Delicious Design Classics

Bagel purse from Berlin

I've recently acquired some extremely kitsch but classic design products. First up this rather splendid salmon and cream cheese bagel purse found in Berlin.

Salmon & cream cheese filling

Each half of the bagel has a zip so you can fill it with money, card, lipgloss, keys etc. I padded out the top pocket above for photographic purposes, but unfilled, it lies flat.

Bagel ends

It also has a key ring fob, so it can be hung. It's designed by Yummy Pockets who's range includes sandwiches, burgers and sushi themed cases.

Fast food bracelet

This is a rather special fast food bracelet given to me as a Valentines present. It consists of large plastic food items, joined with elastic. I have no idea where it originated from.

Marmite keyring

On first inspection this looks like a jar shaped keyring, but infact the lid comes off so you can store coins...I'm looking forward to testing it out next time I go clubbing!

Food Zines

This set of foodie zines were designed by Sarah Cai and each one is completely hand drawn and contains 6 ideas for what you can do with the product.

Here is a peek at pages from each one. My favourite suggestion is playing jenga with kitkat sticks and bathing in ribena - yum!

Burger timer

 A burger shaped timer to add to my ever growing collection of burger themed collectibles.

Nutella cookbook

An finally a Nutella cookbook, containing 30 delicious recipes to make with the brown stuff such as pastries, drinks, desserts etc. All the recipes are in French, as it was bought in Paris.

Have you acquired any delicious design classics recently? Share your treasures in the comments below!

Update! What I've been doing lately!

The other day I realised I had worked 21 days straight without a day off. So it's not surprising I haven't had much chance to blog recently. In between all this mad working, working and working, I have also managed to make time for some fun stuff too. Here's a pick of the best bits of my life recently.  (Sadly none of them involve sleeping which is the one thing I could do with more than anything right now!)

Laura's Crafty Bay Shower

My friend Laura is 'due' next week and last weekend she held a crafty baby shower around hers. She was donated over 30 plain white babygrows a few months ago and decided she couldn't bare to have such ordinary clothes. So she dyed half of them and then invited lots of friends around to help decorate each one with fabric pens, applique, drawings, paintings, doodles etc. She ended up with a room full of original art work and will have the trendiest baby ever thanks to her fashionable new wardrobe. Mine was a 'Bollywood Star' theme where I foiled on sparkly letters which involved an hour of ironing. You can't quite see it in the picture of me above, but I also enhanced it with colourful stars. 

Fancy pants

As I never managed to complete the pants I started to make in the fancy pants class for my hen do, I returned to finish off and made these fab 'big pants' which double up as  great hotpants. The Japanese fabric has white bears flying in hot air balloons on it.

Chinese New Year

I ran two chinese themed workshops at the Geffrye Musuem, including making these traditional lanterns with chinese writing on - first time I've ever tried writing chinese characters although due to lantern restrictions the text is not vertical as it should be.

Asiana Bridal Show

Back in January I attended the biggest Asian bridal catwalk in the country to report back on the trends for 2011.

Backstage gossip

I went backstage to find out more about how the show is put together and  spotted supermodel Mehreen getting her jewellery fixed in place as well as got a better look at the clothes:

Coraline boots

The only item I bought in this year's sales are these amazing yellow boots. I wish I could wear them everyday but as they are my newest footwear I'm mainly saving them for special occasions.

Southbank Press trip

This week I went along to a Southbank Press trip where we were treated to a flight on the London Eye and best of all one of my lifetime fantasties was fulfilled -  a trip on a DuckBus! This is a road vehicle that miraculously turns into a boat and travels across the River Thames - amazing!

Valentine's day

I sneakily got Matt a present that I actually wanted for myself, some Marmite chocolate! Luckily he wasn't keen on it so I got to enjoy most of the bar! I also baked 35 chocolate brownies for the office with iced heart motifs but my camera was out of battery so I couldn't snap them before they got gobbled up.

 

New pet

Finally on Friday night I got a pet. She is a 6 week old African Pygmy Hedgehog. I will be putting up proper pictures soon, she's mainly sleeping and all I've snapped so far is this picture of her peering out from her travel box (she came home on the train) to catch a glimpse of her new home. 


Next week is going to be mental with magazine deadlines but I look forward to blogging more as soon as I can! 

Mmmmmmm Marmite!

As a teenager I was obsessed with ‘limited edition’ 7-inch vinyl records. My collection included a ‘curry coloured’ EP from Cornershop and sky blue Radiohead and fluorescent yellow My Life Story singles. Back then owning a bit of plastic that looked a bit different was a good feeling but I never would have imagined that the obsession would have crossed over to food.

Whatever happened to the term ‘Original & Best’? It seems that we as consumers are no longer happy buying ordinary items, we want something else - even if we can only enjoy it once. I’m one of these people and proud. I’d much rather try a new flavour then stick to the usual same old blandless. In particular I’m feeling over excited about Monday when Marmite XO hits supermarket shelves……the strongest, maturist Marmite ever.

Obviously only suited to true marmite lovers of which I am one, it could be the most exciting addition to breakfast in my flat since I bought ‘Ashes’ marmite. It was surprisingly plain (I still have 2 jars left) but a relief after eating the highly distressful ‘Champagne marmite’ which I only sampled once. It tasted foul but I’ve kept the jar because it’s so pretty!

But when it comes to the brown stuff it's not just what inside the jars, limited edition chocolate is common. Many years ago I started a scrapbook of wrappers but regrettably gave it up : ( One of the products I was particularly partial to collecting was Kit Kat – lemon yogurt cheesecake and Christmas pudding flavours were my fave - it’s good to know the head chefs at Nestle are still pushing bondaries. Japan now stocks 19 varieties of the wafer sticks.

Not sure if I could handle Wasabi flavour, I only just about managed Wasabi Pringles. Crisps are the biggest supporter of new and strange flavours. Everytime I go into a newsagent I’m astounded by the options. I can barely keep up.

But Marmite isn’t just going XO, it’s also moved into ricecakes, breadsticks and even cereal bars. I’ve yet to try the latter but am enjoying the posters on the Underground! If anyone has tried XO I would love to know your verdict!