We Covet | Better Living Through Consumerism

We Covet Kaboost

Okay, so this thing is seriously cool. It's a seat booster that does its boosting from underneath the chair, so that you don't have to fuss around with rinky-dink booster seats - or, worse, big ugly plastic high-chairs - that get all crudded up with banana and Cheerios and which never seemed that sturdy and anyway are totally useless when you have a child (*cough*) who refuses to sit in anything other than a 'big chair.' It fits onto the bottom of the chair - it's totally secure, and even has, like, anti-skid traction action - and elevates it to close to stool height, so the kids can sit in a grown-up chair and still reach the table. Or, so that you can convert your dining room chairs to bar chairs and play Martini Lounge after the kids have been put down to bed. Just a suggestion.

(Also? It fits any chair, it's portable, and it comes in cool colors. Beats a Stokke any day, for serious.)

And! This week, it's our giveway! Just leave comments on any and all posts and at the end of the week we'll do a random draw for a winnah! Who'll get a Kaboost! COOL.

Kaboost, $37.95 @ Kaboost

We Covet Atari Candleholders

I think we've established that I am a tremendous geek, and not ashamed of it. And so it shouldn't really surprise you that I almost jumped out of my skin with joy upon spying this Atari joystick-shaped candleholder.

That shit is DOPE, am I right? Who wants to buy me one? heh.

Retro Joy candleholder, £ 50.00 @ Mixko

We Covet Really Cool Eco-Stuff Even If It's Not Actually For Sale Yet

I know that this violates all the rules of a product review blog, but still - even though this particular item isn't actually available for sale anywhere, it's so cool that we'd be totally remiss in not alerting the world to the fact that this super-awesome thing is out there. That, and it's something that I'm totally going to buy the minute it hits the market - which, I hope, is very very soon - so on that basis alone, it totally counts.

The 'Bloom Device' is an attachment for your bicycle that disperses bubble-borne seeds as you ride - the seeds are spread throughout whatever urban environment you're cycling through and spread joy and greenery wherever you go:

Seeds are co-mingled with a bubble mixture and upon pedaling to your destination , you release the floating seeds which land in cracks and crevices throughout the city streets. Over time, the seeds grow into flowers and plants to create a green "fringe" to our sidewalks and streets.

It's, like, eco-evangelism with a little twist of happy. I want one NOW.

Bloom Device by Society Creative. Sourced through Guy Kawasaki.

Insulated Bag We Covet

I love me some Marimekko!  Use this insulated strawberry print bag for a picnic or to carry your kids sippy cups or YOUR "sippy cups" (cough) with cheese and a baguette. 

Durable nylon and PVC will keep your groovy bag around for a long time.  People will also think you are super cool.

Marimekko Kylmälaukku Insulated Bag, $55.00 @ finnstyle

Handy Electronic Device Carrying Thing We Covet

I just got me one of these "Electric pockets", and felt it must be shared with the world.

One brilliant design for all your electronics needs. Protect your Blackberry™, iPod™, digital camera, PDA, cell phones in these fleece-lined neoprene pockets. No more fishing around in handbags at the movies. Tie one on! These are designed to attach to bags, belts and backpacks like a luggage tag, these pockets are perfect for travel. Color code your electronic devices and be one step closer to a life of organization and clarity!

HUZZAH! I bought a stripey medium-sized one for my Sony Cybershot and it fits perfectly. Now my camera is tied onto the strap on my bag, and easily accessible when inspiration strikes!

Electric Pockets, in Small, Med & Large sizes,  $15.00-18.00 @ BUILT

We Covet Angelic Mirrors

Okay, so you probably couldn't fix your hair properly looking in these mirrors, but does that really matter? They are THE AWESOME. Depending upon how and where you place them, these could either be totally sweet (little girl's bedroom?) or totally rock 'n' roll (my little girl's bedroom, above her collection of stuffed Fender Stratocasters) (remind me to post about those).

(They're made by a UK company, and you'd have to make special arrangements for shipping - there's a number you can call under shipping info - so they wouldn't come cheap, but hey: what price admission into the ranks of the cherubim, really?)

Mirrored Angel Wings, very expensive (price in pounds, and I don't have that key on my laptop) (169 pounds, which is what? A zillion US dollars?) @ Graham & Green

We Covet Fatboys

The other day I said that I wanted a room full of Tetris chairs.

I've changed my mind.

I want one room full of Tetris charis, and another full of Fatboys (*snicker*). (Am resisting dirty jokes, and also Fatboy Slim jokes, which aren't as interesting as the former, but still.) Seriously - what would be more awesome than a room with, say, four full-size Fatboy beanbag  pillow/chair thingies for  jumping on/rolling over/lounging in/sequestering children in?  Okay, maybe a room full of Fatboys with a (locked) bar fridge and a giant flatscreen programmed to play Dora on a continuous loop during the day (omg you could totally fire the nanny and the children wouldn't even notice) and back-to-back episodes of Lost at night.

I think that I  just  drooled a little, thinking about that.

Fatboys, up to $299 @ DesignPublic

Cool Cat Stuff We Covet

I love my cats, I really do, but there are times - when they're giving their claws a workout on my lovely Indian wool rug or my awesome houndstooth print wing chair, for example - when I don't so much like them, yanno? And because I hate the idea of declawing, and Pet Smart cat scratch towers are hideous and useless, I've just had to deal with these moments of profound and disheartening cat-scratchy frustration.

But now! There is hope! Stylin' cat scratch posts that you can fasten to the wall and imagine are some kind of postmodern eco-art! I have no idea whether they work or not - tho' I suppose you rub one with a bit of catnip and you're good to do - but given that they're not hideous and they're not hideously expensive, who cares?

Wallflower Scratcher from $35 - $42 @ Design Public

We Covet Groovy Vintage Sweaters

Seriously. Have you not always wanted a gherkin? Just so that you could say, 'hey, like my gherkin?'

This one is one-of-a-kind vintage (c. 1953) from Ohio Knitting Mills, but if they sell it before you get to it, you could always opt for the Major Statement Vest (c. 1953) or the High Groovy Poncho (c. 1965). Whichever you choose, you're guaranteed to be the only one on your block to be rocking that particular look. Unless you live on Sesame Street (Old School intersection), in which case you've got that High Groovy Poncho already, and don't need any help from me.

Robin's Gherkin, $188.00 @ Ohio Knitting Mills

We Covet Marimekko For Kids

You'll feel a lot less guilty stocking up on cheap Marimekko for yourself at H&M if you draw your kids into your obsession with retro Finnish design. Being a pretentious hipster isn't just for grown-ups anymore: you can set the kiddie table with one of these Marimekko porcelain dish sets - you'll be wearing a Marimekko-print housedress, of course - and feel perfectly secure in the knowledge that you are raising children with perfectly appropriate superiority complexes.

Until the Marimekko plate gets chipped after being bashed by a grape-juice stained Marimekko cup, at which point you'll probably just wish that you'd saved these for yourself and let the little monsters use the cheap plastic Dora ware instead.

Marimekko tableware for kids, about $55.00 per set @ ModernKid

Cool Kid Stuff We Covet: Dumbo Cups

My daughter's history with plastic cups is a bit, erm, troubled (she prefers peeing in them to drinking out of them. Cocktail tumblers are for orange juice. Kid cups are for urine samples.) But that doesn't mean that I'm not determined to persevere. I don't like my bar supplies getting all chipped on her wooden kitchen set, and besides, brightly colored plastic cups are just more appropriate for two-year olds, yanno? We get weird looks from the neighbors when we sit, the two of us, on the front steps with our ice-and-OJ-filled cocktail glasses, garnished with little stir sticks and paper umbrellas.

So, these super awesome plastic training cups with giant elephant-eared handles? PERFECT. Because, a) even with the little umbrellas, the neighbors won't peg it as containing a cocktail, and b) the child can't get it between her legs to piss in. And it looks cool, too. Win-win-win.

Dumbo Cups, $14.00 @ HipBaby

We Covet Cool Geek Furniture

Okay, so, these are the geekiest things ever - EVER - but that doesn't make them any less desirable. TETRIS CHAIRS OMG. Can you imagine, like, having a whole room full of Tetris chairs, so that you could just go in there in the middle of the night when you can't sleep - or when you're really, really drunk - and move them around and try to make them fit together and then collapse on the floor in the middle of them all with your laptop or your iPhone and kick up an actual game of Tetris and say to yourself I am so META.

Or you could just get one, and sit in it while you rock the Tetris, and tell yourself the same thing. But the first scenario is way more fun.

Tetris Chairs, @ $220 each, @ Rakuten (sourced via Truemors)

Liquor Accessories We Covet

This is, I think, very possibly the most useful item ever invented: a double-walled liquor bottle that keeps liquids perfectly cold (or hot. I, as a rule, don't drink hot liquor, but that's just me.) Which, as a vodka freak aficionado, strikes me as the perfect liquor cabinet accessory.

I'm ordering this now. So that the minute I am able to get back on the drinking train (pump and dump, betches, pump and dump), I will be ready.

Double-walled bottle, $99.00 @ The MoMA Store

Urban Hipster Parent Stuff We Covet Shamelessly (Yes. MORE EAMES.)

So, I know that you don't know me, and that you probably don't go around buying gifts for total strangers, but here's the thing: I am eight and half months pregnant with my second kid and am not expecting a shower of any kind and wouldn't want anyone to go to that trouble anyway and even if they did it's really boy onesies and blue blankies and the whatnot that I need, but. I WANT THIS CHAIR. REAL BAD. Because, hello? It is the awesome.

So, um, you know, if you're feeling in the mood to lavish generous baby gifts on people you don't know - or, maybe, you know Tom Cruise and can convince him that miniature Eames chairs are a waaay better baby gift than fish tanks, and also, that he should direct some his largess my way - that'd be, like, cool. Yanno? Just sayin'.

Eames Miniature Elephant Chair $185.00, @ The MoMA Store

Kids' Stuff We Covet Because It Makes Us Look Cool

I'll confess: what I love most about this product is that it is Eames, and it does not cost a fortune. So, you can, like, drop references to your 'Eames' (oh, we just can't keep the child away from the Eames! She looooves the Eames!) and hope that everybody assumes that you're talking about chairs. But! If they press you for details? Just say it's your collection of vintage Eames toys! Bonus hipster parents points!

You don't need to say that it's reproduction, or that it's just a set of cards (a very special, very cool set of cards, with all variety of educational benefit to offer, but still), because everyone will be too busy hating you for being cooler than they are.

Eames House Of Cards, from $25.00 @ The Eames Gallery.

Awesome Kid's Stuff We Covet

When I was a kid, I collected music boxes. I know: NOT COOL. But even if I had, somehow, stumbled upon some kind of cool version of music-box collecting, none of those boxes could possibly have been as cool as this awesome high-design music orb from the Museum of Modern Art shop.

So I'm just going to have to make up for my childhood cool-void by buying this sweet thang while I'm in New York this weekend. For my kid. Maybe. Or maybe I'll just buy it for me and give her some hand-me-down unicorn music boxes. Because, you know, I think that I might have a few of those laying around.

Music Orb, $60 @ MOMA

Monsters We Covet

This? Is beyond awesome. For seriously. I have my credit card out and am purchasing as we speak.

You're wondering what it is? It's a MONSTER LAPTOP SLEEVE and I? LOVE IT.

I mean, what's not to love? This baby combines the awesomeness of monster cuddly toys with the utility of laptop accessories. The one potential downside is that a monster laptop sleeve might make your computer even more irresistible to your grubby-fingered toddler, but whatever. You're entitled to have your own monster, and those offspring just have to learn that they're not the only ones who get to play with fuzzy toys. Just tell the little grubster that this particular monster is more like Randall the Creepy Lizard-Monster on Monsters, Inc, and less like Sulley. They may start having computer-themed nightmares, but they'll get the picture.

Monster Laptop Sleeve, $65 @ Barry's Farm

Decorating Idea We Covet: Wall Decals

I'm completely enamored of the possibilities inherent in using wall decals instead of paint and/or wallpaper. The flexibility and inventiveness of decorating with decals, and the number of companies producing them, seems to be growing daily -- just have a look at Real Simple's awesome decal round-up and resource list. And then commence with struggling, like me, to stop your brain from re-imagining every flat surface in your home. I mean, that bland old refrigerator could use some spiffying up, couldn't it?

Love At First Sight: The Rakku

Seriously. The MINUTE I saw this, at Guy Kawasaki's blog, I had to have it. It's, like, installation art for your shoes. Installation art that makes storing and retrieving your shoes obscenely easy - and I say 'obscenely' because once you have a Rakku? You'll want more shoes.

Win-win.

Rakku Shoe Wheel, $65 @ RakkuDesigns. Also available: Rakkiddo, the shoe wheel for kids, and the Shoe Pod, for the wheel-phobic.