All the way from the Dominican Republic, Jorge Aguayo checks in

I wrote a post about cement tiles from Aguayo last May and it launched a discussion and cement tile love-fest in the comments that followed the post. Yesterday, Jorge Aguayo himself left another comment on that thread and I wanted to make sure that more people saw what he had to say.

Greetings from the Dominican Republic! I'm kind of disappointed that I only got to discover this great discussion today! It is really awesome that cement tile has made a comeback such as this. If any of you would like to see what the manufacturing process is like at our plant just go to youtube and type in Mosaicos Aguayo.

Jorge Aguayo

And here's the video he mentions:






Thanks Jorge! You can find out more about Industrias Aguayo on their website. When you're ready to buy some Aguayo cement tile, I highly recommend that you purchase it from Avente Tile in Los Angeles. Avente sells online and ships worldwide. So from the Dominican Republic to Los Angeles to wherever you are, these tiles are available.

Amusing British night light

This is the Martyr, designed by The Play Coalition.

It makes me laugh. It fits those enormous British wall sockets perfectly. I wonder if there's a North American version in the works.

Did Madonna ever get this kind of treatment?

Iowa State University at 12pm on the 27th of August:

Having fun with stereotypes

The great Erin Loechner had something on her blog, Design for Mankind, the other day that I thought was hilarious.

She'd picked up a map created by Russian turned British illustrator Yanko Tsvetkov and featured on his blog Alphadesigner. The map Erin ran was one of series Tsvetkov made that illustrate the stereotypes Europeans have of each other and that Americans have of Europeans and I thought they were hilarious. Here are some highlights.

This is Europe according to France:

This is Europe according to Britain.

This is Europe according to Germany

Here's Europe as Italy sees it.

This is Italy as seen by posh Italians.

This is Europe as the US sees it.

And in a turn around provided by a link from one of Erin's readers, Here's the US as Europeans see it. This map came from the Swedish graphic designer Attila Toth and his website Attila.

Thanks for the laugh one and all.

Handpresso for when you just need a fix

I am gearing myself up for another trip to the Out Islands of The Bahamas next month. Ahhh, I can't wait to get back to my beach. I've written about my favorite retreat spot on Cat Island numerous times, so much so that The Bahamas is its own key word on this site.

When I'm out there on that isolated patch in the Atlantic, creature comforts are few and far between and such creature comforts there are have to be brought in. It's my usual routine to wake up with the sun and take a French press with me up onto the rocks to watch the sun come up. I took this photo two summers ago.

As enjoyable as a cup of coffee from French press is, I think I found a better solution.

It's the Handpresso, a hand-operated espresso machine from France. A Handpresso, a thermos of hot water and some ground espresso are all I need to make my personal sunrise service complete.

Here's a video that explains how they work.





Now all they need is a US distributor...

The Handpresso comes in a version that uses loose espresso and a version that uses E.S.E standard coffee pods if you're rather stale espresso. Regardless of the version, Handpresso machines are ushering in a new era of what the company calls "nomadic espresso." Anything that involves moving around and espresso has to be good.

Check out  the rest of Handpresso's website for more products and more videos of the Handpresso at work.