed for kids or stylish homeware freaks, but I do like Livingly’s paper mobiles. The stars are for sure the most sophisticated, but Livingly also has some really lovely creatures – e.g. the pelicans!
- I Believe in Tacos Keyring, $15 – I’m sure everyone knows about Various Projects keyrings, but this one is my favourite because tacos. The best thing about these keyrings is the mammoth array of phrases you can have printed and the range of colours to choose from beyond that. Hours of decision-making! (You can find more stockists around the globe here, although I’d note that most retailers stock their own unique selection in my experience.)
- Incense Teepee, £14 – Ah, the small ceramic purchase which inspired me to book a holiday to Santa Fe. As previously discussed, I and the rest of awful East London are enjoying an incense revival, but this range really does smell like magic. Sure the little teepee puffing out smoke is nice, but it’s the pinon fragrance which actually does the trick. It actually smells as though you have a campfire in your house, which I would say is a darn good thing.
- Leopard Backpack, $38 – Baggu bags are nifty old things, made from a durable canvas that’s just the right thickness for pin badges (see point eight). There’s a whole array of sensible colours – not to mention different bag styles – but who wouldn’t want a leopard-print backpack? Each of the two front pockets also has a sneaky zip section, which makes the lack of main-bag inner pockets doable. I really like the camo one too, but hey, it didn’t work with the colour scheme.
- Bat Hanger, £7.50 – These are definitely designed for kids, but maybe you have small clothes that need hanging? Maybe you could drape it with scarves? Maybe you could just buy one and hang it in your wardrobe to cheer yourself up? Regardless; bat coat hangers!!
- Eyes Pin, $15 – Pins and incense. That’s what this year’s microtrends for microcool people have been. I think there’s something rather endearing about an emoji pin and what could be better than my beloved, most-used, creepy eyes? Want to know something amazing? There are TWO PINS here! Two mini eyes to pin as you wish! Bloody great.
- Be Excellent To Each Other Mug, £10 – There are those that dismiss Bill and Ted as a dumb 80s film and then there are those that aren’t idiots. And really, who can argue with such wisdom when it’s presented so tastefully with jazzy fonts?
- Sad Ghost Patch, $5 – Remember when I said pins and incense were what it was all about this year? I forgot to add patches. Patches too. I love everything Sara Lyons does and this weepy little beggar is no exception. Now, where to sew all these patches I’ve accumulated? Can a 31-year-old pull them off? Watch this space, there’s definitely some kind of craft session to come.
