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".

On Sale at A+R: Andrea Living Air Filter

Mathieu Lehanneur + David Edwards & LE Laboratoire Paris'
Andrea Living Air Filter $100.00 @ A+R

Yes, so you could probably just buy a whole bunch of house of plants, and actually, that may be the easier way to go but... the Andrea Living Air Filter is currently on sale at A+R, and whether it's a gift or simply for yourself this device is worth having, simply even for the originality of this cool home machination.

*Description, at read on A+R

Transform any house plant into a super toxic avenger! Andrea is the first living air filter that uses plants to absorb toxic gases via low-power consumption, ozone-free operation. Independent third party testing by RTP Labs certified Andrea is 40 times more efficient than standard carbon and HEPA filters (aka High Efficiency Particulate Air) in removing volatile toxins such as formaldehyde (a known human carcinogen used in floor coverings) and benzene and ammonia (found in many home-use cleaning solutions). RTP found that interior plants alone are more efficient than HEPA and carbon filters at removing toxic gases from air--but significantly less efficient than Andrea, which it determined is over 1000% FASTER THAN PLANTS ALONE. A plant’s natural metabolic activity eliminates pollution, boosted by Andrea's whisper-quiet fan that propels it through the leaves and root system, out through the water and soil filtration and back into the room environment. Andrea can be turned on and off through the day. No replaceable filters needed.

• Dimensions 14.5"w x 14.5"d x 20.5"h
• Biochemically transforms waste
• Ozone-free operation
• Low power consumption
• No replaceable filters needed
• Plants are not included but any household plant will do but those will best filtering abilities are philodendron gerbera, spathiphyllum, chlorophytum and pathos.

View other On Sale items @ A+R

One big house plant should do the trick!

Saw this beautiful pictures of a white-washed room with greenery as the main source of color and was, in a word, enchanted.  The corner windows makes it a perfect place for a large but dainty plant, letting enough light into the room and adding a great big splash of beautiful green color in what could have been a drab room.

Home of: Kate Hudson

Name:  Kate Garry Hudson

AKA:  Kate Hudson

Date of birth:  April 19, 1979

From:  Los Angeles, CA

Specialty:  Actress

*Photographs by W Magazine

The pool-side loggia

The den

The dining area

First floor bathroom

Main stairway

Master bathroom

Sitting area part of the master bedroom

Window sitting area of the master bedroom

The master bedroom

I Stand Behind: Garlic Squishers

OXO Steel Garlic Press $18.95 @ Crate & Barrel

There is one thing that I say repeatedly in the kitchen, "Oh~ I love my garlic squisher, it was the best buy ever!"  And honestly, it really was.  I'm no stranger to garlic and garlic is no stranger to me, give me garlic, red onions, chives, green onions any day!  

I remember when I would spend at least 7 minutes during each cooking session mincing garlic for recipes, first crack them, then peel them, slice them, line the slices, cross slice them, pile them up, now quickly dice them up, dice dice dice dice dice em.  All this and now my fingers are getting stickier as the garlic juice is rubbed off on them as I gingerly try to get all the small garlic bits off of the knife, maybe you have no clue what I'm talking about?  Maybe I'm just not a very good prepper?  Maybe I'm going about this all wrong? maybe I've got no kitchen technique at all?  Well, no surprise there, it's not like I've had any formal cooking training!  Well anyhow, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who feels this way about mincing garlic.

My garlic mincing days are over!  A year ago I bought myself a garlic press (or what I like to call "garlic squisher") because it squishes my garlic!  And my oh my, what a fine job it does!  I squish garlic into bowls, into hot pans, into sauces, it really is that easy.  I peel the garlic, easy.  I stick the garlic into the garlic press compartment, easy.  And I press, wah-la!  Come time to clean it up, I take my little garlic press cleaner which is small and round matching to the shape of the garlic press, the garlic press cleaner has small little teeth that matches with the holes of the garlic press.  Come time to clean, simply line-up the garlic press cleaner to the garlic press holes and poke out all the small garlic bits that are stuck, run the whole thing under water, and there you have it.

My biggest fear or hesitation with the garlic squisher was the cleaning part, the big question was 'is it going to be easy to clean?'  And to this questions I say, doing one little extra step (using the garlic press cleaner which only takes about a few seconds) really does beat mincing garlic for 5-7 minutes.