I love the clean styling of Beth Mueller’s ceramics. Each item is hand painted, glazed in white, and usually adorned with some sort of short message or word. If you visit her website, you will see a large selection of items she has to offer, to include vases, dishes, and vessels of all shape and size. She also makes paper and cloth products too.

Beth studied art in college, but also studied print making in Italy and apprenticed to a potter in Detroit. Wherever her training comes from though, the combination is brilliant; she produces strikingly simple yet elegant pieces.

I really like her children’s eating sets, such as the one shown, and her counter-top compost bin and asparagus platter.

Her pieces would make great gifts for almost any occasion and can be found at several sites online. Some places to check out are Uncommon Goods, Zanisa, and Artful Home, and you can even purchase her milk bottle vases through Amazon.

These metal utensils from the Italian company, Italesse, are stylish, recyclable and pack up well. The aluminum flatware was designed by Tomas Alonso and takes up minimal space while being exceptionally light weight. For some good pictures go to Alonso’s site linked above, click on ’stamp cutlery’, and then click at the bottom to see more images. The story about the design process is pretty interesting to read through too.

These utensils simply stack on top of each other, and there is a little clip that holds the spoon, fork, and knife together for organization. They sort of remind me of the utensils from an old Army mess kit that I have, but these look much nicer. They’d definitely be perfect for camping or some outdoor entertaining. Alonso bills them as reusable/disposable, but the designer also hopes that people will use them more than once. Regardless, this is disposable flatware to be proud of.

Unfortunately, I cannot find these products for sale in the US or Europe, but hopefully Italesse will roll them out soon and some vendor in the US will pick them up.

I have been a fan of Paul Smith’s iconic colorful stripes for a while, and now you can get some expensive bone china to bring that color to the table. To the right is the breakfast cup and saucer of his, and one setting will cost $135. You can check out his coffee and tea service sets at paulsmithusa.com. Just click on the online shop and you will be redirected to the UK online shop. A set of four coffee cups, creamer, and coffee pot will run you $900+.

After making colored eggs for Easter, I ran into these interesting egg pillows from Vacu Vin. I don’t know at this point if the jokes about having pillows for eggs would be worth it, but if you have kids it might be a nice way to introduce hard-boiled eggs into their diet

But let’s be honest, if you have kids these pillows will be used for everything else but eggs and most likely be in some dollhouse somewhere. It’s worth a try though and they are dishwasher safe, so once the little ones lose interest, just pop them in the dishwasher, clean them up, and let them serve their intended purpose.

I haven’t been able to find this product on sale in the US, but this site from Germany offers them for 9.95 Euro (about $14). It doesn’t look as if they they ship to the United States since it isn’t even an option during checkout, but maybe if you sweet talk customer service they will find a way to get it to you. With that said, the Egg Pillow is a new product from Vacu Vin, so I am sure it will eventually be sold here; you’ll just have to wait.

Royal VKB out of the Netherlands designs some very interesting home products, and this puzzle dinner tray for kids is pretty neat. I think children would get a kick out of putting the pieces together before a meal, and it sort of reminds me of the Melissa and Doug dinner play set that my daughter used to play with.

I do worry a bit that the sunken areas where the puzzle pieces go will collect food and be difficult to clean, but that is a small price to pay to let a kid have some fun.

Also, the plate needs to be rotated perfectly for the pieces to fit, so I could definitely see a kid putting the cup in the slot only to have it tip over and spill its contents. You can see what I mean by watching this video on YouTube.

You can purchase the Puzzle Dinner Tray on Amazon for $50.

For several years now I have been using Kartio glasses from Iittala as my everyday drinkware, and I can’t recommend them enough. The design is simple but very solid, and they come in a variety of colors. I have the light blue one pictured to the right.

The glasses were initially designed by the Finnish designer Kaj Franck in 1958, but they have a timeless simplicity and were brought back into production. I think the size and geometry of the 40 cl/13 oz tumblers are perfect for a drinking glass, and it feels great in the hand.

Outside of solid, clean design the only variations in the Kartio tumbler series are with size and color. The light-hued ones are my favorite as they add just enough color while still keeping it simple. Franck believed that good color was decoration enough, and this series proves it. You can see all the colors on offer at Iittala’s site, and they also come in a 20 cl/7 oz size.

Kartio glassware can be purchased at Amazon for $20 for a set of two.

This High & Dry dishrack by Black+Blum has a great design, sleek look, and comes in lime, sage and white.

I hand wash my dishes, so I am usually skeptical about design dishracks, but this one intrigues me. I like how the rack folds down to reduce its profile for storage, which is definitely a nice feature. Check out the company’s website to see how it packs up.

With that said, I wonder how sturdy the prongs are when extended, and it also seems as if the rack is better suited for plates and glasses and less for bowls and odd-shaped dishes. This is a common problem with many designer dishracks.

For small amounts of dishes, however, this looks like a good option. It also has a small/removable utensil holder, and there is a spout for draining that you can open whenever you want. This means you can put the dishrack anywhere in your kitchen and drain it later — a nice feature if your kitchen is not set up for drying dishes right next to the sink.

You can purchase the dishrack for $59 at Emmo Home.

This kitchen system would be perfect for a compact kitchen in an urban area. It is produced by bulthaup and consists of two tool cabinets, a workbench, and a water point. You can see the workbench and one of the storage cabinets to the right.

I admire how compact the b2 system is, and it then folds up when not in use. You can go to the bulthaup website to see it in frame-by-frame action.

I can only imagine how much it costs, but with a small kitchen space, a system like this would be invaluable.

I ran into this concept on ghigos.com. It is a brilliant way to create a do-it-yourself foodie chess set.

I think I am going to start searching for the pieces to make this reality.

Shot glasses can often be cheesy with logos slapped on them or just plain bland, but this set of four sold at Haus Interior are a departure from the common shot glass.

I like the four different etching patterns on each glass. Not only do the varying designs make the glass set more interesting, but you can tell which glass is yours.

You can purchase the set of four from Haus Interior for $75. I know it is kind of expensive when you consider that every gas station and truck stop has shot glasses for just a few bucks, but you must admit that they look great.