Ok, I think I *must* get one of these Get It To Go shirts for my middle child because she has this strange fascination with those little buttons on the top of fast food drinks. And, you gotta admit, that’s one awesome Rat Fink-esque “other.”

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I had high hopes for this week’s round of prints — not only was there the cool Godzilla shirt, but there was also one named All I Need. I’m fairly sure my heart skipped a beat as I anticipated some extraordinary tee with a paddle ball game and Navin Johnson. Alas, it was not to be. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised as most of the people drawing for Threadless these days were most likely not even alive when the Jerk came out.  

oh, le sigh…  

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Sigh… I think I’m in love.

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Ok, lately I’ve been trying to shun things like this because, well, after hauling one metric ton of stuff out of my house for a garage sale, I feel it’s best to avoid the cheap plastic crap. Which, I know, is impossible, but we’re trying to make the valiant effort here.

It doesn’t help that this particular cheap plastic crap is soooooo cute… I’m finding it hard to resist. Found during a recent search for a replacement bug jug (yes, we had a bug jug failure, winding up with an escapee caterpillar who at least had the good instinct to crawl UP our curtains, rather than down to a cat treat demise). Uncle Milton (of the ant farm fame) has come out with two tiny bug containers, one for ladybugs, the other for roly polys (”polies”?). Playgrounds, if you will, complete with slides and water holes and anything your captive insect might need. (aside from, you know, anything natural!)

Somehow I made it through the first round (ok, there were only four entries and three got to go on… whatever!) so now we’ve moved on to the big Cookie magazine contest. That’s me, Ramona, with the row of hooks in the Entryway section — the one with the non-staged, non-stellar photography — so, yeah, I need all the help I can get.

Winner gets a gift certificate to Dwell Studios (*LURVE!*) and it looks like they’re also randomly awarding a gift certificate to one lucky voter. $900 smackeroos. So go vote already!

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But he is a big boy and soon we’ll have to fold him in half to get him into his car, so I’ve been looking around for replacements. And have stumbled upon the wonderful world of metal pedal cars.  

Oy, look at this orange one! Wouldn’t you love to race that around a driveway?! Or would you? Or, more importantly, would a two-year-old? Or, actually MORE importantly would a three- or four-year-old? Because these things are a bit spendy. The cheapest I’ve seen the orange car for is $135 on ebay. Some of the others run more towards $250-300. So does anyone have experience with pedal cars? Did your kids like them, and like them for awhile? Or did they move on to bikes and forget the car, leaving it as just one more thing to hog garage space? 

So I trolled around and found various “meh” beanbags but my first love was the Fatboy. They have great colors but I was really looking for more of a box-type cushion and the only one of those they have is round. And large. And $230. Which is expensive but, turns out, not really super out of the ballpark.

Next we hit upon Sumo Lounge — ok colors, great price, structure is still too floppy.

Which brings us to Eazy Bean. They have great colors, lots o’ cushion styles including my favorite, this 3′ square one but oh, there’s a catch. To the tune of $685. What?! For a damned bean bag?! Sit on the floor, kid…

The thing I’m not loving? $271. Therefore, I guess I’ll be looking for thin, flexible sheet plastic and stockpiling utility knife blades.

And band-aids.

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