1. New Rue! I especially loved the great photographs of the minis, which made me miss my dollhouse terribly. Fabulous spaces and photography are waiting for you in the January/February Rue.

image by  John Stoffer via Rue

2. Blu Dot picked not once, but twice in The Thursday NYTimes “Shopping With” section. Author Arthur Phillips rounded up writing desks for them this weekend and picked out The Cant Desk:

and The Stash Desk:

I was also strangely fascinated by the house tours of the former homes of Mexican drug dealers who had been caught. The last image of a drug dealer house south of the border I had in my head was the incredible spread from Romancing the Stone.

3. Loving Style List’s Home Improvement Projects That Cost Under $10. Yeah, we already knew all of these, but it’s really nice to have 14 of them gathered in one well-written place.

4. Finally, I love seeing the way celebs live. Since Cribs never seems to be on anymore, I’m extra thankful to Casa Sugar for keeping track of movie star moving (why do they move like every year? I never really realized that until Larry David mocked the phenomenon by moving every year on Curb Your Enthusiasm). Here’s Rose McGowan’s new pad in Hollywood:

(SIDE NOTE: I could swear this house was on that Bravo show with those annoying guys who sell million dollar real estate. Some total tool with a Lambo or a Ferrari or Doc’s DeLorean or something was thinking about buying the house and then bottomed out on this driveway which killed the deal, no? Maybe not.)

5. Also in celeb real estate news, you can check out Steven Tyler’s new digs over at WSJ.com. I am biting my tongue and not working in some lame line that incorporates Aerosmith lyrics. Steven is still tied with Lil’ Jon as my most striking celebrity sighting ever.

1. Magic Bus in Mexico City: It’s not just the fact that it’s been yarnbombed, but also the patterns and colors that make it part Partridge Family/part Harajuku. I spied this on Pinterest via Casapinka.

2. Five Hotels Across the Room with Stunning Interiors: A feature from The Wall Street Journal that will make you want to go to there.

photo by Beatrice Amagat for The Wall Street Journal

3. Happy 5th Birthday Making It Lovely! I had no idea I had posted about you within about a week of your launch, but I do remember Nicole’s work catching my eye via all of those fabulous images she posted on Flickr! It’s been wonderful to watch her home, business and family grow over the past five years. Congratulations!

4. Middle of the country fights “flyover” derision; small cities grow and flourish: GOOD mag has a great article about how small cities that a lot of planes may happen to fly over are improving, growing and spreading the word about what they have to offer.

PET PEEVE ALERT: As someone who spent her formative years in Cincinnati Ohio, I don’t like the term “flyover state.” In fact, the kind of people who say it are the ones I hope don’t land anywhere near me anyway. You can keep your insane  rents and stinky cabs, your hideous traffic and your earthquakes thank you very much. Those of us under the flightpath know what great places these smaller cities can be.

5. Oh Pinterest, you are a danger. On a more positive note, I’ve been trying my hand at pinning, repinning and liking too much this week; I even let it distract me from watching The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills the other night. We’re just starting to dip our toes into Pinterest over here, so Pinners, let us know how to follow you in the comments section.  Here’s our Pinterest action.

What caught your eye on the web this week? Let us know in the comments section!

For a lot of you this will be a weekend of gift wrapping. Get out your Scotch tape, your gift tags, your ribbons, your raffia, perhaps some Happy Tape, your boxes and your wrapping papers ready. Here is a list of some of our favorite resources around the web to inspire you.

1. I feel we must start with Martha. If you try to emulate her to perfection, you’ll probably drive yourself nuts, but her gorgeous wrapping ideas may spark some more simple ideas. This one’s easy – silver wrapping paper, a few different ribbons in fun patterns, and some berry doodads:

photo: Marthastewart.com

2. Real Simple.com: I always count on Real Simple for great ideas that won’t be too tough to execute:

photo: Kate Seers for RealSimple.com

While they recommend making this paper on the computer, you could do the same thing with butcher block paper or brown wrapping paper and a Sharpie.

3. CountryLiving.com: Grab a few colored tapes from the craft store. You can find graphic tape at an art supply store, Happy Tape, or even some fun colors of painter’s tape from the hardware store, and create a fun pattern on your package. This idea came from Oh Joy! – in fact, I think that’s the blog that led me to Happy Tape years ago:

photo: Philip Friedman/Studio D for Countryliving.com

4. Unruly Things: If you’re feeling particularly crafty, take a note from Japan and wrap your gifts in fabric – it’s an eco-friendly alternative to throwaway paper that will leave your giftee with a scarf or gorgeous piece they can sew into a throw pillow or frame. Feeling extra-extra crafty? Create your own fabric via this tutorial, and get a result like this one:

photo: Unruly Things

5. Design*Sponge: This is a classic Design*Sponge post I always refer back to. I always keep brown mailing paper, raffia and cheap paper tags in stock for all occasional wrapping, and this post showed me how to step up my game a bit. Guest blogger Amy Merrick has several ingenious ideas in this post, be sure to check it out:

photo: Amy Merrick for Design*Sponge

6. Craftzine.com: Yes, we’ve all seen the clever (and not so clever) ways to wrap with newspaper, but this tutorial goes to the next level – crafting gift bags from the paper. So empty out the recycling bin and get to work!

photo: craftzine.com

1. A “cocktail dogtrot?” Yes Please! The work of Lake Flato Architects over at Garden and Gun will give your eyes a wonderful break from whatever spreadsheet or TPS report you are working on.

PHOTO CREDIT: Misty Keasler for Garden and Gun

2. Thank you to Ms Sally from Curbed for posting the link on Facebook to a post on a blog about the awesome ironic PSA ads from the College for Creative Studies. What a tangled interweb we weave, that was a mouthful. Just check out the full post here.

3. I’m super excited that Archidose creator John Hill released his book this week – it makes me want to go to NYC pronto. While I wait, I’ll be getting to know all of the new buildings via his Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture. Order it at any of your favorite book retailers. It highlights the most important projects from the first decade of this millenium, filling a hole that exists in the NYC architecture guidebooks.

4. Got about 2 and a half minutes? Check out this inspiring video from one of our newest vendors, Defy Bags. I love the way they mix old materials with new designs and that each bag is unique.

Check out all the Defy Bags and snatch up your favorite before it’s gone.

5. I’d like to give a shout out to Lucas over at Taste Terminal for including the Urbancase Emergency Cocktail Station in his 2011 Gift Guide for the Drinker!

Check out the rest of his picks here.

Learn more about Urbancase and how it came to be here.

Order one for the drinker in your life here

How was your week everyone? More importantly, what have you been clicking on around the web. Here are a few posts that caught our eyes around the web this week.

1. To die for home in San Francisco:

Photo: Winnie Wintemeyer for The Wall Street Journal

2. Great holiday decorating ideas from Real Simple: This article shows us some ways to keep things simple, easy to assemble and beautiful during the holidays, though here at Design Public, most of us still love paper turkeys too!

image by Ditte Isager for Real Simple

3. VisuaLingual goes to the Biltmore Estate: Wowza! $59 for a tour during the time when everything was upended for Christmas at the Biltmore preparations, and the price only goes up from there? Whatever, seeing this place and its Frederick Law Olmsted-designed grounds is still on my bucket list

Photo property of VisuaLingual

4. Oversized Load! The New York Times takes a look at  how houses get moved. Preserving a home and moving it is so much better than tearing it down; while you can pick up such houses for a song, moving them is another story!

photo by Caroline Yang for The New York Times

5. I can’t believe I had to discover this blog via Oprah magazine: Slaughterhouse 90210. The blog matches literary quotes with the likes of Snooki, Brenda Walsh and George Bluth and it is absolutely hilarious. Not so much a design site, my mind reels with ideas about how to turn these into mixed media creations for my walls.

image from Bravotv.com via slaughterhouse90210

What clicks were you enjoying around the web this week? Let us know in the comments section!