Babylon; what a suitable name for this lovely planter and lamp in one! The hanging gardens of babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one whose location has not been definitely established. Maybe your living-room would work as a location for a modern version of these ‘gardens’:). I’m sure mine would!
Designed by Toronto based studio Object Interface. Found on shoeboxdwelling.com, super cool blog about finding comfort, style & dignity in small spaces.
This weekend we said goodbye to our current apartment in Kennedy Town, Hong Kong. We will move back to our much smaller place in Amsterdam end of January. Of course we had to get rid of a lot of stuff and surprisingly that felt very good. I like to travel ‘light’ in life. And it’s a lot of fun to brainstorm with my architect husband about refurbishing those 55m2. This vintage telephone seat from the sixties inspired me somehow: desk/seat/storage in one, and the looks are so lovely as well… why don’t they make these anymore:)?
The perfect wake up call if you ask me! What a great idea: combining an alarm clock with a coffee-machine that looks pretty awesome at the same time. On my wish list, thanks to Josh Renouf (who invented the Barisieur)!
This is on my wishlist! What an awesome idea to turn an old rocking chair in an uber-cool designed furniture piece like this. I found it when I was researching on a nice new coffice that I want to try out this summer when I’m back in the Netherlands. It’s called Blend&Blender and located in Amersfoort, right next door to where one of my best friends is living:). It would be perfect display for a big stack of books and an old vintage telephone, don’t you think?!
Artistic geniuses Michelangelo, Picasso, Beethoven and also Alfred Hitchcock, Paul McCartney and Barack Obama are famous lefties. I’ve also some very creative left-handed family members (my mom, for one:)). You will probably know a few yourself, since the number of left-handed people in the world is on the rise and… it’s likely to keep growing! According to trend-watcher Mark J. Penn this is one of those fascinating small phenomena behind tomorrow’s big changes. It’s going to alter our society’s.
In most cultures the left side of things has been associated with evil and inferiority. It’s even embedded in our language. The French word for ‘left’ gauche means ‘awkward’, in Chinese the adjective ‘left’ means ‘improper’ and in Dutch we say ‘you have two left-hands’ when people are acting clumsy. Left-handedness has been routinely discouraged or even beaten out of people until the seventies. But not less than 16% of all people is left-handed and they represent the creativity and innovation that is much needed in our economies.
Why will there be more lefties in the future? 1. Parents celebrate individuality instead of surpressing the uniqueness of their child. 2. Left-handed kids are disproportionately represented among twins (whose number grew by more than half in the past 20 years. 3. They are also more likely to be born to older moms. Women have children much later in life.
The rise of left-handed people means not just that we’ll have more lefties in school and in the workplace (product-designers: make swappable handles and alternative southpaw versions please:)) but also that society is becoming more open and tolerant. The percentage of lefties in a country may actually be one of the best indicators we have of whether a society is open and flexible or rigid and suppressive.
Photo: Left Store (Arthur Foliard) a concept store for left-handed people.
Did you know that ‘the cloud’ is there for plants as well:)? You can attach this little plastic cloud to any soda bottle and water your green friends. Just fill up a bottle with water, screw on the the cloud and you have your own rainmaker. No rain dance needed:).
Great design by Shahar Peleg and available here.
A rooftile birdhouse… what a great idea and at the same time so beautifully designed by Dutch genius Klaas Kuiken. Klaas wanted to do something about the shrinking bird population in cities. Together with the Dutch Bird Association, he worked out what our feathered friends exactly need, with this awesome penthouse for birds as a result.
The whole story fits together even better, when you know that Klaas’ last name ‘Kuiken’ means ‘baby-bird’ in Dutch:). Love it!
These chocolate-flavoured stamps are leading a yummy reform to the habit of stamp-licking. With dark, milk, and white chocolate flavours to be chosen from, stamp-licking may well become an irresistible act for chocolate-lovers.
One of my favorite Asian designers Toby Ng came up with the idea. He always brings witty and amusing inspirations to life. Ideas rule! I really enjoy his work!
Today I mostly stayed in the house with a cold. A Sunday spent on the couch browsing the web with a box of tissues right next to me:). Actually pretty relaxing! I stumbled upon the most amazing things, like these fascinating pictures of the Egyptian pyramids covered in snow this weekend for the first time in 112 years. So cool… Cairo has been transformed into a winter wonderland after a “historic” storm in the Middle East brought the rare treat to Egypt’s capital on Friday.
There is really no reason why a candle has to burn from top to bottom – that is simply a tradition we have based on the way candles are conventionally made. Inspired by a model of molecular structures, Christoph van Bommel created this innovative alternative candle design, balancing between order and chaos. I like it a lot for this dark chaotic december month!
Studio Refill Ltd 