When the apocalypse comes, it's good to know the elephants will be there to protect us. With cannons strapped to their backs.
Here's a set of six (!!) metal elephants, designed by Amanda Vissell and made by Fully Visual, ushering in a new wave of collectible toys: Simple. Elegant. Shiny. METAL.
I love the one carrying the quiver full of arrows. You just know those are poison-tipped.
I would find walking around all day with this ringincredibly distracting, but I can't get over how satisfying it would feel to wear such a tiny realistic cake on my hand. And goodness knows I've always wanted delicious fingers.
Between this and the crocheted pie hats I saw on Neatorama yesterday, I think I'm starting to come up with an entire themed outfit. (I almost said "a pretty sweet outfit"--thank me for not saying that).
By now, if you're a Thanksgiving person, you're all hopped up on tryptophan and lounging around in a stupor, so you're probably not checking up on the Fabulist to make sure you don't! miss! our Thanksgiving update.
But for those people like me who DON'T celebrate Thanksgiving but DO get excited about giant balloons and old photographs (it's a niche market but I swear we do exist), here's a gallery of Vintage Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Photos. There's still a few hours left to get inspired and build your own giant balloon monster in your backyard in honor of the occasion, so get to work!
I dare you to watch this without smiling. Julia Nunes-- no relation!-- is some sort of ukelele genius, (Destiny's Child? What?) and cute as a button. She's even toured with Ben Folds! Check it.
Button, button, who's got the button? This fantastically creepy little film seems to have them in droves. Coraline-- the 3D stop-motion brain baby of Neil Gaiman and Henry Selick-- doesn't hit theatres until February, but the tease has already started.
Go here. Type in the key: moustachio. Be prepared to giggle. A lot.
There are more secret keys at the lovely Despoiler which actually yield bits of the film and behind the scenes goodness. (So very, very pretty. Even with the scary buttons.)
I've been immersed in the new LIFE magazine photo archive on Google for the past few days. I've utterly lost myself within the nooks and crannies of this immense labyrinth of historic photos reaching all the way back to the 1860s, with etchings going back as far as 1750 or so. I love to wander over to May 22, 1886 and watch Isabel and Nellie Harter skipping rope, then swing over to 1938 and ogle the lovelies at the Rose Dor Farms Reducing School. (Seriously, what are they doing to those women?!).
So that's my offering for the day. And the most super excellent thing of all is, you can order ANY of these photos as a print.
I'm deeply happy this November 5th. Elaine sent me this bit of Maya Angelou reading a poem (towards the end of the video) on the occasion of Obama being elected president. She has a gravity to her carriage that I hope to have one day-- and the poem in and of itself is beautifully relevant.
Here's to change, beautiful creatures of the world!
Two lovely things of awesomeness-- above, Jonathan Coulton, Paul and Storm, and Neil Gaiman doing a lovely rendition of "Creepy Doll"!
Second round of awesomeness brought to you by Magnetic Field's singer Claudia Gonson and penned by Mr. Gaiman -- who I swear is just preparing us for his next career move as a musician-- off The Lifted Brow.
I have no idea how one manages to put a tambourine, rape, abortion, pretty dresses and a bunch of hot nurses into a music blender and come out with something so terribly infectious and joyful. Amanda Palmer is a gleeful, glittery Care Bear showering you with sparkly pop song bits about coat hangers and drunken parties and still manages to leave you with that feel-good squishyness in your belly.
I really hope this comes back. if it doesn't, you should hand it off to someone! I'm sure anyone (including myself) would love to take over fabulist and bring it back with a vengeance!
becca on 
