75 years ago marked the opening day of one of the most recognizable and photographed landmarks of modern day -- the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco, California. 

Opening Day: May 27, 1937
Source: Wikipedia

One way to pass time during traffic is to "car watch." Of course, there is the classic search for VW Bugs and the friendly punch on the arm that follows for any fellow passengers. On the same vein, instead of the search for buggies, trying to spot the rare out-of-state license plate also demands the same reward. Personally, I have always added an additional punch for correctly naming the state capital, but have been rebuffed for this modification. 

Another thing to do is search for and attempt to decipher vanity plates. Most of the time you see plates with things like initials, cute phrases such as "A LUVS B" or other letter / number combinations unworthy of the additional fee. But every now and then, you come across something ah-mazing, like I did today. As we were driving home, behind an unassuming Honda Accord, we saw just six letters -- simple but genius!

Need a hint? I sure did! 

Here are two...

Just the other day, featured on the front page was an adorable pocket totem of a fennec fox. My reaction was of course "aww" -- at how darling the item was -- not to mention my amazement and excitement to see the use of an "uncommon" creature for a figurine. Often times you see the normal owls, bears, birds, etc. -- but a fennec fox! Not your everyday sighting! 

I was pleasantly surprised to find a plethora of interesting creatures HandyMaiden featured as figurines, such as a lemur, opaki, walrus, lynx, armadillo, and my favorite -- a sloth! 

I was inspired after these adorable finds to look for other miniature figurines on Etsy and stumbled upon quite a few. Here are just a few that I thought to be especially "aww"-worthy:

As I was looking through these petite items, I had a flashback to my childhood. When I was young, I used to carry around with me colorful, teeny tiny dolls. My sisters and I all had a few of these, that we remember purchasing from a small kiosk at the local mall. I was racking my brain to remember the name of the small items. Thank gosh for the Internet and Google Image Search -- I found them! Worry Dolls! Does anyone else remember carrying these around? 

The legend behind the worry dolls traditionally comes from Guatemala. These small worry dolls, if kept under the pillow, are said to carry away worries of sleeping children. Therefore, the children are able to sleep peacefully and awaken free of any worries, as their troubles were all taken away by the worry dolls during the night. 

I remember placing these dolls under my pillow and also carrying them around with me in my pockets. We also had the traditional small yellow boxes to carry our worry dolls around as well.