MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Merry Cristmas to all and I hope it is a time with family and loved ones for you. Please keep safe if you are travelling and remember to spread the merry spirit where ever you go. I will be back after a blogbreak, kinda like a spring break I suppose, and posting into the new year like never before. I thank all who have viewed my humble blog and especially the people who have taken time out to leave a comment behind on my posts. Special thanks to Heather Moore and Grace Bonney for making this year and blogging that much better for me.

Paper X-Wing

Thanks to Heather Moore for showing me this cool blog. It is called the Eclectic Detective. It is full of wonderful finds like these Metro Ticket Origami X-Wing fighter. Im so embarrassed but I have been a Star Wars fan since Luke was a wee lad on Tatooine. Im such a nerd. Anyway cool blog worth a little time.

Sterling Moss

Moss, a design boutique that collaborates with designers, has some really amazing products on their site. From the Formosa calendar to the old school pocket watch, both featured above. A great site to browse if you looking for some presents for loved ones or a Tord Boontje light.

The Anteater

In Rosma Gutierrez's Petology series you can find some weird and wonderful creations all inspired by nature and her forms. The Anteater magazine/book shelf is a great example of her works functionality and inspiration. I love the the stick insect inspired fruit table(I think). Her concepts almost give furntiure a pet like nature (excuse the pun) and become quite alive in a sense. Great!

Dressing Chair

Tio is an amazing chair from New Zealand. The Tio features a range of fabrics that you can dress you chair in quick and easy steps. It would be like having a living room that has its own style depending on what mood you are in. If you don't like the chair check out the functionality of the website. via Core77

Hulger update

Just a little Hulger update for all you cell phone fanatics that don't want fried brains for breakfast in 10 years time. There are some cool customized phones available from Hulger that can cut up to as much as 90% of that bad radiation. Let's start it today and get some of these phones and start the Save the Brain campaign...did that just rhyme? Damn! So get yours today and Save you Brain and draw all over it.

Radio Ga Ga

Yeah I'm a sucker for radios, I don't know why but I absolutely love them. From the little kitchen ones to the shouldered Ghetto blasters. They are like little boxes of personality that become friends that just keep broadcasting. Portable, selective and an off switch. Great invention! Oh, almost forgot this one is from the MoMA Store and retails for the price of 1 MILLION DOLLARS,...sorry couldn't resist,...its only R350.

Shiny Squirrel

Cool blog time again. I found Shiny Squirrel one day while searching numerous blogs and I instantly liked it. It has a nice mix of design and couture. Please take a second to click here and check out her nuts.

ODM

Watches with a difference. ODM offers original designs on all their watches aiming them at the young-at-heart people. They are really cool, even if they are a little bit japanese techy, so if you can get your hands on one, DO IT!

It builds character.

This book reminds me of all the afrikaans classes I sat through, scribbling little people living out their daily lives in my note pads. Like animations in the corners of the pads of tiny Tony Hawks kick flipping and vert skating to what my teacher should look like. And not learning any afrikaans in the process...I couldn't stand those classes. The character encylopedia is a must for any illustrator and designer. Pictoplasma offers a 396 page, full colour, hardcover mass of fresh and inspiring characters from 250 artists and designers. This book also lets the reader examine global styles and motifs that are prominent in the world of character development. You can't go wrong with this one.

Tie the knot Pt.2

These ties are hot. There is no other word for them. Hot hot hot hot hot. I love wearing ties and suits (good vintage ones) and would love to get my greedy hands on these ties. Available from Ulterior Motive... oh no, not the Swedes again...

Colour my laces!

From Sneaker Freaker, the perfect subtle accessory for those of us who cannot afford the new Kidrobot hoodies or want a stocking filler that will actually be used. The coloured laces are available in a range of colours that will have your home boys & girls ooohing and aahing and are relatively inexpensive. Giving your old sneakers a new lease on life.

Absolut Lomo

Seeing as though I received my LC-A+ (which to my shame have not put to proper use yet, bad Gary*!) I was really interested to see the Absolut Lomo page. Photos are submitted and pasted onto a huge photowall that gets updated all the time. It's like a living gallery. I love it...just have to get snapping...but wait,...if I have been drinking aren't my pics going to suck. Thanks NOTCOT.

EcoForm

EcoForm from Santa Rosa in California have created these eco-friendly pots for the people who have a conscious. The pots have been made from by-products of renewable sources and under average circumstances have a life span of 5 years. After which you just chuck them on your compost heap and let them break down the natural way. They are available through retailers like Whole Foods on the West Coast.

Measuring up

Im loving these mixing bowls from Dutch by Design. They have a readable scales so you can mix and measure in the same bowl. Available in assorted colours these bowls are a great present for Xmas. Unfortunately they are not for the microwave. Each bowl mixes in at about R140.

Jonathan Yuen

Raise your hand if you found the perfectly designed website that leaves you just wanting more and more. Ooh ooh pick me, pick me! This site is the portfolio of Jonathan Yuen. It is amazing and beautiful. It has clean, simple, fast flash animations that are incredible. Be sure to crank your speakers up and absorb the tranquil music with the fantastic(al) visuals. Great site!

i Bride Platters

These are beautiful! Ok I found them via Design*Sponge so everybody has seen them already, but I really thought that they were a worthy post. i Bride has produced these amazing platters and trays featuring forest friends and vintage ladies. Really cool colours! I love them.

Wood Wood

The Danes have produced a restrained fashion style that could be the new way of looking at how clothing is worn and made. Wood Wood is a great example of one of these Danish movements. They have already collaborated and created a limited pair of Adidas sneakers and are selling a collection of Fred Perry/Wood Wood T-shirts through their concept store in Copenhagen.

Core 77 Gift Guide

What is with the frenzy at this time of year? I actually have decided that the middle of the year, around May and June are way better than December. The people have all gone insane and turned into elbow jabbing, hand bag swinging Mombies (Zombie mothers) that prowl the malls. The only way to defeat them is to get to the mall at 08.30 and leave by 09.30. I have warned you...To avoid this problem you could shop online and I have found the Mombies kryptonite...The Core 77 Gift Guide! No malls, no queues, no blood suck Mombies, just gifts shipped to you already wrapped. Thanks Core 77, you're a life saver!

Uncommon Goods

Check out these weird and wonderful fantastical items from Uncommon Goods. via SwissMiss.

The Inspired Maker

Found via Apartment Therapy, The Inspired Maker has some really great products. If you browse the new section there are some awesome items that could be great to spend a little something on yourself for 25th. From chairs and tables to delicate lighting, The Inspired Maker also offers a bespoke service, so get dialing or mailing now! By far, because I'm a chair nut, my favourite piece is the chair featured above, followed closely in second place by the type table.

Definately Nostalgia day.

Ok, who doesn't love these pens. I spent hours (maybe I'm really simple) tilting the floating pen up and down and up and down. Again and again. The slow fluid movement of the image as it crossed the transparent tube. Usually a London double decker bus carrying its English passengers to safety across the London Bridge. I remember riding in the back of a canary yellow Audi 100, with hot burnt orange corduroy seats, entertained purely by the fluidity of the bus on our way to the coastal village of Kidds Beach in the Eastern Cape to visit GG (my great gran, she was really great!) and my grandparents. This pen above is available from Colette.

It's WAR!

Talk about absolute Kitschness in a product, but that has a connection to my heart. I spent endless hours conquering, charging, defending and defeating toy soldiers all over my mothers house. Pillows became mountians, blankets positioned just right became impossible hills to take and carpets became open fields of fire where death rained upon my plastic people of war. The War bowl, which is not new, brings all these memories flooding back. Created by Thorsten van Elten, the bowl comes in Waterloo blue and Civil War white. I love that it is completely tasteless and all the little army men are stuck together in a battle of confused mayhem. For some reason I think of Guernica by Picasso.