Common Themes

Another Etsy find, this mini tabletop copper rocket launches playfully from a golden sun. Affordable, inspiring whimsy for your desk!

The price makes me wince, but I wouldn’t mind walking on this Moon Rug every day. 210 cm in diameter (that’s almost seven feet wide, folks!) Handmade in France, this rug is 100% wool and will sturdily withstand all manner of walking upon it.

A small step for Atypyk, a giant carpet for you.
Walk on the moon everyday.

(Via productdose.com.)

HubbleSite — the public website of the Hubble Space Telescope — just won a Webby, which delights me. Moreso, I was delighted by their (new-to-me) Wall Murals gallery section, where they offer not just large-format downloads to print and hang on the wall, but full instructions on how to go about it, tips for printing and even framing! The first mural offered (at two sizes, at that!) is of the Carina Nebula, home of Eta Carinae, in black and white. It’s amazingly striking, and I hope this isn’t the last image they offer at this size!

I’ve been planning to take the large-format images I’ve downloaded and print them on giclée canvas (for stretching and hanging), but I like this idea of pieced murals just as well. Neat, neat neat neat!

I have to preface this by saying that, by and large, all toys, miniatures and models of Japanese origin are awesome. Even “cheap” things (capsule toys, etc) are detailed and quality. I found this set of World Space Museum miniatures on Countdown Creations, but I’d bought one of them in a Japanese supermarket years before, and wished there were more boxes than one! (Now I have a chance to get the rest, at least, the rest of the moon-related ones. I’m particular.)

World Space Museum™ presents a series of incredibly detailed, snap-together model replicas of historical rockets, satellites, landers, and explorers first released in Japan in 2003 now available for the first time in English.

Each model comes with an explanation of the mission and trading cards. (And candy! Maybe they’re leaving the candy out of the description on purpose.) Collect them all!

A beautiful way to get a sense of your place in the universe, this Laser Etched Milky Way Galaxy sparkles in 3-D on an LED stand. According to ThinkGeek, “scale is about 35,000 lightyears to the inch”, too small for the central black hole to be shown.