Happy Cyber Monday! I’m so excited to share this holiday feature with you! Our friends at Bittersweets NY have sent us an incredible look inside their studio, sharing not only a peek at their space, but also the making of their latest diamond rings inspired by nature - resembling twigs holding the diamond! From sketches to final product, it’s fascinating to see how it comes to be. AND, on top of that, they have been generous enough to offer one of their 14K Gold Diamond Twig Bands for a giveaway as well! See the story on the next page as well as details on the giveaway!

TO “Holiday Feature! Bittersweets NY + Giveaway”! ——->

I am mesmerized and fascinated and suddenly feeling the need to pick a color and dye things. Don’t mock, but i’m SO giddy because i think i’m finally nearly caught up on email for the first time in… YEARS? 1300 to under 100!!! Took me something from 11am to 6am yesterday… but nearly there! and in it i just found this gem from a friend…

“I was in Paris last week and I spent 2 hours in the 180 grammes store in la Bastille and I thought it could be of interest for you. They are making painted clothes and shoes. They have a deal with Nike and are making super cool shoes. In the store, the clothes they have (for men and women) are amazing and custom made. I bought a pair of nike and pants but frankly, with more money I would have bought everything. Apparently, they are submerged with request from people… it was tough to have make my pair of shoes in 1 day!”

How incredible is that? And then i just lost a bit of time staring at the images on the 180 grammes site… absolutely stunning. Seriously. Look at all these COLORS! See more images on the next page…

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On Stockholm discoveries ~ between all the Absolut festivities, while chatting with the global PR lady for Absolut, couldn’t help noticing her lovely dresses all weekend ~ and it turns out they are made by the up and coming Swedish line, House of Dagmar! Who have an great story of being founded and run by three sisters with perfectly complementary skills - “Dagmar was founded by the Swedish sisters Kristina Tjäder, Karin Söderlind and Sofia Malm. Kristina Tjäder is designer, educated at ESMOD École Superieur de la Mode in Paris. Previously, she has worked for Christian Lacroix, H&M and other Swedish brands. Karin Söderlind supervised purchasing and product development for H&M during eight years and has been operating as a brand manager and PR-consultant for many years. Sofia Malm, a textile economist, is Dagmar’s head of sales with many years of experience in retailing.” On on crazy coincidences, they also happened to be the her neighbor, so in addition to checking out their collection when i wandered NK, Karin Söderlind joined us at the Absolut event and we had a lovely chat about the line and design philosophies while perusing the Absolut Art! And on how the name came to be ~ “The principal source of inspiration - and muse - is the sisters’ late grandmother by the name Dagmar. She was herself a tailor and inspired the sisters to develop their interest for fabrics and design at young age.”

I love their style ~ which they describe as “arty chic”, but that is a very swedish, clean, modern arty chic which i adore. Not to mention the photography for their collections is so fun too! Take a peek on the next page of some of my favorites from their new Spring/Summer 2010 collection.

p.s. Upon realizing the brand felt familiar when i got home ~ of course you can find it at Revolve Clothing and Fred Segal ~ and in addition to many swedish awards, it has also won a 2007 fashion show by Gen Art-NY during NY Fashion Week!

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Included: Coastal Brake 12” (collection of remixes with a poster inside the album), Coastal Brake giclee, Ghostly 10 giclee, button set, Syv Triblend shirt (winner will pick the size, of course!)

HAPPY BLACK FRIDAY!!! To kick off the holiday season, i’ve decided to do something a little different this year. We’ve invited a few people and companies that we’ve grown to love over the years and inspire us constantly to share their stories, processes, and/or a behind the scenes look at their world and the amazing products that come out of it. Also, they love you guys enough that most of them also wanted to give you guys presents ~ so this year it’s about feature stories and giveaways! And i might not be able to resist and might make a few new gift guides or more products as well. Additionally we’re working on bringing back and cleaning up the gift guides of the previous years, since 99% of those products i’d still gift in a heartbeat! So i’m working and shopping this black friday, expect to see the new NOTCOT Gift Guide 2009 section evolve a bit over the next few days, its my fun sandbox to play with some new ideas…

First up! is the amazing Scott Hansen of ISO50. He has not only given us a peek into the way his breathtaking prints are hand made and cut in his studio… but also offered a generous bundle of prints and more for you to win! So take a peek at the featured post for his story, as well as details on how to enter for a chance to win all the goodies!

TO ” Holiday Feature! ISO50: Scott Hansen + Giveaway “! ——->

You've seen the other Target Gift Cards ~ but the incredible detail of the artwork and illustrations on the Winter Fishing Hole Game Gift Card deserved a post of its own! Full scan of the game board as well as the pieces/packaging are on the next page in addition to some fun closeups. From the signature on the game's board, figured out that the design is by brothers, Don and Ryan Clark, of Invisible Creature ~ who posted about the project earlier this month. They do some amazing gig posters, illustration work, and more ~ in particular i'm loving their monsters and creatures tonight! Take a peek at one of the coolest gift cards i've seen in a while on the next page ~ and if you think about it, it's a pretty cheap piece of art that is practically free... you can load it up with $5 to buy the gift card, then use that to buy something else and have the fun game to play or pin up somewhere! Details on the next page aren't to be missed!

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Would you believe that pile up there contains 4 different Target Gift Cards? After seeing a magazine ad for some of the new gift cards this season, Linhchi and i took a little field trip to 2 targets tonight to see what there was... i'm absolutely in love with the beautifully illustrated Winter Fishing Hole Board Game of a gift card as well as the adorable wind up dog that pulls a woody sleigh gift card ~ both of which are new for this year! Unfortunately between those two targets we weren't able to find the remote controlled mouse in a shopping cart, but you can still see pics of that on the next page. We're also now very familiar with exactly where around the whole layout of their stores you can find gift cards (different ones in different sections, often at the ends of aisles)... also found were a really fun coloring birthday card with a box of crayons as a gift card ~ and a relaxing car with a bathtub on a box filled with bath salts! I'm impressed with what playful and thoughtful ways target has come up with to enhance the often boring gift card giving experience. While this isn't a new phenomenon (remember the light up Target Wii gift card we dissected?) ~ this year's did seem particularly noteworthy for fun design! See closeups and others on the next page...

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Some packaging just makes you smile. Almost doesn't matter what's inside... this line of adorably illustrated bears on the Life NK line of bath and body products are too cute not to share. See them all on the next page!

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Click for Art has branched into Cups & Saucers ~ and i'm totally smitten by the Nanami Cowdroy Suspended Animation black and white goldfish one as well as the Si Scott Lovebirds. Can you imagine cuter cups to serve espresso in? Staring at these just makes me dream up the most adorable little cafe ~ with an outdoor patio of course. And we haven't even started to look at the packaging! Such a lovely gift idea ~ and they are each a limited edition of 250 - shipped with a sequentially numbered mini art print signed by the artist and a Certificate of Authenticity! See more pics of my favorite two on the next page...

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I showed you my dad's experience at the Mercedes AMG Driving Academy at the Laguna Seca track in Monterey... but as i went through his pictures, this carbon fiber wrapped Mercedes AMG SLS really deserved a post of its own. It's stunning! It's so overwhelmingly carbon fibered! Biggest downer for anyone lusting after it enough to try to purchase one, they aren't for sale, but i'm sure you can get someone to get it done for you, or even DIY it yourself if you're feeling handy. I can't seem to stop staring at the pics on the next page... see for yourself!

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I love products to play with during breakfast. Perfect way to start the day? I had a chance to poke at Ultimate Ears (recently added to the Logitech family, and locally based in Irvine!) over breakfast at King's Highway with a guy who works for Logitechin Palm Springs at the Ace and he let me keep them to play with (especially after they'd been in my ears!) and just to be super clear, no, i'm not writing about them because of that! As for why i'm including them in the netbooks section ~ every netbook totally needs a good pair of headphones to go with them ~ since often when netbooking, you can be somewhere pretty public (be it at the cafe or in an airplane)!

On top of the nice sound quality ~ it's the design details of this particular set that grabbed me. I love how subtle, tiny and pill like these Ultimate Ear 700s are ~ they totally reminded me of my chill pill necklace and capsule pills in general when i saw them. So tiny! Not the kind of headphones that basically end up looking like funky earrings... Also while the packaging leaves a bit to be desired (bit too much plastic and not all too interesting box graphic design) ~ the case is perfect to protect your buds in your netbook case or bag and at the very bottom in the inside has the cutest little infographic showing you to wrap the cord around your fingers. Silly, but someone clearly spent a bit of time on the details! Also extremely subtle, the right side earbud is red, the left is black! Take a peek at the unboxing and design details on the next page!

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I'm jealous. Above is a pic of what my dad just told me is the "US-Spec AMG SLS for us to play with on the drag strip, slalom course and time trials." So, while i was traveling, my dad (i blame my jetsetting inclination on him) took off to the Laguna Seca Raceway up in Monterey for the Mercedes AMG Driving Academy. He got to drive the brand new AMG SLS and was lucky to be one of the first to experience the new AMG Driving Academy launched in the USA. 16 cars were specially flown in from Germany to accompany the 20 full time cars availble for the course. Luminary driver/instructors included: Tommy Kendall (USA), Bernd Maylander (F1 pace car driver) and Susie Stoddart (Mercedes DTM team driver from Europe). Basically i came home to emails of his incredible adventure... from giddy stories about how mindblowing the drives were (teasing me how much fun i would have had going 160 around the track in one of those beauties) to tales of the chef grilling alongside the track for lunch to inside looks at the stunning carbon fiber drive shaft to the amazing friends he made on the trip and stories he heard... bottom line? The course was totally worth it, and he'd do it again in a heartbeat... in fact, there are 5 levels of courses happening around the US as well as Europe... i think he's caught the bug, since he's already dreaming about Sweden. I think i might have to try and convince him to take me along next time! But for now... i've convinced him to let me share his pictures with us ~ take a peek on the next page to see the experience!

p.s.
There is also the amazing carbon fiber wrapped car that looked amazing ~ pics to come of that one soon!

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On breathtaking gallery openings ~ SHAG's "Autumn's Come Undone" show at the Corey Helford Gallery is incredible. I showed you a preview earlier, and now the full show preview is available here... the show consists of new paintings as well as huge 6-foot wide panoramic giclee panels on canvas ~ in singles, pairs, and triples ~ these larger than life panoramas have so many details going on at once you can literally stand and stare at them constantly discovering more and more! The way they are displayed in the gallery is beautiful in and of itself ~ take a look at the scene on the next page!

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The Ace Hotels practically radiate visual inspiration at every turn... but at the Ace Hotel Palm Springs add being at the foot of the mountains in Palm Springs with that crisp desert sky at night as you float in the pool and hot tub ~ only to run out and press the "Make Fire" button on one of the many fire places surrounded by adorably designed chairs as you look up at the Stan Bitters ceramics ~ or wander to the bar where what appears to be the coolest sunglass wearing stuffed bear you will ever see is perched behind the bottles ~ challenging the coolness of the coyote of a mascot above the reception whose silhouette is all around the hotel... and the THINK signage in the lobby "compliments of IBM corporation" is just priceless. OH! And there are yurts too... with beautiful domed skylights colored with geometric gel patterns... and hammocks too! So as you can see, there was too much besides my room, that i couldn't help but share with you... so MANY pictures on the next page. I hope you enjoy them as much as i do!

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Back in March of 2007, Dave Pressler sent over some adorable little Endorphins ~ and ever since, they've moved with me to various homes and always lived under or near my monitors. Who doesn't need some super happy little endorphin critters nearby at all times? Well, he's gone and dissected one of his larger ones, and anyone fascinated with anatomy can't help but to stare at what he's dreamed up is really INSIDE these guys... look at those fangs! And that skull in its... stomach? And that mini spine! It's all so fascinating, go see closeups on the next page!

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On intriguing art that just showed up in my inbox, Moss in association with Edelman Arts presents Remains by Cathy McClure. "Hands wielding scissors, McClure massacres the motor-driven robotic plush toys, eviscerating them through a Geppetto-like taxidermy until she gets down, as she says, 'into the guts of the piece'." The truly amazing part isn't that she guts these toys (didn't we all as kids?) ~ but she then re-casts the parts in bronze and reassembles them! The result is fascinating... is it now high art? is it still a toy? do they still work? Apparently the original circuit boards, batteries, gears, and voice boxes are all re-installed, but you can't help but wonder how those gears will handle the new weight... looking forward to seeing these in person, they will be at Moss in NY November 20th through December 31st, with a quick trip to Miami for Art Basel Dec 2nd through 5th... see more pics and information on the next page.

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