Can you believe how much a picture frame costs? It’s ridiculous! After you spend all that money on a camera, film, and processing, you’re expected to shell out the big bucks just to display your photos. It’s a giant conspiracy, I’m telling you. That’s why I hang up my photos with tape. Well, until they inevitably fall down after a few days -turns out it’s not that effective. That’s ok though because I’ll just thumbtack them all to the wall. Then again, I’ll have holes all over my wall, which would probably piss off my landlord. I think I might be out of options.
A much cheaper and totally more awesome alternative to traditional picture framing is the Bird on a Wire Picture Hanger (Plasticland, $12.00). Instead of imprisoning your photos behind panes of glass like they had committed some sort of photographic crime, why not let them hang free? Simply tack the 36″ clothesline to your wall or bulletin board and hang photos from the eight blackbird-shaped paperclips. The best part is that you can easily pick up the whole lot and move it somewhere else if the mood strikes you, and you don’t even have to worry if the picture is hanging crooked.
Some might call your new photo display “cheap” or “silly,” but I prefer adjective like “unique” or “ingenious.” Remember, they’re just jealous of your totally boss design ideas.
3 out of 5 stars.
Specs:
-Dimensions: 2.5″ x 1.25″ (each clip)
-Set of 8 blackbird shaped paperclips
-36″ clothesline
How many hands do you have? I’ve only got two and, as far as I know, the same goes for most of the population. It’s darn near impossible to carry everything you need for a party or holiday get together in one trip, but who really wants to constantly go back and forth into the kitchen? I’d much rather risk dropping everything than have to make another trip. Yeah, I know it’s stupid, but I know you feel the same way. The worst is when you’re trying to entertain because there’s no way you can successfully carry wineglasses and a bottle of wine without ending up covered in aged grape glass shards.
Luckily, you only need one hand to carry your booze with the Bottle Bouquet Wine Holder (Perpetual Kid, $17.99). Of course, you’ll need a way to get your wine glasses in the room too, which is why this drink caddy has room for both! Simply place a wine bottle upright in the center and up to six empty wine glasses upside down in the outer ring, and you’re all set. You can carry the whole kit and kaboodle by the top of the wine bottle. And if you’re entertaining more than six people, you can just carry another one of these babies in your other hand. Problem solved!
Looking for a unique hostess gift for the holidays? A bottle of booze is always appreciated, so you might as well jazz it up a bit with an accompanying glass holder.
4 out of 5 stars.
Specs:
-Dimensions: 12″ diameter
-Holds 6 empty wine glasses and 1 wine bottle
-Made of plastic
Who likes to clean – a show of hands? Seriously, I don’t know anyone who actually likes to clean. There are certainly a lot of people who hate filth and will clean on a regular basis to maintain a healthy living space, but that doesn’t mean they like it. It’s more like the lesser of two evils. And even those people don’t want to clean every day. They just wait until the mess can’t physically get any worse and then they resign themselves to the fact that the next 48 hours of their lives will be spent washing, scrubbing, and vacuuming. With the rise of our technologically advanced cleaning machines, we’ve come to understand that it doesn’t have to be like this. We don’t have to be slaves to the cleaning cycle. We can break free.
Our partner in breaking the cycle is the Automatic Hard Floor Cleaner (Amazon, $199.99). A Roomba-like device, this floor cleaner is designed especially for cleaning hardwood and other hard flooring. Guided by North Star Navigation, it learns the room as it cleans and expertly cleans around furniture. Its sensors detect obstacles like raised rugs and areas too low to enter, which help it avoid catastrophes like falling down the stairs. With both dry sweeping and wet mopping modes, you can use microfiber and/or most disposable cloths to clean your home. This technological wonder boasts a whisper-quiet operation, so you can sit back and relax as it cleans around you, and it even automatically shuts off when it’s finished. Because the device isn’t super heavy, it won’t scrub your floors til they sparkle, but it will easily maintain a floor that has been cleaned to start with.
I’m sorry to say that you will still have to clean from time to time, but it’s a huge step up from mopping the floor every week. As an added bonus, it’s sure to entertain your animals for a good portion of the day.
5 out of 5 stars.
Specs:
-Dimensions: 8.5″ x 9.6″ x 3.1″
-Weight: 8 lbs
-Cleans up to 3 hours on a single charge
-Guided by North Star Navigation System
-Uses microfiber or most brands disposable cloths
-Dry sweeping and mopping modes
-Low maintenance
-No filters or bins to empty
-Cleans around furniture
-Whisper quiet operation
-Automatically shuts off when finished
-1 year warranty
I was trying to listen to music the other day when I was doing some work around the house, but I couldn’t find my headphones (which is a good argument for the Ear Pod). It was a real bummer because all I had on me was my iPhone and even if I crank the volume way up, it’s still not loud enough to listen to while moving about. I have one of those iPhone/iPod music docks, but it was downstairs and I was upstairs. And seriously, who wants to move a bunch of crap just so they can listen to some tuneage while they work? I finally had to give up on cleaning the house and just sit on the couch all day. Total bummer, right?
It might look a little wonky, but the iPhone Horn Stand (Vat19, $24.95) will amplify the sound from your iPhone’s built-in speakers. How loud will it get? This kooky gadget will more than double the sound level emitting from your iPhone – up to 13 decibels louder. Compatible with both the iPhone 4 (made specifically for this model) and the iPhone 3G/3GS, you can still access all the major components of your phone while using the sound amplifier. There’s even a slit in the bottom so you can rest your iPhone on the dock connector to charge it! If you want to watch videos, it’s not a problem because the amplifier can be used both vertically and horizontally. And because the product is made of silicone, it’s lightweight, flexible, and even washable. Best of all, the amplifier doesn’t use any external power, making it ultra portable and easy to use.
Before you even ask, you will have to take off your iPhone cases to make this work (except for the little Apple bumper for the iPhone 4, that’s cool). The only downside here is that even though the device is completely compatible with the past two generations of iPhones, you have to put it in the amplifier backwards for it to work. It doesn’t affect the sound output in the slightest, but it might make it a little less convenient to navigate through your listening options.
4 out of 5 stars.
Specs:
-Dimensions: 4.25″ x 1.75″ x 2″
-Amplifies sound by 2.5 times (13 dB)
-No external power required
-Works horizontally or vertically
-Compatible with iPhone 3G/3GS and iPhone 4
-Available in black or green
-Made of silicone
They say there’s nothing quite like the bond between a child and a parent. I mean, for those first few years of his life, a parent’s main purpose is keeping a child alive. But it’s more than just survival that ties these two together, it’s a kinship. Unfortunately even though most parents would love to never leave their child for a moment, it’s pretty much impossible to be with them 24/7. There are business trips, appointments, and basically everyday life that will get in the way of that. The key is to find a way to be present when you can’t be, well, present.
When you can’t physically be with your child, why not at least lend your voice? The In Your Own Voice Storyteller (Hammacher Schlemmer, $79.95) lets you tuck your child in using just a pen and a book. The pen-shaped voice recorder allows you to record your child’s favorite book for him to listen to later. How it works that each voice recording stored within the pen corresponds to a uniquely coded sticker that when pressed plays that recording. The recorder comes with 600 stickers, 40 of which are preloaded with generic sound effects like a ringing phone, meowing cat, and ticking clock. What’s so great about this recorder is that you can “read” a multitude of your child’s favorite bedtime stories with just the touch of a sticker, even if you’re miles away.
Obviously, you could read to your child over the phone, but that’s clearly not as awesome as this. I mean, you’d both have to have a copy of the book (like he’s not gonna want to see the pictures while you read). And what if you’re traveling to another time zone? It’s a lot easier for everyone this way, trust me.
5 out of 5 stars.
Specs:
-Dimensions: 6.5″ x 1.5″
-Pen shaped voice recorder
-Attach easy peel stickers to any book’s pages
-Built in memory
-600 uniquely encoded stickers
-40 prerecord sounds stickers
-Uses 2 AAA batteries (not included)
-Ages 3 and up
