Curved Solid Wood Plank Flooring! Design Winning Waldilla

This is such a nice change from the linear wood planks and flooring you usually see. Recipient of the 2009 Red Dot Design Award for product design, Germany-based Waldilla makes subtly curved solid wood flooring available in Oak, Fumed Oak, Birch, Sycamore Maple, or American Cherry.



With just the right amount of organic curvature, it's not enough to make you dizzy or to stand out too much, but just enough to blend and complement any style of furnishings from Victorian to Modern.

The best way to understand it to see it. So here's a gallery of the flooring for you (images courtesy of Waldilla):









Learn more here. (site in German and English only)


Contact info:
holztec dipl.-ing. dieter herrmann
bahnhofstraße 14
D-27432 hipstedt
phone: +49 4768/920 30 37
fax: +49 4768/679

Poids Plume. Making Babies And The Planet Beautiful.

Montreal-based Poids Plume designs and creates beautiful, natural organic cotton clothes, hats, blankets and cotton-linen bedding for babies.



The sweet clothing for infants and babies includes swaddling blankets, Goblin hats, layettes, onezies, sleepsacks, and pajamas.

The Baby bedding has everything from plush blankets to crib bedding and pillows.

Hand-printed with water based inks, the modern textiles feature nature scenes and animals in simple, but elegant, graphic designs. The non-toxic inks and eco-friendly natural materials used in their make for both a better planet and better looking baby's room.











You can purchase these lovely products from either their Etsy store or from the virtual online store Artefaks

Ivorilla Turns Fuel & Diesel Cans Into Hip Storage Cases

German company Ivorilla has taken the old 1930's flat Jeep metal gas cans and turned them into two styles of functional storage cases and luggage trolleys. The distinctive 47cm x 35cm x 16cm large canisters have a volume of 20 liters and can hold anything from undies to CDs.

By adding hard polymer heavy duty trolley wheels and aluminum telescopic handle, they've turned an old functional item into a new one with greater possibilities. The GasCase has a petrol-resistant lining to prevent corrosion and is made from robust 0.9mm thick pickled sheet-steel.

They have a "diesel" version and a "fuel" version, The diesel version opens from the side and the fuel version from the top. Below are both shown in blue so you can see the difference:




The dimensions are 47cm x 35cm x 16 cm and comes in two versions:
- Ivorilla® GasGase Fuel / Business
- Ivorilla® GasCase Diesel / Case



Ivorilla® GasGase Fuel / Business
The fuel version can be opened from the top and was initially designed for DJ’s to protect their vinyl when traveling towards their next gig. The GasCase has no limitations and lent himself easily to use for safe transportation of a Macbook, calculator, sneakers, dirty wash or your bread drum.


Available Colours: Black, Mini White, Red, Light Blue, Olive Green and Yellow

Ivorilla® GasCase Diesel / Case
The Diesel version can be opened from the side and is designed but not limited to protect your clothing from getting creased. From grandma’s underwear to your baby diapers the GasCase will look after them.




Available Colours: Black, Mini White, Red, Light Blue, Olive Green and Yellow



Also worth noting are their denim ties, check those out when you visit their site too.


all images and info courtesy of Ivorilla.

You can buy the Ivorilla® GasCase here. Or check their site here

Fabulously Creepy Animated Holiday Short By Rodrigo Blaas For Alma Films

The incredibly talented animator Rodrigo Blaas, who worked on Disney's Up, Wall-E, Ratatouille, Cars and more has created this eerie and beautiful short film about a child drawn to a toystore of dolls for Alma Films.

You may never let your child into a toystore again.





Written and Directed by: Rodrigo Blaas
Produced by: Cecile Hokes
Music: Mastretta
Art Director: Alfonso Blaas
Lighting Supervisor: Jonatan Catalán
Character Technical Supervisor: Jaime Maestro
Character Design: Bolhem Bouchiba, Carlos Grangel,
Sergio Pablos, Santi Agustí
Animation: Daniel Peixe, ManueBover, Remi Hueso
Sound Design: Tom Myers and David Hughes
Post Production Coordinator: David Heras
Special Thanks: Keytoon, Next Limit, UserT38


Full credits: almashortfilm.com

Royal Asscher's Stars Of Africa, 18k And Diamond Snowglobe Rings

I promise this is the last snow dome-related post until next holiday season, but I simply couldn't ignore these. These unbelievable lust-worthy 18k gold and real floating diamond rings work like little snowdomes! By Royal Asscher, the collection is for their fundraising initiative Stars Of Africa.



The Stars of Africa by Royal Asscher™ jewelry collection was launched in November. The project’s name represents the largest diamond ever found, at 3,105 carats, which the Asscher family cut in 1908.

This collection of 18 rings is distinguished by floating diamonds, which are encased in a fluid-filled sapphire dome that allows them to fall freely.



The result of floating diamonds is that the stones emit light, fire and beauty as they move, similar to twinkling stars, according to the designers. The ring collection is available in white, yellow and rose gold in two sizes, with retail prices ranging from $4,950 to $7,900.



Lita Asscher, shown above, first introduced the Star of Africa program in New York during November of 2008. A year later, she explained that in partnering with charities and businesses, she could show the industry how it can have a positive impact on Africa, particularly Sierra Leone, which she visited in 2008. Asscher came away with a strong belief in "diamonds for development" and that became the main goal of the Star of Africa initiative. A portion of each ring purchase goes back to Africa.




To enquire about purchasing contact starsofafrica@royalasscher.com

Love Diamonds?

Check out this post on the biggest diamonds ever found.

As We Welcome 2010, A Look Back At 2009

above: 2009's popular topics; Michael Jackson, Twitter, Health Care Bill, Iraq war, Tiger Woods, Zhu Zhu Hamsters, Green movement, Twilight's New Moon, Lady Gaga and Facebook.



Happy New Year to my wonderful readers. It's each and every one of you that make the labor of daily blogging worth it. I can't thank you enough for your continued support, encouragement, kind letters and comments.

Although If It's Hip, It's Here received less national press than in 2008, the blog finally broke into Alexa's top 100,000 and readership has almost doubled.

2009 was a very unusual year with lots of political, technological and cultural milestones and firsts, as well as tragic losses and economic struggles. It was the year we lost Michael Jackson and found Twitter. Swine flu spread as did the popularity of Lady Gaga. Facebook reached an all time high and myspace faded fast. And Tiger Woods fell from grace while we enter the Year of the Tiger.

According to Google Zeitgeist, the following were the most popular search topics of 2009 both globally and in the US.

Most popular Google searches worldwide, by category, of 2009:

Fastest Rising (Global)
1. michael jackson
2. facebook
3. tuenti
4. twitter
5. sanalika
6. new moon
7. lady gaga
8. windows 7
9. dantri.com.vn
10. torpedo gratis

Fastest Rising in Entertainment (Global)
1. michael jackson
2. transformers
3. eminem
4. naruto shippuden
5. beyonce
6. peliculas id
7. paranormal activity
8. anime online
9. natasha richardson
10. poker face lyrics

Fastest Rising in Food & Drink (Global)
1. acai berry
2. picnic
3. クックパッド
4. tesco direct
5. senseo
6. peanut butter recall
7. nespresso commande
8. habibs delivery
9. mocktail
10. masterchef australia

Fastest Falling (Global)
1. beijing 2008
2. euro 2008
3. heath ledger
4. barack obama
5. amy winehouse
6. kraloyun
7. dailymotion
8. bebo
9. wii
10. emule

Fastest Rising in Sports (Global)
1. real madrid
2. us open
3. ufc
4. sahadan
5. livescore
6. pacquiao vs cotto
7. wbc 速報
8. pga tour leaderboard
9. confederations cup
10. l'equipe football


Popular Queries By Quarter
The graphs below capture the fastest rising query for each quarter of 2009 (United States only), visualized over the entire year. To find the fastest rising query for each quarter, Google looked at the most popular searches conducted every three months and ranked them based on how much their popularity increased compared to the previous quarter. Note how some queries maintain a moderate level of search volume over an extended period of time, whereas others peak sharply and suddenly.

Fastest Rising:



Michael Jackson:

Disasters:

Late-Night TV Shows:

Celebrity Scandals:

Games:

Athletes:


And these were the most popular Google searches, by category, in the United States in 2009:

Google.com - Fastest Rising
1. twitter
2. michael jackson
3. facebook
4. hulu
5. hi5
6. glee
7. paranormal activity
8. natasha richardson
9. farrah fawcett
10. lady gaga

Google News - Fastest Rising
1. swine flu
2. susan boyle
3. jon and kate
4. adam lambert
5. rihanna (chris brown)
6. new moon
7. inauguration
8. michael jackson
9. nadya suleman
10. missing link found

Google Maps - Fastest Rising
1. mount everest
2. laguna seca
3. in-n-out
4. grand canyon
5. eiffel tower
6. white house
7. great wolf lodge
8. wild animal safari
9. voodoo doughnuts
10. path station

Google.com - Fastest Falling
1. john mccain
2. olympics
3. heath ledger
4. barack obama
5. sarah palin
6. circuit city
7. ron paul
8. iron man
9. spore
10. wii fit

Google Image Search - Fastest Rising
1. lady gaga
2. new moon
3. michael jackson
4. megan fox
5. selena gomez
6. rihanna
7. taylor swift
8. bella swan
9. alice cullen
10. jacob black

Google Mobile Search - Fastest Rising
1. twitter
2. michael jackson
3. facebook
4. imdb
5. cta bus tracker
6. bebo
7. nba scores
8. univision.com
9. steve mcnair
10. espn.com

The methodology used to determine the above:
To compile the 2009 Year-End Zeitgeist, Google studied the aggregation of billions of queries people typed into Google search in 2009. They use data from multiple sources, including Insights for Search, Google Trends and internal data tools. They also filter out spam and repeat queries to build out lists that best reflect "the spirit of the times." All of the search queries they studied are anonymous—no personal information was used.

Except where noted, all of these search terms are most popular for 2009—ranked in order of the queries with the largest volume of searches this year. In some cases, they list the "fastest rising" queries, which means they found the most popular searches conducted in 2009 and then ranked them based on how much their popularity increased compared to 2008. Conversely, "fastest falling" queries were very popular in 2008 but flattened in popularity in 2009.