Pop Art Pumas

I saw these styln' Pop Art kicks at the Puma store the other day. The graphic design used on the shoe was created by Eba Akamatsu, inspired by the work of American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein's style is borrowed from comic books, know for its thick outlines, Benday dots, and bold black, yellow, blue, & red colors.

Stop Destroying Our Planet

One of this week's Threadless t-shirts made me laugh. It reads "Stop Destroying Our Planet. It's where I keep all my stuff."

Slingbox

I've been meaning to buy a Slingbox for a while but just never got around to it. I finally got a chance to try one out this week... and it's amazing. If you don't know what a Slingbox is, basically it is a set top box that allows you to watch your home TV (DVR, DVD, satellite or any other video output device(s)) from your computer or mobile phone via the internet. It uses your home network to broadcast the signal. You can not only watch your TV, or other devices, but control them remotely.

Sling Media has been around for a few years now. They have won a bunch of awards including a few industrial design awards a couple years back.

I've been using my Slingbox on my laptop, both around the house and remotely, as well as on my Moto Q phone. The video streaming is fantastic. There is just a little bit of lag and pixelation... all very forgivable. The Slingbox Solo (connects to one device) costs about $150 with no subscription fees and HD support. They also make a Slingbox Pro which allows you to connect to up to 4 devices. Very impressive.

Yellowism

My friend Rex has just started a great t-shirt company entitled Yellowism. It features a series of humorous printed tees as well as custom design and printing services for t-shirts for your special event or organization.

SANS Socks

Are holes in socks a bad thing? Not according to New York based fashion label SANS. SANS is challenging the conventional thinking around socks with these Hole Socks, available at their online store ($28-30).

Stitching Postcard

These postcards are a nice interpretation of a places-I've-been map. They let travelers sew in their routes before sending them to friends and family. (Found through BLTD).

No One Belongs Here More Than You

What better way to see a book than with some great storytelling? And Miranda July's website for her book 'No One Belongs Here More Than You' is definitely an example of great story telling (maybe not fabulous photography but good storytelling). I plan on buying the book based solely on the joy I got from the ridiculously entertaining approach to the website.

Shit Happens

I never thought I'd say these words but... check out these super cute Dog Poo Bags! Not only are they funny, they are also super functional. They have a smart folding scoop feature, a useful handle (opposite to the business end of the bag), and they are biodegradable. (Found through Notcot.com).

Matchstick Garden

This is my kind of gardening!

Cuisipro Ice Cream Scoop & Stack

I know this might make you ice cream traditionalists twitch a little, but I like this ice cream scoop from Cuisipro. The scoop creates cylinders of ice cream, perfect for stacking.

Daylesford Organic

I've newly discovered Great Britain's Daylesford Organic. It's an organic store that specializes in food and home products. Their website is drool-worthy gorgeous. It's branding at its best. Plus, they have some refreshing approaches to products, like this fresh organic milk packaged in environmentally friendly, biodegradable, fold-flat milk jugs (slash bags).

The Souvenir Shop

Happy Canada Day! Celebrate by obtaining some designer Canadian souvenirs, care of the fabulous Souvenir Shop. They have lots of great glimpses into the Canadian mind. My favorite is the Tent Peg Bottle Opener. Awesome Eh?

Enjoy This Beautiful Day

I'm a huge fan of Chris Glass' website. He has a refreshing view of the world. That view is reflected in Chris' new t-shirt which reads Enjoy This Beautiful Day (in Helvetica, of course)!

I Love You More Than...

This tableware from Foldedpigs may not do anything for your appetite, but it should make you smile. My favorite piece is this bowl with a picture of a brain and the saying, "I love you more than Zombies love brains". Awesome. The "Eat your heart out" plates come in a close second (I'm sure you can imagine the picture).

Emergency Chocolate

I need to stock up on some of this. Who out there hasn't had a need for Emergency Chocolate - I mean honestly. According to the directions it is for "immediate relief of chocolate cravings, lovesickness, exam pressure, mild anxiety and extreme hunger". Brilliant.

Country Codes

This map of the internet country codes is really nice to look at. I wouldn't use it as an information resource (I mean, who uses .US anyway?) but it's a great graphic. Available as a poster from Byte Level.

Twinkie Bake Set

So... continuing on with the old school theme that is emerging this week, check out this Twinkie Bake Set. If you have ever driven past the old Hostess factory store in Brooklyn with me, you will have probably heard about my over-stuffed Twinkie fantasy. If you too dream about discount Twinkies with too much filling, stop dreaming and start baking.

Start Here Notebooks

I like the simple but innovative idea behind the Start Here notebooks. The notebooks link together to form larger notebooks. This idea appeals to me because when you get to the end of a notebook it's not always a smooth transition to next one. Linking them together, allows you to keep all your recent information together. Then you are ready to fully commit to the new notebook, you can detach and cut down again. Notebooks come in lined, blank, planner, or mixed formats. Pocket or tab accessories are also available.

Pigeon Ring Necklaces

I was attracted to these Pigeon Ring Necklaces from Chinny Chin Chin. It's an interesting concept of creating necklaces out of racing pigeon's tags. I think it was the packaging that really sold it on me. Each necklace comes with a stylin' portrait of the athlete, accompanied by some information about their likes and dislikes. I like Mr. T who enjoys mice and malted milk biscuits but dislikes vegetables. I'm going to get one of these for my friend Katy who adores pigeons. (Found through Sub-Studio Design Blog).

Pretty Raccoon

I'm sending some ETSY love out today to the PrettyRaccoon Clothing shop. PrettyRaccoon is the clothing poetry Toronto designer, Andrea Winkler. It features conservative, yet stunning graphics printed onto some traditional, and some not-so-traditional, American Apparel shirts, dresses, scarves and bags. The average price of PrettyRaccon's pieces is in the $30 range. So many tempting choices...

Threadless Spring Cleaning Sale

This week is the Threadless Spring Cleaning Sale. They have reprinted a lot of oldies but goodies, including this favorite of mine called Infinity MPG. T-Shirt prices start at $9. The sale is on until March 26. Even if you miss the sale, definitely check out Threadless. They have new t-shirts, featuring user generated designs, each week.

New York City Garbage

It's hard to know what kind of souvenir to buy in New York City. Do you go with the Statue of Liberty foam hat, the scaled model of the Empire State Building, or the always classic, I Heart NY t-shirt? Well how about going for something completely different and with a much better story... like a cube of garbage. Artist Justin Gignac (also of Wants for Sale), specializes is collecting and selling NYC garbage in neat little smell-proof clear cubes. I love them because they are so representative of New York (and I mean that in the best possible way). You can even purchase special event garbage such as, garbage from New Year's Eve 2008 in Time Square, or garbage from the national republican convention. Brilliant! I want some.

Frozen Smiles

Ha! If someone served me a drink with denture shaped ice cubes in it... it would totally make my day! I can understand how people would find these ice cubes a little disturbing, but personally I think they are brilliantly hilarious. The Frozen Smiles ice tray is one of Jason Amendolara's witty designs for Fred. (Found through Pan-Dan).

Re-Shirt

I appreciate the idea of buying used clothes but I also find it hard to get past the fact that they once belonged to someone else. My overactive imagination gets caught up in thinking about who owned the clothes before me, what kind of life they lived in them and what sort of mischief they got up to. Re-Shirt has taken advantage of this fact and turned the story behind a used t-shirt into a selling feature. People donate their used t-shirt along with some insight into its existence so far. An orange label with a registration number is added to the shirt. From then on, all owners of the shirt can document their experiences with/in it, giving the shirt a life and history of its own.

I really enjoyed the story behind the t-shirt shown above. Here it is as told from its previous owner's perspective: "I was wearing this t-shirt on a Sunday picnic with friends, kids and dogs. It was a nice autumn day and we enjoyed our sandwiches and a really very nice homemade chocolate cake while sitting on our blankets in the grass on a sunny hill north of Vienna, Austria overlooking the skyline of the city."

Wants for Sale

Artists Christine Santora and Justin Gignac have come up with an uber creatively practical approach to art - they simply paint what they want. The project is called Wants for Sale. Each oil painting that they do is of an object or concept that they desire (i.e. an iPhone or some buffalo wings) and then they sell the painting for the cost of that object. For example their painting of a Slice of Pepperoni costs $3 while the Financial Security painting cost $1000000. They are also willing to trade if you have the exact item they want. There is something really refreshing about the honesty and directness of this approach.

Christine and Justin also have an even more brilliant sister site called Needs for Sale where they use the same approach to raise money for charity. You can buy paintings of a Toilet ($100 for Habitat for Humanity) or a Can of Peas ($250 for City Harvest). Not only do you get to donate to charity, you also get a piece of art with a great story behind it.

Lakai Recycled Shoes

Lakai has a refreshing approach to environmentally friendly shoes. They call it The Recycling Program. To eliminate waste, material offcuts that would otherwise be thrown out are used on the panels of The Recycling Program shoes. The shoe's sole is created from a mix of regrind rubber waste and new rubber, reducing the use of new material by 50%. No two shoes are exactly alike. In being honest to the recycling approach, designers only specify which of the shoe pannels are to be make out of recycled material. It is up to the manufacturers to determine what materials they have excess offcuts of to apply. Two of Lakai's shoe styles are available in The Recycling Program, the Kost-One (shown here) and the Coda. (Found through Sub-Studio Design Blog).

Baggu

The other day, my coworker Jessie was telling me that her New Year's resolution this year is to not use plastic bags. This struck me as a very smart and sensible resolution. It's a positive change, it's a bit of a challenge and it's realistically achievable. Anyway... this reminded me that I've been meaning to purchase these Baggu reusable shopping bags. I know there are a lot of reusable bags out there right now, but these are the ones I chose to go with. I like them because they are large (as in they hold a lot of stuff), but fold down to a small wallet size package. They come in all sorts of wonderful colours and cost $8 each (or $22 for 3 or $38 for 6, if you are really committed).

MOO

MOO is a modern approach to a printing company that focuses on making virtual content into something interesting and tangible. They have a range of great products, all that are printed using your images or artwork from online sites such as Flickr, Bebo, Facebook, and more. I really like their MiniCards. You get 100 70mm x 28mm cards, each with an image on one side and a personalized message on the other side for $19.99. They also make greeting cards, sticker books and postcards. The best part is that each print can have a different image on it, so you get 100 unique MiniCards, 20 unique postcards, etc. I'm definitely going to order some. Oh, and they have global shipping so don't write this off as a US only experience.

Constructive Eating Utensils

I'm filing this one under: Things that make me wish I was a two year old boy. It's a super cute construction utensil set for children, designed by a husband and wife team. I love that the set consists of a fork, spoon, and PUSHER! Can you tell that I got in trouble for playing with my food? Newly available on The Spoon Sisters website.

Claudia Schulz Hats

Check out these gorgeous hat designs by Vancouver based designer Claudia Schulz. Her style is a modern take on hats from the 20s and 30s. They have elegant clean lines offset by funky stitching, accessories and colours. I want one of each... this could get expensive. (Found through the always inspiring swissmiss ).

Jack Cards

Jack Cards is the greeting card solution for all of us who are thoughtful but forgetful/unorganized. It is a service that allows you to register all the important days in your friends and relatives lives. Then you choose appropriate greeting cards for them. Jack cards will send you the card just in time for you to write your own message in the card and resend it to your loved one. I love sending and receiving cards but I always remember people's birthdays on the day of, not a week prior - so this is perfect for me. (Found through Springwise).

Flo

Boon makes gorgeous products for children and babies. They describe their products as 'innovations for modern parents'. They have a lot of great ideas. I particularly like this Flo water deflector. It fits over your bathtub's faucet, covering the sharp edges and creating a gentle waterfall of water. It even has a bubble bath reservoir and dispenser button. I kind of want one.

Windowherbs

Windowherbs are a great solution to making fresh herbs part of your daily cooking routine. They are half pots of herbs that come with suction cups to allow you to stick them right to your kitchen window. The pots are not only a smart design, but also a very good looking one. The clear pots with simple labeling would suit any kitchen. Windowherbs were designed by Tineke Beunders of ZO.

360 Electrical

This is a nice evolution of traditional wall sockets. It's called 360 Electrical. It is an electrical outlet plate where the two sockets spin 360 degrees to help manage bulky plugs. Copper contacts provide the unlimited rotation ability and 18 hold positions help keep the plugs in place.

Pulp Star Customizable Fiction

"A hard-boiled private dick and a beautiful dame team up to investigate the death of her sister. In this treacherous whodunit, the question of suicide or murder plunges an exclamation point into the heart of every breathless pulse!"

... and the characters are customized by you! Pulp Star provides pulp fiction books which are fully personalized to your specifications. You get to name and describe the physical traits of the characters (including hair color, body type, nickame, etc.) and your personalized book is printed specially for you. You can even opt for a customized cover to match your characters.

Belkin N1 Vision

I found myself in Best Buy a few weeks ago staring at the Belkin N1 Vision and daydreaming about how I could sabotage my own wireless router to justify buying this one. My desire was not without reason. This router has a lot of great features including CD-less installation and a vertical orientation to reduce its footprint on your desk/floor/whatever. The really big improvement that they have made over other routers is adding a screen. The display shows all sorts of useful information such as upload and download speeds, current wireless users connected, and activity over the past 24 hours. This makes the router an valuable part of your internet setup and not just a box with blinking lights under your desk.

Sarah Cihat

Sarah Cihat is one of the most inspiring sustainable designers I can think of. She's not revolutionizing the power industry, or eliminating our dependence on fossil fuels. Her efforts are arguably small in size, but to me, that is what makes them so largely brilliant and inspiring. Sarah creates Rehabilitated Dishware. She collects used or unwanted ceramics from secondhand stores or overstocked piles and turns them into something new. She resurfaces the plates with modern colors and graphics, which play on the character of the original ceramic design, giving a new appeal to previously unwanted products.

Vuru

Vuru provides an interesting service. They create customized daily vitamin and supplement packages for their customers. You can go to their website, enter in the daily supplements you take and they will send you a supply of individually packed pills that match your daily intake. I think this is a really smart idea. It saves people a lot of time and effort, especially if you take more than a couple supplements a day; it avoids the hassle of all of your pills running out at different times; it's especially useful for people who travel a lot, packing your vitamins means just grabbing a couple of packs; and if you have to take some vitamins when you are out for lunch or dinner, just take the resealable bag with you. I've seen a lot of great redesigns for the weekly pill box, but the simplicity of this solution puts them all to shame.

Worried about Alien Abduction?

Do you lie in bed at night fretting about how you will get back to Earth after your next alien abduction? Well fret no more. A solution is finally here. For a mere $12.99 you can purchase these Location Earth Dog Tags engraved with instructions on where to find Earth within the galaxy. The graphics are based on NASA's Pioneer 10 plaque which was intended to inform extraterrestrials about the spacecraft's origin. The language-free graphics feature the mathematical location of Earth in relation to several important pulsars (represented by the radial diagram) and Earth's location withing the solar system. The tags come with a complete money back guarantee should you ever be abducted and not safely returned to this, your home planet.

The Complete Manual

The folks at Knock Knock never cease to amaze me with their witty stationary products. One of their latest products cracked me up. It is the Complete Manual of Things that Might Kill You: A Guide to Self-Diagnosis for Hypochondriacs. Haha!

Thiriving Office

If you work at home it is sometimes hard to get the respect you deserve. Put a stop to those questions about whether or not you work in your pajamas by using the Thriving Office CD. It's the soundtrack of an office in full swing. The CD has two tracks, 'Busy' and 'Very Busy'. Both are 39 minutes long and feature the sounds of phones, voices and computers. They will never know it's just you and your cat... I mean assistant.

My Cuppa

These My Cuppa mugs have been featured on a lot of blogs lately, but they are such a good idea that I had to write about them myself. Designed by Suck UK, these mugs were created to help you make the perfect cup of tea or coffee. They have a little color matching guide on the side to help you add just the right amount of milk. This is perfect if you are into experimenting with milk, and even more perfect if you are trying to instruct someone on how to make your tea/coffee. 'Make it a Builder's Brew would ya luv'. Available for purchase on the Suck UK website.

OXO Corn Stripper

Personally, I'm a big fan of eating corn straight off the cob, but for some reason if you aren't (because you have dentures, you are trying to freeze it, or you are simply no fun), then this product is for you. It's a corn stripper designed by TODA for OXO. If, like I said before, you are someone who takes corn off it's cob, this is a pretty ingenious product. It strips the corn safely and stores it in a compartment for easy, no mess, transport and pouring. (Thanks Brett!)

X-Beam Wrench

This X-Beam wrench is a front runner (in my books) for product of the year. It has already won a Popular Science Best of What's New Award, an ID Magazine Design Award, and an IDSA IDEA Award. And all with good reason. It's a simple adjustment to traditional wrenches with a huge effect on the ergonomics and usability. Designed by Richard Macor of Proprietary Technologies, Inc., this product is effectively a 'wrench with a twist'. By adding a 90 degree twist to the center of the wrench they have created a much more solid area on which to grip the wrench, providing more torque and less strain on the wrist. Definitely file this one respectfully under 'DUH'. Available for purchase at GearWrench.com

On The Edge Pots

I like these On The Edge Pots by designer Michael Hilgers. They are flower pots that can be hung over a railing, which is particularity nice to those of us with outdoor space limited to a balcony or fire escape. I find them a much more elegant solution than traditional window boxes. They look good from both sides of the railing and they can still still be used as non-hanging pots. On The Edge Pots are available for purchase from DWR for (ouch) $85.

Teaposy

Teaposy tea is all about the experience of tea. Their tea comes in a compressed bulb. When you place it into a (preferably clear) teapot of hot water it starts to slowly bloom. Instead of impatiently waiting for you tea to stoop, this allows you to stop, relax and enjoy the process. Click here to watch a video.

Tattoos for the Elderly

These temporary tattoos for the elderly made me giggle. They feature sayings like 'Who's your grand daddy' and 'Really old school' as well as some humorous graphics like a snake wrapped around a pill organizer. It's nice to see that some people have a good sense of humor about aging. Available for purchase through The Spoon Sisters.

Cut and Carve

These Cut and Carve chopping boards by Joseph Joseph are a nice twist on the traditional. Designed with Danish designer John Brauer, these cutting boards have a slanted work surface to allow liquid or crumbs to be collected on one side while still maintaining a level edge on the other side for easy transfer of food. The boards are two sided. One side features and grip area to assist with carving. Available for purchase through the Joseph Joseph site or Delight.com.

Sarah Hood Jewelry

I like this inventive new line of jewelry from Sarah Hood called Landscape. It is made out of model train landscape elements. There is something about the size distortion and the material combinations that really works for me.

Omlet Eglu

Looking for stylish ways to reduce your carbon footprint? How about raising chickens for eggs in this gorgeous chicken 'Eglo' by Omlet? This product was designed by four Royal College of Art students a few years back (I actually first saw it at their grad show!). Since then they have founded Omlet which sells this Eglu and the larger Eglu cube for housing chickens, rabbits or guinea pigs. Their site also has tons of great info about being an urban chicken owner. (Found through Trend Watching)

Ecsotype Bags

I'm in love with a bag (yes, again)! The School bag is just one of 3 customizable bags from Australia's Ecsotype. Designers Sabine and Christian Pound have created a sort of co-design experience with consumers by allowing them to customize the bags using their online store. In the case of this School bag, you can assign the colors black, brown, red or ivory to each half of the leather bag, the straps and the accent rope, as well as choosing the handle type. The idea behind all the options is that the bag becomes more of a long-term purchase because it is something personal to your tastes instead of just something you found momentarily stylish. Interesting thinking for the traditionally seasonal world of bag design. Unfortunately at just over $400 this bag is a little out of my price range, even for a "long-term" investment. I'll just have to stick to drooling.

Surface View

I just spent the last 15 minutes daydreaming about which of these murals I want on my office wall and which would be best for the bedroom wall. Surface View has a large collection of beautiful wall murals that can be customized for any wall and sent to you in wallpaper style strips for easy application. Of course if you can afford the wall coverings than you can probably afford the professional installation option as well. The images include about 120 pictures from the Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as a wide range of illustrations, photography and etchings. Their website is very nice and offers to show you the murals behind different pieces of furniture to help you daydreaming along. (Found through FWA)

Mechanical Music Box Kit

This is an interesting twist on the traditional music box. It's a music box kit that comes with a small hand cranked music box and strips of paper music to determine which song the box will play. The kit comes with the paper strip music for Happy Birthday as well as some blank sheets, a hole punch and instructions on how to make your own music. This is a fun way to learn how to write music or show off your music box composer skills. Available at Grand Illusions or The Curiosity Shoppe. (Found through Cool Hunting)