Hakatai's having a sale

Hakatai is a great source for mosaic tile for the trade and also for individuals in the market for some off the beaten path stuff. Got a project in mind? Spend some time with the fine folks at Hakatai before you make any decisions. Hakatai's custom blends blends are currently on sale for 30% off and they're offering up to 45% off on their Classic series.

Hakatai's website has two great planning and playing tools anyone can use to design his or her own custom blends and gradients. While you're playing around with the colors in your dream shower or backsplash, Hakatai's working in the background and pricing everything as you go. Scattered around this posting are some blends I whipped out with their blend tool the other day. Pretty cool stuff and far more reasonable than you'd expect. No one has to settle for cookie cutter solutions. Ever. Remember that.

Hakatai does some really exquisite custom mural and mosaic work and their website has a gallery filled with hundreds of photos of their work. Look through their galleries and see for yourself what's possible. Bravo!

I'm a glass is half-full guy

But just because I am doesn't mean the rest of the souls who people my life are. I came across this when I was Christmas shopping on the Internet last weekend.

This mug and a whole host of smart-aleky, anti-corporate merchandise are available on the website Despair, Inc. The website's laugh-out-loud funny and subversively dead on. It's almost as if the editorial staff of The Onion took over the HR department at IBM. I think the difference between this stuff and the pablum I used to have to suffer through when I was a cubicle dweller is that Despair's mugs and posters are actually communicating something.

I think it's funny funny funny and oh so appropriate for a couple people on my list. Now, if only I were in the habit of giving coffee mugs as Christmas gifts.

Outlet covers? We don't need no stinkin' outlet covers

Check this out:

That's a plate-less electrical outlet in some one's home believe it or not. Oh man, if it's possible to fall madly and deeply for an outlet, I think I just did. This is the 22 from Bocci and I've never seen anything like it.

Bocci is a Canadian design company and this 22 outlet is part of a system that includes similar minimalist outlets for data, phone, cable and more. Check out Bocci's website.

These outlets are actually plastered into the wall during construction and can be accessed later for service through the face of the outlet itself rather than by removing a plate as is usually the case. It may sound odd, but "what color outlet covers should we get?" is a refrain I hear regularly. Well, the fine folks at Bocci remove that question from the table completely and the result is absolutely beautiful.

Creede Fitch has a design blog called Grassroots Modern and he's actually installing a series of 22s in his own home. You can see his progress here. Bravo Creede; I'm curious to see how he makes out with them.

I found a video that discusses how this plate-less outlet system works and it's made a believer out of me.

Here's a lamp to love

Craighton Berman is an industrial designer based in Chicago and this is his Coil Lamp. What a brilliant interpretation of a table lamp this is. Who would think to make a fixture out of a power source? Craighton Berman, obviously. Berman designed a laser-cut, clear Plexiglas frame that supports the wound chord invisibly and the result is the elevation of an everyday object to the lofty heights of modern design.

Berman's Coil Lamp will be available for sale in early 2009 and you can register for updates on his website. Thanks to the kids at Apartment Therapy for the hot lead on this one. And bravo to Craighton Berman for his brilliance.

Life's too short for fake mistletoe

Oh by gosh by golly, it's time for mistletoe and holly. And if you live anywhere in the green area of this map, you're in luck because you can go out and find the real stuff.

Mistletoe is actually a group of parasitic plants and what's usually seen around Christmas in the US is Phoradendron serotinum. There are a number of other mistletoes that grow in the US and indeed the world, but Phoradendron is the prize winner.

Florida's lousy with the stuff, all you have to do is look up into an oak tree and chances are good you'll see it. It's just a matter of identifying it. Every Christmas, I go out and collect fresh mistletoe and hang it over the doorway in my living room. Most people are amazed when they see it and find out what it is. I suppose that's due to the omnipresence of the plastic stuff.

Here's the clump of mistletoe that will sacrifice itself for the benefit of my Christmas this year:

Here's a close-up of the leaves:

Mistletoe dies and withers within hours of my cutting it and I've never been able to figure out why or to prevent it from happening. Oh well. I usually wait until a day or so before Christmas to go collecting for that reason. I've been collecting and hanging fresh mistletoe for so many years that it just wouldn't be Christmas without it.

If you find some for yourself, be careful with it. It's seriously poisonous, so don't use it near food. But poison aside, nothing says Christmas to me quite like it.