We will be taking a blog break until Jan 2, 2007…We would like to wish everyone a very, very happy new year and holiday season and want to leave you with a pretty Christmas design by Betty Bo Ra Kim…Check her out…In the meantime, feel free to email us with news, submissions, or just to say hi! We love hearing from you. Happy holidays, all!

Nice piggy bank. The Time Is Money clock. Available at Atypyk.

Via BLTD.

A smart way to be able to hang out on the couch and have a drink as well (especially if you don’t have a coffee table or side table like me – doh! small nyc apartments!). This is the SofaHanger, by German designer Ralf Paul Schmitz for Vanpey. It’s custom made to fit your sofa, and is made of aluminum with a walnut veneer. I also like the little side table with the hidden storage…Very nice.

Via Designspotter.

The Be Open Bottle Opener is something I first saw Kevin and Alex use on Diggnation. You put it on the top of the bottle, push down and the bottle cap pops off and is held to the opener by the magnetic ring on the bottom. It’s seriously a great way to open a bottle. Watch any of this year’s video episodes of diggnation and you will see how it works. The stainless steel version is $25.00. I’m waiting for one with the Digg logo.

While this may sound like a pretty ridiculous idea, The Triton Logging Company is a company that specializes in harvesting underwater lumber. The underwater forests are created by flooding due to new hydro-electric dams built throughout the world. There are an estimated 300 million trees that are now underwater and waiting to be harvested around the globe, worth some $500 Million USD.

Their primary tool is The Sawfish, a proprietary hybrid of an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle a logging machine. It is real and is actively harvesting underwater forests in British Columbia, Canada.

Bravo for unconventional ideas.

I love these paper doll gift tags from Jason Sho Green. Very cool.

Via NotCot.

More pretty bracelets! These are made of various wood veneers and are lined on the interior with sterling silver. Designed by Tadd Sackville-West of Cero Designs, the bracelets come in two widths: the 1.25″ Maru and the 2″ Kyasha.

A beautiful shelving unit made from recycled Cerelac cans by Emiliano Godoy. Maybe it’s more difficult to fabricate these than I imagine, but the fact that the cans are held together by glue is a bummer – I wish they were attached to each other with screws or rivets or something nicer than hot glue. At any rate, this is an attractive, versatile storage unit and the nicest part of the idea is that it is DIY.

Another cup that makes the most of stains. These are from British designer Laura Bethan Wood. Designed in anticipation of the damage caused by use, a graphic emerges as the cups slowly stain over time. This is one cup that looks better with age.

Via Cool Hunting.

The Alligator Lopper, by Black & Decker, is the sickest looking yard tool I have ever seen. It’s a mini-chainsaw(!) with a jaw to grip and chop large branches or small logs.