I love art festivals. Especially the great ones that happen all summer long, here in the Chicago area. And it’s especially satisfying when I stumble upon great artists, like watch designers Juan Felipe Barreneche and Damiel Schemel who design the unique Mistura watches. True harmony between Mother Nature and watch-making.

These timepieces are not only stylish, they also have a focus on ecological matters. The face of the Mistura watch is made from exotic woods from the South American tropics: Bamboo, Macana, Coconut skin, Carreto, Guayacan and Nazarene. The watch cases are made either of wood or of recycled materials (70% [...]

I thought that this was the cutest idea: Gabs Studio’s build-it-yourself handbags.  These very cool “Made-in-Italy-and-assembled-by-you” bags actually come in pieces, ready to be put together, according to the instructions or in new and creative ways. Add personal touches too. It’s like cooking: instructions are just guidelines. The best cooks always add more of what they like and less of what they don’t. I think that’s a good rule for design too.
Once all assembled, the Gabs Studio bags can be worn over the shoulder or messenger style. They come in six color ways. Great gift idea. And perfect for the [...]

By Liza Kovacs, M.S.C, M.A., Guest Contributor
Although I am not a physical therapist, I make my living as aPilates instructor attending to people’s bodies. Sometimes exercise and learning good movement habits is not enough to provide relief from pain, which most of my clientèle, 40 and over, suffer from to greater and lesser degree. I often use my hands to relieve my clients from the numerous knots and kinks they manage to accumulate through day-to-day life and of course, bad posture and habits (such as spending hours in front of the computer). It was with great interest [...]

We have all been sooooooo looking forward to the summer months. Time to kick back and chill, sleep-in a little, have friends over for BBQs and spend as much time as possible close to a beautiful body of water…
Here are a few of our favorite “essentials” that will help us proclaim, very loudly, that “summer is here at last“!

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
Although all of the father’s in my life (including my husband) are deserving of a special day, I always find it a bit of a challenge of finding that perfect gift. Let alone the fact that it is probably celebrated at the worse time of the year, with all the end of the year school activities. So I cheated a bit and went to IKEA to see what I could find for the father of my children.

SPRAKA – I love this pepper mill. I have been looking at one of these for [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
Although my children are too big now for high chairs now, I came across this one  and had to share it because it’s so perfect for summer travel. I wish I had one of these just a couple of years ago, instead of the bulky a plastic booster/high chair that took up an inordinate amount of precious cargo space in the car trunk…

Belkiz is an Australian company that designed the Feedaway, a safe, foldable, recyclable cardboard high chair. It’s is lightweight and folds easily for storage or travel.  It was designed [...]

Think of summer, think of fun & colorful “adult” drinks in novel drinking glasses and fruit garnish. Well, that’s what some of us think of first…  And, for us, there’s the “Spike Your Juice” kits, a new way to transform all those kiddie, summery juice flavors into sparkling boozy beverages. All you need is…

Your favorite juice, a 64 oz bottle
One Spike package, poured into the bottle
Seal the bottle
Wait 48 hours
Enjoy…

The fizziness is part of the natural fermentation process. Most juices will create an alcoholic beverage with about 14% alcohol.
Though I don’t think that this will satisfy the chichi palates, I’m [...]

… We say innocuous looking, because we believe that Buckyballs will, in fact, quickly become highly addictive.
Ok, so this is not a grand statement of a gift, but you know that it would be the one that gets the most attention. And which dad doesn’t need a desk toy that is actually interesting for more than 3 minutes…
Each set contains 216 powerful Rare Earth magnets that can be shaped, molded, torn apart and snapped together in UNLIMITED WAYS. Make sculptures, puzzles, patterns, shapes, stick stuff to the fridge, invent a new game…
You can buy Buckyballs directly from the site. Current [...]

I soooooo wish I had these the other night when we attended a wine tasting event. It was a crowded affair with little room to sit and the tasting and sampling went on (no one forced me, I know) for more than three hours. I wish – oh so wish – that I’d had a pair of Rolleez in my bag. After three hours of standing, I desperately wanted to take my shoes off, at least for the trip home (you’d think that the wine would alleviate the pain, but no…).
Rolleez are lightweight rollable flat “emergency” shoes that conveniently fit [...]

By Audrey van Petegem, Senior Editor
Living in California it is sometimes hard to tell the difference between seasons. So, it was my internal time clock that told me to start dusting off the winter gloom and bring in some summer cheer.  As I looked around my house I was not feeling very inspired. Time to call a girlfriend and head to Ikea. No surprise that Bernadette and I discovered lots of inexpensive items to update and refresh our living spaces.  I was thrilled to find these:
For the Outdoors
Godis Mix Glasses – These are the cutest glasses that [...]