A bit last minute but here are some small gift ideas that I thought I’d share. Not quite as extravagant as my very selfish wishlist but I am mostly making gifts this year and like to look for little things to go along with those gifts. These little wood elephant bottle openers are amazing, my favorite Postalco notebooks available from South Willard, Tortoise and Auto, Juniper Ridge California Bay Laurel soap smells like trees! I love it and it’s actually made of trees and all natural ingredients, I have also seen it for sale at Mothers Markets so you might find it there and avoid shipping, this little box is just interesting and would make a great little lunch box, a lovely little print from Fifi Lapin, colorful rock soap, a Honey in the Rough knotted headband, and the easiest gift to give is Papabubble, it’s really amazing how they get the letters so small in this amazing candy, I miss stopping in there to say hello to those guys. I also received a very cute letterpressed calendar from SeeSaw letterpress, and I love the colors and linear layout of it, it’s a very sweet gift.

The table pictured in the image above with a “stone-slab top has a geographically correct depiction of the Amazon River carved into it, a pump providing a flow of water and a cluster of succulent plants thriving on top,” and the steel cabinet below has a mechanical toy train that runs in the tracks carved into the slab. Both pieces were designed by Wolfgang Laubersheimer. I wish all furniture could be this subtlety interesting and entertaining.
The Wolfgang Laubersheimer’s Amazonas desk and steel cabinet are on view at the “German Avant Garde Design of the 1980s” show at Demisch Danant gallery in New York until December 20th.
via Hint

I love this photo of Karl in his Memphis phase. Check out that boombox behind him!

Swedish design team JANTZE BROGÅRD ASSHOFF created this cute and functional Greenhouse wastepaper basket prototype, and someone better agree to produce this trash can soon because I want to buy it! It’s simplicity is genius.

Andrew Kuo is a New York based artist who also has been creating brilliantly colorful infographics for the New York Times quantifying the unquantifiable. His humble attitude, humor and awesome color combinations are my favorite aspects of his work. Check out Kuo’s blog and the video of him on the Charlie Rose show.

I passed by the Visionaire gallery and this incredible unicorn was in the window for issue 53 of Visionaire magazine. The gallery was closed when I went by and the lights were off, so you can’t see it from this photo, but this is a giant translucent and iridescent purple decal on the window of the gallery. It’s awesome I want one!

I admire Nagi Noda’s amazing imagination, and have ever since I saw this image of the poodle exercise video, that alone convinced me whoever made it is a genius! Of course the more work of hers I saw the more incredible I realized she is. Check out more of her work here.

This is incredible, APC’s Jean Touitou has opened a preschool in Paris called APE that has M/M Paris designing a “visual toolbox” for kids to play with, Jessica Ogden teaching art part-time and cashmere nap-time blankets. Sounds so nice even I want to go there. I love Touitou’s comment on the Aalto chairs and cashmere blankets, that it’s never too early to appreciate quality goods, “Even if you grow up to be an accountant, it’s better to be surrounded by beautiful furniture than by ugly furniture.” Good point haha. story and images from the latest issue of W magazine.

It has been officially one year since I started this site. Thank you to everyone who drops in every week!

The office of Victoire de Castallane.

these stationary products from and spring are so simple and perfect. I wish it was easier to find stationary shops that carried products like these.

discovered via lá

The new intro page for Stella McCartney’s site.

There’s something I’ve always loved and appreciated about old schools that look a certain way and have a certain feel to them. I found this article’s images really inspiring. These well designed schools are so beautiful. It’s so much nicer to learn in a place that looks and feels like a school and has history to it, versus a place that looks like an office building that should be filled with cubicles.
images from Milk Magazine Japon.

I love combining illustration with photography. I wish I could see his exhibit in Antwerp!
Iillustration by Sachiko Kanaizumi with Hideki Nakajma Design from the Age of Feminine Drawing.

inspired by the match girl film of the brilliant Jean Renoir, Boudica has created a christmas tree for the V&A this holiday season. i love the long ribbon.