Wine Chiller/Sweet candle holder

Great wine chiller from Perpetual Kid that doubles as a candle holder. As the Ice melts, the water goes into the metal base. Clever and only $29.99.

Blog Readability Test

For fun thought I would test my little blog. Must have written some big words by accident. I tested a few of my favorite blogs and Inhabitat wins with a reading level of "Genius" . Have fun!

Gift Ideas (all for about $25)

Well it's a bit difficult to post some of my favorite gift ideas for this year, because I am buying them for some people who read this blog. So, my apologies. But here are a few that I can post without ruining Christmas.

Bogo Solor Flashlight
$25 You get one and the other is donated to a person in the world in need of it.
(I don't remember where I first saw this)
Don't Break the Bottle Wine Holder Puzzle
$25 (Sale Price: $21.50, 2/$41.00, 4/$79.80) Well this means you also have to get them the bottle of wine that goes in it. But it's a bit more interesting than shoving a bottle of wine into a gift bag.
(I think i found this at kaboodle)
Scrabble Tile Pendant Necklace
$15 (There are about 23 different designs) I would recommend exchanging the ribbon "chain" for an actual silver one, but thats just me. I think I love them so much because of the matching slide-top tin, oh yeah and the fact that it is a scrabble piece and supports independent artists.
(via MixtGoods)

QuickPod
$30 ($25 if you do it through gizmodo) This myspace generation (this does include myself) love to take pictures of themselves and this handy little gadget helps make it so much easier! Also, prevents having to ask a stranger to take your picture and trusting a stranger with your camera.
(via gizmodo)

Happy Turkey Day!

I'll be in Erie for Thanksgiving to be with my fam. Hope everyone has a wonderful day and are able to eat more than you ever thought you could. I tried to think of a good turkey day gift, but got nothing, so here's an easy and yummy appetizer recipe for you to enjoy!

24 square wonton wrappers (These are paper-thin sheets of dough used to make wontons and egg rolls, you can find these in the produce section, I had to ask)
1 can (14 ounces) artichoke hearts in water, drained and chopped
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
2 tablespoons finely snipped fresh parsley
1 lemon
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 garlic clove, pressed
1/2 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350°F. Press one wonton wrapper into each cup of a Mini-Muffin Pan. Lightly spray wontons with olive oil. *Bake 6 minutes or until edges of wontons are light golden brown. Remove from oven; set aside, leaving wontons in pan. (this is so the bottom gets crunchy, you can skip if you're running low on time)

Zest lemon to measure 1/2 teaspoon of zest (I cheated and just put in lemon juice, tastes fine); Combine artichokes, bell pepper, parsley, lemon zest, mozzarella cheese, mayonnaise and garlic to batter bowl; mix well.

Add half of the Parmesan cheese to artichoke mixture; Fill each wonton cup with one scoop of artichoke mixture; sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese. Bake 8 minutes or until edges of wontons are golden brown and cheese is melted. Remove from pan; serve immediately.

So bad it's good....ok, not good...but funny?

So last night I saw Kohl's advertising for their Black Friday sale (Which starts at 4 a.m. which is ridiculous, but not as ridiculous as Grove City's Midnight on Thanksgiving sale) In the commercial the dog gets up, makes coffee and whatever, wakes up it's owner and then "talks". Now, I don't know if their budget wasn't big enough or if they didn't have enough time, but, wow, it doesn't seem like they were even trying to make that dog work. But I do really like the muted colors and the way the red pops. (one negative criticism and one positive criticism. I'm fair.) Maybe it was supposed to be funny. Not funny haha, but funny so bad it's funny?...maybe?...



(after some looking I found the clip on VH1's best week ever and they agree with me)

His and hers Key Holders

This is one of those things I've always wanted for some reason. If you know me, you know I tend to lose things, and if I really am my grandmother's granddaughter it will only get worse for here on out. At $24.95 I won't hesitate to get them. (when I have have a place to put them)

(Don't remember where I first saw these, but you can find them at Perpetual Kid)

Bunnies Suicide

(Cleaning out my e-mail and found this from a co-worker, see more HERE)

Test Your Vocab and Feed the Hungry

For every vocab word you get correct they donate 10 grains of rice through the UN. Not much but it ads up, as you can see there were 212,660,970 grains donated yesterday. It's a win win situation, I don't know about you, but I always have room for some new words in my vocabulary. Check it out, pass it along, have a little fun and help a little.

(Thanks to BB-Blog)

Hi. Bye.

This little illustration by Reuben Miller made me smile, and then want to take it back.
(thanks bb-blog)

Use Electricity Wisely

I like it, it's clever, but what happens during the day?

(I suppose they could print it so that the left hand side is really black and fades to gray then white, so it looks like the light is always on. But it still wouldn't have the same effect.)

(via: AdFreak)

Wine Glass Chandelier

Another functional and beautiful piece. A source of light and a stunning way to store your wine glasses. Glasses are not included in the price, which helps keep the price (and shipping, I'm sure) down. This allows you to choose your own wine glasses and pretty much design it yourself.

(via Better Living through Design quotes price at $299, but you can buy it here for $379)

New Plant Species Descovered: Sea Bananas

Ok, ok, not really, they're from a cargo ship that had a "little accident" and it's contents washed up on the shore of two Dutch North Sea islands. Pretty much everyone on the island got a bunch of bananas, which is awesome.

(via Nothing to Do With Arbroath)

Climb for Hope

One of my fellow designer at work (the one on the far right) is participating in Climb for hope. They will be climbing Cotopaxi in Ecuador in January and have been working VERY hard to make it happen. The Trib just did a write up on their team I thought I would share.:

"...Cotopaxi, at 19,388 feet above sea level. It is one of the world's highest active volcanoes. The group will spend six days acclimating and doing smaller training hikes before traveling to the climbers' hut at 15,744 feet. The next day they will begin their push to the summit at midnight and spend the next eight hours hiking to the top of the glacier, a climb that is not technical but does require a harness, ropes, ice axes and crampons." (read the full story here)

---

What you can do to help:
The five members of Team Pittsburgh are hoping to raise $50,000 for breast cancer research in honor of the 50,000 women who lost their lives to the disease in the U.S. last year. They still have a long way to go. Donations can be made on their Web site, climbforhope.org and at REI in the South Side Works. They are also having a fundraiser with information as follows:
Where: Mullaney's Harp & Fiddle, Strip District
When: 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 14
What: Happy hour and silent auction, with music by Corned Beef and Curry. Bid on a variety of items from restaurant gift certificates to sports memorabilia.

FOUND comes to Pittsburgh

FOUND
November 17, 2007
Pittsburgh, PA
Future Tenant
2 shows! 7 pm and 9 pm
821 Penn Ave.

Oooooh! I'm so excited! If you've been living under a rock and don't know what Found is, check one of my earlier posts.

Yay!....bummer....yay!

I forgot to post this when I got it 2 weeks ago. Not because it's not fabulous I just haven't had the time. But now, alas, I still don't have the time but I feel like writing about it. So at work we got the fab new iMacs (yay!), but my CD drive isn't working already(bummer), but then I got the new Leopard(yay!), but then my mail wouldn't work (bummer), but then Gary fixed it (yay!)....So far we have had a love hate relationship. It is quite foxy, but is that enough? Yes.

Happy Halloween!

I have quite an iTunes collection of "holiday" music (See Bryan, I'm watching my politically correctness as well) But when it comes to Halloween, I'm lacking. So as a Halloween present for you here is a great collection of classic Halloween vinyl records from CreativeTech, pointed out to me by Randie, for your listening (and downloading) pleasure.

Duh....eveyone knows that.

So the other day I started putting together a myspace for Mike (my significant other). Anyway, I don't really know my way around myspace very well and apparently there is a difference between "personal" and "band/artist"...so I signed him up for the wrong one and now I have to start over. I deleted the account last night but thought I would share what I had done.

(Gatta give credit for the template to LoveMyFlash, they create some great templates to work with that give myspace profile a not-so-myspace-ey feel...fantastic)

b-a-n-a-n-a-s

I need this:Because by the time I get to work, my bananas look like this:
(Thanks Unclutter's Unitaker Wednesday/ Only $4.99 via here)

Coffee

I'm slowly looking for a new coffee maker. Right now we use a French press, which I adore, makes the best coffee. But when we have company it's not that convenient because it only makes 2 cups...well 2 my-size cups. "Big Girl" cups as some would say. Haha. Anyway, I'll eventually post my findings, but this watering can coffee pot couldn't wait. Can't remember where I found it though, sorry!

Bad Comic #11: Ghost Stories

(via nedroid)

Giggles

Ok, I haven't fed my craigslist addiction for the last couple of months. Probably because when we moved to a smaller space I realized how much crap I already have. But that doesn't mean I can't look every once and awhile. So, I saw this post for an Air Guitar:

left handed vintage air guitar for free all thats needed is new strings and a good dusting.

Would you like some cheese with that wine?

Found this while doing some "research" awhile ago...seriously, research. Anyway, Jacob's Creek made customizable labels, and better yet, they're free! You pick you type of wine, type what you want to say, pick from 4 (kind of lame) designs and them ship them to you for free. You just buy your bottle of wine at the local wines and spirits and slap your label on. Classy and personal at no extra cost.

What Grinds My Gears.

You know what ready grinds my gears? Concept Cars. This "magical" term allows car companies say they have gas free cars and don't actually have gas free cars (ahem, Chevy). Fine, you spent lots of time, money, and amazing engineers on developing a car that runs on feul cells. Nice work. But, until you are actually selling the car, you can not claim that you HAVE a gas free car. Did you really think that after seeing you billboards and commercials that no one was going to check your website and see these cars are NOT in production? Stupid advertising...oh wait...advertising, how I love you, you pay my bills. Oh and I think their "concept" Camaro is kinda foxy. Anyway, thats what grinds my gears.

Chewing gum is really gross, chewing gum I hate the most. See? Exactly the same.

Ok, ingenious. A place to put your gum, besides the trash cans that are on every corner. Hmm, ok not that helpful, but maybe people don't realize that tossing your gum on the sidewalk where people, um, walk, is littering and annoying. Plus, it's made out of recycled gum, and then they re-recycle the whole thing when it's full and make more bubble gum bins. Nice job Anna.

(via inhabitat)

Can I have your number? I lost mine.

I know, I know, I've been slacking on my blogging. Keeping quite busy these days. No better way to come back to my blog than to see a fabulous lamp!

(Via bb-blog from Tonerico {No idea how much it is. Is it sad that I want to learn other languages so I can see how much their cool stuff costs? Yes, it is sad.})

Ahh...memories of my childhood.

For those of you who don't know me, my mum is a bit eccentric. As kids our place mats were the periodic table of elements and a detailed diagram of the constellations. In addition, she labeled things like the salt (Na Cl) and sugar (C6H12O11...or something...I forget), and even put K's on the bananas (potassium). So these salt and pepper shakers remind me of my mum and at $15.00 might be worth it as an x-mas present.

Seriously?

Ok, its a pretty set of granite weights. But $5,517.19 is absurd. Done by design group Big Game.
They are pretty silly overall and the websites fun to check out.

(Thanks BLTD for showing me what I'd never have even if I had $5,517.19 to spare)

-MEME-

I was tagged to complete this meme by Rachie, and I don't even know what meme means.

Four Jobs I Have Had In My Life

1. Waitress @ Pizza Hut, Applebees, Texas Roadhouse
2. Leader - Taught a summer craft camp for Harborcreek township
   
3. Keeper of the equipment - Robert Morris Uni studio/sound & video
   
4. Graphic Designer @ Giant Ideas (ad agency)
   

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over

1. V for Vendetta
   
2. All the old Star Wars movies (I know, I'm a loser)
   
3. Finding Nemo
   
4. Family Guy movie
   

Four TV Shows I Like To Watch

1. Family Guy
   
2. House
3. Family Guy
   
4. Family Guy
   

Four Places I Have Been On Vacation

1. Australia - Great Barrier Reef/Sydney/Whitsunday Islands/everywhere....
   
2. Bahamas
3. Canada, eh?
   
4. My own backyard...(aww)
   

Four Favorite Foods

1. Sushi! (mmm...volcano rolls from Sushi Tomo!)
   
2. Salads that are bad for you (Niko's favorite salad from P.F. Chang's...hi fat/cals but sooo good)
   
3. I'm going to have to go with Mase on this one...dips! (buffalo chicken dip, artichoke dip, fruit dip, caramel apple dip...the list goes on)
4. Edamame (soy beans in the pods steamed to perfection with just a pinch of salt...yum!)
   

Four Websites I Visit Daily

1. Right now I'm stalking Mike's band so I can get some design ideas for them.
   
2. Found Magazine's find of the day
   
3. The Daily Plate....though I've been slacking the last week and a half
   
4. Design Blogs (swissmiss, BB, bltd, adrants and of course all my friend's blogs)
   

Four Places I Would Rather Be

1. Designing while listening to some good music (oh wait...I am!)
   
2. At home (in Pittsburgh)...with mikey and the weez
   
3. At home (erie) with the girlies or the fam
   
4. on a boat in the sun somewhere...
   

Four Bloggers I Am Tagging

1. Koz
2. Michele when she finally starts her blog....this doesn't count
   
3. Bryan (my boss...haha...even though he doesn't read this...but he does have his own blog)
4. anyone else who wants to!

FOUND Mag: Find of the day

For those of you who don't know Found Magazine has a "Find of the Day" Page where people sumbit photos, notes, drawings, etc. that they find on the street. It's awesome. And time consuming. Here is one of my favorites:

FOUND by Sam in New York, New York

"It was the first nice day of spring so I decided to go to Central Park. I found a nice plot of grass to lay down on and eventually fell asleep. When I awoke this was folded up behind my head."

Hand Holders

For some reason I have fallen in love with placeholders lately. It makes me want to have a dinner party. But it seems a bit rude to be telling people where they have to sit. I think their best, and most polite, use is for labeling food when serving buffet style. It also helps your guests not ask "Ummm.....what is that?" (Which I most recently asked at a client's Indian-style garden party. However names of desserts such as Gulab Jamun, and Burfi, need more explanation)

(vi CB2 / 4 for 9.95)

Unbreakable Vase

So our cat has a habit of knocking over all of my plants (and cups, and his bowl, and pretty much anything he can push off a table) So this rubber vase would be purrrrfect (sorry about the pun, but it had to be said) My plant would still fall and I would still have water on the floor to clean up, but it's an improvement! Plus it comes in black, pink, and lime green (as well as red).

(via better living through design / $24.12)

Vases

Oh how cute. And I love how the simple ferns look in these vases too. Clean. Unique. And affordable at $3.95 each. Mike has been saving his old guitar strings and they have a sort of curl at the end and we (his idea) think it would be cute to bunch them together and made a "floral" arrangement of strings. So, I'm looking for a vase that would be perfect for that. Unfortunately, I don't think this vase is it. Oh well! Guess I'll just have to keep on shopping!

(via better living through design)

Silverware

Sweet chandelier by Ali Siahvoshi (crappy website) over at Fabbian (better website). Would look great in a modern kitchen with all stainless steel appliances and whatnot. I think I might be able to convince Mike to help me make one. He did my spoon ring, so he's already worked with silverware.

(Image via Inhabitat)

Diamond Gal Knob

So I really would like to post awesome design things that are affordable to the "normal person". I can't help that some really awesome stuff is ridiculously expensive. I look at sites like Design Within Reach, but they aren't really in reach for me. (They have things like a bedside table that at 50% off is still $650.)


So here is a b-e-a-utiful door knob that would be a great accent to make any home a little more vintage/Victorian. And at only $6 from Anthropologie it would be well worth it! This is an especially great accent because not only is it beautiful it is used on a regular basis (unlike alot of the decorate crap I buy that has NO use whatsoever). It will make even more of a statement when people turn it and feel the unexpected texture.


(Image via Design*Sponge)

Cutting boards

I love when a design works WITH the materials instead of reforming the materials into something new. German design duo Karen Olze and Gisa Wilkens designed these illustrations etched into the board to work WITH the grain of the wood. Nice and unique!

(Image via elsewares)

Happy Pills

studio m's first project: a candy store in Barcelona. I love creative websites, but I'm not so sure about this one, too hard to find things, and it doesn't help that its not in English. But their work is absolutely adorable and this project works so well. Clean, understandable, but still very beautiful and creative. Their typography on almost all their work is amazing. The shelving displays for Happy Pills could use a little work, but it might just be because we're not seeing the whole room.

(more images via design milk)

Index Card Cheat Sheet

I remember back in high school calculus (or geometry or something...I guess I don't remember that well) cramming as many formulas on an index card as we could because we were allowed ONE index card for a test. So over at CreaticeTechs Tips Jason Hoppe creates one index card cheat sheet a month for Photoshop. This month's is the brush tool, which, for some reason I always forget the shortcut keys for this. Hope it helps!

Flying books

This is so cute/clever! I would love to have a flock of books on my wall. But for $120 for a set of 5...I think I can figure out a way to make it myself. (I'll make sure to post how I do it, if I ever do it)

(Via Better Living Through Design)

Listen to a Movie

Sometimes while I'm working I am visually occupied by whatever design I'm working on but not always audibly stimulated. So I listen to a number of podcasts and music but sometimes I want more. I found this website awhile back that has 1,278 movies (just the audio) for anyone to listen to for FREE....(it has a log-in, but, no, you don't have to sign up) Anyway, I get too distracted by the tv so it helps when I'm working on something at home, too.

Tip: It pops up in it's own little window, with "stealth mode" that makes it look like a spreadsheet for those who's bosses do not appreciate you enjoying yourself.

On the list of things I always want but never buy

I love this style of rice bowls that hold your chopsticks! I do really enjoy eating with chopsticks, I should remember to keep some at work. People say it helps you lose weight because you eat slower. Hmm...I think that's just when you first start using them, because I can eat pretty fast with chopsticks, anyone want to have a race?

(via Design*Sponge and bowl via feinedinge many other beautiful pieces but I can't understand anything to find a price)

Possibly the best kite ever.

Kite shaped like a cursor. Genius.
(via make via boingboing)

Comic #10 Misunderstanding

(via nedroid)

What do you mean you didn't get it? I left it on the toast!

So cute! You just write it and it burns it onto your toast! Too bad it's not in production.
(via bb-blog / more pics)

Graffiti Lamp

Ooooooh...I love this lamp! Graffiti in the home is awesome. Lots of other styles via Weego.
(via bb-blog / $80.00)

Giant

So Randie, Mike, and I went to a gallery opening at Zombo over in Lawrenceville last weekend and I finally got my first "Giant" accessory! (For those of you who don't know, my company's logo is based on the Moai statues on Easter island) Anyway, it's a pepper shaker that stands about 3" and I love it!

(sorry again about the pic, it's from my phone)

#9: Lazy Cat

(as always, via nedroid)

Play Nice

Noticed this over on 5th ave for the first time on my lunch walk today. It's awesome that someone took the time to build the keyboard out of wood and put it up. I just can't decide if that is the same person who put the tag or not. Just goes to show there is fun graffiti, even in the Burgh.

(sorry for the image quailty, it's from my phone)