Miele announces a new line of dish cleaning products

Miele, maker of the dishwasher series ranked highest in customer satisfaction by J.D. Power and Associates, introduces the innovative Miele Care Collection™ II series (for dish care) which includes three new products: phosphate-free dishwasher tabs, a powerful rinse aid and specially formulated softening salt engineered to spotlessly clean and preserve dishes, flatware, utensils, crystal, glassware and more. The new generation Miele Care Collection™ II dishwasher tabs combine a special glass guard formula, water softening salt and a sustainable cleansing agent to provide exceptional results and advanced protection, even with heavy soiling. The series is complete with Care Collection™ II rinse aid and water softening salt which go even further to enhance performance - especially for sparkling glasses and perfect drying results.

"Miele is known the world over for manufacturing the ultimate dishwasher, but you don't need to own a Miele to use our extraordinary dish care products," states Paul McCormack, Spokesperson for Miele. "These products are made to protect your dishes and glassware while safeguarding our environment. With so many states banning phosphates, it's important to consider your dishwashing options. You want a name you can trust to get your dishes and glassware safely clean and sparkling. Taking care of the environment without compromising performance is not new for Miele. And what good is using a detergent that doesn't work as promised? When homeowners do not get the results they expect, they will waste water pre-rinsing versus changing detergents or even their dishwasher. About 20 gallons of water is wasted pre-rinsing per dishwasher load," explains McCormack.

Miele's new dish cleaning products are available from Miele's website and at select retailers nationwide.

Ich gehe im Januar nach Deutschland

[Now featuring corrected grammar! 11-10-10 PA]

That's right. On the morning of January 19th, 2011 I'm boarding a plane bound for Cologne (that's Köln to those of us who are in the know) where I'll be attending the annual internationale möbelmesse. The internationale möbelmesse is better known as the IMM and it's the world's premier showcase of new furniture and products for the home.

Last year's IMM had 1500 exhibitors and had 100,000 visitors from all points of the globe. This year's expo promises to be even bigger and for the first time in the 62 years of the show's existence, there will be a separate exhibit for the international kitchen and bath industry and they're calling it The Living Kitchen.

The Living Kitchen has its own website and from the looks of things it will surpass the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show in the US in size and scale.

Needless to say, I'm beyond excited about this. I'll be blogging and Tweeting from Germany as part of an industry press junket courtesy of Blanco. I cannot thank them enough for this opportunity.

Blanco is a German sink and fixture manufacturer and their products are widely available worldwide. I sit on Blanco's Design Council, an honor I've held for the last year. It's through my involvement with Blanco's Design Council that I'm Cologne bound.

There are five other Design Council members going on this trip. That all six of us know each other already will make this trip even more memorable that it would have been otherwise. My traveling companions to Cologne are Jamie Goldberg, Cheryl Kees-Clendenon, Susan Serra, Leslie Clagett and Kevin Henry. Five out of the Cologne Six are are part of the Blogger 19 interestingly enough. What year this has been. Whew!

In addition to experiencing the sights and sounds of Cologne and the IMM, We'll be touring a Blanco factory and meeting with Blanco Germany's industrial designers.

Needless to say, I'm beyond exited. Thank you again and in advance to Blanco and their representation in the US for this honor.

Watch this space, I have a big announcement tomorrow

And it involves this place.

Tschüss!

A new, new Tolomeo. Sort of.

I present for your consideration the Tolomeo lamp.

Tolomeo was designed by Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina in 1986 for the Artemide company. The took the articulated architect's lamp and raised the design quotient by a couple of notches. The Tolomeo launched a renewed interest in the shape of an articulated desk lamp and 24 years after De Lucchi and Fassina unleashed the original Tolomeo, everybody it seems has a version of it floating around out there.

In 2006, Philippe Starck designed a series of Tolomeo-inspired articulated lamps for FLOS, and Starck called the series Archimoon.

Well Starck and FLOS just joined forces with another German company, Dedon to breathe some new life into the Archimoon series.

I love the Archimoon Grande outdoor and the addition of the Dedon flourish really throws these lamps over the edge. Dedon makes exquisite rattan furniture and shades and the use of a natural shade with this mechanical lamp is a winner all around.

That patio in Chelsea's not hurting matters either.

So I ask you, is this an homage to the Tolomeo or is it a knock off?

How cool is the Golden Mean?

It's no great secret that I have a thing for the Golden Mean, also known as the Golden Section.

It's also no great secret that I love Twitter, though I loathe Twitter's interface.

Well, my pal Thomas Marzano (he's the creative director at Philips in The Netherlands) just sent this to me.

Cool! Maybe I won't resent Twitter's interface quite so much as I did before.

If you're a Twitter-er, follow @ThomasMarzano, he's always posting interesting stuff.