i heart guts

while helping my mom do some filing yesterday at her home office, i stumbled upon a piece of paper printed with a slew of the adorable little guys seen above. i literally squealed at how cute they were and prodded her to explain what they were and why they graced her desk so colorfully.

turns out those precious little guts are the product of founder wendy bryan's "string of bad hookups, dead-end relationships and bad boyfriends" (taken from www.iheartguts.com) . she started out with a simple drawing of a broken heart which turned into a t-shirt which, over time, evolved into pins, tote bags, stickers, more t-shirts and even plush toys. according to my mom, she has the whole family involved. her mom and husband help with accounting, packing and shipping!

the plush organs are my favorite. who couldn't pass up a stuffed spleen with the title "smells like spleen spirit!" or a li'l stuffed kidney claiming "when urine love". other favorite slogans include: stomach plush - "i ache for you", heart plush "i got the beat" and most of all the liver says "i'm a liver not a fighter".

testicle lapel pin says "have a ball!"

it's so bad, it's good. it's so cheesy, it's cute. hell, i'd put a guts vacation picture on my wall.

heart and stomach in kyoto, japan

in guts we trust,
lauren