In less than ten years, CowParade fever has spread worldwide. Arguably the largest public art event in the world, CowParade has been staged since 1999 in more than 50 cities, including New York, London, Tokyo, Mexico City and Paris. The cows feature themes and artwork specific to the host city. After the cows are displayed in public places – such as train stations, parks – they are herded up and taken to auction. A substantial portion of the proceeds are donated to charity. Last month, Chinese officials put out a call for artists proposals for 2009 CowParade Taipei. You could even call CowParade a social mooovement for change. If you want to own a piece of this phenomenon, visit the CowParade store, a virtual mooseum where you can purchase ceramic figurine replicas of cows from official CowParade events. They can work as home décor accent pieces, gifts or just for fun. Check out Cowputer Girl ($40) featured in CowParade Instanbul 2007, Moo Moo in a Tu Tu ($23) from CowParade Las Vegas 2002 and Alphadite, Goddess of Shopping, from CowParade Manchester, England, 2004 ($27, pictured). The kitchen collection features 100% De Vaca ($23). Vaca De La Independencia ($27) would make a fetching centerpiece on your Fourth of July table. The Moo Potter ($112) is a large-scale piece of whimsical folk art that you could display in a den or sunroom. The cow is covered in hand-painted tea pots, cups and plates — she even wears tea cup earrings. For the art lover, the Moogritte ($66). For martial arts enthusiasts, Sam-Moo-Rai ($36). Create your own cow art with this set ($19). This affiliated site (scroll down) carries some of the most amooosing figurines, including Citizen Kow (Harrisburg, Penn.), Cowlumbus (Barcelona), Bovina at the Ice Cowpades (Houston), Cowbunga, Dude (Denver) and Cowbot (Boston).

The Incredible Hulk raked in the green at the box office, nabbing $54.5 million on opening weekend. So, in the spirit of the film, we’ve scoped out the Web’s greatest green goodies. You’ll look like a goddess in these grass-green Lilly Pulitzer ballet flats with a sculpted enamel flower on the toe ($235). The Hickey Freeman Bengal Stripe tie in green isn’t the exact shade of the verdant Hulk, but the silk tie will save you some cash; it’s on sale for $63 from $105. The “Midtown” print at CB2, Crate & Barrel’s hipper younger sister, glows in green via a halftone print technique, the same process used in the original Hulk comic books ($99). Channel two movies in one with these Risky Business sunglasses in green ($10). Get in on one of the summer’s hot trends — floor-length sun dresses — with this green number from Shopbop.com ($120). Say “Here’s to the Hulk” with these goblets with dragonfly etching ($70). Made from reclaimed Napa Valley Zinfandel bottles, they’re not only green in color, but design. The Hulk would bust out of these Alexander McQueen green-washed denim jeans during his transformation, but you could pull it off, if only for St. Patrick’s Day ($315).

For a truly global marketplace, stop in at NOVICA. This innovative shopping experience partners with National Geographic to feature home décor, jewelry, apparel, and artwork by some 2,000 artists from the Andes, Bali and Java, Brazil, India, Mexico, Thailand and West Africa. With its online distribution model, NOVICA removes layers of middle men and their markups, allowing the artisans to make more money while customers get lower prices. NOVICA wants shoppers to know the artisans behind the product, stating, “We want you to feel that attachment to the product and to the hands that created it.” With that in mind, every item includes a profile of the artist. You can read his or her personal story, “save” him to your favorite artists list and search for more of his works. For instance, we found this exquisite hand-tooled mahogany and leather table designed by Peruvian craftsman Abel Rios ($178); when you click on his other items, a list of 60-plus pieces — including jewelry boxes, chairs, ottomans, and more — comes up. Create your own virtual bazaar by starting an account to keep track of your favorite items, whether it’s this striped alpaca wool shawl ($66) or the striking “White Torch” photograph ($130); you can even send photos or painting as e-cards. If you’re in the market for something unique for a special someone, try the GiftFinder for ideas, such as these bright bamboo boxes ($105) by Wayan Genep from Bali as a corporate gift. But our favorite NOVICA market is the GiftAnimals section, with everything from the silver Elephant Parade cuff bracelet ($118) and this charming Playful Cat key holder ($45) to this whimsical “Zebra as Acrobat” sculpture ($273; pictured) and an array of animal masks. Now, that puts the world at your fingertips!

Last week both the art world’s major-league auction houses, Sotheby’s and Christie’s, held big sales devoted to Latin American art. Combined, the two events earned more than $60 million — a hefty sum for a field about which many art lovers still know very little. In recent years two Texas museums have worked to introduce North Americans to their Southern neighbors’ modern-art legacy, and have produced catalogs that are an excellent starting point for the curious. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston organized a survey of avant-garde art whose mammoth catalogue Inverted Utopias ($80, published by Yale), is organized by thematic “constellations” in which work from different periods or locations shares certain common elements. The University of Texas’s Blanton Museum of Art, on the other hand, has broken The Geometry of Hope ($30) into looks at six cities that proved especially fertile for Latin American artists. The books naturally overlap somewhat, with important names like Joaquín Torres-García and Gego showing up in both, but their differences in presentation and focus make them complementary. The Blanton’s book, which draws on a single patron’s art collection, is only one of the newly revitalized museum’s publications on the topic: Intrigued readers can explore further in this thorough catalog ($40) of the museum’s own Latin American holdings or go in-depth with Bonevardi ($60), an exhaustive look at Argentine-born Marcelo Bonevardi who spent most of his career in New York producing fascinating shaped-canvas works that are as much wall-mounted sculptures as paintings, such as his 1976 mixed media Señuelo grande (pictured) now in the Blanton’s collection.

Origami is the art of folding paper intricately into decorative shapes, with origins in China and Japan. Not only is it often beautiful, but it can double as way to teach children geometry, sequencing (you have to fold the paper in certain steps) and fractions (they’ll need to know how to figure out a third or half of the paper to follow origami directions). Best of all for parents, origami can be done inside and quietly. A good place to start is with the Origami Fun Kit for Beginners, which includes three books with instructions, 55 different origami projects and 96 sheets of origami paper ($12). If your child is more motivated by specific themes, Origami Corner is worth a visit. The Dinosaur Deluxe Box Kit contains sheets of patterned paper resembling the skin of various dinosaurs, along with practice paper, instructions with diagrams and background scenery for displaying the finished dinosaurs ($7). Other sets focus on insects, sea life, birds and farm animals, along with the classic 1,000 Cranes (according to origami tradition, if you fold 1,000 cranes, like the one pictured, your wish will come true). Children who like playing with dolls will love making as many as 12 dolls with the Kimono Doll Making Kit ($14). Adults who enjoy origami can make their own children’s furniture out of pieces of cardboard, thanks to an innovative website called Foldschool. Here, you’ll find free downloadable instructions on how to make kid-size origami furniture, such as a stool, a chair or a rocker. A lesser-known branch of origami is “towel origami” (no, really, I’m serious.) At Folding Magic, you can order a DVD to show you how to make funny animals out of towels. Some cruise ships leave these cute critters in staterooms as a perk to guests – now you can make your own.

“Magazine” is a word with a flexible meaning where art and fashion are concerned. Hipsters long ago got used to seeing book-like European journals with a single-copy price tag that could buy a few years’ worth of Entertainment Weekly or even Artforum, but lately things are getting extreme. Lavish print jobs and high price tags still earn publications a place on the highbrow radar, of course: See the 50 Euro FMR — an Italian “art publication … created for the aristocracy of taste and intelligence” — that has recently re-launched an American version. Published in four languages and boasting past contributors like Umberto Eco and Jorge Luis Borges, it offers luxe, oversized reproductions of art from genres rarely covered by trendier magazines. The publishers just inaugurated a sister publication, FMR White, with a more contemporary bent; the first issue has welcome features on Sonia Delaunay and Louise Nevelson. But some entrepreneurs don’t think paper and ink alone are enough to merit your art dollar: Arkitip, for instance, is a self-described magazine that in nearly four dozen issues (prices vary) has come to rival literary journal McSweeney’s for extravagance. Each issue is sold in a limited edition and includes an artwork by a featured artist. Issue 44, for instance, arrives in a box with a sleek black View-master-style gadget (pictured) for viewing a set of 3-D slides; Issue 45 offered a silk-screen print signed by artist Evan Hecox. Each release is treated like a group exhibition in a gallery, with a focus on the artwork itself instead of articles defining it. For those of us who don’t live in a major city, it’s probably as close as you can get to being part of a vibrant art scene — now if only each issue came packaged with a little wine and cheese.