A kitchen timer that looks like a cupcake.  Cute.  It's made from hand-painted resin and sells for $21.95.

This cupcake hat is adorable.  It's hand-knit from synthetic yard and sells for $30.

This cute little cupcake necklace comes in chocolate and vanilla versions and retails for $30.

Aw, cute little cupcake-shaped speakers for your iPod.  They're made by SEMK but it seems there's no word on pricing or availability just yet.

Today's blog was inspired by Kaboodler slightlypale's "Everything Cupcake" list, which has many more awesome cupcake items.  Let us know what you think in the comments.

While nowhere near as creepy as the doll hands soap, the My Pet Fish soap is still odd.  It looks like a bag of water with a little fish inside but the fish is actually encased in unscented glycerin soap.  Pretty cute.  The soap retails for $6.95 per bar/bag and comes in the five colors you see above.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know.

The designer collaborations with lower-end retailers continue unabated.  One of the most recent is Christian Lacroix's collection for French catalogue/online retailer La Redoute.  Most of the collection is unremarkable, but the trenchcoat, which is available in both red and black, is pretty nice.  I'm not so sure I'd be willing to spend $300 on a La Redoute coat, but it does look very cute, in all its ruffly goodness, on model Lily Cole. 

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Genius, I tell you!  This thing might look a little silly, but it's really cool.  I had an awesome mom who always made me and my brother lunches to take to school.  We always had sandwiches, a snack, a drink, and a fruit, often a banana.  Sadly, by the time lunch rolled around, the bananas were frequently all bruised up and sad looking.  That's where the Banana Bunker comes in.  Slip your or your kid's banana into the protective plastic case in the morning and feel secure that your banana will be yellow and ready for eating later in the day.  They're $6 a piece or $25 for a set of five (one in each color).

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know!

Today's post is by slightlypale (Kaboodler since August 2006) as part of our Guest Blogger series.

Two o'clock is one of my favorite times of day. It's right after lunch, but just before the mid-afternoon restlessness that settles in when I'm working at my desk. In Mexico, it's lunch and siesta time - both things I never complained about (unlike the cucarachas) when I studied abroad for three months. That's why I love the matchstick wall clock ($110) from Umbra's U+ Collection: Every single hour can be two o'clock.

Even better than the sleek birch veneer is the excuse this clock gives me: It's OK not to be able to quickly read analog time (I blame it on the digital watch). But if you don't have children in the house -- and you paid attention in 3rd grade -- it would certainly be a stylish addition in a kitchen or entryway. As for me, the girl who received a How To Tell Time children's book for her college graduation, maybe having this clock in my apartment isn't such a good idea.

Today's Guest Blog was contributed by slightlypale.
See all 28 of her lists on Kaboodle and see how compatible your style is with hers.

He's finally (almost) here.  After a delay of a year or so, Pleo, the very cool and incredibly adorable dinosaur robot from Ugobe, is now available for pre-order from Amazon, Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart.

The premise is that Pleo is a one-week old dinosaur, a Camarasaurus to be exact, who is newly hatched and whose development is dependent upon its surroundings and how it's treated.  Your Pleo will soon exhibit a unique personality, moods and habits all its own.  According to Ugobe, "Pleo can go from happy and curious to scared and surprised, and from playful and lively to sad and vexed, depending on a wealth of influences."  Apparently, "Pleo will actually react to being hurt, perhaps exhibiting a limp, and can recover over time depending on the level of nurturing you exhibit."  Oh, no!  They're so cute, I think I might cry if I saw my Pleo get hurt or sad.

Each Pleo has forty devices which enable it to see, detect, touch, etc.  They have built-in color cameras with white light sensors which allow them to detect motion, track moving objects and so on.  Additionally, Pleos have binaural microphones which allows them stereophonic hearing so they're able to detect sound and volume.  Pleos also have infrared transmitters to allow them to communicate with one another, like the two adorable guys above.

Pleo will ship November 1 and is available for $349.99.  Ugobe says supplies are limited so get your pre-order in now.  I must have one! 

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know.

I love this Philippe Starck-designed Fossil watch.  In fact, I ordered it last week and our UPS courier should be delivering it to my cube in an hour or so.  The crystal of the watch is electroplated to mimic the design of the metal bracelet.  The clasp is hidden as is the watch's crown, giving it a very streamlined appearance.  It almost doesn't look like a watch.  Very cool.  I just hope I can tell time with it easily.

Sometimes the collaborations with well-known designers and larger companies fall flat (some of the H&M and Target collaborations come to mind), but the Starck-Fossil partnership has worked very well.  They've been working together for several years and the watch designs are great.  And, honestly, I think nearly everyone has had a Fossil watch at some point and I suspect no one has any complaints about them.  I've had several over the years and never had a problem with any of them.  Good design, reasonable prices, and good quality are what we all want, right?  These watches fit the bill on all counts.  Here are a couple more of Starck's designs for Fossil:

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know.

I'm sure we all have one of those friends.  You know, the guy who was really into Nirvana...until Nevermind came out.  So, for all our hipper-than-thou friends, I present this tee shirt from Threadless.  Let the world know that your musical taste is so cool, so cutting edge that your favorite bands don't even exist yet.  The tee comes in a wide array of sizes for both men and women and can be had for a mere $12-14.  A small price to pay for telling everyone how hip you are.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know.

Today's post is by katystardust (Kaboodler since August 2006) as part of our Guest Blogger series.

I have to give it up to JCrew for this past spring and current summer seasons. Between the gorgeous printed maxi dresses and now these incredible Isabella Printed d'Orsay Heels I'm thinking the stylist behind the color and fabric selection of JCrew digs is from my style neighborhood. I'm surprised we haven't bumped into each other more often.

The print on the bright sherbet Isabella Printed d'Orsay High Heels ($175) is one-part Kate Spade and one-part Betsey Johnson. While the black and sour lemon combinations scream Marc Jacobs or Moschino to me. Both have a fun, lively print with a bold color contrast statement. The pink is so bright it makes me happy just looking at it - I can't imagine wearing them on my feet! I would wear them to the office with khaki cropped pants and a green cardigan, with jeans and a black tee or a sleek sheath dress.

If you could pick a pair - which would you choose?

Last year Japanese beer company Asahi sponsored a contest where 5,000 lucky winners would receive what might well be the world's greatest invention - a beer-pouring robot.  The robot can hold and chill a six-pack of beer and two mugs.  With the push of a button the robot gets a can from its refrigerated belly, opens the can and proceeds to pour you a beer with a perfect head, all while speaking and updating you as to its progress (well, I assume, since it isn't speaking English).  Now, granted this whole process takes nearly three minutes, but it's still incredibly awesome. Online store C-Scout has the robots available for purchase for $799.  Well worth it, don't you think?

How cool are these? Designer Michael Hilgers has created an updated version of a window box planter. The On the Edge Pots can straddle a railing up to 60mm thick and offers two separate sides for planting. Perfect for those with just a balcony and no yard. They'd also probably fit over the top of a cubicle wall. They come in orange, black, white, and green and retail for $85 each. A little pricey, I admit, but they are pretty cool.

What do you think? Leave a comment and let us know.

This might well be the strangest thing I've ever seen on Kaboodle. It's not just a creepy plate of severed doll hands, it's soap shaped like doll hands. A plate of these in your guest bathroom is likely to freak out your houseguests. The goat's milk glycerin soaps range from 1/2" to 2" tall and are handmade. $12 gets you a small gift bag full of these little guys.

No need to stock up on the giant pack of tealights at IKEA any more now that we'll have these. How cool are they?! Designed by Richard Lawson and manufactured by Mathmos, these little 9-volt battery-powered LED lights are pretty snazzy and sure to be a conversation-starter at any dinner party. According to Lawson, the lights will be available for sale late this month or early next. For the time being only red and blue will be available, with white to follow when the design is perfected. No word yet on cost, but I can't imagine they'll be too much. I'm stoked to get some!

If you like the look of grandfather clocks but don't have the space or funds to acquire one, perhaps you'll like the "Grandpa Clock." It's 5.5' tall canvas with a printed clock design, complete with a working clock mechanism.

Need to tell what time it is in nine different time zones? Then this clock from Target is for you. Underneath domes reminiscent of the "pop-o-matic bubble" from the board game Trouble sit nine separate clock mechanisms for cities such as Moscow, New York, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong. This is one of the aforementioned clocks in my apartment.

This simple modern design looks like a block of wood until you plug it in, revealing an embedded LED display. The clock has three buttons hidden in the back of the clock that control the display, which can be set to normal, blinking, or slide display.

This is a clock that doesn't look like a clock and can't be read in the traditional sense. The clock chimes at the hour and half-hour with a series of separate tones for the hour, tens, and minutes. A series of lights around the center also pulse to the chimes. You can also check the time with a touch. Not terribly convenient, but very cool.

We care what you think so leave a comment and let us know. Wanna see more fab finds? Take a look at the Kaboodle Blog.]]> Tue, 10 Jul 2007 18:08:49 -0700 http://virb.com/kaboodle/posts/text/125328 http://virb.com/kaboodle/posts/text/124940

Sometimes you stumble across an item on Kaboodle that just makes you say, "Wow!" Such is the Abduction Lamp. The design is by Lasse Klein and is still currently in the development stages, though I suspect we'll see it for sale in the not-too-distant future. According to Klein's blog, "It is [his] hope that someone with a playful mind...would want to have a lamp like this in their home." While I've tried to scale back the silliness in my apartment lately, I am still a goofball at heart and would love to have one of these when it becomes available. Even if it's not to your personal decorating taste you have to admit it's one clever bit of design.

What do you think? Leave a comment and let us know. Wanna see more fab finds? Take a look at the Kaboodle Blog.]]> Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:00:56 -0700 http://virb.com/kaboodle/posts/text/124940 http://virb.com/kaboodle/posts/text/124872

I am madly in love with these shoes. In case the red soles didn't tip you off, they are Christian Louboutin's, designed for Roland Mouret's new Autumn/Winter '08 collection (his first under the "RM" label since his old business partnership and label dissolved nearly two years ago). I'm sure they're not to everyone's taste (I know I have sort of wacky taste in shoes) but I think they're absolutely fabulous and I would wear them into the ground if I had them. The heel is 140cm with a 30mm covered platform (so, around a 5.5" with a 1" platform). They also come in an all-back version, which might make them more appealing to some. They're $925 and currently available for pre-order exclusively through Net-a-Porter.

Love 'em? Hate 'em? Talk about them in the Kaboodle Shoes group.

It's finally here! The Alexander McQueen for Samsonite Black Label luggage collection, which was previewed back in November, is finally available for sale through the Samsonite Black Label website. The McQueen collection consists of eleven pieces (nearly all in your choice of black or ivory) of luggage, from passport holders to TSA-approved locks, to the standout - a suitcase molded from a cast of a human ribcage. I've been lusting after that suitcase since November (and I am fighting the overwhelming urge to buy it). Prices range from $39 for the padlock to $875 for the large crocodile skin-patterened suitcase. The collection has been availabe in stores for a little while and is quickly selling out online so, if you want a piece, don't hesitate too long. ]]> Thu, 05 Jul 2007 06:15:11 -0700 http://virb.com/kaboodle/posts/text/117425