On the final shopping day before Christmas, we have a couple (extremely) last minute gift ideas. Available with Overnight Shipping (can anyone put a price on love?) if you are willing to foot the bill. Or just make up an excuse, go with the Standard Ground Rate and gift it around New Years time!

Back in stock and available immediately, everyone’s favorite mini-garden, the Herb Pot Trio is the perfect gift for garden and herb lovers alike.



For a more modern gadget, check out Jonas Damon’s Open Edition LED Clock. A truly unique take on the classic digital clock format.

Finding that perfect gift is never easy, so here at Pure Modern we’re happy to showcase the items from our catalog that make unique and thoughtful gifts (and can be shipped to you this week!). So happy hunting - and keep in mind that every item featured this week is currently available with fast holiday shipping.

Direct from Brazil, artisan-crafted creations from Cut Designs are available in several different varieties. From the Shark Serving Knife Set (seen below) to the adorable Mouse Cheese Knife Set and Helping Hands Snack Fork Set, Cut Designs’ products are an excellent addition to any cocktail party or get-together.



For the budding designer, there’s DB Clay’s Ductbills Wallet Kit. Follow a template or create your own personal design, its a great complement to DB Clay’s other handmade wallet offerings the Golden Locks and Madras.

For the next week leading up to Christmas, we will be featuring many of our unique gift ideas currently available with fast holiday shipping.. And when it comes to gift-giving, what’s more important that that?

Originally seen here in August, we are now fully stocked with Moondrops Rechargeable Tealights - it’s a perfect little piece of intimate lighting that looks great indoors or out.



And now with Inatome’s Color Stick Lighter, smoking is finally cool again! This tiny fluid lighter fits right inside any cigarette pack waiting for use. Need a light? These are in stock and ready to ship!

Here’s a few recent additions to our catalog of funky modern watches by Alessi. First, the Daytimer by Will Alsop - it features a very distinctive modern look and is available in several different striking colorways, sure to please all the cubism fans out there.



For a more traditional design, you’ve got love the Ray series designed by Stephano Giovivanni. Available in Chronograph and Automatic designs (seen below l-r)

Here’s a couple more incredible designs from Fred & Friends and now available from Pure Modern. First, the Hopside Down Pint Glass is the perfect way to enjoy that bottled taste at your own home without all the unnecessary bottle periphery. Next, Calf & Half Creamer - as well as it’s sister item the Half Pint Creamer - each make a fun addition to your daily breakfast or tea time routine.

Just in time for the holidays (I usually start every sentence with that phrase this time of year) the amazing and intricate glasswork of Fred & Friends. Known for their popular Cold Shooters Shot Glass Ice Tray, they have extended their expertise with the Bombs Away Shot Glasses. How many “bombs” will it take to bring you (or that special someone this holiday season) down?



Also featured below is the Unzipped Glass Bag, also from Fred & Friends. Designed to celebrate the everyday items we take for granted, this fun little accessory is the perfect home for a goldfish (!?) or bag of M&M’s.

So apparently you don’t have to go to extraordinary lengths to hide your power cables. With a soft glass shape and internal cord storage, the No1 Lamp by Nicolò Taliani is not only beautiful, but extremely helpful. Like a vacuum cleaner I used to own that sucked its cord up like a tape measure, I fully expect this concept to catch on for every appliance. (via)

With the “In Case of Emergency” Money Box from the dubiously titled design house Suck UK, you may finally be able to collect your spare change long enough for it to really pay off. But beware, the glass can only be broken once. Sure to provide hours of anxious excitement. For a reusable way to store euros, check out their “Save" Money Box, cleverly designed to look like a Keyboard Button.

We first began offering offering Jan Harman’s Smoke House Incense Burner some time ago, but now with the Cottage Incense Pot from our new collection of Pull + Push Products, at Pure Modern we have now effectively cornered the market on tiny incense burners made to resemble houses.

Somewhere between useful and completely unnecessary you will find Paulo Oh’s concept for the ”Hang On Outlet.” Maybe it’s my fascination appreciation for all things power-strip-related that’s keeping me from realizing how ridiculous this actually is. Of course, this would never even get considered if we had simple on/off switches on our outlets...

What was Jerry Jalava thinking when he decided to have a USB drive incorporated into his prosthetic finger after losing a digit in a motorcycle accident?  I mean, is a 2GB flash drive really that worth it?  Why not a 32GB~128GB USB drive?  Now if he had interchangeable devices like Inspector Gadget, that would be cool.  I am hoping he leaves this at home when on a date! You wouldn’t want to lose this prosthetic, let alone forget where you put it!  [seen via CNET]

I haven’t blogged much lately—been busy with the transition and setup of PureModern UK, but in the course of that I’ve become a consumer of products I don’t regularly buy and have experienced a valuable lesson about design. When you move from one country to another you often have to buy things you’ve owned for years, in my case, a new television. I happened upon the new line of Samsung LED TV’s ultra thin super cool and premium price. I rationalized this purchase by saying - hey I have a small flat I should get something thin that doesn’t project out into the room… seems logical Here is where the lesson begins:

The TV is clearly about design - sold to look like beautiful moving photograph on your wall with its extremely bright 1080p image. Well that advanced design comes with flaws in the manufacturing—not all advances in technology come smoothly as we all know as computer users. But when these bumps in the road happen you look to a company to make it right. Samsung is NOT one of those companies. I’ve been put thru the ringer. I have owned this television for 6 months - of that time 3 months it has been in the possession of their “repair center” ... i use the quotations to make the point that repairing it seems to be the least of their concerns as it has been returned to me and taken away for more “repair” two additional times. Samsung corporate refuses to refund the purchase saying they have to “repair” it… and I get the pleasure of continuing to look at a blank wall that has a full subscription to cable

So again with the LESSON… high design does not equal high quality. High price does not equal reliability. This is a lesson I try to impress upon our design clients that you can spend 10K on a sofa or 2k and you may well get the better product at 2k.... I failed in that I didn’t heed my own lecture and bought solely on design.

I hope this experience can serve as a reminder to our readers, customers, and clients - that form and function must happen together and within the context of the space… sacrifice and compromise are not the same thing.

Please not that the image I post here is provided courtesy of SAMSUNG… my personal TV image can be see on the link below..

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We at Pure Modern are proud to announce the latest addition to our casual wristwatch collection from idio:synchro watches. Featuring 6 very unique and expressive styles, you are sure to find one to fit any mood or personality. Not only about interesting design, these watches are also top quality Swiss made timepieces guaranteed to last. See the full line here.

The iconic, modern and ultra-hard-to-find “E8 Watches” from Brieuc du Roscoät and Lexon are now available in a limited run from Pure Modern! Available in your choice of colored LED screen, this unique wristwatch promises to give you a completely different outlook on time. Get one while you still can!

Grade 1 titanium, high quality plastic resin, a neodymium scroll wheel and an impressive design; our handcrafted mouse was created for those who demand perfection at their fingertips.  Designed by Intelligent Design of the Netherlands [seen on Design Spotter].  Other features include wireless Bluetooth with dongle, lasertracking, hand formed, suitable for both left / right handed users, and available in white or black.  Retail cost €800