Eggling - Mini Growable Garden

This is another cute find from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Eggling comes in a box, complete with growing instructions and an extra packet of seeds. Simply tap on Eggling's head with a metal spoon until it cracks, put on the terra cotta tray and water. Stick Eggling in sunshine and pretty soon you have an adorable growing plant. Eggling can be stuck into the ground or a full-sized pot, and the egg breaks down as fertilizer.

Available plants are herbs (basil, italian parsley, mint, thyme) and flowers (chrysanthemum, lobelia, phlox, petunia).

The makers of Eggling also manufacture Nyokki a plastic animal who grows grass out of its head. You trim the grass and style Nyokki's hair.

Sort of like Chia Pets, but cuter.

Takara® Singing Cubees!

I first found these amazingly cute gadgets at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and immediately fell in love. They're uber-adorable, first of all. Press the button on top and watch them sing! Stack one on top of the other and you have a cubee doo-wop group, ready to serenade you into a mooing, chirping, meowing nirvana of goodness.

I bought the entire set, and scuttled home to see if Takara had a larger array of products, and thankfully, they did! Their merchandise ranges from singing flower cubees to cat toys to those annoying singing bird sculptures that overly cheery people stick on their cubicle walls.

The Museum of Contemporary Art has a bundle of other goodies as well, including music-making robots, Alexander Calder-esque mobiles, and innovative accessory designs for the contemporary kitchen.

Yum.