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The Uncommon Life

Gift Lab #8: The Cat’s Meow

June 29, 2010

Cat Chalet

1) Product Name: Cat Chalet

Cat Chalet

2) Background Research: I just adopted my first pet, Tammy Faye Baker the cat, and wanted to make sure she was sufficiently entertained, with a toy as cute as she is.

3) Hypothesis: Cats love cardboard boxes, so Tammy Faye will love a fancy cardboard cat chalet even more!

4) Experiment: Assemble adorable cat chalet and see if it would catch the Tammy Faye’s interest.

5) Results: I assembled the chalet, which is about a 10 minute process.  There are several decorations to chose from to place over the door – I chose the cardboard fish. 

Cat Chalet

I hung one of the cardboard ball toys from the roof with some yarn, set the chalet in the middle of my living room, and waited to see what would happen.

She was a little cautious at first, and walked all the way around it, sniffing all the way.  Finally, she decided to go inside. (A little catnip may or may not have been involved in this experiment.)

Cat Chalet

Now she loves to retreat to the chalet for short intervals (I call them her “vacations”).  She doesn’t chew on it, but she does use it all the time to scratch her face.  I also stick a laser pointer in the back and wait for her to pounce.

6) Conclusion: Cats DEFINITELY love cardboard boxes and cardboard chalets!

The Uncommon Life

UncommonGoods Goes to Washington

June 24, 2010

(Ok, not really, but we are getting involved in New York State politics!)

Hot off the press — the bill for benefit corporations (UncommonGoods was a founding member) was passed in NY state! This bill makes room in state corporate law for a legal middle ground between nonprofits and ordinary businesses. Hip hip hooray!

Here’s the catch, though, the bill still must pass  in the Assembly and then go to the Governor before becoming law. If you want to help make this happen, please call Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s office at 518.455.3791 – bill # is A11498 – we’re hoping to get it passed before the session ends next week!

Read more about benefit corporations and the bill.

The Uncommon Life

Gift Lab #7: the Tara & the Diana

June 23, 2010

Diana Camera

1) Product Name: Diana F+ Camera by Lomography

2) Background Research: I’m an avid camera collector. Medium format and 35mm are my favorite films to shoot. After acquiring a Holga (also by Lomography) 2 years ago, I soon after became interested in the Diana F+. My Holga has never failed to capture beautiful, soft, surreal images. Once you become familiar with the camera, depending on your artistic style, it can become a very expressive and fun toy. The Diana F+ is very similar in that it’s very lightweight, purely plastic, and uses medium format film.

3)  Hypothesis: From images I’ve seen, I expect the Diana F+ will produce some super saturated images – hyper bright colors. With experience with my Holga, I also think there may be some light leakage around the frames. As far as shutter speed and aperture are concerned, the Diana F+ appears much more complex and unpredictable, so I’m pretty sure quite a bit of my first roll will be blurry, over-exposed, and/or under-exposed.

4)  Experiment: One of the beauties of this camera is it’s easy to take with you everywhere, so I kept it either in my purse or strung from my neck for the entire month May.

5)  Results: I was very concerned with brightness, fearing my images would be over-saturated when shooting outdoors in very bright light, but I was proven wrong. Many photos were much darker than I expected. There was light leakage in some images, but not enough to distract. The worst light leakage was  from from my first roll – I didn’t take very good care of it before having it processed (I know, shame on me). The best example of this leakage is actually an image of Larry Murr, Uncommon Goods’ Inbound Auditor! There’s a nice big KODAK right over his head!

Diana F+ Camera

Most of my second roll was shot in Coney Island – these images were brighter, and the colors richer. They were also very dreamy and soft – objects and people look as if they’re floating in the images. Although they were a bit blurry as well, I thought it was a nice effect.

Diana F+ camera

Diana F+ Camera

An issue I had with my images was overlapping exposures, so I should have installed at least one of the additional frames that comes with the camera. The Diana F+ is also very delicate. I recommend acquiring a protective case of some sort. The shutter release is very sensitive and the film spool advances more freely than one would like it to. The lens cap wasn’t too secure either – mine disappeared after a week.

5) Conclusion: My second roll came out better than the first, so using the Diana F+ well involves a great deal of practice and becoming familiar. If you prefer super sharp images, a tripod is necessary, sometimes even when using the fastest shutter speed. I will definitely continue to use the Diana, as it appears there’s still a lot to learn about the camera. It’s a fun, lightweight, and I love the dream-like quality of its images.

About the researcher: Tara is Accounting Liaison to Operations and Return to Vendor Coordinator at UncommonGoods. She’s  an  aesthete and enjoys photography, inventorying, urban  exploration and  technology.

The Uncommon Life

A thank-you letter to dad

June 14, 2010

Father's Day

Dear Dad,

Thanks for hanging our artwork up in your office. Thanks for giving us money when we needed it and cutting us off when we needed to be. Thanks for not getting mad at us when we wrecked the car. Thanks for not only coming to our games, but coming to our practices too. Thanks for not yelling at us when we got in a fight at school. Thanks for putting our toys together every Christmas and every birthday. Thanks for holding onto the back of the bike. Thanks for never asking for directions – getting lost was the fun part. Thanks for teaching us how to drive stick shift. Thanks for taking us to that baseball/basketball/football game – just the two of us. Thanks for helping us convince Mom to get a dog. Thanks for teaching us how to fix the sink and change a tire. Thanks for teaching us how to do a flip off the high dive. Thanks for letting us learn things the hard way. Thanks for the treehouse/tire swing/rope over the lake. Thanks for being hard on all our high school boyfriends – they weren’t good enough. Thanks for giving us our first pair of cufflinks when we got our first real job. Thanks for walking us down the aisle. Thanks for calling to check on us whenever something  happens within a 100-mile radius of where we live. Thanks for being such a good Grandpa/Grandfather/Pop-Pop/Pee-Paw.
Thanks Dad, for everything.

Happy Father’s Day!

What do you want to thank your dad for this Father’s Day? Share with us in the comments section!

Design

Compostapalooza design chosen

June 10, 2010

We have another winner! Congrats to Jim Young who created the official design for UncommonGoods’s and Quirky’s ultimate composter based on winner Gail Loos’ idea – the Scrap-Cycler.  I love how thin and streamlined this is…it looks like it could fit in with any lifestyle and be pretty easy to use. Very cool!

Compostapalooza

Compostapalooza
Gift Guides

Happy National Ice Tea Day!

June 10, 2010
Happy Hour Carafe

Apparently, June 10 is National Ice Tea Day! Fine by me, I luuuuuuuv me some ice tea.

My personal favorites are just plain ol’ sun tea (which is a 1,000 times better than any other kind of ice tea), sweet tea made with tons of sugar (as my Kentucky boyfriend tells me, you must,  absolutely must pour the sugar into the water while it is hot, don’t just dump it in at the end – it is not the same!). Iced peppermint tea is super refreshing and reminds me of being at a fancy  spa or salon. And I also love Arnold Palmers, which are half ice tea/half lemonade, and very, very tasty.

And let us not forget, presentation is everything!  For a simple and elegant (not to mention practical), go with the Happy Hour Carafe (pictured above). It’s double-walled insulation will keep tasty teas nice and cold – and you won’t get a sweaty bottle! The cap also doubles as a cup. I can imagine myself lounging poolside in Miami sipping iced tea out of my elegant carafe, being fanned by servants, ordering sorbet from my personal waiter…did I also mention I’m a millionaire in this fantasy?

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The Uncommon Life

Art shows in California

June 9, 2010

Calling all Californians! (What I wouldn’t give to be laying on a beach in Cali right now….)

UncommonGoods artists Mindy and Grant Searcey have two art shows coming up in your neck of the woods. One is the Hermosa Beach Art Walk June 12-13 where Grant will be showcasing some of his paintings – very cool stuff! In addition to Grant’s work, there will be 100 other local artists plus food and drinks…aaah I love summer festivals:)

grant searcey

The Searceys will also be showcasing their jewelry, which is what we sell at UncommonGoods, at the Contemporary Crafts Market June 11-13 (Booth 415) in Santa Monica. Their jewelry always has a really cool spiritual or mythical element to it: Native American, the Chinese Zodiac, ancient Ayurvedic Indian practices.  It’s very unique and not overly precious, which makes it great for everyday wear.