So my imaginary bench will need some company and I think I’ve found him a perfect friend in this planter.
Ok, so maybe it’s a ways down on the “actually purchase” list, but I love it nonetheless. In fact, go look through the Architectural Pottery site — they have tons of cool MCM pottery, including the ubiquitous bullet planter. But I have my heart set on this little dude. And, as a bonus, I was thinking maybe I could dress it up as a spaceship for Halloween!
At the sight of this Bloom My Buddy vase that rolled onto my screen this morning. My daughter has been begging — BEGGING! — me for a chia head (her Chia of choice? Scooby Doo) but I just cannot bring myself to buy one. Maybe it’s the memory of the old SNL Chia Head skit. Maybe it’s just because they’re butt-ugly.
But this thing, it is teh awesome. Originally posted here on AT, I thought that it was made of some sort of porcelain or ceramic and was afraid it would be outrageously expensive (as so many of my design lusts are). But, after looking at the site, I see that they’re made out of plastic so I’m feeling hopeful. Until I come to the “shop” portion of the story. One Buddy of each size comes up to 1900.00. Ok, help me out here Buddy site, I need some sort of indication of what monetary unit we’re talking (”Yen! Yen! my brain is screaming). But alas, it is the Euro. Bringing my grand total to just under $3,000.00. For a fancy plastic vase. Ummmm, no thanks.
We’ve been oh-so-slooooowly renovating the exterior of the house. We’ve added one metric f-ton of mulch (and by we, I mean the hubby). Lots o’ plants. And, a couple of weeks ago, we finally installed the new storm door (that’s been sitting in the front hall for four months). And by “we,” I, again, mean someone else — mostly my dad.
So now that the major hardware in front is looking halfway presentable, it’s time to look at the rest. And, honestly, the front stoop (man, I love that word) just bores me to tears. We have a cool mailbox, and a really cool doorbell which, apparently, attracts toddler fingers with a force similar to that of the North Pole). The avocado green door will be painted, just as soon as we can figure out a color (so, eh, maybe October). On my wish list is slate tile to cover the ugly slick concrete and a bench. I didn’t even know I wanted a bench because, hey, we’ve got giant buckets of sidewalk chalk and various wiffle balls and plastic golf clubs for ornamentation. Then I saw this bench.
Now, I am not usually a big fan of benches — eh, a bench is a bench — but I’m lusting after this one. Alas, it’s $300. For a plastic bench. I’m thinking maybe the design is simple enough that I can manage this one as a DIY. And when I say “DIY,” I, of course, mean “Oh, Daaaaaaad!”
If I could purr, I would be doing so right now, loudly and unashamedly, directed straight towards the lovely people who work at Xerox printer support.
My big, honkin’ $1700 duplex color laser printer has been acting a little squirrely lately and then WHAM, all of a sudden the control screen started reading backwards and the printer wouldn’t work. After a few Googly searches, I find that it’s pretty standard for this model to have problems with the control panel. The cheapest one I find is $155 and it’s not new, but pulled out of an old printer. I’m annoyed because this printer is only a couple of years old and gets fairly light use. I find one ray of hope in a blog comment that says Xerox replaced their faulty panel for free, but I don’t get my hopes up. I’m still mentally scarred from my many run-ins with HP “support” over the years and I’m not used to these things going well. Then I receive an e-mail from Xerox support that says:
Sounds like you have a defective control panel. We can send you a replacement free of charge. I am placing an order for this now. You should receive this within 3 - 5 business days. If you need to contact us, please call …
Wait… what?! That’s how it works?! You ask a company for help with their product and they HELP you? In one day?! Without hours on the phone to the farthest reaches of the earth and countless head-banging moments?
If I ever, ever, EVAH get my office cleaned out, I may have to spring for one of these desk phones from Crosley. Because right now, the only phone in here is the one on the fax machine, which is stuffed into my desk and has a cord length of, oh, maybe 4.5″.
Usually I’d gravitate towards the shiny silver, but the matte black is purty too. I’d even forego the portability issue. Maybe I’d get one of those really long lines so that I could hang the phone body off of my hand and pace back and forth like they used to in the movies. Except that it would never be that cool in my life… because every time the phone rings, three children come running from the ends of the earth, demanding things they hadn’t even dreamed of seconds before. Loudly. Ahhhh, the magic of the telephone.
So, any of you loyal readers in LA? If so, please make a mental note about the Modernica Warehouse Sale on June 7.
Do you understand the plan? Let’s review, just to be clear: Wait for June 7 (or perhaps the day before if you want to camp out and really impress me), head to this big ol’ warehouse sale, grab any and all light blue and/or orange and/or white Eames shell chairs that you can find, then ship them all to me.
Let me just start by saying that I came by this, ummmmm, vase on ebay honestly… I have a search set up for Vistosi pottery and glassware (like Mr. Unaffordable Bird) and this is what showed up in my inbox yesterday.
Ok, lately I’ve been trying to shun things like this because, well, after hauling one metric ton of stuff out of my house for a garage sale, I feel it’s best to avoid the cheap plastic crap. Which, I know, is impossible, but we’re trying to make the valiant effort here.
It doesn’t help that this particular cheap plastic crap is soooooo cute… I’m finding it hard to resist. Found during a recent search for a replacement bug jug (yes, we had a bug jug failure, winding up with an escapee caterpillar who at least had the good instinct to crawl UP our curtains, rather than down to a cat treat demise). Uncle Milton (of the ant farm fame) has come out with two tiny bug containers, one for ladybugs, the other for roly polys (”polies”?). Playgrounds, if you will, complete with slides and water holes and anything your captive insect might need. (aside from, you know, anything natural!)
So my imaginary bench will need some company and I think I’ve found him a perfect friend in this planter.
We’ve been oh-so-slooooowly renovating the exterior of the house. We’ve added one metric f-ton of mulch (and by we, I mean the hubby). Lots o’ plants. And, a couple of weeks ago, we finally installed the new storm door (that’s been sitting in the front hall for four months). And by “we,” I, again, mean someone else — mostly my dad. 
Just ran across these 
If I could purr, I would be doing so right now, loudly and unashamedly, directed straight towards the lovely people who work at 
If I ever, ever, EVAH get my office cleaned out, I may have to spring for one of these 
So, any of you loyal readers in LA? If so, please make a mental note about the 
Let me just start by saying that I came by this, ummmmm, 