Monthly Archives: February 2010

How to live to 100

Posted on February 26, 2010 | Leave a comment

When we saw this we just had to post it. Let’s face it, we all want to live forever.

However, we have one small issue. Surely if it was as easy as this graphic suggests, surely we’d have a lot more centenarians?

(source: Buzzfeed)

→ Leave a comment

Posted in baby creative

Tagged , , , ,

Piano Table

Posted on February 26, 2010 | Leave a comment

As long-time musicians, we’ve always felt a piano is almost a must-have in a home. And as normal people, we have some difficulty finding room. So what if your piano could also double up as a table?

This is exactly what George Bohle has given us. During the day, it is simply a table, suitable for eating or working at. And if you fancy a quick tune after supper, just slide back the top and you’ve got a perfectly usable piano.

There is just one small problem; this thing will set you back $6000. Making it the perfect item for the musician with a poky London flat… and a huge budget.

(source: Trend Hunter)

→ Leave a comment

Posted in baby creative, creative, home

Tagged , , ,

The Soliloquy

Posted on February 25, 2010 | Leave a comment

Yachts are just about the ultimate expression of luxury, and we’ve always really wanted one. However, they are also gas-guzzling, fume-emitting, air-polluting behemoths which you can only really afford to keep if you just don’t care about polar bears. But not any more, thanks to a new 58metre eco-yacht designed by Alistair Callender.

It uses a combination of solar, wind and marine technology, and puts out zero emissions. Being touted as the ‘super-green superyacht’, it is to be shown off at the Abu Dhabi Yacht Show later this year.

It is of course those huge ‘wings’ which make the thing so distinctive, and they in fact much like old-fashioned sails although much more efficiently. And they are fully retractable if the wind isn’t in your favour.

Much of the rest of the power comes from the outside shell of the yacht, which is covered in 600 square metres of solar panelling. When fully charged this allows the yacht to reach a speed of 8 knots.

So we’re just waiting for this thing to hit production. By which time we hope to have filled up the piggy bank…

(source: If it’s hip, it’s here)

→ Leave a comment

Posted in creative, environment, transport

Tagged , , , ,

Painting with pogo sticks

Posted on February 24, 2010 | 14 Comments

We absolutely love this new art concept from Australia. “Pogoism”, or painting with pogo sticks, sounds almost impossible but the results are fantastic.

Of course it would be difficult to make anything small enough to actually display in a normal house, but the scale of the works is part of the fun. Incidentally, the Aussie tourist board’s slogan for the concept, “get your art career off the ground” is nearly as brilliant as the art itself.

(via Notcot)

→ 14 Comments

Posted in art, baby creative, creative

Tagged , , , ,

Green Kitchen

Posted on February 23, 2010 | Leave a comment

Quite a while back, we featured the biosphere farm from Phillips, and assumed that was something of a one-off project to attempt to get in on the whole green thing. But now we’ve come across this.

This ‘Green Cuisine’ kitchen is inspired by Japanese Teppanyaki-style cooking; the notion of cooking and eating in the same place. But what makes this a bit unique is the interactive nature of the table. Each instrument (the kettle, steamer, and cooking modules) has a performance monitor, telling you exactly how much energy you are using.

And, as always with these Phillips projects, the whole things looks just excellent.

(source: Home Quotient)

→ Leave a comment

Posted in drink, environment, food, home

Tagged , , , , ,

Unexpected packaging

Posted on February 23, 2010 | 2 Comments

Packaging is dangerous stuff; it can sell almost anything. Cigarettes, chips, snacks and all sorts else are made so appealing largely by their packaging. Fruit, veg and the healthy stuff rarely has this advantage however.

Therefore, we love this attempt to redress the balance by Daizi Zheng, a Chinese designer who has been working in the UK for 16 years.

This may look like a standard pack of cigarettes, but it is in fact a pack of carrot sticks (with houmous!).

Then you’ve got what seems to be a carton of MacDonalds chips (mmm…) but is in fact celery…

And finally blueberries packaged as drugs.

Much as we’d be a little peeved if we bought some chips only to find we’d been given celery, we’re still loving the idea. Someone really needs to make this stuff more interesting, or the kids are going to choose the chips every time…

(source: Hundertmark Blog (German) via Notcot)

→ 2 Comments

Posted in advertising, creative, drink, food

Tagged , , , ,

Toscana

Posted on February 22, 2010 | Leave a comment

We’re loving this set of shots from photographer Weston Baker of a recent trip to Toscana (or Tuscany, if you prefer).

Of course, everyone takes holiday snaps, but Weston Baker’s are a little better than ours. Rural Italy is something of a contrast to the business of Western city life, and these shots seem to capture that difference perfectly. And it’s not just the black-and-white…

More information and photos available here…

→ Leave a comment

Posted in art, creative, home, transport

Tagged , , ,

The Menton Lemon Festival

Posted on February 19, 2010 | Leave a comment

Yes that’s right – a festival all about lemons, and it is of course held in a sleepy backwater in France. However, it’s not quite what you might think.

We immediately thought of lemon sorbet, lemon meringue pie and lemonade, but this seems to go a bit further than that. The theme of this year’s festival is “Film” and there is therefore a whole series of sculptures dedicated to film, made almost entirely from lemons.

It might be just us, but does that dinosaur not look suspiciously like it is made from oranges?!

Anyway, this is a pretty staggering (if bizarre) installation and deserves a lot of praise. But the thing is meant to be up for a week, so we just hope they have used the freshest lemons…

(source: Urlesque)

→ Leave a comment

Posted in art, creative, drink, food, Plants

Tagged , , , , ,

Electric Jaguar

Posted on February 18, 2010 | Leave a comment

It’s been a while since we put up any electric cars or similar, partly because they never come to anything, but this time we’re a bit more positive about this new electric model of the Jaguar XJ.

Now you may be wondering what’s so special about this thing. It looks just like the old XJ, after all. True, and what’s more it even still has a combustion engine on board.

However, the excitement comes from the fact that this engine has been drastically reduced and twinned with a highly powerful electric motor. The fuel engine is there simply to charge the electric motor on long (up to 600 mile) trips, and to provide a little additional performance. The XJ can therefore do 47mpg with almost no emissions, and should be able to perform at something close to the state of the old, petrol-powered XJ.

What we have therefore is a well-performing electric car which can do long distances. This is no Prius with a token hybrid engine and dodgy breaks either, this is essentially an electric car, and it’s made by Jaguar so no worries about the build.

There’s even a rumour it might be ready by 2011…

(source: The Coolist)

→ Leave a comment

Posted in baby creative, environment, transport

Tagged , , , , ,

Interesting fruit bowls

Posted on February 17, 2010 | Leave a comment

Here at Baby, we are of course committed to all things green, ethical and healthy. However, this rarely extends to our own eating habits; we certainly don’t eat very much fruit. But we reckon we’ve found something that could change all that.

You see, fruit just isn’t very interesting. The packaging is unoriginal, there is no shiny branding and it just isn’t share-sized, fun-sized, limited edition and it doesn’t come in shiny machines. It’s just fruit. But these things make us quite want some.

This first lot are quite simple but stylish, from Belgian designer Helena Schepens.

These earth bowls look fairly standard (if bumpy) but are in fact crafted to the contours of an actual section of the world, and you can choose your section on Google Earth for your very own bowl. We don’t recommend the Himalayas. Or the Netherlands.

And we love the design of these two, for hanging your fruit on the wall or putting it all in a big slide. We just like the idea of filling up the bowl/slide/thing and having the whole lot slide down every time you take a piece. It makes it more like a shiny vending machine…

(source: Design Fetish)

→ Leave a comment

Posted in art, baby creative, creative, food, home

Tagged , , , , ,