Happy 4th of July! While out at the Yuki 7 opening at Gallery Nucleus tonight ~ since i seldom venture out to Alhambra ~ we cruised around a bit, and there were 4+ of these fireworks trailers within a few block radius! So, naturally, it was hard to resist stopping at one to check out the frenzy, and couldn't resist indulging and picked up The Nite Thriller. The packaging is quite amusing... so many crazy fonts... the plastic bag has THE PREVENTOR on it... some even have the special "Glofuze"... and with names like Crackling Cactus and Golden Shower, it's hard not to giggle.

p.s.
They were for a good cause! Apparently TNT Fireworks are great for fundraising, and the ones we saw were for the AYSO teams.

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I keep hearing about SciFi/Syfy's Caprica recently ~ so got curious and checked out the DVD on directv tonight ~ and i love the designy details of this alternate reality. Particularly the tennis court!!! And the architecture of the main house, the bookshelves, and the computer sheets... take a peek at some screenshots on the next page!

p.s.
i must admit i haven't really watched battlestar yet, but it has come up so many times in the last week alone, definitely need to do some catching up?

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A floor literally tiled with thousands of copper pennies... it's pretty surprising to look down and see them when you walk into The Standard Grill in the Standard Hotel New York, below the Highline. See some more peeks of it on the next page!

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Here are some fun recent posts from NOTCOT.org!!! Click the images to find out more!

Snapped this pic just as i was walking out of CAboom ~ not sure who the artist is (ideas?) ~ but upon looking at it closer when i got home, its a pretty freaky Michael Jackson facial evolutionary spiral... see it up close on the next page.

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While i've never been a huge embroidery fan, Megan Whitmarsh's little yetis and lilliputian people rocking out have always been so adorably amusing. These were spotted over at Synchronicity at CAboom, and definitely made me giggle. Take a look at the rest of these silver and gold little guys with their crazy geometric/neon clothes and patterns popping off mini canvases on the next page!

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If i had a pool, i'd love to have it surrounded by a few of these Inflatable Pool Lounger/Chairs by PAD Outdoor. Such a sleek simple idea ~ aluminum frame (see it exposed on the next page!) ~ and although its only a prototype, you can buy them over at Ford & Ching and they will even customize them in an array of colors...

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On pieces that caught my eye at the Black Maria Gallery booth in CA|Boom ~ Renee Lawter's Energy Efficient Dinos are just too funny. Compact florescent with wings? Flying out of the mouths of dinos? Who have incandescents as spines? See the full pieces, framed and all on the next page...

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I didn't know what to expect when i heard CA|Boom had moved from barker hanger (which i love!) to that abandoned feeling Robinsons May space in Beverly Hills... and from March to the same dates as the Dwell on Design Show... but i had to check it out none the less. It takes a few minutes to cover - but the thing worth seeing is the art! A few great local galleries are showing some fun work... like Thinkspace!!!

That piece above is one of a series by Brett Amory in his "Waiting" Series ~ and it's absolutely STUNNING. A must see in person. There's just an incredible way it pulls you in ~ beautiful color palette ~ and then as you get closer you notice the details and emotional distance between the 3 tightly seated communters who float like an island in the space... Love the hoodied guy too... There's something terribly fun about the shift to seeing more art works with the beautiful illustrations/characters woven into larger more complex and/or abstract pieces coming in... leave it to Thinkspace to lead the way. Take a look at a few of their other pieces showing at CA|Boom which also caught my eye on the next page!

p.s.
LA kids - if you're not on the Sour Harvest list, you should be. It's far better than asking me what shows are happening each week!

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Perhaps the coolest random goodies yet... Ford & Ching (Previously FordBrady, but Brady has moved on and Ching has joined Ford) ~ while at Dwell on Design this morning, i got a branded marshmallow in a box ~ a very cool little wooden box cut to perfectly fit a single marshmallow. A marshmallow i couldn't bear to eat until i had thoroughly photographed it to share with you! (As it was publishing, i devoured it. it was delicious.) While i hate to admit it, i was far too excited by the adorably cool boxes and chatting with both Ford & Ching that i don't have the name of the awesome wood loving designer behind the boxed mallows, but i'll be back there tonight and quite a bit this weekend, so i'll come add that later... but first things first ~ check out the awesome branded mallow in a box on the next page!

UPDATE!!! The awesome woodiness is by Andrew Riiska ~ and his blog has some fun behind the scenes look at his gorgeous tables as well!

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The one thing that i couldn't get out of my head after leaving Dwell On Design - Woolly Pocket Gardening Company, and they adorably cool recycled plastic felty living walls/vertical gardens and planter pockets! It's a brilliant concept that really softens up a space, and such a fun subtle texture to add both indoors and out. These pockets are ready for planting, come in a variety of sizes... and can be both lined on the interior base (so they wont leak onto your walls/etc) or unlined for outdoor use. "Woolly Pockets are flexible, breathable, and modular gardening containers. They`come in two styles: those designed to be placed on horizontal surfaces, and those designed to be hung on walls for vertical gardening. You can use Woolly Pockets both indoors and out; they have built-in moisture barriers to help protect furniture, and they're equally at home outside in the elements"

Also - how adorable is that logo and tag??? Their website + blog have adorable photography as well ~ but for some first hand looks at them, check out more pics on the next page of the various setups and colors all over the Dwell show ~ not only at their booth, but also found at the VIP section and throughout the Outdoor section. I have so many ideas for movable gardens in my patio as well as covering some walls now! See the pics...

p.s.
How perfect would the small table top ones be for fun succulent filled gifts???

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I swear i won't buy a full box of produce just to get one of these amazing Yeti's Best boxes. BUT, i may not be below begging them to let me have one next time! Wandering whole foods i got terribly distracted and started taking quick pics with my point and shoot of the Yeti Produce!!! Only to realize that as i turned around it was a Whole Foods brand box... and there were other retro/designer boxes as well! Yeti is definitely the best, and Cosmic second best ~ but you must check out the rest on the next page!

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Phone Lust! Crunching to get this post sorted out before i run to LAX to pick friends up... and because of that i wasn't able to make it out to London today for the HTC Hero and HTC Sense launch! Fortunately Dr. Justine (yes! my little sis is all done!!!) was able to spare a few hours, hop out of oxford, and out of the academic world to go see what all this mobile fuss was about. And get pics to show me what i was missing. As usual, you can get all the technical details on any site, but she got us those key moments and details i love seeing... like the expressions the C-level presenters have, and the presentation graphics they used... and quotes about things like Drunken Thumb and Teflon fingerprintlessness and how 'fun people make fun phones, nerdy people make nerdy phones' (yes, this is a "fun" phone). So on the next page you'll see a bunch of hands on pics of the new phone, as well as my favorite snippets of her press event experience.

As for the phone lusting ~ the new HTC Hero is like a super thin keyboardless version of the G1 (in shape!) ~ and it is running Android, with their new HTC Sense experience that takes it to a whole new level (keep in mind HTC are the guys who even skinned windows mobile to a point where i loved looking at it, and the UX, until you realize its still win mobile under there, too bad they couldn't hide everything?) ~ Its most appealing feature is that it is truly PEOPLE centered, in that instead of looking for your friends on twitter, facebook, flickr, address book, email (of various accounts)... it sorts the content by PEOPLE! So you can see all of a person's feeds/interactions with you in one place. And it sounds like it does it pretty easily too ~ get your account info in and the phone does the rest and updates it regularly and syncs people up. Now if that meant all those people i'm bad at officially putting in my address book can have their info sucked in from facebook/linkedin etc ~ that'd be awesome. (p.s. while it does apparently magically sync matching names on its own, you can decide which get paired or manually sync for people who like pseudonyms on various accounts.)

OK ~ go see the pics!

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Roundup time! Felt strangely reminiscent tonight, and i was looking through the last few pages of NOTCOT.org, it felt like the perfect time for a 3am roundup! So click the pics to find out more...

Late night browsing: these Horizon Fire posters caught my eye while catching up on Change The Thought. The work of Manchester-based designer Paul Tebbot is just stunningly retro, minimalist, and utterly captivating! See 3 more of my favorites on the next page!

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