hsin nian kwai le! the year of the monkey is offically here. something i seem to forget every year is that on lunar new year's eve they set off fireworks in my neighborhood literally all night. it didn't seem to be quite as bad this year, but it's a lot colder than usual.

the monkey pictured above is from my friends erin and david's collection. when i lived in seattle i always loved going to their house. you never knew what to expect. david would always be playing his latest thrift store find (one day he showed me some religious record(someone like tammy faye baker) and he said to me "this reminds me of tim buckley", it may seem odd but he wasn't far off there). seeing all their great oddities is one of the things that inspired me to start collecting toys myself. i took a few snaphots of some of their toys the last time i was at their house, which are up on photo action boy.