LED Light Reviews

Justin Thomas, the guy behind the blog MetaEfficient: The Guide To Highly Efficient Things just launched a sister site to the original MetaEfficient. The new site is LED Light Reviews and it's dedicated to LED lighting exclusively.

I read MetaEfficient pretty religiously, but then again I have a thing for efficiency. Want to win my undying devotion? Tell me that I'm efficient and I'm putty in your hands.

LED are not new, but they are getting a lot of attention as the technology behind them improves. LEDs are highly efficient; they use very little power, produce more light and have no moving parts. Make no mistake, LEDs are the future of lighting. The quality and color of light they produce can be rather hit or miss though. Justin's new site features no-nonsense product reviews for all things LED. Getting ready to replace some lighting? Think about making the switch to LEDs.

I can make a dress out of a feed bag and I can make a man outta you

Making pillows, ottomans and upholstery from vintage grain sacks is the medium of choice for fabric artist Kym Fraser. To celebrate the opening of her website and online store, 3 Fine Grains, Kym has teamed up with my pal Gina Milne to give away one of Kym's pillows through Gina's great blog, Willow Decor.

The rules are pretty simple. Go to Gina's post from 25 March and leave a comment. That's it. Gina will select and announce a winner on Thursday, 2 April.

These vintage fabrics are the real deal, some of them are 160 years old --talk about character! Some of these are really fascinating too.

This sack with the stork once carried lentils.

And as a pièce de résistance, this penguin sack once carried penguin guano. I need that penguin pillow for that reason alone. I've long been of the opinion that every object you own should have a story to tell. Man, that penguin sack could write an epic!

So go spend some time with Gina and Willow decor and leave her a comment. Even if you don't win anything, you'll see some great stuff and you'll learn a lot from Gina's research and design passions.

I love me some Kohler

I read a blog called The Consumerist every day. The Consumerist doles out great helpings of consumer advocacy and financial advice and it's delivered with a smart alecky sense of humor that I find irresistible. Usually, their consumer advocacy takes a decidedly negative spin and a lot of their content comes from Consumerist readers who detail their customer service nightmares. Had a lousy experience with an airline? Tell it to The Consumerist.

For all of the horror stories Consumerist runs, every once in a while a reader will tip them off to a really great customer service experience. This happened the other day when a guy wrote in to report his positive dealings with Kohler.

I specify Kohler fixtures for a reason and this guys' experience proves my point and further cements my loyalty. Check this out:

Enough negative news gets tossed at your site (which I love, btw) that I thought that everyone would appreciate a little positive story.

I have a leaky faucet in my kitchen. It's been leaking for a year and I have, for a year, planned on fixing it. Well, I am home on paternity leave and it had become that much more annoying being home 24 hours a day!

I, as most red blooded Americans would do, headed to Lowe's to find the replacement part. No such luck (mostly because I had no idea what I was looking for). Don't get me wrong, I've replaced leaking faucets before, but the bathroom style 2-handled sinks are a different bag.

Next, I did some research online, trying to find a DIY guide for this particular faucet. What I stumbled upon was a number and a mention that Kohler has a lifetime warranty . . . . interesting.

So I called Kohler and got a pleasant support lady named Ashley (I think). She was absurdly patient. I mean, so patient she let me go down to my basement and try to find the paperwork that came with this faucet a decade ago so we could verify the model number. Once we had done that, she actually walked me through taking apart the faucet over the phone so we could figure out what was wrong. Once we had done that she VOLUNTEERED shipping me the replacement part, free of charge. I didn't ask. She offered. She never once was accusatory or hesitant in providing the service and by the end of our conversation, which had to have been at least 30 minutes, I had a new thing-a-ma-bob on my way to my house to stop the leak. (which I will know how to install since I've already gone through the process!)

Bravo Kohler. I do believe I will buy your faucets in the future.

This guy's experience echos every experience I've had with Kohler. Kohler makes great fixtures and all of them carry a lifetime warranty. Odds are, you won't have a problem with a Kohler fixture. But it's good to know that they'll stand behind their products should the need arise.

Check out Hakatai's revamped website

I've waxed rhapsodically about Hakatai's great glass tile a couple of times here and I was researching mosaics for a job the other day and found myself on their website again. Man, nobody, and I mean nobody shows mosaic tile as well as Hakatai does. All of the photos I have scattered around this posting come from their website.

Hakatai is a one stop shop for all things related to mosaic tile. Their retail prices are what I'm used to seeing as wholesale prices. This means that Hakatai is a great place to buy your own materials and save some money.

Hakatai's photo galleries have to be the most extensive on the web. If you're ever in need of some inspiration or if you've ever wondered how to use glass tile, spend some time combing through that photo library. 

Hakatai does a lot of custom work too and you can order their custom work through their website. Amazing. In looking through their custom mosaic library I'm struck by the amount of skill that goes into their murals in particular. Mosaic murals are an ancient art form and the gang at Hakatai pays homage to the ancients and then ratchets up the bar a couple of notches. Beautiful stuff, all of it.

Check out their home page for special deals and sale items too. Thinking about glass tile? Look no further.

Well worth a second look

I have been laughing about the photo of that 1961 kitchen I ran yesterday. It's a peppermint carousel! It's a stripey fantasy! The model's outfit matches the throw pillows and the shrubbery outside! Man, this is precisely the sort of thing that keeps me from taking what I do too seriously.

However, this is a pair of Levi's 501 jeans. 501s assumed their current form in 1960, a year earlier than the peppermint fantasy kitchen above. Granted, it took them another 20 years to get completely mainstreamed, but to men of my generation they were and are part of the uniform. Those same 501s remember the Beatles, watched Richard Nixon resign, got caught up in the Reagan revolution, followed the Grateful Dead around, showed up when casual Fridays became a substitute for a fringe benefit, counted down to the new millennium and cried when Barack Obama won an election. So sometimes, some things withstand the test of time and the winds of change. Who knows? Maybe a blue Dacor refrigerator is the new Levi's 501. I doubt it, but maybe.