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!

1) In Praise of Airsteam Design: Loving this inspiring video from Dwell magazine, featuring Christopher Deam and timeless design at its best in the form of the Airstream trailer:

O.K., I couldn’t figure out how to embed it, so link over by clicking on this line!

2) A Sleek-Meets-Crumbly Reno in Denmark: I’m loving this New York Times slideshow of a once-crumbling townhouse in Rotterdam, especially the way the Dutch architect Rolf Bruggink has kept the best of the crumbles inside the otherwise-slick renovation:

Image by Andreas Meichsner for The New York Times

3. The Best of 2011 Political Cartoons: I’m a big Mike Luckovich fan, so I thoroughly enjoyed his list of favorite political cartoons from 2011. As a bonus, he explained why he liked each cartoon. This one is my favorite, as it addresses my biggest pet peeve: People with no phone etiquette:

Image by Mike Luckovich, via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

4. New Year’s Resolutions at Home: Yahoo listed ten resolutions to try and conquer at home. Saying you’re going to do all ten is probably setting yourself up for failure, so shoot for two and hope you do at least one (dare to dream, my friends, dare to dream.). The best ones to attack right now, IMHO, because they will save you major bucks over the next year are:

-The home energy audit (seal up those drafty leaks while it’s this cold out and energy prices are high).

-Ditching the storage space! What do you have in there? Would Barry from Storage Wars be psyched to find it or would even that magpie Jarrod think it was junk? Have you missed one single thing that’s in there? Add up how much you’ve spent on the space so far and it will make you ill.

Photo courtesy of A&E.com

What were you checking out on the web this week? Please shoot us a link in the comments section.

Ugh. I’m old enough to know I’m never going to stick to any hard and fast resolutions, like losing weight or giving up vices, so I’m not going to sit here and tell you how to clean your closet or reorganize your shoes. However, one thing that keeps me inspired to complete some projects around the house is an ant infestation.

Another thing is looking at beautiful pictures of other peoples’ much more clean and organized homes. So here are a few from Flickr. Thanks to everyone who continues to add their pictures to our Fresh New Spaces Group. Whenever I want a nice little escape from whatever I’m working on, I head over there to get my creative juices flowing.

Love this clean white kitchen from Flickr member aindizain. My kitchen island has NEVER looked so good, but maybe after admiring this picture I will make it look like this.

As for the bedroom, it is NOT that hard to make up your bed everyday. If you find that it is, consider sleeping European-style, with only a bottom sheet and duvet with cover. Rooms like this make me want to get out that weird vacuum cleaner attachment and get those bunnies underneath the bed. Image from Flickr member Tomas Pearce Interior Design Consulting Inc.

Of course, an entryway is the spot where your interior will make it’s first impression, so I like to look at this one with the cool map for inspiration. Posted by Flickr member photo.OP.

Finally, thank you to Danielle over at The Style Files for continuing to collect some of the most beautiful images out there! This living room will help you resolve to have more fun with your décor this year.

If you make one rezzie this year, resolve to stay inspired. When you feel that inspiration waning, seek some out.

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