Beautiful Coffeemakers

Some ways to make those early mornings just a little brighter -

Hario coffee maker - $259 at Amazon

The Chemex 6-cup coffee brewer - not nearly so beautiful (though a little moding can help that) but far more affordable at $36 at Amazon.

The Northewest Glass siphon coffee maker - affordable (though, according to reviews, not terribly sturdy) at $55 via my favorite online shopping store, Amazon.  

Another beautiful siphon coffee maker from Northwest glass, this one hopefully made a little better to justify the $112 price tag.  Again at Amazon*.

And, for my favorite of favorites:

This cold-drip coffemaker (those are ice cubes in the top- they're serious about the cold part) from Coffee-Snob for the very reasonable price of $99. I love!

* I'm not affiliated, in case anyone's wondering.  I'm just someone who got on their bandwagon years ago when Jeff was still begging for support and driving a junker.  And I got to meet him at a friend's wedding and he's just a wonderfully kind and geeky guy.  Plus it's really easy to find all this stuff easily on there.  So there is that.

Nerf it up

Want to add a hint of adventuring to your room?  Display your very own personal protector in the form of a steampunked nerf gun.  Beautiful and so very fun for impromptu nerf battles.  Or are my husband I and the only adults who do that?

This is my favorite - click on the pic to see a larger version to best appreciate the meticulous care put into it.  Made by Jeremy.

For cleaning up your more troublesome experiments.  This is a modified Vulcan that can shoot 500 rounds per minute.  Niiiice.

And here's a cute little one for those times you need to conceal your intentions.  By Utini.

To see how to make your own you can check out Utini's website or go here for a tutorial.

Have you visited Venus lately?

I am in love with this series of Space Traveler vintagesque posters by some very talented artist named Steve Taylor.  No idea who he is but I want this whole line for one of my rooms.  Maybe my hypothetical future guest room - it could be decorated with these space travel posters, little tin rocketships, perhaps some "souvenirs" brought back from the different planets - how fun would that be?  And before anyone complains, yes, it's a bit more space-race than steam-punk but, hey, Verne took us to the moon and back so in that sense it's TOTALLY steampunk.  And I'm sticking with that justification.  Besides, the Venus poster has an airship in it. That's got to count for something, right?

For these, the rest of the Space Travel line, and so many other great designs, check out Steve's work at his Zazzle store.  So many pretties!

World's Fair Decor

I love the idea of the old World's Fairs.  Companies and nations from around the world gathering in one spot to show off their coolest of cool new inventions, skyways whisking you from one pavilion to another, and the pervaling optimism of a coming future utopia just makes me happy.  Plus the poster designs are just gorgeous.  So it seems natural to turn to those posters as wall decor for an optimistic, futuristic, steampunk craftsman room.

Allposters has a nice bundle of three posters from the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.  Not overly futuristic (at least to 2010 eyes) but the colors and font are fantastic.

A little more 60s style than I like (not surprising as this is the 1962 World's Fair) but the futuristic travel via skyway and monorail makes up for that fault, in my book.

It's great to see that good design lives on in this Delta Technology poster.  Sadly this conference was just for project managers and analysts - a bit of a fall from the grand world's fairs of the past.  Still, beautiful poster!

And, for your viewing pleasure, some Youtube treats on the various World's Fairs:

Dawn of Tomorrow, the 1939 World's Fair

Part 1

Part 2

Lighting happiness

I love lights.  Perhaps brought on from too many years of minimal light provided by those horrid faux gold floor lamps with plastic cream accordion fold shades - you 80s children, especially those living near a Sears know what I'm talking about, no?  Horrid, horrid things.

So I love lights.  Pretty lights.  Pretty lights with clean lines, a solid, real feel to them (no faux gold!), that work as much as decoration as they do as lighting.

Lighting like this, from RiverOtterWidget's Etsy store.  This one comes with a multiple LED light that gently changes from one color to another which just makes me happy but, for those who like it to function more as a standard light, the maker has kindly added a standard light bulb socket.  So very practical.