The Hipster Home

What a life. Another week, another batch of internet temptations revealed as available for purchase. When you la la love it but just can throw down the cash, I wwwant that! This weekly feature is my small corner of the world to wax poetic on amazing products found on the web and in some people’s homes, but not mine.

(photo by Drew)

Although I frequent Laughing Squid at least once a day, Scott’s blog is the last place I ever expected to find something for THH. Laughing Squid always has interesting pop culture, technology and news.  Bakeware? Apparently LS even rocks that. Enter: Helvetica cookie cutters, which I really wwwant. Beverly Hsu made many a designer/baker’s dream a reality. These guys aren’t actually available for purchase yet; the ultimate achievement in an I wwwant that! item.

Is there something in your bag that you use every day and have owned for years? Have you tried to replace it but failed? Such is the story of my Kenneth Cole wallet. Originally a high school Christmas present , I’ve attempted to dethrone it only to come crawling back again. It’s in great shape, and still completely functional but there are always other shiny new wallets to tempt me. Even though old leatha’ prevails, look at this beast! This L.A.M.B. perfection came to my attention in the form of an Okay Great blog post.  (While we’re at it, can we have a heart to heart about Okay Great‘s amazing lamp post? I absolutely wwwant all of them!)

Blame the many Martha Stewart books on my desk. Blame Remodelista. Blame el nino. Blame an unswerving devotion to brunch. I want this part shabby chic, part modernist pitcher for fresh squeezed OJ, bloody mary mix, or a bouquet of flowers. Oh Emile Henry, please tell me you wouldn’t actually charge me $50 for the pleasuring of serving with such a lovely item?

Part of the Christmas tradition that was woefully missing from this year’s postponed celebration (due to wedding) was my typical week-long devotion to puzzle completion. Yes, I did receive a puzzle as a gift. No, I wouldn’t have had time to work on it. Seeing the test pattern puzzle on Swiss Miss made me a) sad I had no puzzle time and b) energized that such a colorful challenge waits for me for next Christmas. Begone, Thomas Kinkade!  Things of Colour might market puzzles as boring but I heartily believe this would be my perfect family-time distraction.

Happy Lady Eats loves pomelos but these THH eyes were locked on the rather retro Fishs Eddy Guest Check tray. What’s not to love about giving a longer life to a diner waitress’ workhorse?

There is one moment in time where all of San Francisco bands together in anticipation of the Next Big Announcement. Apple’s Tuesday media events grab our attention, won’t let go and gives us one day to have something in common.  As sfgirlbybay pointed out, we were all rather aghast at the name choice for this newest product so she decided to celebrate her favorite Apple product, the iPhone. I’m so glad she did because I wouldn’t know about the fantastic mobile phone case maker she highlighted, Uncommon. All the skins are created by artists and customizable so you can take one piece of art and showcase your favorite parts. Above is an example from knitter extraordinaire, Magda Sayeg.  I absolutely adore living in a world where you can make your technology look like an afghan from your childhood rec room.

Honorable Mention: Apartment Therapy spotted the perfect kid’s table. It’s a xylophone! But not an old, boring, colorless adult instrument, it’s the fun child-version. Problem: I don’t have a kid. And wouldn’t the slats be a problem? (BONUS: The people who make the xylophone table are called Jellio. Go check out their website. Your inner child thanks you.)

Ahoy there Hipster Homers! I’m Julie and I’m the very first guest blogger on this fine site. Today’s project involves breaking stuff, plants, found objects, and miniatures. Fun, right?

Let’s get started! We’re going to go through the steps to create your very own little terrarium. I like building terrariums inside of lightbulbs because of the inherent challenge of working in such a small space as well as how the simple, industrial beauty of a light bulb complements the intricacy of natural elements. (I was inspired to try this out after seeing this post on Apartment Therapy a couple of months ago.)

We’ll get into the nitty gritty of how to make one of these. But first, let’s go through some key dos and don’ts of light bulb terrariums. I assembled these tips and warnings through extensive trial and error as well as helpful advice from the folks at Flora Grubb Gardens and Hortica in San Francisco.

Dos and Don’ts

DO:

• Do use sand or small pebbles; these are good because water drains through them easily. (Wet soil will get moldy in a confined area. You don’t want this.)
• Do use Tillandsia, also known as air plants; these are a great choice for your tiny terrarium because they take all the nutrients they need from the air and a small amount of water. No roots means no wet soil which means no mold. You can buy tillandsia at garden stores or online.
• Do choose preserved moss instead of live moss. Preserved moss isn’t living, but it will hold moisture; this moisture raises the humidity level in the terrarium, which makes the tillandsia happy. You can find sheet moss, reindeer moss, and other preserved mosses at garden and floral stores.
• Do keep your terrarium in partial sunlight.
• Do give your terrarium some water. The tillandsia is alive and will need a small amount of water to stay that way. Water it by either removing it and soaking it in water once a week or, using a spray bottle, give it a small spritz of water every week or two. Pour out any excess water.
• Do feel free to use little rocks, pieces of glass, or any other bits of things to help give your terrarium character.

DON’T:

• Don’t use soil. Again, you don’t want a soupy, moldy terrarium. That would be gross.
• Don’t use live moss. Moss is really picky and isn’t likely to survive well in this environment.
• Don’t keep your terrarium in the dark.
• Don’t keep your terrarium in full sunlight, either.

How To:

You’ll need a few tools to make a tiny terrarium but nothing complicated to get started.

• Needle-nose pliers
• Scissors
• Long tweezers or chopsticks
• Flathead screwdriver
• Glasses or goggles

Let’s start with the light bulb. I like the globe kind that are used to light bathroom vanities. You can buy them at any hardware store, or preferably, use one that’s burned out to save resources. For those of us in northern California, one option for buying burned out bulbs (if you don’t have any on hand) is the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse in Oakland. Don’t use “soft white” bulbs or else your terrarium will just look like January in Minnesota. I don’t think this is what you’re going for.

We will be removing the inside parts of the lightbulb. This step involves breaking glass, so wear glasses or goggles to protect your eyes. I recommend doing this over a box to contain any flying pieces of broken glass. And, obviously, this is an “adults only” kind of task.

First, remove the metal tip from the bottom of the bulb. Using needle-nose pliers, carefully nudge the sides of the metal tip from the black glass part.

Then, when enough of the sides are raised to get a good grip on them, hold one of the sides with your pliers and yank out the metal tip. You will feel a couple little wires snap when you do this.

Next remove the black glass. Hold one side of the glass with the pliers and firmly twist up to snap the glass. Repeat around the other sides and pull out any remaining bits of black glass. This glass is pretty thick and will take some force to break it; so be careful and hold onto the bulb firmly.

Now you will be able to see the interior parts of the light bulb.

Using the flathead screwdriver as a sort of lever, snap the interior tube from the side. It will make a totally satisfying little sound as the argon escapes. Then twist the screwdriver around to smash the containing tube. It takes some force to do this; be careful, but also don’t be afraid of the bulb itself breaking. It probably won’t. Hold tight to the bulb while you do this.

Pull out any remaining wires with the pliers.

If there are any last bits of glass around the interior edge, break these off with the screwdriver.

And now you have an empty light bulb! That is definitely the hardest part of the endeavor. Next, put adhesive silicone bumpers on the side of the bulb to keep it steady.

We’ll use sand as a substrate for the terrarium. You can buy it at a garden store or collect it from a beach. If you use beach sand you will need to thoroughly rinse it to remove any salt.

The sand in this tutorial is from the beach, so our first step is to rinse it.

To dry it, either spread it in a thin layer on a cookie sheet and leave it sitting for a few days, or dry it in the oven at 300 degrees. Be careful taking it out, because it will, hopefully obviously, be pretty hot.

The sand should be completely dry before continuing.

Once it’s dry, put a couple tablespoons of sand into the lightbulb. Make this easier by either using a funnel or a folded piece of cardboard.

This terrarium includes preserved sheet moss, reindeer moss, and tillandsia.

Cut off a small bit of sheet moss and put in the bulb. Position it using a chopstick or long tweezers. Tear off a few small pieces of reindeer moss and add this, as well.

Put a tillandsia in the bulb, pushing the smaller end in first. Position the different elements to look nice together and add more moss or rocks if you’d like. It might take some poking to get everything in the right place; be patient and experiment with different arrangements.

For extra fun, tiny toy animals can enliven your terrarium. I used a miniature horse for this one, and stuck a piece of gold wire in its head to make it into a makeshift unicorn. Any other found objects, like rocks, sticks, marbles, etc., would also be fun.

And voilà! You have a lovely terrarium.

More of my lightbulb terrariums are online at tinyterra.com and for sale on Etsy. I’d love to see your terrarium creations! Contact me at juliette@tinyterra.com.

A NOTE OF CAUTION FROM APRIL: Wise THH reader Shadus recommends using gloves when extracting the bulb guts. (S)he says “I would add– wear gloves while performing the delicate work on the bulb, they’re stronger than most people expect but a slip with the screwdriver could lead to a hand full of glass shards which is no fun and also doesn’t make for a nice evening at the hospital. Better safe than sorry!”

Betcha miss my regular features. I sure do. What happened to the wwwant thats of the world? The weekly CSA box?!? All in due time, dear readers. Oh, how the holiday season does disrupt! In celebration of a less commercial season (and thus a manageable covetous stuff per blog ratio), I’m bringing back my ode to internet shopping. For the girl who has everything a click away but not the wallet to support such frivolous action, I wwwant that! At the bottom, I posted some updates for several of the sellers I’ve wwwanted before.

Sometimes delicious web wares don’t come from a specific blog referral. Sometimes these items are waiting for you. Just cruising by it with my eyeballs is enough to do a double-take and launch an investigation. That happened one day, right after logging into flickr. “What’s that? Oh look!” Almost hidden within Poppytalk’s Flickr group The Art of Display, was the work of one Ninainvorm. In some mystical, magical formulation, she fires original screen-printed designs onto new and vintage housewares. The effect is quite fun and really, who doesn’t love a good mismatched houseware collection and color fiesta? Beware: her Etsy shop will tempt and tease you.

Yet another internet bread crumb trail led me to this next find wwwantable piece, which I’m likely to actually just BUY already was cheap enough to warrant purchase. More important than the mug is the amount of awesome that led me to this point. In summary: super fantastic blog Point and Blog said they were reading The Hipster Home (exciting!) Previously being unawares of facinating Point and Blog, I wanted to learn more about the writers, Emma Hovel and Katherine J. Oh look! One of them has a etsy link, does she make things? Wow, she’s got some pretty items favorited on her Etsy profile. Wait a sec, that mug has a space shuttle on it! And bad grammar! SOLD. Thanks for the mention, ladies of Point and blog!

Once upon a time, the Mr. and I ate at Spork. We were too full from dinner to order dessert but upon seeing the delicious list of sweets, decided to pick something up for home. The next day, we tasted the first bite of a Humprhy Slocombe specially made Spork ice cream, After School Special. WOW. Malted vanilla ice cream with chocolate covered potato chips and a caramel swirl. Heaven on a spoon. The best part was the chocolate covered potato chips, which since then, Happy Lady Eats shared a review of a particular brand. YUUUM. I definitlly wwwant that.

If there is a #1 entry on things I need around the house, it would be serving trays, especially for baked goods. Pyrex gets the job done but dang it, those things are not the pedestal on which to place your final delicate creation. Tangarang recently shared a way to make your OWN cake stands. Keyword: EPOXY.

This is a non digital I wwwant that! find. I know, I MUST BE LEAVING THE HOUSE! A Real Simple Magazine spoke to me at the airport last week and I’ve been enjoying it quite a bit. One of the pages celebrated several mirrored lamps. The main attraction, from West Elm, whispered that it might look good in our living room. I heartily agree.

Even though it could catch on fine fabrics or drag you straight to the bottom of a river because of its heft, these fantastic crystal rings by Elseetee, as seen on Poppytalk, are super fantastic. Look at the color! The irregular shape! The sheer earthiness of these rings! Blows the mind. I was ready to say how I absolutely, without a doubt, I could not afford these but to my surprise, they are a reasonable price for such statement jewelry. If you are also a fan of such things, go imagine yourself in another one of Elseetee’s wares in her Etsy shop.

There was some good news for internet friend (and one-time real life encounter) Polly of Pollyannacowgirl. Homegirl is the new ReadyMade Craft blogger. HUZZAH! She’s got excellent taste and I’m excited to follow along with her. Already, she spotted a calendar that would look so dapper up here in my craft loft. It’s a forever calendar by Claire Nereim. Whuzzywho? A forever calendar means that it’s just got month numbers and the California Wildflower that blooms every year at that time. Clever and beautiful, that’s a winning combination!

I wwwant that! alum updates:

• While at the Renegade Craft Fair, I met Brenda of Phydeaux Designs! She was quite nice even though I was nervous to say hello! She’s busy with helping Haiti so if you’ve ever thought of purchasing one of her terrific cowls, DO IT NOW! (from I wwwant that! #10)
• Helping Willotoons at Bazaar Bizarre, the booth was next to The Harbinger Co. Again I shyly said hello and even though I didn’t have any money on me at the time, I ended up receiving the Bamboo Cube  posts from the Mr! What a generous soul he is. (from I wwwant that! #2)
• Finally, while spending some quality time inside the completely wwwantable Mission shop Gravel and Gold, I spotted MAKIT PLATE KITS! That’s right, kiddies! You can buy them online OR you can make the trip to this well-complied shop of treasures. (from I wwwant that! #1)

Let me first start with an apology. Lo siento!  There is no reason (except overwhelming business) to keep you guys in the dark about recent THH developments. Pardon my radio silence, even in the face of an epic amount of attention brought by a certain design*sponge post. If you didn’t see from my recent tweets (which I just learned weren’t showing in my sidebar), I was in Austin last week to celebrate my sister’s marriage! Although she’s halfway across the country, my family was able to plan all sorts of activities and events including a bridal shower, an important BBQ visit and more. Yeehaw.

One of the tasks I assigned myself was to create a Love Mixtape. Little known fact: I was a debutante my senior year of high school and as a result absolutely DETEST most event DJs. That includes weddings. I figured that if I was going to make it through this, there better be high doses of delightful lovey-dovey tunes hand picked with a certain amount of discretion. My friends were good sports and sent numerous examples of their favorite love songs.

Between making salted citrus caramels, packing a travel cooking kit and taking pains for personal beautification, I updated, tweaked, and expanded the mix to its current glory. As a reformed music biz professional, I know better than to post the whole thing in its entirety as a download but thought that you may already have a majority of these tunes in your music library. Bold songs denote favorites you should download! When I can, I’ve linked to the songs around the web. (UPDATE: wow, The Hype Machine had them ALL!)

A Love Mixtape: for F&S

1. First Day of My Life by Bright Eyes
2. All is Full of Love by Death Cab for Cutie
3. H in New England by Mac Richter (From an instrumental piano album that is worth the purchase)
4. Not Going Anywhere by Keren Ann
5. Heartbeats (A Knife cover) by Jose Gonzalez
6. Anyone Else But You by Moldy Peaches
7. Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (amazing new musician)
8. All I Want by Barry Louis Polisar
9. This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) by Talking Heads
10. The Look of Love (Part 1) by ABC (from one of my top 5 albums of all time, excellent and VERY 80s)
11. All I Want is You by U2
12. Heart of Chambers by Beach House
13. The Book of Love by The Magnetic Fields (from the greatest collection of love songs ever, 69 Love Songs)
14. Can’t Help Falling in Love (An Elvis cover) by Ingrid Michaelson
15. Make You Feel my Love (A Bob Dyland cover) by Adele
16. Row by Jon Brion (instrumental track from the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack, which is all fantastic)
Row – Jon Brion
17. More Adventurous by Rilo Kiley (my favorite love song, get the whole damn album)
18. If This Ain’t Love (Don’t Knw What Is) by Nicole WIllis & The Soul Investigators
19. Sea of Love by Cat Power
20. The Luckiest by Ben Folds
The Luckiest (Album Version) -…
21. 3 Rounds and a Sound by Blind Pilot
22. I Will Follow You Into the Dark by Death Cab for Cutie

Wow, TWO Death Cab songs? What was I thinking?? Speaking of love and Ben Gibbard, we finally sat down to watch (500) Days of Summer last night. It left me in a strange mood, mainly that of dissatisfaction. But as the Mr. pointed out, that was kind of the point.

Let’s hear it, do you have any favorite love songs that I missed? Did a certain Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt movie leave you sour on Los Angeles love?

(PS I also made a sexy mix featuring the likes of R. Kelly, Ludacris, Color Me Badd and CSS. Are you interested in that playlist too?)

Welcome to The Hipster Home 2010! I sincerely hope you had plenty of time with family and friends, good food and drinks during my favorite festive time of year. I thought we’d remember kindergarten today with a little holiday show and tell….

The whole Christmas and New Year celebration somehow started with a perfectly clean kitchen, serene and ready. There is a bolognese sauce simmering away on the stove but you wouldn’t know it, would you?

[ITEMS INSIDE THE SIMMERING POT]

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The Mr. and I hosted a Christmas Eve’s Eve dinner that featured that ole bolognese sauce. We used it to make stuffed shells from a New Classic Family Dinners recipe. We polished off two baking dishes of shells and about 12 bottles of wine. We also made the tricolor salad with arugula and endives. Divine!

Merry Christmas! Since my sister is getting married mid-January, we by-passed my traditional family celebration out in a cabin somewhere. I spent Christmas with the Mr.’s family. They celebrated in style with a gigantic heap o’ presents.

What does one do with a gallon of leftover bolognese sauce? Make pasta! Note to self: homemade pappardelle is too fat for bolognese.

And we bowled.

And played Monopoly, ate chili, and hung out with an adorable pup and his awesome owner(s).

I sincerely hoped to get out of town at least one day over the break and boy, did we ever. ROAD TRIP! With Bodega Bay in our sights, we headed out.

While driving up Sir Francis Drake Blvd, we saw a pull-off for hiking. Upon investigation, it was the Mt. Tamalpais Watershed where rare types of fish nest. We took a stroll and although we didn’t spot any salmon in the river, the walk was lovely.

After driving up the coast some more, we had lunch at Reyes Cafe (tasty pizza and oysters). We took on our first geocaching assignment! If you’re not familiar with what that is, it’s one part treasure hunt, one part explorer. Since the advent of GPS devices, some creative souls have taken to hiding little containers at precise coordinates. It is then your job to find them, sign a log and feel like a badass. There is an intro iPhone app we downloaded which shows you the nearest sites. We found our first geocache in downtown Point Reyes. It was a regular looking broken-off sprinkler head and I was VERY hesitant to touch it. But we found success! Read more about it on the geocaching website.

One of the reasons I LOVE northern California is that we went straight from redwood territory to the beach. And it was lovely. Someone built a sand city on Doran Park.

After the beach, we drove out to the head  of Bodega Bay, which is that land mass on the right of the beach photo. Straight from the sunny beach, we were swallowed whole by fog. We searched for another geocache out here and found it. You can’t tell but the whole Bodega Bay head is made from sheer cliffs. I normally have no issues with running around a peninsula surrounded by 100+ foot drops but since the fog was so heavy and it was fast approaching dusk, it felt like we were the ONLY PEOPLE OUT THERE! Spookytown.

After our exploring, we needed dinner. Our quest landed us at Martha’s Old Mexico in Sebastapol. To food was deicious and the decor, even more incredible. On the porch, the entire back yard was filled with lights, gnomes, garden ornaments and (it being Mexican and all) Virgin Marys.  We finished off our day out with a showing of Sherlock Holmes (loved it) and headed home.

The final Sunday was nothing to speak off except fantastically adult errands like laundry and a Costco run. The shining star of the day was an early show in Oakland at Mama Buzz Cafe to see a last minute perfrmance by tUnE-yArDs. If you aren’t familiar with her music, IT IS AWESOME. Our friend Ty, from Sun the Greater (which you may remember) told us about it and we would have been foolish not to go.

Over the course of the holiday, I was piecing together parts of my envisioned Christmas present for the Mr. I finished it up yesterday and was SO pleased with the final product. Behold! A bike chainring clock.

How was your holiday? What’d you cook? Where’d you go? How has your new year g0ne so far?