Fire safety is no joke. The best method to keep you and your loved ones safe is prevention. Making sure your house has the necessary safety measures in place, such as smoke detectors and fire extinguishers, is pretty easy to do. I mean, WWStBD (What Would Smokey the Bear Do)?
If you’re going to invest in a safety precaution, why not at least make it enjoyable a la the Chick-a-Dee Smoke Detector (Generate Design, $79.00)? You could go for a boring old smoke detector, but this one is both functional and cute (another two-fer!). This bird-shaped gadget acts just like a standard smoke detector in that it will emit a sustained 85 decibel sound when smoke it detected. However, it differs in that it also replicates a chick-a-dee-dee call when a threat is first detected, making it a lot more pleasant during those all too often false alarms due to intense cooking experiments. With the bird perched on a branch, you can either mount the bird directly to the ceiling or use the branch itself as a mounting system for a more authentic look.
Also known as the Rockin’ Robin’s cousin.
4 out of 5 stars.
Specs:
-Dimensions: 7″ x 7″ x 4.75″
-Creative smoke detector
-Bird call at first sign of threat
-Sustained 85 decibel sound at smoke detection
-Control light flashes once a minute
-Battery included (1.5 year lifetime)
-Available in white and white/black
-3 year warranty
Why is everyone so obsessed with glowing items? Show me someone out there who doesn’t think glow sticks are cool and I’ll show you a liar. Seriously, if it glows it’s gotta be awesome. Let’s look at the evidence: Lite-Brite? Awesome. Glo-Worm? Awesome. Rudolph’s nose? Super awesome. It doesn’t look like the novelty is wearing off anytime soon.
The Glo Nightlight with Portable Balls (Amazon, $56.21) is a great example of practical glowing technology. On the surface, it looks like a generic nightlight – funky design, but with your basic monster-banishing principles. What sets this light apart is that you can remove each of the balls from the base and they will continue to glow, no batteries required. Ok, so no batteries must mean you have to charge them up before each use, right? Nope, these babies are ready to go at a moment’s notice. Each ball is powered by a low energy LED (won’t be hot to the touch) and will fade to dark after 30 minutes of glow time (no shutoff needed). The balls will light up and change colors, but only when on the base. When removed, the balls simply glow a white-green light.
Whatever happened to Glo-Worm? Somebody needs to investigate that, right quick!
4 out of 5 stars.
Specs:
-Multi color nightlight
-No charging required
-Fades to dark after 30 minutes
-Color selection lever
-Select one color or color changing
-Low energy LED base
-9 volt power adapter included
-BPA free, Phthalate free, and PVC free
A lot of people like to romanticize starting a family, but let’s get real here – it’s not all fun and games. Perhaps the most serious impact children will have on your life is a severe lack of sleep. It’s not their fault; they need constant attention and they can’t tell time. If you’re waiting for your child’s attention seeking to wane, then you’ll be waiting forever. At least you can do something about their knowledge of time telling.
While your baby girl might not know exactly which predawn hour it is, the Multimedia Photo Clock (SkyMall, $89.99) will at least let her know that it’s too early to wake Mommy and Daddy. The key here is a clock that displays both the digital time as well as a photo representation of day or night. Using this combination, you can teach your children when it is time to get up and when it is time to go to bed simply by looking at the picture next to their bed. If you’re not down with the pre-programmed sun and night images, you can always upload your own teaching images. The clock itself is not only a fully functional alarm clock and digital photo frame, but also a music/audiobook/video player.
This still doesn’t mean you’ll get to sleep in – that’s a luxury of the past.
4 out of 5 stars.
Specs:
-Dimensions: 5.5″ x 6″ x 1″
-Teach children when to get up/go to bed
-Pre programmed awake/sleep images
-Can also be photo personalized
-Alarm clock
-Music/audiobook/video player
-Digital photo frame
-Available in Blue Peace, Green Numbers, Pink Peace, Pink Stars, or White
-Ages 2 to 8
-2011 Award Winner from Parent Tested Parent Approved
Don’t you just hate it when you wake up in the middle of the night and your mouth is like the Sahara desert? I could only imagine how much worse it would be if I was a mouth breather – that would be like drinking the sand. Because I’m a self-confessed lazy person, I make sure that I have plenty of water on my bedside table on the off chance I wake up thirsty. I don’t like to just leave a full glass of water out though as you never know what might fall in there in the middle of the night. Also, there’s a 99.9 percent chance I would knock that whole glass onto myself sometime before dawn.
With the Bedside Babushka Water Carafe (Plasticland, $22.00), you can have your water and drink it too. What looks just like a beverage container is actually a cute glass and carafe set that comes apart in the same manner as a traditional babushka. The lower half holds your water while the top part becomes a perfectly sized drinking glass. My only caveat is that it’s glass – one wrong move and it’s a very dangerous situation.
Sorry, this babushka does not contain several other babushkas nested inside of it.
4 out of 5 stars.
Specs:
-Dimensions: 4″ x 7″
-Glass and carafe set
-Made of hand blown glass
I used to read a lot, as in a book a week. Sometimes I would even finish a book in a day because I was simply too enthralled to think about putting it down. With the exception of a recent foray into Harry Potter (I read all seven books in about a month), I’ve been pretty lax about my reading. It’s not like I’m trying to fill a quota or anything, but I think the easiest way to get excited about literature again is to just dive in.
Soon to be my favorite new reading accessory, the Book Rest Lamp (Generate Design, $79.00) is super cute. Yes, it’s a house-shaped lamp that gives off just the right amount of light for a bit of bedtime reading, but it’s also a book rest. Instead of having to stick a bookmark in every time you need to put your latest tome down, why not gently set it down on top of this soft beacon of light? Granted, you’ll eventually have to resort to a bookmark if you want to read on the go and it’s unclear exactly how long you can leave flammable materials on top of a heat source without starting a fire.
File this one under “Exercise Common Sense” and we’ll all be fine.
3 out of 5 stars.
Specs:
-Dimensions: 4.5″ x 5.9″ x 5.7″
-Frosted glass lamp/book rest
-Light output is 600 lumen
-Light bulb included
