Pseudosasa japonica bamboo:


Our plan for our garden last summer was to build a seating area and a long planter out of concrete. We completed the seating before autumn came, but the planter didn't get done. So, that's my project for the spring. Once it's done we'll be filling it with a long row of Pseudosasa japonica bamboo. For centuries this type of bamboo was used in Asia to make arrow shafts. But I like it because it can withstand temperatures as low as -15 degrees F, it likes the sun and shade equally well (good thing since our garden doesn't get a whole bunch of sun), and it won't grow above about 15 feet tall.

A simple metal shoe horn:


I somehow lost the only shoe horn I had and now it seems to be impossible to find one that's a)metal b) not designed for elderly men who can't reach their feet and c) sold separately instead of part of a set of "grooming" tools.

The one pictured is the closest I've come and it is being sold by American Bridal as a groomsmen gift. Too bad I've never been in a wedding party or maybe I'd have an extra shoe horn.

The Modern Fan Company's Halo ceiling fan:

After suffering through a winter of a hot upstairs and a cold downstairs, We've concluded that we need a ceiling fan. The Halo fan from The Modern Fan Company has a fluorescent light that is large enough to light up an entire room so it could solve our lighting problem downstairs. It also will look perfect with the new sconces I've eyed for the living room walls (see Jan. 1st post)Plus, it qualifies for the EPA’s Energy Star labeling as a highly efficient, energy conserving design. And it's not one of the modern fans that you see everywhere around NYC. I really hate being just like everyone else.
Lighting by Gregory, a huge store on Bowery that I once dragged Bri to in the middle of a rain storm, has it for $120 under the suggested retail price. I really like that.

A fawn like this one:


My Mom just forwarded me an email from a friend of a friend who found a sic fawn in their yard and took it inside to nurse it back to health. Their dog immediately took over the parenting and now the dog and fawn sleep together. I think Lexie would like a fawn of her own.

It looks like the winning highchair is going to be the Stokke KinderZeat:



After reading the comments to yesterday's post (well, just one of the comments), it looks like we're going back to our original winning highchair . (Yes, I'm whipped.)
Stokke is a very cool Norwegian company that's been making the KinderZeat for as long as I've been alive. However, their products have only been available in the US for the last several years. Bri likes the KinderZeat because it looks good and costs $200. I like it because it has such a simple, clean line and comes in plain birch so it will match our own dining chairs, the Series 7 chair by Arne Jacobsen . And I like saying KinderZeat.
But I still like the "Nest" better.

The Mozzee "Nest" high chair:



I wasn't planning to post baby stuff here for quite a while. Not until there was at least an embryo. But we've been deciding on what to buy for a baby (and occasionally actually buying the items) for a couple years now because it's difficult to find things that we both adore equally. A couple years ago while in Europe we found Stokke's Kinderzeat and it was what we've assumed we would get once there's a baby that sits up and eats. It was perfect because it's a simple chair that can be adapted as the kid gets bigger. Ingenious.

However, last night Bri mentioned a post about high chairs on a cool blog I stumbled upon recently called Daddy Types . I came across this one by the Australian company Mozzee, which I had actually seen in Dwell maybe about six months ago. I wrote it off then because it didn't seem to convert to a chair that could be used by older kids. But I was wrong. It can be used until the kid is 6 years old. And it comes in black so it would look great in our dining/living room. I think we might be lugging this back from Europe this summer.

The KnollStudio Albini Desk:



This desk was in the Sunday Styles section of the New York Times this weekend and I fell in love. In the article the desk was from about 50 years ago (and was owned by filmmaker Louis Malle's nephew) and so I assumed it would be an impossible item to ever find. However, low and behold, KnollStudio still makes it.
The desk was created by the Italian rationalist architect Franco Albini , one of the first European designers commissioned to work for Knoll, in 1958. The free-floating drawers are beautiful and surprising all at once.
Rationalist architecture and design began in the early part of the 20th century because of the development of new materials and construction techniques, as well as an increase in urban populations. It's the stripped down type of logical design that presented the internal structure and processes of production and knowledgeably used the inexpensive raw materials of the post-war area such as the plate glass and steel used in this desk. In other words, it's a look of which I'm often a fan.