Sneak peek in to Alessi’s Fall/Winter 2011 product line ~ two grabbed my attention in particular. Eero Aarnio’s Diva watering can, is both elegantly simple and sassy all at once ~ in black, green, and a creamy white. And the Anna Gong is a nod at Mendini’s famous “Anna G” corkscrew and legendary folding cake stand “art.898”. Take a peek at closeups and more details on the next page.
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This series/post is brought to you by Gillette. Learn more about Gillette and its products at Gillette.com. As usual, thoughts and ideas are all NOTCOT, Gillette is sponsoring us to do our thing! 
So many choices! And only two hands… not that we are often using them all at once, but it really is SO easy to have special glasses for just about everything… i have cabinets full of glasses in the kitchen, yet somehow always manage to acquire more! Two of our favorite categories that are pretty versatile (yet still have SO many gorgeously, unique options) are definitely for Beers and Scotches. So if you’re ready for the roundup of fun ones (and a few favorites that are in my cabinet at home even!) head over to the next page!
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I’ve never grown mushrooms before, but having been hearing about mushroom kits for some time now ~ though often they look like they are growing out of a less than appealing pile of goo in a bag! The Back To The Roots Mushroom Kit just arrived, and i love their box design! So simple and pretty and ready to sit on your kitchen window sill! Back To The Roots is the brainchild of two UC Berkeley students, Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora back in 2009 during their final semester ~ they went from investment banking to full time urban mushroom farmers! Most unique about their kits: their oyster mushrooms grow in 100% recycled coffee grounds! So, while i have no mushrooms yet, having just popped the box open today ~ consider this an unboxing look at the details on how it all starts!
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This series/post is brought to you by Gillette. Learn more about Gillette and its products at Gillette.com. As usual, thoughts and ideas are all NOTCOT, Gillette is sponsoring us to do our thing! 
Coffee! Coffee! Coffee! This time Leo researched SO many devices that could make coffee we didn’t even know where to start narrowing them down. Well, we’ve decided to roundup some of the prettiest, cordless, coffee/espresso makers ~ from stove top to vacuum to portable… these are all intriguingly beautiful enough to leave out with pride. Ready to take a look at what we found? Check it out on the next page!
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Thanks, Veuve Clicquot, our Milano Design Week sponsor! We adore their new origami inspired ice bucket, Clicq’up.
More fun Milan discoveries! Hard to ignore this fascinating multipurpose MolenKitchen, part barbecue, firebasket with spit, and smoker, all in one. The wheeled unit means you can cook on the go. The unit was created as a project for Zaandam, Holland by Studio Molen. The unit moves like a wheelbarrow and works both vertically and horizontally. The barrow handles turn into 2m long chimney when upright, or spits horizontally. It comes with beautiful grilling accessories too, allowing you to brand your creations. This could make for some fun customizations since you can come up with your own designs for both the grilling brands and the grilling surface! Also noteworthy? Their awesome graphic design and photoshoot with corrugated cardboard food and more! See more pics of the MolenKitchen in action on the next page!
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Moneral makes some of the most stunning wooden plates i’ve seen/felt. They really are like eating off of slices of wood… and curved just perfectly as a plate… you won’t be able to stop touching them in wonder. “They are made of coated aspen, which makes them durable even in frequent use and for dishwasher use. The Elicia range includes a dinner plate, a cocktail plate, a serving dish, a serving plate and plates’ stand.” and as for the raw materials, “Moneral buy the raw material in the close surroundings of the factory. To ensure a perfect raw material for the plates, each tree is chosen carefully and cut by hand to avoid any damage to the bark. The trees come from sustainably managed and certified Finnish forest, controlled by the Finnish Forest Management Associations.” Amazing, right? Also tempting, you can even customize them… The story is adorable too ~ “It all began with Eero Remes, a farm and the need to buy a specialist saw. As it turned out, making wooden disks with this saw provided hours of entertainment. It was Eero’s son, Panu, who experienced a “Eureka!” moment on seeing the disks lying about in the snow: it would be splendid to eat your dinner off plates like that!” Check out the details on the next page!
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Packaging based impulse buying at the market kind of day. But i was craving fresh cookies too… and while killing time at Mother’s down in Newport Beach… the packaging on the Eat Pastry vegan cookie dough jars sucked me right in with their playfully complex graphic label. The San Diego based line has a few flavors of cookie dough (Choc Chunk, Vegan Gluten-Free Choc Chunk, Peanut Butter Choc Chip, Chocoholic Chunk, Cinnamon Ginger Spice, and Oatmeal Raisin Choc Chip) ~ and its really the speakeasy-esque eyes peeking over what is either an open book or a mustache on the front as well as the fun fonts that lured me in first. And of course there’s the lady with the monkey on her shoulder ~ both enjoying cookies. And the mustache shaped barcode that can’t be ignored! Take a peek at the lovely packaging on the next page… cute branding continues to the Eat Pastry website as well. And i have a few cookies coming out of the oven in a few!
p.s.
apparently i have a plastic screw top container thing… or they tend to have pretty packaging and yummy food within… remember Sauces N Love and Talenti Sorbetto?
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Lovely new piece from Reiko Kaneko for her 2011 collection, The Boat. Too cute that it got its name from the factory floor workers! The contrast of the natural fiber rope handle and the hand made English fine bone china is just stunning… perfect as a bread basket, fruit bowl, or anything else you dream up! See more pictures on the next page…
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Is Mavea new to you? It was to me… looked a lot like Brita? Then i found out the story “Brita started in 1966 when Heinz Hankammer had the idea of optimizing normal tap water. He named the company after his daughter Brita. Its headquarters are in Taunusstein near Wiesbaden in Germany. In 1988,[6] The Clorox Company, based in Oakland, California, entered in a licensing-and-distribution agreement with the German company for North and South America. In 2000, Clorox acquired the sole rights to the brand in North America and Brita agreed to a noncompete clause until 2005. In 2008, Brita returned to the North American market under the brand Mavea.” (via Wikipedia) SO, Mavea pretty much IS Brita, anywhere except North America…
SO, that aside, when a Mavea Elemaris was sent over to me, i was intrigued what was the same, what was different… and the design and quality grabbed me instantly! Particularly this one feature… you can fill it without opening it! Due to a brilliant counter-weighted pod in the cap! Also the handle grip feels great, as well as the soft grip handle and non-slip base. I’m seeing it pop up around the supermarkets like Whole Foods lately, so even though the filters are a different shape from Brita, they are becoming almost as easily accessible. Water tastes great too… but the design details have won me over for this one! See more detailed pics on the next page!
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Being a food focused kind of day with Tasteologie launch ~ seemed only appropriate to share some fun food related inspiration! And as far as inspiring kitchen design goes, The Museum of Modern Art’s Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen exhibition ~ is incredible! It “examines the kitchen and its continual redesign as a barometer of changing aesthetics, technologies, and ideologies… exploring the twentieth-century transformation of the kitchen and highlights MoMA’s recent acquisition of an unusually complete example of the iconic “Frankfurt Kitchen,” designed in 1926-27 by the architect Grete Schütte-Lihotzky. Featured alongside the Frankfurt Kitchen is a 1968 mobile fold-out unit manufactured by the Italian company Snaidero. These two complete kitchens are complemented by a wide variety of design objects, architectural plans, posters, archival photographs, and selected artworks, all drawn from MoMA’s collection.” They are truly stunning, and the design objects to be found within them can’t be missed! See previews of the exhibition on the next page!
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Alessi released their new Fall-Winter 2010 product collection. Our favorites in the collection are “Tea Matter” tea strainer and tea caddy by Alan Chan and “Scoiattolo” nutcracker by Andrea Branzi. Lately, been working a lot staring out the kitchen window ~ laptop open, with a background of dozens of birds happily chirping away and squirrels racing in and out of the yard barking at each other… so when the new Alessi press kit came across the table, perhaps its not so surprising that the birds and squirrels ended up being the designs that grabbed me first! Take a peek at close ups of both on the next page!
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Today’s obsession? Absolut Art of Sharing Pitchers ~ after running across them on The World’s Best Ever i’ve been googling and ebaying and finding out whatever i can about them… but no one seems to know if they available in the US? What is it made of? This new summery art collaboration with Stephen J Powers and Chiho Aoshima results in 4 summery pitchers. I assume they are just plastic? Perhaps silk screened on? Have any of you seen them in person? Felt the quality of them? Art Collectors says - “From what we can tell, they’ve been released in various sizes for different markets (1Liter in US, 700ml in Europe/New Zealand, 750ml in Mexico)” and “So far, only 3/4 designs have been released in the 1L and 750ml sizes, so your best bet is to go for the 700ml set, which so far have hit a limited number of specialty stores in the UK, France, Belgium, and Greece.” See more pics and the video on the next page!
p.s.
“The Art of Sharing” makes me think of being a little kid… and learning about how important it is to share!
p.p.s.
Updated ~ just found an exclusive french design by Dan Tobin Smith - pictures added on next page.
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I’m not sure which part is more fun right now ~ the idea of a Pancake Plate (where, of course, the syrup flows down the slope into its special syrup reservoir to avoid over soaked pancakes!) or the Pirate Chef logo by John Wye, who designed the pancake plates. I could have used these when tackling these pigs in a blanket at the Pancake Pantry last week ~ they ended up a delicious soggy mess when i was slow with consuming them! Love that these are an UncommonGoods exclusive ~ bummer that there aren’t any with the Pirate Chef logo on them ~ see more details (and other pirate chef goodness) on the next page!
On fun contraptions that might make kitchen life a tiny bit simpler, i’m liking these 
Just in from the UK ~ 
Fun london grocery store discoveries ~ 
On fun design spotted in real life ~ just noticed the new 
I don’t throw dinner parties, but ‘Dressed’ created by 
Leave it to 
So, you saw the pictures of the 
Beautiful! What cup of coffee or tea wouldn’t transcend being a mere drink (as delicious as it may be) when served in this cup and saucer? Especially when you reach the sad end of the cup, only to find that last little splash of the bunny whirlpool? Previously, came the 
New from Aurelien Barbry for 
“Flying Green’ collection by Italian 
