Another inspiration for this blog was Amazon’s wish list. I rarely use the wish list as it was intended, preferring to make use if it more as a holding pen. Sometimes I add things I desire to own, but just as often I add things I want to remember or borrow (I look at the list before I head to the library) or just think about. And I put things there when I get all frantic with WANT IT!, but can’t, for whatever reason, have instant gratification. By leaving it there for a bit to ripen, I’m able to calm down and think about whether it will really make me happy to own. Plus, as an article in the New York Times put it the other day, “New studies of consumption and happiness show, for instance, that people are happier… when they relish what they plan to buy long before they buy it.”

Indeed. And these drawings, though I hope they will go out in the world in trade for their subjects, are just as much to help me think about cool things I like and celebrate those things.

And so here is an item that has been on my wishlist almost since I got my bike earlier this summer. The bell that came with my bike is so quiet pedestrians stepping into the bike lane right in front of me sometimes don’t even turn around at its demure ‘ding-ding.’ This bell will not only do the job of clearing the bike lane ahead of me, but will also tell the world how I feel about my bike. It costs $10, and so does this drawing!

UPDATE:  This drawing has been purchased. Photo of the new bike bell to follow soon!