Bihn Bags

Oh what a feeling!
There is no perfect bag -- just the endless quest. I know, I'm up to about 60 satchels and counting, which brings me to the excitement of my latest find: Tom Bihn bags, a factory/showroom in Seattle open to the public. There is not one Bihn bag that will suit all your needs but a serious attempt to cater to a variety of niches. The most popular is the hard-sided laptop case, the Brain Cell, $50, available in seven sizes to fit almost any laptop. "The fact that we make laptop cases at all is really the result of customer feedback," says Bihn, who designs all the bags with some help from his customers.

One customer even says his Brain Bag, a $140 backpack that holds the Brain Cell, kept him and his gear "safe" when the tsunami hit Madras, India. "My bag was loaded onto buses (read as: thrown on and off), used as a pillow (and a chair and a foot rest) and flown to India and back, and is still in wonderful condition," writes P.D. in the online Bihn blog.

My personal favorite is the Cafe Bag. The quality of the simple rectangular sac is not only phenomenal but also it rests on the shoulder and hip in just the right place. The Cafe Bag comes in small $45, medium $50 and large $55, as well as in hip color combinations including olive/wasabi and plum/steel. Bihn bags also are sold online at the company's Web site at www.tombihn.com.

Book Therapy

Prescription for Anti-Depressive Living
Forget Prozac. Even if you don't follow designer Jonathan Adler's advice in his new book, My Prescription for Anti-Depressive Living (Regan Books, 2005, $34.95), you'll be amused, perhaps enough to forgo the medication.

Adler suggests that home decorators release their "inner hippie" and "go stark raving mod." The end result: a happier you. Coming home should be like "a first kiss" or "running into your ex-boyfriend and he's fat" -- not like Sunday night or "doing your taxes," says Adler in the book's first chapter. In an era where neutral colors are common, Adler professes abundant use of color. Think 1950s' green and orange, 1960s' psychedelic purple or even red, white and blue if you're feeling patriotic. He bucks the minimalist trend by mixing and matching all sorts of patterns, and by filling bare shelves with ceramic pets, glass clowns and other "tchotchkes," a Yiddish word for a knickknack that brings joy.

Adler also suggests dangling a hanging chair in your living room, painting your hat stand orange or staining your floors a dark color.

Bambu Bowls

Plastic schmastic
In the 1967 classic film The Graduate, the anxiety-ridden protagonist Benjamin is encouraged by Mr. McGuire, a family friend, to consider a career in "plastics." Now, what if McGuire said "bamboo" instead? A stretch -- nah. While living in Asia, Jeff Delkin and his wife Rachel Speth decided to do just that when they launched Bambu. Realizing the potential of bamboo as a renewable resource, the couple developed a line of kitchen products made out of the woody, tropical grass.

Bamboo is abundant and can be harvested in just three to five years, writes Delkin in an e-mail from Shanghai, where he lives and works at the edge of the forest. It also biodegrades fast, he adds.

Bambu bowls come in several styles and colors. The smallest, a set of two condiments bowls, costs $4 at Branch, a San Francisco-based shop that supports "design for a sustainable living." Larger Laquerware bowls come in seven colors and sell for $12 to $15; and serving bowls run about $24.

Other shops that stock Bambu include Cooking.com, Crate and Barrel, Dean & Deluca and Whole Foods.

Bambu also makes disposable plates called Veneerware. "We wanted to offer an alternative to paper and plastic," writes Delkin. Did he say plastic?

Nooka Watches

Zoo, Zot, Zen and Zan
It's about time to look at time in the way we experience it, says native New Yorker Mathhew Waldman, founder of Nooka.

"When we wake up in the morning, we go from point A to point B in a linear fashion. Why not represent time along a line rather than by using numbers?" says Waldman. Better to leave the question of "if time is linear, or not," to the rocket scientists. It is, however, safe to say that Waldman has designed a series of watches in a way that he sees time, and the results are striking.

Waldman uses graphic representations to show time moving forward in a line. Different models appeal to comfort levels with the concept, he says.

The Zoo, the first model which was limited to a run of 1,000, has a digital display for the hour and the minutes, as well as some graphic elements. The Zot shows hours as a progression of 12 dots. Waldman's favorite is the Zen-H, the purest in that it has no digital displays or numbers. Each watch will set you back-or spring you forward-about $250.

Nooka watches are available at MoMA, Flight 001 and cyber-shop ELSEWARES.

SmartWool T-Shirt

Fit for all seasons
Whether you plan to scale the Himalayas or kick back in a four-star hotel in Paris, a simple black T-shirt is a vacation must-have. White is standard summer ware but black wears well, matches almost everything and doesn't show stains. Black works even better if made of wool. Yes wool! Thanks to SmartWool, a Steamboat Springs, Colo.-based shop that figured out a way to make wool, which is naturally smart, even smarter.

Wool not only keeps you (and sheep) warm in the winter but it also helps keep you dry, and therefore cool in the summer. The reason being: Wool absorbs sweat, which is then transformed into a vapor. This process, called evaporation, helps wick away the sweat and regulate the body's temperature.

Starting with soft Merino wool, SmartWool created a line of itch-free, machine-washable and shrink-resistant products, available in three weights for different climates and activity levels. The microweight, the lightest fabric, is the perfect summer grab. In addition to black, women's T-shirts, $45, come in a gray stripe, blue, salmonberry and orchard. Men's T-shirts, $50, are available in a gray stripe, blue, marine and brick.

Find a dealer near you at the company's Web site at www.smartwool.com or purchase the goods directly online. Wherever you go, when you return, my guess is you'll come back itching for more.