Fire safety products have never looked so good. Home Hero makes only 2 things: slick fire extinguisher and slick 2-in-1 smoke and carbon monoxide alarm. There’s no pricing on these babies yet as the products are still in test market but you can sign up to be notified when products become available. Read more about these as well as general home safety guides on their neat web site.  

 Whitney Smith is a talented ceramic artist. I love how her pieces are inspired by everyday things.. like turnips, dogwood, and pomegranate. Price ranges from $40-$140. Read more about her at her site. Buy her goodies at poppytalk. 

 The orange octopus is absolutely adorable. $28 at Chiasso.

A chunkier and cheaper alternative to the classic Random Light ($778-$860), this earthy copycat is a lot gentler on the pocket ($79-$129). Abaca pendant available at West Elm, conversion kit sold separately.

 The actual idea has been around since, well, since napkins were created I guess. Everyone’s done it and some of the greatest creative ideas evolved from it. I’m fairly surprise I haven’t seen anyone market this as a spiffy clever product until now. Napkin Notebook is exactly what it is. No explanation necessary. (Site is cool too - props to Jesse)

Congratulations to my pal Don and his wife for the take-off of their country-club chic apparel store, Gargyle. Gargyle carries some seriously unique clothing line that’s quite hard to find (united bamboo! one of my fave). They are prime example that if you really want to do something, keep at it and you’ll succeed. Yay!

The folks at Belkin really have the white-on-white apple sidekick market down to a science. This piece of gadgetry in particular is quite interesting. The mr. and I have long talked about putting a “master switch” button by our door to kill outlets that hooks up to appliances so we can conserve wasted energy readily. With the new Belkin Conserve surge protector, it looks like this can be done easier than ever. 2 of the 8 outlets are set to “always on” and 6 are set to switch on and off with the cute little switcher thinggy. Read more on NotCot. And it’s only $50!!

 This little toy speaks lovely words to my inner geekdom like nothing else. So sweet that I bought 2 of them! (yanno, one for the office, one for the road).. Actually they make dope gifts for your techie friends and significant others. Shipped straight from Japan, the thing is fully functional: plug it in, turn the key, flip the switches (in sequence please), and kill!!!! The USB hubs in the back are fully operational to give you some excuse of why you really, really need one. About $60 from Audio Cubes. (Pss.. awesome store! physical one recently opened in NYC on 8th street)

Pictures from the trip here.

Niseko was fun and full of many eating excitements in addition to the usual “puffily” snow goodness. So I arrive back to a balmy NYC winter yet again. This is making me worry even more about our climate and the world. I vow that in 2008 I will be a better human being in contributing less impact to the environment (or at least pay the off-set, which by the way is pretty friggin expensive for international flights. Yikes! Kudos to Continental Airlines - they make carbon off-setting a part of your flight purchase. Yay!). For those curious about where your contributions really go with this whole “off-setting” business, NYTimes has an interesting article that covers it. And, oh yea.. floss more. Happy new year to everyone! Have you got a resolution?