Last time you saw an animal frozen in time you were probably either at the Museum of Natural History or a Damien Hearst exhibit. But the designs of San Franciscan illustrator Cindy Yu — perhaps better known in the Esty world as HamburgerPanda — walk more on the line of cute than eccentric. There are ponies captured in jars and bears frozen in popsicles, but our personal favorite is the menacing baconfish that trolls the seas looking for heart disease-prone victims.

At some point over the holidays you are going to either be given or buy underwear. Its always happens. Why not have it be with some nice prints. Ginch Gonch is out to provide you with some more colorful underwear options. It reminds us of being a kid and having comic book characters on our briefs, but these are a bit more grown up kid designs and really fun.

At JS.com we’re usually on the lookout for the latest and greatest, but sometimes we come across something that is too amazing to pass up. This beauty was hand-built by Henry Studley in the late 1800’s using mahogany, rosewood, walnut, ebony and mother of pearl — among other scraps — that he found working as a piano and organ builder. His tool-chest is packed with just about every tool (over 300) an 19th century piano maker would need. The craftsmanship is simply amazing and he didn’t waste an inch of space. I can’t even imagine how long it took to build. It is currently on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.

Via Boingboing

Sure, having everything online is nice, but nothing can replace the tactile feel of a great magazine. FUTU is a magazine that is doing things the right way. The Warsaw, Poland based bimonthly magazine is an international collaboration of design, art and future trends in luxury. Each issue is designed by some of the most prestigious graphic design studios in the world, including Studio8Design (UK), Albert Folch Studio (Spain) and Frost Design (Australia).

FUTU brings a new look to design, photography, fashion and luxury by combining the most advanced publishing techniques with the newest trends in graphic design and typography. Flipping though the pages creates a true experience, and as a result, readers receive a stimulating combination of articles, interviews, and art.

The latest edition has a limited circulation of 6,500 copies, is packaged in a specially designed carton, and come with a few extras (poster, stickers). If you want to pick up your own you’ll have to head to select book and concept stores in Paris, London, Milan, New York, Stockholm, Zurich, and Tokyo.

READ MORE…

Blackberry Storm: Buy It ($199)
We love the touchscreen functionality of the iPhone, but we’re still not floored by its usability when it comes to email or texting. Blackberry’s newest phone gives us that ability to get tactile with our phone but also features a haptic keyboard that makes sending coherent texts that much easier.

T-Mobile G1: Buy It ($179)
Google’s first phone is geared for those who are pathologically undecided. The phone – which comes in bronze, black, and white and runs on Google’s open-source Android system – features both a touchscreen and a full QWERTY keyboard (a touchscreen keyboard is coming early next year) that slides out. As a result, it’s just a glorified Sidekick that’s still kind of glorious.

Foof Cases: Read JS Review | Buy It ($13)
These cases come in a variety of gorgeous fabrics and protect your phone by holding it snug and wrapping it in satin. We’re totally jealous of our phone. They’re also available for your other portable Mac items.

Speck Cases: Read JS Review | Buy It ($30)
They offer a wide range of designs, but their newest are so preppy they make us want to rename ourselves Muffy and go play some croquet — in a totally non-judgmental way.

Jawbone Bluetooth Accessory: Read JS Review | Buy It ($130)
You may be a Bluetool, but you don’t have to look like one all the time — at least not with the sleek device that’s also incredible at eliminating background noise. Ok, so you still look like a tool, but if it’s between sounding good and looking good…

Incase x Parra iPhone Case: Read JS Review | Buy It ($60)
Stay protected, stay sexy, and grab a colorful — but expensive — hardshell case produced by Dutch artist Parra for reliable manufacturer Incase. Our phone gets to stay safe and we get to enjoy the acid flashbacks.

Hulger Handsets: Read JS Review | Buy It ($40 – $190)
Sometimes we long for those good old days of ginormous handsets. Hulger captures our nostalgia by wirelessly connecting or plugging a nice chunky receiver into our cellphone or our PC to chat via Skype.

Brian Eno x Bloom iPhone App: Read JS Review | Buy It ($4)
Coutesy of Brian Eno, Bloom lets you create sounds and images just by touching your screen. It also features nine mood settings — though we don’t think holiday stress is one of them.

The Gift: A $150 gift certificate to our favorite urban style outpost, Karmaloop, for three winners.

The Rules: We recognize that our readers are a pretty spiritually aligned group. In the COMMENTS section, let us know what bit of karmic reciprocity you undertook to earn this hefty gift certificate. And speaking of karma, only one entry per reader. Duplicate entries will be discarded.

The Deadline: Contests starts now and runs through midnight on 12/13.