Chrissy Angliker's Badass Fishkit

Chrissy Angliker, from Switzerland, has designed these great pocket sized fishing tackles. They remind me of the good old days when I went fishing with grandpa, besides our regular bamboo-styled useless rods, we always used to carry these little hand tackles. Can't remember ever using them, and certainly can't remember them looking this good!
Apparently Chrissy sees her 'fishing knuckles' as a fashion item as well as a functional piece and that is a combination I like! Goes the show you that after our well earned Friday-afternoon mojitos in the coolest bar in town, we can always pop around to the nearest pond, stream or river and get ourselves a nice self-caught meal (or should be able to)!

Unfortunately, as far as I know, these little beauties are only on sale somewhere in Brooklyn. I feel that needs to change, and I'll mail her to see whether they can be a first item on a 'DIY-community-goodie-catalogue'.

http://www.chrissy.ch/default.htm

via: http://www.notcot.com/

Online design course!

I just found this very promising website: (http://www.designboom.com/designaerobics07.html). It offers four 30-lesson design courses each year. All four are themed; Sex, Work, Spirituality and Childhood. All lessons include online feedback, chances to meet likeminded, exercises and so on. And all of that for a maximum of fifty-nine dollar! The next course (sex) starts January the 23rd, I don't really know when enrolment starts. The only thing I can say is: consider me there!

update:

Enrolment has started; you can now enter the course "sex" for $59,-

River Cottage

This guy here is called Hugh-Fearnley-Wittingstall, the face of/man behind the River-Cottage series and all of it's spin offs. These in themselves are of course not DIY projects, they are incredibly well researched, well staffed, over produced and over marketed. The notion behind it fits me like a clove though.

He toys with having a one-person semi-self sufficient farm, and while doing so he tries to impress upon his viewers the joys of growing and rearing own food, the importance of seasonality, the quality and diversity of local produce. The show makes you want to grow your own peas, tomatoes, leeks and so on, or at least stop at the nearest small farmer who does.

http://www.rivercottage.net/

Banksy

Well,... I love, admire and respect Banksy for many (for me obvious) reasons. So I won't write much about him, just post a picture weekly, as a reminder of what limited resources and unlimited creativity can do:

Petrens' Orchids

Never would have thought I would open this blog with a description of a orchid-nursery! But when I was taken to Petrens yesterday, I immediately knew they embody everything I want to write about here.
The nursery dates back to 1887, and is located in the small town of Sint-Denijs-Westrem, near Gent (Belgium), my hometown. The greenhouses are still in Victorian style, but renovated to suit modern requirements, in themselves they are worth the visit.
But of course, the real attractions are the orchids. They cultivate and sell somewhere between 800 and 1000 different varieties; more than I can describe and you can imagine. Almost anyone can and will be surprised and delighted here. The products of their beautiful and passionate work are in my opinion very reasonably priced, making wonderfully unusual flowers available for anyone.

http://www.orchideeen-petrens.be/

edit:

It might be nice to add some photo's of 'our' orchids: