Added the beloved day of December 26, 2008

Have yourself a merry little Christmas? We hope so, dear lovelies! May you be surrounded with toys and joy -- and not just for the holidays, but for the entire year. We don't know about you, but if everyone shared in the simplistic prettiment of toys and fostering happier childhoods, we think the world would be a much happier, less violent place.

So to make our 2009 a little happier and brighter in these somewhat dimming times, we're spending the next year finding toys to fill the perfect toy room of our dreams. Check back and enter "Perfect Toy Room" in our lovely search box at the top of the page or look for "Perfect Toy Room" in our Favorites section, to see our latest pretty picks.

To kick off our Perfect Toy Room series, we sought out the quintessential necessity for any toy room: wooden building blocks. Although anyone can buy their own set of plain wooden blocks and create their own beautifully painted and designed treasures -- if your crafty heart so desires -- we fell in love with the fantastically hand-painted and lacquered line of architecturally wondrous blocks from Archiquest.

Aren't they just gorgeous? You can go all-out and buy the Deluxe World Fusion set of 218 blocks (pictured) or opt for smaller sets, like Kings and Castles, Legends of Byzantine, Pharoahs and Pyramids. All are simply spectacular, no matter how you stack them.

- Buy Archiquest Blocks