Those among us who love coffee or tea or hot chocolate and find ourselves buying it in the outside world tend to accumulate a lot of paper cups on our desks and in our cars. I’m not sure whether those things are recyclable, but I dutifully throw the cups and sleeves in with the paper and the lids in with the plastic each week. Still, it would be nice to not have all that paper and plastic being produced in the name of delicious hot beverages. Coffee from home? We can do that, but the free insulated travel mug we got at a grand opening is so dull. It was in looking for an alternative that I found these travel mugs, which I love.

The DCI I Am Not a Paper Cup cup is the standard by which I judge other travel mugs, if only because I saw it first. It doesn’t leak, has an air chamber to keep hot things hot, and it doesn’t get overhot to the touch. No logos, and no Styrofoam.

The I Am Not a Paper Cup comes with amatching silicone lid, but you might lose it, so they sell replacements.

Want something a little more colorful in which to carry your coffee? The NY style coffee cup is one suggestion, though I’m not 100% sure you can find lids to match. Full disclosure: I grew up drinking hot chocolate from these (the paper sort) on cold winter days, so I have a certain fondness for them whether they have lids or not.

Here’s another ceramic cup option, specifically one that comes with a silicone sleeve that looks remarkably like one of the nubby cardboard ones. Benefits? It’s slightly less expensive.

Or you can buy the I Am Not a Paper Cup and get a silicone coffee sleeve separately for four bucks (i.e., the price of a latte). The upside to this is that you can choose a color other than “cardboard.”

Of course, if you’re a butterfingers who routinely drops your coffee, tea, or hot chocolate, perhaps the melamine coffee cup would be the best option for you. It’s the least expensive option, it omes with a silicone lid, and it is ready to accept standard-size paper sleeves or a reusable silicone sleeve.

It’s been more than a year since I posted a photo of my friends’ sweet wall-mounted mini bar created from random bits of shelving, so I thought it was time to revisit the topic of mini bars. Particularly good for those wine enthusiasts or liquor lovers living in small spaces, mini bars make it so you don’t have to stash your boozahol in the same cabinet where you keep your Cuisinart. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, mind. But there’s something really classy about offering someone a drink and, when they say yes, walking over to the mini bar instead of futzing around in different kitchen areas.

The Acacia mini bar masquerades as a chic and modern freestanding cabinet, ensuring that your parents and other relatives with a tendency to drop in unannounced don’t suspect you of being a daytime drunkard.

This mini bar from Alpina is made to withstand varying weather conditions, making it rather manly. In that vein, it holds a mini keg and a jug of wine that are ejected via its two dispensers.

US army ammunition boxes from the Vietnam war era become a surprisingly attractive wall mounted mini bar… which holds the sort of emergency rations we all need now and then.

Perhaps you’re seriously short on space? Try a folding mini bar (otherwise known as a portable bar). When closed, it takes up a surprisingly small amount of space, but it opens to reveal six shelves for storing glasses and bottles of your favorite elixirs.

Folding mini bars aren’t always tiny, however. This one is about the size of a freestanding cabinet or tallish end table, but it expands to become a rather nice full bar. You stand on one side doling out the drinkles, while your party attendees stand on the other, hopefully putting a tip or two into that empty glass there.

I’ll take one of these:

And four of these:

And while you’re at it, I may as well have you send me one of these:

Love,
Never teh Bride (who is redoing her kitchen)

How cool are these? De’Longhi recently commissioned 10 professional artists, interior and graphic designers from the US and abroad to create original designs that were laser-etched on the front panels of De’Longhi’s Perfecta Fully Automatic Espresso Machines.

The engraved Perfecta machines, produced in limited edition, are set to be auctioned to the public through eBay Giving Works from October 4-17 with a portion of the proceeds benefiting Oxfam America. Expensive? You betcha, but that’s the whole point. If you think that the Artista Series will be just a wee bit out of your budget, there’s always the EC5 steam driven 4-cup espresso maker, which costs less than fifty bucks. You can’t beat that!

I remember long ago living in a Brooklyn apartment that was totally tiny. The kitchen? Smaller than my mother’s walk-in closet. Luckily, my roommate had already stocked the kitchen cabinets with all of the pots and pans and dishes we could want. Well, as many as could fit in those minuscule cabinets, anyway. Nonetheless we had just about everything we needed to cook almost anything.

Now I’ve heard people say that you can’t make a gourmet meal in an itty-bitty kitchen, but I’m going to say they’re wrong. Check out the Portable Kitchen guide, which is a PDF geared toward traveling cooks, but way useful for those of us with no space to spare.

The best part is that you can get everything you need on the cheap. I mean all these things. As cookery book master Mark Bittman found out, you can outfit your kitchen without spending a gajillion dollars.

I contend that with a bit of savvy, patience and a willingness to forgo steel-handle knives, copper pots and other extravagant items, $200 can equip a basic kitchen that will be adequate for just about any task, and $300 can equip one quite well.

He started with an eight-inch, plastic-handle stainless alloy chef’s knife for $10. Nice. Next up was an instant-read thermometer for $5. Then three stainless steel bowls for $5 and tongs for $3.50. A sheet pan set him back $6, and he continued on with a paring knife, a colander, and a can opener, among other things. He also bought pots and pans, in case you were worried he was starting off with an unfair advantage. Remember, cast iron is cheap!

Richard Notkin is an American ceramic artist best know for his reinterpretations of traditional Yixing pottery, i.e., clay teapots.

He is also apparently one seriously deranged dude. His teapots resemble, among other things, grimacing skulls, human hearts, body parts looped with chain, and strangely-rendered water towers.

Tea, anyone?

Some of my favorite childhood memories involve sitting down to big European style breakfasts in my grandparents’ dining room. Because the rear of their waterfront home was almost all window, light and warmth were never lacking. Cut to the present day, in which I don’t have a dining room and am more likely to be breaking my fast at my desk in my home office. While we do have a perfectly serviceable kitchen table, the kitchen in its current state is rather too white for wintertime. In the summer, it stays cool. In the winter, it just feels too cold.

Note that The Beard and I are considering various DIY renovations. Here are two images that are inspiring me right now:

Maybe they’ll inspire you, as well?

(Images via Wohn Idee)

Jessica Rust specializes in small-batch ceramics that are both playful and functional. The patterns don’t immediately jump out at you, which is part of the fun. At first, the trees and birds emblazoned on this dinnerware appears to be an abstract pattern, but the truth gradually becomes clear. What’s lovely is that the line can be personalized, so the initials carved on the birch trees can be those of you and your honeybunch.

When it comes to amazing DIY transformations in the home, it seldom gets more amazing than this:

One of these white kitchen cabinet doors at the salvage yard doesn’t know it, but it’s going to go home with a superlative crafter with serving trays on her mind.

And here’s what that kitchen cabinet door became! Monica of Craftynest is the brains (and I suppose the brawn) behind this oh-so-easy DIY project, and she’s been kind enough to share a how-to on her blog. If you’re in the San Fran Bay area and you love Monica’s stuff — hey, one out of two ain’t bad — then you’re in luck. She occasionally puts some of her projects up for sale on the local Craigslist board. Lucky Californians!

I’m proud to say that I actually have quite a bit of my holiday shopping done, though this is by no means usual. This year, I copped out and went with gifts for the home. I guess it’s fun trying to buy gifts for my elders who already have everything they need, but I just plain don’t have the time this year to dedicate my time and energy to shopping.

What do all the parents and grandparents in my life have? Homes, that’s what. And I’ve never heard anyone complain that they simply have too much cute in the kitchen.

What you see:

• Picasso napkin rings, $9.95 for four
• Melamine appetizer plates, $19.99 for twelve
• Sunburst wall clock, $39.95
• Polka dot cake stand, $35
• Retro spice rack, $24.99
• Aqua coffee press, $32.99