When I first saw the Akanbe Folding Basket by designer Houziyou Takashi, I was already in love. Part storage container, part play mat, the Akanbe also happens to be absolutely freakin’ adorable. Utility plus cuteness… cutility? How can you not like that? And I like it even better now that I found this description of it:

I’ll be fine also surprisingly heavy, magazines and accessories organized, easy to store children’s toys. Matt will use when playing as a spread, as it folded when put away are clear.

Smile♪ When you have a basket of cute, cute looks just like a hand that has Akanbe. Just to laugh it easy out there is no tongue. Thanks are Akanbe Bello, I have a painful hand basket.

Assemble felt like a piece of origami, it 留Mere button eyes, and made the basket. Not only fashionable and cute, which depending on how many ideas are useful and fun basketball.

Do you suppose that was Mr. Takashi’s original description of the Akanbe Folding Basket?

But you have to admit it’s a rather good buy (if you can find it for the U.S. price of $16 instead of the 20EUR price) when you consider it can accommodate not only plastic totes, but also paper bags and re-usable canvas or cloth sacks. You can even use the bag that the Clothespin Trashcan comes in as your first garbage receptacle!

Interestingly, the clothespin trashcan pictured isn’t DCI’s, but rather the work of Hung Ming Chen. Either that can looks a lot like DCI’s or DCI’s looks a lot like that one, or we have a case of parallel evolution on our hands. Which is entirely possible.

When you’re using an eco-friendly washing up liquid, it seems a shame to let all that potentially useful gray water swirl down the drain into the municipal sewer system. It feels particularly wasteful when you live in a city or state that has passed extreme water restrictions. And if you live in a country currently facing a water crisis, saving gray water is a no-brainer. But how do you collect usable waste water without sloshing a bucket round the kitchen? Hughie of Australia has one solution in the form of a removable sink insert with carrying handles and a conveniently placed underside drain. First you wash your dishes (or clothes or what have you) in it, then you take it outside or over to your winter garden and give your plants a good dousing. At $25 AUS it’s a pretty good deal if it will fit seamlessly in your sink, though if you’re not down under, you could just find yourself a Rubbermaid dish pan with handles and tip it out as necessary.

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It’s a shame that the only places selling very colorful kitchen appliances here in the States seem to be Big Chill and Northstar. And then, of course, they’re quite expensive and really only work if you’re a fan of retro kitchen appliances.

I do like them, but wouldn’t it be nice if some of the European kitchen appliance manufacturers would decide to sell to us here in the U.S. of A. so we could all have colorful refrigerators and stoves without having to opt for retro kitchen appliances. Of course, everything would still be quite expensive, but at least there would be some variety beyond the usual four-color palette!

Méret Oppenheim, a German-born Swiss, Surrealist artist, and photographer incorrectly associated with the Dada movement, may have been thinking of this non-perk of mammalian pet ownership when she created Object (Breakfast In Fur) in 1936. While her cup was apparently created from the fur of a Chinese gazelle, it could just as easily been crafted from the leavings of cats or dogs or any of the other animals that shed their fluff into modern homes.

To avoid having one’s breakfast look like a piece of Surrealist art, I heartily recommend that pet owners purchase one of these:

Because having a Roomba means never having to say you forgot to vacuum.

Note: Art featuring coffee, tea, and hot beverage accessories is quite abundant. One wonders why… is it their ubiquitous nature perhaps?

I’m lucky in that I already have a husband who does most of the dishes because he knows how much I absolutely cannot stand doing dishes and we have no space for a dishwasher. He even wears a repro apron I sewed using a vintage pattern from the 1940s. Hot stuff, right? And yet I know that he’d think our sink was so much cooler if we were living the Dishmaster lifestyle.

What is Dishmaster Living? Slow down. Cook up a storm. Make a happy mess in your kitchen – then have some more fun cleaning up. Yes – the Dishmaster’s circa-1948 faucet makes washing the dishes fun via the “Push Button Dishwashing” action of the special aerator brush wand – which dispenses soapy sudsy water and rinses clean, too. Feel good about use of precious resources as well: The Dishmaster conserves water, energy and detergent. And, it’s Made in America, by a small company right in Indiana.

Seriously… how cool is this faucet?

This interface looks fairly straightforward, though I have never experienced the urge to shower in my toilet. If a shower isn’t a shower in this context, what precisely is the difference between the shower function and the bidet function? Never mind…one would hopefully figure it out without spraying one’s trousers. The following interface, on the other hand, requires a lot more thought, along with a thorough knowledge of Japanese.

All right, so I press one button for a gentle spray, one for a stronger spray, one for a special spray just for ladies…and I press the last button for what, a strip of crispy bacon? Now that’s a toilet.

Wikipedia has this to say about so-called super toilets:

Other features may include a heated seat, which may be adjustable from 30°C to 40°C; an automatic lid equipped with a proximity sensor, which opens and closes based on the location of the user. Some even play music to relax the user’s sphincter (some Inax toilets, for example, play the first few tunes of Op. 62 Nr. 6 Frühlingslied by Felix Mendelssohn). Other features are automatic flushing, automatic air deodorizing, and a germ-resistant surface. Some models specially designed for the elderly may include arm rests and devices that help the user to stand up after use. A soft close feature slows the toilet lid down while closing so the lid does not slam onto the seat, or in some models, the toilet lid will close automatically a certain time after flushing. The most recent introduction is the ozone deodorant system that can quickly eliminate smells.

The mind boggles!

Domino says “Linens from the other side of the color wheel amp up the whimsy” in this unique bedroom. I like how subtle the pattern is because it’s just a few shades off from the color of the larger wall. If it was white, this painted headboard might me less elegant.

If you’re thinking that this headboard is very Martha Stewart, pat yourself on the back. I’m not sure if it’s painted or wallpapered or stenciled onto the wall, but it is a nice foil for the lighter pink accents in the room.

Finally, a stenciled headboard from 52 Weekend Decorating Projects — you can find a reprint of the instructions at the first link. It looks easy enough, provided you have a stencil.

Maybe it’s just my aversion to all things medical — I prefer to think of myself as solid inside like a potato — but these refillable I.V.s for plants from Vitamin Living really, really give me the creeps.