Beautiful Abodes

Perfect 2012 Gift for those the Year of the Dragon

You don't have to be Chinese to enjoy Chinese New Years. For those of your close friends and family who are born the year of the dragon a most excellent gift can be given on their birthday, a beautiful porcelain, hand-painted dragon! But pick that one special person because these porcelain beauties will put quite a dent in your wallet.

Home of: Vera Wang

Name: Vera Wang

AKA: Vera Ellen Wang

Date of birth: June 27, 1949

From: New York City

Specialty: Fashion designer

*Pictures from Harper's Bazaar

Entryway

Pool with a LA view

Back yard with pool

Living room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Screening room

Walk-in closet

Item of Note: Heavy-Weight Tape Dispenser

Heavy-Weight Tape Dispenser @ Design Within Reach

No more ugly plastic tape dispensers from your local drug store. Very often, mostly during Christmas time, I have thought to myself how ugly the scotch tape dispenser was. Very often, mostly during Christmas time I have struggled to wrap gifts simply because the tape dispenser need two hands to be dealt with, it is with this bitter spirit that I bring to you today's Beautiful Abodes' Item of Note.

3lb cast zinc body that's heavy enough to permit single-handed use.
The forged stainless steel blade cuts effectively over years of use.
Now $45.00 from $60.00.
Dimensions: 2"h x 4"w x 3"d
And... beautiful enough to keep on your desk.

Item of Note: Chroma Armoire & Console

We are of course familiar with the term "color-blocking" when it comes to fashion, but furnishings?! C'mon! It really makes me wonder why I hadn't seen this sooner. Anthropologie takes color-blocking to a whole new level with it's newly out Chroma Armoire and Chroma Console, the vintage and retro choice of colors with a modern twist makes for one... strike that- two, very lovely pieces.

Chroma Armoire

Chroma Console

The Nest Learning Thermostat

Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought the home thermostat was unappealing to the eye. Thankfully, the former Apple senior VP Tony Fadell thought so too, and then there was Nest! Not only is it chic as hell, beautiful as hell, and very much for the 21st century... but naturally, it's smart as hell too!

The Nest has a built-in sensor that knows when you are home. It senses patterns in your schedule and adapts to your routine. A leaf shows up when you are conserving energy; turning the heat down one degree can save up to 5 percent of your energy costs. And you can control it from anywhere in the world with your phone or tablet. -Tony Fadell on Elle Decor

Nest.com

Jonathan Adler's helpful little things... with a sense of humour

Brass Devil Pencil Sharpener
Brass / 3.5"t x 1.75"w x 1.5"deep

These days we welcome a sense of humour whenever and where ever we can get it. Naturally Jonathan Adler picked up on that right away, since the beginning of his designing career he has been producing products with a design that is modern, chic, hip and most of all, with a sense of humour.

Two more items appeared on his list of products which I thought deserved a post today from the sheer wit and fun of them. The Brass Devil Pencil Sharpener, the quality is in the brass material, the wit? It's a sharpener. Leave it to the devil to sharpen your pencils for you, pitchfork sharp! It is indeed a smart way to keep your sharpener on the table without cramping your style.

Tongue Spoon Rest
Porcelain/ 7"long x 3.5"wide

I myself like to spend most of my time in the kitchen, and though I've been wanting very badly a spoon rest for about a year for obvious reasons, I haven't yet gotten one. I have looked at countless spoon rests in shops and on line, and needless to say, haven't found one suitable to my taste... until I saw Jonathan Adler's Tongue Spoon Rest. It makes me smile.

Items of Note @ A+R: Toilet Bowl Brush & Modern Fish Bowl

Normann Copenhagen & Jozeph Forakis' Ballo Toilet Brush
Plastic Material / 19.7"h x 8.66"w

Unfortunately, there are simply some things you can not do without... such as, the toilet brush. Ick! But perhaps a nice toilet brush just might do the trick, A+R's Ballo Toilet Brush by Normann Copenhagen and Jozeph Forakis centers their toilet brush design around the concept of balance and surprise, making the experience fun? Or maybe just plain different, for a change. Next time I decide to brush clean my toilet I will surely be envisioning the Ballo Toilet Brush concept and design in my bathroom, if anything, I'm sure the design is much more modern than my current too common Bed, Bath & Beyond toilet brush.

Gaia & Gino & Aruliden's Fishscape Fish Bowl
2.5 gallons / 8"h x 12.8"dia.

Another A+R Item of Note, the Fishscape Fish Bowl by Gaia & Gino & Aruliden. Pebbles and plastic plants are so 1990 and there probably isn't a simpler way for your pet fishies to adjust to the 21st century than to get a hold of one these modern and minimalistic Fishscape Fish Bowls, a hand-blown glass container with mountain ranges.

I Stand Behind: Kitchen machinations

There was a time when I believed that mixers, processors, toasters, crockpots and such were just a waste of kitchen space, my-oh-my have I come along way from that frame of mind. I suppose what is responsible is that I have come a long way in my cooking, I love to cook, I love to get creative in the kitchen, love the challenge of making dishes I have not made before and love the challenge of making things from scratch- this is all a result of my growing knowledge of how awful processed and un-organic foods are. I have thus succumbed to making many of the dishes I eat at home from scratch, with ingredients that are bought from Farmer's Market, fresh and organic. And when you are making foods such as ice-cream, cakes, pies, breads and stews from scratch, just to name a few, you come to understand the importance and appreciation of kitchen machinations such as the ice-cream maker, the bread maker, the hand mixer, the toaster oven, the crockpot! All of which makes cooking from scratch much MUCH easier.

My most recent purchase, the Cuisinart Ice-Cream Maker, allows you to easily make ice-cream, yogurts and soft-serve. Simply knowing that all the ingredients are organic is a great satisfaction for me, not to mention how much more delicious home-made ice-cream tastes.

The bread maker, there is no need to hand-mix yourself any of the dry ingredients, simply put all the measured ingredients into the machine and let it do all the work for you, and in four hours time you have freshly baked bread.

Want a lovely flavorful stew? Now you don't have to slave away infront of the stove, simply use the crockpot, add the ingredients, set it on "low" or "medium" and by dinner-time your stew is finished, just like that.

Even something as simple as the hand-mixer has been a great relief to me. Birthdays or family dinners mean dessert-making time for me, but whipping that whip-cream can be time-consuming and a bit strenuous, I can now do it in 1/4 of the time with my new handy hand-mixer!

Of course you don't need an ice-cream machine to make ice-cream, a bread maker to bake bread, or a crockpot to make stew. But these machinations sole purpose is to give your time back for everything else you didn't have time to do before, and it certainly does when all you have to do is measure, pour and press "Start".