The Metrokane Rabbit Corkscrew has been a gadget sensation for the past few years. It has won all kinds of awards for its design and usability. We thought it was a lot of hot air - until today. We got our hands on one at a friends' house and were able to remove a cork from a vintage chardonnay in a flash without much force. After wrestling with all kinds of zany corkscrews, we are now in awe of the Rabbit Corkscrew.

Found at Amazon

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Note: There is a max of 10 available spots (6 remain as of this writing).

For those who like to have a little fun, we found the Batterfinger. The sillycone (we crack ourselves up) spatula is both useful and whimsical.

Found at Amazon for $6.99

The Vers 2X Speaker/Dock is a universal MP3 player dock made out of cherry wood veneer and sustainable materials in recycled packaging. For those who need to know if your version of the iPod is supported, the Vers 2X supports iPod touch, the iPhone, iPod Video, the nano, the mini, and iPod classic. In other words, you've got your bases covered. The system is powered by two 3 inch 15 watt speakers and has support for 3.5mm audio input and output. There is also a nifty 14-function remote control that let's you perform all the basic functions you'd use on your mp3 player.

Found at Rare Device for $179.

I've never seen anyone use scientific graph paper for their art, but it sure works well in this framed gouache painting by Lisa Congdon. "buds on graph paper" stands 7 inches tall and 5 inches wide and sells for $90.00.

Found at Lisa Congdon Arts and Crafts.

Artist Betsy Walton has a nice collection of prints available at her shop. One of our favorites is the 8.5" x 11" Thicket Limited Edition, of which 50 were printed. Only one remains at her Etsy Shop.

Found at Morning Craft (Betsy Walton's web site).

We are big fans of the VUDU set-top box because of the quality of the SD content instant stream over a standard 1.5 mbps DSL line. While the set top box is for any movie fan, their new product, the VUDU XL2 is for the hardcore. The VUDU XL2 is designed for installation into rack-mounted home theater systems. It has 1 terabyte of space for storing up to 500 purchased standard definition movies and every output known to the modern man, including Component and HDMI. It has NetRemote capability along with remote control system integration. Cost for this kind of system? $1,200 USD.

Designed by Shinzi Katoah, the imported elephant serving tray is simple in design with a cream body and a white and lime (oh yeah! we love that) elephant pattern.

Found at Kir DeVries for $33 smackaroos.

Since living in a big city makes most of the stars fade away, I had forgotten about the dramatic theater above our heads. My cruise to the Caribbean reminded me of what I've been missing. I ran to the ship's library on my second night and picked up an astronomy book so I could identify the constellations. It was one of the most memorable events in that cruise. I only wished I had a telescope then.

I did some research for a beginner stargazer like myself and found the Bushnell 420x3" ALT-AZ Reflector Telescope 789669. It has all some cool features like, a Barlow lens, adjustable tripod with an accessory tray, a pinion focuser and even a built-in image erector for daytime viewing. If you are scratching your head, I didn't even know what that was either a few weeks ago, but it basically means this telescope has excellent features for a fair price -- only $80.

I encourage anyone with kids (or a kid's imagination) to go far away from civilization and stargaze.

Found at Optics Planet.

Polaroid camera lovers rejoice! Fujifilm feeds the need for instant photography in the digital age with their Fuji Instax Mini 7. The tiny lightweight compact camera prints credit card-sized instant color photos in a matter of minutes. The Instax Mini 7 uses Fujifilm's instax mini paper.

Found at Amazon for $75.