Photos: UnBeige (left), Areaware (right)

When UnBeige was invited to serve as one of four judges for the inaugural "blogger's choice awards" at the New York International Gift Show (NYIGF), we jumped at the chance to prowl aisle upon aisle of covetable objects. Twelve hours, two trips to the cavernous Javits Center, and hundreds of product-stuffed booths later, we learned that Sergio Rossi pumps and trade shows don't mix, but more importantly, we had fine-tuned our list of top picks and completed our Christmas shopping through 2011.

First up on our UnBeige Best of NYIGF list: the Geo-Birdhouse (pictured above), a standout at the stellar Areaware booth. This miniature ceramic version of Buckminster Fuller's favorite shape was designed by Kelly Lamb to be used as a nesting place for wrens, finches, and other small birds but would look just as attractive indoors as a dangling, geodesic conversation piece. We particularly like how it beautifully captures the general conclusion about Bucky's utopian structure: it's for the birds.