I heart robots

So I went into CB2 to get this.



It's a shower curtain with pastoral scenes of robots. Totally up my alley.

Anyway, CB2: it's such a dumb name (sorry Crate&Barrel - but your regular name is dumb too) and that stopped me from being interested in it before. But there were some things that appealed.



But my favorite was in the theme of "things that look like things that are those things but not really":



I am just the right age for this. I remember how fun it was pulling tape out of cassettes, and how delightfully wrong it felt. Now it's right!


POSTSCRIPT:

I think CB2 spelled Verity Freebern's name wrong...

Goodies from the new IKEA catalog

I really like IKEA. I mean, yeah, it's not heirloom quality but there have been many, many times in my life when "saving up for an investment piece" was really not advice I could take.

And I like the design. Not everything (hate their florals) but many things. I like IKEA green! I like that the children's toys are cheap and conform to EU standards for chemicals.














I also secretly wish an IKEA room planning person would come to my house and show me how to fit a family of sixteen into my living room.

Also...baby.

So there's a lot of nice stuff out there. But sometimes I see something that just makes me go ding! And it's often not the cutest thing or the design-y-est thing or the most on-trend-y-est thing out there.

It's just something that I, Maya, love.

Like this.



Even though it's from Urban Outfitters and I have nowhere to put it, I am vastly tempted.

Round bracket

So yes, IKEA is IKEA...but for 10.99 where do you find shelf brackets this nice?

Not shower curtains

I keep trying not to like stuff at Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie. There are a million reasons why, many quite obvious, having to do with silliness/price. But really, they do have some good stuff.

What I was looking for was a new shower curtain, but what I saw was this.





And this.

Window dressing

I got this catalogue in the mail. CB2. I've seen the stores around, but never looked into one.

The catalogue, though, entrances me, and this is why - I've become fascinated with the pretend reading matter scattered through the scenes. I don't even know what it's supposed to reflect - is it an aspirational lifestyle to read the New Yorker, the NYT and Twilight? The bathroom has National Geographic (currently laying people off, apparently). There are also the inescapable Large Design Books and, of course, everyone uses a Mac.

There is some ok stuff in the catalogue but it's very IKEA and I'd rather just go straight to the funfair land of slides and macaroni and cheese (most people think of meatballs, but a family member is addicted to the mac).



Added: Those reviews are totally fake! CB2, in my book you are busted. There is no way a pitcher can have that many good reviews because real people are picky and grumpy. Also, take note, real people don't spell well and use poor grammar. Especially in reviews.

Space 1979

OK, I was at IKEA today. This is so unfair. How can they have these in Conshohocken and not here in the mod-lovin' Bay Area?

Photo and info via Daddy Types and Greg's army of tipsters. Here's what he says:

curvy plastic base in black or white, pop-in seat in red, black, white or transparent smoke [!], plus a detachable tray, all for $60 [additional seats are $20]

Cookin'

I've been in an uncoveting rut recently, I think. I spend too much time in Trader Joe's, where the packaging is awful.

But check this out - IKEA getting into the stove biz. Kid stove, that is.



This is important because most fridges either look like this, or cost a lot. The IKEA one has burners that glow, man. At least that's what I think they were doing. And all for $99.

Of course you could put this together yourself out of bits and pieces from the as-is section.

Whoo

I know, I know, owls as a "thing" are a few years out of date. But I still like this. Plus, it's a piggy (owly) bank. Ah, function!

I took a crappy picture of itthe other day with my blackberry, but I might post it anyway just because you can see how big it is. But for now, this:

Stumped

So this is - well, I don't know what it is. Yes I do: it's a cardboard stump from Target. That's all I can say. But I like it.

Whoosh

Okay, some stuff I've been meaning to post for a while.

First is the IKEA slide, which of course Greg at Daddytypes beat me to - but hey, that dude has ads.

Our local IKEA (aka my daughter's favorite restaurant) recently remodeled and the tunnel/slide play combo through the wall in the kid furniture section has been replaced by this mysterious small chamber with changing lights. I better post a picture because that sounds weird, but it basically looks like a child-size teleport device that will take you straight to Sweden.

However, there is still a slide at IKEA. It's pretty great, actually, especially compared to the bright plastic, static-inducing kind. Not cheap, though.

Snap Zip

I got this camera case at H&M today. Of course I'm taking this photo with a camera that won't fit in that tiny bag, but I love it anyway.

Labels I Like: Or, What I Got at Target - Part II

This is probably not very good coffee. But I had to buy it, just for the tin. Only I liked the color scheme of the decaf, which you can see - blurrily - on my stove. Sideways.

Labels I Like: Or, What I Got at Target - Part I

So I went to Target today to get something boring and I bought a couple things just because of the way they looked. One was this stuff - J.R. Watkins.

I've pretty much always been a Meyers person, but I really like the labels.

Update

That thing about cups? I meant these.



(Kitt's keeping me honest.)

Mushrooms and elephants

So also I was pretty psyched by this new series at IKEA in the kitchen department. It reminds me of my 1970s childhood. Even the colors call it back.

These are place mats. Pretty small.




This is a tray.



There were also glasses, smallish ones, but there's no picture online.

Hot coffee

We didn't buy anything fun at IKEA today, but I saw some things I liked.







Ten bucks each.

People read this?

So I was reading Daddy Types, because it's awesome. And he had this post that was all about 'Hey, there's a Mammut crib at IKEA.'

And I said to myself, 'Hey, I posted about that. Twice, actually.'

And then I kept reading and it said, 'Oh, look, Ohdeedoh spotted it yesterday too. At covetable' and I said, 'Hey, that's me." Ohdeeoh is Apartment Therapy for babies.

So there was one of those ourobourous bloggy moments.

(Thanks again for the photo, Kitt.)

Crank it up

This little ipod amp is nice to look at, plus you can charge it by crank or solar panel. Probably pretty low quality sound, but it's cute. I love the way crank energy is coming back. We have an ancient, pre-war flashlight that works that way, only it drives the dog crazy.

Tick-tock, tick-tock

I realized a couple days ago that I seem to be collecting small clocks.

I didn't think about it until I bought two more from IKEA. (They aren't all from IKEA, though.)



My husband sort of looked at me funny and said, what are these for? Good question, I replied.

So now if I say I have a clock collection I have an excuse to get more, right?

This George Nelson one is fantastic.