January found us visiting Arizona and our friends and family for the first time in over a year. Pickens were surprisingly slim this time out, and we rolled into Tucson an hour after those recent shootings, so that only augmented the palpable bleakness I've come to know and expect from my beloved home state. Despite these shortcomings, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves: hanging with loved ones, stuffing ourselves with my mama's fine Mexican cuisine, snagging one of Valery's top wants and purchasing some additional trinkets on the veritable cheap.

[Image]The Parker Palm Springs has this horned fellow on prominent display at its reception desk, and Valery has long been one of his admirers. You can only imagine how elated she was when she spotted this bronze, strigiform scuplture by Ernesto Gonzalez-Jerez in one of the Phoenix antique stores our pal Mike took us to! Definitely one of those pieces we never expected to capture in the wild.

[Image]The same shop yielded this complete, six piece demi-tasse set, which bears the distinction of having been designed by LaGardo Tackett. Admittedly, we were—and remain—much more into the original packaging. The rippled Italian decanter was a gift from my parents—they bought it in the 60s and left it sitting near a fireplace for the past 45 years. Yoink!

[Image]We turned up this vintage ice bucket at the same shop, and the complementary yellow planters + custom Dream Pet from Sambo's were (even more) gifts from Mike.

[Image]We don't normally go out of our way for new toys, but we made an exception for these recent examples. The Eyezon figure by Mark Nagata has the multi-ocular look we really appreciate in our Kaiju, and we knew the pink elephant by Amanda Visell would occupy a specific empty slot in our kitchen.

[Image]Since we're always in the mood to pick up unnecessary flair, we couldn't pass up these vintage buttons—the Be My Slurp badge being the nearest and dearest to our hearts, of course.