Modern parents rejoice. Apartment Therapy, one of my favorite modern design blogs, has launched a whole new branch of their famous blog just for parents. The Nursery looks like it will be a promising addition to the rest of the Apartment Therapy group. They already have blogged about some of my favorite nursery goodies, and I am sure that they have lots of great stuff in the pipeline.
I am a total sucker for old looking radio's. For some reason there is nothing more satisfying than a nice big knob, and a couple of toggle buttons to push. Part of it is because growing up I loved music, and always ended up buying twenty year old stereo receivers from garage sales to power my motley set of speakers. This Boom Box Radio is a total kick back to that era. While it has enough buttons and knobs to impress the casual observer, all it really does is am/fm and alarm clock. That makes the $80 price tag a little hard to swallow, but it is still one of the sweetest alarm clocks I think I have ever seen.
If you haven't heard of curbly yet, you are seriously missing out, but don't feel bad, I just found out a couple of days ago. Curbly is a community of people who, well love where they live, and want to help other people out. The website has a great modern design, and an even better community of people willing to help each other out. While not strictly modern, a lot of the content is. There are great DIY projects, a question and answer section, and a place for everyone to have their own blog, and homepage with photos and such. It's pretty much what I wish I had the talent to transform GRM into.
Right now they are having a contest, where you can win $200 at IKEA just for signing up and posting a picture of your happy place and why you like it. So make sure you get over there an give it a go.
Make sure you check out my homepage over there and say hi.
Comments? Post them here in the forums, or comment over at curbly.
I came across this site a while ago, and thought that it looked interesting. Solar power is something I have always wanted for my home, but the start up cost is usually pretty prohibitive. Home Depot recently started doing solar installation, but it's not available where we live. This program from Citizenre REnU looks too good to be true, so it probably is. It claims no system purchase, no installation fee, no maintenance fees. If anyone has any more details about this program, please share with us in the forums.
Lets face it, land lines are on their way out. Most of my friends, and family don't have land lines, they just rely on their cell phones for everything. Since my wife and I have been married, we have never had a landline. Unfortunately that can make for some expensive cell phone bills. So in an effort to save some minutes, especially with the holidays coming up, we got a Skype phone. For those who don't know Skype it is an "over the internet" phone system. Computer to computer calls are always free. Computer to landline calls are free until the end of the year, then outgoing calls will be $0.02 a minute, and incoming are $40 a year when you buy a Skype in number. So when we are at home we forward all our calls to our Computer. The secret to making the whole thing work is a decent Skype Phone. Thats where the IPEVO Free-1 phone comes in. It's got nice style, and great sound quality, and best of all it's affordable.
Available from IPEVO for $35.
Comments? Post them here in the forums.
Looking for yet another way to cut down on your productivity at work? Google is here to help out, yet again. I noticed today while I was doing a google image search, that at the bottom of the first page there was a link called "Want to improve google image search? Try Google Image Labeler." Little did I know that it would lead to a huge waste of time. It's really genius, as Google tends to be. It pairs you with another sucker person, and for one and a half minutes you are shown pictures and asked to label them. Apparently you both have to enter the same label to move on to the next picture. It's a nifty little game that essentially gets two humans to label photos for google, something a computer could never do.
If your looking to waste some time, and build the Google kingdom, check out the Google Image Labeler.
OK, lets be honest here, before I even start this one. I have no idea how it really works. The Aimulet LA is a handheld audio communication device. It is made of molded bamboo and requires no batteries. Here is an explanation of how it works:
With the device pressed against your ear, you stand over a designated area. On the floor are LEDs, which then transmit a signal to an array of spherical micro solar cells (called Sphelar by manufacturer Kyosemi). The Aimulet LA then transforms this signal into audio which is fed to your ear via tiny speakers, all without batteries. Potential uses include museums, zoos, botanical gardens, etc.
Personally I just like the design, the green aspect, and the thoughts of making molded bamboo furniture.
Your know those cheesy cards you always get around the holiday season from your third cousin twice removed. You know the boring stock card with a picture of their kid and a some totally generic text to fit the occasion. Admit it, as much as you hate the cards you are a little jealous about just how easy it must have been for them to take a picture of Tommy and Sue to Walmart and have several dozen printed up. Basically Cards has filled the niche market of stock modern cards for any special occasion. Don't worry, you will still have some creative input, you can choose all the color combinations, and customize the text too. Most cards start at around $2.50 a card.
Design e2 is a new(ish) show on PBS that focuses on "The economies of being Environmentally Conscious". The show has a nice focus on Green Building and how architects can have a huge influence on our environment. I don't actually own a TV, so I haven't been able to see an episode yet, but they do have a video podcast with some exclusive content that I have enjoyed watching.
Make sure you head on over to their website to view the trailer.
Their podcast can be found here.
In case you didn't notice, that really is Brad Pitt doing some of the narrating.
There certainly has been no shortage of demo on our little house. We have just one wall to go before we can start to patch things back up again, unfortunately this is a tricky one. The wall in question is the orange one shown in the plans to the left. First off, it is a structural wall, so when the final demo happens it will have to be carefully braced while a load bearing beam can be slipped into place. The second problem was that little green spot shown on wall "A". That was where our houses breaker panel was, making it impossible to tear down the wall until it was moved. This week I finally got around to moving the panel to spot "B" across from the bathroom. I took the chance to update the panel to a new one that can accommodate our addition. Everything went smooth, and I had it all switched out in one day. Now I just need brace the wall, finish the demo, and slip in a new beam. Pictures of the wall before and after shown after the jump.
Before the demo.
The panel needing to be moved.
After the panel was moved.
The new panel.
I was getting pretty bored of the old website, so I took the opportunity today to make some changes that I have been wanting to make. First off I finally made the switch over to the newest version of wordpress (the blogging software I use). I had been using a pretty old version, so things from the back end are much nicer now. I also updated the look of the website. Let me know what you think about it in the forums. Speaking of forums, I also got rid of the old software I was using and converted it all over to Vanilla, which is a lovely forum software. It's a little different, but once you get used to it, a lot nicer. If you have any problems with logging in, let me know. Take a second to head over to the forums and let me know about what you think.
Ohh, and as far as affordability goes, its all open source. Viva la open source baby!
I've added a poll to the right, asking what direction I should take the website. I have always had a bigger vision than just another blog, but as a grassroots supporter, I think that the movement should be of the people, for the people. I am trying to make this site the best it can be, so tell me where you want it to go! Rest assured, no matter what happens, I will continue to blog the same as before. Please take the time to vote, it takes just a second and it helps a lot. We get over 700 unique readers here a day, so I expect some good feedback!
In the meantime, I'll keep this post on top as a reminder.
This is my last post about the Outdoor Retailers Expo, tomorrow back to my normal content.
Eton, makers of stylish audio devices, has recently teamed up with the American Red Cross to make the perfect emergency radio. Available in several different configurations, all their radios boost AM/FM radio, with your choice of Short Wave or NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and TV/VHF (for listing to local TV stations). They include a hand crank to charge the radios internal Ni-MH battery pack, and three AA batteries for other devices, as well as a cell phone charger. In addition the radio includes a LED light and flashing red strobe light. All this packed into a small 6" x 6" x 2" radio in a stylish white case. Emergency preparedness has never looked so good.
Available from Eton from $50-$60.
It's pretty hard to get someone excited about something like coolers. At a show as big as the Outdoor Retailers Expo, it's even harder to get someone walking by your cooler booth to do a double take, and come back to check out your cooler. But that is exactly what happened. Yeti, is making some of the nicest looking extreme coolers I have ever seen. The design, especially on the smaller 16 quart model shown, is minimalistic and clean. I love the big stainless steel handle that doubles for a latch. The hinges are all super strong, so you won't ever have to worry about them breaking. I am hoping to be able to get a hold of one so I can see just how well they actually hold their ice. Stay tuned, and I'll let you know.If you are interested in purchasing, check out their website at http://yeticoolers.com
Of all the things I saw at the Outdoor Retailers Expo, I think that this was the one that hit me the most with the feeling "Why didn't I think of that". Very simple idea, cheap, and super cool. The Firefly by Guyot Designs is a waterproof LED light that fits into the lid of any Nalgene sized bottle. When filled with water and tipped upside down, you now have turned your water bottle into a lantern. I saw one at the show, and it was very impressive. I am sure they don't put out a ton of light, but I dare you to find a more compact lantern.
Available from Guyot Designs for $21.
They also have a very nice shorty insulated bottle for $20.
This past week was the Outdoor Retailer Expo here in Salt Lake City. For those of you who haven't heard of it, it's one of the biggest outdoor retailer shows in the world. While the focus is not really on anything modern, I figured I would check it out and see what goodies I could find. I would like to give a special thanks to Sara Nazzaro, who was kind enough to help me get in at the last minute.It's pretty funny, as I wandered around one of the things that I noticed the most were some of the elaborate booth designs, and the nice simple furniture that a lot of the booths had. I think I was more excited about that than a lot of the products. However, for the rest of this week, I will highlight some of the products that I thought were the coolest.
This very simple FM radio from Orange Skin doesn't come with a whole lot of descriptions, but I love it for its simplicity. The only info they do give is:
A rechargeable FM radio that can be plugged into any outlet. Material Plastic, Available in Aluminium, Blue
I love how simple it looks, and what the quality is like. The price $60.
Available from Orange Skin.
It must be funky FM radio week or something here at Grassrootsmodern. Here is another simple and inexpensive FM radio. Designed by David Turpin in 2004, this compact capsule is a fully functioning FM radio. The speakers are house in each end of the capsule and the controls are accessed by pulling the ends apart, revealing a simple dial for station and volume.
I remember a few years ago my step mom was trying to find a nice simple radio. Not a radio-cd-tape player. Just a simple radio. Its amazing how hard it is to find something simple. Almost every model she found had way more features than she wanted. If you have ever wanted just a radio, here's the one for you. Designed for Lexon (great company) this simple joistick radio is just that - a radio. Nothing more. The simple and whimsical joystick gives you all the controls you need to change stations, volume, and turn it on and off. The simple clean lines are guaranteed not to add too much visual traffic to your simple decor.
Available from presentshopper.com for $39.
There is a video that shows how it works on their website.
I love Apple. While they may not be the most affordable of the computer world, they are hands down the sexiest. So whenever there is any rumor of great apple design, merging with affordability I get excited. Rumors have it that apple is getting ready to bring back its more affordable, slightly less speedy eMac. If rumors hold true, it will mean a great all in one computer at a price you can actually afford. While it probably won't look like the image to the left, (a mock up done by engadget) it is sure to look great.
Via Ployer (the most stylish geek blog!)