How Bazaar: The weirdest and coolest offerings from the 2011 Armadillo Christmas Bazaar

The Armadillo Christmas Bazaar is back in town and, as always, there are plenty of fantastic, beautiful and downright strange items for sale.

After a walk-through of the various shops, we picked out some of the most bizarre of the bazaar to help you pick out some one-of-a-kind pieces for those hard to shop for folks on your list.

You can find these and so many more treasures at the Palmer Events Center between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. through Christmas Eve.

If you've ever seen these decorative tiles of iconic Austin spots, you'll be happy to know there are hundreds to choose from at the Fleur-De-Stone booth. More than just coasters, you can also find magnets, wall clocks and large scale plaques of these images as well.

This toaster was the most clever of all the strange, fun pieces in the Bazaar booth of Las Cruces, NM based studio, Rokoko. This husband and wife team infuses their playful hippie vibe into all their decorated furniture, instruments and appliances. You can't help but smile at these creations.

D. Redington Design is the inspired creation of Dakota Pratt of Wooster, Ohio. His impressive display at the Bazaar includes several of his contemporary home decor pieces and sculptures embellished with vintage bottle caps.

You'll notice the embellished cowboy boot and, off to the left, a giant hot dog sculpture.

The S.D. Meadows Folk Art Gallery from Palestine, IL is capitalizing on the phrase "One man's trash is another man's treasure." This collection of cool curiosities and lively folk art are made from re-purposed refuse, giving new life to discarded items.

Every item from S.D. Meadows has a unique personality thanks to the whimsical faces that are built from found objects. This large-scale piece has tires for eyes, a rake for a mouth, a bike seat for a nose.

Mychal Mitchell poses with her impressive library of handcrafted books made at Iona Handcrafted Books in East Austin. After being taught the art of bookbinding in Venice, Mitchell began custom crafting these beautiful tomes using surplus leathers and hand-selected papers. You cannot go wrong with any of these spectacular creations.

This mosaic piece, entitled "Hello Spooky," is the creation of Aly Winningham of Terra Firma Studios in Cedar Creek, TX. Also featuring wire kinetic mobiles, the Terra Firma display is full of wildly original glass and metal custom wall pieces.

Photographer Lorri Honeycutt has taken proportion to a whole new level of comedy with her work in Big World Photo.

Here, poseable figures engage with the real world in ways that will pleasantly mess with your mind. Is it the figures that are tiny, or is this a giant world that the normal sized humans have found?

Ann Lyneath Curtis of Harper, TX is doing live plaster casting at the Bazaar to create entirely personalized masks and replicas. As long as the recipient of your gift isn't freaked out by the life-like nature of this enduring expression, these are pretty awesome, one-of-a-kind gifts.

This spunky senorita added some flair at New Mexico artist Michelle Heath's bronze jewelry shop. Featuring hair-lifting barrettes and body jewelry, you can find a number of handmade treasures here.

We know why this caged mosaic bird sings — because it wants to be on your shelf at home.

Suzan Germond from Major Mosaics Art Studio in Austin designs all of her crazy fabulous works from found art, with a heavy dose of humor in each piece.

Austin Yarn Company has a shop's worth of handmade felted wool handbags for sale at the Bazaar. All of the materials are 100% organic and they come in every size, shape and color you can imagine. Best of all, they're easy to clean and incredibly durable.

More functional than weird, Keith Kreeger's porcelain pottery is quite stunning and sophisticated. All of this handmade pottery is meant to be used, not just stored on a shelf.

Designer Rory Skagen's richly saturated murals and toys create an impressive commercial art display along the back wall of the Event Center. With his nostalgic collages of kittens, movie stars and monsters, Skagen creates a memorable brand of unusual comic characters.

It is Austin, so of course you'll have plenty of hand-crafted guitars that are excellent art pieces and ready to play. These brightly colored beauties are courtesy of Wild About Music, the 6th Street staple celebrating 20 years in Austin.

Hands down, the strangest creations at the Bazaar come from Pat Landreth and Suzanne Montano of The Bungled Jungle. This hysterical couple loves what they do, and what they do is make weird little monsters out of rubber, plastic, metal, clay and plaster. Each of the pieces is a unique creation and takes about two months to complete, but the smiles and curious looks you'll get will last much longer.