Picture your living space.
OK?
Now picture this:

Photographs of real buildings, printed on throw pillows. Line ‘em up along the back of your couch, on a windowseat, or on your day bed (fantastic dorm decor!). There! You’ve got a one-of-a-kind streetscape to style up an uninspiring urban vista.

I love love love all of the imaginative architecture-photo pillows from BuildYourBlock.And the Brooklyn-based company just dropped word they’ve just come out with a Christmas theme collection, all little wreaths and Park Avenue glamour with a touch of nostalgia.

(OK, imagine if a throw cushion could channel a vintage Christmas movie, like maybe Miracle on 34th Street? These festive babies are about as close as it gets.)

Would you believe, they even do a custom bakery pillow? Personalize a traditional NYC pastry shop with the name and date of your choice. Gift idea, I think so!

And for something just a smidgen edgier, see also the abandoned building pillows — perfect with a backdrop of painted brick or subway tiles, or on the sill of a window overlooking something you’d rather not focus on. ;-)

These cool architectural throw pillows might be a bit like potato chips — impossible to stop at just one! In fact, a person could be seriously tempted to collect the whole set, especially to add in that essential note of whimsy in an otherwise austere and minimalist urban apartment.

Fill out your soft streetscape with mini sets of pillow-y urban infrastructure, like a fire hydrant, bus stop, ATM, even a lamp post complete with a bicycle leaning up against it.

Psst! Wanna buy the Brooklyn Bridge?

You’ve just gotta smile.

Do you remember stacking up a pile of little wooden blocks in various shapes, as a child, and pretending you were building a fantasy castle?

And all the time you were learning a whole range of skills, from problem-solving techniques to small-motor skills, not to mention the exercise of creative imagination!

All that, from little blocks of wood…

Just tell me why they didn’t make building blocks like Haba‘s “international and architectural” toy blocks when I was a wee tot! The Russian building blocks are particularly gorgeous — $39.95 at GummyLump.

With this unique set your child can construct the buildings of Moscow and St. Petersburg. This beautiful set contains the domes and arches that Russian Czars and religious leaders used in constructing buildings in Russia. Let your child create his own amazing structures with 55 Maplewood blocks in 17 shapes.

[H/T to Jen, the Reading Goddess, for her pointer to Gummylump toys.]